How to Choose Secondary Objectives

[Frosty the Pirate]

Today's post by Daniel Brewster, a youtube channel quickly becoming a favourite of mine for tactics and theoryhammer.

How to Choose Secondary Objectives (Warhammer 40k)

I only just watched the video over my lunch hour, but I was planning to the "homework" portion of the video about how I would pick secondaries in the scenario at the end and post it here for discussion. If anyone else wanted to do this as well I think it would be a good thought experiment.

[Frosty the Pirate]

Ok, so scenario time.

For those who may not have watched the video, the scenario is playing Strike-Force: Scorched Earth versus an Astra Militarium opponent who has brought 5 Leman Russes and 4 Chimeras as part of their list. Your goal is to choose secondaries versus this opponent.

I'll be running through this exercise as my Space Wolves (See here) since they have a 9th edition codex.

So, first things first. What I did was write out a big grid of all the possible GT2021 secondaries which looked something like:

Battlefield Supremacy	No Mercy No Respite	Purge The Enemy	Warpcraft	Shadow Operations
Engage On All Fronts	No Prisoners	Titan Hunter	Abhor The Witch	Raise The Banners High
Behind Enemy Lines	Grind Them Down	Bring It Down	Warp Ritual	Investigate Signal
Stranglehold	To The Last	Assassination	Pierce The Veil	Retrieve Octarius Data
Shock Tactics	Oath Of Moment	Codex Warfare	Psychic Interrogation	Deploy Teleport Homers
	A Mighty Saga	Glory Kills
	Warrior Pride	Heroic Challenge

Alrighty. We have a grid. Let's start by nuking immediately any secondaries that I can't actually do, or that do not make any sense to take, or are just overall low-scoring/bad.

I cannot actually do:

Titan Hunter (no enemy Titans)

Abhor The Witch (I have a libby)


Next, let's get rid of all the ones it doesn't make sense to take

To The Last (my list isn't built for this)

Warp Ritual, Pierce The Veil, Psychic Interrogation (I have 1 psyker, who needs to cast powers to use Cloaked By The Storm, which will be CRITICAL to be crossing midfield to charge things without getting blasted into oblivion)

Deploy Teleport Homers (this is just terrible compared to ROD)

Investigate Signal (I don't want to be in the center getting blasted by tanks where there's no primary objective)

Assassinate (Even with 3 of those Russes being tank Commanders this would max at 9, and that's a HARD 9 to get)

Glory Kills (No monsters to slay, lack of characters)

Codex Warfare (I deal most of my damage with Melee, so would struggle to get any points here)

Oath Of Moment (I use Saga Of The Hunter to fall-back-and-charge, and I don't want to be in the center)

So, that has removed 12 of a possible 24 secondaries already. let's look at the grid again.

Battlefield Supremacy	No Mercy No Respite	Purge The Enemy	Warpcraft	Shadow Operations
Engage On All Fronts	No Prisoners	Titan Hunter	Abhor The Witch	Raise The Banners High
Behind Enemy Lines	Grind Them Down	Bring It Down	Warp Ritual	Investigate Signal
Stranglehold	To The Last	Assassination	Pierce The Veil	Retrieve Octarius Data
Shock Tactics	Oath Of Moment	Codex Warfare	Psychic Interrogation	Deploy Teleport Homers
	A Mighty Saga	Glory Kills
	Warrior Pride	Heroic Challenge

Ok, things are getting clearer. Let's start to consider the Space Wolves vs Astra Militarium matchup.

So, even with 4 Chimeras likely full of troops, there's not going to be enough bodies to make No Prisoners worth it unless there's a conscript blob or something.

Guard are also very strong at attrition and I don't want to be trading units because I'm heavily outnumbered and need my units to stick around. What I can eliminate based on wanting to fight on a limited-front, and not wanting to get stuck into a back-and-forth trading game?

A Mighty Saga probably doesn't make sense because because my Chaplain is my warlord and he's strength 6, meaning he won't be able to easily deal damage to a T8 Tank Commander. This probably rules out Heroic Challenge too since only Bjorn would likely be able to deal with that target in Melee effectively and he'd have to cross the table to do that.

No Prisoners (not enough non-vehicle/characters models)
Engage On All Fronts (I don't want to be spread thin vs a more numerous opponent)
Grind Them Down (I don't want to get into a trading war)
Stranglehold (I'd need to hold 3 and clear a 4th, that's going to spread me out too much)
A Mighty Saga (Warlord can't easily injure/kill a Tank Commander)
Heroic Challenge (Bjorn is the only good choice, is probably too slow to score the 10 or 15 point conditions of this)

Ok, that helps, we're now down to just 6 choices.

Battlefield Supremacy	No Mercy No Respite	Purge The Enemy	Warpcraft	Shadow Operations
Engage On All Fronts	No Prisoners	Titan Hunter	Abhor The Witch	Raise The Banners High
Behind Enemy Lines	Grind Them Down	Bring It Down	Warp Ritual	Investigate Signal
Stranglehold	To The Last	Assassination	Pierce The Veil	Retrieve Octarius Data
Shock Tactics	Oath Of Moment	Codex Warfare	Psychic Interrogation	Deploy Teleport Homers
	A Mighty Saga	Glory Kills
	Warrior Pride	Heroic Challenge

Ok, now the hard part.

So, my "default three" secondaries are usually Shock Tactics, Warrior Pride, and Retrieve Octarius Data for this list.

Given I have 2 objectives in my Deployment Zone, and the ability to deploy in no-mans-land with my Incursors, I think it would be fairly easy to put up 3 banners right away on turn 1, and Astra Militarium is going to struggle to come forward and remove those banners. Where as Retrieve Octarius Data requires table-quarters, and Astra Militarum is good at screening and creating large footprints, so I'd likely be sacrificing units to get 12 points on it. So Banners feels like the better choice here. So let's replace ROD with Banners.

Next, is Behind Enemy Lines better than Shock Tactics here? Shock Tactics has a bit of a downfall against a gunline opponent in that it requires you push forward into the enemy guns every turn, no matter the cost. Where as I feel with BEL I could possibly execute a flank attack against one side of the table and then camp out in the opposing DZ to score 4 a turn while possibly holding one of their backfield primary objectives. I think that makes BEL the better pick here, because it only requires me to be contiguously aggressive in the early game, and doesn't force me to attack the opposing gun-castle in the late game if trades don't go my way.

Finally, the last call, Warrior Pride vs Bring It Down. Bring It Down can only score 14 here with killing ALL of those 9 tanks, and I seriously doubt I'll manage to kill 9 tanks with the "just enough" anti-tank I'm packing. Warrior Pride is practically an automatic 9VP for doing stuff I literally want to do anyways, and easy enough to score 12 or 15 on against an opponent who is MUCH worse in melee than me. So I think I stick on Warrior Pride and ignore Bring It Down, despite the plethora of enemy armour.


So, final call would be BEL, Warrior Pride, Raise The Banners High for this matchup. Which I feel pretty happy with.

Well, that was a fun thought exercise. Obviously you don't need to go into the raw-level of detail I did above, but I would be very interested to hear what people think, or your own experiences of course. I honestly didn't expect some of the secondaries I eliminated when I first thought about doing this. Given the popularity of EOAF/ROD I thought for sure I'd at least end up with one of those.

[dave]

Nice to see the thought process, and I will give that video a watch.

I actually haven't played 40k since great crusade 2020, so my fault for not getting in practice, but I found picking secondaries to be a pretty big hurdle to get over. I feel far more intimidated trying to figure out how to plan for 9th games than I did when I was totally new on the day 8th launched.

[Typhus]

Deploy Teleport Homers no longer exists; it's been replaced by Retrieve Octarius Data.

An interesting thought experiment, although a lack of information regarding the contents of the opponent's list limits its usefulness (how many of the Leman Russes are Tank Commanders, and how many other Characters are there within the Chimerae or in reserves? Assassination is a solid pick vs Guard 99% of the time).

I think it's a mistake to not take Oaths of Moment - you'd never have an opportunity to fall back vs Imperial Guard, because they'll be falling back from you in order to shoot. Even by a conservative estimation - 2 rounds of having a unit within 6" of the centre, 4 rounds of not falling back/failing morale, and 3 rounds of destroying Characters and Vehicles - Oaths of Moment would net you a trivial 12 Victory Points. Not to mention it's one of the few Secondaries which can score you points even if you get tabled (if you have no units left, nothing can fall back or fail morale).

Behind Enemy Lines seems extremely unlikely to pick up many points in this matchup.

[Jack Shrapnel]

If you don't take Oaths of Moment as marines, you're literally leaving points on the table. Easiest secondary for marines to max out, regardless of flavour. I have no idea how you'd be scoring BEL vs. any competent guard player. Even if you could score it a couple of turns, it will not get you close to max.

When I make a list I have two secondaries chosen before I see my opponents army, and one "backup" that can be switched out if the mission one is solid or if there's a no brainer choice in there (titan hunter vs. all knights for example).

Going into the game knowing I have at least two secondaries that my list is pre-built to score means I'm coming in with a plan that depends on me, not my opponent.

[Frosty the Pirate]

The biggest problem with Oath Of Moment for Space Wolves is that you either pick it, or Warrior Pride, since they are both from No Mercy No Respite.

I agree Oath is a really strong secondary in _most_ cases, but I felt this case was an exception to the rule. I lack a true anvil-unit to stand in the center (barring terrain that would allow say one of my Phobos units to do this by hiding out of LOS), so I realized the control-of-the-center portion of Oath was difficult for my particular list, and hence discarded it.

I don't disagree it's a tough choice, I just saw Oath wants to make my army do something that my army doesn't want to do in this matchup, which was why I took Warrior Pride instead.

I'm not infallible either, who knows, maybe oath would be the better pick! It's definitely one to keep in mind when there's a central objective to hold for primary.

[Jack Shrapnel]

warrior pride is also a very good secondary for wolves. I don't think it's a horrible choice at all.

oath is just... well it's oath lol

[distractedcarnifex]

Aug 17, 2021 21:48:45 GMT -5 Typhus said:

Deploy Teleport Homers no longer exists; it's been replaced by Retrieve Octarius Data.

An interesting thought experiment, although a lack of information regarding the contents of the opponent's list limits its usefulness (how many of the Leman Russes are Tank Commanders, and how many other Characters are there within the Chimerae or in reserves? Assassination is a solid pick vs Guard 99% of the time).

I think it's a mistake to not take Oaths of Moment - you'd never have an opportunity to fall back vs Imperial Guard, because they'll be falling back from you in order to shoot. Even by a conservative estimation - 2 rounds of having a unit within 6" of the centre, 4 rounds of not falling back/failing morale, and 3 rounds of destroying Characters and Vehicles - Oaths of Moment would net you a trivial 12 Victory Points. Not to mention it's one of the few Secondaries which can score you points even if you get tabled (if you have no units left, nothing can fall back or fail morale).

Behind Enemy Lines seems extremely unlikely to pick up many points in this matchup.

Deploy Teleport Homers is in the Grand Tournament 2021 Mission Pack. Retrieve Octarius Data replaced Deploy Scramblers. 

Deploy Teleport Homers is an option for bike armies looking for a Secondary because Bikers can perform it, but it is hard to see a reason why one would take it over ROD otherwise. 

But yes, it is hard t resist Oath of Moment for the typical Marine list. My Ravenwing, though, don't tend to take it. We like to remain flexible... 

I tend to regard Secondaries in a manner similar to Shannon. I have two or three in mind when I design the list. I've been burned a couple of times, though, by not taking a moment to actually think when we select them before the game. There can be situations where the typical plan might not work.

Good video - he has useful content.