Way of the Water Warrior - Not me but an excellent article!

Combat and the Four Elements


Each of the four elements represents a style/philosophy of approaching combat. Few people or armies are simply an expression of one pure element, as nothing in life is that simple. However, understanding yourself in terms of these elements is useful, as playing an army that reflects your way of thinking makes the process more enjoyable (and more successful). It can also help you to understand your strengths and weaknesses as a player.

Earth overview: An Earth army wins by outlasting it�s opponent, and is characterised by it�s resilience and staying power. This means that good Earth armies tend to have high model counts and/or resilient troops.

Movement phase: For reasons given below, Earth armies are usually firepower based, and movement precludes the firing of heavy weapons. Thus, Earth armies do not usually invest much in mobility. Moreover, Earth troops often benefit (directly or just generally) from being in proximity to each other, so high movement , which serves only to separate the unit from the whole, is to be actively discouraged. However, this often means that Earth armies surrender the initiative to the enemy, and it is this phase that will usually defeat an Earth army.

Shooting Phase: The rules of 40k mean that Earth armies are almost always firepower based; cover adds resilience in a shooting war, but means little in protracted close combat, and ranged weapons allow a concentration of force despite the army�s size and sluggishness, whereas in assault those numbers cannot be brought effectively to bear. This is the phase in which an Earth army tries to win the war.

Assault Phase: Although not geared for assault, Earth armies are by no means pushovers. High numbers of resilient troops (often receiving the charge in cover) mean that Earth armies can often grind their opponents down over time.

Example: An infantry heavy marine army with Purity Above All and hidden power fists.

Personal Comment: I dislike Earth armies as I find the play style dull. Undeniably effective however.


Fire overview: A Fire army wants to overwhelm it�s opponents, and is characterised by it�s specialisation. Good Fire armies often have high model counts and use specialist troops.

Movement phase: Fire armies, for reasons given below, tend to be assault armies. This means that they have a vested interest in getting to the enemy fast, so Fire armies often have good mobility, though not on the level of an Air army. This is where Fire armies may lose, as their specialist troops must survive in enough numbers that they can overwhelm the enemy in assault.

Shooting phase: There is one shooting phase (that you can use) for every two assault phases. This means that it is easier to overwhelm an opponent with assault superiority than fire superiority. Moreover, assault tends to be a more �one on one� affair than shooting wars, and the specialist nature of fire troops really shines when compared model for model with other armies. Thus most Fire armies will focus on assault, and because of their troops specialist nature, shooting will be weak, or non-existent.

Assault phase: This is where most Fire armies try to win. Ideally, their specialist troops empty their kill zone before the enemy can strike back, avoiding the protracted fights that often shows up the lack of resilience that characterises many Fire armies.

Example: An all genestealer army.

Personal Comment: I dislike Fire armies as the play style tends to be very one track. It also requires a certain flair that I lack.


Air overview: An air army wants to out manoeuvre it�s opponent, and is characterised by high mobility. Good Air armies are very fast, often at the expense of numbers.

Movement phase: This the bit where Air armies try to win. They get to choose where and when they hit you, and will choose a time and place that limits any counter attack.

Shooting phase: Unlike Fire and Earth, there is no strong tendency for Air to go shooting or assault, as both are well represented. Good Air armies do tend to specialise in one or the other, however.

Assault phase: As above.

Example: Ravenwing.

Personal Comment: Played Air for a long time. Very intellectual style, and Air v Air battles are some of the most impressive to watch. Table size and the tactical scale of 40k limit the style greatly, however.


Water overview: Unlike the other elements, Water fights reactively, responding to the plan of the enemy. Whereas the other elements try to dominate a particular phase, and �inflict� their plan upon the enemy, Water has no plan other than to defeat the enemy�s plan. Good Water armies use well rounded, generalist troops.

I could go through the phases, but there is no point, as a Water army requires an opponent in order to truly define itself.

Example: A well rounded Ultramarine force.

Personal Comment: This is the type of force this tactica will consider.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why Play Reactively


So why play the Water way? For me there are two reasons, one simple, and one complex.

The simple answer is that it is the only style that does not become �same-ish�. With the other styles you know roughly, before you see the table, or know what army you are facing, what your plan is. In fact, it goes deeper than that. You�re locked in. Any deviation from your overall plan weakens your force. Playing your beserkers against the all stealer army? Neither of you really has the option of any tactic but all out assault. Hope you were in the mood for a meat grinder.

A Water army, on the other hand, has no plan until it sees it�s enemy. And each game is different, depending on the details of your opponent. If you fight the same guy over and over, this won�t help, but in a decent sized club, this can keep your interest alive.

The more difficult answer is that I am a very �problem -> solution� type person. Take my painting for example. I have never, EVER, amounted to anything as an artist when presented with a blank canvas, a clean sheet of paper, or a lump of clay. I simply have no idea what to do. But put me in front of a mini, and everything changes. So many problems suddenly arise, needing answers. Colour matches, shading and light sources, fluff accuracy, and more. I can take weeks to painstakingly paint a single trooper. In short, once I am given a context, my artistic side really blossoms.

This is true of my martial arts and my war-gaming. I have a hard time formulating battle plans, but when you try something, my brain goes into overdrive, trying to figure out how to stop you.

I suspect I�m not alone in that. I think there are others out there just like me. So this tactica is for the Water Warriors out there.

------------------------------------------------------------------

For each unit, therefore, we must ask ourselves the following questions:
How does it perform in the movement phase?
How does it perform in the shooting phase?
How does it perform in the assault phase?
Are there any significant special rules not mentioned above that add utility?
Do these answers tend to force the unit into a particular role?
Overall, is it worth the points?

And as for the next part I will simply post it here and cut out a lot of his BS:

Fighting the Four Elements


Alright. So you have picked your army and are keen to try it out. But what now? Here is an overview of what it is like to fight each of the elemental players you will meet.

The Fire Warrior
(aka the aggressive opponent)

This guy wants to get up close and personal. What shooting units he has will likely remain static, to take advantage long range heavy weapons, and are often deployed centrally, or spread out, trying to get them to cover as much ground as possible. Neutralise them by denying LOS, something your low numbers help with, and maintaining distance, so that you maximise your shrouding. Otherwise ignore them in the early game.

The bulk of his army will probably be assault forces, lead by some CC HQ monster. Again, they will probably be deployed centrally, to reach you quickly. You will need to make sure your forces are close enough to support eachother in the inevitable assault. Otherwise, your priority is maximising your SB love time. This means falling back (to the flank, as well as the rear) as long as you can (incidentally, making his shooting elements more useless), while keeping him in SB range. Some armies, like foot orcs, can be totally destroyed at this stage.

If at all possible, retreat into cover and receive his charge (there is no direct benefit to GK charging). While it can be tempting to deny him the charge, his forces are probably pretty strung out at this point, and so denying the charge to one group may just mean giving it to another, a group that may not have reached you that turn if you had fallen back instead.

If you have managed your forces carefully, you should be engaging no more than half his army with all of yours, and the outcome should be heavily in your favour. Ironically, he will probably have started moving his shooting forces forward to support the assault once he saw how things were going. They should arrive just in time to save you a long walk back to them.

The Earth Warrior
(aka the cautious player)

This is the guy with a wall of tactical marines and a mean assault squad sitting right behind them, led by an ugly CC HQ. The message is clear, assault him and get beaten down by hidden powerfists and assault squads, try to out shoot, and you eat las and plasma till you die.

The trick here is to nibble at his edges until he makes a mistake. Use terrain to block as much line of sight as possible, while taking shots at his exposed flanks. Terminators, Raiders and Dreads allow you to reposition heavy weapons each turn, and SB's prove their worth too. Killing even a marine or two each turn while denying his retun fire will make him FEEL defeated, even though the damage is minimal.

With luck, he'll advance too flush you out, at which point you can treat him like an aggressive opponent (but weaker). If he turtles, keep nibbling, and position yourself for a last minute objective grab. You won't win big, but you should still win.

The Air Warrior

Less common that the last two elements, Air is one of the few armies guarenteed to take the inititive from you. To the Air player, everyone (except another Air player) looks very much like an Earth player, as the disparity in movement makes everyone else look like they are standing still. He will try to treat you like one, and that's fine. Don't read too much into his initial deployment as a turn of manouvering can make it irrelevant.

Air players habitually go for the flanks, as the points they spend on mobility mean that they have less actual fighting power, so they want to take on small chunks of the opponent, rather than all at once. Keep your small army together to remove the benefit of a flanking move.

They key here is to attack the source of his movement. This will mean taking out trantsports if he is assaulty, or stunning his vehicles if he is shooty. Fall back as ever to gain time, but keep in mind that with no defined front line, "falling back" can mean any direction. Remember that turbo boosting changes an armour save INTO an invulnerable save, so your incinerators and psycannons will make short work of bikes that try to outflank you.

Ultimatey, you will want to assault him if he is shooty, and keep him out of assault if that's where he is trying to get. With my list, assaulting Air armies are not to great a threat, as my GK's can hop into a Raider if they get too close, and transports tend to be flimsy enough that even stormbolters can take them out. Vehicle heavy shooting lists are far more dangerous, but with my mobility, each time one lines up a firing solution my entire army can move and counter attack. This tends to make them cautious once you down the first light unit or two (speeders/vipers/etc).

As his units tend to be (almost) as expensive as yours, you should not be outnumbered too badly, and a few casualties will force him to take risks to win the victory point race. Make him pay for those risks.

The Water Warrior

The least common of all the elements in my experience. Do not to expect to have an edge in movement, shooting, or assault. This is a game where the first person to crack loses.

The goal here is to manouver around eachother, inflicting casualties while limiting your own. Do NOT commit too early, as you will just be turning yourself into a weak Earth or Fire army, and we know how those battles end.

Once you gain a clear advantage, fall back, as he will have to chase you and start taking risks to catch up in victory points. Again, make him pay for those risks.

Common Tactical Maneuvers


Perhaps I'm just not that smart, but I never "got" books like Art of War and The Five Rings. On War never did it for me, and although I loved Guns of August and Red Storm Rising, I never came away feeling I was a better tactician for having read them. I feel I got more out of Ender's Game and The Forever War, and those were just scifi. So here I'm going to put general principles aside for a while, and talk about how, specifically, to set up the other guy to lose.


Pruning

Many units actually consist of one or two dangerous guys and a whole lot of ablative wounds. Pruning is where you set your unit up in such a way that they can fire on a few of the ablative guys, without taking return fire from the actual threats. This is like the common tactic of sniping (not described here), but in reverse. Water armies excell at pruning, as we maintain full firepower on the move, while the other guys don't.


Focus Fire

The gentle art of hitting something with everything you've got. Sometimes you just can't deny LOS to a dangerous unit. Then it has to die.


Fork/Skewer

Chess terms. A fork is where you could attack in one of two directions, and a skewer is where you could attack one of several units in one direction. Normally this is undesireable in 40k, as if you have LOS, they have LOS. However, it can be used to prevent wastage. If you focus fire a unit, it may die before all your units have fired, leaving your last units with nothing to engage. A fork/skewer on your last unit means they have an alternate target if things go well for you.


Land Raider Assault

1) Open the front hatch (yours does open, right?).
2) Place your first man so that the near edge of his base is 2" from the assault ramp/access point.
3) Place others as appropriate.
4) Make assault move.

This allows you to assault a target ~9.25" from the leading edge of the Raider. More if you are using larger than standard bases.


The Invisible Man

This is a long range IC, such as a Brother Captain with a psycannon, or a Librarian with Fury of the Ancients, who shadows a resilient unit like a Land Raider. Although completely in the open, he cannot be targeted, because he is an IC, and the resilient unit is closer to the enemy.


Rack 'em

Tank shock with your Raider along one flank of a unit. The unit will then bunch to the side to let the Raider past, probably forming a short, compact line (depending on the angle). When your PAGK disembark, the guy with the incinerator will find that this line fits neatly under the template.


Bunkering

Two Raiders in a shallow V, about 2.5 inches apart. Your GK in the V. They can fire past the Raiders (and be fired upon) at anything they can draw LOS to. However, as the enemy may not approach closer than 1" except in the assault phase, and the standard base is ~.98", they cannot pass through the gap between the Raiders, and have to try going around. Your Raiders and GK can reposition each turn of course. Don't stand too close to the gap, though, or they will just assault through.


Betting/Hedging

Betting is where you position IC in such a way that in an assault the hidden powerfist is within his kill zone. In other words, you are betting that the IC will clear his kill zone and get the fist before it instant kills him. Hedging your bets is where you position the IC so that the fist is outside his kill zone and so cannot harm him this turn.


Tactical Casualties

This is where you remove casualties in such a way that another unit or part of the unit is denied the ability to engage you. This may mean letting their IC kill all the models in base contact with his retinue, preventing his retinue from attacking, or killing off your lead men in the shooting phase so that his other units no longer have LOS.


Kiting

This is where you repeatedly fall back from an enemy whilst shooting at him, denying him a counter attack through greater range and manouverability. Works best against slow assault troops, like orcs, where entire games can be won through this tactic.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

While I have tried to present this tactica in a kind of "paint-by-numbers" way to allow easy duplication or adaptation, there truth is that the theory is a lot easier than the practice, where examples are less clear cut and truth comes in shades of grey rather that a comfortable black and white.

In his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Deepak Chopra claims that in every moment there exists one absolutely perfect action. The rest of his book focuses on training the mind and heart to be able to identify that perfect action from moment to moment.

In 40k there may or may not be a "perfect action" or tactic for every situation, but there certainly are a lot of poor ones. We face choices every turn, whether we know it or not. Often we make decisions before we even realise that the choice is there.

Examples:

Falling back on turn 2 to deny a LOS may mean we have "decided" we will not assault on turn 3 (as we will be out of range).
Pruning squad A means we have "decided" not to assault squad B this turn.
Assaulting squad B may mean we have "decided" not to shoot squad A next turn (as we are embroiled in assault).

In each of the above cases, a decision on an immediate problem restricts our choices in the future, effectively making a "decision" on our future actions at the same time, whether we have thought about it or not.

The trickle down effect of our choices can be hard to weigh against each other, even if we see them. Is assaulting next turn better than falling back this turn? Well that depends on alot of circumstances, but luckily the whole range of questions can be lumped quite nicely into one, overarching question:

Who's the Beatdown?


This question derives from the Vintage Magic the Gathering Tournament environment, which, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a highly technical and exacting metagame. Magic the Gathering is a game which (in a competitive environment) involves 2 players with customised decks drawing and playing cards in an effort to effect a 'victory condition', usually, but not always, reducing the opponent to 0 life. Although these decks can be made varyingly fast, aggressive, controlling, and enduring, in any given match up the relationship between the two decks can be described as Beatdown-Control. Failing to appreciate which you are will cost you the game.

The Beatdown deck is usually the faster, more explosive deck. It has to win before the Control deck can get it's slower, stronger cards into play. Playing the Beatdown means taking risks and playing aggressively.

The Control, on the other hand, has to stop the the Beatdown long enough to gain control of the game, either through a lock, or straight board/card advantage. The longer the game goes on the more likely Control is to win. Playing Control means playing conservatively, minimising losses, prolonging the battle so that the effect of your greater forces can be brought to bear.

Obviously, there are significant differences between the formats of Magic and 40k. Luck in 40k is in the dice, not your draw phase. In 40k you start with all your forces in play (or in reserve), and there are no re-enforcements. The armies are (theoretically) equal, but losses cannot be replaced. Despite this, the Beatdown-Control relationship still has value, and I have seen games lost on this principle (and I will include a batrep on this point later).

So what factors influence the question of roles? The obvious one is army/unit selection, but it is not the only factor. Terrain, objectives, deployment, time remaining and comparative skill all play a part. While perhaps a supercomputer could evaluate all these factors and come up definitive answer for any given situation, those of us who left our supercomputers in our other army case are left simply with our gut feelings.

Ask yourself, does either of the armies on the table, in all the current circumstances, have a clearly defined victory condition? This victory condition will probably be either "bring all my big guns to bear and blow him away" or "get into one gigantic, all out assault". If only one army has such a clear objective, congratulations, you have just identified the Beatdown.

If both armies have a clear mission, ask yourself if either one of those victory conditions prevents the other? For example, an army that shoots at another army does not prevent an assault, but an assault does preclude further shooting. If one objective overrides the other, congratulations, you have just identified the Beatdown.

If neither victory conditions preclude the other (ie, they both want to shoot, or both want to assault), ask yourself if, in the current circumstances, the two armies were to get what they want, who would most probably come out ahead. This army is the Beatdown.

So now what?

Once you know which you are, you can plan your game accordingly.

If you are the Control, as a Water army will be most (but NOT all) of the time, you must play conservatively, emphasise victory point denial, focus on objectives, and prevent, at all costs, the opponent from setting up his victory condition. Fortunately, Water armies are VERY good at playing the control game.

If you are the Beatdown (and you will be from time to time), you have to switch gears and focus on getting your victory condition into play. The longer it takes, the less time you have to kill the enemy, which means fewer victory points. Unlike most armies, Water armies play well on the Control AND the Beatdown.


A Rough Guide to the Beatdown


While it's all well and good for me to tell you to trust your instincts or listen to your gut, I appreciate that these are actually subconscious banks of accumulated knowledge that cannot be accessed consciously, and so are unavailable to new players. Here then is a rough guide, based on generalisations, and discounting game specifics (like terrain and deployment), of who is the Beatdown.

Fire Armies: As assault based armies, the Fire Warrior will almost always be the Beatdomn, except against slower Fire armies. This is because Fire troops pay for their speed, meaning they field less actual power the faster they get. The trade off is that faster armies will spend less time getting shot at, and so may actually deliver more troops to the battle. Against armies that want to get "up close and personal" as much as the Fire army, this speed is simply a waste of points.

Earth Armies: Usually these armies play the Beatdown against Water and Air armies, as they have enough fire power to blow away anything they can get in their sights. Against Fire armies the Earth player has to just hope he can kill things fast enought to live through the assault. Earth-Earth fights follow the same principles as Fire-Fire fights; the slower force is the Beatdown.

Water Armies: With a mix of skills and no single overwhelming advantage, Water armies are generally Control against everything except Air armies and more shooty Water armies, when they become the Beatdown, as they try to lock down the greater manouverability of these armies.

Air Armies: As mobility armies, Air is always Control, except against more shooty Air armies, when they become the Beatdown, as assault negates the shooting of the opponent.