What'dya Call this?

[treadiculous]

I've been thinking for a little while about what must be an old tactic for 40k...

it involves 2 or maybe three squads.. one squad has heavy weapons and the other(s) are lighter more mobile units.

at the start of the turn the units look like this:

X = Heavy Unit, O = light unit

OOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOO
OO. .XXXXXX. .OO

in the the move phase the lighter unit(s) move to the side

OOOOOO . . . . . . . .OOOOOO
OOOOOO . . . . . . . .OOOOOO
. .OO. . . . XXXXXX . . .OO. .

then, in the shooting phase the 'X' unit takes its shots with clear LOS

(now it gets clever)

and then, still in the shooting phase, the lighter units use their ability to run and go back to the earlier formation:

OOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOO
OO. .XXXXXX. .OO

Thus the Heavy units have a screen once more.


.. what's this tactic called though?

[wulfric]

Hiding? Not sure, really...

I've used it with marines before, hiding one half of the devastator squad behind the other (combat squadded) half.

[WestRider]

Never heard a name for it before, I think because it's not very commonly used. Getting a 5+ Cover Save while denying it to your targets isn't usually useful enough to justify shelling out Points for two Screening Units and then not doing anything with their shooting because they're running back and forth all the time.

I have seen a few players have some success with using Flat Out Moves from Vehicles to completely block LoS to small Units. That works better because you're generally using a cheaper Screening Unit (a Rhino or something), Flat Out Moves aren't random like Running is, and you're getting complete LoS blocking instead of just a 5+ Cover Save. But it's tricky to pull off well unless the Terrain and Opponent's Deployment are just right, and even with those advantages, it's still kind of a niche tactic.

[optimat]

First Rank, Run! Second Rank, Fire!

[treadiculous]

I agree it is better with an army such as orks where the range of their weapons is low and they are likely to be running forward anyway, and also that it can be used with vehicles in the new6th e rules as they have the option to run or fire (well, flat out or fire).

With guard I would see this as a tactic of opportunity rather than one planned and spent points upon.

Optimat.. I think you have found the name there! - FFR,SRF