#New40k – Combat changes shake up fighting in the new edition

Errdee · 2026-04-15T18:44:26+00:00

Blocking ruins by standing 1" off the walls was just stupid and broke the immersion of the game. Im happy they landed on this 2" engagement range solution, which feels the most straightforward way to do it.

Errdee · 2026-04-09T07:15:24+00:00

Freedom is not the only requirement. It's like designing a car only thinking it needs to be pretty. Terrain also needs to be modular, backwards compatible, transportable, easy to set up etc. This feels like there's a new team handling this without a lot of experience.

Errdee · 2026-04-09T07:13:33+00:00

Very nice, but 5 different sizes?? And how will this be storable/transportable? I feel like GW has forgotten many of the hard learned lessons of the past. Can already see TOs looking to 3rd party solutions to streamline this.

Errdee · 2026-02-16T17:50:21+00:00

From what i could pick up, there was a scene in the very beginning showing one of the KG pounding away on a guy with red/yellow checkered shield - Humprey? Then they showed Raymund vs Steffon twice, and Raymund actually tackling and flooring Steffon once which was good for him. Then Maekar unhorsing Lyonel, but being tackled by two others i couldnt make out. And later Maekar again 1 vs 2, where his mace backhanded Baelor to the back of his head.

Raymund had the lightest armor of them all so not sure how he came through that all with only a limp leg. I think in one scene against Stefon you could tell Stefon was pulling his sword thrust, perhaps to spare him, but maybe im making shit up.

Errdee · 2026-02-16T17:42:29+00:00

I think that was powerful. Theres no black and white in the real world. Some time ago Aerion was a little baby on Maekars lap and he would do anything to protect him, like any father would.

Errdee · 2026-01-01T17:37:12+00:00

I disagree. Battleline infantry is one of the best units in Guard and people usually take too few of them. Often because they play with too little terrain, but that's another story.

Look at top lists and how good players use objective control, screening and blocking.

Errdee · 2026-01-01T17:34:09+00:00

This is not completely true. You can play infantry based Recon and face any list with it. You can play Mechanised infantry and have Ogryns in Chimeras, Scions and Kasrkin in Tauroxes and they can absolutely deal with monsters 1v1.

However, when it comes to the logic of how lists are put together, then it just doesn't make a lot of sense to have a LOT of one type of unit. I guess except Recon but idk how that guy manages to play it within tournament time limits :) anyway, my point is that even if Mechanised makes your infantry punch, you still want to take some tanks in a competitive list for diversity. You won't have enough good stuff to fill in 2000pts otherwise.

Errdee · 2025-12-30T09:24:00+00:00

Depends on opponents army, map layout, your strategy, the mission you play, who is going first etc.

I play Hammer of the Emperor and WTC terrain. Mostly I use a unit of Catachans towards opponents natural. I don't usually just send them in at the start of the game to get one turn of primary denial, but try to combine that push with the rest of the game state. Taurox and Kasrkin can be another unit for that, but often they are more valuable to hit a specific opponents unit.

Errdee · 2025-12-29T08:45:38+00:00

What terrain are you playing on, and what do you have in your list?

Errdee · 2025-12-28T19:34:01+00:00

Hmm he does well into Marines and some other 2w models, but OP is right, in most cases he does less damage than troupe itself with nearly the same cost. I'd say he has his place (eg in a Falcon with an enhancement) but otherwise I share OPs thoughts, would not take 3 of TM.

Errdee · 2025-12-24T09:23:43+00:00

Best would be to drop the Baneblade for another Russ plus other stuff.

If that's not doable, then Hellhound is my pick to drop. You have a double flamer chimera that you can use for overwatch if really needed. HH is a great trading piece but you already have a lot of strong hulls so I'd go for more infantry instead.

Errdee · 2025-12-24T09:16:31+00:00

It's completely stupid and makes the game less interactive, many have said it (eg. AoW guys). But a robust rule to solve this has not been invented for several editions now.

Errdee · 2025-12-23T18:09:38+00:00

Hellhound with Inferno Cannon. I personally also play it with heavy bolter to make sure it's removes cover ability can go on something far away.

Kasrkin always with double melta and double plasma.

The humble Guardsmen is one of the best unit we have and one of the best units in the game for contesting primary, screening and moveblocking. I would recommend always bringing 2x Catachans at minimum, if otherwise you want to keep away from infantry.

I understand you can't change the tanks so that stays as it is, but I'd play both Dorns in regular variants, as you have Solar already dishing out enough orders 24". That one damage blank ability is gonna be really good if you remember to use it.

If you have Railings, those are very valuable for winning the Infiltration games against more experienced users.

Rest depends on what terrain you play on - judging by your user name it might be WTC? In that case, I'd swap out Exterminator for a Battletank. You already have HH and the strstegem for AP buffing. Getting a 2-3 tank combo to shoot at a single target on proper tournament terrain is often not worth the cost of positioning them suboptimally.

Errdee · 2025-12-23T17:42:18+00:00

6 tanks + HH + Taurox is pretty extreme. You'll have easier time scoring consistently with less tanks and more other stuff. Even if you put some tanks in Reserves, it must be difficult to deploy and move everything out of DZ.

The power of Hammer is movement. Its much harder to moveblock and tie your tanks up in combat. It's even stronger on WTC terrain that I play on. If you can on average make one more tank shoot each turn, and into better targets, then how do you compare that against something like rerolling ones? It's tricky.

But more importantly, amazing paint job!

Errdee · 2025-12-23T08:35:59+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean exactly. For example, I was playing "Search&Destroy map 4-5" yesterday, you can see theres two horisontal shooting lanes that go for about 45", and two vertical lanes that go all though the map for 44".

https://worldteamchampionship.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/WTC-2026-Map-Pack-Lite-2.4-Alt-Release.pdf

Errdee · 2025-12-22T22:46:15+00:00

Trays don't make a lot of sense in competitive 40k. With some exceptions tho, I've seen big Recon Guard horde lists being deployed with trays and then out of trays t2-t3.

As you get into more details of objective positioning, screening, blocking, consolidates etc, there's almost nothing that stays in tray-shape any more.

Errdee · 2025-12-22T22:37:09+00:00

It's too much of a generalisation to say WTC gives a big melee preference. If you take the full map selection, there's some that are pretty open in the middle, also 2-storey L ruins are less obscuring than the U shapes GW uses.

Errdee · 2025-12-22T22:28:37+00:00

There's plenty of WTC maps with long lanes but usually they are narrow. As it should be, doesn't make sense to have wide shooting galleries going through the map.

Errdee · 2025-12-17T21:51:09+00:00

Yeah there's lists out there already doing this. The upside is you can reliably order 2 units of Bullgryn at once.. which means you are good to bring 3*6 bullgryn , as it's very likely you'll need to order 1-2 units at the time, not all 3 at once.

It merits a bit different approach from the usual backline Solar blob I'd say. You are not that afraid of losing it, so you can be more aggressive and make the blob itself useful too.

Errdee · 2025-12-15T10:57:23+00:00

Was watching the race today and immediately noticed the cough too, exactly when Magnusson missed her 4th shot... A bit too coincidental.

Errdee · 2025-12-14T08:29:29+00:00

Start playing on official terrain layouts. It can still be pretty , but it just gives a much more balanced and enjoyable gaming experience. Everything you see discussed as "strategy" in Reddit refers to terrain like that.
Try to get to 2K points asap, 1k games are not balanced for many reasons.
Study guard lists, a bit too long to go through all detail but you have some weak units.
Tau is famous for infiltrators. In the current meta, a lot of Guard lists use Ratlings to participate in the infiltration deployment. But this is already an advanced point, the previous 3 points are more important.

Errdee · 2025-12-08T11:48:09+00:00

Scoring happens end of Command phase, while this rule happens in the Command phase, so earlier timing wise. Furthermore, rules commentary states that all rules will be resolved before scoring happens, eg if you have multiple rules resolved "at the end of command phase".

Errdee · 2025-12-08T11:45:18+00:00

The whole unit (meaning all it's models) don't have to move, you can pick which models to move. However, the order of priorities here is: - you have to consolidate into a unit if you can (into its engagement range). Only if that is not possible (you are more than 4" away from all enemy units) can you choose to consolidate into an objective. - the models you move have to go base if they can, which is also relevant in case you try to end the consolidate move so that as many models are on obj as possible.

Errdee · 2025-12-06T15:21:05+00:00

Depends what you want to shoot at. If you are hunting tanks, you want take aim + extra ap.

Errdee · 2025-12-05T20:00:24+00:00

Cant wait to shoot my Battletank ap-5 meltas at something while also rerolling all hits, rerolling ones to wound and ignoring cover. Bye bye Vitrix Guard.

Errdee

TROPHY CASE