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Quick Tip: Tag-Team to Win Combat
Hey all Son of Adam here with a quick tip about tipping the favor of combat. This technique is a very particular one, but it can be shaped to good effect against most non-fearless armies; it’s called the tag-team. Please keep in mind that this technique cannot be used in every circumstance, but when it can be used, it can be the shift in power during a game.
Once in the last round of a tournament, I was facing a horde ork army with a full sized nob biker unit. There was nothing in my army that could have faced that unit head on and my opponent knew it. He stretched the squad out across the board so that no matter where I went in my turn he would be close enough to engage me. I was stuck in a hard place and had to employ the tag-team.
I happened to get the rule book power terrify (it relieves a unit of the fearless special rule) and I used it on his nob bikers (keep in mind this tactic can only be used on non-fearless units). I moved up my combat unit and did not shoot in order to keep the formations that he had put out in place. Then I multi-assaulted his strung out nobs squad (big scary unit) and tag-teamed his boys squad (an easily killable unit). I used my movement in such a way to make sure that nearly all of the combat squad could only get in on the boys squad and I dumped nearly all of my attacks into it. During his reaction most of his nob squad was too far away to fight, and most of the boys were dead.
For combat resolution I had killed enough of the boys that his biker squad was taking its leadership test on a two. Even with the re-roll they failed, and since the boys were still big enough to be fearless I couldn’t pursue them. The Nobs with both warbosses rolled their three dice and fled off the table.
That is the tag-team. In these pictures you can see how the eldar jetbikes are facing off against a paladin squad. During their movement they position themselves in a place where they can declare the convenient rhino as their primary target and the paladins as the secondary.
After they charge they dump all of their attacks into the rhino and only one of the warlocks hits the paladins. Since in sixth edition all damages against a tank count towards combat resolution the paladins end up loosing combat by enough to make them test on double ones.
They fail their leadership and if the bikes roll low enough to catch them, then the paladins will break and run off the table.
This is very situational, and it’s not a guarantee, but if you find the opportunity, try it. You can help push favor of combat towards your units if you can find a way to push the combat resolution to 9+ on your side. Good luck all.
Tournament Review: Outside the Box Games 8.12
Hey all Son of Adam here again with another tournament review. This last weekend Vanguard and I drove out to Jersey and played in Outside the Box Games’ tournament. This tournament was a 1999 tournament with 20 players.
I’m sorry that I haven’t put out too many strategy articles recently, but I have been busy playing in these tournaments and painting for NOVA. Good news is that we should be having some graphics for the articles soon to help clearly display the techniques.
This weekend I brought an Eldar with Dark Eldar allies list. It had the same council as before, two squads of three jetbikes, 3 squads of snipers, a squad of swooping hawks, an aegis, the duke, and a 20 man warrior squad.
My first match was against Damian and his Necrons. It was a fun game against a good opponent, and it was good prep for us both as we are both planning on attending NOVA. You all asked for a more in depth report and so this is my effort to accommodate that; if you are uninterested just take a look at the pictures and scroll down to the bottom.
Damian’s (sorry bro, I have no idea how to spell this. feel free to post a revision and I will throw it in here) list had an overlord with two 10 man immortal squads, a destroyer lord with two 6 man wraith squads, 3 night scythes with 5 man warriors onboard, two annihilation barges, and a doom scythe. The mission was dawn of war deployment and the victory conditions were Kill points with the BRB secondary for battle points.
Damian won the roll for first and passed it to me. There was already a sky-shield platform in my deployment so I didn’t need the aegis. I castled up and dumped all of the foot troops in it except for the hawks who skylept at the beginning of the turn. Then I placed the council on the far side of the middle to try and get Damian to split his forces. He then deployed all of his wraiths with the destroyer lord across from my castle, and setup everything else across from the council.
In first turn I turned on the fortune and flat out the council to my left flank just in front of the platform to cover up the firebase from assault. Then everything shot at the one squad with the destroyer lord. Damian was running him in the front in order to pass off all of the wounds. However, I was able to get a few sniper shots in on him and reduced him to one wound, and knock off two wraiths.
In his turn he charged all of the wraiths forward and left the destroyer lord to the back. Everything else changed direction and took its time getting in range of the castle. One squad of wraiths was 11 inches away from the council but didn’t want to chance the overwatch for nothing and decided to run instead. 
For the start of my turn two I moved up the council and prepared for a multi-charge. The fire base split its shots between the two squads, reducing the lord’s squad to a man, and the other to four wraiths. Then the council charged in and knocked some more down. 
Damian’s turn two started with all of his fliers coming in trying to get shots on the castle, because the council was still engaged. The rest of the army continued to adjust to being out of range. All of the fliers opened fire on the castle, forcing them to go to ground and only managed to kill a few models. In combat more of the wraiths dropped, but one survived and tied up the council for my turn.
In my turn three, everything had gone to ground and the council was still engaged, but the jetbikes came on and hid on the now vacant part of the table. In combat the last wraith went down and the council consolidated the best it could for the oncoming fire.
The crons turn three had all of the night scythes continue to move forward, as the council was out of position for them to turn and fire on them, but the doom scythe moved into position to engage them. The command barges now changed direction and went back to their original side of the table trying to chase down the guardian jetbikes. All of the night scythes fired on the castle and it went to ground again, only loosing a few models. The barges were out of range, and the doom scythe shot on the council, but couldn’t do enough damage. Between all of the tesela’s arcs the doom ended up being hit and loosing a hull point.
For the top of turn four the council charged over towards the first immortals squad and eliminated them between shooting and combat. The castle snap fired into the same immortals squad to help reduce its numbers, and the guardians went flat out across the table to eliminate one of the barges range.
In his turn four the night/doom scythes all flew off the table, the barges continued their pursuit and the immortals climbed a mountain hoping that the dangerous terrain would kill some of the council. They fired on them and didn’t do much damage, but the barges were able to take out two from one of the guardian’s squad.
For the top of my five the council moved into the mountain, shot, and charged the immortals killing all of them. The guardian’s squad split up and flat out to the safest places they could find.
In his turn five, all of the scythes came back and finally hunted down the remaining guardians. The game ended, and Damian ended up getting three KP’s; two for the guardians and one for the Swooping Hawks that scattered off the table (sorry I forgot to mention that, they didn’t do anything but jump all game anyway).
My second match was against Mike Ludwig and his ork horde army. Mike is the president of the Big Gunz gaming club and was a real fun guy to play against. The table looked like a wave of green orks all game. He had six 30 man ork boy squads with nob/claw/pole, three squads of 10 lootas, and a KFF big mek. The match that we played was dawn of war deployment with four objectives across the middle. There were special rules that said that the objectives could disappear if a six was rolled at the beginning of the turn.
Mike got first turn and deployed everything in the only way he could manage, which was filling the board, throwing the mek as centrally that he could, and spreading out the lootas evenly. I responded by putting the council out of range of all but one loota squad, throwing all the rest of the snipers in buildings, putting the warriors in the aegis, and reserving the hawks and one five man sniper team.
Mike rolled for night fight first turn, which saved me from a lot of dakka. He ran all of the boyz forward and shot what he could, but didn’t kill anything.
In my turn the council moved up, but stayed in range of only one squad for charging. All of the fire base fired on one unit and removed a chunk of it.
For Mike’s turn two, he again advanced and fired on the council. The one squad that was reduced and close enough to charge decided to not take the bait and instead backed up and covered the lootas. Not much damage was done from his shooting.
In my turn two the scouts came in and outflanked on the wrong side. The council charged forward and with the fire base laid into the squad that had a chance to counter charge, reducing its effectiveness, and pinned another.
For Mike’s turn three he wiped out my snipers easily, as they were out of cover. Then he shot everything into the council and charge them with two squads. I over-watched and hurt one and then the other came in without being hit. I ended up kill the first squad and knocked out a lot of the other one as well.
In my turn three the council finished up the rest of that squad in combat, and I fired into the pinned squad and the lootas. The pinned squad got knocked down a few and the lootas had one member left.
In Mike’s turn four we lost two of our objectives but evenly. He moved everything up to hit the council at once. The rest of the army shot into the council. Then the one squad that was pinned, charged in and did a little bit of damage before being wiped.
In my turn four the council charged one squad on his remaining objective and the firebase was generally getting out of range to do much else, but knock off the remaining loota and weaken the squad the council was charging. The guardians came on and hid out of range of the remaining lootas.
In Mike’s turn five, everything counter-charged the tied up council, and did a bunch of damage. The lootas fired ineffectually into the snipers. In the end he had three squads that remained in combat and the councils numbers began to get thin.
For my turn five I boosted the bikes onto an objective, dropped the hawks on his in case the council didn’t make it, and shot the lootas off the table. In combat the council killed off one of the squads but took a bunch of damage in return.
The game ended here, but Mike wanted to see how it would go so we played it out. He ended up killing all but one wound on each of the farseers, but they won combat and stuck around giving me the win on objectives. Mike got first blood with the snipers that I shouldn’t have outflanked with, and I was able to pick up line breaker and kill the warlord.
For the final match I played an old friend of mine named Steve. Steve brought a very nice, non-net-list, Necron army. He had a destroyer lord with 6 wraiths, a night scythe with 15 warriors, two arks with 10 warriors, a 14 man warrior squad on foot, a squad of scarabs, a triach stalker, a doomsday ark, and two barges.
The mission this time was “The Relic” and the deployment was again dawn of war. Steve got first turn and setup his stalker and ark on my right and spread everything else around from there to the left. For my deployment I setup the council in the middle with the warriors in the aegis, and the snipers infiltrated onto my left.
In Steve’s first turn it was night fighting, which ended up not mattering too much. Almost everything advanced forward and shot off the one squad of guardians that I put on the table and killed a few warriors. The ark shot my council and knocked off one guy.
In my turn, I moved up the council to cover the snipers from the advancing wraiths, and my shooting didn’t do anything.
Steve responded by moving everything into position to fire on the council and the snipers. His night scythe came on the far left and contributed to the fire. The Lord detached and went after the snipers and the scarabs and wraiths charged into the council. I over-watched the scarabs nearly to death and killed the rest in combat, and the wraiths and I traded damage. His Lord ended up rolling double ones and didn’t make it into combat.
In my turn two, one squad of guardians came on and everything that was in range/free to shoot, shot at the lord reducing him to one wound. The combat with the wraiths reduced them to a few members.
Steve brought all of his guns to bear on my warriors in turn three, and nearly wiped them out, and then he killed off my guardians with his warriors. Another squad of warriors dropped out of the ghost ark and picked up the relic. The lord charged my snipers and lost his last wound to overwatch. In combat my council removed the last three wounds in the wraith squad and consolidated towards the middle of the table.
For my turn three, I charged the council forward and shot down the whole warriors squad with the relic and then consolidated on top of it.
The game ended there, because we ran out of time. The game ended in a tie, but the tiebreaker was kill points which gave me the win. Steve again got first blood and I was able to pickup kill the warlord on an overwatch.
All in all it was a fun day. I ended up getting top spot and Vanguard tied the hard fought fight for the smoking boots award. The store was great. It is a bit newer but has great tables, terrain, and community. Many thanks to the owner, Mike, for putting on such a great event.
Thanks all for reading. This is a long post, but it is also the more detailed report that you guys were asking for. I hope that is what you were looking for. Please note that the pictures are all from my punny camera as the Mighty Squig was not able to attend, and should be looked at graciously. On a side note, would you rather the perspective shots from the first matchup or just the turn overview from the second two? Should we continue this longer, more detailed version, or just do the smaller one?
Check out our videos and make sure to like/follow/sub/friend our pages. Thanks again all.
Tying for the Win
Hey guys, Son of Adam here with a quick article on tying for the win. This is part of the third sphere of game strategy; macro-game-play. Let’s hop down this rabbit hole and see what’s inside.
After a long hard fought battle sometimes both players get the same number of kill points, or have the same number of objectives and the game comes down to those good ol’ secondary objectives. Now that we are talking about sixth those are the; slay the warlord, line-breaker, and first blood objectives. When tying for the win, as the name says, you try to do this intentionally. However, if you are playing in a tournament with different rules you will need to figure out if this tactic will work and what other subtle things you need to do in order to pull it off.
Jetbikes are often overlooked in list building, but their manueverability is useful for getting into the enemy’s deployment zone.
Playing for the tie is often much easier than going for the win, but with this tactic you can achieve both. At the start of the match take a minute and look at the mission and both armies, then judge for yourself; do I have an easier time at winning the secondary and tying the primary or at winning the primary? Whichever one turns out to be more of a sure thing is the one you should go for.
You must be subtle when you do this, as in the minds of most players it will be the battle for the primary and a disregard of the secondary. Let’s continue on in the Art of War(hammer) here.
“9. As circumstances are favorable, modify your plans.
10. All warfare is based on deception.
11. Hence, when able to take the objective, we must appear unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must appear far away; we must make them believe we are other than what we are.
12. If your enemy’s strength is greater than your own evade him and seek victory another way.
13. Attack where he is unprepared, appear where you are unexpected.
14. These tactical methods, which lead to victory, cannot be divulged beforehand.
15. The general who wins has made many calculations before the battle is fought, likewise the general who makes few looses. Therefore, calculate how you may achieve victory beforehand and it shall be yours.”
So, when your force is outmatched you must modify your plans and play for a victory through secondary objectives while still appearing to play for the primary. When doing this, you will then appear where you are not expected, and attack what he has not prepared, and secure the victory.
When considering the secondary objectives, Draigo is a great choice. Not only is he hard to kill, but he also excells against other warlords.
When you are building your list keep this tactic in mind. As an example; if you know you will be playing the standard 6th edition missions, build a list that can achieve first blood, has a general that is hard to kill, and can use its mobility to get into the enemies deployment zone, while still being able to contest objectives. This may make your list look weak to some, which in the end is a good thing, as it will further the deception that you are outmatched and boost the confidence of your opponent.
Go out and try using this tactic. See if you can take victory from a strong opponent or against a list that is stronger than yours. Then make sure you come back here and tell us about it. Be sure to check out our videos and follow/like/comment/sub to our stuff. Thanks for the help fellas.
Please note that all references to the Art of War(hammer) are a fictitious knock off of the real Art of War by Sun Tzu. Some portions are a direct quote; I do not mean to take credit for any of it. Go check it out, it’s a great book.
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