The Importance of Speed and Initiative in Biel-Tan Mechanized Assault Armies

This army is based around its incredible speed. Without the transports of the Bahzhakhain it would find itself unable to allocate the immensely powerful warriors of Biel-Tan. With a capacity for 36" of movement in a single turn the mechanized host is able to out maneuver any opposing army (besides other Eldar at times) in the game. We are capable of deploying all across our deployment zone and then completely redeploying at the front door of our enemy. Unless our opponent knows us, they cannot divine what will attack where, when, or how.

With this speed the enemy has one turn to try to stop us dead, or run like hell. Neither is an easy task, especially not in a single turn. Our huge range of movement allows for precise assaults and attacks: engineering exactly where we wish to make contact. We also may, at the very last moment, rush to contact based objectives while our opponent has had to footslog and move towards the objectives starting turn three, or maybe even turn one. We are fast, mysterious, aloof, and unpredictable. We may be caught off guard but we can react so quickly the enemy will think we attacked first. Below I will speak on the above traits of our army, and others.

Deployment:
Each battle starts with deployment. Most mechanized commanders worst fear is loosing the first turn roll before the meat of our army gains Skimmer Moving Fast (SMF). To minimize damage we start by deploying our transports behind any available size three/area terrain. Different hobby shops and gaming rooms have a varied amount of such terrain, with some only having a few pieces, and some having pseudo-city fight boards. The more terrain, the better for us, but when there is a lack we put our Waveserpents and most essential units behind cover and hope for the best with the others. This is our weakest time, when we are not moving, but there is much that can be wrought from deployment.

There are two main forms, or extremes, in deployment. One is to deploy as the strongest unified formation, to deploy in the best position to move for objectives, separated into self-sufficient attack groups, and other setups, which ignore the specific deployment of your opponent. The other is to set up in relation to your opponent. Your enemy puts down an HQ squad at the back of his DZ between two buildings, so you place a five-man reaper squad in a direct line of sight (LoS) to it. Your opponent places a Leman Russ in a back corner, so you mirror it with Fire Dragons in a Falcon, in order to deal with the threat.

Most players do not use just one or the other but a combination of the two. This means that a lot of the time if you deploy first and put down a Fire Prism on your right flank your opponent is going to deploy something on the opposite side to try to deal with it. With your massive 36" movement range you can deploy where is safest and then attack where you want, so within what is safe you can manipulate your opponents deployment, trying to fragment his army, pull some parts of it away to give you flanks and non-unified formations, or at least make it so your opponent is left scratching his head over the question of where or what the hell you are going to do. Each unit you have is a different kind of threat to your opponent, and after figuring out what each squad means to your enemy you can better control his actions, and before fighting or even moving commences you can start shaping your attack and plan. In time your opponents will realize that your deployment is merely for safety purposes and that it does not necessarily indicate your plans. Most players will pick this up early, but those near subconscious habits of going "...mmmmk, I'll counter that with this...so it goes here".

Maximum speed, denying redeployment and counter-actions:
A good bunch of the time, depending on scenarios prospective opponents and other factors, you either will or will have the ability to drive directly into the enemy DZ and start assaults early before your opponent has a chance to re-deploy or cause casualties to you. Sometimes you will have to move to mid-field to safe staging points (intervening area three terrain) before making this attack, which will give you further options of where and what to attack, with your opponent having less of a clue of your intentions. Many armies will have at least some fast units that move 12" or more as quick reactionary units (chaos raptors, land speeders, warp spiders, etc) which will try to reinforce your points of attack. The suddenness of your attack will make these units less effective, or need to move further to get to you, or they will be assaulted first before they can actually react. Most armies and units only move 6" in the movement phase, and few of them have fleet moves. With this slow speed, once we disembark the enemy is unable to escape by normal means. Say you move your transports up to the enemy's doorstep, and he backpedals 6", you disembark and advance 6"+d6"+6", almost definitely catching him in assault. There will be attempts to block your hatches and elsewhere in this article I will speak on this, but for the most part the bulk of your opponents army will be locked down and unable to escape. Part of this is using locking units like the Dire Avengers, jetbikes, and others, but the typical enemy is stuck in your net on turn two.

If you were footslogging, or moving 12" or less each turn, you will lack the capacity to outmaneuver most opponents unless you skillfully utilize pinning weapons, and focused fire on their transports and mobile units. As a footslogging force, other than what to shoot with ranged weaponry (and even then, sometimes), the enemy can see your intentions and plans unfolding and the quicker commander will counter them, or even ignore your feeble attempts to come to grasps with him, and carry on with his own plans.

This speed also allows a similar effect as seen by those quick reactionary units like the Raptors, and Landspeeders, etc., except our entire army can function this way. By the nature of our speed we may break up in formations or attack with united strength most of the time. While when a normal army must separate to move for objectives, or lend support to a flank, it takes a lot of perceivable time to properly react and rejoin unless you have good firing angles and firepower behind it. A lot of the available firepower in many armies is also infantry based, meaning if they move they cannot shoot. When such armies do need to react and attack they may not be able to bring their best unit for the situation to bear, because they cannot get in place in time. The Eldar army is made up of very specialized warriors, if we cannot use the right tool we may falter, and be defeated. With our transports we can allocate what we need, where we need it. One can easily start to see the advantages we court with our peerless speed.

The above backs up the importance of speed for initiative and unity, which we build our army upon. Most armies are best created with units that either offer static fire support (Dark Reapers, Pathfinders, etc), or units that can move 24-36". This is so that if you choose to attack immediately all of your units may attack in unison, and so that other slower units are not found out in the open when the rest of your infantry is in CC, making it the only target of remaining enemy guns. The Warp Spiders are a good example (ignoring the deep strike option with some prefer, and some do not). Warp Spiders are an excellent unit, but unless they can advance in cover will find themselves out in the open during the turn that your transports are waiting to be able to disembark they are the only infantry unit in view open to any enemy guns in range and LoS. Slower units are less efficient than mechanized units (jetbikes, vehicles, and mounted squads) unless you intend on a slower approach, or a denser battlefield like city-fight.

Also the Star Engines upgrade helps your mobility substantially on the initial rush, and when switching flanks, etc.