Aaron's Wargames Reports And Tactics

"Isn't it great to be young and insane" - Michael Keaton in "The Dream Team"





Over the years and against various entities, (to say people, in some cases, would be stretching the truth beyond breaking point), I have written a few comments about playing style and tactics. Less than a military doctrine and more than the insane ramblings of a psychopath, the words laid out below are probably going to end up like Rimmer's Diary on one of the early episodes of Red Dwarf, (used against me just prior to my execution).

Under construction at the moment is the Battle Reports page.

Worth checking out is Richard's page on tactics, (this link is broken and will be replaced once his site is reworked), which will, (if anything), allow you some insight into how he plays. The only comments Richard is ever likely to pass on my style of play would be "If Aaron can take masses of big shooty stuff then he will, unless he doesn't and then it will be masses of non-shooty stuff"

I tend to class troops into several large clumps with smaller sub groups which prove exceptions to the rule.
 


Battle Plans

In every game I have a loose plan of action. If my army is designed around assault, (I usually take Chaos armies for this), then I have to make sure that there is enough support fire to allow my troops to get to their targets. If my army is for defence, (Tech Guard, Squats), then it has to maximise firepower without losing close in support. On the occasions I break these rules I tend to suffer for it. This was the problem with my game against Richard's Tyranids where I had a great deal of firepower but no real support elements to deal with the close combat abilities of the Tyranid Army, (Richard wrote an almost unbiased report on the game which you can read by following this link). Since neither of us knew what army the other was taking I chose a Heavy Firepower army without close combat support troops. This showed in the last turn where I lost 2 Warlord Titans and my Imperator Titan in close combat.
My wargaming strategy and tactics stem from two statements: Strategy is knowing what your opponent is likely to do. Having played Richard many times over the last 5 or 6 years I am finally working out what he is likely to pick as an army list if I know what army he is taking.
Tactics depend on how the table is laid out and where the objectives are.
Firepower armies prefer big open spaces so you have to choose your killing grounds and force your opponent to attack you through these areas. This may mean leaving troops out as bait and perhaps even sacrificing them.
Assault armies need cover, speed and support firepower. However attacking too early is usually the downfall of an Assault army. Balanced armies can't do anything except defend, and then only poorly because they don't have enough troops to perform an effective assault and don't have enough firepower to defend what they have to hold.
I go for extremes because while you may lose some of the time, most of the time you can only do one thing and planning becomes that much easier. If you are going to attack then attack all the way because you can't defend with an assault army. If you are going to defend then you have to defend because you haven't got enough speed or any assault troops to attack.

Other Players Strategy and Tactics

The people I play against are mainly from around Auckland and generally I only fight them at tournaments or in preparation to tournaments. I mainly play against Richard Bright because, (as Richard puts it), 'we're both crotchety "old" sods, so we make a good pair. We don't mind playing new people, we just find that most people who play Epic annoy us!'

However, if you:

get in touch and let's try to organise a game. Mail Richard or me.

Richard normally balances his forces well and only occasionally weights his army to be especially defensive or offensive.

Paul Watters will always have the latest thing he can get shipped out from GW in England. Paul tends to have a lot of lead in his armies and this may have affected his playing style. A good anti-armour force will deal to Paul fairly quickly. Paul will also throw his fliers at you in a quick attempt to draw your fire away from his slower units. At the last convention I played Paul at this worked very well as I shot down all his fliers and then took apart his ground troops piece by piece, so I guess that tactic worked =).

Karl Cederman. "Karlos" as I sometimes refer to him will take Orks without exception, Nobs Warbikes by the truckload and lives for Mekboy Shokk Attack Guns. Karl's armies are always assault armies and the only way I know of beating him is to take truckloads of Squats and fliers. Brotherhoods are the a requirement and Superheavy vehicles are best left at home.

Peter plays Ultramarines and loves to use Drop Pods and Thunderhawk Gunships. This is cool because he can grab objectives in the first turn and have a reserve of troops for later bounds should he decide to assault. The problem is that drop pods suck! They don't open 1/3 of the time trapping troops inside and since you have to give all your troops the same orders, the ones outside are stuffed for assault and have to advance about until every last pod is opened. Put a company of troops in drop pods and you have a quick set of victory points handed to your opponent on a plate. Thunderhawks are great cavalry and also great targets. Anything can shoot Gunships and have a 50/50 chance of destroying them. This is the only problem with Pete's armies, when anything goes wrong it is usually in a spectacular fashion. He can also win in a flash but I am yet to see anyone do well at a tournament with a totally airborne army.

Infantry

These guys tend to underrated by most people. Richard, (I think), tends to over-rate infantry. To me they are a force that you put down and leave alone for most of the game. Standard foot slogger infantry are best placed in cover near an objective which in 3 turns they can reach and defend. When they are threatened cavalry come to the rescue and when they are not threatened they move forwards. I tend to place infantry in the center of the table or as near to cover as they can be.
Exceptions to the rule


Cavalry

Cavalry to me are fast moving foot sloggers with shorter range weapons. Typically this includes, Land Speeders, Thunderhawk Gunships and Rhinos with assault troops, Bikers, Disc Riders, Juggers, Jet Bikes, etc. There are only two ways to use cavalry: The first thing Richard does is commit his cavalry to attack where my weakest link is. I then commit my cavalry as the reserve and a bloody skirmish results with Richard usually getting the short straw. The only time this doesn't happen is when Richard holds back his cavalry units until the second, third or even fourth turn. Then he uses the cavalry with devastating effect by breaking severely weakened companies or grabbing open objectives at the very last moment.
The above two examples are the only way cavalry should be used. To do this means you cannot be distracted from your battle plan. My battle plan has only one sentence for the cavalry. Defend the Artillery until the second turn then assault and gain objectives or break enemy companies.

Light Tanks and Troop Transporters

Light tanks are tanks which have a 2+ or worse armour save. These I treat as cavalry when I am using a firepower or defensive army. They have an armour save which sometimes protects them against infantry and Light tanks can defend themselves against other light tanks by combining firepower or shooting first. Otherwise I don't take them.
Troop Transporters are a slightly different story. If your troops come with armoured transports, (ie Space Marine Devastators), you need to use the speed of the transports to get the troops to high ground, (buildings mainly), or cover in the first turn. This will allow you to deploy and fire the heavy firepower troops, (using advance orders), or assault and/or deny objectives to your opponent in that turn.
Exceptions to this rule are armoured vehicles which behave more like cavalry, (Iron Eagle Gyrocopters, Chaos/Imperial/Eldar Fliers , Thunderhawk Gunships, etc), which can be used as mobile anti-tank platforms or as scout/cavalry. I tend to use them as cavalry in the initial turns and then as Anti tank weapons to break armoured companies or superheavy vehicles by running around the flanks of the enemy in the first two turns and then hitting superheavy vehicles in the rear on the third or fourth turn.

Heavy Tanks

I class heavy tanks as those with 1+ armour saves. Heavy tanks are Fire magnets. I will only use them for a specialised role and usually in support of an infantry company. Heavy tanks can't be destroyed by standard troops. The only threat to a heavy tank is several light tanks or another heavy tank. Light tanks don't usually have the range advantage of a Heavy tank and so can be taken out at a distance or by the infantry the Heavy tank is supporting. The only way to beat another Heavy tank is to be faster on the draw or concentrate firepower from your anti-armour units.
Exceptions to this rule are Squat Overlord Airships. I like Overlords because they kick ass when it comes to infantry or armoured units. Infantry in cover are a problem to the Overlord as it only hits on a 5 or 6 normally. At this time the overlord needs to pick out armoured targets or even Titans to knock down shields and allow anti-armour units to hit the titan directly.
Overlords draw fire from Heavy tanks and Titans simply because they can cause so much damage if not destroyed quickly.

Light Titans and Super Heavy Vehicles

I think of Warhound and Reaver titans, Capitol Imperialis, Slasha Gargants, Squat Colossus and Squat Land Train in the same group. Tyranid Hierodules also fit into the group as their "shields" are referred to as "wounds". They are all light weight fire power platforms. They can be specialised to take infantry support weapons , (Warhounds, Reavers, Slashers), or are designed that way, (Colossus, Land Train, Imperialis). They can fight off some Close Combat attacks but need support in the form of cavalry when they are likely to be overwhelmed. Surviveablity is the key word to these vehicles. All have power or force fields to ward of some attacks and, (in theory), can hand back as good as they get. These vehicles are the most likely to break in the middle of the game and so need better protection. Too often I have seen Light Titans sacrificed stupidly because they were thrust forward of the front line to grab an objective, then drew too much fire and fell blazing in flames, not only losing the objective, but giving away victory points for being destroyed. Using a Titan for a specific task is part of the battle plan. If the plan calls for infantry support weapons then pick multi-shot anti-armour weapons and barrage weapons. If the plan calls for assault then choose anti-infantry weapons and perhaps one good anti armour weapon, (you are most likely to combat infantry on an objective than armoured vehicles).

Heavy Titans

Heavy Titans are Imperial Warlords and Imperators, Eldar Phantoms and Warlocks, Gargants, Mega Gargants and Tyranid Hierophants. These are all heavy firepower platforms but are used in much the same way as for Light Titans. Pick the role for the Titan and place it where it has a good view of the targets and has support in case of close combat attacks.
The Imperator Titan is somewhat over priced for what it is. Sure it has a massive amount of firepower and nobody wants to go near it but if you lose it then the game is over immediately. I have seen Imperators go down to two attacking Wind Rider hosts, (which cost half the points), beaten down by two Mega Gargants, (twice!), and get its head ripped off by a Hierodule titan, (with a Hierophant titan, Carnifexes and Genestealers in Support). I'd rather spend 1500 points on a Warlord Battle group and use the remaining 750 points on an Imperial Biker Company, Ogryns and a Commisar for support.
Mega Gargants will go down but you have to pummel down the shields early and start fires. Fires are what destroy a Mega Gargant. Aim for the Ammo or Guns to reduce the Mega Gargan'ts firepower or start fires.
Titans Versus Tyranids. Make sure you have a ripper fist on your titan, (even two), so that you have extra CAF and a slash attack to cause extra damage to the Tyranid Titan.

Specialist Weapons

Specialist Weapons come in many sizes and shapes. These are usually the 'cheesy' elements that some players over-use and either cost them the battle or give them a narrow margin over another player. I think of Specialist weapons as single purpose task forces. A case in point are Squat Biker Guilds. They are cavalry and usually get positioned on the flanks to sweep around the enemy or in the center of the table to exploit any weakness in the enemy army or reinforce my own weak spots.
Most people use specialist weapons as game breakers up until the game where they lose horribly and have to re-evaluate their tactics. The first case for me was the Tyranid Dominatrix. Everyone said that you can't kill a Dominatrix because it was just too tough. At the North Island championships I took two Biker Guilds just to close combat Titans and Superheavy Vehicles. I chopped one Dominatrix into little pieces with two squat biker detachments and the other was nastily wounded. The bikers didn't attack until the third turn and had heavy fire support from 3 Overlord Airships. By the time the 10th biker starts rolling dice the Dominatrix is taking 21 wounds per attack, (recover from that, bitch).
If you decide to have a particular element perform a 'surprise' attack you must have the support weapons in place to guard against counter attacks, and like a good comedy the most important element is timing. The attack on the Dominatrix drew other attackers away from my infantry who were about to be turned into dogfood and as a result neither unit on mine broke winning me the game, (it was headed for a draw otherwise).
Assault is no good if you can't hold the position. Defensive firepower is useless if you don't have close combat support to counter the enemy's inevitable charge.
The most common and poorly used 'surprise' attack is with Thunderhawk Gunships loaded with Terminators or assault troops. At the Nationals I played a nerk who assaulted my Squat Colossus with a veteran Detachment and a Terminator Detachment in Gunships. Since my Colossus couldn't be pinned by the Infantry I blew away the 2 Gunships and proceeded to nail every attacking stand but one, which I squished under my treads in close combat. SURPRISE!!! which leads to my next topic....

Dumb Things I Have Done Or Seen

The three most common mistakes I make and also the most common I see. Less common faults but just as disastrous are ones that cost you points in the game. All the above can be summed up in this statement that I paraphrase from Tsun Tzu in The Art of War - know your enemy and you will win one battle in ten, know yourself and you will win half your battles, know yourself and know your enemy and you will never lose -
Not a bad piece of advice for a guy that's been dead for over 2000 years. Anyone seriously interested in wargaming should read The Art of War. The principles relate to more open styles of strategy and tactics, (ie real life), but they can be translated to application on a wargaming table.
This is the end of my ravings and I hope to add to them in the future as I learn more. Not everything I know is here because there are some things you can't learn by reading, (ie Psychology in a game, like walking on your opponent's side of the board to get a different perspective and also annoy the hell out of the other player by invading 'his' personal space), and I also have to keep a few things up my sleeve just in case I meet you at the next regional wargaming tournament.

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