40K TACTICA Part 2
everything counts.
firstoff, remember that you need to be in a good position to start.
second, remember that you need a plan.
third, throw your plan out the window and make a new one, because it isn't working and you need to do something else. that's almost universal.
the two factors that affect the efficiency of units in the early game are position and priority. position is a matter of how effective a unit can be, based on where they are and where they can be, in order to have choices and affect the opponent's models. it's a physical measurable thing that can be observed and worked with, and builds upon itself in each round. priority, in contrast, is the mental game -- knowing what units your opponent has that are most important to get rid of, and what units he wants to eliminate of yours.
if you can eliminate a key useful unit early on, such as scouts camping on an objective or an unaccompanied warlord, they have a high priority. if you know that they plan on using a deathstar to romp right over you, can you eliminate their scoring units and avoid said deathstar, and win by score? if you know that they are planning on sweeping in with mobile troops in order to claim or contest mid-game, can you whittle down these units early so as to take them down later?
you begin with a plan, and you lay out your troops as per how your plan should function. your opponent has their own plan, and usually you can either react to their actions or act how you had originally intended. often, one is a clear necessity. sometimes, though, it's not the one you think.
part of priority is knowing that big obvious threats are only worth targeting if you have the tools to deal with them easily. if not, there are ways of mitigating their usefulness. position is being able to do one or the other due to your past actions and reactions.
a better checklist is this:
1. identify the units your opponent would be most unnerved by losing, or which would have the greatest negative impact on their attempts to achieve any goals. if you deploy second, you can alter your initial plan in order to set up the matchups in the deployment phase to your benefit.
2. identify the objectives -- either numbered, decided-upon, or the like -- and, after deployment, consider what they are going to do about each one and what you had planned to do about each one. even if the potential outcome of these is to your favor, make any changes that will help boost your strength in any of them.
3. identify the ways that the opponent will try to make you act, move, or respond. will they position a threat as a bait? will they harry you from flanks? will they try to keep their distance and/or fortify up? consider how you can break up their plan -- or how you can act so that you are not disadvantaged later. if they are baiting you, what do they want you to miss? if that dreadnought running up the center is drawing your fire, what are the other units you are not shooting at going to be doing, and which one is he protecting by giving you another immediate option?
remember that three units firing upon one might destroy the one, but three units firing upon three give you three chances to retaliate. there is strength in numbers, and in units, so can you eliminate a whole unit instead of forcing those casualties to be spread across many?
if you have good target priority, you know which one you should be gunning for first, either because they left you an opening, or because they are important.
another WHF story. i have a nemesis. had, really. and not so much, or i suppose i was his nemesis. he was a younger player, but very active, and he and i randomly got assigned as each other's opponents just about everywhere.
one game, my Nurgle Beasts versus his Vampire Counts. their new 7th book had just landed, in the beginning of the inordinate days, and he was claiming victory after victory. he ran a unit of Blood Knights with a war-kitted Count down the flank. my Trolls were there to stop them, but got demolished during the charge. they came out the other side, and right in front of them was my Great Bray-Shaman General. he thought he'd have the game won.
the herd he was in, as skirmishers, scooted out of his charge arc. then, the Great-Bray drank from the Plague Chalice and irresistably cast Nurgle's Rot. d6 s3 unsaveable wounds every round until the unit is dead. that round, it killed one BloodKnight. in his round, he wheeled to charge my next herd, but i had shifted past terrain and he had no good angle... then the rot randomized onto his General (who had taken a wound from the trolls) and killed him. meaning, his lines started to crumble. by turn 3, half his army was gone and my victory was a sure massacre.
i won because i knew from his earlier games (i had talked to his prior opponent, and had heard him talking) that he favored the Bloodknight deathstar to flankcharge an army across the backfield, then summon new units to harass the rear of any forward units he had not been able to reach. so, i set up the trolls as a speedbump, and the Bray was planning on getting to him about turn 3 or so. he did well, and sped up the clock, which only benefitted me.
i could predict his move, bait his move, deflect his move, and had a counter to said move waiting for him. he was so overzealous (which i also knew from our earlier games) that he didn't stop to think that i was an active player, only that he was going to do something he thought i would be powerless to prevent.
if ever, henceforth, i complain about balance it's because i firmly believe that the game should be about the player, and not about the army. if it's about the rules being better, or about the army being more effective, then that just prohibits players from investing in certain forces. that in turn undermines the hobby and the value of the experience.
because you play the person.
if you know their style, their mindset, their capabilities, their tactis... you should win. every time. sure, everyone's got a story about that one time they needed a 3 on 2d6 to make a charge that would win them the game, and they rolled snakeeyes... or when they rolled four 5++ saves on one remaining model... or any number of other dice-related turns of events. dice, though, are usually not the reason why a game is lost or won.
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