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One of the things that takes some getting used to in Warhammer 40k 5th Edition, is the idea that
any or all of your forces can start in reserve. While this isn't always a good idea, and in some cases
it's a bad idea, and in others it's forced upon you, for certain units, it's a fantastic option.

Power armor armies tend to have some units which move quickly, strike hard, but are overall
expensive to field and degrade quickly when subjected to enemy fire. A lot of them are even very
fragile.

The important trait of these units is that they „



At it's core, Killhammer is about killing. And about not being killed. You know, that whole "kill gap"
thing I keep talking about. There's a handful of things that you always try and do with your best
units every game.

1) If you're able to protect a unit that strikes hard, moves fast, so that when it engages the
enemy, it's able to do so at full strength.... that's usually something that we, as gamers, can refer
to as "totally freakin' awesome".

You can absolutely, 100% guarantee that the first turn that you can achieve this "totally freakin'
awesome" effect by keeping that unit in reserve. When they arrive on the table, they do so on your
turn, never having been shot at.

2) You want to deploy the units in such a way that you can bring the firepower of multiple units to
bear on one or a handful of enemy units, allowing you to completely table them or render them
ineffective for the rest of the game. Due to limited deployment area (especially in table quarters)
or in situations where you go second, you don't get a chance to do this without presenting a great
big target for your enemy.

You can almost guarantee that when you bring a unit on the table from reserve, that it's going to
be in support of (and supported by) other units that compliment it. There will be the rare cases
where your opponent can limit the area where you can deploy, hence the "almost".

3) You want to screen your valuable unit from hostile fire with terrain or lesser units. After the first
turn, this becomes difficult to do because your opponent has started to develop his battle plan and
maneuver his units, which change the field.

You can guarantee that if a screening unit is available, and you want to screen your valuable unit,
you'll be able to do so if you bring it in from reserve.

If you're a veteran player, you're probably drooling at the idea of being able to do all of these
things. And if I throw in the added bonus that you are now inside your opponents decison loop
(OODA for you Boyd fans), it'll be like you grew up with a guy named Pavlov and I just rang a bell.

In order to get these advantages, however, you can't just bring any unit in from reserve, and you
can't use all of the deployment options that are available to you. You need to be selective.

Deep Strike eliminates the ability to charge your opponent, reducing the options (and potentially
the K) to most units and additionally, it provides less control over location, minimizing the benefits
of 2 and 3 from above.

Kahn is a popular choice for bringing units in from reserve, but suffers to some extent from the
same issues as deep striking because you arrive on a semi-random table edge instead of exactly
where you want your unit.
So what you're looking to do is to deploy from a known table edge to a position of your choice on
the board.

You can't do this with all units effectively.

- Vehicles count as moving, reducing their overall firepower in most cases

- Most infantry can't fire heavy weapons
- 6" is not a lot of movement.

With those limitations in mind, the ideal options for deployment ,in a power armor army, from
reserve are:

Bikes
Attack Bikes
Land Speeders
Assault Squads
Land Raider Transported Assault Units

All of these units have a high potential K, and when supported by a character, can be absolutely
devastating in assault.

Bikes, attack bikes, and speeders have the additional advantage of being able to move up to 24",
giving you the ability to completely reconfigure the battlefield situation, and further flush your
opponent's game plan down the toilet.

In vanilla SM armies and in Ravenwing armies, bikes can be scoring units. In a BA army, those
assault squads are scoring. The ability to bring on an untouched, durable, high Killhammer,
SCORING unit onto the table to rush an objective that your opponent thought was under defended
or safe from attack cannot be discounted.

Bikes and assault squads have the added advantage of being able to shoot with all of their
weapons and still charge their opponent. This can mean an effective 18" advancement onto the
table, from reserve. If you win combat, you're able to advance d6" further across the table, or into
cover. This means that your opponent now has to deal with the real possibility of an assault next
turn deep into his support units.

Most armies, and many players, can't handle this well. You're inside the effective decision making
loop and they are forced to play completely reactively to what you're doing.

To fit all this into Killhammer formulas, keeping a mobile, high Killhammer unit in reserve does the
following:

Preserves K1 and provides minimum K2 on the turn they arrive, increasing overall kill power.
Increases D2 by ensuring that you've got a full strength unit in the later turns of the game,
unharmed by first turn pie plates.
Dramatically improves S (situational usefulness) for your army.
Reduces enemy D2 by allowing you to concentrate firepower.

That said, there are a couple of things to be aware of:

1) You cannot build your whole army to deploy from reserves using these principles.
2) The army you deploy normally must be an effective force on its own.
3) It's not a tactic that you can use in every battle or against every opponent.
This is not new stuff that I'm inventing.

Necrons have a similar technique that they can use to deploy an untouched warrior squad where
they want by spitting it out of a Monolith. They've been doing this for years.

Dark Eldar have Webway Portals they can dump on the table that have allowed them to do the
same thing for years.

Eldar can effectively do something similar by deploying hard hitting units in Falcons during
deployment (a near unkillable unit) .

Ork Nob Bikers, with their amazing durability are currently wrecking opponents in the tournament
scene by doing the same thing. They might as well be off the table for all the good that shooting
them at long range is going to do.

Daemon armies with Icons are effectively doing the exact same thing every battle, but with lesser
benefit.

All I ask is that you think about it.

Like everything else killhammer, you know your army best, and everything is situational. (Always
remember that S)