Dedicated Objective Camping Squads

[minigun762]

Dedicated Objective Camping Squads (DOCS)

 

Definition: A scoring unit that is focused on claiming and holding an objective. Often comprised of durable units that have some sort of defensive upgrade including but not limited to: Feel No Pain, increased T, increased Cover Save, Inv Save, range reducing abilities. Squad can also have long(er) ranged weapons to provide fire support to rest of the army.

 

Question for the group: The above is mostly theoryhammer to be honest. It seems like it makes alot of sense and I can point to examples of units that fit this bill very well (Plague Marines always popping up near the top) but is it worth actually building a squad soley for the point of claiming an objective?

In a non-objective game, they're not useless by any means and could be used as anything from a tarpit unit to a fire support squad depending on how they're outfitted but their main focus will always be grabbing an objective and holding on for dear life.

[Iron_Chaos_Brute]

In my "funner" 1750 list I have a 10-man CSM squad w/ plasma that usually stays on my objective. I leave them in their Rhino and either park them near it or use them as a support unit for the rest of my army.

[Warp Angel]

There are currently 3 main scenarios in 40k.

 

In the two of them that have objectives, a dedicated objective holding squad has a definite role.

In the one that doesn't, a squad that's equipped to be _defensive_ and _enduring_ above all else... which is what I think that you're describing (chime in if I'm wrong) has a greatly reduced role and limited offensive effectiveness.

 

In your example of plague marines, if you check out the forums here you'll find that even hard core Death Guard players aren't sold on Plague Marines as being great on offense for the points. So if you're planning on tooling up a large PM squad to "endure" and be impossible to kick off an objective, you're not likely to be getting as much use out of them as if you were in an objectives game where inflicting casualties means less.

 

So what makes a scoring unit inherently more durable than an MEQ?

 

-- Increased Toughness (Plague Marines, Marine bikes, Ravenwing)

-- Improved Save (Marine Scouts with Cammo Cloaks, Deathwing)

-- Additional Saves/Invulnerable Saves (Plague Marines[FNP], Thousand Sons and Deathwing[invuln], Dark Angel scoring unit attached to Azreal, Grey Knights[shrouding])

-- Large Numbers (Any CSM squad, Space Wolf Grey Hunter and Blood Claws, Black Templars)

-- Defensive Grenades (Plague Marines)

-- Fearless/High Leadership (Dedicated CSM, Ravenwing, Deathwing, Sternguard, Grey Knights, Sisters with use of Faith Points, Stubborn units)

 

I'm pretty sure that I haven't left much out.

 

So... units with increased T: Bikes are better on offense than they are on defense.

 

-- Increased toughness, outside of bikes is purely the provenance of Plague Marines. Bikes of all kinds have the drawback of not being able to manage terrain well, where many objectives are placed.

-- Cover Saves can be ignored, don't apply in CC, and scouts have weak base armor. Deathwing suffers from small squad size.

-- Additional saves are pretty much restricted to Plague Marines (FNP) and Grey Knights (Shrouding), and FNP is by far the strongest of the additional save. Invulnerable saves are usually no better than local cover saves, so are of dubious usefulness in many objective defense situations.

-- Quantity has a quality all its own when defending. If you have more wounds, you're harder to kick off what you're defending. BUT that defending squad isn't contributing to offense in equal proportion to the increase in numbers most of the time. It's a catch 22... are you better off increasing numbers and dedicating yourself to defense or using those same numbers to increase offense and kick an opponent off of their objective? Out of all the "Dedicated Objective Camping Squads", the large ones are better in Kill Point games.

-- I don't know of any Power Armor unit other than PMs that have access to defensive grenades, and for ensuring that the objective will not be taken by your opponent, you can't really beat these things. Not with the Emperor's Pointy Stick!

-- Fearless is a double edged sword... you risk higher casualties, but guarantee that you aren't going to be falling back off of the objective. High leadership and Stubborn are definitely better in this regard.

 

Reviewing the assessment of troops that can be effective at dedicated defenders, Plague Marines seem to be the clear winner, and quite probably the ONLY unit that makes sense to use as a "Dedicated Objective Camping Squad". Every other unit in the list only grabs one or two of the positive attributes and tends to posess a downside that mitigates the guarantee of usefulness in that role.

 

That means, at least in my mind, that you're better off NOT grabbing a dedicated squad to defend (unless it's PMs), but instead having a larger number of more balanced units available to defend and to take to the offensive in a KP game.

 

Thoughts?

[tedwin183]

I use a plas/MM/PF 10 man tac squad in a rhino, not broken up that I use to push forward and stand on the harder to keep points, mostly the ones located in the middle of the board with little or no cover.

[StormTAG]

Another thing that should be noted, although I think we are all aware of it, is it ought to be Scoring too.

 

For my usual army this comes in play with a pair of Tac Squads with Plasma Gun/Cannon. They're effective at popping everything from Hordes (Orks hate plasma cannons, Gaunts hate bolters) to MEQ/TEQs (Plasmaaa!) and light vehicles (Plasma? Plasma!) and having a pair of them gives me four squads and/or 2 pretty tough ones. Cram them into cover and they're pretty difficult to dislodge.

 

Numbers count for something and everything works better in pairs. B)