Do the (Transport) Hustle

Hey guys, Loki here with my first true post. "My oh my" wonders the reader, "What could this be about?" Simple says I, the ability to think your way to victory and of course look at all the wording on rules is paramount in gaining a slight edge over your opponent. Especially if they are seasoned veterans or players who know how to run their specific army well.

Today, I bring to you all a favorite tactic I have picked up while playing in 5th edition. As I run Space Marines, I generally know I will not be great at any one thing, however some units are, simply put, great. My example here is my ever popular Assault Terminators. As 4 of my 6 are equipped with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields, they are a hard hitting unit that scare even the most grizzled and seasoned of players. But how does one get these infantry models into combat as soon as possible. The most obvious choice (aside from Deepstrike) is the Land Raider.

Keep in mind now that this tactic will work great with most transports, but due to the scale of the actual Land Raider model, as well as the impressive 14 all around armor it has, it makes it the prime choice for using this tactic. So how is it done? I will explain with no further delay.

When placing units in your deployment zone you have a front line. For this example we will use pitched battle scenario, but it will work well in all set ups except dawn of war. All you have to do is place the Land Raider along your front line on its side. This is everything. If you read the rules in the vehicle movement section, you will see that it mentions pivoting. A vehicle may pivot as many times as it wants along its path, and does not count as additional movement. So all you have to do is once you start your turn, you pivot the Land Raider 90 degrees to face forward. Now, you tank has an addition 3 inches from your front line. So with a 24 inch gap now reduced to 21, the tank moves up 12 inches, reducing the gap further to a distance of 9 inches. Now you disembark. This is another moment when you must read the rulebook and examine all of the diagrams very thoroughly. As it shows when you disembark, a model must simply be touching the imaginary 2" line. This means that you measure the 2 inches, place the model so the entire base is outside the 2" arc, but so long as it is touching the line. this means that 9 inch gap had been reduced not only by 2, but a further 1.5 inches adding in the width of the Terminator base. doing the math, that puts the gap down to 5.5 inches, allowing a turn one charge from the Assault Terminators.

Now of course the enemy has to be close to the same section of the board as the tank, and on their front line. But believe me it is not a stretch for that to happen. I have utilized this strategy many... many times and it has yet to fail me. Every turn a unit like that sits in a transport is time wasted. The faster you can achieve a charge the better, unless you intentionally want them inside for late game purposes... However, moving this is a strategy for assault style play.

I hope this tactic will come in handy for those of you out there trying to get their killy death squad (KDS) into CC faster.

Cheers!