How to Melee the 6th Edition Way

Hey Guys,

Sorry I am behind here but; as I warned we are all busy bees around here getting ready for the NOVA open this week. I got some great practice this weekend at the Time Machine in Manchester CT by participating in an RTT there, it was great fun.


Shameless half naked female attention grabber: Good you found your way here!

Anyway here a brief article on how to play a melee army in 6th edition which is almost a taboo and often shunned topic. It really upsets me when people say the only valid melee list is FMC daemons but they in reality aren't even a melee army. FMC daemons are really only successfully played as a stay in the air, fly off the board and pick off units type army. If they try to fight in melee they will either smash through their target and get blown to pieces or get lucky enough that the unit actually stays but then you have to hope you definitely break them next combat or you get shot to pieces then. If you don't believe me take some time and watch Goatboy or Nick N. play their Daemons and see how many and which kind of combats they get into.

As usual with these articles folks lets start with our list design and for a pure (or melee heavy army) to work you are going to go by one very simple design philosophy; target saturation. Think about that for a minute; if you provide one target or very few targets to shoot at it makes target priority a no-brainer for these static or even worse, very fast gun line armies. This eliminates FMC and deathstars and please keep in mind this is with a all-comers, GT winning philosophy in mind. Yes FMC and deathstars can not only win games but win GTs with the right pairings but we are focusing on melee here.

The armies that do target saturation the best are the Tyranids and cavalry based Daemons. What is most interesting is that they both provide target saturation in very different ways.

The Daemons are doing target saturation by using multiple fast units that are immediately in the opponents face. This makes an army that forces immediate decisions that every decisions is correct but it is just not enough to stop all of it so at the same time each decision is wrong.


Tyranids are more of slow moving wave type of target saturation. Tyranids slowly move up with their big nasties while throwing their fast gribblys in your face. While the obvious answer seems to be kill the big nasties this is also the wrong decision as you quickly find yourself engulfed in more gribblys than you can deal with. If you kill the gribblys, by the time you kill enough to make them not a threat the nasties are at your door.

The common theme here is you are forcing multiple decisions; all of which are wrong which you can read more about in my article about adaptive play style.


Ok you have your list now you need to learn how to play it. Just like a shooting army; you are going to win or lose your game in the movement phase. You need to make sure you position yourself defensively as you advance up the field or offensively as you get closer to your target without leaving yourself completely vulnerable. If you have to make a choice between an offensive and defensive movement; always choose the defensive. It is still a dice game and if shit goes wrong you want to be safe.

Don't forget to play to the mission; it is fun as hell to run screaming up the field but if the terrain is no bueno for you to survive with than keep the fuck back. There is never an excuse to run face first into missiles. Get into the safest position possible for you to jump on objectives or into quarters to stay out of range to conserve kill points. I have had many games where I literally hide for 5 turns. It is boring, it sucks but most of those games I have won.

Now that you read all this great stuff time for the bad news; melee armies or even units are extremely difficult to play. It is easier to play gun line armies I am not going to lie but playing melee armies will 100% without a doubt make you a better 40k player in 6th edition. Take your lickings, keep your head up and learn to mitigate the damage, the fine art of eating  overwatches (hmm that gives me an idea for another article), and making the charges so you stay in combat until your opponents turn.

One last thing; table quarters and objective missions are generally much easier for armies that actually leave their deployment zone.

Any questions? Ask away!

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Objective Mission Tactics: Control the Center

My Precious! Objective

Hello Gents,
Good evening a pleasure to see you and thanks for tuning in. Today I wanted to take some time to talk about some tactics for winning objective missions. With a large majority of missions in tournaments revolving around capturing objectives in 6th edition I wanted to go over some of my thought process and tactics for winning these missions. More specifically how controlling the center of the board helps with this process.

With the Nova Open being next week lets use their objective placement as our focus for this article which is one objective in the center of the board and one in the center of each table quarter.

Lets start with why holding the center of the board is a good thing in this format and setup. When you hold the center of a board you are the shortest possible distance to all four of the objectives in the quadrants. This is important because as a game evolves it allows for some fluidity in your plan to make adjustments and make plays for objectives that if you were to go heavy on one flank, it would be out of the question for you to attempt to go for the others.

Holding the center is also good for offensive purposes as you can easily shift your hard forces in the center to either flank and lend assistance. As a common theme in this blog you need the right tools for the job and not all lists are designed or all that good at controlling the center of the board.


If you do not have the right list; controlling board center is going to be difficult if not impossible. A tau gunline for example is not going to run in the center of the field and expect to hold strong. Looking at something like a GK paladin list or even my Tyranids however is the very definition of a board center control army. Once you dig 10 paladins or, oh, say 3 tervigons and a swarmlord into the center of the table not only is no one going to want to go near that center objective but you are also one turn away from being on any obective, especially with Tervigons making babies all over the place.

You also want to be sure to set this up correctly; when playing a board center control army going second is usually the best idea. This allows you to effectively do two things; the first being that you have bottom of the turn to contest/control objectives, and second is something I mentally setup every game during deployment and that is making a slightly harder push to one side.



Remember; with 5 objectives on the table you need 3 to win assuming that everyone is going to be controlled. Once my opponent sets up i look at their deployment and decide which of the two side objectives i am going to push harder for. Being a board center army I know I am plopping my heavy hitters in the center so that is one objective taken care of, you will usually want a couple deck chair units to take care of one of the objectives in your deployment zone so that is two. The third objective I always try to pick as the weakest flank in my opponents deployment zone.

Picking this as your third objective does several things. One thing is does is keep your opponent fighting in his deployment zone, second thing it does is keep your opponent away from your deck chairs and the this thing it does is force your opponent to move to the weaker side of the board to react.........Exactly! this forces them to move past your nice strong center.

This exposes another advantage to board center armies. They tend to force your opponent to react to you as opposed to the faster, or heavier fire power armies which have to react to what their opponent is doing.

Sorry I know that was kind of wall of text like but it is a pretty complex topic. Again; if you local guys really like this stuff bug Chase (you know who he is!) and have him schedule a tactics session.

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1ksons are Terrible

Hey Guys, Bill here with another “Insert army/unit here” is terrible. Today’s entry is in response to a friend of mine who responded to my thread regarding the blog. He wanted a 1k sons list with the only stipulation being the scoring units are 1k sons. Challenge accepted and I think I am actually going to give this list a shot. I admittedly cheated a little and added a unit of pink horrors so I could take daemon allies by I made up for it by not putting any other marks in the list other than tzeentch! As with all of these lists guys; they are quickly thrown together brain childs of mine with zero testing or tweaking.

Without further delay; the list:

1850 Pts - Codex: Chaos Space Marines Roster

HQ: Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (1#, 155 pts)

   1 Sorcerer in Terminator Armour, 155 pts (Mark of Tzeentch; Force Axe; Increase Mastery Level x1; Warlord; Biomancy; Pyromancy; Telepathy; Tzeentch)

      1 Burning Brand of Skalathrax

Elite: Possessed (8#, 248 pts)

   7 Possessed, 248 pts (Mark of Tzeentch)

      1 Possessed Champion (Close Combat Weapon)

Heavy Support: Chaos Land Raider (1#, 245 pts)

   1 Chaos Land Raider, 245 pts (Dozer Blade; Extra Armour)

Troops: Thousand Sons (10#, 265 pts)

   9 Thousand Sons, 265 pts

      1 Aspiring Sorcerer (Force Axe; Biomancy; Pyromancy; Telepathy; Tzeentch)

Troops: Thousand Sons (6#, 185 pts)

   4 Thousand Sons, 185 pts

      1 Aspiring Sorcerer (Force Axe; Biomancy; Pyromancy; Telepathy; Tzeentch)

      1 Chaos Rhino (Combi-Boltgun)

Troops: Thousand Sons (6#, 185 pts)

   4 Thousand Sons, 185 pts

      1 Aspiring Sorcerer (Force Axe; Biomancy; Pyromancy; Telepathy; Tzeentch)

      1 Chaos Rhino (Combi-Boltgun)

Troops: Thousand Sons (5#, 150 pts)

   4 Thousand Sons, 150 pts

      1 Aspiring Sorcerer (Force Axe; Biomancy; Pyromancy; Telepathy; Tzeentch)

HQ: Lord of Change (1#, 305 pts)

   1 Lord of Change (HQ) [cd], 305 pts (DR: Greater Rewards x1; DR: Exalted Rewards; Psyker (Mastery Level 3); 6E Psychic Disciplines: ; Biomancy; Divination; Pyromancy; Telepathy)

Troops: Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (12#, 108 pts)

   12 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (Troops) [cd], 108 pts

Total Roster Cost: 1846

I like this list because it literally has all the tools, I can kill vehicles, has dedicated melee, tons of AP3, is super durable, very sneak and deceptive (my favorite) and my new favorite is fairly MSU without being spammy. Honestly I would probably drop the 3^rd 5 man unit and in obliterators but he wants 1ksons so he gets em!

Here is the breakdown

HQ: Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (1#, 155 pts)-  To be honest; If I had my way I would be taking Abbadon here, he absolutely belongs toting around with the possessed in a Land Raider but my buddy wanted 1ksons and 1ksons he shall get. This guys makes them troops, he also is a decent support character to tank some shots for the big unit of 1k sons or join the possessed if you get something fun like Iron Arm.

Elite: Possessed (8#, 248 pts)-It’s a wonky list, so I wanted to do fully wonky. Is this unit overcosted? Hell yes! Is the rest of the army as well? Hell yes, so who cares! This unit is Str 5 T5 and has a decent amount of attacks. More importantly they are also a daemon with +1 invuln save which you will see why is important in a moment. I know…the suspense!!

Heavy Support: Chaos Land Raider (1#, 245 pts)- The Land Raider has a lot of utility in this list. Most of the time I see it carrying the possessed but if you are fighting a melee army I can see it protecting your 10 man 1ksons and using the possessed as a counter charge unit. Oh yeah, it’s also AV 14 with las cannons on the side.

Troops: Thousand Sons (10#, 265 pts)

Troops: Thousand Sons (6#, 185 pts)

Troops: Thousand Sons (6#, 185 pts)

Troops: Thousand Sons (5#, 150 pts)- The sad fact is, the 1ksons are over costed for something as easy to kill as a standard marine. They have a few tricks but they are still so over costed that instead of trying to make them effective you are going to be focused on protecting them. My suggestion is to focus 100% on keeping them safe and rolling pyromancy on your Champ and sneak him out for some pop shots. With the new marine book though you may some really nice fodder to use those AP3 bolters on.

I also like the Rhinos in this list because you can move and turbo boost to get your unit in a defensive position. Also with the new trend of deathstar shooting units (36 str 5-7 missiles I’m looking at you!) it is fun to force an opponent to waste that many shots on a pesky rhino. They will kill it, rather easily but it means that isn’t shooting at the 5 man hoofing it across the field that turn.

HQ: Lord of Change (1#, 305 pts)-This guy is the reason I had to cheat. He is a level 3 flying MC and has access to Bio, Divination, Telepathy which means he can basically do anything. More importantly; remember those daemonic possessed marines with a 4+ invuln we spoke about earlier? Well they are friendly daemon so cast grimoire on them and laugh with your 2+ invulnerable.

Troops: Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (12#, 108 pts)- They are level 2 being 12 strong and are another scoring unit that can have grimoire cast on them. They also allow me to bring the Lord of Charge and they are Tzeentch so blah!

Hope you guys enjoyed the article, again as are all these “terrible” army blog entries these are meant to be fun, semi-competitive lists. You probably are not going to win a GT with these but you will surprise your friends, and maybe even stomp at a local RTT and it brings new life to stuff that isn’t thought of too much. I promised you would never see a netlist on this blog unless people are playing my GT lists and I am sticking to my guns!

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Orks are Terrible

Hey everyone Bill here again with some more content! I have a slight obsession with making lists, so much so that I leave my laptop with Army Builder home so I do not have temptation at work. Now that I pretty much have what I am going to play in the tournament season sorted It has left me alot of free Army Builder time. This means I am working on making good lists for armies that are currently bad. Today I set my sights on ally free Orks.



My favorite combination with Orks is with Necron allies but that is too easy so I am going to work on Orks with no allies. This list is very outside the box and is EXTREMELY difficult to use so please take all this with a grain of salt. Orks are still a melee army but doing so with the classic boys is impossible because you are pulling models from the front and the boys are too slow. This list focuses on getting assault units in as fast as possible using unconventional methods and trying to help a bit with over watch. This army works by presenting multiple threats very quickly. I could easily make a dakka list but Orks want to smash stuff!

So lets get to it! Here is the list, from here I will breakdown my selections and why.
1850 Pts - Codex: Orks Roster

HQ: Mega-armoured Warboss (1#, 115 pts)
   1 Mega-armoured Warboss, 115 pts (Bosspole; Cybork Body; Warlord)

HQ: Warboss (1#, 135 pts)
   1 Warboss, 135 pts (Cybork Body; Warbike; Power Klaw)

Elite: Meganobz (6#, 245 pts)
   5 Meganobz, 245 pts (Shoota/Skorcha Kombi-weapon x1)
      1 Trukk (Red Paint Job)

Elite: Lootas (10#, 150 pts)
   10 Lootas, 150 pts

Elite: Lootas (10#, 150 pts)
   10 Lootas, 150 pts

Troops: Nobz (10#, 205 pts)
   1 Nobz, 205 pts (Count as Troop Troops)
      9 Nobz
      1 Nobz (Bosspole)

Troops: Meganobz (6#, 255 pts)
   5 Meganobz, 255 pts (Count as Troop Troops; Shoota/Skorcha Kombi-weapon x2)
      1 Trukk (Red Paint Job; Reinforced Ram)

Troops: Boyz (20#, 130 pts)
   20 Boyz, 130 pts (Shootas; Big Shoota x2)

Troops: Boyz (20#, 130 pts)
   20 Boyz, 130 pts (Shootas; Big Shoota x2)

Troops: Gretchin (11#, 40 pts)
   10 Gretchin, 40 pts
      1 Runtherd

Fast Attack: Deffkoptas (5#, 175 pts)
   5 Deffkoptas, 175 pts

Fast Attack: Stormboyz (5#, 60 pts)
   5 Stormboyz, 60 pts

Fast Attack: Stormboyz (5#, 60 pts)
   5 Stormboyz, 60 pts

Total Roster Cost: 1850

It is going to be difficult to explain my way out of this one because It looks like absolute rubbish but just hang on for the ride hopefully you get the same vision I do. Again, this is a super hard list to play but it is outside the box and I am not sure many will know how to handle it.

1850 Pts - Codex: Orks Roster

HQ: Mega-armoured Warboss (1#, 115 pts)
   1 Mega-armoured Warboss, 115 pts (Bosspole; Cybork Body; Warlord)

I chose the mega armoured warboss for a couple of reasons; the first is to make one unit of mega nobz scoring and the other is to put him in the 10 man nob unit for LD9 and a boss pole, that is actually a pretty easy unit to hide, is pretty durable when going to ground and just overall great for charging anything that wants to get near your squishy troops. Plus for 115 points you will not find a better character, period. I can also put him in with the meganobz if terrain is perfect for foot nobz.

HQ: Warboss (1#, 135 pts)
   1 Warboss, 135 pts (Cybork Body; Warbike; Power Klaw)

This guy is a little trickier, again for 135 points he is a complete badass but I wanted to find a way to get him to combat quicker and much cheaper than a conventional bike or nob biker squad and my vehicle to make this happen is the deffkopta unit. The deffkopta unit and it's scout provides a huge footprint and great squad to attach your warboss too first turn. Sure you cannot charge top of one but if you get bottom of one you can and your warboss just expanded his unit frontage by alot.

Elite: Meganobz (6#, 245 pts)
   5 Meganobz, 245 pts (Shoota/Skorcha Kombi-weapon x1)
      1 Trukk (Red Paint Job)

I don't have to explain why meganobz are awesome, I am hoping the cat is out of the bag by now but more so why a trukk is better than a battlewagon. Trukks can move 25" inches in a turn, cost 35 points and have a 12 capacity with open top. They also have a ramshackle table with a worst case scenario being better than your standard explosion (only str 3) and the other two results giving you extra movement with your trukk or a 6" disembark. Oh yeah, play some games and I promise you your battlewagons and trukks both only last one turn as well. The tick is to reserve the trukks with meganobz and when they come on the board they are already mid field.

Elite: Lootas (10#, 150 pts)
   10 Lootas, 150 pts

Elite: Lootas (10#, 150 pts)
   10 Lootas, 150 pts

Long range support and hopefully forcing some flyers to evade. Lootas r lootas

Troops: Nobz (10#, 205 pts)
   1 Nobz, 205 pts (Count as Troop Troops)
      9 Nobz
      1 Nobz (Bosspole)

20 boyz may admittedly may be a better purchase than 10 nobz but lets face it, this can be a scary unit to charge with a mega boss in here and is much easier to hide than a boys mob. The unit just has some utility that cannot be ignored. And when you consider everything else coming at you, do you have time to even deal with these guys?

Troops: Meganobz (6#, 255 pts)
   5 Meganobz, 255 pts (Count as Troop Troops; Shoota/Skorcha Kombi-weapon x2)
      1 Trukk (Red Paint Job; Reinforced Ram)

Moar meganob goodness.

Troops: Boyz (20#, 130 pts)
   20 Boyz, 130 pts (Shootas; Big Shoota x2)

Troops: Boyz (20#, 130 pts)
   20 Boyz, 130 pts (Shootas; Big Shoota x2)

Troops: Gretchin (11#, 40 pts)
   10 Gretchin, 40 pts
      1 Runtherd

Unfortunately the standard Ork troop units have been reduced to deck chairs. Still hard to shift though when going to ground every turn.

Fast Attack: Deffkoptas (5#, 175 pts)
   5 Deffkoptas, 175 pts

Scouting sneakyness for the warboss.

Fast Attack: Stormboyz (5#, 60 pts)
   5 Stormboyz, 60 pts

Fast Attack: Stormboyz (5#, 60 pts)
   5 Stormboyz, 60 pts

These two units are hilarious, they are literally here to either deepstrike in (hopefully late game) and try to hide/contest or fly up with the others and eat some overwatch. Poor bastards.

By now I hope I have you all rolling on the floor laughing at this list I honestly do not think it is too bad. I can see myself playing it, listening to chuckles and being quite successful when people let their guard down. Are there are better lists? Oh hell yes. Are there better Ork melee lists at this current time? I don't really think so unless you are relying on allies or gimmicks. Hopefully you guys see what I see and if not, I would be happy to try and help! If this article doesn't convince you this blog is all about making you a better a player while the rest of the internet is trying to make you a better list builder than I don't know what will!

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Being Like Water: Adaptive Playstyle (Part 1?)

Hey everyone, as promised here is my article for playing 40k "like water" aka an article on adaptive playstyle. Let me first get out of the way; to learn to play with an adaptive playstyle you need to to have a list with some utility. If you do not have all the tools than successfully changing how you play the list can be very difficult. Playing a list with nine wave serpents for example; you are going to play the same way each game and if you have a terrible matchup......sucks to be you.

For those of you who missed my neat video snippet in my "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" post:


The best way to describe how to go about learning to be an adaptive player is to start by giving yourself goals on the tabletop and giving yourself multiple ways to both achieve that goal, and GTFO if the shit hits the fan. The reason why I say this is a starting point is because it forces you to starting thinking of some unconventional methods of both achieving your goals and saving your ass.

Get out of that frame of mind of; I need to kill this unit so I'll move my unit into rapid fire range because that is how they do the most damage. Instead keep yourself at a safe distance and enlist multiple units to taking down the enemy, not only that but put a counter assault unit in position near them. Doing this keeps your units safer, gives you multiple opportunities to wipe the unit out and if they do make that stupid long charge they will get counter assault and pay for rolling so well. This is called forcing the wrong decision.

Forcing the wrong decision is the easiest way to identify a great player. These are those moments where you are trying to make a decision and each scenario is bad. If you can't play a fast army that always keeps you safe than play an army that forces bad decision. My Eldar and my Tyranids are polar opposites in this regard. My Eldar forces decisions because I leave very little of them while my Tyranids leave many decisions that can be made but they are all the wrong decisions.


Next we move into list construction. When setting yourself up to be an adaptive player you want to make sure that your list construction is allowing you to be as flexible as you want to be. Here is a quick punch list of key items your list should be able to do.

• Give your independent characters multiple homes. Your characters should be able to provide benefits and have uses from almost any unit in your army, depending on the opponent your ICs should be able to give you advantages to that type of army.

• Provide your units options for deployment. Try to pick units that have multiple ways of deploying when facing various opponents. One of the things I love about the Stormraven list I have is I can combat squad, infilitrate, scout, start in a raven, start in a landspeeder storm with any unit in the army. This is a hidden benefit that most people underestimate. People will expect me to start 40 scouts on the table than when I offer to go first and all my Ravens are in reserve and all my scouts are infiltrating I get to go first, and see how my opponent sets up. Consider this when building a list.

• Set yourself up for success. The one is simple; give yourself tools to do every job. It is tempting to spam because it provides some breathing room to let you make mistakes. Having a limited number of tools to complete a task will make you think smarted and play more efficient to keep those limited tools safe. This is like having a toolbox of hammer, you will abuse them, break them, throw them away, and lose them. If you have only one you will treat it like gold. Having one also gives you more room for different tools instead of a box of hammers.

I can go one with this forever and it is already too wall of text for my liking so I will stop there. I will continue on with a part II if I get enough positive feedback, as always hoped you enjoyed the article. I am also considering setting up a tactics "seminar" with BG as an event if you guys are interested. Let me know your thoughts.

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Beating the Mighty Wave Serpent

I have been watching the mighty internet scratching their heads since the release of the new Eldar book on how the new wave serpent can be stopped. The meta has shifted again and the panic has set in......."But we have all bought Tau, and now the Tau have trouble with serpents."

 Cries of holo fields, armour 12, and moving flat out send the droves to the forums to claim [H] Tau Army [W] Wave Serpents. I mean if you can't beat them, join them right?

Since 6th edition has hit, the big claim has been close combat is dead. This was especially the feeling when Tau was released. Well, as it turns out the close combat that everyone has shunned is the easiest was to kill the mighty wave serpent.

ZOMG, Iknorite? Remember; their serpent shield, the holo fields and even the armour 12 is completely ignored as bonuses when you engage the machines in close combat and with all the fast close combat options it is not too hard to chase the fast skimmer down.

The first important advantage to remember is that when attacking vehicles in close combat you attack their rear armour and Wave Serpents like many others means this is armour 10. Because the vehicles are fast you want to make sure that you are going to kill it when you engage it because you may only get one opportunity. I will even put close combat at a disadvantage and not factor penetrating hits.

Str 3= Cannot damage tank
Str 4(Standard infantry)= 24 attacks on average to get 3 hull points
Str 6(Crack grenades, etc.)= 8 attacks on average to get 3 hull points
Str 8(Power fists, etc.)= 5 attacks on average to get 3 hull points
Str 10(Smashing MC's)= 4 attacks on average to get 3 hull points

 Lets compare this to shooting at the Wave Serpent when it has gone flat out with holofields and serpent shield. This is assuming BS4.

Under Str 6= Cannot damage the tank  Str 6(Scatter lasers etc.)= 38 shots on average to get 3 hull points
Str 7(Missile broad sides, tesla, etc.)= 19 shots on average to get 3 hull points
Str 8(Missile launcher, etc.) = 13 shots on average to get 3 hull points
Str 9(Las Cannon, etc.)= 9 shots on average to get 3 hull points

Another advantage to keep in mind is that vehicles cannot overwatch so all that fire power is useless when you are running at the tank screaming. Just keep an eye out if there are any of those good-two-shoes supporting fire Tau hanging within 6" of the tank.

I hope this articles helps your Wave Serpent woes and helps people give a second thought to close combat before you turn your back on it completely. Oh, and most important; close combat is way more FUN. Remember? That thing you should be having in a game.

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NOVA Practice

Hey guys, Just a heads up for you local folks. Even though the NOVA practice tournament got canceled this weekend a bunch of the guys who signed up will still be a Battlegrounds in Plainville getting some practice in. Come on down, chat, play some warhams, and we will probably go out for some dinner afterwards. Hope to see you there!

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