Tactic of the Week
I was going to do a Battle report today, but I forgot the guys army list, so I thought it best to do it in a couple days instead.
Todays Tactic: Beware the offered flank!!
It was my opinion in the previous edition that a flank charge if engaged on the front or not engaged at all is almost always a good thing.
Well, the "almost" part jumped up and bit me in the rear at the Alamo GT.
Here was the situation:
He has a unit of 68, yea count them 68 (sixty-eight) eternal guard with 2 nobles in the unit. The unit is carrying the warbanner. The Highborn is carrying the Rhymers harp & has the Annoyance spite and the BSB is carrying the banner of Ariel.
So from the front this unit will have a combat res of +7 (banner, warbanner, bsb, 3 ranks and US) From the flank they will have +4.
So this huge unit is:
1. Always bigger than you.
2. You have to kill 18 in one phase to cause a panic test early on.
3. Has MR (1).
4. Is stubborn on Ld 10
5. Gets to re-roll that stubborn 10, due to the BSB
6. Causes fear!!
7. Everyone in the unit has a 5+ ward save.
8. It can move freely through difficult terrain.
So no matter what you hit the flank with, you will have an almost impossible time to break this unit. You will not outnumber him, but he will outnumber you. Even if you do enough kills to win combat, he will not be running.
Next round his general moves into combat with your big combat monster and challenges.
About the only thing that can take this unit on is a giant who spends a couple rounds picking up characters and eating them, or throwing them. Then yell and bawls.
I made the mistake of taking the bait of the opened flank for me.
I hit him and have a static combat res of +5. banner, 3 ranks and flank. He has US, banner, warbanner, bsb. So I'm only up by 1. With his ward save I do no wounds at all. He does 2 to me and wins by 1. I auto break from the fear and am run down.
That was about 500 victory points I handed to him. All I had to do was not charge and I get a draw or possible a win in that game.
So before you make the charge, add up the static combat res. Don't take it unless you start up by at least 3. And never do it to a stubborn with reroll unit.
Ben
posted by Ben at 1:40 PM
2 Comments:
Technically, the EG are stubborn on a 9, not a 10. If they use the general/character's Ld, the Ld it modified. Even if the character is of the Eternal Guard Kindred, he himself is not stubborn. The Bodyguard rule only applies to the unit, not the character. It makes a big behemoth unit slightly easier to deal with, but not much. The best way to deal with this unit is to take an expendable, cheap unit and send it at the BSB. Charge and direct as many attacks at the BSB as possible. Since he's carrying the 100 point banner, he's T3, with only a 6+ armor, and a 5+ ward. If you can take him out, he loses +1CR, loses fear, loses the MR(1), and loses that all-important reroll of break tests, too! You can't do this with a character, because if he's smart, he's got a champ or his general next to his BSB so they'll protect him by challenging your character.
I don't know if skaven have any unit that would be good at character hunting (a giant rat torpedo? Gutter-runners with 2 HW?), but that's probably the best way to do it. Most flying units, eagles, etc. would work here.
Or a weapon that causes an automatic panic test (screaming skull catapult with skulls of the foe). One wound and a bad Ld roll by him and you're in business.
Good points.
But say you send 2 Eagles, at him, that is 4 attacks, on avg 2 hit, 1.34 wound, and only .9 make it through the ward save. So you do 1 wound to the BSB. He then slaughters your eagles.
Even gutter runners, you get 3 on the BSB, so 6 poison attacks.
1 poison hit, and 2 more hits. 1 more wound, so 2 wounds = 1.1 wounds after armor and ward.
So your having to throw 2 units at his big unit just to take out the BSB and this is assuming they pass their Ld 7 fear test to charge.
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