Alright, it is time to add some more.
Tried to enhance the terrain section some and add in other things that have come up since I originally posted everything.
Comments always welcome.
Magic Phase
The uses and abilities of each magic lore have been beaten out at length. Numerous theories can be found on which lore is best for who and against what. This article will not go into length about which lore is most useful for each specific army or against each army.
To chose a lore simply look at your opponents army, your army, and decide which is most suited to the task at hand. This will either require experience on which lore is best against which army or just reading them and thinking about them (metal is better against heavy armor armies… ). This has been done in depth and will not be repeated here.
The only thing left is to chose when to use magic and in what order, and what to do against opponent’s magic. There are a couple tips to help here.
Casting Magic:
1) always start off with bound spells unless they are vital to your plan (book of arcan usually goes last for this reason). Since people dispel the first spells that go off it is likely that the first spells will draw dispel dice. If they don’t then you got a decent spell through. Bound spells will usually draw multiple dice in the beginning or one dice at the end of the magic phase and one dice can have a decent chance of stopping it. Better make the opponent throw two if you can.
2) Once bound items are done decide which spells will be cast and by who and cast them in order of least important to most important (it is assumed the less important spells are easier to get off than the important ones). This will have the effect of either drawing out dispel dice on the low
lvl spells or letting the low spells through. The last few spells are generally hard to cast and so might or might not go through. If you cast them up front and they fail the opponent knows he doesn’t have to save dice to stop them and so will dispel the small ones.
3) Cast with enough dice. It is imperative that even the less important spells go off so that they will draw out dispel dice. Don’t skimp and try for one more spell (if you have three 7+ spells and 6 dice cast with 3 dice on 2 of them not 2 dice on 3 of them)
Dispelling Magic:
4) A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Dispel the spells that have been cast unless they are of little to no danger and you know there is a big spell coming and you believe you have a more than fair chance of dispelling it. The last spells your opponent casts will usually have a lower probability of going off and a higher probability of irresistible force/far to high casting value to dispel than the ones that are cast at lower casting
lvls.
5) Save dispel scrolls for the big spell. Your opponent should tell you what spells he has at the beginning of the game. Pick the ones you know are dangerous and make sure to save dispel scrolls for them.
6) Always remember that you can dispel RIP spells, both at the end of your casting phase and at the end of your dispel phase.
Challenges
Challenges have many uses. Here are some.
1) protect your char. He cant take as much damage while in a challenge as less people can attack him. Useful vs units that could destroy your character, epically when you are receiving a charge. One recent example. My elf char with no armor was fighting dwarf slayers that had their entire front rank filled with giant slayers. The elf could strike out in front of him and likely die to the return attacks. I chose to issue a string of challenges killing each slayer unit champ in turn.
2) Prevent enemy chars from wiping out your front rank.
Some chars such as vampires can wipe out the front rank of a unit. If he is stuck in a challenge then he cant do this and the front rank is free to fight back against his unit and even out the damage. This allows you to gain some extra combat res against him and it allows you to preserve your rank bonus a little longer. This will not lower the combat res generated against you though, and only works for one turn. This is particularly good against chars that rely on the charge. There is a vampire build going around that lets the vampire kill an average of 7 models on the charge.
3) prevent enemy chars from attacking your char.
If your char is weak you might want to issue a challenge with your champion to prevent the enemy from attacking him. Usually only works for one turn as your champion is turned to fine paste. This is particularly good against suicide chars who charge in an attempt to assassinate a mage that may be in the unit. For this reason it is usually a good idea to have a champ in any unit that will be escorting a mage.
4) remove an enemy char from combat.
Some characters have a lot of defense and can take a sever beating and not be damaged. If you challenge an enemy character you might prevent any of the damage he does. Example: high elf W/2+ save, re-roll able, and 4+ ward save vs a chaos lord. Will take perhaps 1 wound where a normal unit would take 5. You prevented 4 combat res against you.
5) Scaring characters.
If someone refuses a challenge the challenging player chooses who runs from combat (unless the refuser is scaven). This means that if a unit has a combat character and a mage (easily killed) the character usually has no choice but to accept any incoming challenges. This can be an easy way to force someone to do what you want should the opportunity present itself.
6) Racking up
CR points
Many races posses a weapon that does multiple wounds. This has two uses, killing multiple wound monsters and racking up challenge
CR points. In a challenge it doesn’t matter how many wounds someone has, you can always do D3 wounds to him and get more bang for your buck. Out of a challenge this rarely happens and your attacks count for only one wound. For this reason many characters carry around such a weapon and issue challenges whenever possible. Unless you have a cunning trick or a good reason not to these challenges should be refused whenever they occur.
Some of this can be difficult to pull off when enemy champions are getting in the way of your plan. If you can hold a turn you can simply direct many attacks at the enemy champion and then the next turn put your plan into action.
For this reason it is usually vital to include a unit champion in any unit that will include a character. This prevents the enemy from pulling these tricks on you to many times.
One fun trick, say "I challenge your champion, or I challenge your general" usually they will accept with whoever you name. More of a psychology trick but quite fun. Won’t work against a seasoned general.
Did i miss anything?
O yes, the only dirty trick I know about challenges. Suppose you have a unit ranked 1 deep, say 5 knights with a char. Put the char on one end. If the enemy charges that side, say with hoards of grail knights, and you issue a challenge to their unit champ then only the guy fighting the challenge can swing as nobody can actually strike anyone else (all are in base with your char but he is in a challenge so cant be hit).
More about characters
I suppose that since I am going to give thoughts on challenges I should mention a bit more about characters.
Previously I stated characters are a way to increase the capabilities of units. They can make a basic unit into a superior unit and so on. This holds true and is the primary use of characters. They do open up a few unique options that simply beefing up your unit wouldn’t do for you some other way.
On the charge
On the charge characters offer virtually nothing above increasing the killing potential of a unit. The only real things they offer are special abilities such as the empire’s immune to psychology or the
BSB’s banner.
Take this example. Which is better? 5 dragon princes and an elf hero with lance + some magic armor or 11 dragon princes? They are close to the same cost. Will the char provide more than +2 (outnumber/rank) to combat resolution consistently? Which unit loses combat power faster? The only exceptions are characters that far outclass the unit they are in. Vampires in skeletons are a good example. However, the vampire is usually more than the entire skeleton unit anyways (sometimes as much as twice the cost). It is always a good idea that before you build a char to go in a unit, think on what he costs, what he will add to the unit, and what you could do to the unit with those points.
When being charged
When a unit with a char is being charged it opens up the amazing opportunity of having someone that will survive the charge. This could be through the char having good armor, being in the corner and therefore only attackable by one or two models, or issuing a challenge so only one model may strike him. Having this char alive will allow him to dish out a suitable amount of hurt and could allow your unit to survive. It also can start to whittle down or destroy small elite units that would otherwise always wipe out your front rank. High elf sword masters in particular hate characters that do this to them.
Remember that characters will not single handedly win a fight. If your unit would normally lose by 2 to the chargers the char would have to kill around 4-5 models to make the enemy sweat their break test. This is not an easy task for any char. He will, however take a unit that would lose by 3 or so and add enough to their combat res so they don’t sweat the break test, next turn you have a chance to beat the other guy down.
Protracted combat
Characters that are taking part in a protracted combat have the same advantages that a character in a charged unit does with the additional advantage of going before others. Usually characters have a higher initiative so they will swing before enemy troops. This means more enemy troops die, less enemy troops swing, and more of your troops will live making for a much higher combat resolution on your part.
This is the point that a char can take a losing unit and make it a winner. The character’s kills + the models that survived because of him can tip the balance enough to cause would be destroyers to turn and flee.
Other uses of chars
Dragons and other large flyers are generally only available to characters. The amount of options these beasts open up to a player are far reaching and can drastically change the tactics that the player can utilize.
The
BSB can make normal troops very hard to break and stubborn troops all but unbreakable. Be warned though, some
BSBs, especially ones with magical banners, can be very easy to kill in comparison to other heroes. They also tend to cause less damage than other heroes.
The leadership bubble provided by the army general can also accomplish this to some extent depending on the army in question and the general chosen.
Flying characters (not mounted on flying creatures) and chars with a very long charge range (such as jaguar charm scar vets) are particularly useful. These chars can hide in a unit and when the opponent isn’t ready for it charge out. Good targets include war machines, mages (even if hiding in enemy units), small knight units if you can beat them, and other support units.
Heroes mounted on flying models can provide the same strategy but are somewhat more venerable. This means they must usually stay on the flanks to avoid getting pincushion by the enemy shooting units. Unlike flying chars sitting in a unit the mounted models usually have a better view of the battlefield and are very good at supporting a charge. This lets them add a couple points of combat resolution (2 or so kills) to a fight and try to tip it in favor of a win.
Terrain to support your strategy
There are really only a few types of terrain.
Hills, forests, difficult terrain that blocks sight, difficult terrain that doesn’t block sight, and walls.
Definitions
Hills block line of sight. They also allow anyone on top to shoot in two ranks and to see over the heads of anyone not on a hill. They are not difficult ground.
Forests. Forests block line of sight, provide soft cover, and flyers are not allowed to fly into a forest.
Other difficult terrain that blocks
LOS. This is much the same as forests except they don’t disallow flight.
Difficult terrain that doesn’t block
LOS. This is exactly what it seems. It is difficult to walk through. Sometimes it provides soft cover but this isn’t required.
Walls. Walls are a defensive obstacle. Many groups play that they block
LOS if you are not against the wall but this can vary from location to location. Any unit charging into a wall loses any charge bonuses.
Uses
Hills are the most obvious. Anything on a hill can see over models. This makes a great place to put any shooting unit.
They also block sight from hills making a hill that is halfway up the table a good place to move your units to as they can’t be shot and can easily advance over the hill to fight in subsequent turns. With the current rules this is only allowed to happen on the flanks of the fight.
In the above picture (table edge on right side of picture, center somewhere to the left) the superior unit is attempting to maneuver to the flank of the red hammer unit. The hill protects the superior unit from any fire it might draw from the red enemies main battle line. This allows the blue player to advance without actually being threatened by the hammer unit until the controlling player allows. It can also pin the hammer unit if the flank has no proper protection as the hammer unit will be hesitant to advance past the blue unit and hesitant to face the blue unit as the rest of blue’s army will then be on the red hammer’s flank..
This works with all
LOS blocking terrain (such as forests) but is best with hills as you can turn into the enemy at any point, not just when you pass the terrain feature.
Difficult terrain is obviously difficult. In war hammer it is very time-consuming to move through terrain. So much so that if a unit doesn’t move through without penalty you can assume it wont make it through in any useful amount of time. This means you can safely use difficult terrain to guard your flanks. Whether this is the flank of a shooting army, a single unit, or a strong center push is up to you.
The picture above shows an army that has advanced to occupy the position between two forests. Because the forest on the right flank is farther up field the army has opted for a stronger right flank. This, combined with the two fast units guarding the passes around the forests creates a wide front that cannot be flanked. This strategy works well vs hoard armies that rely on flanking to win. It isn’t so good vs armies such as bretonians that prefer straight up fights.
This strategy can also be used to secure a flank from being pushed (need terrain in a good location) or can be used with only one terrain piece to guard just that flank from crumpling.
Difficult terrain is also a good place to put shooting units as it means long charges will not reach them. This can give you another turn of shooting. Forests, like difficult terrain are good places to put shooting units. They are particularly good against flyers such as eagles and dragons as the flyer must land outside and advance on foot. Make sure to check your lanes of fire when deploying. You do not want your battle line to render your war machines useless.
With the new rules walls are pretty much only useful for basic units defending from a superior unit’s charge or shooting units using them for cover from enemy shooting units. Shooting units (with the exception of dwarfs) are still chumps in combat when defending a wall.
Difficult terrain that doesn’t block
los is of particular use to flyers or other models that ignore the difficult terrain. These models can enter the terrain and charge out while most models cannot charge in to get them (long distance over difficult terrain) and it is harder to shoot them (usually hard cover). A classic example is to move a dragon or other large flyer into this terrain (its not a forest so flying into it is valid). The next turn you will have your pick of charge targets and will be relatively protected from damage while you choose.
Large flyers can also make use of
LOS blocking terrain by landing in such a way that the terrain is between the flyer and most war machines while the flyer is able to look down the flank of the opponent’s army. If terrain is in the right location for this then by turn two the flyer can be halfway up the table and threatening the entire enemy advance.
In the above example the monster (circle, facing left) is protected from the cannons and its presence will keep the red superior units from advancing. The blue units are there to provide ranks and numbers when the monster charges or to bait charges. In subsequent turns the monster + one unit can charge and kill one of the superior units. It is suggested this be done late in the game to deprive the red shooting units their chance to shoot the monster.
It is also possible to remove units from the game using terrain. Units with hatred or frenzy are required to overrun and most units will want to peruse in order to capture banners. This can be exploited by placing your units in such a way that if you break the pursuer will be forced to peruse into difficult terrain. This will require the enemy unit to take a long time walking out of terrain. This is relatively simple to do provided terrain is in a good spot. Be warned though, the enemy unit must stop its pursuit in the terrain for this to work, good spacing is critical.
