How to Win Warhammer 40k: What to sacrifice and when...

Ash asked me to elaborate on my thoughts on what units to sacrifice. So, here we go! I already posted about how I mostly use Dante to grant Preferred Enemy in the first couple of turns, then I release him to go aggressively draw fire. The idea is that I want Lascannon shots going at him instead of at my Baal Preds, which can tank shock after moving 18" at the end of the game and contest objectives. I sacrifice Dante because he has served his purpose and any thing he does in turns 4 and 5 are just gravy. If he slaughtered some troops or popped a tank before then... great!

A good example of knowing when to sacrifice your units is this... At the Battle for Salvation tournament, I was facing another Blood Angels player in the final round for the win. He had a Land Raider with terminators inside, 10 vet assalt squad with meltas attached to Mephiston, 8 man Death Company, and corbulo in a razor with a combat squad, all coming at my objective. The mission was bases. My base was defended by my 3 DC, Corbulo, 2 furioso Dreads and my 10 man tactical. Dante was bouncing around. Needless to say, he had a huge advantage. Sure, I had 2 furioso dreads, but he had 18 guys with jump packs, 8 of them Death Company, a Land Raider coming down my throat filled with assault terminators, plus Corbulo coming up behind granting Furious Charge. What I did have was my three Baal Predators. Juicy targets for him! But not all that effective in this case because he would be able to jump behind cover right up until he was ready to assault.

I knew that my only chance would be to seperate his charge out, and try to get his units to come in one at a time. He sent the LR down the middle, the VAS to my left with Mephiston, and the DC to the right, in range of Corbulos razor.

So, I sent one BP to the left to intrcept Mephiston, kept one next to my base, and sent one out to the right. My hope was that he would assault my tanks for a turn or two, then I could attack his forces with my dreads one squad at a time. The first victim up was his Death Company, which could not pass up that juicy Baal Pred. He assaulted, and destroyed it. But on my turn, my Furioso Dreads assaulted and destroyed them! Then consolidated back to my base. Meanwhile, I moved my left Baal Pred into his assault range for Mephiston and the VAS.

On his turn, he could not pass up yet another juicy target! His VAS and Mephiston went for the Baal Pred while his Land Raider and Terminators went for my Tactical Squad. He destroyed my Pred but failed to take out my Tacticals, who then escaped his Terminators since they cannot sweeping advance. (I knew they could not by the way... I was hoping at least one would survive.) On my turn, my surviving tactical ran for cover, while my Dreads moved up and slaughtered his terminators and took out the Land Raider. The key here was that had he jumped his VAS into my tactical squad, he would have won the fight... and in the end, stopped me from winning the game and tournament. But instead, I managed to whittle his large attack force down to individual units, which my two dreadnoughts were able to slaughter one at a time, bu sacrificing juicy targets and splitting up his forces. The Dreads ended up slaughtering his VAS, while my corbulo held off Mephiston for a round. In the aftermath, I had a single tactical marine holding my objective, all of his forces were routed, and Mephiston was running for the hills to keep me from getting the kill point.

You can read that entire batrep somewhere around here.

So, know when to sacrifice units! There is no formula for success. The best use of this is to slow down your opponents charging forces to split them up. But also, at the end of the game when the two of you are working to contest each others objectives, slowing him down by giving him something to kill in turn 4 can mean the difference of inches in his contesting or holding objectives in turn 5.

Just dont be afraid to sacrifice that high point squad! Fritz is a master of this with his Seer Council. All that matters at the end of the game is who is controlling more objectives. He can have 90 percent of his forces left, and you can have 10... but you can still win.

JB

7 comments:

Ash said...

Thanks for the post, I think another point when it comes to objective games, is that only "Troops" can hold an objective. So sacrificing HQ and there High Point Units that have served their purpose and now need to let the grunts do the work.

I know that the others can contest but they make great treats to distract the other player.

I find that newer players treasure each of the models that they have spent so many hours painting and thinking about. It is hard for them to treat them as a tool to complete their mission.

If they read the fluff the emperor (bigs tool around) treats everyone this way. That is I play Chaos, Down with the Tools of the emperor.

Ash

Flekkzo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Flekkzo said...

To pull a qoute from Star Wars: "stay on target" :)

As you know I enjoy the "guides" but I find one view lacking. How to counter what you suggest. I.e. what if my opponent reads the 40k blogs more thorough than I do and play like the ghost of you guys. How do I counter that?

For instance, the juicy BP targets. Would the correct thing be to try to hide behind something to lessen the shots from them while advancing towards the more important targets, such as your tactical squads? Marching towards them en masse to wrought havoc.

SinSynn said...

well my Broadsides are awesome fire magnets, and usually get assaulted by the biggest, meanest baddie around. People hate 'em 'cuz they're so killy :)
And my Shas'el HQ squads ALWAYS go down for the greater good....
But the reason I REALLY love this post?
That Blood Angels player was my best friend :) His Blood Angels have infuriated me 'till I've thrown pieces....stupid Blood Angels...No offense to the esteemed proprietor of this blog, of course.
Called him @ work just now just to say "Jawaballs latest post is all about how he beat you." (and yes, I DID literally lol)
His response needn't be repeated here for it is inappropriate for younger viewers....
Ummm....JB, you DO have, like, health insurance and/or life insurance, right?

Jawaballs said...

Haha! Charlie already saw the battle report on that game I think... I made the same point there.

Dalton King said...

Flekkzo, I would try and tie it by either a) presenting a jucier target like an HQ. My emperor's champion is badass but I like to sacrifice him alot. You could leave him to attack the pred by himself. Or B) use a unit that can either move fast to stay and take the president down (assault squad with fist and or melta bombs) or use a unit that really doesn't matter; like an assault squad or something you have as s "distraction" troop. The point is to ignore the unit but not let him rape you.

Kaboom? said...

The best sacrifice (and the best bluff) is when that Predator has served its purpose in turn 2 or turn 3, so that in turn 3/4 you can offer it up on a silver platter. Turn 4/5 you can let the enemy drive deeper into your base, then come around with seemingly useless units, block his escape route, and use your furioso dreads to make him lose combat and be destroyed because he cant fall back. Say that there is an assault termy squad, a VAS, and a melee tac squad. Vs 2 furioso's and 2 tac squads. What you want to do is spread out your tac squads in a way such that any unit falling back cannot safely fall back after being routed by the furioso's. Sure, your preds are gone, but they did their job, and when it seemed you were handing them victory on a silver platter (epic rocket shot to the head) it backfired on them because you where a brute chieftain and you activated invulnerability (BOOM!)

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