Diverting with Skirmishers

In my last article I wrote about how to divert units with fast cavalry. They work best because they get to flee further, then after they rally, they can still move and even shoot. Keeping the pressure on the enemy.

But skirmishers can even be used to divert units.
When using skirmishers they need to work with either a 2nd skirmish unit or some terrain. Any difficult terrain will do.

In my example I have here, I have a unit of glade guard archers on the hill. The Vampire count unit has a huge unit of 12 Black Knights with full command running across the board to kill them. Meanwhile the sneaky wood elf player also has a unit of 5 glade guard scouts hiding in the woods.

In the first diagram, the unit of Black knights have just moved up into charge range to wipe out the deadly archers on the next turn.



Lets assume for a minute this was his turn 1 move. Luckily the Wood elf player anticipated the forceful move of the Vampire player and countered with the scouts in the woods.
On the wood elf players turn, he runs the scouts out of the woods and in front of the Black knights. Note that only 2 models are required to be in front of the knights. One that needs to be the closest visible model. And a 2nd further away to block the knights from going around the skirmishers.



In my example, the model with the red dot stops 1 inch away and just off the corner of the huge unit of knights. The blue dot model is there to block the unit from being able to make a wheel and going right by the scouts.

Also, since I marched my scouts I cannot shoot with them. But since they are strength 3 bows shooting into 2+ armor, its not that big a deal. And it was more important to make sure they lived through the VC's first magic phase where a deadly Gaze of Nagash might have squashed this plan. Of course if he had moved within 8" of the skirmishers, your 5" move would not have been enough to get you into position. So staying closer can be important.

In addition, Vampire Counts have that very nasty Dance spell that lets them move units in the magic phase. Even if they don't get it as a spell many use the book as a bound item. This spell must be stopped. It is the best nastiest spell the VC have. And can easily counter this tactic. Always know, who has this spell or book and how many dice they have left.

Now in the Vampire Counts turn he has a couple options.
1. He can charge the scouts. This is really what we want him to do and expect.
2. He can try to slide over a couple inches and try to move up a couple inches. This is a really bad plan and if he does this, you are in great position. If he does this he is going to try and kill the scouts either with a banshee or magic. So you need to either have another unit ready to move up, or stop the magic.
3. The 3rd option is declare a charge on the archers on the hill. While this might seem silly, it is possible to do. His thinking is your blocking archer is not far enough over and he can wheel past you and charge up the hill and hit the end of the archer line. If he does this, I would stand and shoot. Here is the reasoning.
A. If you flee you are probably running off the board anyway.
B. You get in a free round of shooting. And odds are he will either not make the wheel around scouts, or the wheel takes him so far off line, he misses you or doesn't have the range to hit you.

In this case if he tries to wheel, while he makes it around the guy with the red dot, he does not make it around the blue dot.



So what happens next?
While I'd like to say this is a failed charge, it is in fact, Enemy in the Way and he can either stop 1" short, or declare a charge on your archers.
So assuming he declares a charge on the archers, you would move them back to where they originally were.

NOTE OF GOOD GAME PLAY: Whenever moving a unit that you are unsure about what is going to happen. Always mark where it was before hand.

After moving the unit back to the original location, draw a single line between the closest visible skirmisher and the center of his unit. Like this:



You can see I have the red stick going through the center of the knight unit and through my skirmisher. BTW, this is also what would have happened had the VC player chose to charge the scouts originally.

You roll your flee distance and with only 2d6" trying to beat his 14" charge can be a challenge. That is why terrain is desperately needed to slow him down. Without it, odds are he will catch you unless you roll 10" or more. In this case I rolled 8" and moved deep into the woods. Every model runs the exact same line parallel to the closest model. The one I had a red dot on.

The Black knight unit must wheel all the way around to face in the same direction and then can begin the rest of their charge. In this case after measuring and counting the affect of the terrain the scouts get away.



And the Black knights stop after moving 7". This leaves them in a horrible position facing right into the woods. On your turn you rally the scouts. And after he spends a full turn reforming to face the archers again, your scouts are right back into position as in diagram 2 above.

This all works out wonderfully, but what happens if there is no terrain in the right place. This can easily happen and often leads to sacrificing a unit. I know many players out there do not like this concept, but it is essential sometimes.

If we assume for a minute the woods in the diagram above was not there, or the unit was able to freely move through the woods, then the knights would have caught the scouts and destroyed them. The knights would now be sitting basically where the scouts are now.

While this is a shame, it is not all bad either. This 85 point unit has diverted this 340+ point unit off of its main target. This allows you to continue to work. In this example, the archers could begin moving to the left and up. The next turn the knights are going to have to reform anyway to begin to face the way they want. This gives you another turn to move the archers off the hill and out of Line of sight.

Or this is where a 2nd unit of scouts runs in front of the knights drawing them in a completely different direction, that by the time they get turned around, the game is over. And the primary target was never touched.

I have done this with 25 point Skaven night runner units. I have used skinks in this roll as well as Dogs of War duelists, gnoblar trappers and more. Almost every army except maybe dwarfs have a unit that can fill this roll.

If 2 units of 25 point skaven night runners can totally derail a 340 point freight train, it is well worth their sacrifice.

Until next time...