Hi – Matt-Shadowlord back with a 40K Tactics article. Today we’ll take a break from army lists and leaks to discuss what I consider to be one of the most important skills in any tabletop game that allows the players to control where on the board the game is won: placing objectives intelligently.

You don’t have to spend a long time on it if you have a plan in advance, but too many players are far too casual about how they place objectives on the table. I’ve had lots of games where opponents have basically scattered them randomly or even tossed them onto the table. There’s nothing at all wrong with that approach -but wouldn’t you rather win?

Part 1 of this article will discuss some default best-practice approaches to setting up objectives that should suit the majority of armies, with Part 2 covering some objective set up ideas for cases that are exceptions like extreme close-ranged/assault army builds.

The Tabletop

This is an imaginary view of what the table looks like before the game begins, with all 6 standard deployment types are overlaid on one another. Think of it as the table’s Quantum State if you want to sound incredibly cool and almost dangerously attractive when you bring this up in conversation on your next blind date.

Each potential Deployment Map is in a transparent green (thanks 40K Vassal!) and deployment areas that overlap are brighter green. Notice anything significant?

While the deployment type is usually as yet undecided, there are parts of the map that are much brighter green than others, because there are parts of the map that are inside most or even all the deployment options. The goal here is to take advantage of that simple fact to gain as much advantage -or limit disadvantage- as possible during objective deployment.

Rule number 1: When placing objectives, stop thinking of the the battlefield as halves, and instead think of it in terms of quarters.

How to place objectives as the 2nd placer:

The 2nd person to place objectives is the one who has the advantage (and until the rules changed, I would routinely spend a CP to reroll if I had ‘won’ the roll to place an objective 1st!). The goal as the 2nd Placer to get at least 4 objectives into one 3×2 quarter of the map and to get as many objectives as possible in to one 2×2 corner. The reason for this is that while you don’t yet know which deployment will be used (the deployment type is a random roll), Placer 2 gets to pick which zone they start in.

For example, if 3 objectives are placed

6″ from the long edge 6″ from the short,

6″ from long and 18″ from short

18″ from long and 6″ from short,

Then Placer 2 will have have two objectives right in their deployment in every deployment type, and three if it is Vanguard or Hammer and Anvil. In the other four deployment types, the third objective will be very close to their zone (never more than 7″ away and usually less).

In practice:

The below shows a fairly average objective deployment by the first person to place one on the table. From what I’ve seen, the first person to place an objective usually puts it somewhere towards the middle.

Keep in mind, the table will be cluttered with terrain and obstacles rather than empty with a pair of bright lines splitting it into quarters. The placement used by Placer 1 (the person who won the roll off and has to place 1st) is based on the most recent real life game I played, so I would expect most readers won’t find this sort of placement at all unrealistic or atypical.

If Placer 1 places an objective anywhere other than very close to the centre, assuming the layout of the terrain isn’t a more significant factor and that you should choose your deployment based on the terrain rather than proximity to objectives, deploy one objective in the same quarter of the table. I would usually recommend that this is about 18″ from the SHORT edge and about 6″ from the long (rather than the 6×6).

If they do place it very close to the centre, you can still proceed with everything written below – you just have no reason to be biased towards any quarter of the map, and can consider placement purely based on terrain.

Placer 1 should then place another objective in the opposite quarter, or at least the other half of the table. If they placed it in the other half but not the opposite corner, it will make capturing it a little easier, and if the placed it in the same half that’s great for you as Placer 2. If they placed it in the same corner, well we were all Noobs once. If it’s a friendly game, you could hint they could improve their placement -if it’s a tournament, except the gifts the Emperor Provides with thanks. 😀

Then proceed to place your next 6″ from the long edge and 18″ from the short in the same quarter as your first placement.

Placer 1 puts down their last objective (in this case, responding correctly to Placer 2 by placing it far away in the top right corner).

No matter how they respond, your final placement should be 6″ from the short and long edges.

So What?

Fair question – if you can imagine the area below cluttered with terrain, with ruins and forests and a fancy table-map underneath, it may not look all that unusual, let alone special – especially since we don’t actually know what deployment type will be used.

=

However, the part worth looking at now is what this looks like after the random roll to see which type of starting areas we’ll be playing.

As you will see in the illustrations below, the result will be that you start the game with 2 or 3 objectives (and in rare cases where the opponent co-operated, more) already controlled by your army, and one or two very near your deployment zone regardless of which deployment map is used.

Roll for Deployment Type

This is where it really counts – when you see the effect of the objective deployment we’ve gone through above once the deployment type is decided.

1. Spearhead Assault

Placer 2 takes left, controls 2 objectives and has 2 more within easy reach.

2. Dawn of war

Placer 2 takes the bottom, controls 2 objectives and has 2 that are closer to their army than the enemy’s.

3. Search and Destroy

Placer 2 takes bottom left, controls 3 objectives and has 1 more within easy reach.

4. Hammer and Anvil

Placer 2 takes left, controls 3 objectives and has 1 more within easy reach.

5) Front Line Assault

Placer 2 takes bottom, controls 2 objectives and has 2 that are closer to their army that to the enemy’s.

6) Vanguard Strike

Placer 2 takes left, controls 3 objectives and has 1 more within easy reach.

How to place objectives as the 1st Placer:

You are at a disadvantage, and your goal is to limit that disadvantage by preventing one side of the map from getting an overwhelming advantage in objectives. Assuming that your army isn’t fast and violent enough that you’d rather carry the battle straight in to the enemy zone (Waaaagh!), you want to have as many objectives as possible outside the enemy’s deployment zone.

Start by casually placing one near the centre. Don’t measure it out exactly and unwittingly encourage your opponent to start painstakingly measuring their own placements – just near enough to the middle will do!

Your next objective should be a response to Placer 2’s placement: far away from it, in the opposite corner diagonally (not just opposite half of the table). If they’ve gone for a 6″ from short edge 6″ from long edge placement, do the same. If not, I’d recommend placement similar to theirs but closer to 6″ and 18″ from edges (leaving the corner 6″x6″ as the most likely place for your own last objective placement).

However be careful not to place the objective in that 6″x6″ position if this will mean the corner you have been populating with objectives will be better than the one your opponent has been placing objectives in – they get to place last, and you need to be careful of them taking the corner you thought was your own and finding that you’ve been feathering their nest for them.

Whatever happens with objective placement, Placer 2 should inevitably get the better start location. Your goal as Placer 1 is simply to limit how much of an advantage they get to a maximum of 3 to your 2, with one central neutral objective.

In reality, you’re likely to start the majority of games with two objectives each, and if you can engineer a starting condition that balanced then you have done well. Good luck!

Coming soon: Part 2 of this article will talk about some cases that are exceptions to the rules here, mainly for extremely assault orientated armies.

Matt-Shadowlord

PS A Note to Tournament Organisers: The advantage of being the 2nd person to place an objective is huge even when the Deployment Map is random, and yet there are still some tournaments (including one I am going to next month!) that set the Deployment Map type in advance and still allow the 2nd person to place an objective to be the one to choose the map. The advantage this gives the 2nd objective placer could decide the game.

If you want to set the map type in advance, please instead make picking the board edge a random roll after the last objective is down. Your players will thank you for it.