Apocalypse Tactica - Strategy & Tactics for Big Games Part 1

Keeping Track of Time

This is the first installment in what will hopefully be a pretty regular series of posts on Apocalypse strategies and tactics. Each will handle a small, discrete concept instead of attempting to lay out some kind of grand, sweeping guidance to help you plan your overall strategy.

Today, we’ll focus on the seemingly simple concept of managing your time.  Sounds easy, right? Well, if not handled properly you can short circuit your game and kill any chance of victory.

What do I mean by this? Apocalpyse games can take a loooong time. To resolve movement, shooting and assault phases for both sides can take the better part of an hour, depending on how many points are being used in your game.

If you have a plan that involves making certain moves over several turns, make sure you’re going to have enough time to execute your strategy. In a recent game, my attempt to move a column of tanks and APCs up a flank to attack an objective was cut short when we ran out of time.

To prevent this, it’s a good idea to estimate how many turns there will be in a game. This will depend entirely on how much time you will have. If you’re playing at a friends house and have all night, no problem. If you’re playing at a weekly session at a game shop or club that has to close at 9 pm, then you’ve got issues.

Try to anticipate how much ground you’ll be able to cover in the amount of moves you can make. Aside from flyers, most units in the game can cover a maximum of 12 inches in a turn. If you’ve got an assault army, you may not be able to get into assault range in the number of moves you have available. You may want to deploy these units as far forward as possible, or use strategic assets like Strategic Redeployment, Careful Planning, and Flank March to get them into position.

If you don’t think you’ll have many turns of play, you may also consider taking offensive Strategic Assets like Scheduled Bombardment and Orbital Bombardment to do more damage early in the game.

Deep Strike can really help get your units into position quickly.  Deep Striking units can enter from ANY table edge. I called GW to confirm this one. You can drop a whole ton of assault marines with jump packs or land speeders behind enemy lines using this tactic.

In addition to these tactics, think about the endgame. To win a shortened game, you may have to aggressively go after the objectives in No Man’s Land. If you don’t think you’ll have to hold the objective for more than two or three turns, you may want to commit a large force to securing a single objective. Combining this with the Vital Objective strategic asset can be a winning strategy.

Finally, think about game length when you evaluate enemy threats and potential targets. If you think the game will last four turns but it will take three to kill that Stompa, then don’t bother with it. Go for the available objectives and don’t waste time engaging in meaningless battles.

It’s easy to overlook time management when planning out your battles. I know. I’ve done it and it has cost me.  Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.