The Five Pillars of Competitive Play in any Tabletop game (Part Two) - Playing the mission

The Five Pillars of Competitive Play in any Tabletop game (Part Two)

Playing the mission:

Seizing objectives is how you win Grimdark future.  It’s as simple as that.  You can have the absolute most powerful army and completely table your opponent, but if you can’t get onto midfield objectives before the end of round 4, you cannot win.  Pulling back a bit further, if you can’t get within 15”(19” if fast) of more objectives than your opponent by the end of round 3, you have already lost the game as, per the competitive rules, ambushing units can’t score on the final round.  This is something that is very important to keep in mind.  If you remove all of your opponent’s units that are within that range on turn 3, if doesn’t matter if they blow up your damage dealing units, you have already won, which is a very interesting dynamic of GDF.

Another thing that I noticed straight away playing GDF is how quickly the game is over.  Four rounds are a short enough time that most units simply can’t get across the table while shooting.  Normal units with only shooting can only use their weapons after moving 6” (unless fast), and thus cannot even get into your opponent’s deployment zone in 4 rounds (24” away), let alone onto a backfield objective.  The backfield objective grabber unit is even more important in GDF than 40k as “Breakthrough” is a mission in the rulebook in which the only way to win is to contest/seize an objective in your opponent’s deployment zone.  If you come up to this mission and don’t have a way to get a model on that backfield objective, you just tie/lose.  Thus, it’s important to include at least 1 scout/fast/ambushing unit or one durable enough to run up the board for 3 rounds (no shooting) to get on that objective.

Another potential interesting fact I’ve noticed is that pinned units don’t seize objectives, so if your opponent tries to put units on objectives on the final round, you can pin these units by only shooting them to half strength and having them take a bunch of leadership tests.  If they fail a test, you can just move on.  Pinned units don’t even stop other units from seizing the objective they are on, so they don’t even really exist if it’s already round 4.

Finally, it's also important to note the importance of melee units in GDF and how they can score objectives.  When a shooting unit kills another unit on an objective, it still belongs to your opponent until you can put a unit on it.  When a melee unit kills the only unit on an objective, it is already in position to seize it at the end of the round.  Thus, hiding fast or flying melee units behind terrain, but within 12”(16”) of the opponent’s side of an objective will allow you to ambush them right before the end of the final round or move onto it at the last moment.  Winning combat can even pin units before they hit half strength, so you can take an objective without even killing the unit.

Playing the mission and getting units onto objectives before the end of the game is likely the most important pillar of competitive play, but it’s the one no one really talks about.  Players typically only talk about the effectiveness of certain units, but not about the ability to capture and control objectives, which is the most important thing.  When building a list, you should dedicate at least 2-3 units of your 10 to be running/charging every round or getting into position to grab an objective at the end of the game.  Think about including ambushing units for a sneaky round 3 grab/hide for round 4.