Using the Basics for Scenarios
The first three chapters were all discussions on basic tactics and theory of warfare. Now it is time to get into actually putting theory into practice. We started discussing scenarios last chapter, and mentioned that there are currently 6 (8) scenarios for Kings of War. Next month (this is written in January 2017,) Mantic will release a new book introducing even more scenarios, primarily for tournament play. Also, there was a book released not too long ago which introduced additional scenarios for a campaign, but we’re not going to focus on those because most of them involved uneven points games. Of the 6 (8) we’ve pretty much beaten the kill scenario horse past its death, thus I intend to focus on Pillage, Invade, Dominate, Loot, Control, and Push. Kill and Pillage will be covered between the basics of Kill in the first 3 chapters and Pillage which we will start to discuss now.
Pillage:
The Pillage scenario is a very interesting game, as there will never be 2 exactly the same. For Pillage, there are between 5 and 7 objectives placed on the table before the roll for sides occurs. No objective can be less than 12 inches from another, which makes designating resources more of a challenge. To win, you need only control more objectives than your opponent, which sounds easy in theory. Just send units out to grab every objective, right? Wrong! Doing that breaks your force apart, and destroys the synergy of your battle plan. Try to balance the placement of objectives to where you stand a solid chance, regardless of sides to control more than your opponent. If your opponent drops an objective in the center, drop another on one side’s deployment zone, he will drop one in the opposing deployment zone, then you can drop another in no man’s land or in either deployment zone again. Both players will try to balance it out, because neither knows who will win the roll for sides, or which side the winner will choose. If all the objectives are placed in a single half of the table, obviously, the player who wins the side roll will choose that side.
Your next step, regardless of side is to decide how many objectives you plan to play for. If there are 7 objectives on the board, you obviously plan to play for 4 of them. There is no need in the early game to contemplate grabbing all 7. The objective of the game is to win, not crush (or be crushed.) So, now let’s run this through the METT-T filter. Mission: Briohmar’s Azertians seize and hold X number of objectives on the bottom and center of the table for 6 (7) turns in order to defeat the enemy. So we have the 5 Ws, and we have task and purpose. This is an excellent mission statement.
The next thing to consider is the enemy. The enemy’s mission is also to seize X number of objectives in the same time frame. This means at least 1 objective is going to be heavily contested. Now, before we start formulating our master plan, let’s consider what forces the enemy has at his disposal. If the forces are about equal in numbers, you can expect weaker forces to defend the more remote objectives, and the stronger forces to contest the centrally located objectives. Why do I say you can expect this? Because It’s what I am planning to do as well. Against inferior numbers, I can expect to claim remote objectives without much opposition since the enemy will be using economy of force. If I am significantly outnumbered, then it is me using economy of force.
One of the armies I face rather frequently is Ratkin, but it’s not always the same player bringing them since they are a popular army. If I am playing my Abyss against Ratkin, the first thing I need to consider is that I am going to be outnumbered; against Goblins, too. The chances are I am going to be out gunned as well. Shooting is a key element in Pillage since a shooter unit can park itself on an objective and blast anything that comes near it, or cover additional objectives with fires. Against Ratkin or Goblins, I need to reconsider my mission. For time, I need to resetmy mission statement to say not later than turn 6. When I am significantly outnumbered, it becomes important to focus on removing enemy units before claiming objectives. The Ratkin (or Goblins) can actually plan to play for all of the objectives if they like, and try to grab them all early on. Because I am significantly outnumbered, I now have to focus on removing enemy units that oppose my accomplishing the mission. I have to prioritize my targets.
When prioritizing targets, I tend to focus most on damage output potential. Against a Ratkin army, the three biggest damage output units are weapon teams, Death Engines, and shock troop hordes. Thus, those are the three I will focus on first. Remember, you don’t necessarily have to remove them from play to nullify their effect, but sometimes it’s better to do so anyways. In a recent game, I was facing Goblins with 3 war trombones, 2 rock lobbers, and a horde of spitters with Brew of keen eyed. I was also against 4 regiments of mawbeasts, a horde of trolls, a horde and legion of rabble, a horde of chariots, and a king on chariot. My top priorities, in order, were the trombones, maw beasts, and lobbers. Trombones are number 1 because anything of mine height 2 or above that charges the unit leading the trombones, in this case the rabble horde, is going to take 36 shots to the face from the trombones. Not something anyone wants, and few units can withstand.
The Troops Available is of course my standard kit out, so I have to consider the best uses for my list in a pillage scenario. The ultimate goal is to claim more objectives than your opponent, so you have to use your forces wisely and expeditiously. For certain scenarios, I keep 3 units I consider as ultimately expendable, but in pillage, those little troops can matter at the end of the game. Depending on how my opponent is looking by about turn 4, I may not opt to sacrifice those units, instead hold them in reserve to grab or contest objectives at the end of the game. In pillage it is critical that you maintain your awareness of the troops available. As losses start coming in, you need to make sure you have enough force at the end of the game to win. It is also a great time to points out that an infantry horde has enough width to contest 2 objectives if they are just over 12 inches apart. This makes the horde a useful entity to protect in a pillage scenario.
Terrain can also play a huge part in the pillage scenario. If the objectives are placed in terrain, it can be to your benefit to grab and hold the objective early since the terrain may hinder enemy forces charging you. An objective placed near impassable terrain is often a great thing as it can be grabbed and defended early as well. Remember, your unit can’t be charged if the charger can’t see you, or if it can’t make contact with the arc it started in. a Height 4 building, for instance with an objective beside, or better behind it, provides significant survivability for a troop to secure it. Also remember that swooping in with a fast attack unit or flyer on an objective in terrain may not work if the proposed unit does not have pathfinder.
Time is the enemy of the pillage scenario. Certain armies and builds have a great deal of trouble getting to the objectives because they are slow, or shambling. Other players get focused too much on fighting enemy units that they fail to realize they are out of time to grab up the objectives. Regardless of whether there is a turn 7 or not, on turn 6, you need to be sitting on more objectives than your opponent. Do not let the clock run out on you. Objective is a key factor in MOOSEMUS.
INVADE:
This has to be my favorite mission. With all 3 of my main armies, I am just geared to do well in invade. One has to remember that it’s not essential to destroy the enemy in Invade, but you do need to establish your bypass criteria. Most commonly for an invade scenario I will run a single echelon formation, and only deploy in a single quarter of the board. I just have to prevent more of your units from crossing the center line than I get across. Playing Invade aggressively is very important. My chaff units will advance into charge range with the hammer units right behind them. If I have more reach than you, I will move into my extreme range where you are just out. I can’t even recall how many Invades I have won because my opponent kept backing up his units to avoid being charged. Once you start moving backward on invade, you’ve handed the initiative to your opponent, and, in most cases, the game.
The enemy forces can factor in on this scenario quite significantly. As I said, I tend to play an echelon formation and stack on one side. I have seen a lot of players take this tactic against me as well; often lined up on the opposite table quarter. The key point in this is whether you are faster than your opponent or not. If you are faster, you get your forces to make the turn inward on turn 2 or at the latest, 3. Once they have turned in, the enemy has to slow his advance to deal with the flanking threat, or worse, the rear threat at this point. If your enemy has a horde structure, such as do Goblins or Ratkin, just remember, you can remove their less than 100 point units all game, and it won’t hurt them, except when it comes to scenarios like invade. Your goal is to get more points across the line than he does. The horde army’s units will cover the entire enemy deployment zone, so the focus is on just taking out one part of them, while getting your units across the line. Lots of low cost units dying still equates to non-scoring points.
Time is again of the essence, and you can’t afford to get bogged down in an Invade. If you have the Offensive, you set the tone of the battle. If your fast and heavy hitters are through and ready to roll the flank, the enemy has to respond to you. You must have the initiative.
Your troops matter, but don’t be afraid of losing some. I have won Invade scenarios with just 3 or 4 units left, but since they were higher points units, it still gave me the win. Any unit can be deemed expendable if it enables success. Cheap units, sometimes referred to as chaff, make great decoy units, and can be the bait for traps. Everyone knows this, but some people still can’t lay off taking the bait. If you run one of the armies that have dogs or gargoyles that are fast and nimble, You have the opportunity to set the tone. I have played games where an 80 point gargoyle unit kept a much more valuable unit at bay because they used their nimble to dance around the expensive unit threatening flank or rear charges. Gars aren’t scary on a frontal charge, but a rear charge from them will have a solid chance of at least wavering an infantry regiment. Tundra wolves, beast packs, harpies, shadow hounds, etc. all fit this purpose well. The other thing is they all are cheap in troops, and the good general can laugh it off when for the 5th straight game, all the gargoyles are dead. “Marines Die! That’s what they’re for, but the Marine Corps lives forever, and so you live forever.” (Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey, Full Metal Jacket.)
Terrain is a very important consideration in Invade. If there is no high speed avenue of approach on the flank you want to set on, don’t take that side. If the most favorable terrain for you is straight up the middle, then, by all means, adopt the wedge formation and go right up the middle. Don’t get bogged down in the terrain in this scenario, it will sap your initiative, and leave you out in the cold. Perhaps the best army out of 22 for this scenario is the Herd. The can haul ass right through the woods, fields, and ponds. They only have to slow down for man made obstacles such as walls or buildings.
DOMINATE:
Without a doubt, this is one of the toughest scenarios in the game. The reason I say this is because, invariably, the game is going to come down to a general melee in the center of the board. There really is no avoiding it. The mission is to get as many of your units into the center of the board as possible, while preventing your opponent from doing the same.
The enemy forces are going to have a significant impact on how you accomplish this mission. If the enemy is shooting heavy, you can just bet all of his guns are going to be trained right into the center so that any unit you send in will be blown to bits. (For those following along, this is the principle of Mass.) If the enemy is combat oriented, his heaviest forces may come straight up the middle at you, ala the infamous wedge formation. For me, I try to stay outside of the kill zone for as long as possible, and pick off units on the periphery of the circle, generally committing into the center on turns 5 and 6. Granted, this is not always possible, but it does work occasionally. If I can get around the flanks of my opponent for a Dominate, that is what I will do. This means I’ll spend turns 2 – 4 picking off shooters or flankers with my more mobile units, then approach into the center in exactly the same direction my opponent did. I will also try to create the gunslinger stand offs for this scenario if possible with certain units. For my favorite army, anyone who has played me, (or read my reports,) knows that my 2 Succubus regiments and Temptress are a nasty combat team. With a 12 inch charge range, and mutually supporting positions they can dish out a lot of attacks on anything that hits them head on. If I can create a standoff in the center, especially if I can use terrain to my advantage I will just hole up and wait until the heavy hitters are rolling in from behind and crush the center all at once.
Again, your own troops available are going to dictate a lot how this fight is going to go. If you have lots of units, just send them in in waves. The enemy can’t kill all of them. If you have a compact, elite army, you need to be crafty and manage the risks very carefully, and commit only when you have over whelming mass. Combined arms can set the shooters up to blast the center while the melee teams maneuver on the flanks. Regardless of how you get there, it’s all coming down to a general ruck up in the center.
Terrain in this scenario can be huge. While it’s not really the coolest thing to do, against a shooting heavy army, I will stay just in striking range of the center, but behind protective terrain until turn 5, and then commit with everything I’ve got. This creates the target rich environment at the critical time which can force the enemy not to mass. The avoidance/ points denial game is hardly my preference, but it is sometimes necessary.
LOOT:
This is my least favorite scenario of the original 6. Many of the Loot games I have played remind me of old Saturday morning cartoons, especially Tom and Jerry. The cartoon structure goes: 2 predators encounter a single prey. One grabs the prey, and runs away. The other somehow gets ahead of him, hits him over the head with a club or other implement, grabs the prey, and runs the other way, only to be hit by the first predator in turn. This goes on and on, until both predators are sufficiently battered and the prey gets away. Ultimately, with Loot, your objective is to get and hold 2 of the 3 counters set up on the center line. “Cobras Ready? Average Joes Ready? Dodgeball!”
One of the things you should note by now is that nowhere do I ever advocate letting your opponent set the tone for the battle. That’s not saying you can’t allow the enemy to grab the loot first. Remember, you have a frying pan or baseball bat (or Cricket bat if you prefer,) prepared to hit him with as he runs the other way. One of the most effective ways I’ve seen people grab loot counters in the early game is through the Scrum Line tactic. (The scrum is a rugby term, if you don’t know it. When the ball is down, both teams form up in a tight mass and try to push the other team back while passing the ball back to one of the other players.) You stack your forces at least 2 deep, sometimes 3. The lead element pushes past the objective, or grabs it in the front and drops it in the back, so the second wave can grab it up while protected. The scrum can be very effective for horde style armies. Elite armies may want to wait a few turns and try to thin the enemy out before grabbing the loot. This is especially true if yours is a mobile elite army. The loot denies you anything but Sp5, no nimble, no flight, no surge, or windblast.
How your enemy lines up for this scenario is really the tell on what they are planning to do. Some player will line up to contest all 3 counters, while some will only try for 2. Depending on terrain, when placing the loot counters, I may try to get all 3 in a single table half, which allows me to mass my forces on just one side of the table. If all 3 are on the left side of the table, expect an echelon formation, possibly in depth (waves.) If the 3 tokens are spread across the whole board, look to see how the enemy positions their early drops, either as an echelon, double envelopment or a wedge.
Your troops available are going to define how many tokens you play for. Remember your objective is to hold at least 2 tokens at the end of the game. If your opponent is playing for all 3 tokens, cede 1 to him and play for the other 2. That way you can mass against him. Decide before deploying how you want the fight to go, and set the tone for it early. Don’t get into the 2 cats fighting for 1 mouse situation.
Time management becomes critical in this game. I’ve disciplined myself to not go immediately for the tokens on turn 1 or 2, unless I’m absolutely certain I can grab one and get clear. I will generally start grabbing loot on turn 4 or 5, depending on the table situation. Thus I am focusing instead on clearing enemy units until then. Everyone has their own thoughts about this scenario, so don’t just take mine. This one scenario, more than any other needs to really be thought through with considerations for your troops available, the enemy’s troops available, the terrain, and the location of the tokens at the start of the game.
Looking at the terrain again is very important for this mission. If all 3 loot counters start in difficult terrain, what units do you have that can grab them? What units do you have that will benefit from being in terrain if you do grab them? Is there terrain that will assist your opponent, such as a hill that will allow him to pour fires into the area? Risk management and cover and concealment are the biggest factors to consider here. Remember, cover stops some arrows and bullets, and concealment stops you from being seen. If you can approach the loot safely, by all means, go for it. I’ve had loot games where one or more tokens were on a hill. Both my opponent and I advanced to the base of the hill, and held a standoff there, neither wanting to be the first to crest the hill, grab the token, and get hit as soon as you do. If you can maneuver other forces to support the hill climb, then you should be good. Just imagine an undying legion of zombies, supported on one flank by a regiment of wraiths. The zombies can certainly climb the hill and grab the loot, unless of course, the other side of the hill is occupied by 2 regiments of Twilight Kin blade dancers, 2 morax regiments, or 2 succubus regiments. It has been my experience that these combinations can effectively wipe out a legion of zombies on a single charge.
PUSH:
Push is like Loot in a lot of ways, but it is also very different. You get extra points for each token you get across the center line, and there is only 1, not 3, dodgeballs. The mission itself is to have more tokens/ more double scoring tokens than your opponent. There are conflicting theories about the Push scenario, and how you can win it. Some players put all of their tokens on a single unit that is very tough to break, some people spread the tokens around to multiple units, and some people plan to play the hand off game and start their tokens on one unit, with plans to pass them off to another at some point in the game. Personally, I have tried all 3 approaches, and my win to loss ratio in this scenario is about equal. The most success I’ve had has been spreading the tokens between units, but I’ve both won and lost against opponents who put them all in one hard to kill basket. I’ve also had mixed success both with, and against the hand-off plan.
How your enemy sets up his plan is going to impact your ability to win in this scenario. Remember when I said the enemy always gets a vote? This time the enemy gets a significant vote. A recent Push game I played was against a shooting heavy Ratkin player. We each had 2 push tokens to place in our units. He put both tokens on a death engine with vile sorcery. If you’ve not faced the death engine yet, they are nasty. They are defense 5+ and fearless with rallying, have 7-13 attacks per turn at piercing 2 and/or CS 1 (or 2) and TC1. Basically, it takes a significant effort to get rid of these things. I managed to win this game 3 to 2 since I didn’t get rid of the engine with the tokens. This game, his placements dictated, at least in part, where my placements went. Like I say over and again, if at all possible do not let the enemy have the initiative, and if he does get it, do everything you can to get it back quickly.
Just as in Loot, use the terrain wisely to protect the units you have carrying the tokens, and keep your forces in mutually supporting positions as much as possible. As you can see, if you apply the principles of war and METT-T effectively, you’ll start to find it becomes repetitive, and repetitive thinking with regards to tactics is a good thing.
CONTROL:
Control is the final scenario we’ll discuss this chapter. What I really like about this mission is that it can favor an offensive and aggressive play style, but it can also support a defensive, shooter style. The mission here is to control more zones of the board than your opponent. In some ways this makes it similar to Pillage, but the control is points based, not unit based as the Pillage scenario is.
When considering the enemy in Control, one must look at the play style he has. Dwarfs can do very well in this scenario if they set up a gun line across 2 control zones and place some offensive capabilities out away from the line. Elite armies actually have a slight advantage in this scenario over the horde style force since everything in an elite army costs more points. If the elite army can remove a bunch of low cost units, there’s still only low cost units left. Thus a 350 point flying monster of death still alive at the end of the game can cancel out 2 or 3 100 point or less units in a control zone. A 300 + point infantry horde can easily overpower 2 hordes of lesser value. A horde army can contest all 6 control zones but their lack of expensive units can actually be of detriment to them in this mission.
Your own troops need to be able to create the conditions for success. In a lot of ways, the focus of this game in turns 1-4 is on killing as many enemies as you can, and then positioning to control zones on turns 5 and 6. At least, that is generally how I look at it. I will often run a double envelopment formation on a Control game. Infantry units go dead center, and in a position to claim the center zone on either half of the table. If you have any of your chaff units alive by the end of turn 3, consider shifting them out to the flanks to contest those zones. War engines and individuals do not score points for this mission, so this may change your priority of targets unless killing the war engines is still vital to your survival (War Trombones or Weapons Teams with storm of lead anyone?)
As we proceed forward, we’re going to talk very specifically about unit rolls when assigning objectives, army selection, and the art of deploying.
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