Including units with special rules like fly, ignoring line-of-sight, and ignoring over-watch in my list improves my list and makes it more competitive. These special rules allow me to mitigate things I possess little control over such as terrain and the other player's army. Special rules like fly, ignoring line-of-sight, and ignoring over-watch help me assess a unit's impact on a game and assign the unit a role within my army that compliments their rules.
When I build a list, a unit falls under one of three roles: assault; hold; and hunt. Any unit I intend to move out of my deployment zone in order to engage the enemy fits the assault role. Any unit I intend to keep in my deployment zone while engaging in the enemy fits the hold role. Lastly, any unit I include in my list to kill a specific kind of enemy fits the hunter role.
I characterize my assault as my mid-close range shooting, close combat, or objective grabbing units. Intercessors with bolt rifles marching up the board typifies my idea of a good assault unit. They deal a decent amount of damage while moving onto objectives and finishing off enemy objective holders in close combat. My assault units want to move every turn so things like flyers would fit this role perfectly. Though not always the case, assault units tend to soak up points, command points, and buffs as they may require transports or special rules like reserve deployment in order to deliver them to their targets. Big combos with multiple buff units rely an perfect positioning in order for things to go off without a hitch which takes up brain power. Other times, I find myself using a simple squad of Tyranid Ripper Swarms to sneak into deployment zones or snag an objective. The assault section of my army makes up around 500-1,000pts of my 2,000 army so anywhere from 25-50% of my force.
While up to half my army rush up the board to claim victory, another good chunk of it locks down my side of the board as my hold role units. Units that fill the hold role in my army provide long-range shooting, command points, and board control. Artillery units like an Astra Militarum Basiliks or Space Marine Thunderfire Cannons fulfill the long-range shooting requirement for army with the added bonus that they ignore line-of-sight. Setting them next to an objective frees up an objective grabbing unit from sitting idly in a deployment zone for the entire game.
An Astra Militarum Guardsmen squads or Chaos Cultists in their own look terrible based on their stat line. In reality, they cost barely any points making them ideal for bulking at a battalion or a brigade granting a player a wealth of command points. A low points cost also helps them excel at holding deployment zone objectives. Nothing hurts more than leaving an expensive unit or a buff hero behind to hold an objective when a Guardsmen or Cultist squad would serve better. Similarly, both those squads possess a large footprint on the table for decisive board control. A squad at maximum unit coherency occupies a large area to deny deepstriking units. Artillery units also help with board control as well when positioned near the board edges. Just like in basketball or football, the edge of the playing area tends to benefit a defender. As with the assault role, I lean towards assigning 25%-50% of my army the hold role and I stick to a specific set of units rather than swapping things in and out all the time.
As much as I want a baseline of assault and hold units in my army every game, certain situations require specific counters and demand frequent changes. I assign the hunter role to the units that protect my army from predatory units in the other player's army. I consider Smash Captains as hunter units because their duty consists killing large vehicle targets like Imperial Knights. A Culexus Assassin hunts psykers because of all their special abilities trigger off the psyker keyword. A deepstriking squad of plasma-toting marines hunt fellow power-armored foes.
Dangerously, I feel the temptation to over commit to the hunter role units when I start looking at meta lists. In reality, an army built of specialized kill teams falls short on the battlefield. Often, certain meta lists don't materialize in a specific gaming group. For example, no one in my gaming area plays Eldar flyers anymore. If the people I play with don't run Eldar flyers then I don't need to bring something to hunt them all the time. The hunter role units should always fit the situation that a player faces on a consistent basis instead of remaining static or worrying about an irregular foe. As a consequence, my hunter roles rotate in and out frequently. I typically only dedicate up to 500pts of my army because I expect them to serve as neutralizers and not game winners. They remove or debilitate threats to my game-winning units in the assault and hold roles rather than clearing the field of all opposition.
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