Statistically your going to go 2nd at some point and vs. certain armies with characters that can bend those rules governing turns it's going to be more than half the time.....
At this point a decent opponent will be looking at your army and prioritising what units need to be eliminated early. An Imperial Guard player with a mechanised gun-line is going to be targeting your anti-tank first whereas a horde Ork player is unlikely to give a shit about you killing an Ork a turn with your Lascannon but is going to become very interested in that unit with four Flamers. Even an opponent of less than average skill level is still going to have some idea of what he intends to kill first that turn, a skilled opponent on the other hand will most likely know what he'll be targeting and in what order for the next six turns.....
There are a number of ways too deal with this scenario,
1) Protect those units you know are important with everything else in your army.
2) Have duplicates of everything so it doesn't matter if one, two or even three units of a single type get blown to shit.
Or even better,
3) Protect the important units with the less important ones and have duplicates of everything so it doesn't matter if one, two or even three units of a single type get blown to shit.
This is where redundancy comes in but first we need a brief interlude to talk about Spam.
A Brief Interlude to talk about Spam.
If you find a unit that does exactly the job you want and compliments your army perfectly and your allowed to take three then I see no reason why you shouldn't. If you adopt this approach then certain people will get shitty about it...My personal opinion is that they can go fuck themselves but that's just me. What I will say however is that just because three units have identical stats doesn't mean they have to look identical in every way. Give the units different squad markings, add different types of pintle mounts to vehicles, vary your colour scheme slightly, add battle damage, etc. though you'd be hard pressed to make twelve Razorbacks all look different it should be easily manageable with three Vindicators or similar ;-)
Right now that's out of the way...
Anti-tank is important in 5th edition and I'm presuming will remain so in 6th as GW are unlikely to let go the licence to print money that is 'buy a vehicle and a unit to go in it' or the 1+1 as certain internet pundits call it. How much anti-tank to take is an eternal debate that I won't go into as I don't have a lifetime spare to argue about it but what everybody of any importance will agree is you need a lot.
Very few armies these days will appear on the table with less than four vehicles, most will have six to ten and a few may have twelve or even more. However an opponent with twelve vehicles on the table is highly unlikely to have all twelve of them possessing a high armour value, most will be in the armour 11 or 12 sort of range and that's where the majority of your strength 6, 7 and 8 weapons will be aiming. Those vehicles with higher armour values will obviously require higher strength weaponry to destroy but on the other hand you'll need less of that high strength fire-power as there's less for you to use it against. it would be nice to be able to cram your army with high volumes of high strength shots but unfortunately those weapons are usually priced accordingly.
The upshot of this is that if your army only has two anti-tank units in it and your opponent has a wall of armour then those anti-tank units are going to take the brunt of their fire-power. If on the other hand you have six of those units then your opponents choices become more difficult. Obviously the same basic principles apply to anti-infantry weapons as well.
This is why balanced armies>rock armies on most occasions.
There is no fixed formula for this but as a brief rule of thumb, in an ideal(ish) world you'll have,
1) At least three units capable of destroying heavy armour. As these will often be required to stop a heavy transport (such as a Land Raider) as far away as possible (so the cargo doesn't immediately disembark and kick your teeth in) these need to be either long range or expendable depending on your army.
2) The ability to fire effectively at at least three (but more is better) light transports per turn. For obvious reasons you need less shots if your firing strength 8 Missiles than you do if your firing strength 6 scatter lasers. Missile Launchers are ideal as they generally have an alternative anti-infantry fire mode.
3) Enough anti-infantry to destroy a tactical squad in a single round of shooting or to maim two or even three. Tactical Squads are the benchmark for troop units in 40K.....If you can't kill Power Armoured Marines then you might as well go home now.
4) Sufficient low AP weapons to cause problems for the 2+ save crowd. Missile Spam is wonderful till you face off against thirty Terminators and for those you'll need AP 1 or 2. Plasma is one of the most common weapons used against these sorts of enemies but there are many, many others that can do the job.
As an example here's a somewhat extreme example of redundancy that is nonetheless still effective.
2000 Pts - Grey Knights Roster
HQ: Castellan Crowe (1#, 150 pts)
1 Castellan Crowe @ 150 pts
Troops: Purifier Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purifier Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Knight of the Flame
2 Purifier (Psycannon)
1 Purifier (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
1 Purifier
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Troops: Purifier Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purifier Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Knight of the Flame
2 Purifier (Psycannon)
1 Purifier (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
1 Purifier
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Troops: Purifier Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purifier Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Knight of the Flame
2 Purifier (Psycannon)
1 Purifier (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
1 Purifier
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Troops: Purifier Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purifier Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Knight of the Flame
2 Purifier (Psycannon)
1 Purifier (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
1 Purifier
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Troops: Purifier Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purifier Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Knight of the Flame
2 Purifier (Psycannon)
1 Purifier (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
1 Purifier
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Troops: Purifier Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purifier Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Knight of the Flame
2 Purifier (Psycannon)
1 Purifier (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
1 Purifier
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Heavy Support: Purgation Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purgation Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Justicar (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
2 Grey Knights (Psycannon)
2 Grey Knights
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Heavy Support: Purgation Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purgation Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Justicar (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
2 Grey Knights (Psycannon)
2 Grey Knights
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Heavy Support: Purgation Squad (6#, 195 pts)
1 Purgation Squad @ 195 pts (Razorback)
1 Justicar (Nemesis Daemonhammer)
2 Grey Knights (Psycannon)
2 Grey Knights
1 Razorback (Psybolt Ammunition)
Total Roster Cost: 1905*
* So we have a few points left over but this list is more to prove a point ;-)
The only difference between the units is that six of them are Troops and three are from Heavy Support making them slightly less of a priority in objective games. However your opponents target priority becomes irrelevant as every unit does exactly the same job...
So that's a brief guide to redundancy in 40K. Next time I think we'll look at duality with an appropriate army list to illustrate the point.
Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome.
I think it's worth pointing out that spam and redundancy are not necessarily the same thing.
ReplyDeleteA well designed Codex will be able to offer the tactical capabilities you identify (nice checklist, by the way) from a variety of units; it's the bad ones that only have one realistic option for any of the things you identify as important, forcing players to spam if they want to achieve anything.
I'd also maybe mention that there's a point at which spam becomes self-defeating; you may have six of your book's Best Unit but if they only cover one of your required capabilities your spam is not the kind that assures victory, it's the kind that assures boredom and ineffectiveness.
@ kaptainvon - It's difficult to cover all the possibilities in a 'general' article given the varied options available in different codices.
ReplyDeleteWhen I cover 'Duality' in the next article I'll be obliged to point out how difficult it is for certain armies (Orks) to achieve.
Ork Anti-tank = hit it with a Power Klaw
Ork anti-heavy infantry = hit it with a Power Klaw
Ork anti-infantry = hit it with loads of da boyz and then hit it with a Power Klaw.
Not that the Ork codex is as ineffective as a lot of people say but it can be depressingly one-dimensional.
Mm-hmm. I mean, I'm thinking about getting back into the 40K and I'm thinking about doing it with Orks almost because of that one-dimensional-ness. I burn my brain out with half the Warmahordes games I play and I'd prefer something fairly simple for other games.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great article. Thank You!
ReplyDelete@ Gonewild - Glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete@kaptainvon
ReplyDeleteWith Crowe lists, since you are taking the 150 pts tax, you better take full advantage of it. And I really don't get "tactical capabilities". I mean, there's anti-tank and anti-infantry. Purifiers do both, so it makes sense to take as many of them as possible on this case.
Also, in this list it makes sense take as many bodies as possble instead of dreads to capitalize better on the stronger mid-field presence that you are paying for already.
So, in this case, the oh-so-evil spamming does all that. And with 95 pts left, the best thing to take would be a muppet inquisitor for servo-skulls and w/e.
And since GK use the Psycannons for everything, most "pure" lists, or lists with token Inquisitor HQs will look like that. You want variety? Then is Codex: Coteaz.
The problem with the Ork codex is that, well, Close Combat is NOT a viable anti-tank strategy. There's a reason why so many people take Lootas.
About fun, is subjective. The special abilities of Purifiers and Purgation squads are amusing.