Contesting, Securing, and Shifting Priorities
An Introduction to Objectives III
Welcome back to our series introducing Objectives in Legion 260. Last week we did two introductory posts. Turn Zero and Tempo can be found here, and Deployment can be found here. Today we’ll give a quick run down on how Primary Objectives (they’re technically just called “Objectives” in the CRB but I’ll refer to them as Primary Objectives to avoid any confusion with Secondary Objectives) score and then consider our first one of the series—Shifting Priorities.
Each of these posts will follow a similar outline. We’ll start by laying out how the Objective works. Next, we’ll look at the map of friendly and contested territory and consider how far players will have to go to contest the Points of Interest. We’ll give an overview of the “baseline” Victory Points and what the tempo of scoring might look like, then end on what makes this objective unique. Let’s begin!
Points of Interest
Legion 260 introduced a few new types of objective tokens—Point of Interest tokens (POIs) and Asset tokens. Assets are unique to Secondary objectives and will be considered in a later post. POIs are two inch tokens that are placed at a specific point for each Primary Objective (and one Secondary Objective). POIs cannot be overlapped by miniatures, but miniatures can move through them. Additionally, though they do not block line of sight, they are considered to obscure line of sight as if they were a piece of 3” tall area terrain. They provide heavy cover.
Each Primary Objective centers around units fighting over these POIs by contesting them. To contest a POI, a unit leader must be at .5 range of a POI and cannot be panicked. Note that unlike previously, all unit types can contest objectives. Additionally, Objectives are scored before suppression is removed in the End Phase. Some Objectives will require players to secure POIs. Whichever player has more unit leaders contesting a specific POI has secured that POI. Even when one player has secured a POI, that player is considered to be contesting it. Similarly, even if your opponent has secured a POI, you may be contesting it if you have a unit leader at .5 range that is not panicking. We’ll call the .5 range (3”) around each POI its “bubble.” So to contest any given POI, the base of a unit leader must overlap this POI bubble in some capacity.
Shifting Priorities
How It Works
When playing Shifting Priorities, players will aim to secure (more unit leaders at .5 range that aren’t panicking than their opponent) five different POIs. Starting during the End Phase of the second round, a player scores one VP per POI they secure. At the end of each End Phase, players will alternate moving each POI secured by their opponent up to .5 range. Note that the restrictions for placing a POI are listed below.
Moving the POI is not measured center point to center point but rather one edge must be touching the .5 range ruler as described here. This means that in reality the POI can move up to 5” (3” range ruler plus the 2” token itself).
The Map
One thing immediately stands out—the POIs are all basically equidistant from each player at the start of the game. To contest any given POI, a unit must move roughly 14” from their board edge (this means a speed-two trooper will need to spend three of their first four actions to move if they intend to contest a POI at the end of round two). The furthest left and right POI bubbles end up roughly 8” away from the normal deployment of a speed-two trooper (so roughly 14” total).
Additionally, the edge POI bubble on each side is slightly less than half as close to its nearest POI bubble than the middle three bubbles are to each other (5.5” to 10”).
Baseline VPs
With five VPs to be scored each round, there are a possible twenty VPs players can score. Since, as we pointed out above, each POI is more or less equidistant between the two players, there really aren’t safe POIs that will favor one player over another (contrast this with a Primary like Bunker Assault which has two “home POIs” for each player). Instead, deployment during setup and round one will set the tone for the game. Until a unit is on the board, it could realistically contest any of the POIs in round two. After its first activation, though, a unit is usually committed to contesting one of two possible POIs during the End Phase of round two.
Each side of the map has two POIs relatively close together (the POI bubbles that are 5.5” apart). During round one, a unit will often be able to move to a spot where they can threaten contesting one or the other at the end of round two with only a single move (and by extension attacking with their other action round two as well). There’s a relatively large area where units can end within 6” (range one or a speed-two move) of those POI bubbles. Conversely, there’s a relatively limited area that a unit can end round one within 6” of two of the middle three POI bubbles. Further, a speed-two unit can’t physically end round one within 6” of two of the middle three POIs without a movement effect such as scout (they have to travel more than 13,” beyond the distance of two speed-two moves in round one).
In short, it’s easier to threaten scoring the two POIs furthest to the right or two POIs furthest to the left during round one and two. At the end of round one, it should be relatively clear which POIs you and your opponent are threatening to contest with your speed-two units. During round one, you’ll want to keep an eye on how many units you and your opponent are committing to threaten each POI. You don’t want to build a game plan around securing a POI that your opponent has significantly more units committed to and end up losing that POI.
Tempo
Again, for a review of tempo, check out our post from last week here. In the context of Shifting Priorities, we’ll be looking at how many VPs you need to plan to score to keep abreast of your opponent. I want to note one thing about scoring tempo and Secondary Objectives and how they fit into this. Since we’re going to begin with a post on each Primary Objective, we won’t get into a ton of specifics about Secondaries at this point—those will each get their own post. At the end of building a mission in turn zero, there’s a few common options for a player to win the game: win Primary and tie/lose closely Secondary, tie/lose closely Primary and win Secondary, or win both the Primary and the Secondary. For the purposes of the posts on Primary Objectives we’ll assume the first option—winning the Primary and tying or losing the Secondary closely. One last note—most Secondaries have a fairly straightforward path to at least four VPs. This makes eight Primary VPs a solid benchmark to aim for in a lot of missions.
As an example, a game of Recon Mission might realistically have both players score one Secondary Objective VP per round and four total VPs at the end of round five from the Secondary. If the Primary was Shifting Priorities, a player might only need eight or nine VPs total from securing POIs to reach twelve; however, they would nearly guarantee a win as long as they have more Primary VPs than their opponent, regardless of the total number.
Let’s think about the specifics of Shifting Priorities now. With five POIs, there will be an unequal amount of VPs scored during most End Phases. If each POI is secured during each End Phase from round two on, there will be twenty total VPs split between the two players. As a player, you should have a plan for how many Primary VPs you need based on the Secondary (or vice-versa). In other words, how many of those twenty VPs do you need to score to get to twelve?
The first big question you have to answer is “Do I need to lead in VPs at the end of round two?” In other words, can I and do I need to plan to secure three or more POIs during the second round’s End Phase. As we pointed out above, during round one, it should start to be clear which POIs your opponent plans to contest round two. Conversely, you will have started to commit units to specific POIs as well.
Plan A will likely be to secure at least three POIs with two of them being the two POIs furthest to the right or the left since units can mass within range of single move to contest either in round two. This gives you flexibility if your opponent starts contesting those as well. If you decide not to plan to secure three or more POIs (or don’t have a path to), you basically are committing to needing to defeat or weaken enough enemy units that you can consistently secure more POIs than your opponent in rounds three and four. In essence, you are trading leading in VPs after round two for more and better shots over the first two rounds. Instead of moving up (and potentially exposing your units to larger dice pools from opponent attacks), you’re spending actions to weaken your opponents units that have moved up (by aiming and attacking or moving then attacking to force out of cover shots). Since any POIs that your opponent secures are moved by you, most of your opponent’s units will likely still have to move to score in later rounds as well. If you have a list with enough ranged shooting that can make this a worthwhile trade, its not the end of the world to trail on Primary VPs in round two.
Note, though, that the POI moves up to 5” during the End Phase. Having your units within at least 8” of a POI you intend to score in the subsequent round but not the current one means that they have the possibility of not needing to move to contest it (after you have moved the POI 5”). If they are within 14” (range 2 plus 2”) they would potentially only need to move once to contest it the next round. If they’re any further, a speed-two unit would have to move at least twice to contest.
While the POI movement can make losing round two but scoring rounds three and four easier, its still imperative that you have a realistic plan to win round three if you decide to concede round two.
There’s too many VP computations to care about all of them but lets look at an example below.
If the Red player decides to only contest two POIs round two, they can tie the score up in round three by securing three POIs. On the other hand, if they’re unable to secure three POIs in round three, they enter round four potentially behind by two Primary VPs. This puts the Red player in a bind. They need to not only win round four (preferably by two VPs to tie the Primary VP count), but their opponent is now closing in on eight VPs (that magic number for a lot of Secondaries we referenced above).
Planning to score less than two POIs round two is, frankly, rarely a legitimate path to victory. It may not be an auto-loss if it happens, but it is usually not a great plan. We’ll illustrate that in the table below.
Even if the Red player were to follow up losing round two 4-1 by winning round three 3-2 (the lower of the two tables), they’re still trailing by two VPs going into round four. Anything more than this leads to a likely insurmountable deficit.
What Makes Shifting Priorities Unique?
Having looked through Shifting Priorities, two things stand out. First, of all the Primary Objectives, it has the second highest number of VPs available to score per round (Breakthrough can score six, but it seems that maxing VPs in Shifting Priorities is significantly easier). Second, it is the only Primary Objective where the POIs move. This makes Shifting Priorities one of the swingier Primary Objectives, in my opinion.
As we detailed above, losing round two is not necessarily an auto-defeat. I wouldn’t recommend losing round two per se, but the ability to come back is very real on Shifting Priorities. Contesting a POI round two requires a speed-two trooper to spend three actions moving (or to have an alternate deployment method or an effect that gives them free movement). Conversely, a player that decides to lose round two can potentially shoot each activation with more units than their opponent can. On top of this, since the player who lost the POI moves it, they may end up with units at a similar distance or closer to the POI as their opponent. It’s important to emphasize again that, at a minimum, you’ll want to plan on securing two POIs at the end of round two.
Unlike static POIs where a unit can potentially aim/shoot each activation after they reach the POI’s bubble, ending round two contesting a POI on Shifting Priorities does not necessarily give units that efficient option. Instead, units of the player who most recently secured the POI will still likely have to move the next round to continue contesting it.
Wrap Up
Let’s end with some recommendations about which lists might include Shifting Priorities in their Battle Deck.
Speed-three units and units with Scout, Infiltrate, Transport, Prepared Position, and Reinforcements all have a noticeable advantage. They only need to move two of their first four actions (or in some cases one of the first four) to contest a POI round two. This allows them to potentially shoot both round one and two and still contest a POI.
Units that bring out of activation movement effects (like Princess Leia and her command card “No Time for Sorrows”) are strong too. Since any POIs you secure are liable to move up to 5”, an effect giving a unit a speed-one move would mean they may not be required to move to continue contesting the POI.
Lists that are comfortable spreading out will like Shifting Priorities. A list with a lot of courage one corps units and only one commander will be somewhat limited in their positioning options. To keep their corps in the courage bubble of their commander, they’ll limit themselves to a roughly half the board and likely out of some POIN bubbles. In the same vein, a list that aims to maximize Clone Trooper token sharing will be limited on Shifting Priorities. On the other hand, a Shadow Collective list with only courage two troopers will be more flexible in which POIs they contest.
Less aggressive lists will probably take Shifting Priorities as well. For example, a list that aims to maximize shooting at range three and four oftentimes will not be equipped to contest a ton of POIs round two against an aggressive list. As we described above, this less aggressive list can focus on two POIs early and spend rounds one and two thinning out their opponent, then swing the Primary VPs back in their favor in rounds three and four.
Thanks for reading! I hope this provided a foundation for you as you play Shifting Priorities and some ideas for list building making a Battle Deck. Later this week, we’ll be debuting our first Fun Stuff Friday post. Expect a little bit of everything! And we’ll be back next Tuesday with our next Primary Objective post. As always, leave a comment with your thoughts below. What are your plans for Shifting Priorities? What types of lists are you planning to bring with Shifting Priorities in your Battle Deck?