8th Edition of Warhammer 40,000 brought many inviting renovations to the game and in my opinion none more so than the introduction of the command point and its uses. A player receives a certain amount command points by building their armies in a specific way using detachments and then may use those command points on stratagems of varying costs for special abilities throughout a game of Warhammer 40,000. Therefore, command points by nature fall under the category of a finite resource.
As hobbyists and gamers, we know what havoc waste and inefficiency causes to our wallets because our money for most of us, unfortunately, remains a finite resource as well. Just like with money, we don't always get what we want out of our command points.The acquisition and use of command points in the game drives many decisions for players at all skill levels. The inclusion of this unit or detachment over another as well as the choice of whether to save a unit now with a reroll of a die now or wait for more guaranteed success later. Thus, spending our command points wantonly through the first few turns of the game often leads to disaster later in the game when we wish we still possessed a command or two in order to spark a miraculous recovery or seal a victory. I believe any player will achieve a higher satisfaction out of their command points usage by including abilities to create or recycle command points into their army, prioritizing a single, overall strategy into their army, and structuring their army to met the needs of their overall strategy.
The easiest way to get more command points out of any list derives from abilities to either create more command points, like a spell or stratagem, or recycle them after using them, like a warlord trait or relic. Not everyone enjoys the capability to just cast a spell and get a command point but if your faction has access to Phobos Armored Librarians and now, thanks to Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned, Grey Knights then you may generate command points outside army building system through the Psychic Phase. More exclusively, a stratagem allows my beloved Tyranid Genestealers to eat the brains of enemy characters for d3 command points. For the rest of us, we rely on our ability, depending on the how the rule reads, to a roll of 5+ or a 6 whenever we or potentially another player uses a stratagem or a command point.
The ability to recycle command points dominated 8th Edition so much that Games Workshop restricted the number of command points a player may recycle in a battle round, not player turn, to 1. Now this certainly reigns in these abilities substantially but considering how hard it remains for some armies to get command points through detachments it still holds value. Mathematically, a player will get 1-2 command points per game in a 6 battle round game if they spend a single command point every turn. Optimistically, a player possesses the potential to receive an additional 6 command points which is more than what a player gets for running a battalion detachment! Warlord traits, relics, spells, and stratagems that allow players to receive command points provide the greenest greenhorn to the hardest veteran a way to help take the stress off their command point supply.
The thrill of getting command points back after using them temporarily improves a player's morale but as with anything determined with a die roll one should not rely on it. A more concrete way to improve command point economy in a list involves pin pointing a single strategy for using them in a list. Currently, I am personally struggling on solidifying a plan for my command points in my Dark Angels army. I love all the new Dark Angels stratagems unveiled in Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned, particularly the Deathwing ones. After every game, however, I find myself feeling like I missed out on something. I use command points to increase damage on my plasma guns,command points to give additional characters a relic or warlord trait, and get my Deathwing Knights into combat.
Where I stumble stems from the fact that once my Deathwing Knights get into combat, I lack the command points to fight with them efficiently and/or protect them from a counter attack. Of course, if I fight and protect my Knights according to plan, then they soak up all the command points I need to make my Dark Angels Master with a jump pack, the Smash Captain, fight when he dies with the Only in Death Does Duty End stratagem. I end up with my opponent battered but not beaten and all my signature pieces back on my display tray. I need to decide whether or not my command points will center around my Deathwing Knights or if I want to invest in the tried and true Space Marine character-centered list. Settling on a primary account to spend my command point budget on keeps me disciplined and prevents frivolous spending from hampering my principal strategy. Removing this inefficiency will improve my satisfaction with the list.
Once I finally nail down a principal strategy for my command point use then I need to reinforce it through the structure of my army. If I want to focus my army around Deathwing Knights then I may need to exclude things that will compete with them not only for command points but the army points I use to include other units in my army too. I may want to pass on a Smash Captain or a Helblaster buff bubble. Additionally, by removing these units from the army list, I maintain my command points spending discipline because the temptation to use command points outside of my principal strategy no longer exists. The lack of other options for spending commands not only stops them from eating up the command points my Deathwing Knights crave but the army points I need to spend on other units who will buff my Knights. Though I tend to find myself without enough command points when I write a list, occasionally I find myself with plenty of command points but no clear target to spend them on.
During the army building stage of a list, you may run into thia issue of generating too many command points too. I sometimes find in my push to include as many battalions as possible or even trying to squeeze a brigade into 1,500 points that I end up hindering my ability to include the necessary units to buff my primary strategy or cover holes in the list. I don't need 6 squads of scouts to fill out the troops requirements for 2 battalions when what I actually require 3 elite choices in the form of an ancient, an apothecary or 2. Sure a vanguard is worth only 1 command point but the army points I'd spend on 2 HQ units for the battalion means I need to go cheap and run lieutenants when a chaplain with a jump pack and the litany for additional attacks on 6s to hit in the fight phase would help my Deathwing Knights strategy more. Writing the correct foundation for an army list to fulfill the needs of a primary strategy will improve the efficiency and help maintain discipline on command point expenditures.
Structuring an army correctly, prioritizing a single strategy, and recycling or creating more command points helps prevent waste and generates more satisfaction out of command point use. Structure your army so you include the ability to recycle command points and create a way to protect that recycling unit without harming the integrity of your prioritized strategy. While I believe these 3 pieces of advise will help any player out I also understand I don't possess every answer. In fact, I didn't even talk about the fact that Space Wolves and Dark Angels along with other factions generate command points by including specific characters in their armies. I also maintain the belief that building redundancies into a list and the ability to address as many situations as possible will make a player better too. I am simply wanted to draw attention to a problem, inefficiency in command point usage, I am currently facing and what I plan to do about it. Next time I play a game of Warhammer 40,000 I hope to feel more satisfied by my play regardless of whether I win or lose because I felt my list operated more efficiently due to a more organized use of my available command points.
Keep it dank,
Bailey
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