Command Points are a new addition to 40K, and potentially very powerful. Neil recently wrote an article on 3++ called Clutch Command Point Rerolls which I recommend to anyone unconvinced that they should take them seriously, and as a follow up I will be writing this article about optimising army builds to get the maximum amount of CP.

There are two ways to get more CP from most lists; passive and active optimisation.

Passive Optimisation

A friend of mine recently sent me a list for comment, which I don’t have explicit permission to post publicly so I have reduced to the part this article is about; its detatchments and its command points.

This list costs 2,000 points, and has a healthy 8 Command Points due to the 3 for being battle forged, 3 for a Battalion, 1 for Vanguard and 1 for Spearhead.

Now the first thing to look for in a list of this size is whether it is possible to make a Brigade. The army consists of:

HQ x5

Elites x8

Troops x7

Fast Attack x1

Heavy Support x6

Unfortunately not; most criteria are met but the missing component is that a Brigade requires a minimum of 3 Fast Attack choices.

What we can do however is reorganise it quickly and easily as the following:

Battalion:

HQ x2

Troops x3

Battalion:

HQ x2

Troops x3

Vanguard:

HQ x1

Elites x3

And then distribute the remaining unit choices (5 Elites, 1 Troop, 1 Fast Attack, 6 Heavy Support) into the available optional slots that the above force organisation opens up.

The result is a list that now has 10 Command Points due to the 3 for being battle forged, 6 for two Battalions and 1 for Vanguard. This is an example of a passive optimisation that required no changes to units or choices at all in order to gain 2 more CP.

Active Optimisation

Active Optimisation is different. It involves looking at your list, finding changes that could be made that would increase the amount of Command Points earned, and deciding which of those changes are worth making.

Here is an example of one I recently made for an upcoming 1,750 pt tournament. The is a Battalion (grey) of 2 HQ, 3 Elite, 3 Troops, 2 Fast and 3 Heavy. There is a Vanguard (blue) of 1 HQ, 3 Elites and some optional troops. Finally there is a Spearhead (green) of 1 HQ and 3 Heavy Support.

Total Command points: 3+3+1+1 =8 (the same as the original version of the 2,000pt list above).

This is a pretty decent list, with a heck of a lot of firepower to deal with the Emperor’s foes, both great and small.

Actively optimising this list for CP means looking for changes that could be made in order to increase the CP it earns without damaging its performance.

There are 3 key changes that could do this:

1) Substitute an HQ for an Elite

Fortunately there is a good place to do this; promoting a Commissar to a Lord Commissar, at a cost of 20pts. Not all armies have quite so easily swap options, but in most cases boosting the number of HQs is the first area to look, followed by Troops.

2) Increase the amount of Troops.

Not always easy, but the swaps are simple in this list: changing a hyper-optimised Militarum Command Squads for a slightly less optimised (but more survivable) Militarum Scions squad.

3) Find the slots with only 2 units that could take 3

In this case, this is Fast Attack. The Fast Attack has a beefy 10 man Rough Rider squad, which is easily broken into two groups of 5.

Reducing the size of assault orientated squads is not always a good idea, but in this case I think it’s justified for two reasons:

If the enemy want to focus-fire them down, they will focus them down.

We’re on the verge of creating a Brigade, and 3x Fast Attack is the final piece in the puzzle.

A few other tweaks and weapon-swaps were required to make the points fit, but nothing so dramatic that the enemy are likely to think the army is going easy on them.

The result is

1 Brigade: 3 HQ, 3 Elite (+1 Optional Elite), 6 Troops, 3 Fast Attack, 3 Heavy Support

3 HQ, 3 Elite (+1 Optional Elite), 6 Troops, 3 Fast Attack, 3 Heavy Support 1 Spearhead: 1 HQ (+1 Optional HQ), 3 Heavy Support

Total Command points: 3+9+1 =13

The keen-eyed will note that the change of Commissar to Lord Commissar was not actually required for the final force structure, but I am keeping it anyway since I think it makes a better list.

In Conclusion

It’s worth stressing that it is very rarely a good idea to put the cart before the horse in army design and increase the amount of CP earned at the expense of a better-functioning force, but in many cases it may be possible to earn more CP without harming the list significantly.

I recommend Active Command Point optimisation any time your list is on the verge of a structure that could earn it more CP. In some cases, the changes required may be quite small.

Passive Command Point optimisation is something everyone should do with every list. The common starting point of most armies is a Battalion, but it’s very important to remember that the 2 HQs and 3 Troops are the only mandatory parts of that structure. Anything else that you have 3 off could be combined with an HQ for another Command Point.

Your preferred army may not have the ability to throw units down at such cut-price costs as the Astra Militarum examples given here, but it’s still going to be worth getting in to the habit of optimising them.

-Matt