Mission 1
- DEPLOYMENT: Pitch Battle (Rulebook P.93)
- Primary: 5 Objectives
- Secondary: Modified Kill Points (win by 2KP)
- Tertiary: VP
Going first or second will be largely depends on the make up of your army. While going second would be preferable for an objective mission, an army with weak staying power (e.g. IG) might find it difficult to shift tougher opponents off an objective. An army with superior firepower might also want to go first to decimate their opponent early.
In general,
- if you are going first, you should force your opponent into an unfavourable position via firepower or threat of close combat through aggressive movement
- if you are going second, you should look to minimise first turn damage and break out of your deployment zone, getting yourself into position from turn 4 to threaten as many objective as necessary to win the game
- if you have a faster army, you should look to draw your opponent to a useless position on the board (e.g. away from objective)
- if your army is slower, you should remain tight and compact, spreading out for objectives as late as possible
- Always play for the primary mission, but always destroy whole units, preferably scoring units. This ensures focus while covering the secondary
- Position is everything. It does not matter if you kill 99.9% of his army when you are not in the right position to claim objectives – and he is.
- DEPLOYMENT: Dawn of War (Rulebook P.93)
- Primary: Modified Kill Points
- Secondary: 3 Objectives
- Tertiary: VP
Game 2 is Modified KP (2 or more KP) with 3 objectives set diagonally as the secondary.
On the face value, it seems advantageous to go first. You would have better position on board (set up to mid way) and gets to shoot first.
This is true if your army is special elite (Terminator Wing), strong staying power, low KP or slow. But unless you are IG, when you line across the half way line, you will spread yourself too thin and units become unsupported. You would also need to declare your hand first turn and come on board, likely followed by moving your front line back. This could open opportunities for your opponent to attack your weak spots and put you onto your back foot. This is made worst if they have search lights or acute senses where they get to have the first turn of firing even in night fight.
Going second will likely lose positional advantage, but you will be able to better react to your opponent. If you have longer range, superior long range firepower, speed or even superior close combat, you can chose to go second.
The major mistake I see players made in a KP game is not knowing when to defend. Even when they are at a KP advantage, they would press on determine to decimate their opponent. This gives the opponent a chance to come back into the game or win the game.
To win a KP game is not about how many KP you take, it is about how many KP you can deny your opponent. Because taking KP requires you to roll dice (luck), while denying KP does not need any dice (strategy, movement) most of the time.
