Tenets of 40k

[Jackelope King]

Introduction to Threat Profiles

Now we start getting to some meat and potatoes. After all this talk about threats, we'll finally start looking at what we can call a unit's threat profile.

 

Before we even get into that, though, I must emphasize one key point that I'm certain will still be missed: a unit's threat profile is used in different ways at different points of the game. There's the threat profile you analyze when building an army to fight hypothetical opponents in hypothetical scenarios, and then there's the real threat profile that a unit presents right now.

 

This means that a unit's threat profile is a fluid thing, which it absolutely is. You know how all those hypothetical "what ifs" are thrown around during a discussion of a unit? Such as discussing the relative strengths of the different configurations for Assault Terminators? "What if you're fighting a 30-strong mob of Orkz? Bet you'll wish you had those Lightning Claws then!" "What if you fight a Nidzilla list? Bet you'll wish you had those Thunder Hammers then!"

 

My formal training leads me to rank qualifiable values, such as the numerous factors that go into describing a unit's threat-profile, according to criteria. And because this needs to be something that you can do on the fly at the game-table, it does need to stay simple. As a simplification, there will be times that I will oversimplify. I'm not going to apologize for this. Instead, I'll offer some coaching for how to approach situations when reality deviates from these guidelines. For instance, I call a Flamer Template the equivalent of a bolter that can shoot 4 times, but you won't always be able to get 3-4 enemies under that Template. Sometimes you'll get less, sometimes you'll get more. You need to be a smart enough player to recognize when the scenario on the table in front of you deviates from these guidelines and how to best take advantage of it.

 

We'll discuss in detail how a unit's threat profile fluctuates throughout the game, but first, we need some definitions.

 

Types of Targets

First, we need to look at what kinds of targets there are in Warhammer 40k. A lot of people use terms like "MEQ" for "Marine Equivalent" or "GEQ" for "Guardsman Equivalent". But I think we can do better. Even with the myriad of statlines out there, it's pretty easy to categorize five classes of targets in the game:

• Light Infantry: A majority of infantry models in the game are going to fit into this category, from most of the factions in the game. Light infantry are going to be more dependent on cover to survive. And how can you tell if it's Light Infantry? The rule of thumb to go by is to ask yourself if that unit would take heavy casualties if you fired a Heavy Flamer into its midst. So Guardsmen, most flavors of Eldar, Tau, many of the smaller Tyranid bugs... Light Infantry.
  
• Heavy Infantry: And on the other side of the coin, we have units that don't like to be shot at with Heavy Flamers, to be sure, but don't expect to be completely ruined by them. These units don't rely on cover quite so much to extend their lifespans, and require more potent weaponry or more concentrated firepower to be dealt with. Basic Tactical Space Marines are sort of the ground floor here (though I'd rate Sisters of Battle as weaker Heavy Infantry), but heavy infantry also include their big brothers in Terminator Armor, Tau Battlesuits, many elite warriors, and Tyranids like the Tyranid Warriors.
  
• Monstrous Creatures: The biggest boys on two (or more) feet. These models usually have numerous wounds, high Toughness, and at least decent Armor Saves. With a few exceptions like Eldar Wraithlords, Dark Eldar Talos, Necron C'tan, Chaos Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes, these are Tyranid big bugs. They're very hardy against "typical" anti-infantry firepower, and require a lot of focus to bring down.
  
• Light Vehicles: Vehicles with an AV of 12 or less. Pretty simple. However, as I'll explain in more detail later on, most vehicles can be treated as Light Vehicles with proper tactics (ie many vehicles have weaker side armor, and almost all of them have weaker rear armor).
  
• Heavy Vehicles: And last but not least, any vehicle with an AV of 13 or greater is a Heavy Vehicle. Just remember that almost all vehicles look like a Light Vehicle from the rear.
  

We will go into each of these in more depth at a later time, but I will take a moment to tie this back into what we've already discussed. The higher a unit's threat profile against a given target, the stronger its Offensive threat. Plain and simple. So while bog-standard Assault Marines aren't much of a threat against Space Marines and other Heavy Infantry (they generally can't fit the criteria to rise above a 0 at best against Heavy Infantry), they are a pretty fair threat when geared up to take on Light Infantry (easily a 1, and not bank-breakingly expensive for that threat-profile).

 

However, a high threat-profile isn't always necessary for a unit to be effective. My Kroot, for instance, are Light Infantry, heavily dependent on terrain for cover, with a -1 against both Light and Heavy Infantry (with a mighty 0 against Light Infantry on the assault, only able to reach higher with very large units). But they still provide a strong Interference threat because of their numbers and how cheap they are for their surprising durability. Buying a Tau army another turn or two of shooting can be crippling to the enemy force.

 

Support threats interact differently with this system. In general, they'll provide boosts to friendly units that increase those units' threat profile in different ways. The Sanguinary Priest, for instance, buffs nearby Blood Angels for Assault against Light Infantry (S5 boosts them nicely against Light Infantry, decently against Heavy Infantry, but they really enjoy some Durability boosts, with both I5 and FNP). As I've said before, you make your points on these units by keeping them around to boost multiple friendly units.

 

As a final note, we'll look at scoring more later, but I'll give you a basic equation to describe a unit's Scoring threat now. A scoring unit's Scoring threat is equal to its Mobility (which we'll discuss more later) plus the game's turn minus three (S = M + Turn - 3). So the later in the game it is, the greater the threat posed by a Scoring Threat, especially if that unit is highly mobile. We'll define other conditions later on in this series.

 

A Brief Intro to Reading Threat Profiles

For the most part, a unit will fall within a spectrum from -1 to +1 for their threat profiles against different types of targets. A few will rise so far as to have a mighty +2 instead of +1, but those are few and far between. So I'm afraid you'll need to be able to count to take advantage of this system ;)

 

-1: Poor threat. These are units with little power in a given area, such as a squad of Tactical Marines sans a melta technology trying to deal with a Heavy Vehicle.

0: Modest threat. These are units that are pretty run-of-the-mill. They don't present a tremendous threat, but if ignored, they'll do some damage. Bog-standard Tactical Marines with Bolters are Grade 0 against Light Infantry.

1: Good threat. Take that Tactical Squad mentioned above, drive it right up to an exposed squad of Light Infantry, and let it fire away with 8 rapid-firing bolters and a flamer.

2: Great threat. These are few and far between, and are almost certain to deliver maximum damage to the enemy. This is where your classic "Death Star" units belong, like Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Assault Terminators, tricked-out Thunderwolf Cavalry, Hive Tyrants + Tyrant Guard, and the like.

 

Keep these values in mind as we explore this topic. In order for a unit to qualify for a certain threat-profile, they'll need to meet certain criteria that we'll get into next time. This is how you get a sense for picking the right threats for your army list, and how to correctly prioritize enemy threats.

 

Contents for Threat Profiles

1. Infantry
   
2. Monstrous Creatures
   
3. Vehicles
   
4. Minimizing Enemy Threats
   
5. Duality
   
6. Listbuilding Part 1
   

[Warp Angel]

Another well written tactica that synergizes well with my own philosophies.

[Jackelope King]

The first two types of threats we'll discuss will be the most basic units in the game of Warhammer 40,000: Infantry. There are various different flavors of Infantry out there, and we're going to spend a little time describing them, and a lot more time describing what it takes to make your threats good at getting rid of them.

 

Light Infantry Defined

You might recall that I described a rule of thumb for recognizing Light Infantry: if they go poof when you shoot them with a Heavy Flamer, then they're probably Light Infantry. Another good rule of thumb is anything not wearing Power Armor (with a 3+ Armor Save). These are units which will usually depend on cover to eke out a save against wounds, and generally have lower Toughness scores, thus making them quite vulnerable to small-arms fire.

 

Who falls into this category? This by no means serves as an inclusive list, but start with the classic chestnut the "GEQ" or "Guard Equivalent". Almost everything that Eldar or Dark Eldar put on the board on foot fall here, as are most of the small bugs in a Tyranid force.

 

The advantage of light infantry is that while usually lacking in Durability (though not necessarily... note that many Dark Eldar can, for instance, gain Feel No Pain, and cover saves are abundant), they are often quite cheap for what they offer. Not always cheap enough, mind you, but cheaper than most Heavy Infantry. The disadvantage is a reliance on cover and numbers to make up for their vulnerabilities.

 

Dealing With Light Infantry

The bog-standard for dealing with Light Infantry is the basic Bolter, and the standard by which we'll measure the criteria for how effective a unit is against Light Infantry. It's usually quite decent at its job: S4 AP5 has a pretty decent shot of either wounding on a 3 or ignoring Armor Saves, and sometimes both. You need a lot of them to be truly effective, but especially in the hands of someone with BS4, you can dish out a modest number of wounds.

 

Criteria for Threat Profile Against Light Infantry

-1. Weaker than Bolter

0. Bolter

1. Ignores cover or S>4 or AP<5

2. All of the above for Threat Grade 1

 

Basically, when you start to improve your firepower above that of a bog-standard bolter, you move up to being a good, Threat Grade 1 against Light Infantry. This includes modifiers to Assault like Blood Angels' Assault Marines getting Furious Charge for that +1S. And if you meet all of those criteria, you've basically got a Heavy Flamer. The other key to dealing with Light Infantry is the first Threat Modifier in our survey: Torrent Shots.

 

Criteria for Torrent Shots

+1. Rate of Fire (RoF)>10 or RoF>5 with rerolls to hit

 

If you meet criteria for Torrent Shots, your threat grade jumps a notch.

 

Rate of fire is a bit of a tricky question for some weapons, though, especially when you consider template weapons and blasts. So here's a set of guidelines for you to roughly eyeball these weapons. Note that the situation on the ground can and will change the rate of fire for weapons like these, so make sure you account for the situation in front of you:

 

Guidelines for Template/Blast Rate of Fire

Small Blast: RoF2

Large Blast: RoF4

Flamer Template: RoF4

 

So now that we have the basics down, let's move on to Heavy Infantry.

 

Heavy Infantry Defined

Unlike Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry are probably going to have T4 or better, or at least will be wearing Power Armor, and thus won't benefit as heavily from cover. They are more resistant to weapons dedicated to destroying Light Infantry, and will require more firepower, or stronger firepower to bring down.

 

Examples include the classic "MEQ" or "Marine Equivalent", but just about everything in Power Armor or Terminator Armor or heavier (such as Tau Battlesuits, Tyranid Warriors or Hive Guard, who have a lighter armor save, but beefer Wounds and Toughness) all deserve the rank of Heavy Infantry.

 

Dealing with Heavy Infantry

Eliminating cover won't be enough to be truly effective against Heavy Infantry: you'll need high-S firepower to reliably deal wounds or low-AP weaponry. More is better, of course, but this will be our starting point.

 

Criteria for Threat Profile Against Heavy Infantry

-1. S<6

0. S6 or AP3

1. Both of above, or S>6 or AP2

2. All of the above for Threat Grade 1

 

However, the polar opposite the Torrent Shot modifier above, we need to consider what happens when you have a very low RoF, which is often true for weapons that can adequately deal with Heavy Infantry. Having a low RoF will decrease your ability to deal with any threat:

 

Criteria for Single Shots

-1. RoF<2

 

This means that having one lone shot to deal with Heavy Infantry is often inadequate. RoF really is key on 40k, to get the number of dice you're rolling on your side and to minimize the effect of statistical anomalies. Especially against a unit, single-shots often are not a serious threat. This phenomenon is one we'll explore more later, with Monstrous Creatures.

[Jackelope King]

Another well written tactica that synergizes well with my own philosophies.

Thanks, Warp Angel.

[Mezkh]

Nice reading. Waiting patiently for more :)

[Jackelope King]

They're big, they're bad, they have high Toughness, good Armor Saves, and plenty of Wounds. So how do you deal with them? Just like other Infantry, Monstrous Creatures have their own weaknesses that we can exploit to take them down.

 

Defining Monstrous Creatures

Really, anything with the Monstrous Creature rule fits here, but we can stretch it a bit and also include smaller single-model units of super-tough Independent Characters (or non-Independent Characters like Mephiston).

 

In general, though, our focus will be on real Monstrous Creatures. And these beasties generally come at you with a Toughness in the neighborhood of 6, an Armor Save around 3+, and multiple wounds (4+ is pretty common). They also have a few special rules to keep in mind. First, they can rarely join units (Tyranid Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants + Tyrant Guard nowithstanding) and have a hard time eking out cover saves (Hive Tyrants + Tyrant Guard nowithstanding). This means that it takes a lot of firepower to bring a Monstrous Creature down, and because they don't follow vehicle rules, they're harder to use Interference against than Vehicles. Finally, no Instant Death for Monstrous Creatures, so we really need to remember how Single Shots decrease your Threat Grade (-1).

 

And I usually recommend firepower for taking them down, because Monstrous Creatures are nasty in assaults. They always ignore armor saves and cause instant death, and roll 2d6 for armor penetration on vehicles. Some powerful assault units can go toe-to-toe with them regularly (Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields).

 

Let's also take a moment to note that since most Monstrous Creatures are a unit unto themselves, they will treat Template, Blast and Large Blast weapons as having a RoF of 1 (so that means they're Single Shot, and thus at a Threat Grade 1 lower than usual). So our usual methods for boosting RoF and reaching the criteria for Torrent Shots is out.

 

Okay, so how do we take them down? What makes a strong threat against Monstrous Creatures?

 

Dealing with Monstrous Creatures

Let's start out with our threat profile for Monstrous Creatures, then parse it a little bit.

 

Criteria for Threat Profile Against Monstrous Creatures

-1. S<5

0. S>4 or AP<4

1. S>6 or AP<4

2. All of the above for Threat Grade 1

 

So most hand-held anti-infantry weaponry won't even scratch the shell of your average Monstrous Creature. Yes, a S4 Bolter will wound on a 6, but you don't start getting enough 6s to really threaten a Monstrous Creature until you can Torrent shots at them. So a rapid-firing 10-man Tactical Squad has at least a modest chance of putting a wound or two on with a decent volley (Threat Grade 0 against the Monstrous Creature).

 

However, this leads us to our first real discussion about analyzing the enemy's threat profile. Will putting the first or second wound on a Carnifex in any way lower its threat profile? As a single creature, it won't lose any attacks if you chip wounds off, and its Strength definitely won't go down. You might have a Threat Grade 0 against the Carnifex, but it meets all the criteria to be a Threat Grade 2 against your Marines (if you're in range to Rapid Fire, it'll be in range to Assault!) Now, if you're talking about knocking off the last wound instead of the first, the situation changes: you have a chance to remove that Threat Grade 2 at the risk of suffering casualties in an assault with a Threat Grade 0 attack. You're probably better off trying to eke out the last wound with a more threatening weapon, but if this is what you're down to, it's much better for you to risk the Tactical Squad (unless it's your last scoring unit on turn 5 or the like).

 

What weaponry starts fitting the bill for taking down Monstrous Creatures? In the Imperial armory, the Autocannon sits neatly at Threat Grade 1 with most Missile Launchers (remember, Single Shot means that you knock its threat down one Grade... but Typhoon and Cyclone missile launchers are Threat Grade 2 here, still!), Las Cannons, Melta and Plasma Weaponry. However, as we'll discuss later, Range really becomes critical to maintaining the Durability of your own weapon platforms, so keep 'em strong!

 

The Eldar and Dark Eldar pack plenty of Lance technology, which will serve them well, and Dark Eldar can sort of cheat the system anyway with Poison weaponry, which makes them an immediate Threat Grade 0 against all MCs by default, Grade 1 when they can Rapid Fire and get Torrent Shots.

 

Tau get Grade 0 Plasma and Grade 1 Missile Pods which can very often qualify for Torrent Shots, as well as Grade 1 Railguns on Hammerheads and Grade 2 on Broadsides.

 

Necrons... well... um... hey, you guys are getting a new Codex soon. Cheer up!

 

Next up... Vehicles!

[bystrom]

Nice read!

 

Though there are some mistakes/some things could be clarified IMHO.

 

Examples include the classic "MEQ" or "Marine Equivalent", but just about everything in Power Armor or Terminator Armor or heavier (such as Tau Battlesuits, Tyranid Warriors or Hive Warriors) all deserve the rank of Heavy Infantry.

Maybe rewrite this sentence, as it seems to imply that Tyranids are Heavy Infantry by virtue of their armour, not by their T/W, T/W could get some more focus in that sentence (more than nothing that is). Also I'm guessing Hive Warriors are Hive Guard?

1. Both of above, or S<6 or AP2

I believe its supposed to be S>6 :)

2. All of the above for Threat Grade 1

And Threat Grade 2.

 

MCs usually cause ID (MCs can also be ID'd by force weapons, so there are ways of dealing with them in CC, they're just usually far between)

[Jackelope King]

Thanks for catching the typos, Bystrom.

[Zynk Kaladin]

The Sternguard's hell-fire rounds also do a mighty fine job of taking down a monstrous creature with torrent of fire.

[Algesan]

Nice read so far.

 

Possibly add in a Medium Infantry category, avoids "strong" Light and "weak" Heavy.

 

Light: T<4 and AS>3+

Medium: T>3 or AS<4+

Heavy: T>3 and AS<4+

 

Guard = Light

Sister or Ork Boy = Medium

Marine = Heavy

 

Alternate solution, base everything against Toughness (at least for Infantry and MC) with wound rolls:

 

-1: 6+

0: 4+ or 5+

+1: 2+ or 3+

 

also give -1 (3+), 0 (4+), +1 (5+) for saves. Crosses the spectrum of saves, perhaps with an additional -1 for it being a cover/invulnerable save (obviously not for weapons that ignore cover/invulnerable saves).

 

I'm thinking we can get a unified threat rating, but that would be for an "advanced" version.

 

I'm going to need to think on this one more.

[Jackelope King]

Now we're at the home-stretch for our foundation of threat profiles. We've already covered Infantry and Monstrous Creatures, and now it's time to cover the 800-pound gorilla of 5th Edition: Vehicles. With one fell swoop, Vehicles in 5th Edition have become vastly more durable thanks to the new Vehicle Damage Chart. With scant few exceptions, Vehicles can't be killed on a glancing hit, which vastly reduces the weapon profiles that truly threaten them. Further, Vehicles can't even be reliably killed on a penetrating hit without being able to swing the numbers in your favor somehow (which we'll get to, don't worry). But they're a threat, and to succeed in 40k, you need to know what threat profiles are effective against them.

 

Light Versus Heavy Vehicles

I don't think we need to beat around the bush too much this time. We'll go right ahead and draw a line between AV12 and AV13 to differentiate Light Vehicles from Heavy Vehicles. Light Vehicles might be immune to truly small-arms fire, but they're still vulnerable to mid-strength shots, while Heavy Vehicles either require a high strength or help from something like the Melta rule to smash through.

 

Note now that I'm describing Light versus Heavy only in terms of AV. "Wait," you might be saying. "Vehicles usually have different armor on different facings!" And if you're thinking that, you're ahead of the game. Even a Heavy Vehicle with AV13 on the front probably still only has an AV10-11 on the rear or sides. So being able to get those side armor shots (or even better, rear armor shots) can turn a tough tank into a weak one. This is why I choose to describe vehicles only by a single armor value: the "weight-class" of a vehicle will change depending on what armor facing you're shooting at (or assaulting, which is usually the rear armor, except against walkers). So your criteria to determine your threat will change with the vehicle's facing.

 

Also note that weaponry with the Lance rule always treats even Heavy Vehicles as Light Vehicles. However, their rate of fire (RoF) and range are often lacking.

 

 

Dealing with Vehicles

Let's start straight away with our criteria for handling Light Vehicle. Basically, we want a weapon that will have a chance to score a penetrating hit on everything up to AV12:

 

Criteria for Threat Profile Against Light Vehicles

-1. S<6

0. S6

1. S>6 or AP1

2. All of the above for Threat Grade 1

 

In the Imperial Armory, the Autocannon is one of the cheapest weapons that meets the criteria for Threat Grade 1. It has two shots, unlike the standard missile launcher (though again, Cyclone and Typhoon Missile Launchers deserve a nod of respect here). Melta weapons also tend to wind up at Threat Grade 1, thanks to being single shot (there's a reason why bringing up multiple models with Melta technology is so dangerous, as it easily ranks at Threat Grade 2, even without the Melta rule). And Threat Grade 0 have the ability to at least score glancing hits against all Light Vehicles.

 

And for Heavy Vehicles, we start to need heavier weapons:

 

Criteria for Threat Profile Against Heavy Vehicles

-1. S<8

0. S8 or S7 AP1

1. S>8 or S8 AP1

2. S>8 AP1

 

So we definitely need a higher S value to damage heavy armor, and there are scant few weapons out there that can meet these requirements and come with sufficient rate of fire to reach Threat Grade 1 or 2. One of the few units to reach Threat Grade 2 regularly are Tau Broadsides with Twin-Linked Railguns (S10AP1... you need at least 2 in the unit to achieve Threat Grade 2). Take the "fearsome" Las-Cannon... a lone Las-Cannon is only Threat Grade 0. I've said before that AV13 can take Las-Cannon fire to the face all day and never miss a beat, and it's true. For Heavy Vehicles, your best bet for most armies is to achieve the criteria for a very powerful anti-vehicular modifier: Melta.

 

Criteria for Melta Rule

+1. Melta rule active against a Vehicle

 

Note that this is one of the easier Criteria for most folks to get their heads around: get within 6" or 12" with a Meltagun or Multi-Melta, and you qualify for +1 to your Threat Grade against all sorts of Vehicles. This is what makes Melta Weaponry good against Heavy Vehicles (Threat Grade 1 - 1 for low rate of fire + 1 for Melta Rule), especially when you can pack multiples of them (easily achieving Threat Grade 2).

 

This also gives us some guidance as to how we can minimize the threats posed to our own Vehicles. By keeping Melta weapons at a greater range, you reduce their Threat Grade by 1, which means your average lone Multi-Melta against Heavy Vehicles is a mere Grade 0. When you use one of your Threats to achieve this (such as blocking with another unit to prevent a melta weapon from getting into Melta range), this is absolutely textbook Interference.

 

But does that mean that anything short of Melta is worthless? Emphatically no. As we'll soon see, a unit's Threat Profile is accentuated by the rest of your Force. Didn't I mention something along those lines while talking about Support? So while I'd call one or two scattered Las-Cannons largely unimpressive, especially against Heavy Armor, if you start spamming multiples of them.

 

And taking lone weapons in a Tactical Squad, for instance, is especially unimpressive for a reason I like to think of as "Shooting in Mixed Company". In essence, let's say you have 10 Tactical Marines with 8 Bolters, one Flamer and one Las-Cannon. If you're firing the squad at, say, a Leman Russ, 9 of those Marines are wasting their shots (their fairly impressive Threat Grade 1 against light infantry in rapid fire range). I would argue that this arrangement actually does reduce the Threat Grade of a unit (though I'll explain in just a moment why it shouldn't stop you from grabbing that Heavy Weapon).

 

Criteria for Mixed Company

-1. RoF<4 in unit with Threat Grade<0 against current target

 

As I said, though, the Heavy Weapon isn't wasted. Indeed, I'd argue that, particularly in a Tactical Squad, that Heavy Weapon (especially the free Heavy Weapon) is never wasted. When firing from a great range, sometimes that Heavy Weapon is the only Threat they provide. But more important, in my mind, is how being Mech'd up changes a unit. Suddenly, the weapons the squad provides are essentially armaments for their transport. A Rhino, for instance, suddenly gains a Multi-Melta when that so-armed Tactical Squad climbs aboard. A Multi-Melta essentially becomes the Rhino's primary armament. Thus you must keep in mind that a unit's Threat Profile will change based on its position, something we'll be getting into next.

[DarkGuard]

Another brilliant read JK, these posts have been informative and enlightening. Well done, and I look forward to the next one :D.

[Jackelope King]

Well, had to vanish for a few weeks while some work-related things shook out, but got some stuff done, at least.

 

Now that we've looked at how Threat Profiles work for different types of targets, it's time to use that information to maximize your threats and minimize your opponents' threats. Remember way back when we discussed Immediate versus Potential Threats? We already have an idea of how to maximize our own threats, but how about minimizing enemy threats?

 

Reach is King

Let's take an exceptionally basic example. A Marine with a Missile Launcher faces off against a Marine with a Boltgun, 12" apart. The Marine with the Missile Launcher has an edge, weighing in at Threat Grade 1 against the Boltgun Marine, while the Boltgun Marine is Threat Grade -1. However, with only one wound per model, we can't really predict an outcome with any certainty, though we'd expect the Marine with the Missile Launcher to be more likely to win. The Boltgun Marine is less likely to wound, but has twice the chances to do so.

 

So how can the Missile Launcher Marine gain a little certainty? What if we deploy these models not 12" apart, but 48"? Now the Missile Launcher Marine's Threat Grade is still 1, but his target doesn't even register. With only 6" of mobility and at best a 24" range, it will be at least two turns with a perfect run result each time before the Bolter Marine can even take 1 shot at the Missile Launcher Marine, whereas the Missile Launcher Marine can shoot from the word "go". That means that the Missile Launcher Marine's effective Durability shoots up by 2: that model is expected to survive at least two extra turns that it might otherwise be able to. That means at least two extra turns of shooting that you might not otherwise get. That means, literally, more bang for your buck. The Missile Launcher Marine's odds of victory skyrocket.

 

Essentially, "I can hit you, but you can't hit me." The Missile Launcher Marine has greater reach, is more capable of projecting power, and threatens more than the Boltgun Marine, largely with impunity. If the Bolter Marine were more mobile or had a greater range, it would more directly threaten the Missile Launcher Marine, but it doesn't. Now let's take it a step further.

 

Chopped Off at the Knees

Every single army in the game wants to be able to project its Threats adequately. In an army-wide sort of Interference, then, the logical counter to this is to deny the enemy use of elements which do project their Threats. Take another oversimplified example: you have one Las-Cannon shot on a Marine. You can either fire it into the ostensibly more-threatening Tactical Squad (since it can Torrent your Marine, even without a special or Heavy weapon, it has a Threat Grade of 0) or the less-threatening Rhino (Threat Grade -1). If the enemy Tactical Squad is far away, then they aren't actually an Immediate Threat yet, are they? They can only become an Immediate threat if they get closer... which the Rhino helps with enormously. So the Las-Cannon's single shot against the Rhino, possibly destroying or at least slowing the transport, would probably be more beneficial than its single shot of potentially wounding one Bolter-toting Marine. Your reach and projection of threats allows you to deny the enemy the ability to project his or her own threats. Without a Rhino on your opponent's side, you have 1 Threat Grade 1 threat, and your enemy has a Potential Threat.

 

This is why recognizing the difference between Immediate and Potential Threats is so critical. A threat only counts if it... well... threatens. If it's just sitting there with its finger in its nose, then it's not threatening the enemy's plans, or models. This is why crippling the enemy's reach can let you gain a virtual advantage in threats: if you blow up all the enemy's transports, then while he or she is hoofing it, you retain the edge in mobility and can more effectively bring your threats to bear. If you destroy the enemy's long-ranged firepower, you'll have the edge in denying the enemy the ability to reach out and tag your firebase. You can focus your attention on Immediate Threats instead of worrying about threats that can't hurt you yet.

 

But you don't always ignore the Potential Threat...

 

The Final Countdown

Let's switch things up a little. Let's instead send a Hive Tyrant with wings, a bone sword, and lash whip (no ranged weapon) against our Missile Launcher Marine. The Marine is screwed if the Tyrant reaches him (which the Tyrant will, even from 48", in about 3 turns, with even modest run results). In this case, the Missile Launcher Marine really isn't safe: there's a Monstrous Creature with a lot of wounds coming right at him. The threat can't be dealt with in one turn: it's too durable. The Missile Launcher Marine must start shooting immediately if he's to have even a prayer of surviving. He needs to knock off as many wounds as possible, because unless the Tyrant dies, its impressive Threat Profile against Heavy Infantry will soon be right in his face.

 

So now we get to the big exception for Potential Threats. When sufficiently-dangerous threats have a high durability, then you need to prioritize them higher. Basically, even if they aren't Immediate Threats, some threats are so dangerous and hard-to-kill that you can't afford to wait for them to become immediate threats. Such a threat will usually have a Threat Grade of 2, or an expansive threat profile of 1 or more against most of your army.

 

In all cases, you combat this by reducing your enemy's durability to a value lower than that threat's reach. If it will take the Tyrant three turns to charge, you have to kill it before then. If that means devoting additional firepower to the task, or delaying the Tyrant with Interference beforehand, then so be it.

 

The Last Word on Target Priority

Use units with optimal Threat Profiles to remove enemy threats in this order:

1. Immediate Threats with greatest threat profile
   
2. Immediate Threats with lesser threat profile OR Potential Threats with great threat profile and a durability that will let them reach you OR supporting threats that increase enemy reach
   
3. Potential Threats
   

[Jackelope King]

Duality is a badly-misunderstood concept. It's bandied about as being "flexible" or "being ready for anything", which while close, isn't quite true. Flexibility in 40k often comes at a great price, and as you know, Threats Win Games. Every point you spend making a unit more flexible is a point not shoving another threat down your opponent's throat.

 

True Duality is a quality that some units have when their Threat Profiles are broad enough to provide a significant threat to multiple types of units. In the terminology we've developed so far, that means that you have a unit that has a Threat Grade 1 against one or more of the following: Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Monstrous Creatures, Light Vehicles or Heavy Vehicles.

 

Exercises in Duality

Let's start with what is a unit with rather impressive Duality. A bog-standard crew of Dark Eldar Warriors with nothing but Splinter Rifles has a Threat Grade of 1 against Light Infantry and Monstrous Creatures, and when you pay a modicum to get them a Raider (and maybe a Blaster), you get a unit that also presents a threat to Light and Heavy Vehicles. The unit can cheaply and quickly threaten anything in the game.

 

What does this cost you? Basically nothing above and beyond what Dark Eldar Warriors should cost anyway. Even with an investment in a Blaster for the squad to shore up your anti-vehicular firepower, and a few points invested in Night Shields, and you have a unit that can sit back and plink away at any sort of vehicle or monstrous creature, then swoop in to shred exposed infantry.

 

Space Marines can do something similar with their Land Speeders. A Multi-Melta / Heavy Flamer Speeder is a Threat Grade 2 against Light Vehicles and Threat Grade 1 against Heavy Vehicles, while also Threat Grade 1 against Monstrous Creatures and Threat Grade 2 against Light Infantry. That is a significant Threat Profile for such a paltry investment of points, and all on an extremely mobile platform (with the disadvantage of having poor range and paper-thin armor).

 

These units have Duality: no matter what you put on the table in front of them, they are capable of meeting the threat.

 

What Isn't Duality

So let's look at another example. What about a Tactical Squad with a Power Fist on its Sergeant? That expands its threat profile to cover Monstrous Creatures and heavy infantry, right? S8 and effectively AP2 qualifies it for Threat Grade 2 against MCs!

 

But hunting monstrous creatures isn't what a Tactical Squad does well. Monstrous Creatures tend to shred heavy infantry in melee, with a much higher threat-profile against even a fist-wielding squad, and much more durable (bolter-toting marines lost diminish the squad's ability to torrent light infantry, thus decreasing their best threat-profile). The other Marines in the squad, beyond the Sergeant with the Power Fist, are all at Threat Grade -1. This is not an effective use of this squad's Threat Profile. Remember "All Alone in Mixed Company"? Your Threat Grade on that lone Power Fist is down to a still-impressive Threat Grade of 1. But that MC is probably going to be Threat Grade 2 against your Marines in melee. The same can be said about fighting enemy Walkers or warding off enemy melee specialists.

 

You never want to be in a situation where you're pitting a low Threat Grade unit against a high Threat Grade unit Offensively. (It works just fine with Interference, but that's not the case here.) A Power Fist is insufficient for boosting the entire squad's Threat Profile against walkers, Monstrous Creatures, or Heavy Infantry.

 

You're essentially asking the Tactical Squad to abandon its tried-and-true effectiveness against Light Infantry (Threat Grade 1 when rapid-firing their bolters) to become a big, fat blob of Threat Grade -1 with a single Threat Grade 1 guy in the squad swinging wildly against tougher targets. This is hardly efficient: your Threat Grade 1 vs Light Infantry Tactical Squad is reduced to a glorified delivery system for 3 Power Fist attacks on the charge. Even worse, this "bonus" still costs you an arm and a leg, more than any other single upgrade for the squad short of a transport. Not a useless upgrade in every case, but certainly not Duality.

[Viperion]

I am loving this series! :lol: Keep it up!

 

There are a couple of typos in this one though:

It's brandied about

Bandied

Even with an investment in a Blaster for the squad to sure up your anti-vehicular firepower

Shore

 

Keep 'em coming! Awesome series of tactica :)

 

Viperion

[Jackelope King]

Thankya kindly. I wish I could say that the second was a typo, but around my area, "shore" is the word we use for "beach" as a vacation destination, so I've used those homophones incorrectly for a long time ^_^

 

More will be coming, as things start to wind down on my current schedule.

[Jackelope King]

Now it's time to start unifying the concept of Threat Profiles into the beginnings of a cohesive approach army building. We've already seen how Threats Win Games, explored how different threats can be projected during a game, and over the course of our discussion about Threat Profiles, we've seen just how to tell which threats are ideal for combating certain types of enemy threats. Now we need to put all that we've learned so far together and start building ourselves an army list.

 

The Balanced List

So let's start, as always, with the basics. A balanced list should be able to take all-comers, which means that it should have an answer to most, if not all, kinds of threats. So a balanced list will need multiple, redundant threats against Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Monstrous Creatures, Light Vehicles, and Heavy Vehicles. Since we're probably going to be limited as to the number of threats we can throw down on the table, by virtue of the points we'll have to spend and the number of Force Organization Chart slots that we can utilize, we'll need to make sure that at least some of these units are multi-purpose, with strong Duality.

 

A balanced list will also utilize forward elements (often with shorter ranges but increased mobility) and rear elements (usually with longer ranges but reduced mobility). We've already looked at why rear elements, with a great range, are useful (more shots before the enemy can close), and believe it or not, we've already explored several of the advantages of forward elements (providing not just Offense but strong Interference by screening your rear elements and disrupting enemy formations and battle plans). This is one of the crippling flaws that Marine gunlines suffer, for instance: with only a rear element, the gunline benefits from no forward element providing Interference, and the rear element is exposed to enemy threats coming full-tilt.

 

So we need units with Duality, to cover many kinds of threats, and appropriate reach for our forward and rear elements. And of course, we need to build with our units' pre-existing strengths in mind. A mini-van is never going to win a drag race, no matter how big of a spoiler you put on the back or how much money you dump into overhauling the engine. But it'll be able to carry a lot more cargo than a formula-one race car.

 

Ideal Units for a Balanced List

I've beat around the bush thus far with what makes for a good unit, but now I'll try to state it as plainly as I can. A good unit will have all the following characteristics:

• Duality: As I explained above, a good unit will be able to threaten multiple types of enemy units. In general, this means a unit will have an adequate threat-profile of at least Threat Grade 1 against two or more categories of enemy threats.
  
• Durability: With sufficient Durability, a unit is able to weather the enemy's threats and maintain its own threat-profile from one turn to the next.
  
• Reach: Whether the unit is mobile or has good range on its attacks (or in an ideal world, both), Reach enables a unit to project its threat and maintain pressure on the enemy.
  
• Cheap: And of course, you have to balance all of this with a unit's cost in points, especially at low points-value games (below 1500). A unit might have insane duality, durability and reach, but if it's cost-prohibitive, it's still junk.
  

Once games get over 1500 points, we can start applying what we've learned so far in earnest. Below 1500 points, you are extremely limited in points and will have few points left to build an adequate army: it just costs too much of your budget to get enough boots on the ground to compete. But above 1500 points, we can start adding units with specific roles in mind:

• Support: We've described Support before in great detail, but this is the points-value where it really starts to matter. No longer are we at risk of hamstringing ourselves if we invest in a Support Threat as opposed to a direct Offensive or Interference Threat: the points and the slots are there. And now that we have adequate boots on the ground, we should be trying to make them as threatening as points allow, with Support units being great and relatively cheap sources of threat multiplication.
  
• High-Octane Offense: This is also going to be the first time that we can really afford to go to town with big Offensive threats or tricking out our Elites or HQ for some serious hurt. Assault Terminators, Wolf Lords, Hive Tyrants, Tricked-Out Archons and Biker Command Squads all start to be competitive options in a balanced army list at this points-value, and you can start to see shooty armies really start to pile on the firepower with multiple units of Fireknife and Broadside Battlesuits, lines of Medusa Tanks, and lots and lots of redundant mid-to-high strength weapons that threaten everything (Krak-missile- and autocannon-equivalents especially).
  
• Redundancy: At low points-value games, just covering all your bases will probably stretch you pretty thin, but by 1500 points and higher, you need to plan for how your force will weather the loss of individual units. If you lose one tank, you want another one or two still there blazing away. Lone linchpins can be blocked with Interference or destroyed with Offense, and this can be crippling. We'll get into why battleforce-type armies with lots of one-ofs are problematic soon.
  

There are also a few characteristics which really start to matter more at high points-value games (2000 points and above... 2000 being my personal preferred points-value):

• Toofer: AKA a 2-for-1, where investing in one Force Organization Chart Slot opens up the opportunity for multiple threats. A Tactical Squad can unlock a Razorback transport, for instance, allowing you to buy a light tank and an anti-infantry unit with one Force Organization Chart Slot. If you buy one unit per slot and I buy two, I'll have twice as many threats as you will. Transports with adequate firepower especially allow for a rather deadly “army within an army” approach, such as seen with Immolator Spam Sisters of Battle (who send an anti-infantry wave of tanks at you which then deploy anti-vehicular troops once they reach your line).
  
• Durability: Yes, I'm listing it again. At very high points-values, especially the levels you'll see at 'Ard Boyz (2500 point), there's so much firepower that can be packed into a list that you need to have a force that can suffer significant damage on turn 1 and still be able to fight back.
  

So after all that, what is the ideal unit for an army? I want cheap Reach, Duality and Durability. And I find it all in a unit which, thank God, isn't official. Forgeworld released a variant for the Imperial Guard Chimera that can equip it with an Autocannon on the cheap. S7, 2 shots each on already-cheap units in one of the most durable Light Vehicles in the game. Oh, and 48” range. Light Infantry get shredded (Threat Grade 1), Heavy Infantry hate being wounded on 2s (Threat Grade 1), Monstrous Creatures are loathe to have something basically ignore their T6 (Threat Grade 1), and Light Vehicles don't survive volleys from Autocannons for long (Threat Grade 1). Oh, and this unit can be bought to sit behind an Imperial Guard Platoon, those big, fat infantry blobs, which can come with their own Autocannons in Heavy Weapons Squads. You'll have a lot of Infantry to shoot through to get those Chimeras out in the open, and armies reliant on short-range anti-tank are going to be in serious trouble. And at high points-value games, I can get a stupid number of these tanks from a single Force Organization Chart Slot.

 

Under Pressure

This is the real secret to building a balanced list. I mentioned above that redundancy is critical, especially once you get above 1500 points. Remember that feeling I described at the beginning of this series? When you look across the table and see too many threats on your opponent's side for you to be able to handle? Your opponent no longer sees a way that his or her threats can continue to systematically disassemble yours, and your foe is now in a reactionary position, responding to your threats instead of forcing you to respond to his or hers.

 

“Pressure” has been described elsewhere as “tempo” or “pace” or “momentum”. I describe it as projecting your threats with purpose. Your autocannon is great and wonderful with that nice S and Range, but if you're projecting it against enemy threats that it can't really touch (like Heavy Vehicles) or against unimportant threats (foot-slogging infantry with poor Reach), you're not applying pressure adequately.

 

From turn 1, you want pressure to build, which can be done in one of two main ways:

1. Immediate Threats: Obviously, if you have tremendous reach on turn 1 and can start shooting and crippling the enemy force right away, you're applying pressure. Shooty lists and lists with strong investments in a firebase use this, and alpha-strike lists live or die based on this.
   
2. Overwhelming Potential Threats: But assault and close-ranged armies can apply pressure too. Even with more limited reach, these types of armies can send large numbers of very dangerous units that might not attack on turn 1, but can and will hit hard on turn 2.
   

In both cases, you want most if not all of your units to be applying pressure on turn 1. Your opponent needs to see as many threats coming at him or her as possible, ideally with your threats knocking down his or her own threats. Anyone can deal with a single threat, or a small number. And since this pressure need not be direct, it all comes down to positioning, which we'll get to in the next post.

 

Realistically, though, most balanced armies will want to mix-and-match both applications of pressure. Even fearsome Blood Angels jumper armies will frequently bring Devastator Squads with Missile Launchers along, both for firepower against Light Vehicles and to have a sizable turn 1 threat. It might just become suppressing fire (Interference) against Light Vehicles, but often that's enough.

 

So when you select a unit, you have to make sure not just that it has the qualities we've already gone over, but also that they'll either be an immediate threat from turn 1, or that you have a game-plan for how to turn them quickly into an immediate threat (with good mobility, i.e. loading Assault Terminators into a Land Raider). And yes, even lesser threats can still apply sufficient pressure. Remember how we've discussed Interference: just occupying terrain and creating zones that are difficult or impossible for your foe to maneuver in can apply tremendous pressure. Some armies can do this with cannon-fodder, like Tau deploying Kroot screens or Imperial Guard sticking big blobs of Guardsmen on the table to reduce enemy options. And Codex: Space Marines can do this surprisingly well by occupying midfield with Multi-Meltas inside Rhinos, creating large bubbles of the battlefield were vehicles dare not tread.

 

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. In the next post, we'll tie all of this together and see how a balanced list is built around the concept of Threats.