If You Answered Yes... Then The VT Academy Is For You!

• At VT we want you as a Warhammer 40k player, no matter where you are in your hobby, to have life long enjoyment of the game.
• We want you to have the confidence to play anywhere, against any opponent, on any mission, and with any army.
• We want you to have the skills and the confidence to play at tournaments, local clubs and against friends in any format.
• So whether you're new, getting back into the game, or an experienced competitive player we believe you deserve a great understanding of the rules from the basics all the way to the advanced.
• We also want to ensure you play the game in the right way and become an ambassador for fair play.
• We want you to enjoy using your army no matter how good or bad it seems by implementing the Academy's tactics and knowledge at the tabletop to great effect.
• We will give you the clarity on where you are as a player and help you understand how to improve with each and every game.

We want to ensure everyone that joins the Academy has an awesome experience and gets great value.

If after 30 days you don't feel the course is right for you, you can have your money back.

We won't ask any questions about why you want your money back, we won't extract the information from your brain that you have learned and we won't make you unread and unwatch the content.

But this is a risk I am willing to make as we genuinely stand by our product.

Stephen Box

What’s Inside The Vanguard Tactics Academy?

Module 1

Master Army List Writing

This module gives you all the tools you need to craft high quality army lists for any army. Watch in-depth video lessons about the process we use to craft army lists that can compete at any level.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Write a well balanced army list so that you can play & compete at tournaments or at local clubs.
• Thoroughly understand your army, and how to make the most of the models you have in your collection during the game.
• Critically analyse how your army performs on the table and make the difficult decisions to maximise your list’s efficiency on the table.

What We Don’t Do:

• Just give you the best army list to take.
• Make you buy new models to chase the meta.

Module 2

Developing A Game Plan

We breakdown your battle plan into the essential sections so that we can create a well thought out and organised strategy that will help you instantly improve your game play.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Swiftly analyse the table set up and which objectives you will aim to hold, deny and clear.
• Guarantee primary victory points with strong objective holds.
• Know the extra mission details and use mission knowledge to inform list choices and tactical plays.

What we don’t do:

• Tell you how points are scored and the core rules.
• Force you to play every mission the same way.

Module 3

Master the GT Missions

This module will be updated  each time a new mission set comes out and will guide you through how the missions work with a fast paced tactical overview. 

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Make changes to your list that maximise your efficiency at new missions.
• Understand the minutiae of specific mission rules and remember how they benefit you.
• Innovate different ways to use your units according to mission restrictions.

What We Don’t Do:

• Just read you the mission pack.
• Ask you to memorise each mission.

Module 4

Master Your Secondaries

This module will help you spend less time picking secondaries and more time scoring them. You’ll also have a fundamental understanding of how a list needs to consider your available secondaries.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Guarantee secondary victory points by applying your secondary knowledge to your list building process.
• Stop wasting time before each game and pick your secondaries confidently and without as much hesitation.
• Understand completely the ins and outs of secondary actions and psychic actions and how to manipulate them for you and your opponent. 

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you to use a different army because they have better secondaries.
• Tell you to give up against armies that have great secondaries.

Module 5

Deploying Your Army

This module will help you make prepared decisions, remain flexible when you deploy and avoid silly mistakes that stack the game against you from turn 1.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Use terrain and firing lines on the battlefield to deploy effectively.
• Avoid turn 1 alpha abilities and ensure you have all your auras and command abilities in range.
• Deploy with a role for each unit from turn 1 onwards that aligns with your game plan.

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you how many inches you can start on the board and what you should hide behind certain terrain.
• Tell you that you can deploy the same way no matter what you’re facing.

Module 6

The Movement Phase

This module will help you understand why the movement phase is the most important phase of the game and how to use it to your advantage.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Move characters knowing their role each turn of the game.
• Master using your reinforcements units to change the game state.
• Demonstrate movement blocking and screening tactics to improve your play.

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you that slow units are just worse than fast units.
• Say that the movement phase is just so you can shoot and charge afterwards.

Module 7

The Psychic Phase

Optimise your psychic phase and brace for your opponent's with this module.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Ensure your psychic phase is never wasted.
• Be able to counter psychic mortal wound output and stay in the game.
• Manipulate casting ranges and set up deny the witch counter plays. 

What We Don’t Do:

• Just tell you not to worry if you don't have psykers
• Say that you have no defence against high mortal wound output armies.

Module 8

The Shooting Phase

Never waste a shot with this module about target priority, damage profiles and how special core rules influence your play.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Make the best decisions when choosing your target priority.

• Shoot with purpose by learning which of your units to fire with first and when to split fire or focus fire.

• Use advanced tactics to get around special rules such as big guns never tire.

What We Don’t Do:

• Just tell you to bring more guns.
• Just play the averages and accept it if it doesn’t work.

Module 9

The Charge Phase

This is the most complicated and deep phase of the game. Command this phase and you’ll be able to pick fights and win battles by doing so.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Maximise your charges when deciding who to charge and avoid risky plays.

• Avoid overwatch, heroic interventions and fight last abilities by just moving differently.

• Set up wraps and counter charges.

What We Don’t Do:

• Promote risky multi charging to win big.
• Just charge to kill units.

Module 10

The Combat Phase

Another complicated phase which can improve upon your knowledge of pile-ins, consolidation move, fight first and fight last.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Manipulate the fights first and fights last interactions and avoid losing units for no return.

• Use pile-ins and consolidations to influence the bigger picture in a game.

• Know when to avoid overkill and ensure wrapping and tagging units is to your benefit.

What We Don’t Do:

• Just fight to destroy units.
• Pile-in and consolidate without considering the big picture.

Module 11

The Morale Phase

Understand the implications of morale and coherency upon the outcome of the game.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Know when modifying a leadership value can affect the game.

• Understand when to use the insane bravery stratagem or equivalents to change the game state.

• Use the advanced tactics of the morale phase to leave combat or set up for future turns with a damaged unit.

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you the morale phase can just be ignored.
• Remove models without considering future opportunities.

Module 12

Terrain In 40K

Learn about how terrain can affect armies in 40k and how to make full use of it on the tabletop.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Know what every keyword for terrain does and how you can use it for your army.

• Guide your game plan with terrain placement and objectives.
• Turn the maths to your advantage by either being in or avoiding terrain.

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you the only important rule is the obscuring keyword.
• Tell you that terrain only matters for deployment.

Module 13

Combat Tactics

Master some of our best combat plays using the fundamentals behind each phase we’ve already covered.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Use basing models to its maximum potential.

• Use your full charge move to gain opportunities in the long game.

• Deal with the counter offensive stratagem and interventions to gain the upper hand in bad situations.

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you that fight last and combat interrupt are insurmountable.
• Tell you that heroic intervention just gets your units killed.

Module 14

Game Management

Manage your game effectively with tips for before and after you start playing. This module is about the bigger picture!

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Never run out of command points just when you need them with our CP management guide.

• Finish every game in time using our time management guide and chess clock lesson so you don’t waste your evening on just 2 battle rounds.
• Use game tempo to know when to commit your assets or play defensively on the tabletop.

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you that you should stop playing if you can’t finish a game in 3 hours.
• Make chess clocks seem intimidating and put you off using them or going to events.

Module 15

Tournament Preparation

Get ready for your first or hundredth tournament with this guide on event types, goal setting and checklists.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Confidently submit an army list considering terrain, missions and the meta.

• Use player placed terrain to influence list building and your game plan.

• Ensure that you enjoy the event no matter the result.

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you that tournaments are only for competitive players.
• Tell you that tournaments are full of tryhards and cheaters (because it's not true!).

Module 16

Sportsmanship & Fairplay

The most important module to help you become a player people remember and want to play again.

Module Outcomes:

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Play games and fight close battles with the result being irrelevant because you both had such a great time.

• Set expectations so that you both avoid feels-bad situations.

• Deal with confrontation and stay composed while defusing or resolving rules discussions.

What We Don’t Do:

• Tell you that you are there to win.
• Tell you that you should just accept what someone says because they’re more experienced than you.