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Introduction
Recently I have been having a ton of fun playing combat patrol at the gaming club, and I’ve had great results in a string of recent Combat Patrol tournaments here in the Northeast US gaming scene. With this .PDF I want to introduce you to the Combat Patrol rule set, if you are not already familiar with it, along with my experience in building your patrol and then applying it to the standard combat patrol mission.
Combat Patrol?
So what is combat patrol? CP is a scaled down version of Warhammer 40,000 that was introduced in 4th edition as a way to play some quick games. For the new player to 40K it is a great way to build up a small army and get used to the rules and mechanics of the game. For veteran players it is a nice supplement from “regular” 40K games as one can play three or four in a single evening of gaming. The following rules are used in the Combat Patrol game and are played on a 4’ X 4’ board with 25% scenery.
Armies are no more than 400 points.
You must have one Troop choice.
You may have one HQ choice, but no more than one.
Armies are not required to take mandatory unit choices. All other unit restrictions (i.e. 0‐1) apply.
You may spend remaining points from anywhere in the Codex.
No model can have more than 2 Wounds.
No model can have a 2+ save.
No Special/Unique/Named Characters are allowed in the Combat Patrol event.
No vehicles with a total Armor value greater than 33. This is calculated by adding the Front, Side and Rear armor numbers. (Only count the Side once).
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From here players roll for sides, deploy 12” in from the table edge, and face off against each
other. The games lasts six turns and at the end of the six turn the player with the most victory
points wins the patrol. Victory points are calculated in the following way: destroy a unit and you
get the full points that your opponent paid for it, take the unit below 50% and you get half the
points your opponent paid for it. So, if you explode that Space Marine rhino you get 35 points,
kill two Space Marines out of a unit of ten and you get 0 points, etc.
Additional Combat Patrol information and variant fan based missions can be found on the
Internet, and on GW’s main website. Now that you have been introduced, or re‐introduced to
Combat Patrol, let’s dive into building your patrol followed by an example of my 400 point
Space Wolf list.
Combat Patrol List Building
The first thing that we are going to tackle with your combat patrol list is fitting both the fun
units you want to play along with what is “needed” to win all in 400 points! In many ways
Combat Patrol games, and especially tournaments are harder to build lists for since you are
limited in both points and units. If you are playing a 1750+ point game getting unit redundancy,
movement, shooting, and assault power all into one list is easy since you have so many points
to play with‐ in a CP list it becomes both part science and art. As always, I advocate playing the
model YOU want to play since 40K is supposed to be a fun game, but keep the following points
in mind when building your list…
Transports
Utilizing light transports like Rhinos and Chimeras is the first step in a Combat Patrol list. Unlike
“regular” 40K games where transports are about ferrying your models to objectives and across
the table, in CP they are about keeping the unit alive and safe from small arms fire until you are
ready to strike. Movement is less important on a 4’ X 4’ table where the mission objective is to
kill each other, while protecting your models from a hail of rapid fire bolters is more important.
For Space Marines armies the rhino is a great buy at 35 points base.
Remember that vehicles are only to protect the unit inside, points spent on upgrades will only
yield up more victory points to your opponent when and if the vehicle gets destroyed. For this
reason a razorback is not a good choice, or upgrading a chimera with extra weapons, as it will
yield more VP’s.
What if you don’t have a viable transport option like Eldar or Tyranids?
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Then you have to beef up the size of your units so you can take some losses and not dip below
50% for victory points. Max out those guardian squads, and bulk up those gaunt units.
Finally, keep in mind that the tank/vehicle is also a weapon in the game by utilizing tank shock
tactics. Playing on a smaller sized board and with less vehicle killing weapons on the table it is
easier to tank shock non fearless units and follow them off the table to pick up victory points.
Shooting Vs. Assault Power
With only 400 points to spend, depending on your army, you are only going to have two or
three units and maybe a vehicle or two to work with. For each unit (not counting the vehicles)
you need to reach a combination of both shooting and assaulting so that when you commit the
unit you can wipe out what you are committed to attacking in one turn. You want each attack
to be decisive while being able to take some punishment back without dropping below 50% in
strength. Let’s look at Space Marines as an example since you probably either play them
yourself, or at least have faced them on the table…
With tactical squads I can take either five or ten as a base number. Remember, this is combat
patrol rules and not regular 40K, so smaller squad sizes don’t help! Five marines will get wiped
out pretty quick giving up victory points. Also, what are five marines really going to do in terms
of shooting and assaulting? You want to take the full ten so you can both give out punishment
and take it back.
Now with that ten as a base you need to balance both shooting and assaulting as you want to
combine both phases of the game to beat your opponent in. You want to march those marines
up (or drive them up!), get out, fire off some bolt pistols and then charge in on the assault an
overpower your opponent’s unit. On the way in you want to use your bolters, but once the
distance is closed to 6” if there is anything left it is time for the charge. Options like a power
sword, and assault special weapons like a melta‐gun or flamer will help add to the one two
punch on the way in and during the assault. Regardless of the army you are playing you want to
have both rapid fire shots for when you are 12”‐24” away and then close in shots like bolt
pistols, flamers, etc. to pop off right before the charge.
Building on that you will also need a way to take out light armor so weapons with a 24” to 36”
range that can hit at strength six to seven is key. Not having to worry about bringing down a
land raider means more shots are better than a single powerful shot‐ a rapid firing plasma gun
is better than a single shot las‐cannon. A scatter laser platform carried by Eldar guardians is
better than a brightlance, etc.
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Overlapping the abilities for each unit in your list is also critical since you are so limited in points
vs. what your opponent can bring to the table. You want to try and build each unit so it can take
out vehicles, and deal with infantry in both the shooting and assault phase. A difficult thing to
do regardless of the army you are playing!
HQ Choices
Now the question is to take an HQ choice or to not take an HQ choice. Despite the 1 per army
limit, most of the time you don’t want to take a HQ choice in your list. Besides having so many
points tied up in a single model taking away from your list, you are also potentially giving your
opponent 100+ kill points in a single target. “Killing” HQ choices is a great way to pick up victory
points, and we’ll cover that more in the next section of this .PDF when we get into playing the
actual Combat Patrol mission.
That said, there are times you want to take an HQ choice if it boosts the overall power and
ability of your army that might be lacking in other areas based on your codex. The question is,
can it be done without an HQ choice, and some codex’s such as Eldar don’t allow any viable HQ
choice based on the Combat Patrol Rules. More on the yes/no of an HQ choice in a bit.
Infiltrating
For Combat Patrol, the ability to infiltrate, and by extension outflank is huge since we are a
talking about so few models on the table. You want at least one unit in your army to be able to
infiltrate/outflank as it will be used to pick up some quick victory points in all your games .
Before moving on to the mission tactics I want to present my own 400 point Space Wolf patrol
list based on the outline above. Take a look at my though process and see how you can map
your own codex/army to it, and of course if you play Space Wolves feel free to borrow and
modify my list.
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Fritz’s Combat Patrol ‘Wolf List
Rune Priest: W/ Living Lightning, & Jaws Of The World Wolf
9 Blood Claws W/ 1 Power Fist
5 Space Wolf Scouts W/ Plasma Pistol, Melta‐Gun, Melta‐Bombs
1 Rhino
At the core of my list is the Blood Claws and the Rune Priest who go in the rhino. Working as a
single unit the Priest pops the hatch and blasts out living lighting to break open light vehicles or
whittle down infantry units.
When it is time to advance the Blood Claws get out with the Priest and fire off their bolt pistols
+ living lighting for some pre‐assault softening up followed by a charge. The ‘Claws get the +2
attacks on the charge, and the Priest has a force weapon to potentially kill other IC’s to pick up
kill points. Obviously no living lightning if I plan to use the force weapon. Jaws of the World
Wolf is there to snipe other IC’s for the victory points if my opponent has taken them.
The scouts infiltrate or outflank‐ having the ability to even come in off my opponent’s edge,
with plasma and melta fire to take out vehicles, followed by an assault on the infantry inside, or
firing and then assaulting any infantry.
In the case of my list I gain more by having the HQ choice then by not having it. While getting
punked in the assault is an easy way to lose 100 victory points to my opponent, the ability to
blast with the unlimited range of living lighting, snipe with JOTWW, and kill with the force
weapon in the assault more than make up for the risk.
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Mission Tactics
Now we move into the mission tactics to crush your opponent with. Seeing how the mission is
driven by victory points, that is going to be the deciding factor regarding tactics for each turn.
When you deploy your infiltrators are going to go in reserve and the rest of your army is going
to try and deploy in the center of the table. Terrain will effect this, as you always want to be in
cover as best you can, so if you have to deploy off to one side or the other, that is ok also.
At the start of your turn you are going to see if you can pick up any victory points with your long
range shots‐ as an example in my list‐ the Rune Priest using living lightning while shooting out
of the top of the rhino. Transports, light walkers, skimmers like vypers and land speeders, are
all great targets.
If there is nothing but infantry on the table then you want to target the smallest unit to start
working on its victory points. Remember you get half for taking it below half, and the full
amount if it is destroyed or runs off the table.
While you are doing this you want to start getting your other units into position to pounce on
your opponent to wipe out a unit in a combined turn of shooting followed by assaulting. Keep
in mind terrain is more important than ever, especially if you are not playing Space Marines or
an army with a 3+ save‐ cover will help to keep you alive.
When your infiltrators arrive via outflank you are going to look at the table and see if there is
any point where they can come on the table and hit a single valuable or multiple small units for
victory points. Your outflankers are all about picking up the VP’s.
In a recent Combat Patrol game Vs. Imperial Guard my wolf scouts came on the right edge next
to a chimera full of guardsman inside and a walker. I’ve moved them as close as I could to the
chimera and walker, shot the chimera with my melta gun and plasma pistol blowing it up. I then
assaulted the guys inside and the walker with a multi‐assault, directing all my attacks at the
guardsman killing them, followed by being locked in combat by the walker. Eventually my unit
was taken down below 50% earning my opponent 55 or so VP’s but what I picked up for the
chimera and guys inside was way more than my scouts gave up. Combat patrol is all about
trading victory points…
Another layer on infiltrate depends on the unit you are taking and their options. If you have
some sort of ranged shooting with your infiltrators another option is to deploy them on the
table via infiltrate, in cover of course to take a shot, usually at a transport or light vehicle to pick
up some victory points and then run away‐ victory point denial.
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The final layer of combat patrol tactics is the concept of victory point denial and it is critical to
winning combat patrol tournaments. In addition to trying to earn victory points by going for
easy to kill and independent character models you are also playing your side of the table in
denying your opponent victory points. As a unit approaches half strength you have to ask
yourself based on the vale in VP it will give up, can it kill enough to make that back up. Meaning
as you get close to the ½ point of losses, it is often better to turn around and start running away
with the unit‐ and if it is below half, giving those points to your opponent it is better to run
away and deny the full points over what the already weakened unit might be able to kill.
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Conclusion
I hope in finishing out this .PDF I’ve given you some new ideas in building a combat patrol list
and what direction to start taking it on the table. If you liked this FREE .PDF please consider
taking a look at my other tactica .PDF’s below:
Way Of Saim‐Hann
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2008/01/way‐of‐saim‐hann‐pdf.html
The .PDF that has been a long time in the making and the hardest for me to write… I’ve
been playing my Saim-Hann for so long, so much of what I do is second nature and
done without thinking. Trying to capture the essentials without overwhelming the reader
this 24 page .PDF lays out everything I’m doing with my warhost at the base level.
Assimilate what I’m putting forward, change your name to “Frtiz” and you can take over
for me... OR build on what I’ve written and apply it to your own mech Eldar warhost! Use
this .PDF as a base to build out with the posts and topics on my “Way of Saim-Hann”
blog and you are even more set. Included with the .PDF are selected YouTube links to
my tactica and battle report videos to help further illustrate the tactics and ideas “in
action” helping you to see the when and where.
Win @ 40K
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2009/07/win‐40k‐pdf.html
Adapting the strategies from my blogs and combining them to fit any 40K army, this twenty page .PDF examines the basics from the point of view needed by a new 40K player unsure of where to start. General tactical concepts, building your army, and then moving onto the three standard 40K missions with a plan are all covered.
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Win @ 40K Tournaments
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2010/01/win‐40k‐tournaments‐pdf.html
Hard hitting and right to the point, this 21 page PDF shares with you all the knowledge you need to arm yourself with as you venture out into the 40K tournament scene. When you are looking to place and score some of that loot and glory in a tourney there is SO much more than just winning all your games. This is all the info summarized and condensed up that myself and Jawaballs use to win! I got pounded for years learning this stuff as a young Fritz on the table to now deliver this wisdom…
Send In The Clows
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2009/09/harlequin‐army‐pdf.html
Borrowing the best from my blog, and then expanding on it along with plans for the three standard missions, this .PDF gathers the basics to running a harlequin themed army in 40K 5th edition all in one place.
Win With Necrons
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2010/02/win-with-necrons-pdf.html
Back with a vision and a voice I’ve taken my 40K ideas and adapted them to Necrons with the aim of winning games and crushing your opponent on the table. Twenty four pages covering the need to know knowledge for Necrons, along with my 1750 tournament army, how to exploit it, and the three standard mission gives any new Necron player a solid place to start
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Prepare For Glory!
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2009/02/win‐with‐space‐marines‐pdf.html
Adapting my Win @ 40K .PDF directly to Space Marines, this PDF covers the basic theory behind building your Space Marine strike force, understanding how to leverage the “advantage” that Space Marines have, and finally adjusting them for the three standard40Kmissions.Given the diversity of what you can build with Space Marines, along with the Space Wolves, Black Templars, Dark Angels, and Blood Angels sub codexes,
Chaos Glory!
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2010/01/chaos-glory-pdf.html
Hand picking the “best” Chaos Space Marine units this .PDF then builds on the attributes, wargear, and options to pull together a competitive, yet fun army, before outlining a game plan for the three standard 40K missions.
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