Winning the Battle

Back on December 21st, I wrote up an article on Victory Point Denial. While I feel it was useful, looking back, I think there were areas that I could have covered in better detail or explained better. That's what this article is about. I will attempt to not rehash that article, but a certain amount of that is unavoidable. For full details, please read both articles.

Many games are decided strictly on Victory Points. Sometimes these are given for accomplishing objectives, sometimes they are for damaging the enemy. The point differential between you and your opponent determines if there was a victory and how big the victory was. If you each have a 1500 point army list and you wipe out all of his points, but lose half of yours in the process, you have a 750 point margin of victory, which is pretty substantial. On the other hand if you wipe out half of his points and lose none of yours, you still have a 750 point margin of victory. It's kind of like diet and exercise. If you exercise, you burn calories and thus lose weight. If you diet, you eat fewer calories and thus lose weight. Two different means to get to the same end. (And, like diet and exercise, I often find that by combining the two options, I get better results more easily. It's easier to do 250 calories per day worth of exercise than 500, and it's easier to eat 250 calories per day less as opposed to 500. If you eat 250 less and exercise 250 more, you get the same 500 calories per day, but it may be easier than either road by itself.)

You can play Victory Point Denial with an existing army. That's where you do things like make sure a unit moves out of Line of Sight when it gets close to half (or when it is almost destroyed.) You can also use mobility or range to concentrate in one area, wiping out the enemy units there and thus preventing most retaliation. It may also generally include a much more defensive style of play. Keep much of your army hidden and let them come to you, trying to play "hide and seek" with the other army. Only expose enough of your army to get high-value shots in. Obviously, this is much easier to pull off if you have your army designed to fight that way.

You can also take the standard choices that you use for an army list and try to improve them in terms of firepower, mobility and resilience. For example, simply giving a unit of Crisis Suits some shield drones makes them much more resilient. There are many upgrades that can change how well-suited a unit is for Victory Point denial, but not every unit has these options. To continue to use Tau as an example, look at Pathfinders. They can get mobility and some protection in their Devilfish, but they still aren't particularly resilient, and they have to be dismounted and stationary to use their Markerlights. They can get Rail Rifles, which is a good Firepower improvement, but they really can't be made more resilient aside from simply putting them in cover. A list that is designed around units that can be modified for Victory Point Denial will definitely be better at it than a list that is just modified a little bit.

The first way to win Victory Point battles is to destroy enemy units. If you get them below half strength (or immobilized if they are a vehicle) then you get half points for that unit. If you take out the whole unit, you get the full points for them. Destroying the enemy through firepower and assault is the name of this game, and it can work pretty well. This is generally how most armies function, at least at a basic level. The first key to this style is to concentrate your firepower. You only get full points for the unit when it is entirely gone. Even one model left means you don't get full points, so if you are going to bother shooting at a unit, make sure you have enough firepower on it to burn it to the ground. The second key to this style is to do enough damage to the enemy that they can't do much back to you. Completely destroying units is a very effective way to do this. In most infantry units, there are one or two models that have weapons that do most of the damage for the unit (such as heavy or special weapon troopers or Powerfist wielders.) If you leave only one or two models in the unit, those are the models likely to be left, meaning that the unit is still a threat. Similarly, concentrating your firepower in one area of the board is also very useful. If you limit the number of units you can see, and you wipe all of them out, the enemy will have very little to fire back at you. The main problem with this kind of strategy is that it is so focused on dealing out damage that sometimes it takes too much damage in return.

The second way to win Victory Point battles is to make sure that the enemy cannot destroy your units. Large units are good here, since it takes longer to get them below half or to destroy them altoghether. Resilient units can also be effective in this regard. Good armor save or Toughness makes it much harder to wipe out a unit. Sometimes there are also wargear or options that can be taken to make a unit more resilient. One example might be a Tyranid Carnifex. A base stat line of 4 T6 Wounds and a 3+ save means it starts out fairly resilient. Upping it to T7 helps against Plasma weapons and Krak Missiles. Improving the Save to 2+ helps against Krak Missiles and other AP3 or worse weapons. Giving it an extra Wound prolongs it's life, potentially allowing it to survive a couple of turns of fire, then move out of sight to preserve it's Victory Points. Finally, adding Regenerate makes that last bit particularly useful, as it is possible to regain those Wounds if you are out of sight of the enemy (or simply where the enemy cannot reach you with effective weapons.) Another example is an Eldar Falcon. As a skimmer moving fast, it is difficult to hit in CC and it can only be glanced. With AV12 it is immune to all but the most powerful weapons and with a field that limits powerful weapons to the equivalent of S8, it also improves it's chances against the bigger heavy weapons such as Lascannon and Railguns. Finally, the addition of various vehicle upgrades, it can ignore or reroll many of the more dangerous results on the glancing hit chart, meaning it is _very_ hard to knock down and thus it is a great way to deny Victory Points to the enemy. Finally, even though that results in a very expensive model (175 points without weapons or other biomorphs to be precise) that in itself is part of the point. If you have a lot of points tied up in a unit that will probably survive the game and even has a good chance of coming out at better than half-strength, that's a lot of points you have denied the enemy. If you have a cheap unit that is resilient, it doesn't deny as many points to the enemy.

In addition to making resilient or large units, you can also use the movement of units to improve their survival chances. A perfect example of this would be the Jump, Shoot, Jump attack that Tau Crisis suits are known for, but others can do this as well. Another example would be the indirect fire capability of a Basilisk, allowing it to shoot while nothing can see it it to shoot back. Finally, simply retiring a unit from the front line when it has sustained major damage can be highly effective. An example of this would be a unit of 6 Genestealers is reduced to 1. The enemy already had half the points for the unit (48) and the individual Genestealer wouldn't do much damage by itself. Instead of just tossing it into a close combat, I moved it back out of the way, preserving those 48pts by keeping it out of harm's way. Sure, 48pts isn't much, but it's 48pts the enemy doesn't have and that can turn a loss into a draw or a draw into a win for you. With this style, the focus is on preserving your points as much as possible, while doing a small amount of damage to the enemy. If you do 300pts of damage to the enemy while sustaining none in return, you've won the game. The difficulty with this style is that sometimes it is not desirable or even possible to play a disengagement type of game. You may not have enough terrain to do so, or it may be placed poorly for that. You might have a scenario that makes it difficult to do. You may find yourself against an opposing army that can outmaneuver you or get in your face too quickly for your plan to work.

A synthesis of these two plans may be the best bet overall. A combination of solid firepower and resilient or hard-to-catch units gives you the option of going in either direction depending on terrain, opponent and even your mood! Ideally, every unit in such an army will be both resilient and hard-hitting, though that can be difficult to achieve. An example of such a unit for the Tau might be a unit of 3 Crisis Suits.

We'll give the Team Leader a Plasma Rifle/Missile Pod setup (standard Fireknife, allows long range shooting against light vehicles and heavy infantry, good targets that tend to be worth a lot of points.) In addition we'll add a Target Array for BS4 as well as a Hard-Wired Multi-tracker (can fire both weapons at once) and a Hard-Wired Drone Controller with 2 shield drones for added security. Finally, we'll throw in a Hard-Wired Target Lock so that he has the option of choosing a separate target from the rest of the team. While that does add up to 112pts for a single suit, it is very well protected and throws good firepower downrange. The rest of the team will have Twin-Linked Plasma Rifles (Burning Eye configuration, excellent against Heavy Infantry such as Space Marines.) Their third hardpoint will be filled with a Drone Controller with 2 Shield Drones each. These suits come out to 85pts each. Again, these are pricey, but they are very resistant to damage with 6 Shield Drones before a suit is Wounded. In addition, the expense can work out to our benefit. If we can keep this unit at or above half strength, that's 282 points that are denied to the enemy. They've got long-range, highly accurate firepower that ignores the toughest armor saves. They've got good, solid resilience in the form of 12 T4 3+ Save Wounds (and the first 6 also have a 4+ invulnerable save.) Finally, they've got great mobility so they can stay out of harm's way most of the time and if they get close to half-strength, they can make a run for it to preserve their victory Points.

An example for Tyranids might be the above-mentioned Carnifex. With Toughness, Wounds and Armor Save upgrades plus Regenerate, it's got resilience very well covered. If we put in some long-range weapons such as a Venom Cannon and Barbed Strangler and give it BS3, it'll be able to stay back and hammer enemy vehicles. Ideally, we can park it in some cover to make up for the fact that it cannot get an invulnerable save. If you can find cover that will allow it to move out of Line of Sight if it gets badly Wounded, that would be even better since it would allow Regenerate the possibility of bringing it back to full strength. Finally, as mentioned above, this is a pretty expensive unit, tying up 238pts that the enemy will probably _never_ get.

There are other ways to achieve that resilience that I mentioned earlier. Being able to attack an enemy without the enemy being able to return the favor is a perfect way to get the desired effect. Here are some ways the Tau and Tyranids can achieve it.

Tau

Airbursting Fragmentation Projector. Certainly this is a special issue item so you can only have 1 in your army, but it's a great way to hit somebody over that hill or behind those woods.

Jump, Shoot, Jump. It's what Stealth Suits and Crisis Suits do best. Jump out from behind cover, fire your weapons, then jump back behind cover. Nasty!

Smart Missile System. With no Line of Sight necessary, this is perfect for the mission. Sit back behind cover and shred them as they close.

Seeker Missiles. While the Markerlight does have to have Line of Sight, the vehicle with the Seeker missile doesn't need to. A great unit here would be a Stealth Marker Team (the Team Leader has a Markerlight and one or more members of the team have Drone Controllers and Marker Drones.) Since the unit has Stealth Fields, they can stand back at long-range and fire their Markerlights almost without worry of being hit.

Tyranids

Biovores. You won't hear me recommending them very often, but they are the only non-Line of Sight weapon in the Tyranid arsenal.

Inexpensive Gaunts. While the Gaunts will die in droves, they protect the more expensive creatures. In addition, very large units of Gaunts can be resilient simply because it's difficult to kill all of them off.

Monstrous Creatures. T6 and 4 Wounds with a 3+ or better save can be hard to kill, especially if it's in cover. Since Monstrous Creatures can move and fire, it's also possible to hide behind terrain, then come out to shoot. (While you'll still be out in the open after your shot, at least you got to shoot first, which can make a huge difference in your survival.)

Let's also take a look at the firepower upgrades available to both armies. Most upgrades are very simple: you pick a bigger, more effective gun. Some are a little more subtle, however. It's those I want to focus on for each army.

Tau

Markerlights. Improving the Ballistic Skill of a unit can make a huge difference in how much of the enemy unit you can kill. Furthermore, this allows you to boost the abilities of the unit that is best capable of dealing with the threat, and you can change which unit that is on a turn-by-turn basis. (Ie: right now you need to take down a large unit of Daemons: a unit with multiple Burst Cannons or lots of Pulse Rifles will be the most effective way to deal with them. Next turn you might have to focus on a unit of deep-striking Terminators, so Plasma Rifles and Fusion Blasters will be the most effective options. With Markerlights, you can change that focus quickly, making each unit more effective when it is needed most.

Advanced Stabilization System. This allows a battlesuit to fire heavy weapons and still move. This means your Broadsides can start hidden behind terrain, then move out to shoot a target when one is available. Getting to shoot first is very important. The Stabilization System also means that they can shift fire to where you need it without missing out on a turn's shooting. There are some at Advanced Tau Tactica that are considering using it on Stealth Marker Teams or even Crisis teams, allowing them to fire Markerlights while moving. (The jury is currently out on whether Marker Drones would be able to make use of this, which is the key point to it being useful.)

Tyranids

Psychic Scream. This is what the modern military refers to as a force multiplier. On it's own, it doesn't really do anything. But it helps other weapons be more effective. My favorite example of this is using a Devourerfex to cause 2 casualties on a squad of Space Marines. By itself, that's not too shabby, but it doesn't net me any points until the squad is below half or totally gone. With multiple Psychic Screams in the area, those two casualties will almost always turn into a failed Morale Test for the squad. If it falls back off the board or it cannot rally, that's a whole squad taken out for only the firepower of two casualties.

Adrenal Glands: Initiative. This upgrade generally allows the unit to strike before most other units in close combat. If the unit has significant damage potential, it may wipe out all the targets in the zone, leaving none to strike back. While this is mostly noticed with Genestealers and Hive Tyrants, even killing _most_ of the zone is a very effective way to keep your unit alive longer.

Next week, we'll be taking a look at army-specific examples of how to construct a Point-Denial army list.

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