Warmachine/Hordes Tactica: Jams and Tarpits
Steamroller 2010 calls for very aggressive play in order to be successful and consequently has spawned a widely-used tactic known as “jamming” or “tarpitting” (which I will refer to simply as jamming from this point on). Whenever I use this term around the LGS or online, I inevitably get one person asking what this tactic is exactly, so I thought I’d take some time to give a bit of a run down on tarpits and jams here, along with some simple ways to bypass them.
Jamming, in simplest terms, is using your own forces to clog up and hold down your enemy’s. Due to the fact that scoring objective points in Steamroller happens every turn starting at the end of the first player’s second turn (unlike 40k’s scenarios which only check objective holding at the game’s end), holding down your opponent’s forces, particularly key figures, can often be an excellent strategy to ensure victory. In scenario play, engaging your opponent just outside his deployment zone can be a devastating tactic if your opponent can’t respond quickly enough to clear out the jam and get their forces up field and contesting an objective. Even in regular play, for example, if you are running a ‘jack heavy Protectorate of Menoth army and your opponent has only one heavy warjack and a single unit of Weapon Masters that are capable of threatening those heavies, employing a jam against either can be a very effective means of dominating your opponent.
When determining which units you use to jam with, obviously, a decent SPD value is pretty important; a jam is most effective when you can dictate the place that it happens, not your opponent. Aside from this, there are two types of commonly-seen jamming units: the cheap/expendable and the moderately costed/hard-to-kill. In terms of the former, you’re typically looking at units in the 3/5 or 4/6 price ranges with a 2-point solo or UA. Good examples from this category include Mechanithralls with a Necrosurgeon, Steelhead Halberdiers with Rhupert for Tough, Zealots with the Monolith Bearer, Kriel Warriors with their UA and various Trollblood DEF/ARM buffs. These things are all relatively cheap, so their inevitable loss isn’t crippling, particularly when it allows you to ideally position the meat of your army unmolested.
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| Would you like some bread with that jam? |
In the latter category you have things like Kayazi with the Underboss with Iron Flesh or Dirge of Mists, Winterguard Infantry with their UA and Grigorovich, Knights Errant with Rhupert and the Covenant, Boomhowler and Co. with Quicken and/or Dirge of Mists. Where Kayazi boast incredible DEF values in melee, the Knights and Trollkin stand firm with decent ARM stats, Tough (4+ Tough on Boomhowler and Co.), and Knockdown mitigation. These units all represent a larger point investment compared to the previous category, but are quite a bit better at surviving a beatdown.
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| DEF 19? No problem. |
Now that we have a general idea of what jamming units look like, let’s look at how we get rid of them. Since, by nature, they all have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, each one requires individual consideration.
- Ranged/Magic Attacks or Abilities with AOE values: Look for bang for your buck here, either a big AOE (Winterguard Mortar, Bloat Thrall) or lots of little ones (Redeemer, Herne and Jonne). These attacks will bypass models that rely on their DEF values to save their hides are generally good against packs of low-ARM models. Just be careful to avoid clipping your own low-DEF models.
- Attacks that will “bounce” to other models: Magic Attacks like Chain Lightning, Ashes to Ashes, or Eruption of Spines only need to hit one model in order to effect those around the target. To avoid rolling against sky-high DEF values, you can even target one of your own models. Alternatively, look for abilities like Electro Leap or other things that increase your volume of damage rolls.
- Attacks or abilities that don’t require attack rolls: the Basher’s Flak Field, Devastator’s Rain of Death, Suppressing Fire templates, or Stormcalls are great ways at cutting through high-DEF jamming units to clear out your advance.
- Attacks and abilities that remove, bypass, or exploit enemy upkeep spells: Many jamming strategies rely on nasty upkeeps to work to the utmost (Iron Flesh, Defender’s Ward, Arcane Shield). Things that get rid of them (eEiryss, Thrullgs, the Withershadow Combine), bypass them (Blessed Weapons, Arcane Assassin), or punish models for having them (Purgation) will be pretty effective at dealing with those units.
- Attacks and abilities that bypass Tough: Takedown, Silence of Death, Entropic Force, and Grievous Wounds are your friends for taking down units with Tough.
- Spray/Thresher/Berserk Attacks: These are all great ways to clear out a jam that has deployed – engaging your forces. Be mindful of the disparity between the attacker’s RAT and the target’s DEF, though; RAT 5 might be good against Zealots and Mechanithralls, but they won’t be great against higher-DEF models like Kayazi unless you have the means to greatly boost your accuracy.
- A hard front line: Many of the previously listed methods will often result in some collateral damage. High-ARM model survive that much better than low-ARM ones.
- A jam of your own: Use your own jam to stop his.
So, let’s hear it folks? Are jams clogging up your local meta? How’re you cleaning them out?
