Sometimes you don’t need focus a lot of resources to hold an objective.

Hey all, Son of Adam here with a run-through of how to approach mission number five in the BRB, “The Emperor’s Will.”  Eventually there will be an “Approaching” article for each of the missions, but we are going to start with five.  Why five and not one? Because this one is the most interesting and the one I have seen messed up the most.

             First off, let’s look at what makes up mission five.  All of the rules for mission five are the standard for all missions; warlord traits, night fighting, reserves, secondary objectives, etc.  What distinguishes it is the amount and placement of the objectives.  There are only two objectives; one for each player.  These objectives are subject to the normal rules, but contrary to 5^th, these objectives are place in the owning player’s table half.  (Note that they no longer have to be in the owning player’s deployment zone).

            So, how do we follow the golden rules in order to win the game?  The victory conditions are achieved by having more victory points than your opponent.  Let’s break this down in a real blunt and simple way.  We can guarantee this points preponderance by claiming both primary objectives, claiming one primary and secondary objective while the opponent doesn’t claim a primary, or by claiming more secondary objectives while neither player claims a primary.  These are all very obvious, but now that they have been overtly stated we can look at how to achieve each of them. 

            The first, and most difficult to achieve, is claiming both primary objectives.  This mission in 5^th edition (capture and control) was not dubbed “mission tie game” for nothing.  It usually goes one of three ways.  First, both players do a full out attack and leave one scoring unit behind.  Second, both players castle and wait, and third, some combination thereof.  And then when the dust settles, if the game isn’t already over, each player tries to dash towards whatever objective isn’t claimed.  Generally this is just a very hard way to win mission five.  Usually it is only possible with a much stronger list, poor play from your opponent, or really lucky dice.

            The next way is to claim a primary objective and deny your opponent from claiming one, while remembering to score one of the secondary objectives.  This method is much easier to win with and is often the overlooked play.  You pick which primary objective is more of a guarantee to claim and work to claim that one by the end of the game.  Then you stay alive.  You can try to find ways to remove your opponent from the other primary objective by baiting him or confusing him with deployment, but essentially you want to be alive and in a position to contest their primary objective for the end of the game.  If you can manage not to get yourself killed, you can claim your own objective while defending it and contesting the opponent at the same time.  It takes a bit of finesse and there are many different ways to do it, but the focus is on claiming on primary while contesting the other.

            And lastly, you can tie for the win.  If you think that it will too hard to claim both or contest one primary objective and will end up being “mission tie game,” you can play for the tie and play for the secondary objectives.  I won’t go into this too much, there is already an article up about it, but suffice to say, make sure your list can handle the secondary objectives and play for them without revealing that you are.

            In the end I usually play for method two, while banking on method three.  This way I play very conservatively while acquiring the secondary objectives and make the push for the last turn contest.

            Let me know your thoughts.  Basic article, but you know I like to look at the overlooked basics for the win.  Do you have any stories about “mission tie game?”  Post up your comments/criticism and make sure to like/follow/sub to our stuff.  Thanks for reading.