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The Bastogne Gambit

This is a tactic I named “The Bastogne Gambit”. Know it is not new, but it has been extremely effective with my Wargaming experiences. The basic premise is simple especially if you have seen/read about the Battle of the Bulge. Tar-Pit him, then outflank him. The other main principle is you are going to make him do what you want him to do when he thought he was in control. This is what Napoleon did so well.
This is also about timing. Commit your forces to soon and it will become just a battle, Commit your forces to late and it may be too late. This is how Napoleon failed at Waterloo. This does work best if go first.
This is a risky strategy, but if pulled off right your opponent won’t even know it is happening until it is to late.

List Organization
I would split my forces into thirds
-1/3 to ½ into the “Bastogne” Unit
-1/3 to ½ into Reserves
-The rest into the Flankers

[Note: Yes I know I only use Maries and Guard in my examples, but I don’t have 40k experience with the other armies. If you want to add to this with your army please do. Even give ways to defeat it, hopefully in a good tactically way not with this unit trumps that unit stuff.]

The “Bastogne” Unit[s]
1] Take a really hard to kill unit and place it in the center of the Battlefield. This must be done by turn 2, at least turn 3. if you have the option make it a key objective.
Good Unit Choices:
-A Land Raider Crusader loaded up with Terminators armed with Storm Shields.
-A Land Raider and Njal in Power Armor and a Wolf Guard Pack in Power Armor with Storm Shields.
-Multiple Terminator Squads with good cover.
-Leman Russ Squadron Supported by Storm Troopers, Veterans or Ogryns and a Lord Commissar.
-Venerable Dreadnaughts.

2] Draw there attention by directing all the fire on his favorite unit. This is not always his best, but the 1st one he showed off to you before the game. The point is to direct your opponent towards them.

3] let him surround you, if he assaults you this is even better.

4] Hold that Position as long as possible.

You other Units
1] You want “Mechanized” or “Cavalry”. Place them on the Flanks and move forward on the 1st 2 turns. Be very cautious on you approach. You just want to be in position to rush forward on turn 3.
-If allowed a Domiciles Rhino, jut hide it in a good safe place, if you can get it in a building even better, it just needs to be alive until the end of your Turn 4
-Tactical Squad. Put them in a Rhino.
-Assault Squads [Do not put them in Reserve]
-Space Marine Bike Squad.
-Company Command Squad with Creed and a Astopath and Officer of the Fleet to control Reserves and having Creed put that Grey Knight Terminator Squad armed with SS/TH in there Land Raider on your center Point.
-Mechanized Squads.
-Rough Riders in full 10 man Squads

The Reserves
1] Fast, Mobile, and with a Heavy Punch and/or “Scout Units”. You will notice a lot of Anti-Armor and Anti-Tank armament, this is not for Anti-Armor, but for shock value. If all of a sudden his Devastators are hit with weapons that kill on a 2+ and ignore his Armor from an unexpected place it should panic him.
Good Unit Choices
-Logan and a Long Fang Pack Loaded up with Multi Meltas and a Wolf Guard in TDA and armed with a Assault Cannon and Thunder Hammer. [Put in a Pod and in Reserves]
-Terminator Squads armed with Assault Cannons and Chain Fist. [Put in Reserve: Teleport or Drop Pod]
-LotD with Melta-Guns or Plasma-Guns and a Multi-Melta.
-Tactical Squads with Melta-Guns or Plasma-Guns and a Multi-Melta. Put them in a Drop Pod. [Put in Reserve]
-Scouts loaded up for Anti-Tank [Put in Reserve]
-Vanguard Veterans loaded up with Melta-Bombs in a Drop Pod [Put in Reserves]
-Land Speeder Squadron laded for Anti-Armor. [Put in Reserves]
-Predators this will keep you from using them too early. [Put in Reserves]
-Storm Troopers or Veterans armed with Melta-Guns and Melta-Bombs in a Vendetta. [Put in Reserves]
-Guardsman Marbo
-IG Tanks! {See Predators and this would he historically correct.} [Put in Reserves]

The Basic Plan:

1st Turn: You are just setting him up.
-Just move up your other units its ok to take pot shots this will mean nothing after the “Bastogne” goes off.
-Forget to move your Cavalry.
-The last thing you do: Move towards your center objective. Find your target and give it everything you got from that unit into his favorite unit. If you have something that is a once a game augmentation, use it! At this point it is not about killing the unit; you just want him to focus.

2nd Turn: This is were you finish setting the trap.
-Whatever Reinforcements you get, place them so they can get into the fight, but not in it.
-Continue your basic advance, nothing Special; be boring with your doctrines.
- The last thing you do: If you have not done it yet take the Objective. Once more fire on his favorite unit with everything you got. This is even better if you broke it last turn and its running.

Turn 3: Spring the Trap.
-Any Reserve that comes in that you can should be placed in his backfield.
-Your flanking units should pull out all of the stops; use any special Wargear that you have. You want to hit him and hit him hard. Don’t try to take out all of his units at one, this is not going to happen, try to “Break” Units, Double Team, Triple Team. The idea is to give him too much to deal with.
-Take your “Cavalry” and help the “Bastogne” unit.
-The “Bastogne” should be in Close Combat by this time, if not just keep up the fire.

Turn 4: Close the Trap
-The last of your Reserves should be showing up. Once more go for his flanks and rear. Place your Deep Strikers so his retreating units have to pass by them. If you can go after fresh troops, if not kill of the stragglers, this once more is to keep him occupied.
-Keep up the pressure, next turn anything else left will come on so don’t worry about it.

Turn 5+: End Game
-If things go well Mop up, if not be ready for a possible crushing defeat.

Napoleon did well with this, but there are two facts about 40k Napoleon did not have to consider: Your enemy knows what you've got in reserve. Even if a unit on the board moves out of sight of enemy units your enemy sees it.
Still I see that it can be pulled off quite well in wargaming, but it's exactly what any skilled player would try given the capabilities for that in his list. But several times on multiple spots.
Plus one has to be VERY lucky to make that tarpit unit survive the whole enemy force's engagement over two or even three turns (yeah, even a landraider /w termis)

It also depends on if you are horendously outnumbered, or if your enemy specializes in hit and run attacks.

True it works better in BattleTech than 40k, but this is more about beating your opponent than his army. If can get the other player thinking about getting even with your “Bastogne” Unit than everything else that is when you win. If you go against a level headed player its chance of working drops. This is a fun tactic not a tournament winner, at least for 40k.
I would like to try this against the Ninja-Tau or something other than MEQs

What happens on turn 2 when 100% of your opponent's force wipes out your 30-50% Bastogne force and then smashes apart your reserves as they trickle on piecemeal?

Your example Bastogne force, Assault Terminators in a crusader, is 570 or more points if including HQs/specials. That makes it and a rhino the extent of your Bastogne force., with maybe a few speeders on the table as flankers.

That's hardly a big enough anvil or hammer to make it truly viable.

sourclams wrote:What happens on turn 2 when 100% of your opponent's force wipes out your 30-50% Bastogne force and then smashes apart your reserves as they trickle on piecemeal?

Your example Bastogne force, Assault Terminators in a crusader, is 570 or more points if including HQs/specials. That makes it and a rhino the extent of your Bastogne force., with maybe a few speeders on the table as flankers.

That's hardly a big enough anvil or hammer to make it truly viable.

QFT, QFFT, QFMFT, QFAFLMFT, QFTLOLQFT, QQ_QFT_QQ, etc.

I'm a military tactician (or was in a former life that ended a couple years ago with the start of a civilian career), I have an Ivy league education from the premiere leadership school in the world, and a good chunk of my education (as well as everyone else who suffered through West Point) involves the study of military history, tactics, battlefields....and a further chunk of education revolves around "military science" which boils down to how to control a battle, principles of warfare, how to use firepower and maneuverability in combat, prioritizing objectives in combat....

In short, I play 40k because its a dumbed down version of what I was built for, except here...I have perfect information, something that won't ever be replicated in a wargame or training exercise, let alone an actual combat situation. People say that real life military tactics have no place on the tabletop....they're only half right. The principles of warfare (massed firepower, maenuverability, outflanking, working through an OODA loop...); I'm not even talking about Sun Tzu or Clausewitz, but simple military tactics DO belong. If an infantryman were to watch me play a game of 40k, he could flip through FM 7-8 and identify what I was doing on the table in every game.

THIS kind of military tactics however, don't belong. To throw another one at you...KISS. Keep it Simple Stupid. Your army list and tactics requires a precise set of events to happen, a particular army list being played against....the only time this is really going to do you any good is if you're using 40k models to do a historical re-enactment. But for an actual game without pre-set conditions, armies, and your enemy doing what you want him to...this won't work.

If you want to incorporate real military principles into 40k (which is much different than other wargames for a LOT of reasons), use basic tenets of military discipline.

What happens when that happens in a normal game with reserves, thats why its a Gambit or Gamble.
I does work best if he has put units into reserve to.
The "Bastogne" Unit is usually a "Broken" Unit by turn 3, but how much has your opponent thrown at it?
If the "Bastogne" Unit is 400 points and has absorbed and broken 600 points before it has been broken it has done well.
While he is consentrating on them your other units are not being shot at [as much].


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There are probably armies that can't pull this off and onse that you can't pull this off on.

Another problem could be if its a shooty army and it just pounds the fudge out of you "Bastogne" unit. And I think this will work best in high point games because if you are playing 1500 points and one fourth or you army is in reserves and his whole army is on the table he can easily outflank you just because of sheer number and even if his favorite unit does have a grudge against the unit that shot it, that might be the only thing that goes for the bait. Its not a bad tactic I think it just needs to be more flexible. Like instead of putting units in reserve just put them in cover and have them give supporting fire to thin out their modles befor they get in close or shoot at you "Bastogne" unit.

BUT, what ever seems to be working for you you should do it because every one has their own opinions, and tactics in a game like this should be fun like you said and not taken that seriously.

I have one player [BT mostly he is not interested in 40k] I can use this on hime every time and it wotks everry time.

And...?
How does that add to your topic?

How does he run his list?
Is it competitive?
How does he use his list?

He's not interested in 40K... so is he motivated to win? Does he know this game well?

How well does your tactic work? "Every time" is not very descriptive. Has he altered his tactics? Has their been an adverse situation that you adapted the tactic to?

If you will be writing a tactic and posting it up... I would think the following line:

Anpu42 wrote:I have one player [BT mostly he is not interested in 40k] I can use this on hime every time and it wotks everry time.

would never exist.

Sorry BT is for BattleTech, I forgot about the Black Templars.

Anpu42 wrote:
The "Bastogne" Unit is usually a "Broken" Unit by turn 3, but how much has your opponent thrown at it?
If the "Bastogne" Unit is 400 points and has absorbed and broken 600 points before it has been broken it has done well.

The Bastogne units you are describing are not 400 point units, they are 600-800 point units.

And if I am your opponent, then I will have thrown about 1700 points at your 600 point Bastogne unit to grind it into dust. I will have thrown 300 points at your speeders to destroy/immobilize/stun them for the next turn's duration.

Now I have a 2,000 point army sitting on the table waiting for the remainder of your now-1100 point army to show up.

While he is consentrating on them your other units are not being shot at [as much].

Except this is not true. I have *already* concentrated on it in the free 1-2 turns that you gave me due to having your army in reserves. What this does for any army that can't manipulate its reserve rolls (Tau, Guard, Eldar) is make it into a game of 2k versus 900 and 1100 instead of 2k versus 2k.

To your credit, some armies *are* able to make this work, eldar in particular come to mind, but to realy have a Bastogne gambit be reasonable would require a slightly, but not significantly, smaller force to hold a large central objective while your opponent's considerably larger army takes it on, and then for a second, even larger ally force to show up from an unexpected line of attack.

For example 1500 points versus 2500 points with another 2000 points rolling on from reserves. In that situation I could see this being a close enough game to be interesting for both parties, but of course it's not feasible.

I am going to use 40k equivalents for this.

How it generally works is:
He has 4 Leman Russ Battle Tank with Las-Cannon Sponsons, one with Pask on it, this is his favorite
I have 1 Land Raider Crusaders with Extra Armor and the Multi-Melta and 3 Land Speeder Tornados with two Multi-Meltas each.
I would take my LRC and concentrate fire on his one LRBT and get long range one hit that causes a glancing blow that actually does nothing.
This would cause an emotional response and he would invest the rest of his other LRBTs in destroying my LRC.
While he is concentrating on them he would ignore my three Land Speeders that would flank him.
By Turn 3 one of my LRCs is a wreck or has lost a weapon and is immobilized. My three Land Speeder Tornadoes get 2 10” Multi-Melta Shots each at his rear armor.

The key to this one is the emotional response. Against the right person a 5 man Scout Squad in Building or Fortification with sniper rifles and a Missile Launcher can cause this to work.

So...this is for noobs and not seasoned vets who can look at a list and see what it's trying to do. Or Vets who actually follow through their target priorities or Vets who bring a balanced/all-comers list to deal with other threats and not only a LRC...

...whatever floats your boat man...

sourclams wrote:

Anpu42 wrote:
The "Bastogne" Unit is usually a "Broken" Unit by turn 3, but how much has your opponent thrown at it?
If the "Bastogne" Unit is 400 points and has absorbed and broken 600 points before it has been broken it has done well.

The Bastogne units you are describing are not 400 point units, they are 600-800 point units.

And if I am your opponent, then I will have thrown about 1700 points at your 600 point Bastogne unit to grind it into dust. I will have thrown 300 points at your speeders to destroy/immobilize/stun them for the next turn's duration.

Now I have a 2,000 point army sitting on the table waiting for the remainder of your now-1100 point army to show up.

While he is consentrating on them your other units are not being shot at [as much].

Except this is not true. I have *already* concentrated on it in the free 1-2 turns that you gave me due to having your army in reserves. What this does for any army that can't manipulate its reserve rolls (Tau, Guard, Eldar) is make it into a game of 2k versus 900 and 1100 instead of 2k versus 2k.

To your credit, some armies *are* able to make this work, eldar in particular come to mind, but to realy have a Bastogne gambit be reasonable would require a slightly, but not significantly, smaller force to hold a large central objective while your opponent's considerably larger army takes it on, and then for a second, even larger ally force to show up from an unexpected line of attack.

For example 1500 points versus 2500 points with another 2000 points rolling on from reserves. In that situation I could see this being a close enough game to be interesting for both parties, but of course it's not feasible.

Then I would never ty it on you again becouse you use your brain not you emotions to play [Yes this is a Complement] I like compeating agaist good players.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I usaly only works once, but sometimes if you wait long enough...

The only time I see this work is when player take real crap units...

Like Spawn and Repentia...even then, they may do nothing useful...but they stay low under the radar. But everything else has an appropiate threat rating to a seasoned player of 40K.

I don't know there are a lot of seasoned players out there that think things like Rough Riders, Ogryn, and Fire Warriors are junk units

They are junk units. But if they're across the field, I still assume that my opponent didn't just go "Ooh, shiny!!'" and pu it in his army, I assume it's there to fill a role. It goes in the target cue just like everything else.

Look, the key to winning at 40K is to be able to prosecute your battle plan regardless of what your opponent is doing. Because it's a perfect information game, a skilled player will always make a battle plan and a target cue as soon as they see your list. They'll stick to that throughout the game.

Now your battle plan, this gambit, can you successfully use it no matter what your opponent is doing? No.

Dash, Sourclams, and Sanctjud are all right.

You give it away right here:

The key to this one is the emotional response.

No good player is going to have an emotional response to anything you do on the board short of fething his wife/girlfriend on the other side of it.

Iron_Chaos_Brute wrote:

No good player is going to have an emotional response to anything you do on the board short of fething his wife/girlfriend on the other side of it.

Hrm....still not good enough. If I'm playing the OP and he tries to feth my wife on the side of the table, the emotional response that incurs is still not going to get me to fall victim of this terrible strategy.

Well...it probably would initiate an assault - just probably not an in-game one.

This seems like a tactic that would only work on players without very much experience.

Dashofpepper wrote:Hrm....still not good enough. If I'm playing the OP and he tries to feth my wife on the side of the table, the emotional response that incurs is still not going to get me to fall victim of this terrible strategy.

True.

I usually have no problem beating an opponent after I have beaten him unconcious.

imweasel wrote:

Dashofpepper wrote:Hrm....still not good enough. If I'm playing the OP and he tries to feth my wife on the side of the table, the emotional response that incurs is still not going to get me to fall victim of this terrible strategy.

True.

I usually have no problem beating an opponent after I have beaten him unconcious.

I conceed the point

Yea... I do not know what to say...