Mission:Possible

This is yet another article about how important it is to have an overall plan and stick to it. It's also about the importance of not losing sight of the mission. I'm going to talk about another very specific occasion from my game last Thursday but the principles can be applied anywhere. So, my Long Fang pack had a choice of three targets:

a) A Command Squad who would definitely be shooting my Long Fangs and then possibly charging the turn afterwards.

b) The remains of an Assault Squad who would definitely be charging my Long Fangs next turn.

c) The remains of a Tactical Squad camped on an objective who would get cover since I'd have to shoot through the Command Squad.

a) right? Surely you kill the enemy's killiest unit.
b) right? Surely you don't want to get your heavy support cut down in combat.

Well, I went with c) and here's why: you're playing the mission. Remember it doesn't matter if you lose all the killy elements of your army as long as you have one more troop on an objective compared to your enemy.

Okay so lets change the scenario slightly - what if it was Annihilation rather than an objective mission? Okay so this is where the example loses some of its generality. With Leadership 9 and Counter Attack I would fancy 5 Long Fangs to take out 2 Assault Marines. If it was a standard Devastator squad, then I'd probably take out the Assault Squad as it would represent the easiest kill point. Otherwise, I'd still go for the Tactical Squad as the Command Squad would probably require two turns of shooting to kill it and it would be doubtful if I'd get that.