The last few weeks of gaming before some friends moved was spent playing combat patrol while helping the guys refine ideas for Adepticon which is coming up soon.  It’s all I’ve been playing ever since!  We have found that the 400 point total limit makes for a fast and furious game.  The restrictions on other units keeps things from getting crazy too.  We combine this new format with the new DLT missions book which combines new missions and the ones in the base book!  It’s crazy fun!

So for those of you heading to Adepticon or just want to play a fun and fast game in under and hour here are the rules at Adepticon’s Website. So just a few rules to abide by.  It’s very much in the vein of 40k in 40 minutes.  So what about strategies!  Well here are the things I’ve learned by playing a LOT of combat patrol.

Number One: Have fun.  Don’t whine about what you aren’t allowed to use, don’t ask to use something not on the list.  It’s 400 points.  If you can’t fill 400 points without using vehicles with combined AV over 33 or without psychic powers you probably need to expand your army!  One great way to play is to only allow the LOSER to upgrade his list from game to game.  This way you get to see the “metagame” in fast forward.  You’ll be surprised how much fun that is.

Number Two: Play to win.  Accept that your opponent is doing the same.  Don’t take a loss personally and enjoy the cycle of refining a small list.  Every game think about what you can do better and then adapt.  If you can’t beat your friends “perfect 400″ don’t make him change.  Instead keep adapting.  Pretty soon you’ll figure out how to take advantage of the mission and terrain to beat him.  It will really up your game.

Number Three: Troops!  Take at least 2!  They don’t have to be full, but I find that at least 200 points in troops is a good starting place.  Troops with a transport is even better.  Rhinos, Razorbacks, Chimera’s and Devilfish are powerhouses on the table.  Smaller units are more viable as well, as there won’t be a dozen units available to blow them away.

Number Four: Speed!  Fast units like bikes, speeders and jump infantry make a big difference when every model counts.  Several units that you might normally not take really bring the paint at 400 points.  Re-read your codex and look for fast moving inexpensive units like outflanking Sentinels and Vipers.

Number Five: Strength 6 to 8 weapons reign supreme.  Autocannons can break any vehicle open, assault cannons can put out the shots and rocket launchers add inexpensive flexibility.  Volume of fire is more important than raw strength.  Unless that lascannon is BS 5 don’t waste points on it!

With these 5 rules you will find the “400 Meta” ,as we call it around here, to be a lot of fun.  What about each army though?  Well let’s make this article crazy long shall we!  Here are some thoughts on how each army functions!

Chaos Daemons: While many of the more power units are right out, the fact that Daemon “psychic powers” aren’t psychic powers really helps.  Nurgle Daemons really hold an objective against the limited AP 2 weapons and can be safely put on the board in 5 or 6 man squads.  Units like Flamers of Tzeentch can make a big splash when they land destroying half of your opponents army!  The deep striking in general is a huge help allowing Daemons to be a responsive army on the 4×4 table!  Icons can also be a big help!

Chaos Space Marines: 5 Troop Choices!  Every job you need a unit to do can be done with one of these!  Some of the lesser used units (such as Tzeentch or Sonic Marines) can make a big difference with a smaller unit.  5 noise marines can rip up a unit of guardsmen.  Possessed also rock at this point total!

Daemonhunters: Without terminators this army really took a hit.  An army without options is now down to even fewer.  All that said, Storm Troopers and Inquisitors can really pack a whollop.  Obviously psychic powers are out, but the sheer volume of wargear options can create a lot of synergy.  In a tournament it would be tough to run them, but with friends they can be a hoot!

Dark Eldar: Raiders!  I really don’t feel I need to say more here.  RAIDERS!  Seriously they are ridiculously good at combat patrol!  Wych’s are also good, and only having to take 1 troop actually gets used here.  Most armies still want to run 2, but with Dark Eldar 1 in reserve is enough!

Eldar: Without psychic powers or wave serpents the eldar need to do one thing and do it well.  Vipers with volume of fire guns really shell out the damage while staying out of range.  Small units of jetbikes let you hop in at the last minute to snag objectives.  6  bikes, a viper and some dire avengers can present a volume of fire front that is able to dodge around terrain and really hit opponents hard.

Imperial Guard: Chimera’s.  Oh.. did you want more?  1 Troop means you can take 5 Chimera’s.  Heavy weapons teams with Autocannons are a cheap way to decimate incoming transports as well.  The Guard Gunline is very playable here too, throwing 60 models with weapons at your opponent can be overwhelming.

Necrons: Destroyers are awesome.  Volume of fire and speed blow through enemy units and transports.  Warriors are resilient and will rarely face strength 8 or a ton of power weapons.  Rending also makes a bigger difference against the smaller number of vehicles.  Phase out is still a pain though.

Orks: Boyz with nobz & a klaw are great.  Throw them in a truck and they can hit your opponent before they have any response options.  Fewer guns and a smaller board really play to orks.  Combine that with some of the options on 2 wound models and you’re in good shape.  Nob bikers are only elites though, so take them cautiously!

Space Marines: Combat Squads and Razorbacks!  Scouts & Speeder Transports!  It’s so hard to choose between the two!  Bikes and scout bikes are also very resilient options.  The space marines are spoiled for choices and finding a good synergy can be tricky because of it.  Focus on speed and weapon options.  Lear your target priorities and you’ll do well!

Space Wolves: With the ridiculously efficient Grey Hunters the Space Wolves can really have a strong base to start from.  Hunters and guard punch it up another notch.  5 Hunters in a Razorback with a Wolfguard have a ton of great options, including big weapons and volume of melee attacks.  Oh and 3 man Long Fang squads are a god send.

Tau Empire: Crisis Suits with fire eye.  Stealth Suits dropping.  A block of fire warriors can put out range damage while being supported by suits.  Devilfish sneak in as the most heavily armored vehicle in the format as well!  That makes the tau very resilient when looking to score objectives.

Tyranids: Genestealers.  It sucks but the 2 wound limitation cuts the nidz in half and leaves them with only one option for synapse… and that one can’t use it’s psychic powers!  So stealers… which are surprisingly good in the format!  Just run tons of them!

Witch Hunters: Sisters of battle are queens of efficiency and this pays off in combat patrol.  Rush your opponent in rhinos, throw in some immolator’s and books of st. lucius and you’re looking at some serious small unit firepower with resilience.  The only real gap in the army list is long range tank hunting.  An immolator with multi-melta’s can help, but why give up the flamers?  Some of the lesser used toys (like braziers) and penitent engines can wreck faces as well.

All in all the game changes a LOT in this point bracket so be ready to change your tactics on the fly, not just while building your list.  Have fun!  Post your experiences with the format!

This is something I’ve been trying to put into words for a long time.  It’s a skill that, like pacing control, is something only the best players do.  Poker players do it, they look at the availability information and try to guess their opponents actions.  Some games make this skill even more important.  Aeronautica uses it as the core game mechanic!

So what is Opponent Reading?  It’s the ability to look at your opponents army list, the mission objectives, the deployment and the terrain and know what your opponent is going to do.  Or at least decide what his best options are and prepare for them.

With 40k there are no hidden lists, secret cards or big surprises.  Instead random dice rolls tell us when pre-determined things happen… so it’s as big a surprise for your opponent as you!  This makes enemy reading a practice not in psychology as much as strategy.  Sure if you know you’re friend ALWAYS drops his monolith center field then you can prepare for that, but why not deal with some more complex situations?

Opponent Reading is rough in 40k, but when done properly it’s worth learning the skill.  So how do we learn it?  Practice.  Here are the things we are trying to train our brain to think about instinctively.

1) How has my opponent built his army.  What does he expect it to do?

2) How will it achieve this missions objectives?

3) How does his army stop my armies effectiveness?

4) How will he deploy  or move to best achieve the mission objectives?

5) What is his target priority?  What in my army makes him want to act quickly?

6) How can I prevent him from doing that with my actions?

Now that we have a little checklist we should examine each.  This can be really difficult since every situation in fluid at best.  You have to assess each situation fresh.  It’s not like tactics, where you can prepare them in advance and know what units work well against others.  You have to know EVERY army and how it achieves objectives!

This is just one of those things that only comes with practice.  If you don’t think about them you won’t ever make this change happen, however.  Many players get mired in routine.  They just continue doing what is comfortable to them.  Try running a completely different army list than you usually use.  This will help you break out of your routine and makes asking yourself these questions much easier.

1) When the game first begins look at your opponents army list for at LEAST 1 minute.  Time yourself if you need too.  Read every line of the list.  What would YOU do in his situation?  Does he want to go first or second?  Is he running a big “hammer” unit?  Is he controlling pacing with reserves?

2) Look at the table and now figure out how you would deploy his army.  How will you deploy to compensate for that?  Can you deploy first and disrupt his armies plans?  Is he using lots of Drop Pods?  Can you tighten your foot print to bring your entire army to bear on each of his units as they arrive piecemeal?

3) What in his army list can yours mine down?  What key elements to your plans is he going to try to bring to bear early.  What can you do to prevent him from being perfectly effective?  What can you sacrifice to gain extra turns of power?  Is your scout unit useless against his Terminator army?  Can you position them to act as a stop gap to protect your vindicator and give it another round of shooting?

4) If you had his army list, what would you do at deployment?  Does he need to focus on killing you the entire game and only worry about objectives in the last couple rounds?  Is his army slow but powerful, moving towards objectives early on?  How can I stop him from reaching his objectives?  Can you assault his ork hordes from the side in waves and drag them away from objectives?  Can you play a ranged kill point denial game against Khorne Marines?

5) What is he going to go after early on, how can I protect it without lowering it’s combat effectiveness?  How will he prioritize my list on the table?  Are his Space Wolves going to outflank to kill your Basalisks?  Will he combine fire to wither away at your hordes of Gaunts?  What kind of tank hunting and horde hunting does he have?

6) How can you deploy and move to make his next turn as difficult as possible?  How can you control his target options?  What terrain or distance can you take advantage of?  Do you need to kill threats to your army quickly?  Can you deploy a sacrificial unit to give you more range, or lure your opponent forward by leaving open fields for your reserves to enter play.  Do you need to see his deployment so that you can react?

So the next time you play, give all this a thought before the game even begins.  Repeat some of it at the beginning of each turn.  Stop acting instinctively and start asking these questions.  It will become instinct on it’s own very soon!

Grats to Richard!  We tried to get him to name them Edward and Jacob… or Danny & Arnold and he just wouldn’t fall for it!

Oh… and a podcast!

For this show, the Chi-town boys pick up the slack for Mack not doing a last show!

In the first segment, we briefly touch on our games of late and then get into GW’s supposed shift from hobbying to selling the hobby.

And to close the show, we get into homebrew codex creation theory and talk about the good/bad/ugly of the homebrew’s we’ve faced.

We hope you enjoy this show and remind you to never chase pirates unless you have a bigger gun than they do.

DOWNLOAD HERE

If I’m going to take over for Miggidy Mack I should begin by totally lambasting him.  I liked the article he wrote but it was actually game PLAY theory he was discussing.  So how about we talk about REAL game theory.  Let’s start with the basics!

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says:  Game theory is the study of the ways in which strategic interactions among rational players produce outcomes with respect to the preferences (or utilities) of those players, none of which might have been intended by any of them.

Agents & Minigames

Game Theory uses the term Agents in place of players, but they are basically the same thing in any tabletop game.  Each player has a “preference” for an outcome, usually victory.  This can be broken down smaller, however.  The term “mini-game” refers to a game within a game.  The players still have preferences (win the assault, maneuver out of range) and those preferences effect the larger game.

The assault mini-game, for instance, is one of Odds and Chance.  We can do the math hammer to determine the likely hood of an event, but there is still a chance the numbers will not go in your favor.  The game has very few decisions at first glance, but when decisions need to be made they are very important.  Choosing whether or not to put attacks on an independent character or how to move models into an assault (or assault multiple units) can drastically complicate things.  These decisions are made and then the results are discovered.  It’s a gamble, although one whose odds are easily discernible.

Zero Sum vs. Non-Zero Sum

Zero Sum refers to a game where every interaction with the rules results in one player losing a set amount and another player gaining that same amount.  Poker is a great example, as one player gains $10 all the other players must have lost an amount totaling exactly $10 (ignoring the houses cut).

40k is NOT a zero sum game.  Players have a resources (units) and they can only lose them.  While it certainly puts my opponent at an advantage to deplete my resources, it does not give him more resources.  This is why “resources gain” is so rare in 40k, and why units like the Tervigon are considered so powerful… and such a big game changer.

Metagaming

Metagaming is the biggest factor in the tournament scene.  It refers to any strategy or course of action that transcends the rules.  When we build army lists this is typically our biggest concern.  Assume a tournament will have about 16 players consisting of: 4 space marines, 3 orks, 2 chaos marines, 2 guard, 2 tyranid, 1 space wolves, 1 daemonhunters and 1 eldar  With that break down the player is able to rationalize that half the players have a 3+ armor save, and that weapons capable of breaking through the save are important to his success at a tournament.

The metagame choices are not so simple, however.  If there is a large amount of terrain on the table, and 4+ cover saves will be common then weapons that have a higher volume of shots and a higher strength will yield better results over the course of a tournament.  If 2 of the marine players are running all scout lists then the choices change again.

Your choice of army further complicates the issue!  You have to assume other players are making the same decisions you are making and build your list to take cause their army list to be less effective against you, knowing what choices they are making.  As groups of players adjust their lists after each tournament to account for this information the metagame revolves.  Players buy new units and adjust.

Comp Scores attempt to stagnate the metagame, which only serves to make one army (whichever abuses the comp scores best) more powerful.  This is why discussions on forums are so important.  You have to create demographic overviews and build an army list to incorporate that information.

Here are a few books on Game Theory if this sparks your imagination.  I highly recommend:

Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction for beginners or those who haven’t had statistics.

Rock, Paper, Scissors for ways to actually apply game theory to Warhammer 40k and other games.

Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict is great for 40k as well, although a bit theoretical at times for what you’re probably wanting.

Strategy: An Introduction to Game Theory is for those who want to have a college reference book on hand with tons of examples.  This book is for serious math heads and those who really want to dig their teeth into something academic.  It’s also like 70 bucks… it doesn’t fuck around.