Target Saturation: How to do it, how to beat it

So we'll start with the simple question that needs to be answered for this to be a comprehensive post: what is target saturation? Target Saturation is the idea of having so many high priority targets that your opponent is unable to properly address all of them, leading (often) to panic and confusion, and an inconsistent goal. An example would be a Tyranid list featuring three Tervigons, a flyrant, and a smattering of trygons. The opponent must choose between shooting the resilient and very important baby-makers to prevent the board from flooding with troops, taking out the devastating and fast flyrant, and the combat monster trygons that will devastate his lines. Few armies have the sort of firepower or close combat punch to reliably take all of these things out before they wreak havoc, which puts whoever is facing them in a position of trying to do too many things at once, and leaving only a slew of bad options.

So, the first segment: How to do it?
It largely depends on the army, but the basic principles apply to every single one. For starters, you must have that ever important basis of boots on the ground. Most games involve scoring, or at least getting linebreaker, and for that you need some infantry to get you the points for winning. My general policy is to dedicate 1/3 of my points in smaller games or 1/4 in large games to putting raw, basic troops with no upgrades on the table. So, in a 1500 point game, I would take 325 points and cover the basics, bringing 25 Necron Warriors or 20 Immortals. The beauty of this system is the simplicity: Having covered troops, I now have a dedicated points allotment of 1175 to simply bring as many deadly units as I can. In Necrons, I may bring 2 Annihilation Barges for anti infantry and flyers, a Monolith to provide a tough, dangerous centrepiece, two squads of six wraiths for a fast moving multi-threat squad that is very difficult to wipe of the board for 800 points. Now imagine trying to determine what you're shooting at with that list, with 5 separate targets that are all too dangerous to ignore. Complement this by spending the remaining 375 to fluff out your core, put in a Destroyer Lord for counter-assaulting, add some extra troops to a squad and maybe a resurrection orb for stiffening gives your backfield a sturdier foundation and some much needed counter-assault from the fast movers, and perhaps some scarabs for the ever valuable invisible assault.

The second key component to using this kind of list is playing it well. All of these powerful options present huge threats that must be dealt with, but how do you stop them from being dealt with? The key here is to push equally hard with all your options. Don't rush forward with your wraiths, putting them and them alone in the dangerous focus of enemy heavy fire. Rather, advance them a turn or two behind your monolith, or use the serious speed of them plus the frightening rush of scarabs to outflank, forcing your opponent to shuffle and lose firepower instead of focusing and eliminating one target at a time.

Now how to beat it?
The first step is to ensure you are building the right lists. If your army is one that focuses on long range death-dealers like tau, ensure you have enough units capable of dealing damage. Now that doesn't mean weapons, because we all know how well a crisis or broadside team can deal with almost anything. This means you must have enough separate units capable of dealing severe enough damage to be registered as a threat to split your opponent's attention, and to dish it out to multiple enemy units each turn. This means not investing too many points into any single unit, which prevents you from properly distributing potential across your whole army. Tempting as a 250 or 300 point riptide or crisis team can be, the difference in effectiveness between a 300 point riptide and a 200 point riptide is nowhere near as big as it needs to be to justify the extra cost. A good rule of thumb is 200 points per unit capable of destroying or crippling one vehicle or infantry squad per turn. Yes, this is almost identical to the above segment, because good list building is important no matter what.

Now, the play. Against powerful assault lists, unless you're tau with supporting fire, DO NOT CASTLE. Castling (a static, overlapping deployment causing attackers to have to go through layer after layer of troops before reaching the juicy center). Castling causes meat grinders like Daemons and Tyranids to drool as they surround your small army and simply feed your poor soldiers into sausage. Against assault lists, it is important to control how they move, draw the strongest and fastest enemies into overlapping fields of fire and perform a fighting retreat - deploy along your front edge, then move back with all your infantry and vehicles while maintaining a fusillade of fire to keep the opposing front rank declining. This constant mobility, even at a mere 6" a turn, can deny the first assault by 1 or two turns, and since your strength is their weakness this is key!

Against shooting armies, you actually want the opposite. You want to cluster as much of your firepower into as small a part of their line as you can, ideally on a flank, while presenting a strong enough appearance on the weak flank to draw the enemy into defending it. By dividing your opponent's forces, you allow the statistics behind your superior force to deal enough damage to their weakened counterpart to give you the advantage when the rest of the armies wheel and reform. This is easier for highly mobile armies, like Dark Eldar, who can re-position and change the match ups with frightening efficiency.

Finally, fighting what I call spoiler armies. These are ones like the Dark Eldar, who simply can't be caught in conventional traps by virtue of their unique builds - in this example the insane mobility of a purely fast skimmer army. These you must play on a case-by-case. Dark Eldar fear Castles, because they need to pick off flanks, and with only one knot of resistance they're forced into a straight up fight - their worst nightmare on the field. The Necron Air Force is another, they are simply too much of a niche for many armies to face. The over-saturation of flyers and the inability to account for so much unique threat leaves armies with little to no skyfire out in the cold.

Hopefully this was helpful, please leave some comments below!