Do I need tanks to win games in 5th ed?

[Sergent Zhyr]

I have played a few more games of 5th ed and it seems the best armies have many tanks in them.

Is this just something in my head or do you really need tanks to win games of 5th ed?

Any thoughts on this matter?

[Spevna]

It seems to be me like most people stick their troops in dedicated transports. Played a 3 way game on sunday and all the Imperial Guard were in Chimeras, the Death Guard in Rhinos, and the Berzerkers in Rhinos.

At the same time, lots of people rock up with melta guns to pop said tanks.

[Primarch]

Tanks themselves aren't always a requirement, but speed and manouverability are. Regular infantry move 6" a turn (and can run for d6" more), which isnt fast enough most of the time. By walking everywhere you allow your opponent to dictate what can shoot and what can assault.

There are a few army builds that dont need transports:
Bike/Jump infantry heavy armies
Gunline armies where you have as many heavy weapons as possible.
Tyranids

Not taking tanks does offer a couple of advantages though. Your opponent's railguns/lascannons/melta guns go from having targets worth 200 points to shoot at to only having infantry to shoot at. They'll probably kill your infantry very well, but you're only losing one marine/ork/guardsman a turn rather than a land raider/battlewagon/leman russ.
However, the reverse is also true. By putting your infantry into transports, you can negate most bolter fire and move your troops around freely. Put your troops in a Land Raider and anything below S8 ceases to matter until you get out.

So, in answer to your question I would say, Yes, you do need tanks to consistently win games in 5th ed. You can win without them, but it will be more difficult or you will need different units in your army to make it possible.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Every thing prime said is ture... move ment is key to making a game work for you. If you can move fast and get where you need to be then you are sure to do better.

[me_in_japan]

I'd second what Prim and Badruck said. I used to hate tanks (coming from a 1st ed background, nobody had tanks in those days) but now I really, really think you need tanks.

As they both said, its all about maneuverability. Tanks allow your guys to get where they need to be. The only time youd run an army with no tanks is if you dont intend to move (as an eldar player this = you intend to lose, btw).

Personally, I consider the movement phase to be by far the most important part of the game. Its the only part of the turn where chance and luck dont come into consideration i.e. the player has complete control. If your army can only trudge 6", then you are giving up a large element of that control.

Use movement to control who your enemy can shoot, who he can assault, and who he needs to react to (run away from). If you can learn to do this well, you will win. If you dont, then odds on you will lose.

[Mike the Pike]

I generally agree with what has been said above but I think it is possible to win with a foot army. An assault orientated army needs tanks but if you like to play defensively, tanks could almost be a liability. It all depends on what army you are playing with, whether you like to play defense or offense and especially what the scenario is.

Huh? - Well, 1/3 of games are, like it or not, kill points and IMHO light/medium transports are a bit of a liability. A Rhino or chimera or what have you can easily be popped with a single shot from even a medium strength weapon not to mentioned punched out by anyone with a half decent C/C weapon.

A defensive player with a lot of firepower can dictate the movement phase as well as folks as well as someone with lotsa pretty skimmers. You needn't string your units haphazardly across the board, you know? Sticking all your shooty infantry in one corner and making the other guy come to you = dictating the movement phase just as much as zooming all over the place with your fancy-schmancy tanks.

That said, I never actually play like that and like to get up close and personal as quick as possible

[Primarch]

Huh? - Well, 1/3 of games are, like it or not, kill points and IMHO light/medium transports are a bit of a liability. A Rhino or chimera or what have you can easily be popped with a single shot from even a medium strength weapon not to mentioned punched out by anyone with a half decent C/C weapon.

But try getting 1 broodlord to kill one poxy little rhino....GRRR

Pikey has a point with this, in a KP game, lots of tanks can be a liability. You have to weigh up their benefits with their drawbacks I guess. Gunline armies which can pump out a lot of high strength, long range firepower (IG, Dark Eldar) can get away with not using tanks if they really want to. Armies which are fast anyway, (Bikes, Beasts and Jump Infantry heavy armies like Blood Angels, White Scars and Siam Hann) dont need tanks either.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I have played with every model in a tank and every model on foot. with orks there are good points to both styles... My biggest draw to a tank trans port heavy army is that beyond movement there is the whole I have to kill them idea going through the head of your opponent.. some times they should just let the silly rhino alone but the feel it is important enough to shoot it and that could save some other very useful unit.

[jus]

Yeah, it seems alot of lists, as can be seen on bolter and chainsword.com, usually consist of rhino rhino rhino rhino pred pred landraider. Has the footslogging style of play really died? To be honest, I don't really like tanks. Mostly because they can only transport so many troops, and they take up too much space in your carry case.

I'm tinkering around on army builder trying to come up with a balanced mix of foot troopers and transport vehicles. I'm no expert but, plenty of light anti vehicle weaponry and ample bodies for survivability as well as some fast attack for support and you shouldn't do too bad against an all mech army.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I think tanks are good for lots of things... Transporting them is not one of the things they are good at..