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The Mirror Match
Shooty Armies Shootier than Thou? When you are determining who is shootier, you have two things to consider: Firepower and Vulnerability. Firepower is a combination of all the dakka that an army puts out. Modify it for range, so a Melta doesn't rate as highly as a Rocket Launcher (unless it's on something really mobile.) Also modify it for targets. If you have all Terminators, that Melta is suddenly going to be much more effective. Typically you won't have that much of a discrepancy between two weapons, but it's a good example of how to think about it. Although most armies won't be all identical targets, look first at where they keep most of their firepower. If the army features a bunch of Predators with Lascannons, antitank weapons will be most effective against them and vehicles will be most vulnerable to them. If you have a lot of antitank firepower, and it's not concentrated in vehicle units, you are in a much better position than they are. This brings us to the discussion of Vulnerability. One shot, one kill. Sniping can be very effective in 40k. I'm not talking about units with sniper rifles, or a Vindicare Assassin (though they can be handy sometimes!) I mean using regular firepower to achieve specific target kills. If you cause enough Wounds on an enemy unit, you can ask your opponent to roll a save separately for one model. This gives you a better chance at picking out that heavy weapon trooper (I think it was Jervis Johnson that referred to it as the "Die, Mr. Lascannon" rule.) In addition, you can only kill models within range and Line of Sight of your weapon. If you can move so that you only have one model in range of your weapons, you can pick off that model. (That'll teach the enemy to lead from the front!) this works whether they are independent characters, squad upgrade characters, or simply members of a squad. If that Lascannon or Powerfist Sergeant is the only model within 12" of your Meltagun, well it's going to suck to be them! The same is true for Line of Sight. If you can only see one model, you can only kill that one model. Terrain and vehicles and Monstrous Creatures and close combats all block Line of Sight. If you can move so that one of the above things blocks off LOS to the rest of a squad, you can snipe that single model out. You could even move two vehicles next to each other so that the space between them is the "scope" for your sniping. Be warned though, some players regard this as being against the spirit of the game. While it's a legal move and it's difficult to set up, it is definitely a bit sneaky. If you use a single vehicle, perhaps using range or a piece of terrain to block the other targets though, you can still do it. Any way you go about it, however, you are able to directly target the firepower of the enemy, which brings you closer to the win.
Counterstrike The next step is to use some of the secondary units in your army. If you have planned a balanced list and followed my advice in Beat the Assault 2, you will probably have some Picket, Wall and Countercharge units. These are also handy in a mirror match. Units with non-standard deployment rules (Infiltrate, Deepstrike, etc.) can be used to great effect by either tying up key enemy units or simply tying up the front line, which will stop a lot of their non-vehicle shooting. Units with fast movement are also exceptional in this role. If you can keep that Devastator squad from firing for two turns, you'll have more of your army shooting than your opponent, which gives you the edge. If the enemy has better assault power than you, hold your countercharge units back and use them as normal. (Let the enemy charge a lead squad, then have your countercharge unit charge them, getting the benefit of extra attacks on their elite combat troops.) If you have more assault power, lead the charge or use them similarly to the picket squads above. If you are using this route, I would highly recommend the Divide By Fire tactic. Focus your fire mostly on the flank that your assaulters are charging. (They are charging a flank, right? Not down the middle, not up both flanks, just one.) Once they reach their target, shift fire to the center of the enemy formation. This should leave your assaulters charging damaged units, giving them an easier time. While they mop up, you are damaging or wiping out the center units, which will prevent effective reinforcements against your countercharge units. After rolling up that flank, continue down the center with the Assault units while your firebase starts pounding the far side. Assault Armies How much do your Paras shoot? Again, the key here is finding out how much firepower can be projected downrange, and what it's targets and vulnerabilities are. If you have something that is mostly immune to the firepower, get it out front where it can act as a shield for the rest of your army and try to take out whatever they do have that can hurt it. If you don't happen to have something that is mostly immune, you'll have to do it another way. Look for their concentrations of firepower and figure out what you have to hurt them. At the same time, look at your concentrations of firepower and your vulnerabilities. Try to find those differences in vulnerability as above and exploit them so that you have more firepower than the enemy. (If you have more firepower than the opponent, you can force them to come to you. This may not immediately seem like such a big deal, but it gives you an advantage in shooting in the first few rounds, and it makes it much easier to countercharge later, which is vital in this kind of game.)Note also that you can use sniping much as a shooting army can, but you'll likely want to target those characters and unit upgrades that give assault bonuses, such as the Powerfist Sergeant.
Beat them at their own game. Okay, you've reduced their shooting through exploiting their vulnerabilities and you've forced them to come to you. Now what? Well, the first thing to do is to set up your countercharges. Depending on your army, you may want to put your shooting units up front. Once the fighting starts, they won't be nearly as useful as your assaulters. In any case, you want your less elite fighters up front to take the charge from the enemy. Once the enemy has charged them, your elite units can charge them in return. This will give the enemy extra attacks against your basic grunts and it will give you extra attacks against the enemy's elite fighters. You will come off much better in this deal, I assure you. You should also try to make sure that you hit them with as much as possible to break or shred the unit in 1-2 phases. This will ensure that you have fewer casualties, and it will free your elite units up to hit other enemy squads. If you get stuck in a close combat, you may find more enemy elites getting the countercharge on you. When setting up your countercharges, you should also make use of cover where possible to allow your units to hit the enemy first, since any casualties will mean fewer models hitting you back. Finally, look for any mismatches and exploit them where possible. For example, if you are facing a bunch of Space Marines and one unit has a Powerfist and the other has a lightning claw, use your Dreadnaught to engage the unit with the Lightning Claw, since it can't even scratch the Dreadnaught. Remind me, which one is the evil twin?With a perfect mirror match, or a very close one, it gets even harder. They have exactly the same things that you do, probably in about the same amounts. There's no point in trying to decide which is shootier, because they are identical or so close that it makes no difference. The trick here is to get better mileage out of your units than they do out of theirs. Staying Alive. One of the easiest ways to get more mileage out of your units is to start shooting first. If you can get the first turn, you can damage the enemy and thus lessen return fire. Some armies have wargear that gives them a better chance of going first. Some armies have the option of Deepstriking most or all of the army. If you use this option, you effectively have the first turn, since you won't have units on the board for the enemy to shoot. The same goes for mechanized armies in Escalation missions. It doesn't matter who won first turn, the shooting doesn't start until your units come rolling across the board edge. In case you don't have these options and you don't get the first turn, start your units in cover. A 5+ save is better than nothing, and if you can do it for your whole army, that's 33% fewer damage you'll take during that first turn of shooting. If you have move and fire weapons, even better. You can start out completely behind terrain so that few or none of your units are exposed to first turn cover, then you can move out and start the shooting. Once the game has started, you can continue to compound any advantage you got from your deployment and cover by using the movement of your units. Maneuver them so that the enemy weapons that are best against them cannot be used. (If the enemy has a Lascannon squad on one side of the board, move your vehicles around to the other side of the board, or at least so that there is LOS-blocking terrain between them and the squad. Finally, you want to use the principle of concentration of force. If you can maneuver so that you have 2 or 3 units attacking one of the enemy, you will have a huge advantage and may well wipe out that unit right away. If you have done your maneuvering such that the rest of the enemy army (except the one unit you have marked for death) can't see you, you won't receive any return fire. That means you just eliminated that unit for free! Good, now go do it again. This brings us to the principle of fighting dirty.
Don't fight fair. Play honestly, yes, but don't fight fair. You know what the army was designed to do, make the enemy army do stuff that it wasn't designed to do. Give antitank firepower only infantry to shoot at, using movement and terrain to hide your vehicles from those units. Use vehicles to partially screen your troops from anti-infantry firepower. You can do this by moving a vehicle up so that it blocks Line of Sight from all but whatever target the infantry will be shooting this turn. (Or at least from all the anti-infantry firepower that the unit in question _won't_ be firing on this turn.) Use mismatches like the above-mentioned Dreadnaught vs. Lightning Claw squad. If you can make even a small difference in how effective the enemy's units are early in the game, it will pay off in spades later in the game. (IE: let's say that your armies can each do 10% of their total strength in damage each turn. If you get the first turn or make his army be even 10% less effective, it'll play like this: You have 100% of your army and cause 10% damage to him. He now has 90% of his army, meaning you take 9% damage. Now you've got 91% and do 9% to him. He has 81% of his army and does 8% to you. With 83% left, you do 8% to him. His 73 does 7% to you.... Do you see the trend?) In addition, if you do several things that make his army less effective, they all add up. That adding up gives you a big advantage as you get into the end game and end up having about twice as much of your army left. So, use cover to make his firepower 33% less effective. Use concentration of force to wipe out an entire unit for no return fire. Use mismatches to make his firepower or assaults only half as effective. Suddenly you'll find that you've still got a good-sized army left, but the man (or woman) in the mirror does not. Fight smarter, not harder! If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |
