Many of the emails I get from time to time involve the question- my friend and his army X beat me all the time, help me win- or something like that. My first adventures into 40K were with two friends and that was the entire gaming group- hanging out and playing in the basement or even backyard. If you play in a small group it can be frustrating to lose to the same guy again, and again, and again.
So let’s look at how to put a stop to this, reboot the system so to speak, and give you a fair shot at winning.
First up is the psychological edge- facing loss after loss each week, you have to get pumped and psyched- you can beat your buddy! Let go of the past losses, and approach the game from a fresh perspective. Easier said than done, but this is THE critical first step.
Next is to take a step back and analyze the psychology of the army and how your friend plays it. For the sake of this post and illustration I’ll be talking about my good friend Brother Captain James since many of you know his exploits on the blog, he is a good friend who I routinely face, and in facing both win and lose against.
Chances are that if you are playing in a small gaming group or club your friends army has grown to match their personality, as opposed to a tournament army. They probably started out with what models they could cheaply get new or used to dive into the game, and over time, built a list and collected models to suit their style of gameplay. In essence their army reflects their personality in real life. True, true. Look at my Saim-Hann Eldar and Harlequin Eldar armies, they say a lot about me- heck even when I roll with powered armor, my assault heavy marine armies are quite telling.
Anyway…
Look at what makes the army tick, and what your friend has invested in their army. Roll the tape for Brother Captain James…and James baby, fill me in if I am wrong.
The core of James army is Shrike attached to a huge group of terminators which he infiltrates as close as he can get to your deployment. Sometimes Shrike breaks off for a first turn assault, other times he doesn’t. While James is ramming these terminators down your throat his multiple land speeders are firing off missiles backed by razorbacks. By the time the smoke clears and his terminators are dead, and most of your army, his tactical squads come in and take objectives.
Now when seeing those terminators right across from you, your first instinct is to stop them, but can you? Is your army able to stop them (read kill) and still have something left. I can sometimes do it with my harlequins but not with my other armies- recently my Grey Knights just got swamped and over run.
This entire unit is built so you can’t stop it without equal or greater force, which most armies just don’t have unless you go out of your way to build it. So then maybe you run away? The huge units size- ten termies + Shrike + another IC depending on the points + infiltrate makes this very hard.
If you can’t kill it, then neutralize it’s effect. Examine said unit and ask yourself what else can you do besides killing it/
Can you tarpit it? Meaning, can you bog it down in the assault, tie it up for a few turns so it is stuck and frozen place on the table? Do you have something like this in your army?
If you are playing Tyranids, specifically a few tervigons, then yes- spawn those poisoned furious charge gaunt and swamp them- keeping them in synapse so you are fearless. You need a good supply of cheap and fearless units to do this.
On the other hand, if you don’t have the supply of expendable troops, say like playing Eldar, then a delaying action is more appropriate. Send up that skimmer with holo-fields and block off their movement- needing sixes to hit. Of course you are firing a few shots to take out a few termies, etc.
That unit your friend is using to clobber you with, find another way to make it ineffective in the game.
Look at the other parts in your opponent’s list and how they work- and from there ask yourself the systematic questions of how you are going to dismantle them.
In terms of the land speeders in our example, can I get them clustered up in terrain by taking the “worst” side of the board with less terrain, so when they are clumped up to get cover saves I can drop an ordinance shot on them? Do I have outflankers that can enter from the sides and attack the backs where they hang out. Can I keep night fight up for a few turns so they have to close to mid field to bypass night fight, but then expose themselves to my volume of S5/6 shots?
That is how you are going to beat your friend, by going against what you do each week, and methodically taking apart their army unit chunk by unit chunk.
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