Rock, Paper, Scissors: Tactics for Using "Power Models" in Your Games

 

There are few greater joys in MESBG than fielding a big hero like Boromir, Bolg or the Balrog and scything through the enemy ranks. Unless your opponent has specialised tools, or an even bigger hero of their own, they can prove impossible to stop. However, that doesn’t mean that they’re impossible to defeat. If Gil-galad ends up facing a horde of Goblins, it can be really tricky for him to kill enough points worth of enemies before the game ends. The result of this can be that the rest of your army gets swamped and taken apart, while your expensive Elf Lord methodically butchers 4-12 points a turn. As such, it’s important when fielding such a model to ask yourself: what does it need to fight in order to make its points back? 

                                                                             Gil-galad's worst nightmare    (Credit: Scott's War-gaming)

Before we dive in to how to answer that question, we should first figure out who we should be asking it about. Most models in the game aren’t totally reliant on killing their points worth of enemies to be effective. Captains, for example, are generally taken more for their extra Might, access to Heroic March, and capacity to bring 12 friends along than for their killing prowess. We shouldn’t therefore be getting mad at our Captains of Gondor when they fail to kill 50 points worth of Orcs. Nor are Círdan’s many tournament appearances a result of his incredible destructive prowess. Instead, we should only be asking this question where Killing Stuff Good is the primary reason that we brought the model along. If Fellowship Boromir doesn’t kill ~100 points worth of enemies, then he has failed at basically his only purpose. Similarly, the Balrog is ultimately 350 points of killing power with a neat Courage boost tacked on top, so he should be aiming to kill almost 350 points worth of enemies in every game.

                                                                    Probably also not someone Gil-galad wants to fight    (Credit: Alex Jupiter)

So let’s start to assess how likely that actually is. As we hinted at earlier, this can be quite tricky if all you can get him into contact with is basic troops. Mister Shadow and Flame has to kill 58 Orcs to make his points back if that’s all he’s facing, which requires him to win at least 22 combats in a game. While his whip will also contribute a bit, and there will be plenty of turns where he gets off his free Heroic Combat and gets to fight twice in one turn, there’ll also probably be a few turns where he loses combat, or is stuck hideously overkilling one or two enemies with nothing good to Heroic Combat into. Most games don’t take 22 turns of combat to finish, so it seems like we’re already running into difficulties. Similar issues strike all the high level beatsticks to varying degrees, with mounted Aragorn Elessar needing around 18 won combats to kill his weight in Orcs (assuming he charges every second turn and never overkills anyone). How can such models justify their eye-watering price tag if doing so requires more turns worth of killing than most games involve?

Thankfully, most games do not involve you fighting an endless horde of Orcs with no other models in sight. Even if the enemy is really bringing a horde army, they will still need at least a few Captains to give them the requisite warrior slots, and most armies will have at least one decent hero as well. Once you kill a couple of 45-point Captains, taking out your points worth of enemies becomes far more achievable, even for something like the Balrog. Even better is an expensive hero or monster that’s either more focussed on providing utility than combat power (a Nazgul on foot, for example), or is otherwise just lacking the stats to take on your combat superstar. A classic example would be having Gil-galad ride down someone like Shagrat. With a dramatically higher Fight Value you’ve got great odds of coming out on top, and doing so will take you well over halfway to killing your points back. Moreover, if you can accomplish this early enough in the game then Shagrat likely won’t have gotten to do much chopping of his own, leaving you well ahead on the killing front.

                                                                                  More Gil-galad's style    (Credit: Scott's War-gaming)                                                        

From this, we can establish a bit of a rock/paper/scissors kind of situation. If Gil-galad or the Balrog end up in combat with characters like Shagrat, they will likely chop them to pieces and get way closer to killing their points worth. On the other hand, if they get stuck fighting a tide of Goblins or Warriors of Minas Tirith, it’s likely to be a huge struggle for them. Finally, if someone like Shagrat or a Cave Troll is left free to rampage through basic Captains and warriors without being hunted down by one of the big boys, then they’re probably in a great spot.

Our job as players is therefore clear: we’ve got to make sure our killing pieces are facing enemies that they can reliably kill, but which are close enough to their points cost to be worthwhile fighting. In general, we’re aiming to fight models a little bit weaker than us, while avoiding models that are stronger than us. This can even apply at the listbuilding stage. If we’re really worried about enemy hordes, then we shouldn’t be investing in the incredible killing power of Gil-galad and should probably bring the Twins instead. On the other hand, if every player you face seems to have Aragorn/Azog/Thandruil, then Gil-galad is a great bet to try to trump them. Riding down Azog on foot will let Gil-galad kill his points worth in a single turn, instead of the dozen or so he was expecting against the Pale Orc’s bodyguards.

                                                                         This but with a horse is Gil-galad's dream (Credit: Games Workshop)

Of course, this is an extremely abstracted version of reality. As mentioned earlier, a model doesn’t have to kill the amount it costs to be worthwhile. Strider will rarely kill 160 points worth of enemies, but if his constant Heroic Moves and Marches let you win the game on objectives, then that doesn’t matter. Mega Boz with his Mega Boz Banner is almost double the cost of his Fellowship self despite being hardly any better at killing, but that’s fine because he’s got an amazing auric effect. Even amongst pure killing pieces, there are times when this logic won’t apply. Sometimes you just have to throw Boromir into Gil-galad to try and hold him up with Heroic Strikes, because otherwise he’ll start dicing up Gandalf or get to claim a critical objective. If Bolg only killed 60 points worth of enemies, but they were the 60 points defending the enemy camp and you just won because of it, then there’s obviously no cause for recriminations.

However, I think that the question of “what circumstances do I need for this model to kill its points back” remains a really useful one. It can tell you how you should be playing a model on the field, and it can even tell you whether you should be bringing that model in the first place. As long as you don’t get too obsessed with it, it can be a really helpful tool.

Tune in next time for a discussion on how to build around Priority rolls, and may your Boromir always have Cave Trolls to kill!