40K: Variant Army Builds – All Offense
Fritz here with an alternate perspective on filling out your army list. – One that is all killy all the time!
For a long time the mantra has been troops and more troops to capture objectives, and this perspective does have its merit seeing how two of the three standard missions require troops to take objectives. This is fine if your codex troops can actually do something like Space Wolves or Blood Angels, but what if your troops are sub standard in the game like Necrons or Tyranid Gaunts? Points spent on troops, is well points spend on troops.
This idea has taken me to experimenting with alternate build that I’ll just call the hyper-build since everything needs a name. A hyper-build forgets about the mission objectives and aims to just wipe out the opponent- everything in the list is geared to this. This type of build is especially handy with older codex armies who just don’t have the punch with their basic troops.
The formula is simple- take the minimum two troop choices with the least amount of options and spend the rest on the killy. Since you are not aiming to play the game by the mission objectives, you don’t have to worry about only having two troop choices. Of course the question is what type of killy is best…
This is going to depend on your codex and the point level that you play with, but if we are following the hyper concept the best killy is the assault flavored killy. Why assault over shooting?
Simple, played correctly with some solid tactics a good assault move can trade two or more units, while shooting can trade one at best. Here is what I mean by that- and keep in mind that the goal of the hyper army build is to table your opponent by turn three, and we’ll get to sportsmanship in a moment.
With but a few exceptions in the game a shooting unit can only fire at one unit a turn- machine spirit Land Raider and surly Long Fangs as exceptions come to mind. I fire my Predator tank and at best it can kill a single “unit”- like a Rhino or Chimera. This is where I am trading one shot for one shot in the best case scenario.
In the assault, again with tactics to push my opponent a tooled up assault unit can contact one or more units taking them out at best for a two or even three to one trade. Assaults are the only way to possibly kill more than one unit with your own unit. So with the hyper list concept I’m building my army to deliver that assault punch all at once and with overwhelming force to break my opponent by turn three. This type of thinking can be found in my HyperNids Tyranid list, and how I am currently playing that army in response to all the Razorback and Chimera spam on the table.
Another big advantage of this concept is that you are throwing 100% of your army against maybe 60%-70% of your opponent’s. Since your opponent is still occupied with mission objectives some of his units will be looking to capture and defend objectives rather than actively engaging your units. This is some powerful leverage- all of your army against a smaller portion of theirs.
Of course you can still use the hyper concept if you are lacking a solid assault punch like Tau or Necrons- fill out your list with what they do best and dedicate all of your points to this.
Where this concept falls apart is in the sportsmanship aspect of the game. The best, read fun, games that I have played all came down to the last moment where anybody could win. Last minute objective grabs, heroic last stands, and wonky dice rolls are the stuff of memories. Setting up, and metaphorically punching your opponent in the face isn’t always so much fun, so keep that in mind if you want to experiment with this concept. Sadly, certain armies like Tau, Daemonhunters, and Necrons are now forced to play this way in an attempt to keep up with 5th edition ‘dexes thanks to their outdated own codexes…
So who plays for annihilation instead of mission objectives, and what codices and units do you feel are best suited (or forced) to use the hyper-build philosophy?
