Warmachine: Steamroller Scenario Tips
Here are some things you can do to give you a leg up when using Steamroller scenarios in Warmachine/Hordes.
Whether you’re a competitive Warmachine/Hordes (WM/H) player or someone who uses Steamroller scenarios for casual play (after hearing about the virtues of doing so), there are a number of things you can do to improve your chances for scenario success.
These tips should apply equally across all of the Steamroller (SR) 2015 scenarios. Moreover, the SR scenarios have been fairly stable/similar in the past couple of years (for funsies, dig up SR scenarios from 5-6 years ago) so these tips should also serve you well in future years as SR continues to evolve.
In no particular order:
Read the Steamroller Packet
This is sort of a “duh” point to bring up, but it is worth highlighting. You can pick up a surprising amount of information about the SR scenarios and rules via osmosis or people teaching it to you and that is (in my experience) how many players first learn SR play.
However, you are going to get a much better understanding of the finer points of the SR rules if you sit down and read them yourself. You don’t need to commit the whole packet to memory; focus more on familiarizing yourself with the scenarios in general and the rules that govern scoring Control Points (CPs). Those are very easy (and very costly) to screw up, and its worth keeping them on top of your mental stack when playing SR scenarios.
Faster Than You’d Expect
SR games can resolve surprisingly quickly, especially if you aren’t expecting it. All SR scenarios award victory to the first player to attain 5 CPs (current as of SR2015) which can seem like it will take some time to happen – most scenarios have a relatively easy way to score 1 CP, and a more difficult way to score 2 CPs, so it is easy to anticipate games being a slow trickle of CPs for each player as they race to 5.
For some scenarios, that often is how things play out. However, there are always scenarios in the SR packet that allow for fast scoring if a player is aggressive about it. It is not at all uncommon to have a turn where someone scores 3 CP all at once, putting the opponent in a really rough spot (as then the player with 3 CPs just needs to find a way to score 2 CPs one more time to win the game).
You probably won’t realize which scenarios allow for this kind of fast scoring when you’re setting up, but a good rule of thumb is to keep an eye on any scenario that uses objectives and allows allows for warcaster/warlocks to dominate (i.e. how those models are allowed to score CPs) a zone or flag for 2 CPs. Those scenarios most often allow for a 3 CP swing – or a relatively easy 2 CP swing – and so you should be extra careful when planning your turns and/or evaluating your opponent’s possible moves.
Get In There!
Warboy = your models, buggy = scenario
One of the biggest hurdles I’ve seen players encounter when transitioning to scenario play in WM/H is hesitancy. They under-commit to the scenario areas (and often the table in general), which makes it that much easier for their opponent to clear out scenario areas and score CPs against them.
Part of this is very understandable: the only way to prevent your opponent from scoring CPs involves putting your models in danger (by putting them in scoring areas) and all of your natural instincts revolt against the idea.
Scenario play requires that you reprogram that instinct and replace it with another, more aggressive instinct: a dead model is only a bad thing if it died without contributing to your fight over the scenario. Any death earned fighting over contested ground is a noble one, and shouldn’t be shied away from.
This shift in mindset helps to make your the aggressor in scenario games, which is almost always a more powerful and effective position to be in. The issue of how aggressive to be varies by situation (and honestly is worth a whole article in and of itself), but when in doubt it is better to die in a scenario zone than live forever outside of it.
Build For Scenario
This point is another “duh”-ish one, and is also broad, but it is also very important: once you start playing scenarios it is a very, very good idea to start every list you build with scenario play in mind. Ask yourself: how will this list hold onto a scenario zone? How effective will it be at clearing out a scenario zone? Do I have flexibility in the models I have that can score me CPs?
You don’t need to necessarily be trying to win on scenario with a list either; sometimes you just need to hang on long enough to pull off an assassination. But regardless of your list intent, you’ll probably be much better off planning for scenario play from the start.
——–
Have any Steamroller scenario play tips of your own? Share them in the comments!
Also be sure to check out Sticks and Dice for more WM/H content!
