++ TACTICAL OBSERVATION 01: CPs & STRATAGEMS ++

[Iron Father Ferrum]

So last weekend I attended a local tournament (1500 point, missions were Maelstrom Missions) in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Eight participants broken down as: CSMx2, Death Guard, Daemons, Space Wolves, Necrons, Tyranids, and Space Marines. I won with my Alpha Legion, quite handily, defeated Iron Warriors 7-3, Space Wolves 6-4, and Death Guard 11-4. The biggest issue I saw in my opponents' playstyles was that they were not leveraging their Stratagems and/or were averse to spending Command Points.

 

 

As an example, here's the list of stratagems that I utilized across all three games:

 

Rule book:

- Command Reroll

- Counter Attack

 

 

Codex:

- Fire Frenzy

- Blasphemous Machines

- Endless Cacophony

- Fury of Khorne

- Forward Operatives

- Veterans of the Long War

 

 

By contrast, my opponents used only:

 

Rulebook:

- Command Reroll

 

Codex:

- Cunning of the Wolf

- Fire Frenzy

- Veterans of the Long War

 

 

I also want to point out that Fire Frenzy and VOTLW were both used only by the Death Guard player, and the Iron Warrior used only Command Reroll.

 

 

So the disparity here is obvious, and I feel like the issue seems, on the surface, obvious as well. Leveraging stratagems contributed to my victories in all three games but there's also more to it. The Iron Warrior, for example, used only the rerolls despite being in situations where Iron Within, Iron Without, Fire Frenzy, Blasphemous Machines, Counter Attack, and VOTLW all would have dramatically improved his board situation or overcome bad situations that I deliberately attempted to engineer. For example, I landed a bunch of Turn One charges thanks to FO infiltration and getting first turn. I charged four units total (including a Helbrute) with two squads and an HQ, and even though I let my CSMs go first, he didn't Counter Attack with the Helbrute to cut apart my Raptors. The Space Wolf used his outflank stratagem, which admittedly is about the extent of his codex specific options, but he also could have used Counter Attack to disrupt my combat plans and didn't. More than sub faction traits, stratagems are where the real differences and disparities between codices appear. Codex Marine players, for example, lament not that our sub faction traits are lacking (other than Templars), but that our stratagems are too poor in quality or too lacking in broad utility in comparison to other codices. Thus, if you really want to achieve a measure of superiority over another player, you must be open to using a wide range of stratagems. In my case, I even plan ahead: before a game, I pull all the strats I *could* use - not just the ones I want to use, but all the ones that I could conceivably use - out of my deck and review them. I almost used Daemonshell for instance, but decided it wasn't necessary in that situation. The point is, I was prepared to use it.

 

And this leads me into my second point: hoarding CPs. I understand the allure here. They're a precious resource, and one that is only rarely renewable, so there is a natural urge to be conservative with them. However, the nature of this game is that as the game goes on, your total combat power will dwindle due to irreplaceable losses. Banking CPs for later use means that you have fewer opportunities to leverage a wider base of stratagems as individual units are destroyed (i.e., no Fire Fenzy if your Helbrute is killed) or see diminished returns due to losses (you get fewer benefits from VOTLW on five bolter-armed Chaos Marines than you do from ten). As a result, my philosophy is that you should use the vast majority of your CPs as quickly as you can. In this tourney, I had no CPs left by the start of Turn Three in any of the games, and I went into the games with 10 CPs each time (8 after FO infiltrations). My Space Wolf opponent actually noticed the disparity in the rate of CP expenditure and asked about it after the game. Having explained myself, he took that lesson to heart and became liberal with his rerolls and even used Counter Attack in his third game, and told me after the tourney that he noticed he was much more lethal in the early game when he was blowing through his CPs.

 

I'm not saying that it's always the best idea to spend them all in two turns. Sometimes you might want to hang on to a couple for a specific stratagem late game, or to keep rerolls handy. But if that is the case, I still recommend using as many as you can in the first two turns so that you gain the maximum benefit from your army when the lethality of the army is at its most important.

 

 

So those were my observations on CPs & Stratagems. What are your thoughts?

[Captain Idaho]

My thoughts are broadly the same. Players should spend the points when they have the units spare, perhaps keeping 2 or so spare just in case.

 

One thing I do notice is that people don't spend their CPs on Strategums in their books as much as they do on rerolls.

 

I personally think it's best to accept that 2 out of 4 missile launchers hit, rather than try and get the 3rd to hit. With the CP you have spare you can use it to fire a Hellfire Shell at the opponent, or allow for an Auspex Scan to be less costly, or use Masterful Marksmanship.

 

Of course sometimes you'll want to get that hit you really want or reroll that damage roll but usually it's not worth it.

[UnkyHamHam]

Man, I thought I was the only one who noticed this. Kind of felt like I was taking crazy pills.

 

Idaho is definitely right. Command rerolls seem to valued way higher than I believe they are. I too agree that I'd rather miss that one extra shot and instead insure that damage roll that actually gets through is meaningful.

 

I see this a lot with YouTube batreps. I know the content creators have a lot more on their minds than just the average 40k game. But more deliberate and thoughtful use of CPs and Strats could have changed the outcome of so many games I've watched.

 

This is also one of the major reasons I love the change to battalion and Brigade CP bonuses. It really does help elite armies front load more Strat combos in the first few turns to higher effectiveness. Armies with preFAQ plentiful CPs are kind of uneffeced since they already could. And it's not like their books just got more strategems to use. They are still restricted on a turn by turn basis on how many they can use and realistically combo.

 

Good topic! And awesome observations, IFF!

[chapter master 454]

Something I have reviewed myself on as well actually. Taking note to look at my stratagems again and remember the ones I even went "That's good". I am currently going to be testing a list with 3 predators in it to try out Killshot with the fact it can combo with storm of fire and adding one to damage as well is kinda nasty (since two predators are dakka preds, it can make even the heavy bolters mean anti-tank).

 

I am currently enjoying a run with Sternguard, using not just their special issue boltguns but their stratagem too. +1 to wounding rolls is nasty considering against anything that isn't T8 makes them able to wound on 4s across the board with AP2 making short work of more Saves. I even combo them with Imperial fist stratagem, captains and lieutenants to further augment their damage output. They managed to knock something like 7 wounds off a riptide using nova-charged shield (which is not bad for some boltguns! though that being said there was some rhino primaris help as well).

 

I have even been looking through the stratagems and thinking about how each could be useful. Hellfire and Flak are naturals, Honour Thy Chapter is something I REALLY want to try out with a Vanguard Blender squad (which is hard for me, I want to make a john woo squad of vanguards with plasma pistols!). Wisdom of the Ancients is quite impressive really, turning dreadnoughts into a captain for a phase is not too shabby. Personally I really want to play around with Datalink telemetry as well more, the only downside to it really is it isn't lighting a target up for all whirlwinds but just one whirlwind (though to be fair, is flamers are loved then having 6D6 auto hits at safe reach would be some serious hurting power for infantry and for tanks to take 6D3 autocannon hits without question hurts. People whine enough about LoS ignoring units!).

 

To be honest, I have complained about Space Marine stratagems without thought. I will still stand that they could do with some fixing up, allow predators to form squadrons instead of eating up 3 slots (which isn't a massive buff but it helps) and Datalink telemetry needs to be a marking stratagem, not a one and done thing (maybe allow it be used twice a turn but +1CP cost for each time it has been used in a turn?)

 

I have moved also to thinking how to dump as many CP into my opponent in turn 1 whenever I play now because, well CP = Resources and Turn 1 = most important turn so throw as much resources as you can at your opponent now as it reduces their ability to do the same!

[WarriorFish]

Stratagems are essential for giving you the edge and some reliability. Judicial use makes a difference and can win games, something I've found enough times! I'm not one for bundling up to string Stratagems/psychic powers/units/etc together (bit boring, and predictable) but usually you end up using the same ones so it's all the more important to know the full deck for the time another can be crucial. The re-roll is very nice but given they aren't a big deal (i.e. are common enough in game) they're less important than a "proper" Stratagem that does something you can't get anywhere else for example :)

 

I'd also add that there's a sweet spot of rationing. Along with my preference for leveraging as many of my units as I can on Turn 1 the same applies to Stratagems. Spend them to help try and build that advantage early on and reserve a few for pulling things out of the bag at the later crunch moments - even if this is often a re-roll for a some vital Victory Points

[CrystalSeer]

I see this as a logical extension of alpha/maneuver armies as opposed to attrition armies. Essentially, if your army relies on doing maximum damage to specific targets early in the game, then spending all your CP early allows you to exaggerate this.

 

On the flip side, if your army is designed to weather the early game and win via table control and attrition in the late game, then you would want to use CP efficiently so that you could surge to make your counter attack.

 

Space Marines are largely built as an Alpha Strike force, so I would expect this to be pretty even with them. I'd be interested in seeing if the pattern holds for attrition armies like AM or Necrons.

[WarriorFish]

It's the same - for example Guard can do attrition but still gains from reducing the foe sooner. The earlier you reduce your opponent's abilities the better as that's tipping the attrition scales further in your favour.

[Schlitzaf]

On the topic of strategems of the most important questions you need to answer, is “What do they get me?” Pre-FAQ, I saw a lot of MSU No Transport Naked Tacticals for +2 CP. The reason I mention this is that, the basic 2 CP Strategem is an interrupt (Auspex/Counter/InDeathDoes Duty/Variants here). Do you value spending 200 points for the ability to interrupt your opponent one more time?

 

If you are mostly using 1 CP Strategems, you’ll be better suited to using Speciality Detachments. Post FAQ, my view on that scenerio changed because it’s now 2 interrupts vs 1, and now you can burn while still the 2 CP Safety CP (for Interrupt/Autopass/Etc). Burning through CP fast and early is good.

 

But I want to raise an argument, trying to keep around 3 CP available till the end game should be a ‘standard’. Being with 2 CP you have access to most ‘interrupt’ strategems forcing your opponent to stay mindful on activations and where they deep strike well into the final turns. And then being able to get a key reroll as well. Now this is only a “if you can’ scenario. Gulliman Just failed his revive and you have only 2 CP use a command to try and save him. But being able to threaten an interruption is important. Just as much as being able to inflict damage in early game.

[Rogue]

For me, strategems and command points feel similar to one-shot items like the armorium cherub or the hunter-killer missile, in that you’re looking to play them sooner rather than later, and at the first good opportunity (the key word here being ‘good’).

 

If my lascannon devastators have line-of-sight to an exposed tank in turn one, then it’s worth using up the cherub straight away. If all they can see is light infantry, then the extra lascannon shot would be wasted (probably).

 

But wait too long to use the cherub, and the squad might end up engaged in combat and ground down to nothing, wasting the extra shot anyway.

 

Likewise a hunter-killer. I want to fire it early, but wouldn’t take out a single ork boy turn one just for the sake of firing it straight away.

 

I play quite a shooty marine army, usually with two full devastator squads. Given the chance, I’ll build two fire bases, with one squad supported by a captain and the other by a dreadnought (because Wisdom of the Ancients). My use of CPs is then dictated by my opponent’s deployment - if he covers up, I’ll save them till he moves into the fire lanes. If he’s in the open (maybe I seized on him) then it’s worth using those CPs straight off to do as much damage as I can.

 

That said, if he has a bunch of nasty reserves, I’m likely to make sure I hold some back to get a bonus turn of shooting when they turn up (or at least make use of that threat to change his deployment plans...)

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Of course you need to apply common sense and tailor your use of stratagems to the situation. In my first game against the Iron Warriors, my Slaaneshi Raptors with trip flamers got Endless Cacophony because I was able to swing them in between two cultist squads. I roasted one, then the other; in the other games, Cacophony's first turn use was for extra lascannon shots at armored targets.

[Rogue]

What about the least worst time? Let’s say I’m playing against a very savvy opponent who is trying hard to deny me good opportunities to spend CPs. At what point do I start spending them on less useful stuff just so I don’t have them all left at the end?

 

Or is that too much of a theory-hammer question, and unlikely to happen in real life?