Holistic Mumbo : Adaptive Unconscious in Wargames

'The first is the primitive stage. It is a stage of original ignorance in which a person knows nothing about the art of combat. In a fight, he simply blocks and strikes instinctively without a concern for what is right and wrong. Of course, he may not be so-called scientific, but, nevertheless, being himself, his attacks or defenses are fluid. 

The second stage — the stage of sophistication, or mechanical stage — begins when a person starts his training. He is taught the different ways of blocking, striking, kicking, standing, breathing, and thinking — unquestionably, he has gained the scientific knowledge of combat, but unfortunately his original self and sense of freedom are lost, and his action no longer flows by itself. His mind tends to freeze at different movements for calculations and analysis, and even worse, he might be called “intellectually bound” and maintain himself outside of the actual reality. 

The third stage — the stage of artlessness, or spontaneous stage — occurs when, after years of serious and hard practice, the student realizes that after all, kung fu is nothing special. And instead of trying to impose on his mind, he adjusts himself to his opponent like water pressing on an earthen wall. It flows through the slightest crack. There is nothing to try to do but try to be purposeless and formless, like water. All of his classical techniques and standard styles are minimized, if not wiped out, and nothingness prevails. He is no longer confined.' -Bruce Lee regarding the Three Stages of Cultivation


Hello and welcome back to the webway!

Ever since I came to Wira Games and Hobbies, I noticed that there are a whole sea of seals....oops I mean newbies that entered the hobby as a result of its proximity to an university. Of course, there are those that are not students, but are normal salarymen that found the hobby by themselves and also joined into the wave that is Warhammer (both of the Fantasy variant and the 40k variant). However as with all new players, they tend to stumble on some rules and stuff, but those are forgivable given that we are in the edition where the stack of rules is just daunting and personally, even I care not to truly remember all of them and always keep a rulebook handy for such a case. However, as with most new players, they will remember their rules and be on their way.

Nonetheless, I always noticed that even after that first few steps passing target priority and also threat ranges, most newbies I see always struggle against more experienced players by the virtue of being outplayed despite having the most powerful of list while the opponent have a less than optimal list, and this odds become bigger as the list of the veteran becomes more optimized. It is true that players that have the most skill will win, but what skills exactly that warrants this win given this situation?Some people say it is target priority, some say it is threat range, some say it is knowledge of the game, some say it is tricks and some say it is just having the right cheese.

I will say that all of this are true, but at the same time not entirely the end of the matter. I personally believe that the factor that allows one to win is having the sharpest 'adaptive unconscious'. This will be the topic that I will be talking about for today.

To define what this is, I will have to explain the definition of 'adaptive unconscious' in my own words as it in itself is a very scientific term to use due to its origins in cognitive psychology. I define this term as a way in which a person is able to integrate information innately and letting one's mind to use the person to judge and decide upon a best course of action  from narrow period of experience which can be as good or even better than meticulously planned and considered actions. In basic layman term's : a calculated decision for a situation based upon instinctual observation and understanding of a situation.

Gut instinct is a way to put it, but at the same time gut instinct is different from adaptive unconscious as gut instinct is often more of a hit and miss reaction, while adaptive unconscious is developed by experience, training and knowledge. The reason why I advocate this as a method of a true player of the game especially in 7th edition is due to the general tendencies of people to analyze things consciously before they act.Due to the our biases and belief that having more information is proportional to a better analysis of a situation, we tend to cloud our minds with irrelevant and confusing information will only help reinforce our judgment but does not make it any more accurate.

Forums, tacticas and all that mojo is cool but in the end they are just kind suggestions to guide you to your way rather than becoming dogma. If it becomes dogma, we are forced to lock upon a certain mindset and a certain flow chart that would restrict one's freedom in being adaptable. Thus when the unexpected happens, we are more taken aback by the surprises and have no way to reorganize ourselves to put us back on our feet.

Of course when I speak of adaptive unconscious, I will say that we do not rely upon it as an ends in itself for sometimes these processes are detrimental as we can be corrupted by our preferences, prejudices and stereotypes. If one rushes in without proper calculations and observations, and just rely on their pure instinct and reactions their asses will be kicked so hard that they lose their ass forever, and as the hood speak goes 'There's no breaks on the rape train'. Instincts and reactions can be conditioned and thus if one delves to deeply into instinct and reaction they can be led to a trap.

Whether you managed to do this via conditioning the opponent to act in a certain way, and then acting in another way or simply mess with your opponent's mind, all the complicated decisions in game theory tend to fade away if you know exactly what the opponent will do next and how they will do it.

The more unpredictable you are, and the more predictable your opponent is the more likely that you will have the advantage when it comes to overarching strategic goals and tactical maneuvers. At the same time, one must also be aware of what they can do to you as well, as this state of mind works for everyone.

Nonetheless, some of you will say that how the heck does one think without thinking and not thinking while thinking? Now this might sound a little bit more confusing than it should be so let's pull it in a much more easier example using an example from my latest game with a Tau player.

To understand our general battleplans and tendencies first we must see each other's list;

Archon with Blaster, Haywire Grenade and Webway Portal
1 squad of 5 trueborn with 4 blasters in a Raider with lance and enhanced aethersail
4 squads of 5 Kabalites with a blaster in a Venom with two Splinter cannons
2 Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 lances
3 squads of 5 scourges with 4 haywire blasters
3 Ravagers with three lances

Buffmander
Commander with two missile pods and artifact of Arthas Moloch with skyfire and interceptor
2 Riptides with Ion accelerator with skyfire and interceptor
1 squad of 3 crisis suits with two missile pods each (farsight troops)
1 squad of 3 crisis suits with two fusion blasters each with skyfire and interceptor
2 squads of 6 fire warriors
Tau Firebase Support Cadre (1 Riptide with Heavy Burst Cannon, skyfire and interceptor, and two squads of Broadsides with skyfire and interceptor)

Given the nature of both our armies, we are quite shooting oriented and want to get as much things to be dead as possible, however what separates us from each other is our mobility and type of firepower. His list is a more static list that loves to pick targets from afar while my list is a mobile list that prefers to dance around a certain range.. Already the mind game have started as we both understood what we need to do to get to each other.

Our mission is Scouring, and our deployment is Vanguard Strike.  At the same time I got the warlord trait of +1 to Seize the initiative and able to reroll my reserves while my Tau opponent managed to get the one where his squad does not scatter when deepstriking.

We roll off to see who will deploy first in a table that is sparse of terrain save, with the largest terrain being three large buildings (one of which is a LOS blocker) to accompany said shrubbery and craters. Now some people might consider this as the main roll-off, and indeed it is in a way as both of us can and will neuter units accordingly and get first blood, thus requiring us to have proper terrain to hide ourselves.

For me at least this is how my mind's eye could see the situation as we rolled off for deployment; the three most important opportunities for either of us will present itself in three  instances;

1) Who win the roll-off for deployment

2)  Who is able to get first blood

3) Who is able to withstand the first three rounds of combat while crippling the other.

With these opportunities in my mind's eye, my mind proceed to split up to several scenarios. For the purposes of making it simple for everyone, I will just state the basic thing that I see throughout the game using my 'mind's eye'; Footsies.

What on earth is footsies you ask ( and no it is not kinky)? Footsies is a fighting game term for a mid-game ground aspect where both players are outside each other's combo range and are attacking each other with long-range pokes which are often safe. However this part of a fighting game is where the most decisive control elements of a fighting game happens as it is meant to control the flow of the match and forcing the opponent to overcommit and open up errors and then punish  said errors with the most damaging combo given the situation and setting up for the next phase of the game.

In this instance knowledge of the game plays a part in understanding the situation that we are in. We both know that we are heavy hitting armies and we both know our most comfortable ranges. In addition, we also know that the table is mostly barren, which means that anything and everything is fair game once someone draws a line of sight on them. Both of us wants to capitalize as much on the killing and less on having our things killed. So with that here are the three instances that allowed me to win the game decisively

1) Who will win the roll-off  for deployment

In this game, I managed to get the rolls for choosing deployment and also having a warlord trait that helps in this footsie game. I managed to choose the side with the most terrain and get my stuff hiding behind them to obscure LOS towards them or at least get a proper cover save to allow me to not use my Jink.

By doing so, I am already ahead in terms of the damage dealing chart, as I am able to use the entirety of my force to deal as much damage before he could deal damage to me. In addition, by deploying my forces, I am able to see what my opponent does in reaction to my deployment.

Already here I am already observing the battlefield to gauge his next move. This is because if there is any mistake that my opponent will make, I will capitalize on it and it will give me a proper lead in this footsie game. As a Tau player, I would want to have most of my Missileside and the Buffmander hiding in the lone terrain whenever possible and with the crisis suits deepstriking  while letting the fire warriors hide in reserves. I will also try to spread them out enough without losing their special overwatch rule. Also as a result of the terrain style, he can only lump them up to give his forces cover saves from intervening units if he chose to give them cover. Given that his most power and yet most fragile things are the Broadsides and Crisis suits, he will surely give them the best cover and let them weather down the storm before throwing the storm back at me.

What he did however is a rather interesting move in my opinion, as he only deepstrikes the fusion blaster squad and reserve the fire warriors and decided to deploy everything else on the table. The buffmander attaches himself to the Crisis Suits with missile pods along with the second commander, while the other broadsides hide behind a riptide. As expected, he did the lumping overwatch thing.

 In this manner, I already noticed that he is aiming for a more devastating opening volley, but at the same time made himself a little weaker on the defense. A little unexpected but still manageable. However this layout also means that one of the units is not in range of my stuff and that is the broadside hiding behind the unit. Nonetheless one of the most prized target is within sight; a missileside team. The crisis team is happily hiding in the terrain as well but I know that the killing one of the missileside team this early will severely weaken his counterpunch. In addition, by lumping them off like that, I know that I have a little more options when it comes to my Razorwing. 

My initial rationale is to deploy all my scourges upon the table to fly in and assist in shooting down the missile sides but I can sense that if I do so it will be the end of me. Thus guided by this instinct, I chose to deepstrike them. Later will I find out that this is indeed the right option.

2) Who get First Blood

With that in  mind, I choose to go first and my opponent attempts to seize the initiative. However he failed and I proceeded on to do what I wanted to do, get that first blood. Despite the fact that rushing headlong towards such a firebase is folly without any cover, I know that if I do not, he will slowly wither me down.

With that my instinct tells me that I will need to throw in the most tempting thing that he would want to shoot down the first turn, and that would be my Ravagers. The Venoms are nasty but against 2+ armour it is a little tad lackluster, so they will survive for a little while. But at the same time, I know that the little Venoms are more survivable than my Ravagers precisely because they are lackluster against 2+ armour. I do not like the plan that i came up suddenly, but I decided that perhaps there is a reason for this.So with that all my Ravagers and Venoms moved to a range that they are comfortable with and proceed to pepper their shots into the Missilesides and kill them off.

After here on out, I can see one main course of action against my army; he will kill all my Ravagers off. True enough he moved his forces enough to get line of sight and focuses his fire upon the Ravagers and killed each and every one of them, with two of his Riptides suffering overheating reactors.

Over here I know instinctively and logically at the same time that if I do not get first blood, he will be ahead in the killing curve. If I do not kill off one unit, that unit is still able to fire back at me and kill my stuff. Even if I kill two Missilesides out of three, the third one will be able to kill off something of mine. The Riptides are meant to be tankers and shooting at them will only me detrimental to the late game flow of mine as I can withstand an Ion Accelerator, but the Broadsides with their stupid array of missiles can overload my Jink saves or negate my armour saves.

3) Who is able to withstand the first three rounds of combat while crippling the other.

By the start of the second turn I appears that I am losing this war, as I lost three of my best units to one of his. The exchange rate is a little preposterous for a Dark Eldar player, and especially losing such good units too. It is really a grim exchange despite me planning for it.

The reason why is because I tend to have a particular calculation when it comes to the ratio of losses of my units to the overall advantage of my opponent. The two laws that are usually used for these kinds of combat effectiveness are the Lancaster's Law and Salvo Combat Model theory, but I will just say it in a layman's term to sum up both ideas in this context;

The more troops I have that have the right weapons against the opponent and if my opponent has less effective weapons against me and has less guys to do so than I do, my odds of victory is significantly higher.

In this case, I may have the numbers but he has more guys that can gun down all my stuff more easily. Due to my ineffective weapons at the start of the turn, I do not have the right weapons to deal with his force.It looked really grim for me at this point, until my observations made me realized that I have the advantage from the second turn onwards;

1)My idea of reserving my Scourges plays well into this  as I just noticed that his forces are all within an 18" bubble. This made me realized that my Scourges and Trueborns with their 18" blaster can and will reach everyone and provide an overlapping of redundancy fire. Also with my Warlord trait (which I totally forgotten until my opponent asked me if I want to reroll that, and reminded me about it), I am able to continue on the tempo from my alpha strike to a second alpha strike.

2)In addition with the way I pushed in my venoms, I also noticed that now my splinter rifles and blasters from the Kabalite warriors are also in range and combined with the Venoms, I have enough venues to attack and punish any gaps in his defense line. At the same time they are able to see the Missile pod crisis suits in plain sight while the size of the riptide is such that my Kabalite warriors can definitely shoot at them.

3) Forcing him to deal with the Ravagers also exposes his Riptides and Crisis Suits further to my elements, and due to the Crisis Suit's jetpack move, they are rather cluttered which makes for a very telling target for my Razorwing.

4) By virtue of rerolls, I know that I can bring down a lot of units which will mess up his target priority as all the units are now equivalent threats.

It was then that I know the game is sealed and I managed to bring in all my scourges, Trueborn squad and a Razorwing to the fray without any fear. I choose to follow my calculated risk and intuitively believe that he will not be expecting me to deepstrike in the heart of his formations. Some scattered, but they did not scatter too far off the mark or scattered themselves deeper into the firebase without any mishaps.With some proper positioning I position my non scatter Trueborn Raider and Venoms  in such a way that it blocks LOS to the other half of my forces, thus denying him the ability to focus and kill off squads as needed.

During this phase , I lost a squad of scourges to incoming intercepting skyfire but due to me blocking a number of LOS to my forces, I managed to minimize my casualties, and retain a majority of my forces. I proceed to turboboost some of my Venoms away to give the Scourges free line of sight to kill off the second Missileside team and also a Riptide while causing a number of wounds and casualties towards the Crisis suit team and also one Riptide, while slaying another Riptide.

Despite the valiant efforts to stem back the tide, but his shots are not numerous enough to kill off my things off fully, and with the remnants, I proceed to sweep his firebase with lance and poison fire. In the end of this brutal firefight at his firebase which took 2 turns,  I am left with 3 Venoms, 1 Razorwing Fighter, 18 Kabalite warriors and 3 scourges while my opponent lost 3 Riptides, 6 Broadsides, 3 Crisis suits, 2 crisis suit commanders, and 6 fire warriors.

The 5th round of the game is basically me just moving my Venoms to hunt down the remnants of his forces, and if we continued on to the 6th turn, I will totally annihilate him. He conceded before I started my 6th turn.

In this match the combination of both my unconscious analysis and also my conscious analysis makes for a compelling partner against my opponent. After the match I asked my opponent if I have done anything wrong and whether I could further improve on my play and he said that the second turn is the part that doomed him as he is rapidly losing firepower to deal with my numbers.

At the same time he was expecting me to actually rush down one flank rather than going straight for the throat. As I had deduced, he was initially planning on a much more destructive counterpunch for the subsequent turns but he was not expecting me to deepstrike that close to his units as he though deepstriking in between the gaps of his overwatch bubble is mad as he though the mishap possibilities is not worth it.


Thus in conclusion, adaptive unconscious is in my opinion an important aspect of being a competent gamer as it acts as an adviser that allows  to integrate all of these information innately, and letting consciousness to do other functions that allow them to grasp opportunities when they arise and how they arise.What this results into are layers upon layers of counters and possibilities that one could do given a situation. It is a weird state of mind of how one is able to use all those conditions to integrate within one self, but at the same time not let the conditions be part of conscious thought.

To close it off, I will close it with a word of advice that I always give to newbies when I am teaching them this aspect of the game;

"Don't think so hard, but don't think too little either. Just think enough and let the rest flow."

With that I am off, and I will see you next time!

Holistic Mumbo - Listbuilding

Heya all and welcome back to the webway!

Today I want to talk about a little thing that can be the most enjoyable, yet the most frustrating and also tiring aspect of the hobby; listbuilding. Now some of you would say otherwise, and I would agree as well but then the majority of players buy the models to try and see how they could use their favourite models on the table to the point of being pig-headed. I am indeed guilty of this, for if I am fond of a certain model, I am hellbent on using it whenever possible. Everyone must have dreamed a thousand dreams to make a list that is both admired for its raw power and also its flexibility. Better yet, if you could make the list that becomes the next meta list you would be giddy from within. But in order to do so, you would have to understand the core of the game and also almost every current codex in existence to get that idea if not the most commonly faced codices in the game. This extends to one's own codex and understanding the interactions from the inside out.

Why did I put in in such a manner? The reason is elementary; to make a good list, you must understand yourself and also others. You can always get some guidance from the internet for sure, and indeed there are quite a number of splendid tacticas out there for the initiatied or those willing to learn their matchups. Or you can read your book in every conceivable way to understand your army inside out on your own. Nonetheless in the end, you yourself that needs to pull all the things you have learned to make a list that you believe would work.

OF course I will be honest and say that with every list, you will have to put it through the crucibles of battle to see its viability. There are many ways to do this.

The first one is the trial and error method;. To see if it will survive, you will put it though many conditions against different opponents, and after around 10 or so games you might be able to understand its strengths and weaknesses and truly see if it is viable. Only then will you make alterations to the list to streamlined it. This is often the most common method that people tend to go about listbuilding.

There is also another method to testing out a list, and this one is a path least taken and perhaps my most favourite way of listbuilding; I try to list out all possible interactions that I could get from one unit including the ones that it was not designed for. Tedious? Perhaps, perhaps. But it also allows you to think outside the box, and use the unit in unorthodox ways. For example, quite a number of new players do not think of transports as another means of providing a leapfrogging terrain that is under your control, and only think of it as a way to get from point A to point B. Of course, this was not the intended design, but it is definitely a practical role that it could play on the table.

This serves three purposes;

1) It puts your in the right frame of thought to cause the most effects from an unit

2) It will surprise your opponents

3) It gives you options for that particular unit

These purposes would also be served by understand what your opponent can do, and what other uses that he could pull out from the unit. If you know the potential that could be pulled out from the units you would be able to anticipate what is coming your way and how you could counter that on many different levels. Indeed if you know the unit well enough, you can use that unit to your advantage as well despite it not being under your control.

For example, if I know that a Land Raider Crusader's role is to;

1) Carry some unit within

2) Provide anti-infantry firepower with a surprise multi-melta shot

3) Become a wall/fire magnet for other elements

, I would be thinking to myself what else would interact with the Land Raider to allow it to play its role. Here's are some things I think about when I see a Land Raider Crusader entry;

1) Carry units within: Would it be a bigger threat if have some nasty units inside? Would its role change if its passengers were different? Would it be the core of your strategy? Or would it be something to complement the other transports in your list? Is there a need to move forward at times? What happens if it is immobilized or destroyed?

2) Provide anti-infantry firepower with a surprise multi-melta shot - Can I use its weapons other than its intended use? How does its firepower help complemment the other elements of your lists, such as Land Speeders, Thunderfire Cannons, Predators, and Razorbacks? Is there a way that I could use the weapons more effectively?

3) Become a wall/fire magnet:  Would it be better alone in the list? If it becomes a distraction, does it need to be that big of a target? Could you take something else to complement its fire magnet role? How many units do you want to protect with the Land Raider Crusader? What units do you want to protect? What happens if they do not pay attention to the unit?

There are of course a lot of questions you could ask yourself, but this provides an idea of how this thought of understanding the interaction that one unit could do in the context of the list. Some people would have similar lists as well, but play those lists very differently from one another despite having the same core principles of operating the list. Likewise, a list could play similarly despite looking very different from one another.

Take for example two friend of mine and myself and the army that we share; Dark Eldar. My first friend's, Nik's 1750 pts list consist of;

Duke Sliscus
2 squads of 4 Trueborn with blasters in Venoms with second splinter cannon
1 squad of 3 Trueborn with blasters in Venoms with second splinter cannon
4 Raiders with 10 warriors in Raiders with Splinter racks
1 Raider with 9 warriors in Raiders with Splinter racks
3 Ravagers

My second friend, Shawn's Dark Eldar list consist of;

2 Archon with blaster
3 squads of 4 Trueborn with blasters in Venoms with second splinter cannon
6 squads of Kabalite Warriors with a blaster in Venoms with second splinter cannon
3 Ravagers

And now let's take my default Dark Eldar list;

1 Archon with venom blade, combat drugs, phantasm grenade launcher, shadowfield

1 Haemonculus with liquifier gun

5 incubi in a raider with nightshield

2 squads of 3 Blasterborns in a Venom with second splinter cannon 

3 squads of 5 Warriors with a blaster in a Venom with second splinter cannon and nightshields

2 squads of 5 Warriors with a blaster in a Raider with nightshields

2 Ravagers with 3 Lances and nightshields

1 Voidraven with Flickerfield and 2 shatterfield missiles

Now as you could see on the first glance, our lists are quite different from each other.

Nik's list is very warrior heavy, and he also has a lot of raiders running around. All of his blasters are concentrated on his Trueborns while Shawn's list is almost a perfect clone of a Venomspam barring the Beastmaster elements and Baron. Nik's and Shawn's armies have a greater amount of ranged anti-infantry power than those of my own, in the short-ranged and long-ranged department respectfully. However, my list has a dedicated close combat element, and I also incorporate flyers along with template with my army.

However the core of our list are the same indeed; we want to decimate. We both have a lot of anti-infantry power to wipe most infantry out, and also we have a lot of lances to play around with. We all like to play within the enemy's area of operations, and take a spirit of calculated recklessness in our gameplay. We are all fulfilling the same core mechanic and interactions between the Dark Eldar units are similar, but they are done differently from one another.

This highlights an important point; listbuilding allow you to understand interactions between elements of your army better than before, even if you have decided not to play the list that you have build. By understanding the interactions and its conditions to happen, you can always look out for things that stood out in fulfilling the army's core philosophy even if you are just starting them out for the first time.

This also comes with experience (both from playing that army for an extended period of time, or playing multiple armies), but everyone has that gut feeling within them to understand how these interactions work. It also allow you to think outside the box and create lists that will work without adhering to the 'voices' of people proposing that only a single unit/list/spam is viable to the exclusion to every other unit.

P.S: I must put a disclaimer here, as sometimes some units are just bizarre to use and/or does not help the army in any way. Mandrakes and The Decapitator are prime examples of this in the Dark Eldar codex, as their synergy with everything else is rather odd.

Holistic Mumbo - An Advice on the Dark City Forum

Heya all, just wanted to post a reply that I have given to a dude in the Dark City Forum since I felt like giving it in a poem. Managed to get a lot of approval from my fellow Archons lol.

For some reason, the reason unknown, 
I feel like giving an advice in an unusual fashion. 
So here's something I made, all on my own,
Hopefully this will help you answer your frustration.

A new edition is like a relit candle,
The new flame comes and the old flame perish.
A new experience is hard to handle,
But properly mastered, it can be taken with relish.

Exploit everything written in the tome,
Everything within is a saving grace.
Once the time of troubles come
Own them you will, on top of the race

Be afraid and hide in the shade,
Less everything turn to ash.
Be so fast that you fade,
Less you stay put and crash.

Be ready to bear the lances,
Crack the armoured shell.
Once they out taking their chances,
Cackle loudly and give them hell.

Poison in numbers is never an excess,
For it is a must to inflict pain.
Position yourself to create an access,
For it shall break them in twain.

These words heeded and you shall not sway,
And you shall be happy for the rest of the way.

Holistic Mumbo: A Guide for Mobile Warfare for the new guys

Heya all, with all the new guys entering into the hobby and such and some Dark Eldar players to boot, I decided to revamp my old article about mobile warfare that I once wrote for Tau Online Forums (writted around the early days of 5th edition, where I correctly predicted that Mech list will kick ass for the rest of the edition while the rest of the world say that Nob Bikers will kick ass) for 6th edition. To be honest nothing much changed, save that of flyers and thus the guide is still very much relevant in our 40k games today.

With 6th edition we can see that they are taking 5th edition's essence and putting it up a notch for 5 out of the 6 missions are objective missions. If you stick around, you will not be able to take those objectives to win and there's even a secondary objective where if you have a scoring or contesting (denial) unit inside the opponent's deployment zone you will get a bonus Victory Point. Mech may be hampered by the new edition of the rules, but the general rule of the game still applies. So come along and and explore the interesting world of Mobile warfare.

Background

Since time memorable, methods of warfare revolves around two principles; Maneuver warfare and attrition warfare which are the focus when it comes to achieving victory upon the battlefield either by killing or capturing an objective. Maneuver warfare understands that both attrition and also maneuver are both important elements of warfare and this principle is pushed forward by militaries which are smaller, more cohesive, better trained, or more technically able than attrition warfare counterparts.

Mobile in 40k
Now in 40k there are several types of mobile armies, and they are

1) Vehicle – eg: Flyer Necrons, Mech Dark Eldar
2) Infantry – eg: Jump Pack Blood Angels, Biker Armies
3) Hybrid - eg: Mech Tau

And their abilities can be broadly categorized into;

1)Shooting
2)Assault
3)Hybrid

Now I would like to explain how I categorized them and their strengths and weaknesses so here goes.

Major subtypes
In a Mobile Vehicle army, This means that everything is either vehicles or are in vehicles. Mech Dark Eldar belongs here, and so do other kinds of vehicle heavy mech armies. The advantages of a Vehicle Moblie army is that with their armour value, they are able to negate most anti-infantry weapons and also negate any close combat elements, but in return, they will often lack in numbers and if the vehicle is down, their effectiveness are cut down rather drastically.

In a Mobile Infantry (Not to be mistaken with Starship Troopers), this means that there are a lot of very mobile infantry units coupled with very little or no vehicles at all. Pure Biker armies are perhaps the best example for this.The advantages that one can get from a Mobile Infantry list is that they are able to utilize cover and terrain better, have numbers on their side and they in effect negate anti-tank capabilities of an opposing army. However their main weakness are often anti-infantry weapon and also they are exposed to the elements like any infantry does, which in this case close combat weaponry and the likes.

In a Hybrid Mobile, this means that there are fast infantry alongside many vehicles. Mech Tau belongs here. The hybrid mobile army is like any other hybrid army, takes the best of both worlds of the mobile list and be a more balanced mobile list.

Abilities
Now, as with all Mech armies they optimized upon controlling the movement phase. Some of you might wonder what is the point of controlling the movement phase as the killing are all in the other phases? This is because the movement phase is the only phase where it does not rely upon chance, or in our case dice rolls and thus can be considered the most reliable phase that we can depend on. Now that we covered the basic fundamentals as to why Mech armies dominate the movement phase, now we have to understand that movement alone is not enough. I mean you want to kill and or capture objectives, and for that we need the other two phases; the Shooting phase and Assault Phase. Now the question is what phase should the Mech army dominate in?

For some armies, the shooting phase is a more powerful phase as more often than not the assault phase is their bane. Necrons and tau fall into the shooting mobile armies due to their low initiative, and their shooting are prodigious to say the least. As for others, the close combat phase is a more powerful option due to the fact that their shooting is not very good and/or their close combat weaponry are way superior. Nob Biker armies are perhaps the main army that utilizes this mechanic.

For some, they are so balanced with their close combat and their shooting that they can do both at once, thus able to be very balanced in almost all phases of combat. Mech Dark Eldar belongs here as the army is able to hit hard in all phases of combat.

Now that we know what kinds of mobile armies are there in 40k, now we will go to the fundamental elements of mobile warfare.

Application of mobile warfare.
I bet by now you are quite overwhelmed by all the different types of mobile that I have brought forth right? Do not need to worry, for they all have a similar framework that they work with.

Now contrary to attrition warfare, which is defined by Webster as "the act of weakening or exhausting by constant harassment, abuse, or attack", the basic premise of maneuver warfare is basically to keep an enemy off-balanced by gaining an advantageous position relative to the enemy.

In Maneuver warfare, there are several important elements to keep in mind when one is to understand the whole idea of maneuver warfare. War theorist Martin VanCreveld identifies six main elements of maneuver warfare:

* Decentralized command
* Flexibility 
* Combined arms
* Surprise
* Schwerpunkt
* Tempo 

And thus with these points, I will explain the certain aspects of maneuver warfare, and I will start first with Decentralized command, followed up by the rest.

1.Decentralized command

In the simplest term, this means that all elements of an army must know the overall intent of the entire battle plan, as the constant changing battlefield will often out pace communications. With this maneuver warfare seeks that one must be fast enough to adapt to the ever changing conditions of a battlefield and thus able to act independently while achieving the main goal.

2. Flexibility

According to VanCreveld , flexibility means a military must be well rounded, self contained and redundant. Flexibility in warfare is of paramount importance as this enables a fighting unit to adapt to the ever changing battlefield ans is able to fight against any adversary without the need of slowing down the entire efforts of the entire army. However, this is not to say that the unit will be standing up against the opponent alone, for they need the support of other units to achieve perfect synergy, which will be explained further in combined arms.

3. Combined arms

Combined arms is defined as an approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects. Though the lower-echelon units of a combined arms team may be of homogeneous types, a balanced mixture of such units are combined into an effective higher-echelon unit, whether formally in a table of organization or informally in an ad hoc solution to a battlefield problem.

Here every unit is not alone in their struggle, as infantry protecting the tanks, the tanks protecting the infantry since they would need one another to fight effectively and ultimately, survive the day.

This is due to a principle called the Lanchester Square Law (which holds true for all types of warfare), which states that the combat power of a combat unit relative to the relative combat power of an enemy of a given size, all other factors being equal, is the square of the number of members of that unit.From this it is derived that twice as many tanks will quadruple the relative firepower — relative that is, to the amount of firepower the enemy has per member of the friendly unit; one could also express this by saying that their relative punishment from enemy action is reduced four times, which is the same thing — as not only their own absolute number is doubled, but the number of enemies relative to each of their own, is thereby halved also. Thus, concentrating two divisions into one point and attacking generates a far greater force than is achieved by spreading two divisions into a line and pushing forward on a broad front.

In simple proper English,  it goes like this and I will use the tank example for it is easier and more in line with the topic;

A single tank is as combat effective as another tank of the same type, but two tanks are not twice as effective, but instead it is 4 times as effective. The reason being that a single tank will not only outgunned an opponent by twice, but also will be able to kill twice the number of enemies, hence it being squared. In addition, the enemy's ability to counter the threat is reduced by 4 times, hence their anti-tank ability square rooted.

In even simpler internetz speak: Spam is good. This is why most armies have duplicates of two or more units.

However, even though the units are all working together, if they are faced by a force that are equal or superior to them in anyway, they will have a hard time fighting as well. Thus in order to defeat a force that are equal or superior to them they need to have something up their sleeves that will enable them to bolster their considerable combat strength and that is when surprise comes into play.

4. Surprise

Whoops wrong surprise!

The element of surprise is always an important part of warfare, whether it is just introducing a new unit or doing something very unconventional. This is because something that the opponent did not expect will always give you the advantage straight on, as they will have a hard time countering your ‘surprise’. This can do alot of things as it enables you to gain the advantage.

However surprise alone will not win you the day, for once the surprise is sprung, it will be very hard to surprise the opponent again and if the; a) The force used in the surprise is unable to do lasting damage and/or b) Doing it at the place where the surprise element will be severely negated, you can be rest assured that it is another way of saying that your plan backfired.

5. Schwerpunkt

Schwerpunkt, translated as focal point is an aspect of warfare first explored in the Blitzkrieg where the basic premise is to focus everything at a single point and well, break it with superior force. Remember the physics law by Newton (guy who revolutionized physics due to a damn apple dropping on his head?)? Well, for those who have not remembered their high school physics, they are;

1.A physical body will remain at rest, or continue to move at a constant velocity, unless an unbalanced net force acts upon it.

2.The net force on a body is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration

3.For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

A schwerpunkt works in a similar manner. With an objective in mind, once you started moving it, you can never stop in warfare, for any moment of hesitation will kill you. And with that momentum gaining up, it will achieve a greater penetration force as a result of Newton law #2. Thus a Schwerpunkt is akin to the first two laws of Netwon’s, for a Sckwerpunkt is a point where you focus the strongest force to break it down.

The goals of this were the deepest possible penetration and minimal engagement, while avoiding an enemy counterattack. This often means that the focal point is often the decisive movement of all maneuver-based armies, as it means that you throw in whatever you have into the point and never give in, because if you break through, the enemy will crumble while if you fail, you will be dead within seconds. It is a much more elegant way of saying ‘get rich or die trying”.

However, most people who achieve this breakthrough tend to forget Newton’s third law; For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Most often than not, everyone have a back-up plan for this kind of things, and they can counter the momentum of the blitz with a beautifully executed counterattack. 'GODAMIT!!!!!!!' would be what some of you will be saying right now once you heard about this downer ending.

Wait a second everyone! This is when we go back and look at the element of surprise. Why let him countercharge when you can counter-countercharge? This will give him another surprise and thus bring the whole pace of warfare back to you.

This finally leads up the final part of the 6 elements of maneuver warfare, which is tempo.

6. Tempo

Tick tock.....play to the beat

Tempo in this case refers to the similar to the idea of tempo as it is used in trading card games, as well as to the chess concept of initiative where a player can gain the advantage by setting the pace of the game. With mech, it is important that you get this and earn this pace. You ca do it by mainly two ways;

1)You force your opponent into following your pace

2)You break the opponent’s pace of battle

For the first one, maneuver warfare gives you this advantage as you can choose where and when you want to fight. Compared with a static army,who often have to rely upon the actions of an opponent, a maneuver army have to be a little more decisive and aggressive from the head-start, even when they are on the defensive. If a fast and mobile army is negated from its speed, it will often have a fight that ultimately it will lose. If you are stuck into a corner, you have to break out and gain back the momentum of your speed as speed and maneuver is your forte. Besides who does not like controlling their opponent?

Yeah, I tend to make any armies that oppose me my bitch.... :-P

As for the second point, most adversary whether they like it or not, often have their own pace that they adhere to. With that they expect that any type of warfare would be waged at their level where they feel most comfortable. However, when you are playing mech, you can not slow down, and for that you need to break the adversary’s pace and thus force the adversary to follow your pace of battle. Most often than not, most people will not be able to adapt that fast and thus will often be at a disadvantage.

However, this can also be used against you as well, as they will try to maximize upon their strengths while minimize upon their weaknesses. So with these this is the basic concepts that you have to remember for any type of mobile warfare.

Conclusion

Well, I hoped that you enjoyed this guide to mobile warfare. For the new ones into the hobby, I hope I have shown the fundamentals of using a mobile army, and for the vets I hope I have widen your knowledge upon the matter.

No matter what kind of mobile platform you want to be, the fundamentals of a mobile army is the same; speed is power.