The Hammer Dance

If there is one thing about Warhammer 40,000: Conquest that new players miss, it is the importance of the Command Struggle.  Sure, you can try to dump all your units at planet 1 each turn and hope to win by brute force, but after a turn or so you’ll look across the table and say “Hey, why do I only have 4 resources and 2 cards while my opponent has 10 resources and 7 cards?”.  The reason?  The Command Struggle.

The Command Struggle is the most subtle part of Conquest, but if you ask me, it is easily the most important part of it.  Even if the first three planets share an icon and your opponent won the first two, with more resources and cards at your disposal you can pick and choose your battles and overwhelm your opponent where necessary.  The Command Struggle requires many small choices to maximize your returns and minimize your losses. 

So the question is, how do you maximize your gains from the Command Struggle, while not letting your opponent win the game by planet icons? 

As you all know, whichever player has more command icons on their units at a planet after Warlords have committed will receive the card and resource bonus from a planet.  Leaving Warlords out of it for now, let’s discuss the basics.

Units

What is a command unit?  I would classify a unit as a command unit if it costs between one and two resources and has at least as many command icons as its cost.  Units like the one cost two command icon Biel-Tan Guardians and the two cost two command icon Iron Guard Recruits are good examples of command units. 

What is a combat unit? A combat unit is a unit that costs three or more which has some decent attack and hit point stats or abilities intended for combat.  In general, you do not want to play out a combat unit for command.  Why pay three for the same number of command icons you can get for one resource, right?  There are situations where it is useful to play a combat unit out for command, which we will discuss later.

What is a versatile unit?  There are other units such as the one cost one command Tallarn Raiders or Vior’la Marksman which can help out in a battle, but also are cheap and can be played at a planet to win command.  Still more examples would be more expensive units that have a way to move into combat during the combat phase, such as mobile units, Wildrider Squadron, or Boss Zugnog.  Having some of these more versatile units can help you strike the balance between command and combat.

Tips and Strategies for Command

Spread out your command icons. While it is tempting to deploy a Leman Russ Battle Tank with its whopping four command icons to planet five to lock down command there for most of the game, it is terribly inefficient to play a five cost unit for command that is meant for battle.  You could spend those five resources on three to five different units and spread your icons across the planets, making it much more likely to win multiple command struggles.

Stall as much as you can before deploying units.  The longer you can wait until you start deploying your units, the less information your opponent has when they have to deploy theirs.  If you can play out some supports or take other actions that use up your deploy turns first, you are both gathering more information for yourself and denying it to your opponent. 

Save two command icon units for later in the deploy phase. This point is related to the point above.  While it is tempting to play out your Void Pirate in your first deploy turn, your opponent could then play a two-command icon unit out at that same planet, surpassing your command at that planet.  If you can wait until your opponent has played a one command icon unit out to a planet, you can then play out your two command icon unit to surpass it. 

Play units that have resource or card bonuses out to less desirable planets.  As a general rule, I like to play my Void Pirate and Rogue Trader out to Iridial and Y’varn, the planets that have a single resource or card bonus.  Your opponent will be less likely to fight you for command at these planets because in doing so he will get a smaller bonus than he would at a planet with some combination of two command rewards. 

Try to win command on planets that reward you with what you are missing.  If you have a lot of resources and not many cards, then focus your command units on planets that give card bonuses, and vice versa.

Take a look at the big picture of the planet layout.  If you look at the planets you may notice a balance between cards and resources.  At times you will look at notice that there is a very large surplus of one type, it can be as extreme as seven resources and only two cards.  If this is the case, then evaluate your current holdings of cards and resources and decide whether you should focus on these rarer rewards.

If possible, try to choke your opponent.  While there are times where you may be frustrated and want to take me literally, I am not condoning violence against your opponent!  Choking your opponent involves winning command in such a way that you stop them from gaining something they are short on already.  If your opponent has one card and eleven resources, try to win planets that have card bonuses.  If you cannot do that, then tie command on those planets.  As long as your opponent is not getting the cards or resources that they need, the choke is effective.

Cards to be Careful of

There are a few cards that can really put a wrench in your command game so I wanted to list them below so you know what to watch for.

Archon’s Palace  This card can only be played by a Dark Eldar opponent.  It allows your opponent to turn off the card or resource bonus of a planet that you win command on.  If you are playing against Dark Eldar, I would focus on the planets that give one card and one resource first before the planets with two of a single reward.  When you win command on a one and one planet your opponent can only shut down half of your reward.  Also, avoid playing a Rogue Trader to a planet which rewards two resources, as they can shut down all three.  Try to play your Void Pirates and Rogue Traders so they are at planets which give them the opposite reward that they provide.

Sowing Chaos  This card can be played by Chaos, Dark Eldar or Orks.  This card destroys all units that cost two or less at blue planets.  Sowing Chaos is a game changer if you are not careful.  If you see your opponent is playing Chaos or allied with Chaos, be careful of sending your command units to blue planets.  If there are non-blue planets in play, focus command on them.  If you notice that your opponent has lots of units that are vulnerable to Sowing Chaos in play, it is less likely that they will play it because it would hurt their board state as well.

Rotten Plaguebearers  This card can be played by Chaos, Dark Eldar or Orks, notice a pattern here?  It is a two cost unit with a command icon that has an ability which allows it to exhaust to do one damage to a unit at the same planet.  If you put out a command unit with low hps opposite this guy, your opponent can use his action to try to kill your unit, causing you to use shields to keep it alive.

Atrox Prime  This is a planet whose battle ability deals one damage to all enemy units at an adjacent planet.  If the command unit you want to play has only one hp, be mindful when deploying it at a planet adjacent to Atrox Prime.  If your opponent triggers a battle at Atrox Prime, or a battle at Carnath and triggers Atrox Prime’s ability, you can lose your unit.

Warlord Commitment

Your warlord has a super saiyan giant hammer that trumps the command of all enemy units at the planet he or she is committed to, save for the enemy warlord.  Committing your warlord to a planet requires many considerations, but I would like to touch on a few command-specific decisions. 

Don’t send your warlord to a planet that you’re winning command on.  Let us say that you’re winning command on two planets and your opponent is winning on the other three.  In general, sending your warlord to one of the planets you are already winning on is a suboptimal play.  You were already going to get the command rewards from that planet.  Sending him to a planet that your opponent is winning command on not only denies your opponent those rewards, but also grants them to you.  There are exceptions to this general rule of course, such as if you are trying to choke your opponent, or know that they want to exercise the battle ability of that planet, in which case you may choose to send your warlord to that planet to block your opponent.

If you plan to send your warlord to a planet, don’t bother deploying enough units there to win command.  If you see a planet whose battle ability you want to win or where you want to drop off all the units in your HQ, you are likely going to send your Warlord there.  If your opponent has a Void Pirate sitting at it, rather than deploying a two command unit out to win command there, put that unit somewhere else.  Your warlord is going to trump the Void Pirate anyways, so those resources are better spent elsewhere.

Don’t always follow the two above rules.  This may sound strange, but you see these two rules above?  Don’t follow them 100% of the time.  If you do your commitments will be more predictable and your opponent will be able to decide where you are most likely to go and potentially stop you there.  They are both ways to ensure that you get more out of your command struggle, no doubt, but sometimes you need to make suboptimal commitments just to keep your opponent guessing.

Thanks for reading, I’ll see you in the next article!

John “Wigg” Gobeil

John “Wigg” Gobeil is a veteran Conquest LCG player based out of Toronto, Canada. He contributes to the community as a tournament organizer for events in his area, a moderator for the Conquest LCG Facebook community, and a regular guest on a number of podcasts and other Conquest LCG media. Notably he is considered to be the scourge of many Toronto players who curse his regular high tournament placings and soul crushing. The Tactical Squad curses you John.

One thought to “The Hammer Dance”

  1. Awesome post, I always forget about atrox prime until it is too late, I also always talk myself out of sniping command if those first three planets offer a win condition!

    Ill be reading this before my next set of games just to help remind me, would be great to also get a post similar to the groups discussion on when to mulligon as another pre tournament resource

    Thanks for the time and the effort as always tac squad!

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