A Guide to Command Points (WH40k) (Part#1_5)

I imagine a lot of this will be incredibly obvious to most of you, but command points are a big
addition to the game. I've played a lot of 8th with a variety of armies and in most games I play I see
command points used badly, or not used when they should be. It took me a while to figure out when
it was best to use them, so i'd like to offer a few pointers for beginners.

As far as list building goes, its obvious you want to get as many as possible without compromising
the build of your list. The battalion detachment (2 HQ and 3 Troops minimum) is the one i've seen
most used which will give you 6 points to play with. Space Marines and Chaos Marines have their
own codex strategems which i won't go into here, but rather focus on the rule book ones.

Command re-rolls

This is the one you'll probably use most often. Re rolling a single dice can be powerful when used
at the right moment, but weirdly part of the strategy is knowing when not to go for the re roll. I see
a lot of players treat command points like they are an ability to correct every roll that goes against
you, but they're more like an insurance policy for when you really need critical roll to go your way.
Command points are better used when the chance of success is greater. By this i mean its better to
reroll to hit on a unit that hits on 3+ rather than 5+, as rerolling that 5+ will still probably fail and
you've wasted a point. A general rule of thumb I tend to use is don't use a point when the roll is
more likely to fail unless you absolutely have to. A quick rundown of the major uses for rerolls.

Hits : Tends to be done more in the early game on your big guns when you need them to hit. More
powerful in armies that hit more often. Unless you have an absolutely catastrophic hit roll on
something like a full las pred, i'd advise against going overboard on rerolling hits. Remember you
can do one reroll per phase and you've got a lot of additional uses for that roll in the shooting phase.
Save it for really high value single shot weaponry such as melta weapons. An additional use is
saving plasma wielders from dying when you overcharge by rerolling the 1. But use common sense
while doing this. If your plasma gunner is overcharging because his squad is about to charged by a
bloodthirster, save the command point he's dead anyway.

Wounds : Similar to hits in that you only want to use it on powerful single shot weapons. Whether
you reroll the hit or the wound depends on whats firing and what you're wounding on, judge which
is more likely to succeed or fail. Wounding with heavy weaponry is nearly always going to be on 3's
unless its got a strength of 12+ so it's a decent use if you need to get that last wound through.

Number of shots : Depending on the army this can be a god send. The damage output of a Leman
Russ for example massively depends on how many shots the battlecannon puts out that turn,
rerolling 1 shot into 6 is huge. Again focus on multi shot weapons that cause real damage, the lower
down you go the less worth this has. Is it worth rerolling the shots on a standard flamer? Sometimes
maybe, for example if you're being charged by the remains of combat unit and you think you can
finish them off with a decent overwatch and avoid combat altogether, or if it has powerful flamers
like a landraider redeemer. But most of the time, it's just a few extra low strength hits with no AP, i'd
skip and save the points. I have seen players reroll for frag grenades though which is amusing.