Post by Deraj on Jan 17, 2009 3:58:03 GMT -5
Now I've been seeing too many people whose only tactics are "Stand and shoot" or march a massive block at your enemy and hope for the charge. This is a place for you to share your tactics, no matter how dumb they may seem, some people just have not grasped them, so throw out what you have. And @ Grunt, I know I haven't beem practicing this too much against you guys, but I will start doing it more.
Fleeing: Seriously, I have been dissapointed by players who will just stand at a combat they know they will lose, or even get confused when I will flee. I would put this game at around 70% fleeing, 20% placement, and 10% luck. If you get fleeing down, you will win far more. I generally use a rule if I start the combat -2 or the unit charging is much better than me I flee if I feel a 5 would get away. Even if the charging unit is closer I might flee if I feel I will lose by 4 or more or if it might put the opponent unit in a bad place.
This brings me to redirecting, or "Bait and switch." The best way to do this is to use an incredibly cheap or fast unit to get in a position where your opponent has no choice but to charge the unit or charge nothing (9 times out of 10 they will charge) then you flee, drawing them into a trap, or even pulling them behind your lines where they will be forced to spend a turn turning their units. It is especially useful with skirmishers nearby. Nearly every army has a unit made for this; be it light cavalry, harpies, or hounds. It is best to set up to flank the unit that does this, but sometimes there are strong units (Brettonian knights, blood knights, monsters, etc) that you just want out of the way, so you allow them to charge, then flee, getting them away from you while staying alive. This is also really easy to do to dwarves, and it is often a good idea so as to get a single unit to pull ahead, then flank charge it and overrun into gunline positions.
A way to do this that your opponent will nearly always fall for is a hero. Make sure they are not vulnerable to ranged attacks, and make sure they are fast. (When I was young I like studying reptiles, and snakes would often wiggle their tails to make it look like their head, then when their enemy got close they would bite...) This will give you someone with 360 vision and -1 to be shot. If you don't trust that method, put them in a unit and use them as bait. If it's a spellcaster, so much the better. You can cast on the turn you rally, and no one will hesitate to charge a caster.
Screening: this is the act of putting cheap little units directly ahead of other units you do not want shot. An opponent used this against me quite masterfully last week, running 5 hounds in front of 5 knights, keeping them between his knights and my glade guard until they got right to my lines. The best thing about it is that you could do something like run a beastherd with dragon ogres behind them, letting the beasts charge first, then charging with the dragon ogres for a hammerblow.
Make your opponent react: If you do not have ranged attacks or cannons, do not stand still. you never want your opponent's plans to go as they want, so instead of relying on luck, move around so you are not where they expect you to be.
Know your chances in battle: Before I begin any combat I like to know what the start of combat results are. So I normally calculate the results of any such charge. In this I consider size, ranks, standards, elevaion, and positioning. This gives me a quick calculated result which lets me know if the results will be favorable or not and I normally never like to begin a combat losing unless my unit as much better than the opponent. Thus this is a quick guide to what to do about entering combat.
Command: Another thing I recently got better at was the command of a unit. First off, you don't need musicians in undead, they won't be rallying. That's not what is really important here though, what is is shooting: a unit that has the primary purpose of shooting does not need a champion or a banner. Don't take them. Take a musician and that is all. Fast cavalry is another thing that does not need a banner, if you are using them to flee, you are throwing victory points at your oponent. Added to that would be your elites. Anything that you think will not run, do not give a musician. These may not be big point savers, but any little advantage helps, so do not waste your points.
Don't play dwarves: No, really, that's all I have to say about that. Of course on the other end of the spectrum [as I hide from Veq's hammer] Don't play demons. They are unfluffyand the cheesiest of the cheesey.
So come on, share your special tactics.
But honestly, about the dwarves: even great tactics don't take them far enough. Ogres and Skaven are both being redone soon, with the schedule looking like Skaven over the summer, beasts and tomb kings in the 3rd-4th quarters of this year and Ogres in the 1st of '10. Ogres may even be by the end of the year.
Fleeing: Seriously, I have been dissapointed by players who will just stand at a combat they know they will lose, or even get confused when I will flee. I would put this game at around 70% fleeing, 20% placement, and 10% luck. If you get fleeing down, you will win far more. I generally use a rule if I start the combat -2 or the unit charging is much better than me I flee if I feel a 5 would get away. Even if the charging unit is closer I might flee if I feel I will lose by 4 or more or if it might put the opponent unit in a bad place.
This brings me to redirecting, or "Bait and switch." The best way to do this is to use an incredibly cheap or fast unit to get in a position where your opponent has no choice but to charge the unit or charge nothing (9 times out of 10 they will charge) then you flee, drawing them into a trap, or even pulling them behind your lines where they will be forced to spend a turn turning their units. It is especially useful with skirmishers nearby. Nearly every army has a unit made for this; be it light cavalry, harpies, or hounds. It is best to set up to flank the unit that does this, but sometimes there are strong units (Brettonian knights, blood knights, monsters, etc) that you just want out of the way, so you allow them to charge, then flee, getting them away from you while staying alive. This is also really easy to do to dwarves, and it is often a good idea so as to get a single unit to pull ahead, then flank charge it and overrun into gunline positions.
A way to do this that your opponent will nearly always fall for is a hero. Make sure they are not vulnerable to ranged attacks, and make sure they are fast. (When I was young I like studying reptiles, and snakes would often wiggle their tails to make it look like their head, then when their enemy got close they would bite...) This will give you someone with 360 vision and -1 to be shot. If you don't trust that method, put them in a unit and use them as bait. If it's a spellcaster, so much the better. You can cast on the turn you rally, and no one will hesitate to charge a caster.
Screening: this is the act of putting cheap little units directly ahead of other units you do not want shot. An opponent used this against me quite masterfully last week, running 5 hounds in front of 5 knights, keeping them between his knights and my glade guard until they got right to my lines. The best thing about it is that you could do something like run a beastherd with dragon ogres behind them, letting the beasts charge first, then charging with the dragon ogres for a hammerblow.
Make your opponent react: If you do not have ranged attacks or cannons, do not stand still. you never want your opponent's plans to go as they want, so instead of relying on luck, move around so you are not where they expect you to be.
Know your chances in battle: Before I begin any combat I like to know what the start of combat results are. So I normally calculate the results of any such charge. In this I consider size, ranks, standards, elevaion, and positioning. This gives me a quick calculated result which lets me know if the results will be favorable or not and I normally never like to begin a combat losing unless my unit as much better than the opponent. Thus this is a quick guide to what to do about entering combat.
Command: Another thing I recently got better at was the command of a unit. First off, you don't need musicians in undead, they won't be rallying. That's not what is really important here though, what is is shooting: a unit that has the primary purpose of shooting does not need a champion or a banner. Don't take them. Take a musician and that is all. Fast cavalry is another thing that does not need a banner, if you are using them to flee, you are throwing victory points at your oponent. Added to that would be your elites. Anything that you think will not run, do not give a musician. These may not be big point savers, but any little advantage helps, so do not waste your points.
Don't play dwarves: No, really, that's all I have to say about that. Of course on the other end of the spectrum [as I hide from Veq's hammer] Don't play demons. They are unfluffy
So come on, share your special tactics.
But honestly, about the dwarves: even great tactics don't take them far enough. Ogres and Skaven are both being redone soon, with the schedule looking like Skaven over the summer, beasts and tomb kings in the 3rd-4th quarters of this year and Ogres in the 1st of '10. Ogres may even be by the end of the year.
)
