The castle The Oblique line The Wedge Encirclement Mongolian harassment The trap

Here I'll try to describe some of the tactics I know of that can be used on the field of battle. They are grand tactics and doesn't try to tell you exactly what unit to use and which items to equip them with since the variants possible is almost infinite.

The castle has a very simple idea behind it, namely defense. This tactic is built upon the use of warmachines in a keep guarded by a wall of infantryunits. The keep is ideally on top of a hill so that the warmachines get a clear line of sight over the most of the battlefield. The wall will enegage the enemy hindering them from reaching the keep and the keep will bombard the enemy units all the way. This tactic means that you will sit still and wait for the enemy to plod over the field to get to you while you blast him to pieces with concentrated bombardments. The longer time the enemy takes to get to you the more time you have to hurt him so that when he arrives to the wall he will be defeated by the infantryblocks there. To increase the efficiency of this tactic a moat is often used. The purpose of the moat is to move out and move within 8 inches of the enemy and thus negating him to make marchmoves. This slows him down and the moat can also charge units to slow them down further or even destroying them. It also gives you the opportunity to strike back and not just sit there and wait. As for the placement of the castle my advice is to place it on a hill and anchor the flanks with impassable terrain or with troops with great stayingpower or fightingprowess alternatively a huge monster or mean warmachine. This keeps the enemy from outflanking you and destroying your castle.

For the choice of troops the keep should consist of the most devious warmachines you can muster preferrably with a descent range. The wall should be built from large blocks of infantry with a high stayingpower which can be boosted further with the use of proper magical items such as The crown of command, Sword of fortitude, Talisman of Obsidian etc. The moat is ideally built from units of cavalry with high movement. Light cavalry or missilecavalry is ideally suited to the mission of delaying the enemy while heavy cavalry is better suited for breaking the enemy and/or counterattacking. One variation or complement is to use flying creatures which can both serve as delayers or to create havoc among the enemys midst. Using flying creatures is also a defence against one of the castles weaknesses, the vulnerability against flyers. Your efforts to protect your warmachines is worthless if the enemy just after flying high rips them to pieces. Other tactics against flyers that works well is to place a unit nearby the warmachines with the Scarecrow banner or the Talisman of Ravensdark and charge or scare the flyers. Even without any items a large unit is threatening to flyers and can dissuade them from attacking. The sky arrow of Naloer can also be used to great effect in the hands of a suitable character.

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The Oblique line is based on the principle of regional superiority. The idea is to attack with your strongest units on the flank where your enemy has his weakest units. In the same time you should try negating your enemy of making contact with your own weak units. This way you'll break his weak troops and later on gang up on his stronger ones and gain the superiority you want. This tactic also builds on the assumption that your opponent will place his strongest units in the middle ie the wedge formation, see later entry. If he doesn't you may be in trouble but you should anyway be able to gang up on his flanks and outmatch them by numbers and by charging them in the side or rear. The Oblique line will if executed perfectly roll up the enemys flank and destroy his units one at the time. At the same time you refuse your own flank by not advancing and ideally peppering him with missilefire. Speed is of essence since you'll need to be faster than your opponent so that he doesn't bring up enforcements on your flank or has the time to outflank you. If he outflanks you it will be a race and that's a kind of scissormaneuver that can spell doom for you as much as for your opponent and luck will have a great impact on the outcome.

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The wedge is probably the most common formation on the battlefield but most people don't even know they are using it. The setup for the wedge is to place your most powerful unit(s) in the center of the battlefield and flank it with supporting units. This way they'll be in the center of the battle and probably see most of the action. This is not the whole story though because with a bit of consideration it can serve you well and divide and destroy your enemy. The main plan is to punch trough the centre of the opposing army and divide it in two parts which are separated from each other. If your opponent has placed his toughest unit in the middle and you concentrate all your centerunits to that one instead of attacking along the entire line you'll have crippled him severly by taking it out. When his toughest unit goes down you have divided his army in two and can charge his other units in the flanks. Be careful not to get charged in the back if you concentrate on just one half of his army. The element of panic in the heart of your opponent is of great importance since this may cause him to make fatal errors which you can exploit. If you manage to punch through his center you can either continue by attacking at both sides as shown in the picture or you can attack at only one of the sides preferrably the weakest. Attacking one side works fine if your opponent mainly fields slow units which will have a hard time catching up with your exploitation of your breaktrough. So against Dwarves for instance it's often a good idea to mop up one flank at the time since they're generally to slow to stop you. It's often hard to strike through a determined Dwarf line of defence but if you succeed you'll have a field day.

The strength of this tactic is that you don't need very many units if you choose your points of attack carefully with the right trooops and it's potentially a real battlewinner. The downside is that if you get stuck it's you're very vulnerable to counterattacks. Special care is to be taken if your opponent uses the Oblique line or The Cannae tactic and is able to execute it before you or if he planned on you using the wedge. The units which are most suitable to this tactic is with the baddest units you can find in the middle who should be able to break the enemy in one turn. On the flanks troops which will deter from flanking your centre unit or augment it's attack is preferable. Heavy cavalry in the middle and light or missilecavalry on the flanks is a very good setup. This is a fast formation with a strong punch and quick response time to changes in the situation. If you can afford it go with more than one centreunit and/or further troops on the flanks, optimally troops which will stop your opponents flanks from charging your centre. Artillery and/or bowmen in the furthest ends work wonderfully in this role. To augment your tactic use magical items which makes your centre unit even harder or weakens alternatively slows down your enemy. The battlebanner,warbanner Dreadbanner etc all enables you to break the enemy much faster and the Orb of Thunder, pipes of Doom etc can stop or hinder your opponets counterattack.

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The encirclement or pincher manuever is a classic battlefield tactic that aims to to strike the opponent in the flanks while holding fast in the centre. Correctly executed with the right troops this tactic is devastating since it leaves the enemy no routes of escape and he'll probably be annihalated if he can't break out of the pinchers. The key to the encirclement is to fool your opponent to attack your centre. If he uses the Wedge maneuver he'll be in trouble if you can manage to keep him occupied in the centre. When your opponent clashes with your centre formations you move the flanks (the pinchers) to engage his forces on both sides. To lure him in, place something tasty but not too dangerous in the middle and keep the centre a bit closer to him than the flanks so that he thinks that you are using the Wedge. Alternatively place the units so that he only can get to the centre since the flanks are out of reach. Second to getting your opponent to hit you in the right place is the speed of the pinchers. If they are too slow your centre may crumble and you'll be in trouble for sure. So a high movement goes a long way in executing the encirclement but isn't strictly necessary if you place the flanks close to the centre. Threats to this maneuver are the regular ones that affects movement and general troublemakers ie magic, warmachines and flying monsters. Look out for fasat cavalry that stops you from marchmoving and from wellguarded flanks. Enhance your flanking troops by adding banners that increase speed and hittingpower, banner of might, war banner, Jaguar banner etc, and survivability for the centre, Banner of defiance, Banner of Shielding, War banner etc. The Oblique line tactic can be quite troublesome when using the Ecirclement since he'll probably be stronger on the flank he chooses so look out for a strong and hardhitting flank with a second refused flank.

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Mongolian harassment is a tactic that can be hard to execute but very rewarding when you succeed and annoying to your opponent. The idea is to slow your enemy down while you rain arrows and charges him in the back and on the flanks. The goal is to stay away from your opponents main fighting blocks and to constantly make his troops whittle away. The extreme varaint is having just fast cavalry with bows and maybe spears. Some armies may even employ flyers like this like for instance the Wood Elves. This way you will be very hard to catch while you can maneuver to your enemys flanks and deliver a charge at the right moment and against a unit that you can break easily. Since such a army would be very small for it's points and in practicality vey hard to succeed with due to that most gaimg table isn't big enough a more conservative approach often works better. That kind of army and it's deployment is what is shown on the illustration above. In the middle anchoring your army you have a big blcok of something tough and resilent who can dish out some damage if charged. Slightly behind this you could place either large blocks of missile troops andperhaps some smaller units who can jump into the fray and help the anchor out and at the same time be protected from harm by its presence. Behind this, optimally on a hill, you can place any warmachines you have included in your army. This way they'll be protected and can fire away without danger. On the extreme flanks you place something fast and maneuverable, ideally with bows too, to harass the enemy and slow him down. The flanks can also join combat by charging weaker targets in the rear and flanks, especially if the anchor gets engaged in combat. If you have infiltrators they will help immensly by being placed in the way of the enemys advance and slow down by being within 8 inches and ultimately force your opponent to deal with them. So fire away with your warmachines, wizards and missiletroops while slowing him down by being within 8 inches. The biggest threat to this tactic is fast and maneuverable units fielded by the opponent who can capture and destroy or tie down your flanks and leave his main units free to march against your rather weak centre. Especially flyers should be dealt with by bringing Bolt throwers and/or magical items like the Orb of Thunder, Skyarrow of Naloer, Hail of Doom arrow, Talisman of Ravensdark, Scarecrow Banner and some flyers of your own. Troops with very high resilence against missilifire can also be troublesome but warmachines and magic should sort them out nicely. Opposing warmachines and magic can also wipe out your flanks so bring antimagical items, wizards of your own, infiltrators and flyers to take out these threats.

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The Trap or the Diamond, called so because of the shape of the setup, is a variant of the encirclement and has the same aim. The goal is to be able to attack your enemys main formation(s) from the flanks to gain a favorable combat resolution and to pin him in place. The setup is very similar to the encirclement but here you rely completely on a bait in the centre. First place a juicy target in the centre like in the illustration where the warmachines are bait. Suitable baits are forinstance the mentioned warmachines, Wizards, your general in a weak unit or even alone, a objective like a battlestandar that must be captured, a pricey but weak unit etc. To make it less obvious and to protect your bait from immediate harm place a small unit that appears weak but may include items like the Sword of Fortitude, Crown of Command, Banner of Defiance, Valorous banner etc to make sure it stays in position whatever the casualties. Try to maintain a balance between making it too big and dangerous and too weak so that it gets wiped out by the first volley of arrows or are scared away very easily. Skirmishers work very well in this role. They'll get wiped out for sure by the charge but that is secondary to their ability to avoid getting killed by missilefire. Just remember to place them so far away from the bait so that the enemys pursuit doesn't bring him into contact with your bait. +12 inches is about right since you will be safe from infantry and likely to avoid cavalry but if possible keep the distance longer if you know your facing cavalry in the centre. Against enemy units that are frenzied it's even easier to lure you opponent in since they have to charge your bait anyway so Savage Orc Boar Boys, Chaos Knights with the Banner of Rage and Witch Elves are easy prey for the trap. Slightly behind this and flanking it you place your rock hard units. Speed is of less importnce than strength since you wait for your opponents to come to you. To anchor your setup place something that deters from flanking your rock hard units like Hellblaster Volleyguns, Organ Guns, Chariots that can countercharge, Night Goblins with possible fanatics, Skirmishers, Swarms, terrain, large monsters or anything that can bog you down or is outright dangerous to get near. When your enemy charges your bait you spring the trap and wheel to charge him in the flanks. If you succeed wth this you will most likely cripple his army severly. Be careful with wise opponents who ignores your trap and goes for the flanks or probes the trap with a expendable unit to take away your screen to get to the juicy bait. The main problem with the Trap is to lure your enemy into taking the bait. The best thing is if you can fool him into believing he has outsmarted you but this is rare and demands a very well balanced and finetuned trap and only works against a agressive player. More easily acheived is to present your setup in such a way that the flanks look like a bad point to attack while wiping out your center will win the game through taking out the juicy bait and to split your army into two. A interesting variant is to use Night Goblins with Fanatics as the rock units. If you let loose Fanatics from four units into your enemys sides he will recieve immense damage from the 16 Fanatics that are suddenly in his lap.

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Updated : 1997-10-06

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