Tactic of the Week
I thought I might go back and cover some of the more basic tactics, for those who never read my books. So I apologize if you feel this is old hat, but it is probably a good review.
Todays is called the bucket.
Here is the initial setup:
My opponent has a very nasty Plague monk unit with full ranks, banner, hero, could be the warbanner. Either way, I don't want to face this unit alone with my small unit of cavalry.
So I run a throw away hound unit in front and move up another knight unit for support. The key is I must get a flank on the unit.
In this picture, he has charged. He probably thought I would flee with the hounds and he could continue his charge into my knights, break them and be behind my lines.
But I surprise him by holding with the hounds.
He has now easily destroyed the hounds and pursued into my white wolf knight unit. If he was not frenzy, and chose not to pursue, it wouldn't matter as I'd be able to charge him in either both the flank and front, or just the flank.
And as can be seen on the last pic, my 2nd knight unit hits him hard in the flank.
Now instead of him having +5 to my +1 going into combat, I have +2 (banner & flank) and he has only +1, banner. Our US is the same, and no ranks.
So instead of being behind by 4 CR to start, I'm actually up by 1. This should lead to a fairly easy victory for the knights.
Good luck.
posted by Ben at 12:17 PM
5 Comments:
Great stuff as usual Ben. You might want to mention something in here about the 7th editin wrinkle of the unit counting as charging if the second combat hasn't occured.
Just more things to keep in mind...
Well, since it would be the next players turn, I don't think that plays as long as the first cavalry wasn't already in combat.
Changes that would apply from 6th to 7th. Meant to put these and did not.
1. No panic test for the monks. They are frenzy and ignore it, but if not frenzy, there is still no panic test.
2. The knights are both immune to the hounds breaking but for other armies, panic test would apply. Not a change, same as 6th.
3. Since both the 2nd knight unit and monks are both considered charging, we go to initiative to see who swings first. Since everyone is I 3 except the Priest. The plague priest would go first, then we would roll off to see if it was the 2nd knights or the monks who get to swing after them.
This is such a great format, and I greatly appreciate you showing and explaining these basic tactics. As a beginning general, I know how things ought to work out, but they often don't. It's very informative to see these tactics played out and the reasoning behind them...
But one question: What are these books you have written? I had no idea there were books on the subject of warhammer tactics...please do enlighten.
A few years back when the Skaven army book first hit the shelves I wrote a book called Rats of War.
Matt York, a great Warhammer player, helped me out. And I self published it and sold probably in the neighborhood of 200+ copies.
After that, I wrote a book called Rats of War II: Know thy prey.
Both were geared towards playing skaven and how to make them better. And I think they and not ratling guns were responsible for the surge of Skaven army domination in the GT circuit. ;-)
But both are completely sold out and I no longer have the capability to publish them. Thinking about just putting them into pdf for anyone who still wants them. Many discussions revolved around 6th ed rules and would be dated, but most of the tactics discussed are still valid.
That's awesome, I'd be interested in pdf (especially if it's cheap or free), if for no other reason than it would cool to own a book on Warhammer tactics, who cares about the army. Thanks for the info Ben
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