Tedwin's Tip of Thursday: March 12.

[tedwin183]

So I didn't have time last night to write this up...but alas, here it is...

 

So, yesterday was my "Day-o-Warhammer". I ended up playing all day long, taking only a couple breaks to eat. My college is on spring break right now, so I really wanted to take advantage of the luxury. I was having an internal debate as to whether I should write this tip about the large-scale or Ork game I played or if I should write it about the Nidzilla game I played. The Ork game was a close, good battle. I was very close to making it a draw, but couldn't get a small squad of sluggas off a point in a capture and control/spearhead mission.

 

The game that really stuck in my craw was the Nidzilla game. This was a HARD list I was facing. 4 Dakka Fexes, 3 Zoanthropes decked out, a full squad of raveners, 3 squads of genestealers, 1 with a broodlord a full squad of spinegaunts and a full squad of termagaunts...all headed by a flyrant.

 

To make matters worse, I got my absolute LEAST favorite game/deployment...annihilation/dawn of war...

 

I won the dice roll, deferred to him, then stole the initiative...

 

I had a drop pod full of 10 stock sternguard and I was planning on dropping it right next to his flyrant to take it out quickly. My dice hated me pretty much all day and I only managed to get two wounds on it from a full round of rapid firing. Mission failure. I moved everything else, took a shot with my whirlwind and did some damage to a gaunt squad...next turn, the sternguard get completely wiped by genestealers. The flyrant makes all his movements, charges an ironclad dreadnought I was sure he had no way of getting to...and blew it up...

 

Turns out, this guy blew up 3 of my vehicles on the first time attacking. Everytime, he'd get at least 1 penetrating hit and he NEVER rolled anything except a 5 or a 6 for penetrating. It got annoying. Needless to say, I lost the game by 2 kill points, which is absurd considering how many more he had than me. I was all but boarded by the 6th turn.

 

 

So, the tip of thursday will be about game planning.

 

After the game, I realized how many units I had that didn't do their jobs in the game. It was a staggering 700 points of my army that ended up being a non-factor. A 10-man sniper squad with Telion, an Ironclad and a full squad of sternguard with a drop pod. Mind you, this was a 2000 point game. Nearly half my army did nothing in the game. This was partly because of my flawed list (I was about 20 points short of 2000, while my opponent was right on 2000) and my failed tactics. So, as a foundation of all tactics, I believe it's best for all of us SM players to make an assessment every round. Ask yourself: "Is every unit doing the job I intended them to do?" If not, you need to make some adjustments, whether you still have time in the game you're playing, or in subsequent games. If you don't, you'll likely be able to see that many of your units/vehicles die after doing literally nothing. You can split hairs about which unit is best equipped for this and for that. Making a simple assessment every turn as to whether or not each of your units is doing it's job, I feel, is far more important than mathhammer. Hope it helps.

[robdark1]

did anyone ever tell you that normally you object is to not allow have your opp army ot assault shoot or make them run off the table. i figure that the thouht was a shared vision of how you think of screwing up you way of playing. not really just rember that an army that stays together, die together. also for what i gathered you good enought to read the board and play on eqaul footing with almost anyone in the area you live at. means that when your foul they tend to throw you off the game altogether. dont worry about it just pratice game flow a little more and you read just about anything that people have to say about it.

[Captain Idaho]

You have actually hit the nail on the head I think Tedwin! I have lost games that on hindsight I really should have won because I have failed to use all my units efficiently. The most obvious problem was my original use of Tactical Squads in my lists; buying a full Tactical squad just for the Lascannon and Plasma gun is wasteful and logically I end sitting them on objectives and taking fire and doing nothing in return.

 

Etc, etc... I think a quick evaluation where we check out the situation each turn instead of getting caught up in the moment and losing my focus.

[minigun762]

You have actually hit the nail on the head I think Tedwin! I have lost games that on hindsight I really should have won because I have failed to use all my units efficiently. The most obvious problem was my original use of Tactical Squads in my lists; buying a full Tactical squad just for the Lascannon and Plasma gun is wasteful and logically I end sitting them on objectives and taking fire and doing nothing in return.

 

Etc, etc... I think a quick evaluation where we check out the situation each turn instead of getting caught up in the moment and losing my focus.

 

I think this is especially true with Marines of different types.

 

For other armies, the unit can only do 1 thing well. Firewarriors are never going to be assaulting heavy armor and it would be a waste to have a HtH Carnifex camping an objective.

 

Marines being one of the more tactically fleixible armies (and units) need to be in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. This might mean assaulting those same Firewarriors one day while hanging back and engaging that Carnifex at range another.

 

Land Raiders are perfect examples of needing to evaluate your units in game. You might have bought that Land Raider to use as a battle taxi, but when you start fighting the Ork horde player with 120+ Boyz, maybe you decide that a few turns hanging back in your deployment zone firing all those nice TL weapons is more important than rushing into close combat.