Cost - Effectiveness

Today while i was talking around with my friends I come across this strange thought.

One of my friends asked us nicely not to annhilate his terminators first turn as he put 400 pts. into this squad. I'm naturally a nice guy and thought eh, like I can! (no seriously) I told him that yes, terminators do have a special place in my heart. They also have a special place in my army list as well! And i left his terminators alone. I cannot say did the same for me though as they proceed to rip up my falcon. Awfully nice of him, no? And to think there was a perfectly good Leman Russ not even 5 inches from where they landed... Shucks...

Eventually his Dreadnought deepstruck into where we were staging a tunnel (multi-dimensional games ftw). Since it didnt start in the tunnel, it was considered a mishap, which he rolls a one for! After a long rant, we discover that the dreadnought had a big part to do with his plan, which never panned out in all honesty.

After a while i thought about this, and i was reminded of the concept of cost-effectiveness. I never even think about this in all honesty, but then again, i rarely think about economics in strategy games

People talk all the time about whether or not their unit "made up its points" or not in a battle. While yes that is a way of putting it, thats not really what I'm after.

Take for example, my NightSpinner. Over the course of one game it kills off the better half of 3 squads of imperial guardsmen and wounds a decent pile of other things all totaling up to easily more than the 115 points it cost.

However in the same battle a single vyper kept a Leman Russ busy for a long enough time to deny its pain elsewhere. 60 points tying down 200+ is being effective.

Did that flamer make up its points in the bastion? yes. Did it make the capture of the bastion possible? also yes.

Did i end up losing that bastion? yes, but it took an imperial command squad.

Did the 8 guardians hold the tunnel for 3 rounds of assault yes. Did that make up its points? no. But it did stall the overtaking of the bastion possible.

Did my Jetbikes kill anything? no, but they did harass the remains of the other armies.


The morale of they story is this: when you make an army list you get what you get, and while yes, you may have a role for that squad picked out. They might pull off even better roles elsewhere.