Try Hard Wargaming: The Plugging Leaks Series Part #2

Author: Ian W

October 2021

What does the term "leak" mean to me in the game of Warhammer 40k? A leak is a term I have carried over from my old college poker days. A "leak" is a fundamental flaw that a player has that makes them a far less profitable player than they might be otherwise.

The difference between the game of poker and Warhammer 40k isn’t as large as you may think. Fundamentally, they are games of imperfect information. In perfect information games, the optimal move for each player is clearly defined: at every stage there is a “right” move that is at least as good as any other move. Whereas in Warhammer 40k the optimal move is not clearly defined or is at least difficult to assess.

In the “Plugging Leaks” short form series, Try Hard Wargaming looks to shed some light on common leaks we see each and every day on the tabletop and find that elusive optimal move. Lets begin.

The Leak: Not understanding how the game rewards the player and their army

Today's Plugging Leaks looks at a recent Goonhammer article reporting on the average scoring results, per the ITC Battle App, of GT Mission Pack 2021 and the available faction specific secondaries. For those not aware, Goonhammer.com has long been a staple of competitive reading in the Warhammer 40k community and I wholly recommend digesting their content.

Link to their article: https://www.goonhammer.com/the-august-2021-40k-meta-review/

Let's look at secondaries which have an “Average VP” over 8 Victory Points (“VP”). What can this information tell us about how the game rewards us and what are the questions to ask ourselves of our army to take advantage of the rewards on offer.

Picked Percentage Pick Pct Avg. VP

GT Mission Pack 2021

Abhor the witch* 0.8% 8.9

Stranglehold (“Be”) 6.7% 8.5

Titan Hunter* 0.5% 8.3

Engage on all fronts (“Be”) 16.3% 8

Retrieval Octarius Data (“Be”) 13% 8

Faction Specific

Drukhari: Herd the Prey (“Be”) 45% 11.1

Dark Angels: Stubborn Defiance (“Be”) 69% 10.6

Deathwatch: Suffer not the Alien (“Do”) 18% 10.2

Dark Angels: Death on the wind (“Do”) 15% 10.1

Grey Knights: Purifying Ritual (“Be”) 30% 10

Space Marines: Oaths of Moment (“Be”) 52% 10

Necrons: Code of Conduct (“Do”) 12% 9.5

Thousand Sons: Wrath of Magnus (“Do”) 20% 9.3

Blood Angels: Relentless Assault (“Be”) 19% 9.3

Admec: Uncharted Sequencing (“Be”) 12% 9.1

Death Guard: Despoiled Ground (“Be”) 12% 8.9

Sisters: Defend the Shrine (“Be”) 13% 8.9

Necrons: Purge the Vermin (“Do”) 37% 8.9

Space Wolves: Warrior Pride (“Do”) 39% 8.6

Drukhari: Take Them Alive (“Do”) 12% 8.4

Admec: Eradication of Flesh (“Do”) 31% 8.3

Necrons: The Treasures of Aeons (“Be”) 5% 8.3

Thousand Sons: Mutate Landscape (“Be”) 26% 8.3

Death Guard: Spread the Sickness (“Be”) 54% 8.2

Sisters: A Leap of Faith (“Be”) 17% 8.1

*For the purposes of this article, we would agree these secondaries are situational and their pick percentage is low given this so we can discount these from our discussion here.

From the above we should aim to understand what core principle of play here is being rewarded. The core principle on display is that it is typically better to ''be” than ''do”. It is better to “be” somewhere on the board than to do something with your opponent i.e required to interact. The game is not about killing!!! You will notice that the GT Mission Pack 2021 secondaries promote being in areas, and faction specific secondaries have 12 in favour of being versus 8 in favour of doing. Some faction secondaries are indeed a hybrid of both and certain armies have a scoring advantage towards doing, however their army build needs to be optimised in order to take advantage of this.

Too often players set up for a delirious charging move or focus so hard on delivering that killing stroke that unbeknownst to them it places unnecessary stress upon their army and its ability to continue scoring victory points.

An example of commonly placing unnecessary stress upon your army where it hasn’t been optimised would be where a Space Wolves player selects the Warrior Pride secondary with expectations of doing well. This typically averages 8.9 victory points above. It reads as follows;

“Score 3 victory points at the end of your turn if two or more SPACE WOLVES units from your army are within Engagement Range of any enemy units or have completed a charge move this turn.”

The Space Wolves player needs to consider the following pre game when selecting this;

• Did my list build factor in enough units to charge a minimum twice per turn i.e. 5 turns x 2 units is 10 units to commit.

• Does my list build rely upon being durable enough to stay within engagement range from my opponent's turn into mine to minimise the amount of units which must charge i.e. what units in your build are durable enough but also able to get into combat.

• Can my opponent counter this by avoiding interactions thus starving my army of its ability to score.

• How likely will making 2 units charge in turn 1 be; and

• How likely will you be looking to make 2 units charge in turn 4 and turn 5; and

• Am I willing to score only 9 victory points on this secondary. If so, how do I ensure I max primary and other secondaries to create my win condition.

Typically elite marines armies have around 15 units in their army. The Warrior Pride secondary causes too much stress upon the common Space Wolves archetype list build. Scoring turn 1 isn’t a given and on turn 4 and 5 the army typically needs to focus on the overall mission and other secondaries chosen than focus on a sole secondary forcing the player to interact with the opponent.

Suggestions for your next game:

The easiest way to ensure you reliably score victory points and avoid overextending is at the list building stage. To look at the secondaries available to your army and create an army consciously designed to maximise its scoring potential.

How exactly will you score 100 points per game?

If your army is designed with a particular set of secondaries in mind then it will function as such when it hits the tabletop. You will notice where and when the army becomes stressed.

Remember, this is your army to build and you have your own playstyle. Copying meta lists and/or taking too much stock in list discussions on the internet isn’t the way you and your army will improve.

Finding a community to have robust discussion helps you to;

• train yourself to discuss and argue about any given topic;

• process information rather than simply receive it;

• express your views; and

• to improve your thinking, listening and speaking skills.

We at Try Hard Wargaming are focused on building a positive, sporting and competitively driven 40k Community and welcome all like minded people to come by and get involved.

Hope you enjoyed this short form series.

Best, Try Hard Wargaming

“For the players, by the players”

Discord link: https://discord.gg/tnTuds7S