40K: Playing the Player
We often talk about playing the game and playing armies, but what about playing the player to ensure victory? Adam from the Space Wolves blog explains…
If you’ve ever wondered how the top level tournament players crush their competitors, even in match ups that shouldn’t go their way, it’s because they’re playing the game on every level.
The first part of being a good player is knowing your army and your list inside out and being well practiced in running it.
The second part is knowing your opponent’s army, their list and the tricks normally associated with it.
The third part is knowing your opponent and what they’re likely to do.
But wait. How can you know a stranger you’ve just met at a tournament?
My Buddy James
Let’s step back a sec and look at my buddy James as a case study. I mention James a fair bit on my blog as he’s my regular opponent, so I’m sure he won’t mind.
I’ve played James so much down the years that his tactics are fairly predictable. His armies are almost always the same, because that’s the kind of player he is. That’s what he likes to play.
He likes to form a solid wall of steadily advancing guys who shoot the bejeezus out of you. Then it’s up to you to pick apart his block piece by piece until you’ve done enough damage to overrun it.
In the meantime, anything dangerous you send forward he will instantly counter with his Chaplain led Assault Squad.
But, if you can wipe out this one unit, he doesn’t put up much of a fight.
Oddly enough, I’ve been able to beat him in this way with both Space Wolves and my old Tau Empire army.
He simply can’t resist pouncing on a sacrificial unit put JUST within charge range of his Assault Squad. The ‘juicy bone’ has to be very enticing to get him to do it, but more often than not he will. Then the rest of my army attacks the Assault Squad, taking the close combat bite out of his army…which proceeds to shoot you. But hey, that’s how it goes.
Playing Strangers is Different to Playing Your Friends
Or is it?
When I took my Tau Empire army to the UK Grand Tournament a few years back, people were terrified of my Broadsides to the point that they became fixated upon them.
And so I made the Broadsides my ‘juicy bone’ to distract my opponent, bait their army in and focus my firepower on my target priorities while they were busy chasing a 200 points unit.
Using this tactic, I won a game against a cheesy Space Marine army which should have steam-rollered my Tau and even managed to scrape a draw against an Imperial Guard Valkyrie air force which outclassed my army in every way.
Identifying Player Type and Army
Often you can tell what your opponent is like based on his general attitude, choice of army and army selection.
Sometimes they’ll even remark on units in your army, which can help you to pick out a ‘juicy bone’ should you need an irresistable distraction during the game.
There are generally three types of players.
Over Aggressive
They’re usually very enthusiastic about their army, the game and enjoy playing it -often with rose tinted spectacles about how good their units actually are. Ork and Space Wolf players typically fall into this category. Most close combat armies do. However, my buddy James with his defensive, dull-as-dish-water, “Castling Marines” also falls into this category.
So, the things to look for are:
- Enthusiasm
- A close combat army
- Rose tinted spectacles
Over aggressive players will often over extend their forces, simply cannot resist the ‘juicy bone’ and are pretty much guaranteed to charge absolutely anything while storming across the table at full speed. They revel in a close combat massacre!
Play against them with these tendencies in mind and you should do rather well.
Over Cautious
The complete opposite to the aggressive players, over cautious types are timid when it comes to playing offensive, especially in games where they need to push forward and grab objectives.
Over cautious players are more commonly associated with shooty armies like Imperial Guard, but can include Space Marines, armies not considered particularly powerful and if your opponent is simply scared of your army! Despite their tendency to shoot lots, they always do so from a safe distance and rarely close to double their basic firepower in bringing lots of Rapid Fire weapons to bare.
So, things to look for are:
- Negativity prior to game start
- A gunline army
- Focus on long ranged firepower
Playing aggressively and driving everything straight down their throat typically works well. Just watch them fall back shooting in panic! But be careful not to expose yourself to too much firepower at once.
Always best to present as many threatening targets at once as possible. That way they’ll often split their fire, damaging every unit a little bit, but never focussing on a single threat at a time.
Without enough firepower to keep you back, you can easily overrun them, or storm forward and grab plenty of objectives which they’ll be unable to wrestle from your grasp.
Serious Players
Once you get above the middle tables however, tournaments can quickly change into meta armies and serious players.
However, serious players can be ‘played’ too. Although they won’t be so easily lured in by the ‘juicy bone’, they still tend to have their own ‘patterns’.
In this instance, you may have to tailor your strategy mid game to trends in their playing -like bringing lots of power weapons and low AP weapons to bear when they seem to be passing every single armour save!
What Kind of Player are You?
Don’t forget that you can be ‘played’ too. How many times have you fallen hook, line and sinker for a tasty bait unit? Or how many times has your tendency to sit back and shoot from a safe distance lost you the objectives in the dying turns of the game?
Remember the three steps:
1) Learn your army and your list
2) Know your opponent’s army and what it can do
3) Learn your opponent
So how did your latest game go and do you spend time trying to play the player rather than their army?
