The Plan!

Fritz here once again, ready to expand on last weeks post regarding a three tiered strategy- attack, support, defense to building your army. I know you have all done your homework and have your list ready so we can continue forward talking about “the plan”.

Just as you have divided up your army to accomplish specific tasks you should be going into each game- pickup or tournament with a plan for exactly what you are going to do based on your list. Just stepping up to the table with such an idea gives you a huge advantage- it transforms you from a reactive player to an active player. Knowing exactly what you are going to do puts your opponent in the position of having to play catch up to your tactics and allows you to set the pace of the game. It also takes a lot of self induced stress out of the game since you are going to do the same thing regardless of the opposing army that you face on the table- no more “OMG What am I going to do?” So just what is the plan? The plan is how you are going to play your army to win the mission as opposed to playing it to counter your opponent’s army. By knowing what you are going to do ahead of time you also cut down on mistakes and save time on the table- critical for tournaments. Get away form the trap of playing your opponent’s army and not your own. To illustrate my version of the plan I’m going to share with you how I play capture & control (my favorite 40K mission) with my three armies- Saim-Hann Eldar, Necrons, and Black Templars...


Saim-Hann Capture & Control

1 Farseer + 5 Warlocks
2 x 7 Jetbikes
1 Wave Serpent + 11 Storm Guardians
3x 2 Vypers
1 Fire Prism

My plan here is to leverage the speed of my entire army to divide my opponent’s army in half followed by ganging up with all of my army on the weaker half of his army. I’m also planning to exploit the survivability of my grav-tanks with cover saves, holo-fields, star engines, and vectored engines.

I’m going to do my best to take second turn so wherever my opponent deploys their objective mine is going to go on the other side of the table across on the diagonal. When it is my turn to deploy I’m going to either reserve everything if I feel that my opponent has enough shots to alpha strike me, or I’ll deploy in the back center away from my objective, not placing a single unit on it. With such a fast army there is no concept of my objective or my opponents, no attack or defend. I’m going to hang back with long range shooting until I see which objective is weaker- the one my opponent placed with his units sitting on it, or the objective I placed with the units they have sent out to capture it. Whichever one is the weaker objective that is the one that I am going to shift over and attack with my entire warhost- my full army vs. their half army. Once I’ve then secured the objective- it may even be the one they placed, I’ll then put my grav tanks into postion to crash and contest the other objective for turn 5/6.



Necron Capture & Control

1 Deceiver
1 Lord W/ Destroyer Body, Solar Pulse, Nightmare Shroud, Phylactery, Warscythe
3 x 10 Warriors
2 x 4 Destroyer
1 x 5 Scarabs
1 Monolith

With my Necrons I’m looking to leverage the survivability of my forces with the monolith, C’Tan, and WBB rolls while using the strength of the monolith and C’Tan as anchor points on the table.

After objectives are placed my warriors, destroyers, and the Deceiver go on my objective to defend and hold it at all costs. Deceiver goes in the front so if you want to crash my block of warriors for phase out you have to get past the golden boy. Destroyers target any incoming transports to get guys out on foot so further destroyer and warrior fire can actually do something. Land raiders and other killy troop deliverers just need to be immobilized so the guys inside get out on foot.

My lord and the scarabs go in the center of the table and the monolith gets reserved. Turn one the lord turbo boosts with the scarabs for the 2+ cover save heading right out to my opponents objective. If they are parking on it with rhinos and the like then my destroyers shift to the center of the table to have range to pop it. When the monolith comes in it lands as close as it can to my opponent’s objective and just parks there to contest- even better if it scatters on it, as the lord moves up behind it- using the physical footprint of the monolith to hide behind if he can while popping off nightmare shroud. If and when he gets punked hopefully he gets up with full wounds from phylactery, if not then I portal him through the ‘lith for another go at it, along with more shrouding and tank shock action from the monolith.




Black Templar Capture & Control

1 Emperor’s Champion
5 LC Terminators
5 TH Terminators
1 LC Dreadnought
3 Razorbacks W/ 2 HB + 1 LC
3 x 5 Squads W/ Flamer + Power Fist
2 x 5 Assault Marines

With my Black Templars the plan is to maximize their all around over powering assault skills with preferred enemy from the Emperor’s Champion while exploiting the old smoke rules to deliver the pain. Wherever my opponent places their objective I’m placing mine on the opposite side and deploying as far forward as I can. If I get first turn great, if not then the weaker vehicles go behind the land raider and I maximize cover as best I can. The plan is to move out turn one, pop smoke and prepare for glory. I want to smash into my opponent at the center of the table and throw up a wall of assaults and vehicles that makes it hard to pass through to my objective. By bringing the fight to them it also tends to shift their units on the defensive and hang back just incase I mange to break through. While that is happening thunder hawk gunships are dropping in my assault marines next to my opponent’s objective and the strike cruiser in orbit is teleporting the thunder hammer terminators in on the deep strike. Their job is to contest the objective if I can’t break through and to help pull off more model resources that my opponent has away form my objective.



With all three of my armies I’m looking to use what makes them “special” over other armies as the exploit- speed for Saim-Hann, survivability (C’Tan + monolith) for Necrons, and preferred enemy all around for my Black Templars.

My challenge to you now, in the comments section to post your quick army list and what your plan is for capture and control, or we’ll just take it over to the lounge.