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Ok was reading WD last night and there was a statement about having a squad of cheap units to hold objective. Specifically a squad of grots or something similiar.

Played against a guy who pulled it off and was wondering what others here thought of it.

I like to keep my points balanced ( around 200 or so ) that way when the tank gets blown apart, or one group runs into trouble the others cover for it.

Noted that most army lists here do something similiar.

Are people trying a cheap troops choice? Is it working?

I suppose it depends on your overall strategy and tactics but the downside to using a cheap unit for covering objectives is how effective they'll be if somebody actually comes to take it.

Grotz as cheap scoring units sitting on an objective works very well. It saves you points for building up other units.

Grotz are not effective at CC and have no dakka range/strength, so they can afford to "go to ground" reducing casualties and LOS. Someone has to get through your beefier units to reach them and dig them out.

Is there anything comparable in another codex?

It depends on the objective. For the mission with only two objectives, having a cheap unit to sit on the objective in your own deployment zone means you can at least contest the objective for a little bit, especially becasue it usually takes a couple turns to get to that objective.

As this is 1/3 of missions, it's an important unit.

A couple times I've had the slaver be the only thing left out of a unit of grots and have used them to stand on an objective in my deployment zone. I'll place an objective behind a hill for this very reason - no LOS to him, plus he's hopefully in cover. 60 point unit that's scoring and not a threat and of no use after the grots are dead.

As utan said - there's other stuff around that the enemy is going to be concentrating on.

I use a squad of jetbikes with a shuriken cannon to hold objectives on the cheap. I try to place any objectives in terrain that blocks LOS so I can do the scoot out and snipe move Eldar Jetbikes are known for. If I get in trouble then I run and let the heavy hitters take the objective for me and run back in. They allowed me to win all three games in the first round of Ard Boyz............

I have used a 30 boy squad of grot and they work great, as many people ignore them and tif they send an alright to deal with them they forget that they bs3 and have alot of shots.

I'm all for them

Small units can hold objectives in your own deployment zone. Problems occur if the enemy fields Scouts or Infiltrators. Then you have to take measures...

I play guard and I love to use a cheap platoon command to hold my deployment zone.
The cheap unit thing works pretty well as long as your opponent doesn't want that objective and send a decent unit to capture it.

remenet squad 5 guys with a flamer troop choice.

Flamer choice? Too expensive. Remnant squad, bare bones. Thirty points; try and find some cover near it for 4+ cover saves. (I'm also a proponent of voxing every squad i can up, as 9+ leadership makes my army go).

You're not going to hold it if your opponent tries to roll up on it (that is what would make the flamer almost worth it), but you've got five guys who're sticking back and keeping an eye on things.

What about just contesting your own objective and sending everything after your opponent's? Or is that too much of an 'eggs in one unwieldy basket' thing?

Yeah, but what would you contest with?? Surely the cheapest unit to contest with is likely to be 'Troops' anyway, and therefore scoring?

Flamers are there for non Obj games. Its fine cause I have 115 IG you have to go though to get to the obj.

ArbitorIan wrote:Yeah, but what would you contest with?? Surely the cheapest unit to contest with is likely to be 'Troops' anyway, and therefore scoring?

A broadside team to start off with, and probably the other 1800 points of my army for a few turns . I play very defensive Tau.