Preferred targets for Precision Shots, army-by-army...

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**MacPhail**

I'm going to start testing out the 10th Company Auxiliary with my Marines. Their special rule, in addition to getting a boosted cover save until they move, is to dish out Precision Shots on Turn 1. I'll have a mix of sniper rifles, assault cannons, and Astartes grenade launchers, so there will be lots of S6 and 4+ wounds. If I can use Scout moves to good effect, I hope to have a wide range of targets to choose from.

I haven't done the math, but I'd imagine 1-3 successful Precision Shots in any given game. Seeking out the most bang for the buck, who are the obvious targets based on weapons, wargear, special rules, buffs, etc. in each army I might face? I can see the obvious, like the special or heavy in a Troop unit, but what are the more nuanced targets?

**Slayer-Fan123**

Anything carrying a special weapon is priority #1. Then you go after characters or multi wound characters with one wound left.

**Desubot**

Indeed Special weapons first as most of the time they cant get look outs

Then any characters with 4+ Look out sirs

then the independent characters.

this is like for 90% of the armies out there.

**MacPhail**

Yep, any specials/heavies, especially those that threaten my transports, are clear targets. Any suggestions on sources of synapse for 'Nids, for example, or markerlights for Tau that are within the scope of this Turn 1 advantage? Rules that start with "as long as the _____ is alive, the unit gets _____" or T3 multiwound models I can ID with all that S6? I don't want to blindly target things I can't reliably kill... I know better than to go after the Datasmith in hopes of impairing the robots, for example. I want to filter the target list down so opportunities leap onto my radar when I scan the table. Thanks!

**Roknar**

Chaos Space Marine Icon bearers, especially with one of the daemon legacies. Specifically icons of vengeance or excess, aka fearless and fnp.
Sorcerers only have 2 wounds, so while they aren't a top priority, they are pretty squishy. Unless it's a thousand son aspiring sorcerer. They cost the same as a generic HQ sorcerer with only 1 wound. They no longer affect the squad but it will make your opponent sad. (note, at this point you're basically a bully

)
Noise marine Aspiring champions can get Ap3 flamers so those might be interesting.

Nothing else really sticks out. The basic targets all apply as has been mentioned.

**xlDuke**

Well if you come up against Orks the obvious targets would be any Power Klaw or Bosspole wielding Nob, Painboys and Runtherds in Gretchin units. Those Nobz have two wounds each and a 4+ Look Out Sir! though so they won't be too easy to get to. If there are any little Meks they would be a less obvious target but it can be a huge hindrance when they die before they get a chance to accept a challenge to save the Nob from getting involved. Don't waste Precision Shots on any IC with Mega Armour because they've probably also got Da Lucky Stikk to re-roll that 2+. Concentrate on anything else that boosts Leadership or improves Mob Rule chances and you could really mess up some units.

**Xenomancers**

Precision shots is a pretty worthless rule. The only time I've ever used it to goo effect was with a scout bike unit in the 10th company firing 6 str 6 grenades into a eldar foot councile to kill the farseer outright that had invis. First though I had to get through a 2+ LOS and an invo save. Chances were so slim.

**MacPhail**

Great, that's exactly what I'm after. On Roknar's point of being a bully, that's definitely not what I'm going for and I get how it could feel that way, but as Xenomancers said, this is not a particularly potent special rule, and I'm trying to lean on it until it becomes useful.

**Roknar**

I wasn't serious about that lol. You won't be seeing thousand sons anyway unless it's a thousand sons army, which is already an uphill battle even for csm standards.

**Nevelon**

In units spread out for max spacing, you can snipe a guy in the middle to force them to move to maintain coherency. Depends a lot on the unit/placement, but if they are smeared across 3 floors of a ruin, capping the guy on the 2nd floor can cause a lot of shuffling to occur.

For Tau, IIRC they can only do their group overwatch if within a certain distance of each other. Same thing with any “bubble” buff that affects a unit if within X”. If they just have one or two guys hanging back to maintain that, pop them. If they are strung out to maintain it, see my first point about the man in the middle.

Picking out the lead guys from CC squads will make it harder to charge.

I guess this could all be summed up with “It’s not who the target is, but where he is standing that maters"

**MacPhail**

Roknar, as a Sisters of Battle player, I can sympathize. CSM is long overdue...

Nevelon, one of my regular opponents likes to screen his Tau gunline with long lines of barely-coherent Kroot. I'm looking forward to lining up a biker command an inch away during the Movement phase, shooting a hole in his Kroot screen with Precision Shots during the Shooting phase, and then making my charge through the gap into his squishy back line in Assault. Maybe. Statistically possible, anyway.

**Jackal**

Personally I tend to target what is going to give me the most problems.
If I'm about to get dragged into CC I'll take out the Sgt if he's got a fist or PA.
If it's at range I'll pick out specials and heavies.

But as stated, its useful for knocking models out of coherency.
Seen it plenty of times when a screening unit loses a link and drops out.

However, alot of the time precision shots don't add up to be that great.
More so when certain unit leaders are multi wound etc.

But it's just a case of prioritising the shots depending on the situation.

**MacPhail**

Agreed, I feel like going after characters is the trap that breaks this special rule. It's easy to want to, given the leverage it would grant. But either they have better armor, or extra wounds, or an extra point of T, or someone makes a pretty doable Look Out roll for them. That's what made me start digging a little deeper for more achievable, more opportunistic targets.

**Jackal**

Sometimes though you gain more by simply hammering a unit with shots than aiming to pick out specific models.

I rather kill off 2-3 marines than fail to hurt an attached character.
Atleast then you have reduced the effectiveness of the unit.

I've tried several times to make use of precision based tactics, including running a vindicare, and it really isn't much use.

You tend to draw yourself into a trap of focusing on single models rather than what will be doing the damage.

Don't get me wrong, a well placed shot removing a Sgt or melta is always nice, but it's not that reliable and sometimes just not worth it.

**MacPhail**

Yeah, I feel like I might be over-eager to make this formation work to the point where I'm spinning my wheels. I'm bringing it because I like the models and the flavor, and it works well opposite the main detachment slots I've got and the models I have in my collection. Nothing in any of that says I have to make the one special rule work tactically. But with 12 S6 shots and 4 sniper shots, I feel like I'll get a couple of sixes on a regular basis and I don't want the rule to miss its rare chance to shine.

**GoonBandito**

Yeah, I'll echo the comments about picking out Special Weapons and using it break Coherency. I've a Skitarri player use Galvanic Rifles to play havoc on enemy units by forcing them to shuffle around and maintain coherency, because it stuffs over their placing (particularly if a Heavy Weapon has to move) and in some case can shorten their move the following turn quite dramatically.

**Skinnereal**

If you can take out a high-LD model, there's more chance of the unit breaking. Commissars, Warlocks, etc.

**skoffs**

For Necrons, it's all about taking out their force multipliers -
- Destroyer Lord: he's a CC monster, so you want to prevent him from reaching your guys. Plus, he grants any unit he's attached to Preferred Enemy.
- Decurion Overlord: he grants all nearby unit a reroll to RP rolls of a 1.
- Triarch Stalker: gives nearby shooters +1 to BS... if he's bunkered up with Heavy Destroyers, this should be target #1.

Who NOT to bother with -
- Orikan: him and his unit are nigh immortal. Don't bother wasting shots on them, but they're slow, so just avoid them the whole battle so they turn into a waste of points.
- Wraiths: too tough, double wounds, good inv save, and if they're Harvest Wraiths, even harder to kill. Not worth the shot. Throw something fast and cheap at them to tarpit, instead.

**Drasius**

Obvious but not mentioned yet, the 1 or 2 guys within 3" of an objective.

If you're looking to make a charge, the guys 1 or 2 behind the front guy to minimise or eliminate return strikes due to 3" pile in without adversely impacting the charge distance.

**MechaEmperor7000**

In general any model with unique wargear should be sniped; there's a reason why he's the only one with different gear than his buddies. I've universally found this to be true for every unit in the game as there are very, very rare models that have unique wargear and is actually a detriment to the unit.

Aside from that, what Nevelon said about sniping out a trooper in the middle of a coherent unit to force them to move again to regain coherency has an alternate use; snipe the right model and you can force a heavy weapons squad to move, potentially causing their weapons to only fire snapshots that turn (or not fire at all if they can't fire snapshots).