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Just wondering as I ponder the purchase and assembly of movement trays.

Well, infantry will usually be 5 wide to maximize their poitns to rank bonus ratio, so your cav should be 6 wide to get max attacks vs. them.

So, yes, not doing the 6 wide thing is suboptimal. Get the last guy.

It mostly depends on whether you're counting on that block of Infantry to win through killing or static combat resolution. If you want the kills (swordsmasters or Chaos Chosen warriors for example) you want to be 6 or even 7 wide. If you're looking at weak troops who you want to keep rank bonus as cheaply as possible go with 5 wide.

Just do a little math and see if it's more points effective to have more ranks or larger frontage.

stronger units should have 6 wide to make the most of either great attacks or special rules (killing blow for example)

weaker units (empire troops mainly) work well by only taking 5 and making the most of combat res.

I field in ranks of 8 sometimes, but I play Night Goblins, so that's somewhat different.....

But if you're maxing out Combat Res, put 'em in 5's.

sometimes I run ogres 6 wide. Its fun, but usually not good. It is effective of denying a large swath of movement in front of them though. I do the same thing with fiends of slaanesh, a 20 inch corridor where you really don't want to go is a very nice tool to have.

I ran a night goblin unit of 54 -10 wide... but it had 3 fanatics, nets and skarsnik, and a unit with an extra fanatic each on either side....

Units that I would always run 6-7 wide:

High Elf Spears
Saurus spears
Heavy cav (I'd take 6 model units)

In almost every other situation I'd take units 5 wide

My Black Guard love being 7 Models wide.

Isn't there another High Elf unit or two that would fall in this category? Like Swordmasters? Maybe even White Lions?

RZ

If you were running small units then yes 6 wide would be valid, especially for the swordsmasters.

The spearmen would be 7 wide for 22 ASF attacks (with champ but no character)

I sometimes also field my units in 24, 4 ranks of 6.

Unorthodox, but you get more attacks that way...

I run my High elf spears either 6x4 or 7x3(+3) depending on my opponent at the time. The only units I give a 5 man front to are my seaguard (5x2) and archers when I can get a hill (10x1/5x2).

I run my white lions 6 wide but I think that was all I could afford. I have ran spearman mostly 5 and 6 wide. Swordmasters I run 7 wide. My horse run 3 wide but I play Bretonnias also.

I run my Chaos Warriors 5 wide, since no one else runs it wider my warriors bigger base size makes all my warriors able to attack so any wider would be a waste.

Chaos warriors can run 6 wide and still all attack. 4 wide to be equal to 5 wide with 20mm bases and 2 guys corner to corner.

As a tomb kings player, I generally field skeletons 8 wide, but that's just because they're expendable archers. what units are you working with? If you have spearmen, 5 wide is probably more advantageous, but with cavalry, unless you have Bretonnians, I'd advise going 6 wide.

I think the only spearmen that would ever even consider running 5 wide would be the ws2 spearmen. Just about everything else should really put some thought into running 6 or 7 wide.

I run my units based on the local metagame, at my last FGS i could run 7 wide and always come out on top, at my current FGS i would have to run 8 or 9 to do so, so i go back to 5 and run static CR to win.

How would dwarfs fit into this?

Generally not at all. The rank and file just don't dish it out. Going last means they're usually going HW+Shield to reduce casualties. With heroes causing most of the kills (if any) there's little incentive to get wide. I occasionally have heard of wider frontage with slayers, but that's about it.

RZ

So Dwarfs should stay at a 5 or 4-man front?

5. Running 4 would loose the rank bonus. I don't think there are any units that would benefit from using only 4 columns.

Yeah, I can only see going less than 5 in odd situations. Like hammerers with a Dwarf Lord can go 2 wide to make him do all the fighting, while still being stubborn, immune to fear and terror.

RZ

<quote>
5. Running 4 would loose the rank bonus. I don't think there are any units that would benefit from using only 4 columns
</quote>

Could do the ole Slayer Spear, a column only one wide, hit the enemy and be unbreakable. They get less attacks back, and can't go anywhere till they grind you down.

Vengis wrote: I don't think there are any units that would benefit from using only 4 columns.

Bret cavalry gain rank bonus 3-wide, *and* the outside models get to fight...

Good times...

Except I believe this comment was Vengis answering Ironhide's question regarding dwarfs...

RZ

huh....you know, at the risk of sounding incompetant, I'm not sure why but I've never even thought to take my units 6-wide....now I'm thinking...White Lions, BSB and Prince, 6 wide....or heck--same thing with Swordmasters....why am I only doing 5 wide? Maybe that's my problem!

Don't stop at 6 with some of those... If you're on a 20mm base, 7 wide will still get everyone fighting against other 20mm units that have only gone 5 wide.

RZ