Death by a Thousand Cuts

Over the last few weeks while getting in practise games of 1,750 points I have manage to (inadvertently) convert my friends to 1,750 over our regular 1,500pts.

We are starting tomorrow (Wednesday) a Kill point based campaign - prizes are for most wins, most Kill points earned and the Lemming Award - most Kill points given away. A wipe out victory will always give you 1 more kill point than what you lost in that game for balance and to stop people "hiding".

With this focus on Kill Points everyone is bringing out their Death Stars while I'm locked in to my 1,750 Space Wolf Tournament army which has 19kp. During a practise game last week vs my friends Tau, and a Commander Farsight Death Star which only had 9 KP I won 7 - 3 (could of been 4) despite having Farsight and 9 Battle Suits shoved in my face from turn 1 onwards

What some people don't understand is how sometimes a Death Star won't work vs a player who knows what they are doing.

Going with the Farsight example which was around 800pts or around 45% of his army - all it killed in my army was 1 Land Speeder which was 70pts or 4% of my army. But with 4% of my army dead I responded with 96% of my army vs 45% of his, which over 2 turns I killed to no further loss.

So by turn 3 I had roughly 85% of my Army left vs my opponents 40% over a 2-1 advantage - the rest of the game they say was history. My only further losses where my 2 Wolf Scout units who took out Broadsides and a unit of Fire Warriors before being pulse rifled into Valhalla.

More so in kill point games if you can bring your army (or most of it) to bear on a small part or even 1 unit of your enemy's force at a time you *should* annihilate it quickly and the more on to the next target. Being able to suppress part of your enemy's force (shaking/stunning tanks or pinning/ forcing LD tests on infantry) while most of your force is killing another part works really well. Sure potentially killing a unit or tank in 1 shot *could* happen but more than likely won't - but being able to stack the odds in your favour in any given situation will always give you an edge.


So this brings us MSU's or Multiple Small Units, which basically means using as many small units as possible, but all have/use the maximum killing potential available to them. The idea works that armies with larger (and thus fewer units) can only target 1 unit at a time so the enemy's larger units is only killing small units who's los is only a a small pin prick in your over all force, and you can concentrate all you units onto one/two/part of the enemy's force - so death by a thousand cuts.

This works even with a balanced army vs a Death Star.




Oh while I'm here and it's my blog I would like to point you towards real hero. This Gurkha took on 40 train robbers and sent them packing!

Bishnu Shrestha, sir you are a true Hero. 

Are they in range???

Partly inspired by the Deployment in Action series over at Sons of Sanguinius I got thinking about potential set up for my Space Wolves, and that got me thinking about threat ranges, movement range, and weapon range.

So without further ado here is the product of a few quite hours at work, maths, and my mighty MSpaint skill!


This is a plain 6x4 table set up in Vassal with all 3 Deployment type templates set down on the board.

"Ok John but how does a load of lines and squares help us?"

Well we all normally play on 6 feet by 4 feet tables, so thus we know the outer size of the board. Secondary the deployment variants in the rulebook give us their size and shape too. So a bit a reading and some quick maths can give you a lot of information that applies in every battle.

Lets start with the basics - 6x4 table and what the rulebook gives us:

So the Blue line is 6 feet - or 72 inches
The Red line is 4 feet - 48 inches
The Green line is 3 feet - 36 inches
The White line is 2 feet - 24 inches
The Yellow line is 1 foot - 12 inches
The Brown line is 2 feet - 24 inches

These are all the basic ranges we get from deployment in the rulebook.

But do these numbers look familiar? (12, 24, 36, 48, 72)

They should do as they are all the staple ranges of every main weapon type in the game (except Tau Fire Warrior Pulse Rifles which are 30 inches but they are silly cow people).

Now this may seem like pretty simple stuff to older or veteran players but this kind of information is always good for new players or those looking to step up to the next level or for revision.


Now let use the power of maths - or more specifically the power of the triangle - Pythagorean Theorem!


First off lets look at its possible to pull of a 1st turn assault in Spearhead deployment for beasts, cavalry, open topped transports, assault vehicles or a lucky 6 inch fleet roll:

So we have here is the direct gap between two opposite table quarters labelled C in red.

Now we know from spearhead deployment that each side must be at least 12 inches away from the middle and with the set up shown we know we have a triangle with these two table quarter edges and now we have the third side of the triangle which is our C line in red.

We know now that A and B are both 12 inches so we can find out that distance of C:

a² + b² = c²

12² + 12² = c²

144 + 144 = c²

288 = c²

 

c² =288

c = √288

c = 16.97 inches

So.......

........ this is how a first turn charge is possible for some units, as nipping down the 16.97 inch 'side' of the middle circle is quicker than going straight though the middle of it which is 24 inches!

But it doesn't end there! Using Pythagorean therome again we can get the opposite corner ranges of the table and corner to middle of table range too:

So first corner to corner (red line):

black² + white² = red²

72² + 48² = c²

5184 + 2304 = 7488²

7488 = red²

 

red² = 7488

red²= √7488

red² = 86.53 inches

And the blue line (any corner to middle of board):

green² + yellow² = blue²

36² + 24² = blue²

1296 + 576 = blue²

1872 = blue²

 

blue² =1872

blue² = √1872

blue² = 43.27 inches

Or simply blue is equal to half the red line :p
 
So bring all this maths and MS paint skills together and we get this:

.... pretty much every possible range you could need.

On a side note I have been told by those in the know" that GW want to move towards having every gaming table in all their stores and battle bunkers to be made from the Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard which is in 2 feet / 24 inch square sections, and these pretty much give you a ruler on the table (without the numbers)!

They say "knowledge if power - guard it well" - so er you didn't read this ok ;p

Till next time!

So what does War Gaming have in common with Call of Duty???

*Sub-titled I've done nothing but work and play Black Ops*

But on a serious note playing on-line and hearing people bemoan weapon X, perk X, camping, etc dose have some things in common with war gaming - at least in my experience.

So for example:

"The FAMAS is over powered!"
and........
"Space Wolves/Imperial Guard are over powered"

Lazy people will always take to path of least resistance for victory, but will always come unstuck against a better player who has an understanding of the game(s), for example little Johnny net list will copy a list from a website but will never understand how it really works, it's little tricks, how it flows, and it's nuances.

"You only won because you camped"

Well who's the dumb-ass for running into the same meat grinder over and over!! The only Warhammer comparison I can think of is someone who plays a pure assault army and loses cos he got shot up...... or...

"You only won cos you had tanks" (or insert unit X here)

I got this of a fellow IG player who had more tanks than my Space Wolves!!! Leman Russ Punisher, 2 Chimeras and a Hellhound vs a Solo Land Raider and 2 Rhinos - yeah. And I won that game thanks to........... my Wolf Scouts and Wolf Guard Battle Leader with Saga of the hunter who all out flanked.

If you cannot truly understand why you lost, then you will lose time and time again the same way. Personally I would rather win a good, closely fought game over a one sided ass whooping any day of the week. I am always free to discuss a game afterwards with an opponent and how the battle ebbed and flowed - what worked and what didn't (normally my Land Raiders) or who was uber lucky!

Or perhaps it's just over the last few weeks I have had enough of people's whiny crappy "can't do" attitude, or "It's the lag", "He's a noob tubing camper", or "Codex Creep" - personally I think it's a case of adapt or die.

So am I a young grumpy old man or have I grown up and seen the light?

I think it's best to finish this small post (or mini rant if you will) with my favourite quote:

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. 

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.” ~ Bruce Lee