Although it’s not wholly new to 7th Edition, it is only with 7E that the rule is now widely available and thus widely relevant. Replacing the rules from the past two editions when only Troop units (and non-vehicle ones, at that) could hold objectives, all units are now scoring, but Troop units are “super-scoring” and can take an objective even if there are multiple units already on the objective so long as they don’t possess Objective Secured. This is a major shift in the way units are balanced for a variety of ways and will significantly affect how armies need to be built in the future- and we’re already seeing the early stages of that.

However, while Objective Secured is arguably the single most important rule in 40K right now, that still doesn’t make it the be-all end-all that some people seem to perceive it as. So what does Objective Secured mean for you army?



First off, let’s get one thing out of the way- Objective Secured does not work as a balancing factor against Unbound armies. Yes, it certainly is a good rule. Yes, it lets you take objectives. But playing with an Unbound army lets you field any number of the strongest models in the game in combination- and as most people should know, there are some very strong models in the game right now. Broadsides. Annihilation Barges. Wave Serpents. Night Scythes. Thunderfire Cannons. All of these and more are powerful units that, even when limited by the builds available to a codex, can dominate the game. When they and other models can be combined almost without limit, ignoring all of the usual restrictions? They simply become absurd. It’s easy to write a list that can throw such ridiculous firepower downrange that an lacking Objective Secured is irrelevant because the opponent’s can’t realistically expect to have any models left on the table at the end of the game.

A list like that, of course, isn’t literally unbeatable, but functionally it could be set up such that you would have to be so specialized to succeed in taking it on that you wouldn’t be able to defeat any other list you faced up against. No one wants to see sixty or ninety S6+ shots coming across the field at them turn one (something that is entirely possible with an Unbound list, even mixing other units in), and no one really wants to see the game devolve into a ridiculous “did you bring the specific counter to my army” farce. And since virtually no tournaments are offering support for Unbound lists, I think it is something we can safely place in the garbage where it belongs and proceed on to the real game.

So, let’s look at exactly what Objective Secured does and what that means.

A unit with this special rule controls objectives even if an enemy scoring unit is within range of the objective marker, unless the enemy unit also has this special rule.

There are two critical factors here that define how Objective Secured affects the game- one, that it allows you to control an objective even when there are enemy units nearby. Two, it does not function against enemy Objective Secured units.

The first part of these implications is what makes Objective Secured so potentially powerful- it allows you to “steal” an objective out from under the enemy with relative ease- you don’t need to do Tank Shock shenanigans, or get lucky and have them fail a critical morale test or whatever, you simply need to have Objective Secured when they don’t. For a player second with mobile units, this can be absolutely golden- you simply move your units onto the objectives before the game ends and voila, easy victory. This is a major contrast to previous editions, where a non-Troop unit might not be able to hold an objective, but could at least deny it to the enemy by their presence. No longer is this the case; unless you can physically block access to an objective, you cannot stop the enemy from stealing it with Objective Secured units.

The second part, however, is the big limiting factor- these tricks will NOT work against enemy Troop units, which can shut you down just like before. As essentially all lists are going to have a minimum presence of troops (even if it might be technically legal to build them without in some cases), you can expect that the enemy will try and stop you from pulling such tricks. The game thus becomes rather similar to previous editions, with killing enemy Troop units being a significant strategy that might disadvantage you in firepower output but will set you up well for the end of the game, presuming you can survive with enough units intact until then.

These two factors play into the larger changes to scoring in 7th Edition- with (almost) everything able to score, the question is no longer “do I have enough units to hold these objectives?” That question becomes almost trivial in 7E- if you don’t have enough units to hold objectives, you probably don’t have enough units left on the table to play the game. All of your backfield shooting units can score, as can your aggressive combat units and midfield support units; if you have models left, you can take an objective. Where previously armies like Tau or Chaos Marines might have to agonize over how much they were willing to dilute their firepower in order to bring more of their primary strategy, this is no longer such a difficult choice for them- in a pinch, those Broadsides or Daemon Princes can grab an objective just as well as most units can. Unless, of course, the enemy can drag things out and force an endgame where there are simply too many Objective Secured units to stop them all from getting onto an objective.

This, then, is the dichotomy of list-building in 7E; you don’t HAVE to take troops, but you still WANT to because otherwise the other guy might steal the game out from under you. Sure, you can field those two minimum units of Fire Warriors or Pink Horrors, but that could leave you at a very bad place at the end of turn 5. Some lists will choose to accept this and go for the gamble- if you hit the other guy hard enough, fast enough, it may not matter what sort of Troops you don’t have. Other armies will go the opposite route, sacrificing firepower and assault capability in exchange for absolutely flooding the field with Objective Secured models in huge numbers, often in the form of some very familiar-looking MSU armies full of transports. Their gamble is that you don’t have enough firepower to kill all their units, but of course this is just as much a gamble as the other strategy. More balanced armies will do just like they did last edition and try to bring enough Troops along to win the game without giving up excessive other parts of the list.

Is one of these strategies more “right” than the others? That is to say, is one of them more likely to work? A Tau or Necron army can bring an insane number of S7 shots to the table, even closing in on what some Unbound armies can do… but on the other hand, a Drop Pod force can easily set down eighteen Objective Secured units or even more, and none of them trivial to remove. Players of all stripes have been testing out both strategies and everything in between, myself included, and so far no clear conclusion seems obvious. Both of them have their strengths and their weaknesses. Both of them can appeal in different ways to different armies- I have cited Tau as a “troops-light” army many times, but six Devilfish jinking for 3+ saves is no easy matter to remove, especially when it is backed by all the firepower that the other 600+pts of the army can muster.

Objective Secured is a big deal, and it can critically define the flow of many games, but just as with the different scoring systems that we have seen in the past, it has a variety of consequences. Keeping these in mind, as well as the capabilities and goals of the army you are building, will define what sort of overall strategies you should pursue and what sorts of inclusions you should make in your army to deal with potential threats. Completely ignoring Objective Secured and focusing utterly on it are equally foolish mistakes, because it WILL have an effect on games. However, just like any other rule in the game it has its limitations as well as its strengths, and understanding them in detail is key to coming out victorious.