Warhammer 40K Shooting Tactics - BIGGEST Mistakes and Rules of Thumb!

[@hyrumcastaneda1427]

I have an ork army. Generally speaking, my shooting is not to be relied on, but it is funny whenever the stars align and something dies

[@dinkledord7026]

agreed, we cheer when sluggas manage to strip a wound from the enemy

[@RealJahzir]

More Dakka 😂

[@felipearias5622]

Idk man, Flash Gitz are very relliable

[@stephenleggett4243]

I recon my Ork boys are more accurate than my marines more often than not.

[@marcuskarlsson8535]

I feel exactly the same! But I play admech...

[@alexisauld7781]

How to shooting phase: Line up your guns at the appropriate targets, that you need to get rid of to score objectives, deny them to your opponent, etc. Roll a lot of 1s. Shelve the shooting plan, and... CHAAAAAAAARGE!

[@crabman7704]

Thats if your units can win a melee fight🥲

[@onefrostyeggboittv2081]

Cries in tau

[@Josh-zd9pq]

FIX BAYONETS!!!!! CHARGE FOR THE GLORY OF THE EMPEROR!!!!!!

[@tyr7876]

My main man Farshight loves that. Especially with tank shock. 1 cp for 10 dice with a 1/3 chance of dealing a mortal wound. If ever there was an efficient use of that stratagem then that'd be it.

[@Spartan12]

I feel like using Eradicators to roast Gretchin is mentioned somewhere on the Geneva to-do-list

[@yhormthemidget]

In the recreational clause, right next to Tau tenderizing.

[@Bear_Andersen]

Hell, the Orks may just approve of this practice, if it incidentally improves the flavour.

[@Cannonhead]

A lesson I've learned myself, fire the blast weapons first.

[@EruCoolGuy]

Well yes, makes sense. Way more profit from blast if more models in a unit.

[@Warmhammer]

Shooting attacks are supposed to happen at the same time for a squad. It doesn't matter if you shot the blast weapons last or first, that unit still counts as being at the strength it was when you started shooting attacks at it because technically units aren't supposed to be removed until all attacks from the shooting unit are resolved.

[@torgranael]

@@Warmhammer It doesn't make a difference for models within a unit, but it does matter if you may need multiple units to down a target. If one unit of your units has grenade launchers and another doesn't, you're usually better off starting with the gl unit when shooting into a gaunt swarm or bunch o' boyz.

[@NornQueenKya]

If you have enough bullets, you cant screw it up - the guardsman manual

[@ianabel5937]

So that's where the Orks translated 'moar dakka' from :)

[@william9557]

Except the lasgun is the standard weapon given to them. So it's more like "enough power packs"

[@siberiankarl451]

The Grenade stratagem is not to be slept upon, as it's often a great way to mop up low hp targets

[@emax-1309]

As a Tau player, who started with Tau, I am always so painfully aware of shooting.

[@MildTabascofries]

As a melee player so am i😢

[@Peter_Wendt]

Anyone who plays AGAINST a Tau player quickly becomes painfully aware of shooting.

[@RavenAdventwings]

As a Vior'la player, I am thankful we all have access to that one Strategem no one expects T'au to spam: Tank Shock!

[@Tropic_Recon]

😂😂

[@Kantohammer]

The one huge thing to add to order of shots is always shoot blast weapons first. I’ve seen people lose bonus attacks from blast weapons because they dropped a unit below a multiple of 5 with a different weapon first.

[@askeytheman]

Reminder this only applies shooting between units. The number if blast bonus shots is calculated when you declare the shooting.

[@askeytheman]

@@Kantohammer Where's the second half of the sentence? "..., add one to the result for every 5 models that were in the unit when you selected it as the target for the attack"

[@Kantohammer]

Good catch. I misinterpreted the end part to mean at the time of “shooting this weapon now”and not when declaring attacks. I still recommend shooting them first to not bog down the game with having to ask how many guys were there two minutes ago.

[@DeathInTheSnow]

A couple of other considerations:- 1) Wound brackets - many units get worse as they get injured. Sometimes that nullifies how useful they are, and may be a preferable alternative to outright killing something, if you desperately need something else gone. 2) Healing units - some units can also recover wounds. So consider how much more firepower you'll need if a unit survives a round of shooting. This includes units that can fully revive whole models, such as Grey Knights Terminators, Chaos Skin Shift (Mark of Tzeentch), and especially Necrons. Where will it leave you if a unit heals? This includes considering bracketed units mentioned above. A wounded unit that has gotten worse and can't heal next turn might be a better outcome over a unit of Obliterators that could restore a whole 5w model with immense firepower. 3) Trick guns - some weapons have unusual or special rules that benefit from certain conditions being met. This includes "anti(x)" weapons. An example is where destroying a transport vehicle could gift you a better unit to target next with "anti-infantry". Chaos have a few like this, partly affected due to their current Dark Pacts rule (which could be gone in a few months with their new codex, but still). Because CSM can apply either Lethal Hits or Sustained Hits to anything, they get access to some rare moments allowing their guns to punch up compared to other armies. They also have another example with the Venomcrawler; it gains +1 attacks to each weapon when it kills a unit, and it has two guns. That means it usually likes to fire into a weakened infantry unit on its first turn, kill them to trigger its ability, then get 14 shots afterwards with Sustained Hits 1, usually on a 5+. There isn't a cap on this either, and it also works _and overlaps_ with melee attacks and kills. Your armies benefit from you creating scenarios where your guns benefit! - - - - - As a bonus fact about the Venomcrawler; because it has two guns and a melee profile, it can technically kill two units every shooting phase and one every melee phase, gaining 3 attacks per weapon. This obviously requires extraordinary luck, and splitting fire. However, the rule states "At the end of any phase". This means you can include Overwatch and defending melee too, for a bonus 2 attacks in your _opponent's_ turn (you can only pick one unit for Overwatch). If by some strange fortune that your Venomcrawler survives to the final turn of the game, you'll have gained 25 extra attacks at the very end of the game on each weapon, providing perfect conditions and rolling happened. If you went second, and were in melee, you'd have 30 attacks to play with (going to 31 if you kill that unit). But in that shooting phase beforehand, each Excruciator Cannon would have 28 shots apiece, for a total of 56 shots at Strength 6, D2, and with Sustained Hits 1, potentially on a 5+ if that's how your Dark Pact is set up. Very silly, and practically impossible to set up without forcing the conditions. But imagine rolling all of those dice...

[@VgnTeupo]

Just started World Eaters, will have all ur Tipp in mind next game

[@sHinobu2969]

I mean, If you run lord of skulls that things guns hit like a ton of bricks

[@KaziMazi]

World eaters are the epitome of reject modernity and return to monke. And iam all for it

[@yhormthemidget]

Well, zerks has pistols. In theory.

[@sHinobu2969]

@@yhormthemidget I think Kharn's pistol isn't too bad either

[@yhormthemidget]

@@sHinobu2969 at killing teammates. Straight out of the commissar rulebook.

[@The-Despoiler-XVI]

*Get 3 forgefiends make them Mark Of Nurgle *Get 3 Warpsmiths keep them 3" close to forgefiends *get 2 hellbrutes keep them in between forgefiends *put abaddon in the mix *laugh as your opponent takes ridiculous damage *Use cultists and dark commune to take objectives *nurglings if you're soulless Forgefiends restoring d3 lost wounds at the beginning of every turn, hitting on 2+, lethal and sustained hits on 5+ and reroll your misses... Just kidding that's toxic, awesome video!

[@alexisauld7781]

nurglings can't even "take" objectives cause OC0 uwu

[@The-Despoiler-XVI]

@@alexisauld7781 they're for secondaries

[@The-Despoiler-XVI]

@@alexisauld7781 they're for secondary missions

[@ivant.1452]

Thats insignificant. They are 40pt allied, battleline, deepstrike, action performing units ​@alexisauld7781

[@jamesygamesy5124]

they cant do them either now​@@The-Despoiler-XVI

[@itsmefil2670]

another thing to keep in mind is to not forget to shoot the pistols in melee range, can save you from being attacked later on even if youre lucky

[@Daemonik]

This. I always. _always_ forget to shoot my pistols.

[@elementual]

Keep in mind bracketing vehicles, too. Friend of mine played not too long ago and (while he did end up losing in the end) the game started to swing much more in his favor when he got one bolter round through an enemy vehicle which was the one wound he needed to bring its stats down and it became much less scary as a result.

[@zeroxexe111]

Great content! Thanks again for elaborating the SHOOTING PHASE!❤ May your week be EPIC!

[@thesurvivor7853]

Knights really have to prioritize what they shoot at.

[@lukepoplawski3230]

Yup, last game it was a serious quandary of letting the Norn live so I can wipe away the gaunts about to tie me up from my third objective. I decided to kill the norn, declared all shots of the castellan into the norn, then murdered it with one round from the volcano lance. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@lord123a]

Best kill is overkill 🎉

[@chuckhoyle1211]

@@lukepoplawski3230 You know, with metaphysical certainty, that if you did not shoot everything at it, it would have lived with 2 wounds.

[@demigurlxd5781]

I needed this video thank you, you made me realize why I lost my last match and what I could have done better.

[@shinkiro403]

Regarding underkilling a target: In the case of that Predator (or any other unit with powerful guns but with few shot each or even just one), ALWAYS check if there are comparably vulnerable targets in range: if your only alternatives are a hordy unit like hormagants or even something more elite like space marines, you don't want to risk not downing the big game target just for barely putting a dent on the opponent's numbers. So, in those cases just focus fire and light up the huge mf on death's door

[@MirageMancer]

Yes as Tau was my first faction this was a lesson learned fast.

[@N00b_Bot]

Thanks for all the info. Looking forward to your views on the Ork box announced. I have the orks from assualt on black reach along with the boarding patrol box and undecided where I go from there. Battleforce, Xmas box, or the new box (stompa looks cool but if rubbish in game ruins the box).

[@Peter_Wendt]

A good rule of thumb for Imperial Guard shooting: for lasguns, if you're firing at something as strong as a marine, assume 10 shots to deal 1 Wound. Half of the shots will typically miss, two will typically wound, and with a little luck one of those will be a failed save. So seriously, against marines, 10 shots for each casualty. You will be surprised at how often this math holds up.

[@jarrakul]

Some quick mathhammer suggests the numbers are actually even worse than that. 1/2 the shots hit, 1/3 wound, and 1/3 of the marines fail their saves, so that's a 1/(2*3*3) = 1/18 chance to actually damage a marine on average. Meaning 18 shots to inflict one wound. Obviously your experience may vary in actual play.

[@Peter_Wendt]

@@jarrakul I seem to be racking up slightly better casualties than that, but your math is solid, and I need to amend my rule. 18 shots for one Wound on average. Wow.

[@jcmsaucey6555]

My personal take on CP rerolling: unless you have little to no good stratagems (something like Hypercrypt Necrons without a Monolith), the only time it's ever really worth using CP reroll at all is if you NEED that roll to win. Something like rerolling wound/damage against your opponent's centerpiece, a charge to take an objective near the end of the game, or a saving throw on a crucial unit. Otherwise your CP will almost always have a better place to be, especially if you have good 2cp strats or a stratagem you want to use multiple times a turn like Chaos Knights. The same goes for 4+ invuln stratagems like Rotate Ion Shields. On paper you're making 50% more saves than if you had a 5+ (or failing 25% less), but in actuality the math rarely works out like that and it either does absolutely nothing or is complete overkill. CP is an extremely important resource for 90% of lists, and even if you stockpile your CP for the first few turns you may find you need to use 5 or more in one turn just to survive or make sure you kill a a unit. Another small bit of advice that's not directly touched on here is if your squad has different weapons, shoot the ones that will one shot a model first. If you're shooting into a squad of intercessors, you'll want to shoot your overcharged plasmas or Lascannons first to avoid knocking a model down to 1 wound and wasting your damage.

[@EmperorSigismund]

Roll for attack number is a very high priority as well that can trump a lot of strats. The difference between 1 attack and anything more than 1 is staggering with something like a demolisher cannon.

[@jcmsaucey6555]

@@EmperorSigismund I'd still only do it if it's really important. Comparing an average of +2-3 shots (which can still miss, fail to wound, be saved, or roll low damage) to saving the CP so you use any of Guard's 2CP stratagems that have guaranteed value, I'd pick saving the CP most of the time. Even if you get the demolisher to hit on 2s against a 3+ save vehicle each shot has around a 60% chance to deal 0 damage. In a game where almost everything is left up to chance, any time you can guarantee something is fantastic. Ask any high level card game player and almost certainly any high level 40k player and they will tell you, consistency is key.

[@MirageMancer]

I'm not sure about what you mean on rotate ion shields. Is it not just better than a 5++ provided you roll a few dice

[@jcmsaucey6555]

@@MirageMancer on paper it's a 25% defense increase (4 possible bad rolls to 3), but in actuality it will only affect 1/6 saves you roll. If you're getting shot by 6 shots that would hit your invuln there's a ~34% chance your stratagem does absolutely nothing, not even including if the shots you failed to save end up taking you down. The odds of it doing nothing go up if there are less shots (40% with 5, 48% with 4, etc), but the odds of you dying to failed saves also go up the more shots coming at you. If you play Knights yourself, try using Rotate Ion Shields/Demonic Bulwark more often in casual games and pay attention to how much it actually helps. Most of the time it either does nothing because you died anyway/you didn't roll any 4s, or it brings a knight down to something like 4 wounds instead of 3, which isn't really a difference. Imperial Knights get extra CP and don't have the best stratagems so you're a bit more likely to use Rotate Ion Shields compared to Chaos Knights, but I still think the chance to waste your CP is too high a lot of the time. Depending on the number of shots coming in I would actually slow roll your saves instead so you can see if a CP Reroll to save yourself.

[@whitemiasma5288]

CP Reroll bears a 99% chance of rolling a 1, 100% of the time.

[@ancientmariner9460]

Generally everything you've said, everything is situational and you need to constantly use your brain. BUT never underestimate AP 0 shots, even against 2+ save.

[@Sirilere]

Now, this was useful. Thanks!

[@tyhar7493]

One thing to consider is with things like a Nightbringer that halves damage and has a lot of saves, it is better to use ALOT of small arms fire to saturate the targets rather than using heavy weapons. For instance my 10 man Sternguard unit (with lieutenant and lethal hits) has a good chance of taking it out in one turn with a round of shooting and a charge than shooting all of my lascannons at it.

[@OniGanon]

This is obvious but also don't forget to first use units whose shooting confers benefits for your other units. The Falcon has to shoot before the Fire Dragons that came out of it. Also fire Blast weapons before you reduce the enemy to below 5.

[@jcklsldr]

And, most importantly, never NOT shoot a weapon at the only available target. I wounded a Sororitas tank with a pulse rifle drone shot and it brought the tank below it's damaged threshold lol

[@georgemorgan923]

Shooting question. I have a fire prism on top of a ruin such that it is eligible for "plunging fire " if I use the "linked fire" rule to fire another fire prism through it does the second one also benefit from "plunging fire ".

[@lasselen9448]

No, the shooting model has to be up there. It doesn't matter where you draw the LoS from, it's still the prism on the ground that's shooting. Not logical I know since the beam is reflected from the prism on top of the ruins, but rules tend to keep things "simple".

[@georgemorgan923]

@@lasselen9448 Thanks for the reply, bad news is better than no news.

[@_insertname_6675]

Me, a world eaters main watching this: hmmmmm interesting

[@boomer03n27]

I saw a comment on blast wespons, and that can be pretty big if you lose the blast effect because you killed too many.

[@RoblolGames]

Yeah, ok sure, but have you considered that I just had a good feeling about that fire warrior squad shooting at a knight.

[@MikelTulp]

Is it shoot shorter range weapons first, or is it long range first? Thinking it’s short range first

[@ChumblesMumbles]

What used to be the psychic phase, now also the shooting phase.

[@drbeandog4209]

How I do shooting as a black template player, do my movement, start to declare my charges, have my opponent remind me that there's a phase in between.

[@AnthonyEbarguen]

DO yo have these game tips in a list for those of us who are newer to have a good reference

[@rizzington1]

All I know is my Meltas will whiff when they shoot at an enemy tank on full wounds then do 29 damage against one that has 3 wounds left.

[@EruCoolGuy]

As a Grey Knights player and psychic enjoyer, playing the lottery for the new psychic ranged weapons or abilities (like Vortex of doom) is very fun. Either you kill yourself, you do very little, or you get twelve mortals on whatever.

[@DC-77]

My biggest issue as an Ork player is letting my opponent set up a shooting gallery for terrain. Funny how shooting army people tend to do that

[@lobo2367]

Don't you have to declare your targets in advance? You can't shoot 1 gun at a time and switch targets depending on outcome.

[@trendbis4831]

Another video to watch although i never play.... Sigh

[@william9557]

Why say never? Aim to paint some models and get them onto a table! Sure, gw be EXPENSIVE, but there are good recasters if you look hard enough

[@trendbis4831]

@@william9557 Aha I can't justify the cost of it. Not even a little

[@ButchersNailsEnjoyer]

Biggest shooting mistake players make that i play against is them forgetting about blood surge khorne berserkers have 😂

[@LordCrate-du8zm]

As an Imperial Fists player, I can safely say my entire gameplan revolves around shooting and setting up a strong gunline, thus denying any attempts on the pbjectives. I currently have a Captain with Master Crafted Sword+Rifle (Stoic Defender enhancement) leading a 10-man Infernus squad to sit on midfields and be a nuisance to anyone who wants to move or charge.

[@sarinat3101]

Playing admech really is more like Warshooter 40k

[@samtimo3002]

Auspex, i would love for you to speculate what you would do to make the stompa actually worth taking. Right now at 800 points you can take nearly 5 battle wagons, 4 nauts, 7 deff dreads. And 8 killa kanz. Also the stats are dogshit. They dont have enough big shootas nor do the weapons do much. You wont even be able to charge it in and it doesnt have the same abilities as the smaller nauts do

[@caden030311]

Firing other weapons at a horde before your blast weapons can cost you shots, so the order of firing guns can become crucial.

[@MildTabascofries]

I play black Templars, I shoot with one lancer and all pistols

[@jamespidgeon8748]

To much terrain, I can move the whole board with out being shot

[@samhunter1205]

Unless your opponent moves their shooting units. This is only an issue for static gunlines. Good. Static gunlines are boring.

[@jamespidgeon8748]

@@samhunter1205 I max myself out on MELEE,

[@samhunter1205]

@@jamespidgeon8748 sure. Doesn't mean you can't be shot by a mobile army though. Tau or Eldar are normally a good example of that sort of thing. Firepower for days and the mobility to aim it where they need it. Especially annoying if they are good with redeploys, reserves and move blockers - what I have seen work well vs melee heavy armies with mobile shooting armies like that is to overload one flank, removing threats on that side while strategically obstructing the movement of enemy units on the other flank. It normally puts you ahead in terms of killing, as long as you don't fall too far behind on objectives then it puts you in a strong position to win later in the game.

[@Damnedlegion40k]

Add a comment...😢

[@JCMiniPainting]

Algorithm.

[@smokedown80]

1st lol

[@Mike-bq7go]

str vs toughness really not that hard lol

[@crimsonwino]

Whatchya’ll think of that there ‘Space King’ from Flashgitz?