Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, combats and challenges with lots of dead enemies, these are a few of my favourite things! Hello again dudes, and or dudettes, as I am sure many of you are forwarding these emails onto loved ones. The best part of the game, the thing that makes or breaks a plan is what we are focusing on for today. That’s right, combat! Whilst I briefly talked about considering combat factors before charging into a combat during the discussion on movement, there is a lot more to it, which is what I want to ponder today.
Like many things in the game of Warhammer, combats can have a lot to do with luck. But just like poker, luck plays a part, but so does skill. Lets assume you have done everything correctly in your movement phase, ensuring your opponents have been forced into poor positions, and you have the opportunity to put forward a successful charge in your favour. What I want to do now is consider a few of the things that can affect the results – challenges, countercharges, order of combats and statistics.
Every player understands how challenges work, but there are tactical applications within this that are often not considered. One of the key points with this is placement of models within units. Ensuring that you position your character correctly within the unit is so essential to being successful. For example – flying characters charging units that are 5 wide. If your character is on either end, then you are certain that your opponent will position his model such that he avoids touching your character, and ergo avoids fighting him. However if your dude is in the middle of the unit, then your opponent cannot place his flying monster guy anywhere without attacking the character. So positioning is key. However, challenges can make a mockery of your position, and they can work in your favour, as well as against. If for example your knights with lord in the middle are unfortunate enough to be charged in the flank and in the front, and a challenge is declared, if you are lucky enough to have a model in the flanking unit declare the challenge, your lord can slide across and negate all the remaining attacks from the flanking unit. Often positioning a character on your flanks can protect units from being flank charged by lighter units that can hit pretty hard, such as fast cavalry (Dark Riders are a good example). So whilst placement is important, you need to be thinking ahead, because as we all know, you cannot move characters within a unit that charges, so these things need to be prepared the turn before. You have two types of challenges – defensive challenges, and offensive challenges. For a defensive challenge, you are attempting to negate the number of wounds/models killed by sacrificing one of your own characters, usually a champion, but mages and others can also be given up. Another form of defensive challenge is with a hard to kill character vs a powerful combat character. These challenges are most useful when you have a countercharge prepared, or if you are concentrating on removing a Hatred round before engaging with your best fighter (IE vs assassins). Offensive challenges are when you are very rude to your opponent before you attack him. Or when you have a powerful fighter, and you are looking to smash to a pulp a champion, or to negate the opponents best fighter from attacking your troops. Considering the ramifications before issuing challenges is always recommended. Especially working out how likely or unlikely you are to kill someone in a single round, or two, who strikes first in the second round and other things like KB and regen.
Countercharges and order of combats are interlinked. One of the greatest rules in 7th edition is the roll on combat. The tactical applications of this rule are limitless. I have attached a diagram of a situation where I spent about ten minutes considering the situation before making a decision, and it won me the game. Please view the diagram, and I will explain.
Here is the situation:
A- Druchi Anointed (WS8, S7, W2, I8, A5, KB, 4+ armour save, no armour save sword)
CK – Chaos Knights, includes a Mage with Daemonsword (WS9, S6, W2, I9, A6, 2+ save, 6+Ward) and a Exalted Champion with Rending Sword (WS7, S5, W2, I7, A4, D3wounds per hit)
DR – Dark Riders
XB – Crossbowmen
S – Spawn
It is my turn. Both Knights and Spawn have charged in this turn. The Anointed is position to charge my Knights in the Rear, with his 5 attacks very likely to kill my Knights, or either of my characters. So what did I do in this situation? Champagne Warhammer, that’s what. J
As I said, the order of combats is ultra important. If I fought the Dark Riders vs Knights combat first and then Overrun, as you would normally do, then when I fought the Crossbowmen vs Spawn combat I would be locked in place with the Knights, unable to pursue for a second time in a single turn. The Anointed would then charge me, kill one of my characters and be in good shape for beating the rest next turn. So instead, I fought the SPAWN combat first. Then I overran into the Spawn combat with my Knights, but as I had already fought it, it waited until next turn. The Anointed charged the rear, as expected. I challenged with my Mage, and because both the Anointed and the Knights were considered as charging, they strike in Initiative order. As you can see from the stats, I went first, hit four times, wounded twice and killed the Anointed before he got to strike. Absolutely priceless to see the expression on my opponents face as he realised his plan had just been turned on its head. J All because I considered the order of combats, and looked at the statistics before making a decision. I did similar things to Chris Cousens at Convic, allowing me to pin units in place and prevent counter charges. It can make such a massive difference to the way the game pans out. So the lesson here is to: consider the potential ramifications of the orders of combats. A more common example is LD or Battle Standard rerolls still being in place for other combats. Perhaps an Overrun could bring those LD and rerolls into a zone for another unit, so fighting it first is a better option. Finally, the best example of the roll on combat is setting up for a flank charge with a unit, fighting that combat first and overrunning into a combat where you are a marginal winner is sensational. Being able to perform these sorts of things in a game is a real testament to improvement as a player. And as before, and in a lot of my things that I say, its all about preparation. If you have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve, then you can plan out the best way to do it.
So a final word on statistics. Players who know me or have played against me will notice that sometimes I will grab out dice and start counting things out, speaking quietly to myself. Often I am doing this two turns before I get involved in a combat, or anywhere near another unit. I am considering the potential modifiers and likely wounds and overall combat score. This further reinforces my statement about planning. If you can say with certainty that, if the dice are average, you will win combat by six, then clearly you are a high chance of breaking an enemy unit. That’s how I play my game, by using basic statistics knowledge and averages. It works pretty good.
So, thus endeth the Lesson, number 5. We have a few lessons to go, and then we will be opening the floor for question time. Next up is Tournament Play, Overall Position and Conservation of Points. Then we will discuss Putting it all Together. Until next time, legends.
Cheers
Trent the Warhammer King
This article was published on Monday 12 January, 2009.
