And they SHALL know fear!

Excuse my ropey drawings, but hey it's better than nothing!

You can influence your opponents decisions not only with what you do, but what they think you'll do and what they think or know units can do. Think about it, how many times have you and your fellow gamers poured shots into a *insert nasty thing here*, finally killed it then got charged/wiped out by a unit you ignored? It happens all the time, you get carried away, those damn Carnifex, Wraithlords, Prism Cannons, Leman Russ Battle Tanks, Vindicators, etc, etc.

This fear of certain units can be used for your own gain, playing on your opponents worries. It's similiar to using feint attacks, moves to draw out enemy units and counter attack. This is a lot easier to do in smaller games, the bigger the game the more variables there are. So lets look at say 500-1000pt armies.

My personal favourites for these size of games are Dreadnoughts or Vindicators. Both are around a cheap 120pts (depending on upgrades), are daunting units with bad ass reputations, but have different applications.

The Vindicator is great for closing movement channels, it's gun is so powerfull it can destroy almost anything in a single shot. You opponent will not want to have to move anything infront of it unless they are very confident of destroying the Vindicator before it gets a shot off. Put your Vindicator on a flank, secure it with a building or wood blocking most of the battlefield LOS.

Fig. 1

Look at Fig. 1, those woods would be ideal for the enemy to advance close combat specialists through to get up close quick and that gap between the wood and the hill would be a good place to put a tank or other unit that they don't want slowed down. But here is a problem.. a big uber gun carrying nasty problem.. The Vindicator blocks the entire right flank. So your opponent looks at the options, his troops could emerge from the wood, but they get hit by the vindicator before they can hit back.. ouch.. He could move his tank/heavies through that gap, but what if they don't get the first shot? Remember Demolisher Cannons are ordnance, it is VERY hard to miss with them! Not a problem your enemy thinks, I'll just shoot it before I advance.. oh hang on the only way I can bring a gun into LOS is by first moving infront of it. Damn.. You may confuse your enemy, or at least force them away from this flank. If they don't go anywhere near that flank, then you simply advance the Vindicator into a shooting position at the corner of the building, lay smoke and next turn unleash hell on his units that you've forced into a smal space (by denying them this right flank).

Dreadnoughts are better when there is dense terrain, areas where close combat troops may get in close quickly (melta-bombs & Vindicators don't mix). Dreadnoughts with plasma cannons are probably the best all round deterrent, the close combat ability of a Dreadnought combined with the all round power of the Plasma cannon makes for an awesome unit.

Fig. 2

Now in Fig 2 you can see I've combined the 2 unit units, one of each flank. The Vindicator is performing the same role as above, but in this instance the Dreadnought is guarding the left flank where troops could advance quite far in cover. Any unit that comes through there has to face the Dreadnought. Obviously there are exceptions and counters to this (Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent being a nasty example), but nothing is flawless. The aim of this is to force your enemy centrally, where you can bring more weapons to bear and then flank with your Vindicator and Dreadnought. Tightly packed enemy + Vindicator = Much Death..

Against most armies this can work well, Eldar are a notable exception. If you are facing an Eldar player who may have Wave Serpents with either Fire Dragons or Wraithguard in, then the solo Dreadnought becomes a liability. An Eldar player faced with the fig. 2 set up would just move their Wave Serpent behind the trees in turn one, then in turn 2 fly behind the Dreadnought and unload the Fire Dragons for a rear armour shot. This would be bad, but is easily countered. Support the Dreadnought with Scouts armed with Shotguns (excellent cheap Eldar killers in this role), this way if the Eldar does attack you can kill all of the Firedragons with some up close Shotgun work :)

Fig. 3

It can actually be used as a lure against Eldar. Take a look at Fig. 3.

Please note this is not to scale, the top of this map I'm saying the gap between Land Speeder positions is 12inches.

Here you'll see I've got a Landspeeder deployed. I've put this so it can move 12inches behind the woods infront of the Dreadnought and be able to shoot one gun (multi-melta or Assault cannon depending on your army, both nail Wave Serpents when shooting at the rear armour). The Dreadnought is there to draw the Eldar Wave Serpent into the position shown. They would have to travel over 12inches to get up to the Dreadnought and would be unable to disembark the Fire Dragons/Wraithguard, so being sneaky they hide behind the woods first, intending to attack next turn. I then intercept with the Landspeeder (or a Squadron if you're Dark Angels like me) and destroy the Wave Serpent. If they don't fall for it, well no worries because the Landspeeder is in a position to attack in all sorts of places! The trick with these sort of bait tactics is getting the distances judged well, you want it to be almost out of range for your interceptors so that the enemy takes the gamble (if they realise at all).

Apologies if I've not explained this well or in enough detail, it's something I've tried to write up several times but always struggle with. There are so many variables and options depending on who your fighting, what mission, points limit and God only knows how much else. Just always remember what has kicked loads of arse recently and then use it to intimidate your opponent, it doesn't matter if it kills nothing if it shepherds your enemy into a bad position.