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I am currently in a Warhammer campaign in which I have several armies of fixed composition. I had my first battle against and Orcs and Goblins army and got a nasty surprised when a charged a unit of spearman and three goblin fanatics were sent toward my unit as a reaction to my charge. The all got to move 2d6 inches straight towards my charging unit when I got within 8 inches of the target. Those that rolled high enough went right through my unit a inflicted d6 str 6 wounds. The one that stopped in front of my unit got killed as it charged through it, but caused 2d6 str 6 wounds. The collective damage these guys inflicted was insane.

Fortunately, said unit was a 50 man block of halberdiers and could soak that kind of damage. Unfortunately, a different army I have in the campaign is cavalry based, and I can't change the army composition. It has also engaged in a different Orcs and Goblins army, and I assume it will also have Goblin fanatics. If any of my cavalry units gets hit with 3 of these goblin fanatics, it will be decimated before evening completing its charge. These units are concealed and can be launched in response to my attack, so there is no clear way to avoid them. Any ideas on how I can prevent my cavalry from being annihilated by these things?

Thanks for the help.

Anything that can cause a panic test on the Gobbos is worth trying.

I haven't read the Empire book but if you can get an item or spell to make a character ethereal that was always a favourite way of mine to draw them out.

Cheap fast cavalry are also a good solution, as you can use them to spawn the fanatics, and if they survive then you run them into the fanatics. Whilst that unit will almost certainly die it is better than one of your better units. Plus any fanatics spawned will help congest the enemies movement.

I am not that familiar with the fanatics. Are you saying that my opponent is forced to spawn goblin fanatics if I get to close? What are the triggering conditions, knowing those would be helpful. Sadly all I have in the army is the commander, a squad of inner circle nights and a squad of outriders because the armies start off small in this campaign and then grow. Nothing really sacrificial but if I have to I could use the outriders to trigger the fanatics if it means getting my knights into close combat unharmed. But I need to know how the things work to try to get my inner circle knights past them.

When the unit is within 8" of the fanatics they will come out no matter what. The O'n'G player cannot say "nah I rather save them" and not send them out, that would be cheating.

Phanixis wrote:I am not that familiar with the fanatics. Are you saying that my opponent is forced to spawn goblin fanatics if I get to close? What are the triggering conditions, knowing those would be helpful. Sadly all I have in the army is the commander, a squad of inner circle nights and a squad of outriders because the armies start off small in this campaign and then grow. Nothing really sacrificial but if I have to I could use the outriders to trigger the fanatics if it means getting my knights into close combat unharmed. But I need to know how the things work to try to get my inner circle knights past them.

Murdering Nights is pretty much what fanatics are for.

With that said, don't sweat it too much. They, like almost everything night goblin, are hopelessly random. Just nail the concealing units with panic causing goodness and they won't get a chance, as fanatics can't get released from a fleeing unit. Or just bait them out and withdraw to a safe distance, and laugh as they ruin the goblin army.

If you can't change what you can bring, post what you are bringing and we'll help you with a solution.
Minimum sized detachements work wonders, but I doubt that's in your list already.

-Matt

Another good thing to keep in mind is that Fanatics swing both-ways: If an Orc & Goblin player releases Fanatics during a charge, and the Fanatics remain in front of their unit, they have to complete the charge through their own Fanatics (suffering 2D6 hits per Fanatic in the process). Add in that there's about a 10% chance each turn that any one OnG unit MUST declare a charge if there's an enemy unit within 16"...

But they are d6 str 5 armor piercing hits. Manglers are str 6. If the right roll is made on the animosity chart then this can be bad for us. It makes me happy to see this kinda post cause most people don't see NG as a threat. My buddy that plays WoC has a whole different outlook on them after I destroyed his army. Also keep in mind that shooty units can cause NG serious problems. Plus NG armies are good at causing more damage to itself then the enemy and I just keep laughing when this happens. My NG are my fun army, like my skaven, I don't get upset when the dice go wrong, it is humorous.

Phanixis wrote:I am not that familiar with the fanatics. Are you saying that my opponent is forced to spawn goblin fanatics if I get to close? What are the triggering conditions, knowing those would be helpful. Sadly all I have in the army is the commander, a squad of inner circle nights and a squad of outriders because the armies start off small in this campaign and then grow. Nothing really sacrificial but if I have to I could use the outriders to trigger the fanatics if it means getting my knights into close combat unharmed. But I need to know how the things work to try to get my inner circle knights past them.

The triggering condition is that an enemy got within 8'' of the unit. As Muppas said (hey man!) they MUST ALL be deployed. However, they don't have to be deployed towards the unit that triggered this reaction. They can be deployed towards any direction, be it forward, flank or back, straight or diagonally. So don't be surprised if you send your outriders towards the Night Goblins' flank and your opponent sends his fanatics out the front door, he can easily do that. If you somehow manage to make the unit flee, any Fanatics not yet released are lost.

Thanks for the advice.

He is up to six of these bloody things now. Problem is, he won't charge me until they are released. He will just move towards me until he is in range and release them. Some of them will hit my units, doing major damage, others who come up short just block my charge. They are seriously destructive and seem to pose a minimal risk to him.

I used to run Pistoliers for drawing fanatics. Plus back in the previous empire book pistoliers were awesome. Still haven't picked up the new empire book...

Note he can only have a maximum of 3 per unit.

Actually, Fanatics is what makes the Night Goblins list viable. Most people take along a war machine of some kind to try and blow them up before they get into range.

It can help, the war machine, but the way I play my NG I have 21 fanatics and they all pretty much make the table. It is after they are into random movement when all sorts of hilarity ensues. Since they become single units at that point, using a whole unit to shoot 1 fanatic becomes over kill. It took me awhile, in my defense I know it is a bit cheesy, to figure out how to play NG but it was because my main opponents are WoC and we all know how broken that book is. So if you take the strong points with the weak points it all works out.

AzureDeath wrote:It can help, the war machine, but the way I play my NG my main opponents are WoC and we all know how broken that book is.

Lol this literally made my night. Funniest post all day. Thank you for this. I think you may have convinced me not to sell my warriors even though they are so boring and only have one good list. And even that list is middle of the pack!

You are so welcome.