Killhammer Strategy: Concentration

[Warp Angel]

It's been a while since the last one of these strategy articles. Life has been busy and I haven't had a lot of time. However, the new 'Nids codex brings a basic principle of Killhammer (specifically the K2 - time it takes to achieve killing potential) into sharp focus. If you're unfamiliar with Killhammer, I suggest you start with the first link in my signature, and move on from there for the basics if something I say later in this article doesn't make sense. Or, just ask about the concept in a reply. Whatever works.

 

There are a lot of things that the new Tyranid codex brings to the table that make it important to not just have enough killing potential in your army, but be able to bring it to bear quickly and in concentrated fashion. I'm sure that some of you have had perennial problems with the Eldar or Guard versions of the "Flying Circus" army with lots of fast transports bearing high kill potential units, and the advice in this article applies similarly to those armies.

 

K2 is the Killhammer principle of "time to target". The most potent weapons in the world don't do a whole lot of good if they can't get to where they need to be.

 

In the world of 6 Wound, T6, 3+ save troops choices, the sheer volume of dice that you need to put in any one place on the battlefield to neutralize the threat of a single model is staggering. Weapons that have Marine ballistics skill, wound on a 2+, and ignore saves (like Krak missiles) have slightly better than 50% odds of affecting a creature with any given shot. Most army lists you're going to field don't have 12 Krak missile equivalents to dedicate to each monster, so you're going to need even more shots of less effective weapons. Figure it's going to be dedicated effort from about half your army to bring one of these bad boys down in larger games, more effort in smaller. Similar principles apply when you're talking about AV12 troop carrier fast skimmers like Valkyries and Wave Serpents.

 

You can, of course, get to hand to hand to add to the firepower, but you still need to GET your offense there there. This can be done by having enough range to reach from where you're at, enough mobility to get within reach, or already be there.

 

That ability to bring firepower and combat power to bear at a single point has a very specific name in warfare: Schwerhpunkt. There is no english version of the word. The US and British militaries either refer to it with many words (and sometimes paragraphs) or just use the word to keep conversations and tactical manuals from turning into mind numbing walls of words.

 

If you search the internet, you'll find a fair number of attempts to briefly define the word, but for our purposes it is best explained as: Decisive concentration of force at a given moment to achieve victory.

 

Each part of that explanation is important:

 

Decisive - Anyone can put together a concentration of force, but if it doesn't achieve anything meaningful, it isn't useful. So we need decisive. Failure to achieve meaningful resolution literally achieves nothing more than maintaining the status quo on the artificial battlefield of a game of 40K, and often actually prevent you from advancing your victory condition by creating a wasted turn. This violates the fundamental principles of Killhammer where you are supposed to continually move closer to your victory condition.

 

Concentration of Force - Very seldom can one unit overwhem and destroy something as hard to reach and hurt as a big bug or fast transport. A single unit may THREATEN, but not reliably eliminate. You need to make sure that there is enough of whatever is needed able to achieve the desired result available, or again, you risk wasting all of your effort, allowing your opponent to move closer to victory while you do not.

 

At a given moment - This is the Killhammer principle of constant evaluation of the battlefield and assessment of what you need to do to achieve victory. Ideally, it means NOW, not next turn, but if next turn is the only way you can do it, then you need to be able to evaluate with confidence whether or not you will be able to protect the units that you need during your opponent's turn, and that he's going to be predictable. Better generals will see more success with planning a turn or two ahead, newer players and those who are still mastering their personal playstyle and their opponent's tendancies may struggle.

 

To achieve victory - Remember that every game can be won by the annihilation victory condition, and in 'Ardboyz style tournaments you get larger margins of victory for killing more things in objective type games. If concentrating force at a given moment decisively will result in a loss for you, or not move you closer to victory: DON'T DO IT. It's not worth trying to kill that uber bug if you might be able to do it, but if you succeed, it wont' bring you victory. At best, you lose nothing in the attempt. At worst, you've just created an opening for your opponent to exploit. I've won far more games than I should have because an opponent tried to kill that one more thing, when sitting pat would have kept victory completely out of my grasp.

 

So the question that you're probably asking by now is how can you apply schwehrpunkt to your games?

 

The short answers are as follows:

 

1) Speed kills. Getting there (rapid fire range, half melta range, assault distance) counts for a lot. A bolter is literally twice as effective at 12" than it is at 13. You can achieve speed with bikes, attack bikes, speeders, transports, and jump packs. The ones that will work for your army and playstyle will differ based on you and your play environment. Speed is often found in Killhammer "cleaner" units, though sometimes in the "hunters".

2) Long range support is critical. Weapon range substitutes for actually being close, and in the case of these big bugs, is often safer. Against fast transports, it's maybe the only way you can achieve any real concentration of force since most of your units can't close to decisive range.

3) Deployment. By placing your units in positions where they can be mutually supporting and achieve decisive concentrations quickly will make up for a lack of speed and range. If all you have are two predators that can affect the enemy, it does you no good to have them unable to fire at the same priority target. You have failed enable yourself to concentrate effort.

4) Maneuver. As you move your forces around the battlefield, whenever possible, you need to make sure that they're supported. Don't chase an enemy you can't defeat without help unless you can bring help. You're not moving yourself closer to victory that way. Make sure that if you somehow become dispersed, you can reachieve concentration.

 

Thanks, as always, for reading and I look forward to your feedback.

 

-Warp Angel

[Sanctjud]

Wow, bikers are your love, it oozes out of every sentance :D B) :D.

I love this.

It sums up everything I've experienced in just the last two games.

 

Thank you.

[minigun762]

In regard to the 4 elements you need, there is always the point of

"what do I do if my army is weak in one of those?"

[Iron_Chaos_Brute]

In regard to the 4 elements you need, there is always the point of

"what do I do if my army is weak in one of those?"

Then you need to fix your army. All four of those elements are necessary for a good army.

 

EDIT-My personal take on "speed kill" is that it's not that stuff needs to start killing stuff T1-T2, but when it does start, it needs to ravage the target quickly-in a turn or 2.

[Grey Mage]

In regard to the 4 elements you need, there is always the point of

"what do I do if my army is weak in one of those?"

Then you need something else to be strong enough to counteract that. Tau Gunlines may not have alot of speed, but their LR firepower and Maneuver is excellant, and a good tau player makes that work for him through good deployment and proper generalship.

[minigun762]

In regard to the 4 elements you need, there is always the point of

"what do I do if my army is weak in one of those?"

Then you need something else to be strong enough to counteract that. Tau Gunlines may not have alot of speed, but their LR firepower and Maneuver is excellant, and a good tau player makes that work for him through good deployment and proper generalship.

 

This is more of what I was driving at.

The idea is simple, balance your weaknesses with other strengths but the details to pull it off can be difficult.

[Warp Angel]

Minigun: If you're lacking one of those things, then you make up for it by being STRONG in the others.

 

Chaos lacks the kind of speed that a loyalist or Eldar army is capable of, but what it does have is a serious concentration of force in just about every unit it can field. And you'll note some of the best Chaos players are masters of maneuver and deployment.

 

Space Wolves face a similar conundrum, they are _relatively_ weak in long range support, but also have the ability to add speed and maneuver.

[Grey Mage]

Exactly. I find one of the biggest problems with truely unbalanced codices is an inability to cover their glaring weaknesses- wether its a perceived weakness or an actual one.

 

Example- Necrons. Necrons firepower is good, but their CC is nothing to truely write home about and their speed is perceived as being truely subpar because of the way most people field them. Destroy Heavy Armies *my local Necron meta-game* easily triple the speed found in a normal army without sacrificing the fourth important function- durability- by dropping their phase out number with monoliths.

[Vissah]

I really like the article it is a good read.

Like ICB said you dont have to start fighting on turn one, most of the time I start at turn 3 but when I start I make sure everything is in such a position that when the battle starts I wipe out or destroy as much of the enemy as possible leaving his army wrecked and preferably useless in a counter attack.

[minigun762]

Another way that this might be useful is to view it through your opponent's eyes.

 

Say they have a balanced list and a firm understanding of Killhammer concepts. With that in mind, how would you begin to deny them their advantages?

 

On a basic level, you're looking to:

1) Deny them their speed and optimal range through movement and firepower at range.

2) Deny them their long range firepower by using terrain to block, limiting what units they can fire on and removing it by counter-battery firing or assault

3) Without messing with the board, deployment is harder to limit but Infiltrators, Outflankers and Deepstrikers can all give them something else to think about. It turns the table from a 2D to a 3D battlefield.

4) With transports, you have 2 options. Either push forward to reach midfield and then hope that that is good enough OR run around hiding in terrain and preserve your transports for as long as possible.

[Warp Angel]

3) should also include "use of reserves". It makes pressing forward across the table dangerous because you get to choose where your reserves hit their army. Instant schwehrpunkt. :)