Tournament Tactics: Army Building Informed by Mission Pack

Time to crush these Highland upstarts...

In order to differentiate myself from the 115 other players at the Caledonian Uprising in January – an 1850, 6 game tournament at Maelstrom Games, Mansfield, I think I need to employ several tactics:


1) Use an army that I am familiar with and no one that I just design the week before, playtest once and hope for the best.

2) Ensure said army is painted to the best of my ability so I can grab all the soft scores! A lot of players don’t get this and even just a few extra points will make the difference.

3) Design the army with the missions in mind.

We are going to start with point 3 today, I will investigate the missions and try and formulate some ideas based on them..

Mission 1 SG:5
 

 
 
 
Fairly straightforward one here. A few points that inform decision making..
 
If you deploy anything top right or bottom left, beware of units walking on or coming on from reserve and just assaulting you!
 
Certain army builds may be able to push the flank very well. For example, 2 troops and an HQ deploy bottom left (in the light green zone), going first, move so to block enemy troops moving on to the board in the bottom left, whilst his troops roll on top right and push this section of the board, attacking across two fronts.
 
It is also fairly easy to get troops deployed midfield almost straight away.
 
The central/diagonal line is drawn by the player going first, either top left - bottom right OR top right - bottom left...depending on terrain.. tactical advantage but nothing above the norm.
 
This is not a huge concern for the selection process though. Neither are the missions really. SG:5 (no, not another spin off of SG-1 :) ) and Annihilation ... I personally tend to aggressively move on objectives whilst simultaneously trying to cripple the enemy, especially movement...I simply find this the most efficient way of smushing the enemy. So as far as I am concerned the two work hand in hand..
 
Plenty of troops required, tough enough to hold out, mobile enough to get to where they need to be, whole army able to put out good firepower.
 
Mission 2: Cleanse
 

Spearhead, Cleanse and C&C...midfield control is incredibly important here. From the midfield we can lash out and smash any table quarter. Let the enemy move into the quarters, you push straight and true to the centre of the board. From here we can walk, move, drive, run..whatever..into any of the quarters. Spearhead allows this to happen for the person going first on the first turn.
 
This will make for a bloody game. Depending on the enemy, they will either come straight for you (be mindful of cover and minimise retaliation) and melta you to death, or drive off into the sunset of each quarter, from here ensure you put the clamps on their mobility and keep them in those quarters, this will then allow you to reach out and contest their quarters whilst dropping scoring units back into the home quarter to grab the win.
 
Of course, not as simple in real life.. what is required then? Mobility (mech IS king), survivability, mid ranged, effective shooting. Plenty of troops once again..
 
Mission 3 - Recon
 

Here, 2 objectives are placed by each player in the opposing players deployment zone, 6" back from the central zone and 18" from other objectives. Secondary mission is 'Headhunter' - Annihilation with HQ and Elite worth 2 KPs. List building is not too informed by this mission, I think we can just use some sensible tactical play in this one..Although, some deep striking element might be useful. I would be happy with most of my armies in this one. I would suggest the way forward is to simply create a wall of tanks and prevent movement through the blockade. Hold your 2 and contest his. Skimmers must die. Remove the enemy mobility as first priority. Objectives must be held by scoring units so get them first, other units cannot claim.

Plenty of troops (trend here yes), plenty of tough units to form the blockade or just create a bottle neck through cheap transports. Hmm...

Mission 4 - Dawn of War

I actually like DoW, Annihilation as Primary.. straightforward and messy due to the reduced, effective turn number... Seize Ground: 5 as secondary..

Cool, nice and easy, standard competitive armies required here please. We'll skip over this one...we should all know how to deal with this..

Mission 5 - Flank Attack

ooh, exciting one! well, different anyway..obvious temptation is to go for a split, pincer-style deployemnt and to flank out and envelope the enemy. Although, I'd be tempted to deploy out on the flanks and then just push straight in to the centre..depending on the enemy of course, if I felt that he could outmanouevre and really hurt me from doing so, then I'd maintain the flank and funnel him into the middle, then pounce..of course the real danger with pushing your opponent into the centre of the board is that that is where he wants to be to win! lol.

Take and Hold Primary - winner is the dude with the most shit within 12" of the centre. Have to have a 'babysitter' type unit to hold the home objective. Mobility, hard hitting, close combat is totally inevitable, be strong or at least competent in it..

Mission 6 -

 
Fairly straightfoward end to the weekend then.. no notes on this one either..
 
Mission are scored out of 20, Primary worth 8, Secondary worth 4, VPs up to 8 based on difference.
 
So these are the mission I need to deal with...several trends have sprung up over the course of this little examination...
 
Has this been a worthwhile activity? Yes, I feel a great deal happier knowing that I've had a proper look at the missions BEFORE I submit the lists.. not something I've done before really.. it also really helps me when I am thinking up new ideas or refreshing old ones as I can visualise these missions and formulate plans..
 
What about you guys? Any of you chaps of to Caledonia and considering the missions or just running your armies?