Back to Before the Game and Planning the Game.

Getting down to business
Okay, now you've done all your preparations, it's time to test your mettle in the actual game itself.

Think of the possibilities
As much fun as it is to look at the (hopefully) prettily painted models and imagine the epic clash of armies, you should also look at the possibilities each unit represents. Think of them as statlines and potentials. Figure out roughly what each one can do, and what the worst they could do is. Then try to prevent that from happening. For example, Space Marine Devastators with Heavy Bolters aren't just a bunch of guys with heavy weapons. They represent 7+ dead Gaunts or 6+ dead Genestealers. If both targets are available to them, the Genestealers are going to be worth about three times as many points, so which would be better for them to shoot? Once you realize this, you can start doing things to keep this from happening. You might be able to get those Genestealers out of Line of Sight. If that's not possible, getting them in cover will help a lot. If even that isn't possible, you can make sure that your Gaunts are slightly ahead of the Genestealers, to at least force them to take a Target Priority test.

Once you start seeing the possibilities that units represent, you can direct the flow of the battle more effectively, preventing your opponent from using the best options, while maximizing yours. As another example, you have a small brood of Gaunts that will be within charge range of 3 Eldar Rangers. Consider the possibilities. If you shoot them, you might be out of range to get the charge. Alternately, even if you are in range, you are likely to wipe them out in a single turn of combat, leaving your brood open to being shot next turn. If you just charge in, you'll still get them all, but you will be safe in combat during your opponent's turn. You don't have to have your numbers accurate to 2 decimal places, just have an idea of what to expect, then adjust so the worst stuff can't happen.

Victory Points
We've already discussed how Victory Points work and you have (presumably) adjusted your army to better deny your opponent those Victory Points. Now we have to think about how to get more of them for ourselves. Remember that you only get Victory Points when a unit goes under the half-strength mark or when it is completely destroyed. That means that a unit of 5 space Marines (Starting Strength 10) is actually less resilient than a unit of 2 Space Marines. You would have to kill twice as many Space Marines to get any points out of the second one. If you have firepower or combat power that can do it the second unit is still a good target. This is the flip side of considering what your opponent's units can do. If you know that your Elite Devourerfex will, on average, kill 2 Space Marines, you'll be better off shooting the unit of 2, since it makes the best use of your resources. It will also take out any remaining Heavy and Special weapons in the unit. If you have a second unit that is only capable of killing one Space Marine, you should, of course, shoot at the 5-man unit. This is an example of applying your force so that it most benefits you. Either way you should kill 3 total space Marines, but if both of yours fire at the unit of 5, you'll still only get half VPs for that unit. If they split their fire the other way, you'll get half points for the unit of 5, and you won't get any points for the unit of 2 (now 1 left.) If you apply your force correctly, you should be able to take down the unit of two AND reduce the unit of 5 to under half. By paying attention to what your capabilities are, you have doubled the number of Victory Points you would get in that turn.

The flip side of that coin is to pay attention to how close your units are to giving up Victory Points. In a recent game, I had a single Genestealer left out of a brood of 6. I realized that it would be easy for my opponent to shoot that Genestealer and get 48 Victory Points, so I hid the Genestealer instead of just charging it forward with the others. While those 48pts by themselves would not have made or broken the game, it's a more tactically effective way of thinking, which is what this whole article is all about. Even if the game is tight enough that you think that a single model or small group would sway the outcome, you can do things to prevent it from being targeted. If you can get it out of Line of Sight, but still close enough to be useful next turn, you've saved a bit. If you can put it into cover, it's more likely to survive. Heck, if you can just put another unit slightly ahead of it, you'll at least force them to make a Target Priority test to shoot it, which makes it slightly more survivable. Alternately, having something closer to the enemy or more dangerous may make the opponent have to choose which one to target. Every little bit helps. 50pts here and 50pts there adds up rather quickly. Think of it this way, the Margin of Victory is the difference between your Victory Points and your Opponent's. A difference of about 200pts is a draw. Simply doing the above a few times in a game will result in a shift of about 150 Victory Points. That's nearly the margin by itself. This means you could turn a loss into a draw, or a draw into a win.

Scoring Units
Again, we have already discussed Scoring units, but here's where our theory meets it's application. Given the same situation as listed in the Victory Point scenario (2 Space Marine units, originally 10 men. One is now at 5 and the other at 2.) If you are playing for objectives, and you only have one thing that can shoot them, it will be far more important to take that 5-man unit below half, since then the opponent would have no scoring units left, which means they cannot capture objectives. That's a (usually) large chunk of Victory Points that the opponent won't be able to get, or the entire game (Alpha level cleanse, anyone?) in some games. Pay attention to units that are close to their "break points" (under Half Size or Destroyed.) In objective games, these are the important targets.You don't need to destroy the enemy army, just reduce each unit to non-scoring status. For that matter, you don't necessarily even do that. The opponent may well have some units that are too far from an objective to be useful. If this is the case, you don't even need to worry about that unit, just reduce the ones that are close enough to matter and are still scoring.

The flip side, of course, is to think of your own units in the same way. In an objective mission, it's the Scoring Units that are important. Note that they are most important in the final turn of the game, but if you lose track of their status during the middle part of the game, you may find that you have none left by the end of the game. That doesn't mean you have to calculate everything carefully, just keep their status in mind as you play. Having that half-strength unit hide instead of participate in the fighting might just make the difference in getting the objective, particularly if you can make sure that you reduce your opponent's units below half at the same time.

Apres Game
After the game take notes. Run over the way the game went and jot down some basics about it. Try to come up with other options you might have used. Would they have been an improvement? For example, if the opponent seized an objective on the last turn to win, was there anything you could have done to prevent it during your final turn? Maybe if you'd focused fire on that unit instead of the Devastator squad, you could have made the unit non-scoring. Perhaps if you'd had a unit a little closer you could have intercepted the enemy squad and kept them from getting to the objective. Alternately, maybe your units were too far away to do any good, or they were too damaged to be effective. If so, what could you have done to prevent that?

The options may involve simply moving your units a little differently than you actually did, or using them differently. Then again, you army might have been more effective if you brought something different, like a tank, or if you brought more of something that you already had, like Heavy Weapons. You may be able to find a unit or part of a unit that didn't do you much good that you can replace with something that might work better. For that matter, you might be able to shave off a little bit here and there from several units to come up with the points you need without sacrificing the effectiveness of what you already have.

One thing to watch for, however, is how the changes will affect your army. For instance, let's say that you get blasted off the board by extremely shooty Space Marines. You conclude that you need some Lictors to clog up their shooting. So, you get rid of some units and shave others down so you can find the points and squeeze the Lictors in. Your next game you end up against Close Combat Chaos (This army brought to you by the letter C!) and get taken to school in close combat because of all the bodies you lost to get the Lictors. The idea isn't to keep you from changing your list, just to look at your changes and how they will affect your list, not just against the last opponent, but other ones as well. Compare the utility of what you are adding and what you are taking away. Here are some questions to consider when making your adjustments:

How will this affect my army against Hordes?

How will this affect my army against Shooty Armies?

How will this affect my army against Tank Heavy armies?

How will this affect my army against Close Combat armies?

How will this affect my army against Elite armies?

How will this affect my army against Skimmers?

Using the Lictors as our example, here is how we could answer our questions:

How will this affect my army against Hordes? Little to no help. They can't kill much, so 240pts could be much better spent.

How will this affect my army against Shooty Armies? They could help a lot, tying up lead enemy units and blocking Line of Sight to the rest of your army.

How will this affect my army against Tank Heavy armies? A little help. Rending Claws can be very effective, but armor values above 11 require rolling a 6 to penetrate them, so the points could be better spent.

How will this affect my army against Close Combat armies? Little to no help. Lictors don't do a lot of damage, though they can help concentrate force a bit. Generally you could get a better return for those points.

How will this affect my army against Elite armies? Pretty nicely. Lictors don't kill very many, but if your opponent has only a few troops or vehicles, every one that it takes down will be a much bigger blow to their army.

How will this affect my army against Skimmers? Poorly. Needing to roll 6's just to hit Skimmers means there's not much chance to really do damage with them. An expensive unit with little return against Skimmers.

The Big Takeaway!
Note that while I suggest you analyze your army list and your game play, I don't for a minute want you to turn your games into just strings of numbers. Enjoy your games, enjoy your armies, but a few simple things can make them just that little bit sharper. If this way of thinking about it is new to you and you want to try it, start small. Pick one thing from these articles and try it out. Once you've gotten comfortable using it, then come back and pick another to work with. If you are experienced with these methods, see if there are things that you can do just a little more sharply, or if maybe you need to rethink a little bit here and there. Finally, if you already do everything here, and you have something else, email me and let me know what that something else is, so I can do it too!

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

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