Tactics 101 Spot

As the groups designated ‘tester’, I probably play the largest variety of armies about – mainly due to the fact that I have neither the patience nor finances to fully collect and play a proper sized army. Along the way, I have learnt many, many things about how to play (and how not to play!) radically different armies. And so I’m going to start a series of (hopefully) concise and helpful Tactics 101 posts to help people out there with their gaming and model purchases.

And so we come to part 1: Know thy Army

Pretty self explanatory, isn’t it? But this aspect is often overlooked by players. Basically, you have to know both how your army and general Codex work.

1 – As a player, you have to know what each unit is and does - everything from statlines to special abilities to weaponry and wargear options. Often people suffer because they forget certain abilities or rules which could alter the course of the game. So if your unit has furious charge, then remember it, either by printing out unit stat lines with your army list or by referring to the codex whenever you use the unit. This is especially important when you have just started to use an army, though it can also benefit experienced gamers too. Even the rules difference between something that looks like the same thing – such as Deep Strike and Teleportation - can be very tricky, and certain rules have the same names in different Codices but work differently! So make sure you know your rules, and if in doubt, ask someone (preferably someone who doesn’t have a personal interest if you are in the middle of playing a game).

2 – As a player, you also have to know what each unit is capable of – is the unit fast or normal or slow? Does it have other movement options? Does it need to be supported by other units? Is it tough or weak, flexible or role specific, expensive or cheap? Can this model/unit be used against other multiple opponents, or is it only good against one or two lists? You have to know exactly what you have to be able to use it in a proper manner.

3 – As a player, you also need to know the relative value of the units you are taking to work out force org utility – for units are not only competing on points value to be included in your army, but also often on Force Org slots. Sometimes you have to compare Fast Attack/Elites/Heavy Support choices against one another and find which gives you the maximum benefit towards your intended army composition. And that leads us to the next point, which is

4 – As a player, you have to have an idea of what sort of army you want to make! Just picking units at random or without good reason is a way to get crushed. An army has to work as an interlocking whole, rather than a collection of individuals.
So if you are creating a shooting army with counter assault capability, make sure the units you choose assist in reaching this composition - and make sure you stick by your plan, both within your army as a whole, and within the units themselves. Otherwise, you'll end up in a muddle of confusion, and you won't be able to game your army the way you intended. So if you are picking a rapid assault army, then don't get bogged down by picking slow units without any way of getting to the combat. If you are a static army, don't mount everything in transports, etc etc. If you want a balanced tournament list, then don't only just take single shot AP3 weapons.

The same applies to units themselves - if you are going to take a unit that is primarily close combat oriented, then don’t give it heavy weapons that it won’t be able to use. If you are going to give a unit long ranged weapons, then adding flamers or thunder hammers may not be the best use of the slot. There are always circumstances where such choices could come in handy, but they are the exceptions, not the rule. Every unit choice has to build up towards that overall design of an army.

5 – As a player, you need to be able to think. War is intellect, and on the field of battle no plan ever survives the first engagement with the enemy. Your opponent is going to try and trick and fool you, avoid your strengths and capitalize on your weaknesses, convince you that you have lost. You need to make sure that you are constantly assessing both your overall tactics on how you intend to use your army in light of where you are at the moment, and where you can reasonably plan to be! And importantly, you also have to think of the best way to both realize your objectives, and stop the opponent from realizing theirs. Constantly analyze where you are in relation to your objectives, and how best to achieve them. And make sure that that you stay on the ball – I have seen people lose from carelessness when they thought the game was already over.

6 – As a player, you need to be able to learn. If you win, work out why – sometimes you didn’t play well to win, rather the opponent just played worse than you did, or the probability god’s were on your side. Did you outsmart your opponents? Were there combinations of units/actions that were decisive or essential to your win?

If you lose, work out why – were you just unlucky? Outsmarted? Outplayed? Were there units which didn’t live up to their points costs, or relative value? Why? Because you didn’t use them correctly, or because they were outfitted poorly, or do they just suck? Was it just this particular opponent’s army that you would struggle against, or would you struggle against many opponents/Codices with this particular force?

When you have figured out why, then you can go back to the drawing board and improve your army, and improve yourself as a general!

This is the end of Tactics 101 part 1. Hopefully you enjoyed it. Next week – Know thy Enemy and Probability and You – why more dice are better.