Mission 030: Turn Two Planning

I’ve played a few games of N4 now, and discovered a trend, at least in my games. If we break down a game into turns or phases, I’ve observed the following:

1. Deployment – Games are often lost in deployment. If you make a serious mistake in deployment that your opponent exploits effective, you can lose the game. Typically a very strong alpha strike occurs that you cannot recover from, or an overwhelming positional advantage is attained by one party.
2. Turn 1 – I find that games are generally not lost in Turn 1, as positional advantage needs to be attained or exploited. Going first can cause over-extension, and going second is generally responding to or recovering from an alpha strike. If you “lose” in Turn 1, you probably actually lost in the deployment phase.
3. Turn 3 – Like Turn 1, games are generally not lost in Turn 3. You can definitely fail to win by not having enough orders or resources to accomplish your objectives. By the time you reach turn 3, you have a very clear list of things to do and generally have limited ways to accomplish them.
4. Turn 2 – I’ve found that Turn 2, at least in recent games, is the lynchpin. I’ve either recovered from a turn 1 alpha strike, or executed a strong beta strike at the bottom of 1. I am in a reasonable position and can set myself up for a win, but instead choose to focus on disrupting my opponent or in some other way squander the advantages I have.

So, in the second month of 2021, let’s think about the second turn of the game. How can we best plan for success in Turn 2, and execute on that plan over the first two turns to rack up a win in the game?

Here are some examples. In the following game of Mindwipe, I was in an excellent position at the bottom of two. All I had to do was run a Makaul up the table and ignore everything else. Instead, I floundered, trying to push a position of strength for my opponent but not committing to a coherent plan.

A Game of Inches

In this next game, I had achieved an overwhelming position of advantage at the end of Turn 1, but I chose to focus on the wrong things, which resulted in a narrow margin of victory by the end of the game.

Quackery of Kiiutan

Had I thought carefully about high priority tasks like attacking the server in Mindwipe or securing my opponent’s console in Power Pack, I could’ve walked out of both games with a major victory. Instead, I chose to execute some unfocused attacks on my opponent’s material and squandered my positional and tempo advantages. Don’t let this happen to you! Think carefully about your second turn before you even deploy!

What must you accomplish by the end of your second turn to win the game? As an example, in Mindwipe, you should have a plan to deliver a trooper to destroy the server by the end of the third turn, and give that trooper multiple orders to attack the server!

In Power Pack, you might want to have a way to secure the console, or attack your opponent’s specialists to deny them the ability to secure the consoles! Here’s an example of how not to do it!

Quagmire of Kaplan

The Mission

1. Choose a mission to play.
2. Come up with a list of concrete objectives you must complete by the end of your second turn.
3. Play a game and execute on your plan!
4. Write in with your thoughts on the exercise!

Submitting

Tabletop Simulator games are valid submissions! We all love our little metal minatures and want to support Corvus Belli, but please stay safe in the age of COVID-19! You don’t have to play Nomads to submit, alll factions are welcome!

• Let us know how you did by writing in to [email protected]!
• We’re accepting submissions until the last day of February, 2021!
• If you’re going to write a battle report, please use the battle report template below, and share it with [email protected].

If you share the Google doc with me, that saves me TONS of time handling the images. If you can, please avoid sending me a MS Word or LibreOffice file, and just click the “share” button in Google Docs.

As a thank you for participating, you’ll be entered to win a blister of your choice, shipped to your door by Mythic Games!

If you’d prefer a Bromad Academy patch, we can mail that to you instead! You only get one or the other though. Winners will be selected by wheelofnames.com, because it’s AWESOME.

And that’s it! Good hunting, and stay safe out there!