We Have Reserves: Difference between revisions

** The Imperial Guard of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' commonly employ this tactic; Commander Chenkov of Valhalla in particular has a reputation for throwing away the lives of his men, the gaining of which is quite a feat for a Guard commander, though at least he has the balls to dive into the meatgrinder with them and lead from the front. The fluff claims that his bolt pistol has killed more cowards than enemies, and that he once took a fortress that had withstood siege for years without artillery or armoured support at the cost of ''10 million'' casualties (though this is the Imperium we're talking about - they could cover those losses with one round of draft slips). The new Codex highlights his knack for reserves by giving him the special rule "Send in the next wave!", which allows him to call up a new squad of Conscripts once the previous squad has been wiped out, as described wonderfully by 1d4chan:

*:* Also, the Orks of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', whose entire warfighting strategy is "assault the enemy with troops stretching back past the horizon." In ''[[Dawn of War]]'', Warboss Gorgutz is actually ''lauded'' by ''his own troops'' for being willing to hurl countless numbers of Boyz at enemies like the Space Marines and Necrons, fully aware that many are going to die. It helps that Orks consider an exciting battle against a worthy opponent to be [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|jolly]] [[Ax Crazy|good]] [[Blood Knight|fun]].

*:** Gretchin are considered even more expendable than Orks. One noted use for Gretchin mobz in past editions was removing minefields in much the same way as a stick removes a bear trap. If there were more mines than gretchin, they died to no notable effect, generally prompting loud bursts of Orkish laughter.

*:** The Gretchin have several other [[Sarcasm Mode|great]] jobs, such as being stepping stones in rough terrain, bullet shields, and EMERGENCY RATIONS

*:* Some of the Tyranid flavor text has them sending [[Mooks]] to assault enemies, just to make them use up their ammunition before sending in the big guns. As a matter of fact, those same mooks have no digestive tract; they are not intended to survive the battle they're built for, and if by some fluke they do, the more important creatures just eat them when their purpose is served. Of course, any Tyranids that the hive fleet sends to attack a planet are just going to be digested and recycled into new Tyranids, so it's not quite as asshole-ish as some of the other examples.

*:** The 4th edition Codex even gave Gaunts (The Nids' ranged [[Mooks]]) the Without Number rule as a buyable upgrade; if a unit with the rule was wiped out, you were allowed to put a new unit just like it on the field.

*:** The 5th ed fluff for the Gargoyle describes a siege on a heavily guarded fortress world by the Tyranids. The gribblies won because they sent in so many flyers that their corpses blocked laser cannons capable of punching through a moon.

*:* The Lost and the Damned faction of Chaos is explicitly employed this way, as it is essentially composed of gibbering mutants, demons (who can't be killed, only sent back to the Warp), and human traitor rabble. Generally they run at Imperial forces who waste ammunition gunning them down. More disturbingly they usually do so with a smile on their face.

*:* In fact, out of the whole 40k universe, the Tau and the Eldar are remarkable for the fact that they ''don't'' have reserves. The Tau get around this by using someone ''else'' as their Reserves, while the Eldar cope by using [[Difficult but Awesome|stealth, guerilla tactics or - even better - just tricking someone else into fighting their battles for them]]. For everyone else, though, it's mainly just [[Crapsack World|lots and lots of reserves]].

*:** The Necrons also don't have reserves, since they have no way of making more of their own kind outside of converting the rare blank into a pariah. They make up for this with teleportation and auto-repair technology, ensuring that no Necron is ever permanently destroyed.

*:* Even the Dark Eldar have reserves, in a weird way (though not usually in tabletop terms). Almost all of the Dark Eldar race are clones quickly and cheaply, with live born children (called Trueborn) are considered special and are pampered and taken care of (and get their own unit). Oh and if you kill one of the leaders, so long as they get some of the corpse (not all, some) back to the [[Torture Technician|Haemonculi]] within a certain amount of time (usually a day) then the Haemonculi can regenerate their entire body. So even if you kill the leaders, they'll be back later. Some Haemonculi have consider death to be an interesting experience. Reserves indeed.

*:* Just about the only faction that doesn't have reserves are the Space Marines. That said, they rarely need them, traditionally being sent in for quick strikes and special operations that the Imperial Guard can't handle alone, (and if they ever ''do'' need reserves, they can just borrow some from the Guard).