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Home » Great Library at Hoeth » Book of Warfare » Tactics » PapaElf's 7th Edition Tactica - Part 4 - How to Outmaneuver the Enemy
| PapaElf's 7th Edition Tactica - Part 4 - How to Outmaneuver the Enemy |
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Tactics, Part 4 --- How to Outmaneuver the Enemy
Somebody wrote:
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| ”Never go into battle without a plan. Even a bad plan is better than no plan at All.” |
As we see from Part 1.1, maneuver is a key element leading to victory.
The High Elf army needs to achieve superiority in maneuver to reach
full effectiveness. But, just exactly, how is this accomplished?
Maneuver has a dual purpose:
1. To create uneven fights that benefits your army.
2. Prevent opposing units from creating such uneven fights in their favor.
Do NOT move your units about aimlessly. EVERY move you make on the battlefield should be targeted toward achieving one of these two goals.
Unfortunately, its not always clear how to do this, which is why one
need to formulate a maneuver plan from the very beginning of the
battle.
Deployment: Winning the
movement battle starts with army deployment. Good deployment can win
games, and bad deployment can lose them. The goals of deployment should
be:
1. Figure out as best you can what your opponent’s plan is.
2. try to hide your intentions for as long as possible
3. ensure that your units have good match ups across from them on the battlefield
How Your Opponent Reveals His Plan Through Deployment:Your
opponent will give you clues about what he plans to do through his army
deployment. If he begins by putting all of his missile troops on one
side of the board, you can be fairly sure he will attempt to use a
weighted flank with his melee units on the other side of the board.
Some clues are very obvious; if your opponent places his big Chosen
Chaos Knight unit in the center of his deployment zone, he is obviously
planning to use it in or near the center of the battlefield. Simply
because a clue is obvious doesn’t mean it’s not useful; you can begin
to place your units assigned to fight that unit (whether a Great Eagle
for redirection, stubborn White Lions to stick it, etc) with confidence
that they will easily be able to engage their target unit.
Other deployments by your opponent are less obvious, or simply
unhelpful; if your opponent places a fast cavalry unit near the edge of
one flank, does that mean he is planning a push on that flank or is he
just putting a fast unit in position to make a flank charge later in
the battle? You will have to figure that out through your knowledge of
your opponent’s army and an analysis of the units he has already placed
on the board.
The battlefield terrain can also give you clues where your opponent
will deploy. If the left side of the board is heavily wooded, you can
bet your opponent will favor the right side of the board. If there are
numerous patches of difficult ground in one area, you know that your
opponent will probably not be placing his chariots there. Often terrain
placement will create only one or two places on the battlefield where
your opponent can conduct a strong intersupported cavalry or infantry
push. If you know that’s where your opponent will have to deploy his
heavy units, that knowledge should allow you to deploy your units more
effectively.
Hiding Your Plans During Deployment:
Obviously, if your opponent’s deployment reveals important aspects of
his battle plan, your deployment can reveal important aspects of your
plan. If you place your archers in a certain area, your opponent knows
that you will want to keep their firing arcs free, and therefore you
will probably not be sending many melee troops through the archers’
threat area. If you place a small elite infantry, its relatively slow
movement means your opponent knows where on the battlefield he expects
to find the unit, and allows him to react to the placement by putting
his kill units in a position where they can easily make contact.
To avoid this, one should try to place your cheapest support units
first. Ellyrian Reavers are excellent “deployment fodder”, as they move
very quickly and can easily re-deploy to other parts of the table.
Great Eagles are also good early placement, as their deployment rarely
gives anything away about your intentions on the battlefield. Do not
get too carried away with the subterfuge though; you still want your
units where they will be most effective. It’s normally not worth it to
place your units in a non-optimal position just to confuse your
opponent.
One should also look to see if there are any “obvious” terrain
influenced placements. If there is a well placed hill that both you and
your opponent know would be a firebase for your archers, one won’t be
giving much away by going ahead and deploying the archers.
Matching Up with Your Opponent:
One of the most important parts of deployment is to ensure that your
units are not placed in a position where they are vulnerable on turn
one. For example, if you are playing against Dark Elves you want to
make sure that all of your units are at least five inches back into
your deployment zone so that you don’t have to suffer any infantry
based repeater crossbow fire. If you are fielding chariots against
Empire or Dwarfs you would want to hold back until the enemy has placed
his war machines (cannons).
Try to obtain favorable match ups while avoiding the detrimental ones.
If you have a White Lion unit that you plan to use as a stick unit
against the enemy’s nastiest shock melee unit, it helps if the enemy
unit is not on the opposite edge of the table. If you intend to use
Reavers to hunt war machines, one either wants to place them fairly
centrally, or directly opposite of the opponent’s best position (the
hill in his zone) or directly across from the war machine, if already
placed.
Same Old Same Old:Many generals
have become comfortable with a certain style of fighting, and you can
use this to your advantage. Some generals will head straight across the
battlefield towards your archer line, because that is what they always
do. Other generals will march their melee units towards the unit that
they consider the biggest threat. If you know the habits of the
opposing general, or can make some shrewd guess about what those habits
might be, you can exploit them for your benefit. But how can one guess
what an opponent is apt to do if one has never played the opponent
before.
In many ways the composition of an opposing army can go a long way
toward helping us understand opposing generals. The more points your
opponent puts into a “main” unit, the fewer support units he has. One
unit cannot fight an entire army by its self; many times a melee unit
only has time to engage one of our units. By keeping the unit costs of
our units relatively low we can afford to misdirect the big unit (while
beating up on the enemy’s support units) without crippling our army.
If you see an opponent who has invested in such a unit, you know that
he will want to direct that unit at what he sees as the largest point
opportunity on the battlefield. If you can create an appropriately
tempting opportunity OR
the illusion thereof, you can create your plan of maneuver and attack
around the near certainty that he will move the big unit towards that
opportunity.
Providing a target free Battlefield:
On the other hand, you can try to confuse your opponent by having no
such tempting opportunities on the table at all. Many generals are used
to fighting armies that have one or two “main” units, normally “Shock”
or “Attrition” melee elite. Their normal battle strategy is tailored
around destroying those “main” enemy units. When fighting a High Elf
army, many generals become, if not confused, then somewhat unfocussed
in their maneuvering, because they don’t have a firm idea of what do
when presented with an army without large units.
Splitting the Army: Armies that
do have a large “main” unit of the type are vulnerable to the “split
army” strategy. This ploy essentially involves the division of your
melee units into two fairly even forces, deployed on either flank of
your missile base, which will control the middle.
The enemy’s “main” unit will have to commit itself to one flank or the
other. If you present the indecisive general with a target unit (large
spear block, for example), he can be lured into pursuing that unit on
one side of the board, which may open opportunities for you in other
areas of the battlefield and/or allow you to set up his melee units for
flank or rear charges. The target unit you present must be seen either
as a threat or as a large source of victory points for the opponent if
this strategy is to work effectively.
Once the enemy’s main unit has committed itself to one side of the
battlefield, use your march interdictors to keep that enemy unit from
marching. Re-deploy a portion of your forces to the other side of the
battlefield on the “contact” flank, where you will hopefully have an
advantage.
The “Split Army “ ploy can be countered by an enemy who is able to
concentrate all of his melee forces onto one flank, using an “oblique
line” strategy to deny you engagement on your planned “contact flank”.
While this kind of setup will deny the major benefits of the split army
tactic, it should also open up maneuver opportunities of its own. The
split army is also weak against a “Horde” army, since the army can
stretch across the entire battlefield. Against a horde army, you will
normally want to try a weighted flank attack of your own.
Fighting the weighted Flank: So
your opponent has placed all of his melee units in close support of
each other on a weighted flank, has put his missile troops in the
center, and is basically ignoring the other flank.
Many of us remember the excellent battle scene in the movie
“Gladiator”, in which General Maximus leads a flank charge of Roman
cavalry. As they’re riding through the forest Maximus continually yells
at his troops to “stay on line”. Maximus knows that a flank assault is
much more effective when all the flankers get to the battle at the same
time.
Well, we want to encourage our opponents to ignore General Maximus and
get their units to our waiting Sword masters, Spear Elves, etc.
piecemeal, so we can defeat them in detail. Many times our opponent
will help us out by taking melee units of differing speeds, i.e.,
cavalry and infantry. An undisciplined opponent will bring his cavalry
and infantry across the board at full speed. Fortunately for us, these
speeds are very different, and the cavalry will arrive much before the
infantry. This means we can use the full force of our army to fight a
portion of the enemy's army, which, as discussed above, is the whole
purpose of maneuver in the first place.
If you’re playing against an army with melee elements of similar speed,
you’ll have to do some of the work yourself. For example, say, there
are three enemy melee units. If you move your march interdictors to
prevent two of those units from marching, you give your opponent the
opportunity to be undisciplined and march the un-interdicted unit. This
causes the opponent to arrive at the battleline piecemeal, giving you a
better chance to destroy the unit.
Of course, your opponent may be disciplined. If he is, at least you get
that much more time to shoot the units before they make it to the
battleline.
Destroying Elite Shock Melee Troops:
Every so often you’re going to be facing some nasty enemy units, such
as Chaos Knights, who have Speed and Shock Melee value to spare. These
units are largely invulnerable to your missile fire, and if they get
first turn, they’ll already be halfway across the table, leaving you no
opportunity to interdict marches. At this point, you have four options:
1. You can avoid the enemy shock melee unit
2. You can redirect the enemy shock melee unit with a Great Eagle or Ellyrian Reavers
3. You can use a “stick” unit to pin the enemy shock melee
4. You can flee from the enemy shock melee, causing a failed charge and
bring the unit into the charge range of your melee units.
Avoidance:
If your army is fast and flexible enough, you may be able to completely
avoid engagement with your enemy’s main shock units on anything but
your terms. Even a slower army can avoid nasty enemy units through
clever deployment, and use of terrain. Setting your units up behind
centrally placed woods creates an opportunity for avoidance. Your
opponent will have to send his shock melee one way or the other around
the woods; your main units go the other way around, thereby completely
avoiding his main unit. If your opponent has multiple shock melee
troops, at the very lease you have split them up and prevented them
from intersupporting each other.
Redirection: Redirection was
already discussed in Part 1, but the following is a brief recap on how
to do it. Start with a cheap unit that the enemy will have to align to,
should the enemy charge the unit. Skirmishers and unit flyers are not
good, because they form up on the chargers. Great Eagles are ideal,
Reavers are fast enough to get the job done if desperate.
Move your unit an inch away from the unit you wish to redirect,
positioned so that the enemy unit will not be able to move without
hitting your unit. Place your unit at an angle, so that if the enemy
unit charges your unit, the wheel to align will face it away from
anywhere important. This can sometimes tricky and it is vitally
important not to: a) accidentally give your opponent a flank charge on
your unit; or b) snipe at the enemy unit with missile fire or magic if
your opponent could remove casualties in such a way that your
“redirect” unit is no longer blocking the target units forward move.
A caution: be careful about using this tactic against large terror
causing units. Your “redirect” unit will have to take a terror test; if
your unit fails and the enemy unit has higher unit strength than the
“redirect” unit, your unit must flee, leaving the enemy unit to declare
a charge on a unit that you were trying to protect.
Stick and Flank: First, this
tactic requires a “stick” unit. A “stick” unit can successfully receive
the charge from an enemy shock melee unit and hold. In the new High
Elf” army you could use a White Lion unit (stubborn) or to a lesser
extent a large Spear Elf block (high static combat resolution) or a
large Phoenix Guard unit. In either case a nearby BSB or a unit
champion carrying the “Gem of Courage” is useful. After the “stick”
unit holds, you then “flank”, in your subsequent turn by charging the
pinned units flank or rear.
Here’s how to do it: You maneuver your stick unit to a position where
your enemy must either charge them or avoid them. Your designated flank
unit positions itself for a countercharge on your turn.
On your enemy’s turn, he charges the “stick” unit. The unit holds. In
your turn, you flank or rear charge with your flank unit. Now you’ve
eliminated the enemy rank bonus, gained the +1/+2 bonus for the flank
or rear attack, probably have +1 for outnumbering and, if a Spear block
is in the mix +1-+4 from ranks and standard. Add in any combat damage
and you win this combat, and probably win it BIG. Threat eliminated.
Flee: Clearly, the “Flee”
tactic involves fleeing, but this shouldn’t just be random flight from
threatening enemy units. We want intelligent flight, flight that sets
our enemies up for their eventual destruction.
The best way to flee is to tempt your opponent into failed charges
against Ellyrian Reavers or Great Eagles that bring his charging units
into range of your melee units. The Reaver unit should present
something of a threat (Bows). The Reaver unit moves toward the target
enemy unit threatening to get on its flank unless the enemy charges.
Melee units hold back, far enough away that they cannot be charged
themselves but close enough so that they will be able to charge the
enemy unit after a failed charge (and yes, this can be tricky with our
slower melee units such as our elite infantry).
The enemy unit will have to charge the Reavers (if they don’t want to
be charged themselves or expose a flank to the Reavers), and you will
flee. This causes a failed charge by the enemy unit. The enemy unit
will then move half their charge move towards the fleeing unit, putting
them in front (hopefully with an exposed flank) your remaining combat
troops. You charge on your next turn and clean them up. Piece of cake,
right?
March Interdiction: Well, it’s
not quite that easy if the enemy fields two or three nasty units
(Knights or other good combat units) supporting each other. We need to
outmaneuver and isolate our enemies in order to destroy them. We know
that march interdiction goes a long way towards providing the High
Elves with domination of the Maneuver phase by slowing down units that
are targets of our “Stick and Flank” or “Flee” tactics. Sometimes,
however, march interdiction is easier said than done. The High Elven
army has three different units which can perform march interdiction,
but each has drawbacks as well as advantages.
Great Eagles: Eagles are so
good it’s almost a crime. They are the best march interdictors, they
fly and have a small footprint, and can get pretty much anywhere they
want. They cost only 50 points, cheapest option in the army list and
have a unit strength of three. Their issue is that they are a rare
choice and taking one, pushes out a Bolt Thrower, the best damage
interdictor in the list. Unfortunately they are also the best
re-direction unit and the best mage/war machine hunt unit. At least
it’s an improvement over 6th Edition where they and the bolt throwers
essentially eliminated Phoenix Guard from High Elf armies.
Shadow Warriors: At 16 points
apiece, Shadow Warriors are the cheapest way to interdict marches. A
unit of five runs one 80 points. As skirmishers they have flexibility
in that they treat difficult terrain as normal with a 360 degree charge
and shooting arc. Since they are infiltrators, they can deploy outside
of your deployment zone as long as they are 10 inches from the enemy
and outside their “true” line of sight (no “hiding in the grass” on the
enemies flank). 7th edition rule now allow them to be march blocked
which has hurt their effectiveness. While Shadow Warriors can be
effective, the placement restrictions can be a serious problem,
sometime forcing one to deploy them in your own deployment zone. If you
were counting on them for march interdiction, this is a very bad thing.
Ellyrian Reavers: Reavers are
decent march Interdictors. They are fast, with a march move of 18
inches, so they can get to within 8 inches of enemy units (and start
interdicting) very quickly. No infiltration here, however; the Reavers
must cross the battlefield to perform their mission. This can be
difficult in the face of enemy shooters as with a 6+ armor save, they
die like flies. Even though they are fast cavalry they are unable to
march once they are within 8 inches of the enemy, and lose much
flexibility. However the fast cavalry rules, with free turns and free
reforms will keep the reavers out of the charge arc of an enemy unit.
Equip them with bows and harass the unit all the while threating a
flank or rear charge and you might tie up a superior unit the entire
game. Bottom line however, the reaver shuld probably not be one’s first
choice for march interdiction as they are more valuable as mage/war
machine hunters.
Terrain from a High Elf Perspective
Terrain can be a very important part of High Elven maneuver, and is one
of the primary ways by which we isolate enemy units. High Elf
characters (on foot), White Lions, Shadow Warriors, and a unit carrying
“Banner of Ellyrian” can move through the woods without penalty. These
abilities should not be overlooked as the High Elf general creates his
army list. High Elves can use Terrain as a screen, as a base, or as
quicksand for enemy units.
Terrain as a Screen: Proper
placement of terrain can force your enemy to split his forces. As we
know, one of the main purposes of maneuver is to isolate enemy units so
that we can overwhelm them. Terrain can provide an opportunity for the
High Elf general to concentrate his forces on one group of enemy units
while the other units are screened from the combat by their inability
to move through difficult terrain.
Terrain as a Base: Nothing
impairs enemy maneuver like a unit of White Lions lurking in the woods
at the center of the table. The enemy is normally powerless to go in
and root them out, or they risk becoming stuck in the quicksand that is
difficult terrain. On the other hand, they can't afford to let a unit
of strength 6, always strike first, White Lions have free reign to
flank charge them if they commit their units to other combats. The
terrain will also protect the High Elven unit from nasty artillery
and/or missile fire. A centrally placed wood in one’s deployment zone
can provide an excellent placement for a Repeater Bolt Thrower battery
Terrain as Quicksand: Few
things are better than getting an enemy stuck in difficult terrain,
because it is SO hard for an inflexible unit to remove itself from the
obstacle. Normally this occurs when an enemy unit charges one of your
units occupying the difficult terrain. For obvious reasons, this
strategy is most effective against frenzied units. Entangling an enemy
unit in this way can provide great opportunities for flank or rear
charging or, at the very least, take an opposing melee unit out of
action for a turn or two while your army beats up on other units
piecemeal.
EDIT: For the complete source material contained in this post, see the "General's Tent" at Machiara's web site, www.battleglade.com |
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