Back to List Selection and Unit Efficiency.

Before the game and Planning the game

Game Time
Come up with a plan. By now you should know how you want your units to work together in general. Now is the time to survey the opposing army and see what you'll need to do. You need to identify areas that will be threats to you. For example, if you have lots of Genestealers, units with Heavy Bolters will be a big threat. Get an idea of what the threats are, and plan how you will deal with them in general. Are you going to focus firepower on them? Will you send a dedicated unit (such as a Lictor) after them? You can also identify areas where the opponent is weak. For instance, if it's an objective mission and your opponent only has a couple of mobile units, you'll want to make sure those die before the end of the game, even though you'll be targeting other threats earlier in the game.

In some cases, you may get a good idea about how the game will likely go before it even begins. If it looks like you are likely to lose, you may need to consider how to play for a draw. The difference between a draw and a loss is significant in terms of tournament standings. It will also change who you will be competing against, since most tournaments use a "Swiss Seating" arrangement (Winners play against Winners, etc, ensuring better matchups.) A loss is generally worth about 5pts. A draw is somewhere around 10. A win is generally 15pts, and a Massacre is 20. Going from 5pts to 10 points is a pretty substantial difference, and giving your opponent 10pts instead of 15 is also pretty important. To play for the draw, you'll usually be playing more conservatively. You will probably use a lot more cover and hide your units more, trying to make the opponent come to you. You may also play the scenario more intently than normal, attempting to gain objectives and things that give you more points without having to kill off the enemy army.

Here too, you should be examining the Scenario closely. In addition to simply setting the conditions for victory and defeat, it may also outline possibilities for bonus points. These generally involve the survival of your General (Highest cost HQ unit) or getting scoring units into the enemy deployment zone, or keeping your units from being destroyed. There are generally also penalties. These are often things like not having any units that still have scoring status or for not destroying any enemy units. They can also be things like losing your General. For the same reason that playing for a draw can be a good idea, these are important to remember as well. If you get a draw (10pts) against your opponent, but your opponent gets 3 bonus points and you get 2 penalty points, the score is now 13 to 8 in their favor. They get almost the equivalent of a victory, and you aren't much further ahead than a loss. By paying attention to these details, you can squeeze just a bit more out of your games, veritably snatching victory from the jaws of defeat!

Terrain
Before you deploy, take a minute to survey the terrain on the board. Know how the different types of terrain affect your army. Will it slow them down if they go through that? Will they have to go around those ruins in the middle? Can you see through it? You should also have an idea of how it will affect the opposing army. For instance, if it slows me down and the opposing army can see (and shoot me) through it, I may need to find another way. On the other hand, if it slows me down, but gives me good cover saves, it may be worth it. Anticipating how the opponent will use the terrain is a good thing as well. That way you can try to avoid being forced into a corridor that three Predators can race over to and shoot you like fish in a barrel.

In addition, the terrain may give you some clues about where the opponent is likely to place his army, which will give you an advantage when it comes to deployment. For example, if there is a large chunk of terrain near the center of your opponent's deployment zone, they will probably deploy their army split to either side of it. Too, if they have any indirect fire weapons, their placement will also be dictated by the terrain, giving you clues as to where the army will be placed before a single unit hits the table.

Deployment
This is where the models hit the table. You should already know how your units will work together, but think it through again as you place your models. If two or three units are working together or supporting each other, how should they be set up to best do this? (Note: practicing setting up your army is something that you can do ahead of time that will help you deploy more effectively.) A lot of players deploy so that they will be able to take the most advantage of winning the roll for first turn. Remember to consider what might happen if you don't get the first turn.

You also want to consider what the opponent is doing and if it effects your deployment. If you see that the opponent is overloading one side of the board, you may decide to respond in the same way. Alternately, you might want to ignore that side or only leave a few units there while you pile on the other side. Overloading one side will generally start you off with local superiority, which is what all tactics attempt to achieve. If you can achieve this before the game starts, you are ahead of the game.

You can attempt to get your opponent to spread out or overload the wrong flank by using "sacrifice" deployments. If you place a unit to one side of your deployment zone, your opponent is likely to respond in kind. If you place units toward both flanks, they will expect you to deploy in a fairly even line. If you then place almost the rest of your army to one flank, you will probably catch them flat-footed. If your "sacrifice" unit has a long enough range that it won't need to be with the rest of the army, then it's not even a real sacrifice to have it way off to one side. If the unit is fast, you can also simply move it over to join the rest of your army when it comes time for your first turn. Either way, you have pulled some of the enemy out of place, leaving you an advantage on the other side.

There are other ways to use deployment. You can use your sacrifice units to push the enemy back in some missions, making them be further away from your lines. Heavy Support units, being the first ones usually placed, are idea for this. For example, if you Deploy a Whirlwind out at the edge of your Deployment Zone, forcing the Tyranid player to deploy more than 24 inches away from it, then you deploy your units 6-8 inches behind the Whirlwind, you've given them much more ground to cover. Depending on terrain, you may also be able to cut them off from certain areas. If their deployment zone has a lot of terrain, or large chunks of it, deploying so that they cannot make use of part of it can be very effective.

A Man with a Plan
Have a plan when you enter the game. It can be as simple as understanding which of your units support each other best. It should also include the victory conditions of the game. Have a rough idea of what you'll need to do each turn to make the plan work best. For example, if you are playing an Objective-based game, your plan should include you seizing those objectives in the latter part of the game. Let's say that there are two objectives. Your plan might be to have your main force move toward one objective, decisively taking it, while you leave a couple of faster units hanging back. When your force arrives on the first objective and holds there, you might shift your firepower to reducing enemy units near the far objective to non-scoring status. Then, in the final turn of the game, your fast units move up to claim that second objective, while your main force continues to hold the first.

Using that plan as your guide, you can then decide how best to implement it on each turn. Turn 1: you select the fast units and make sure that they hang back from your main force, but don't move toward the other objective, which would tip off the opponent to your plans. Meanwhile, your main force advances on the first objective. Turns 2 and 3 will be more or less the same. Turn 4 should see your main force arriving on the first objective and starting to shift fire to enemy units nearer (but not necessarily the closest to) the other objective, to prevent reinforcements on that second objective. Turn 5, your main force continues to hold the first objective and gradually shoots closer to the other objective, firing on each unit just long enough to drop it below Scoring status. If your fast units aren't fast enough to arrive in a single turn, you'll need to start positioning them. Turn 6 should see the last of the enemy units near the other objective reduced to Non-Scoring Status and your fast units should sweep down and seize the second objective.

It's an old saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy. There are always things that will go wrong or that you didn't expect to happen. Having the plan gives you a good guideline for what you should do if something goes wrong with the plan. Let's say that the opponent has a larger or more resilient force near the second objective and you don't have enough firepower to reduce all the units to Non-Scoring status. You have some options. You might have a unit or two leave the first objective to assist in taking the second one. Make sure that you'll still have enough on the first objective to hold it, however, you'd feel awfully dumb trading one objective for the other. Alternately, you might be able to use your fast units to contest the objective, even if they can't seize it outright. If you hold one objective and the opponent doesn't, you still win.

You can also use the plan to make sure that each unit does the most effective thing. Using the above example of the two-objective scenario and the Main Force plan, look at each unit and decide whether it will be a better fit for the Main Force or for the fast section. Obviously faster units will be more likely to be part of the fast section, but you might have a slower unit with a lot of short to medium range firepower that would be useful to help make sure the fast section gets there. Alternately, since you are planning on your fast force not really coming into the game until the late turns, you don't want to have too many units be part of it. That would hinder your main force, since it wouldn't be fighting with full power. In addition, you'll want your more resilient units and those with long range weaponry to be somehow part of the main force, since that will help them hold the first objective and support the second one.

Once you have made your selections, deploy them so that they will be best able to support their part of the plan. You would probably deploy them heavily stacked on one side of your Deployment zone, with the fast section slightly toward the middle. Get a rough idea of how you want your defense of the first objective to look, then place your units so that they can get there. If you want that huge infantry squad on the left flank of the first objective, deploying it on the right side of your formation will cause you problems, as it may not be able to move fast enough to get there, and your other units may well get in the way of it's movement.

Once you are deployed according to your plan, then it's time to start playing. As you come to each unit in turn, decide what it will do that best fits your overall plan. If moving forward fits the plan better, do that. If standing still to fire heavy weapons will fit the plan better, do that. Think of the plan as a checklist as you go through your units in each phase of the game. (I know that sounds really tedious, but it's not, really. Just keep the plan in mind as you select each unit and it will follow the plan fairly easily.) If an event comes up that might cause you to change what a unit will do, consider how the change will impact the plan. If you want to shoot that unit that just came around the woods, but you are supposed to be moving toward the first objective, what can you do? First, see if there is another unit that might be able to shoot the enemy unit. Then, see if not moving this unit this turn will effect seizing the objective. Maybe it won't be as important to seizing the objective because you've got more of your army in this area of the board than the opponent does. Perhaps another unit will be able to take it's place and still defend the objective. Or you might just decide that getting the objective is worth more than shooting that enemy unit. As they say, Plan your work and Work your plan.

Now that we've covered Before the game and Planning the game, next is Playing the Game and Afterward.

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