Hello everyone, Bill here with a friendly reminder on what the hell to shoot and how the fuck to shoot it! Target priority is one of the biggest errors that I see in a game. Even if you make all the right moves, if you target the wrong (or too many) targets than the game will be much more difficult than it has to be.
The first thing to remember when choosing your target is; choose the right target. Sure, those missile broadsides are scary but they are fairly easy to out range, or mitigate their damage with being out of LoS (smart missiles still suck but whatcha gonna do!?) the real threat are those pesky markerlights that will bring them to full BS against your fliers, while over watching, or against your precious troops after they run and fire! The pathfinders are much easier to kill and provide synergy with every unit shooting your face off. The biggest and scariest kid on the block is not always the most dangerous. If you are in an objective game; go after those troops especially if you have the tools at your disposal to stay away from the units that are putting out the real damage.Daemons are a great example of this; remember those FMCs are really going to only charge you if you are 19" away on average, probably even less if you can place yourself on the other side of terrain use this to your advantage and go after the sweet delicious troops trying to hide from you.
After you have determined the right target make sure that you are putting enough firepower into it to make sure it is completely dead or crippled to the point where it isn't going to do much. The second biggest mistake I see people make is not committing enough to the kill thinking everything will go as planned and each unit will kill exactly like they should. WRONG!!! Take your time and setup your units so they either have multiple targets and make sure you do your order of operations such that your units with only one target fire first. This is super important to you drop pod armies out there. Don't drop in with your plans to annihilate each unit; one for one unit, give yourself options to be able to completely overload a target to make sure it is dead or give yourself multiple targets if all goes well. Its the classic; plan for worst and hope for the best.
Through all of this remember that you need to survive; going back to my priorities when I am playing a game of 40k always remember through all of this you need to survive. If a unit isn't threatening you or if you can move so they become a non-threat now or in the future than put your efforts elsewhere. Don't kill just because you can because the chances are it is a trap. Use movement and positioning as your primary tactic and killing secondary.
In closing: give yourself options and commit commit commit if you are going to kill something.
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So I played against another Tau player tonight. Hammer and Anvil deployment, with 5 objectives. He won deployment, so he put all 3 of his in his zone. I put my 2 right on the table half; I pretty much won on deployment. He had a static gunline of around 40 fire warriors and 20 kroot, 3x5 units of pathfinders.
ReplyDeleteI went first, and killed 9 our of 15 markerlights. At that point on, I just whittled him down and removed his ability to do...anything.
Thanks for the comment Jared! Your experience definitely shows the values of target selection especially with two alpha strike armies. If you lose the roll to go first and the other person's target selection is dead on than it is going to be a tough game. The key for that player should have been to keep those marker units safe at all costs even if that meant reserving them.
ReplyDeleteProbably one of my biggest issues with my Wolves is target priority. Case in point my last tourny the game with Dan. I went after the big nasty instead of his seekers and it cost me the game. As an alpha strike army this can make or break you. Good word of advice Bill!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Troy. Yeah the big nastiness is fun to kill but isn't always the best target. I played essentially the same exact list last round at Connecticon and was able to snipe out the grimour and 5 screamers before be got a chance to get that 2++ reroll. Doubling them out with those relentless multi-meltas is huge. Glad you liked the article!
ReplyDelete@ Jared He deployed Kroot? Wow, that's just noob-tastic.
ReplyDeletePathfinders are so 5th Edition.
Great blog.
Minor advice, space out/break up the paragraphs a bit more.
-Gundam John
Thanks for the advice John, I guess I could go a little less wall of text like. Thanks for the comment,compliment and advice!
ReplyDelete