Post by heychadwick on Nov 10, 2010 20:33:50 GMT -5
So, I spent some time thinking about a strategy for a while that I think would work with 8th Ed. I started it while re-tooling the old Checkerboard Strategy. The thought kind of rumbled around my head for a few months. I started to really like it.
I posted on Da Warpath with this exact post, but I wanted to pass it on. I posted it on the Podhammer forums, but I didn't get a lot of attention. I still wanted to make sure that other people got the idea, so I thought I would re-post it here.
Now, I know it's all geared towards Orcs and Goblins, but I think it's pretty easy to change it towards many different army types. There were a few people on Podhammer who thought it would work well for Dwarfs, Lizardmen, and even Dark Elf Spearmen.
I posted on Da Warpath with this exact post, but I wanted to pass it on. I posted it on the Podhammer forums, but I didn't get a lot of attention. I still wanted to make sure that other people got the idea, so I thought I would re-post it here.
Now, I know it's all geared towards Orcs and Goblins, but I think it's pretty easy to change it towards many different army types. There were a few people on Podhammer who thought it would work well for Dwarfs, Lizardmen, and even Dark Elf Spearmen.
Many Medium Units (or MMU, kind of like MSU) is what I am calling it. You go with a bunch of decent sized units, but you swarm the enemy! I guess the size of the unit would depend on the points of the game. Against most units, you will still be Steadfast with 20 goblins, unless you are going against the enemy Anvil. Even if you aren’t Steadfast, if you have ranks, banner, and the main characters nearby (general and BSB), you will still have a good chance of staying. Also, I think numerous cheap characters for a few extra hits will also help. The idea is instead of one big unit of goblins to face off against his big unit of Core troopers, you give two medium sized units. He goes in to fight one. You hopefully stick around. Next turn, your other ranked unit hits ‘em in the flank! You get 2 ranks deep of fighting, so even with goblins, you get a lot of dice to throw. That’s always good. Also, you break his ranks! So, even if he is still Steadfast, you will probably be winning. Also, the second round you will get an extra +2 CR for charging his flank. If your second and fresher unit has more ranks (probably 4 still) than you might even have more than his and break Steadfast!
There’s another layer to this, as well. You get to wear the enemy down. Sure, they might kill your unit, but you have a lot of ‘em. It might take them a couple turns to kill you. You kill as many as you can in that time. Eventually, even the nasty units will be taken down. If you use shooting and magic to wear them down ahead of time, you will eventually wear them down through your units, too. Even just enough to take one rank off can be devastating. There are a lot of nasty combat units out there that we have nothing to face up against. We can kill some, but always lose combat. So, the idea is to grind them down slowly. You will (hopefully) eventually be able to either grind them down enough or flank them to the point that they finally miss a LD test.
These medium sized units don’t cost much, either. Banners don’t give too many VP. If you have to feed a couple of units to the enemy, they don’t really get many points. In fact, it is a good way to just tie your enemy up! He might have an Abomination, but if all he does is kill 2-3 units of 20 Goblins, that’s not many points he earned, is it? Also, you can be smart with how you sacrifice your units, too. Remember how you tilt your units at an angle to make the enemy align to you? You can still do that! So, if your unit holds, you have a flank charge. Or, if he smashes your unit and overruns, he misses the unit you want to save!
You know how fanatics can really affect your opponent’s movement? With several of the nutters flying around, they can’t really approach in a regular battle line. Fanatics get in their way of charging and things like that, right? Well, with so many units, we can do the same! We can put some units out in front of others and such. This will block some units from being combo charged or block the elites from hitting the units you want to save. Even if they happen to win combat and overrun, they will then be staggered. If you have different waves of units and even prepare for some of your units to break, you can then get flank charges on some of them with full ranked units.
I can’t say how good flanking is in this edition. Normally, the enemy gets 2 full ranks of attacks. With the flank, they only get one attack per model in base contact. If the unit doesn’t have many ranks, that might not be a lot of attacks. 10 Chaos Warriors fighting forward is pretty scary, but 2 attacking to the side aren’t so bad. Oh, we get less attacks, too (don’t forget diagonal attacks), but sometimes our attacks just aren’t that great. We still get 2 ranks, too. So, for elite units that really need lots of hits for CR to win combat, this is a fantastic way to deal with them. Thinking of the 10 Chaos Warriors, they would normally get one rank and one banner. The rest is up to kills in combat. If a unit of 20 Goblins flanks them in the side, they would only let 2 models attack. We would get 8 models attacking. Their static CR would be 1 for the banner and ours would be 2 for ranks (let’s assume they kill at least one!), banner, charging, and flank. That’s a CR 5 vs. 1 (not counting wounds).
I’ve found it is important to accept charges and not flee too often. The chances of rallying aren’t that great. Also, failed charges don’t move the enemy much and you want them to get all mixed in your lines so you can take advantage of it. Also, sometimes enemies fluff. They miss their rolls or you actually hold. This can put a huge wrench in their plans.
One of the strengths of our list that I have found is the Waaagh! spell. Sure, you can’t rely on just one spell, but our is so good! All units move towards the enemy. All units get ASF and re-roll misses. This is golden when fighting in this style. It makes it easier to swarm the enemy. Even crummy units get a decent chance to do some damage. Goblins getting to re-roll and ASF have a chance of taking down tougher opponents due to sheer volume of dice. Sometimes the extra movement will allow a unit to hit someone in the flank, too. Besides the Waaagh! spell, there are a couple others that mimic it. There is Bash ‘em Ladz. I often like to try Waaagh!, but my opponent will often spend all his dice to block it. I then cast Bash ‘em Ladz on the one unit that it is most important to get it off with little resistance. The Hand of Gork also moves a unit in the same manner. Do the same trick here and get that one unit in the flank of that one combat that is vital to actually win.
While we are talking about magic, I’m finding magic to be much better and more reliable in this version. The enemy won’t usually have a million dispel dice (unless they are Empire or another OnG!) and we have chances of getting spells off. I am finding I prefer Big Waaagh! magic to Little Waaagh! The casting values are lower and the spells are that much better in 8th Ed. With a lvl 4, you can get a lot of spells off with one or two dice. It will be harder for your opponent to stop a lot of spells instead of putting all your points into the Big One. I know Brog said he is thinking of 1000 pt games, but still just talking generally here.
Gaze of Mork
Good for taking just a few more models off units. Maybe eliminate a rank. Also good for killing off units that have been weakened. Anything that can whittle them down even further. I’m also finding there are some small units of scouts, fast cav, or lone heroes that are there to be blasted.
’Eadbutt
Great for assassination! Put a wound on that hero that is advancing! Let’s see how long that enemy BSB survives now that he has only 1 wound left. Or, take out that unit champ! Even just knock one model off and maybe reduce a rank. Against heavily armored models, it’s great! You can always save one die and use it as your last with a decent chance of getting it off.
Bash ‘Em Ladz
Already went over this one. This is great! Allows ASF and re-rolls! 6+ to cast, too!
Fists of Gork
This spell is great! With opponents also taking lots of Core units and a decent number of Horde units, this spell is great. What to do about that unit of 50 Halberdiers? 20 HE Spearmen? This spell will whittle them down. Even use it on elites, too! Anything to knock a few more down. 8+ is still a good chance of getting it off.
Gork’s Warpath
Tough units to take out? War machines? Elites? Monsters? This is it. Even just to whittle a regular unit down that much more…..
Waaagh!
Already talked about this one. I know Ben from the Bad Dice podcast just had a tournament where he went with a Lvl 4 and a power stone just to use on Waaagh! His whole strategy was to get within range and Waaagh! into the enemy with IF Waaagh!
Let’s say you like Gobbo Shamans….or you have a lvl 2 w/ the Staff o’ Sneaky Stealin’ and want to think of his spells:
Gaze of Gork
Good to use against armored opponents. You could get lucky and take a bunch out! Another thing to try to take guys down with. Only 5+ to cast!
Brain Bursta
A lot of people think blasting spells are done with. I disagree! 2d6 is great! Hit a normal unit with it and have potential to take a lot out! I think I took 8 Storm Vermin out with this spell the other night. Take out Core infantry, too! Throw it at elites and with lots of dice, luck is involved. It just might take out a Chaos Warrior or two.
Gork’ll Fix It
Great Spell! You want to whittle enemy down? This spell is GREAT! His attacks tend to cause less damage. No poison or killing blow. His saves tend to fail more. This is ideal to use with this strategy.
Foot of Gork
Same as Warpath. Even better used WITH Warpath! Stomp on those elites and support things out there. Rinse, repeat.
Hand of Gork
Again, great to move guys where you want. Heck, even just slamming one of your units into one of his units in his battle line will slow him down! He won’t be able to advance in a whole line as one of his units has to deal with yours for a turn.
Mork Wants Ya!
Perfect for taking out those nasty war machines. They don’t get to dodge. They get auto hit. They take lots of damage. What to do against a gunline? Smash it! There are other odd things that you can hit, too. War Shrines are good. Characters usually have a high Init, but it is sometimes good to attempt this spell in case they fail. It’s best used for things that can’t defend against it (auto fail Init tests or have low Init).
When it comes to characters, it could be good to have a number of cheap characters. You don’t even have to give them magic weapons, but you could always toss on some of the cheap ones. Even the cheap goblin one that gives you bonuses to flank can be effective for not many points. One of the things you will need to watch out for is making your characters too expensive. You can have more if you spread the points out. There are also some good character fighting items. A goblin with a great weapon and the amulet of protectyness might be able to hold off a combat Lord for a while. The sword that causes Fear might work on a unit and give them WS1 to hit Gobbos or even stop your gobbos from having Fear. Try some of the cheap weapons out just to try it! The Crown that makes you Stubborn is also good.
Characters are also good to give that extra Ld point to for those away from the center.
Units should also avoid spending too many points. I love nets, but you can’t put them on all your NG units. It might be better to have more units without nets than all your units with nets. Then again, you can always have a couple of larger units to be more of your main anvils that have nets. The same for fanatics; the more fanatics you have, the greater the chance of them hitting your own units. You will have a lot and they will just rip through your own lines. I wouldn’t go with too many. You can, though have one sacrificial unit that sends the fanatics from the rear of your own unit and try to land right where the enemy is charging. They do 2d6 for each one they land on. You can sacrifice one gobbo unit to wreak havoc on another enemy unit.
What size units? Well, a lot depends on point sizes. Goblins are minimal 20 and that’s a good number. Orcs are minimal 10, but I would always want at least 15. I can see units of 20 as good. I can see smaller units of Arrer Boyz working, too. Maybe 10, 12, 15, or 18. The smaller the unit the greater chance I see them as just support. As I stated above, you might want to have a unit or two that can hold against an enemy charge. This can be an anvil unit that is Steadfast or an elite unit that can fight. Trolls might make a great unit for this, though they are expensive. 40 Night Goblins with nets in ranks of 5 near the general and BSB can withstand a lot. I love nets!
What about support units? Well, I’m torn on chariots. You can get a chariot for about the same points as you can get a cheap unit of goblins. Which is better? Well, more units help you swarm. They are more resilient when it comes to shooting and magic. That’s b/c it takes a lot of hits to kill the unit. They don’t do impact hits, but they will probably hold longer in combat on their own. Chariots won’t break ranks. The impact hits help whittle the enemy down, though. It’s a tough call. I highly recommend Snotling Pump Wagons! They are only 40 pts and they do even MORE impact hits! They are also smaller and can go 360. These are great to zip around between your other units.
Rock Lobbas are great. They are the new spear chukkas. I take 2 of them in a list and would even be tempted for 3 of them. They see above combat. They can do S9 d6 hits if you do a direct hit. They can template lightly armored foes. You fire from the crossbeam, which is above your infantry. They can do indirect fire.
Spear Chukkas? I don’t care much for them anymore. Maybe it was all those missed shots, but I don’t care for them so much. If you miss, you miss. Rock lobbas can still scatter. Spear chukkas are only S6 and not as good at taking out monsters. They also need line of sight and can’t get it as much with a horde. They do negate armor saves. The only time I see them being superior is when you have ranks of highly armed enemy.
Doom Divers are brilliant. They can re-direct a bit and do d6 S6 w/ no armor save. They are better for the highly armored opponents. Not quite as good against monsters, but good against elite troopers. This is a great thing to whittle down those nasty elites (like Chaos Warriors).
Single trolls are also a good investment to throw in as support. On the second round, they can give you a +1 CR for charging. They make the enemy take a Fear test, which will even make them WS 1 vs. the goblins. They can also block or redirect the enemy. If the enemy spends magic or shooting to take it out, it saves the rest of your army, and doesn’t waste too many points.
One thing I would not take would be Black Orcs. These guys are SO expensive. Just taking them prevents you from taking a couple more cheap units. They will be targeted by the enemy with everything. If you have a horde of nothings, you spend your big stuff on the Black Orcs. They are the worst thing to take with this type of a list.
Squig Herders might be good. They might cost some points, but they could be good 2nd wave units. Just be careful they don’t break near most of your units. That would be a lot of your units taking damage. They might be good to take on the flanks as they don’t need the Ld as much being ItP. They can chew through the enemy, though, even elites. I haven’t used these much as I just don’t have a lot of models.
I think any boar boyz or savage orcs would be too expensive. Sure, they might be great as a hammer unit, but they would also be targets. Just think about what you can get for the price of them. Then again, maybe try things out. A unit of 10 Savage Orcs with 2 choppas might be a great unit to flank with or even just chew through an enemy unit before dying. Boar boyz might be the only thing that can get around enemy flanks of a cagey opponent. A Waaagh! might get you into the flank or rear at an excellent time. I just have a hard time seeing how they are better than fast cav in this regard.
Fast Cav, though, can be used. I wouldn’t use a lot and you don’t have to have them, but they could be useful. Against an enemy with shooting would see these guys dead fast, unless terrain allows you to sneak in there somewhere. They might be able to hunt war machines, which is good. Also, they can charge in a flank or rear at just the right moment to give +1 CR for charge and +1 CR for flank. They also might just cause enough of a threat to make your opponent change his plans a bit.
A giant might be a good thing to take. It can go on a flank and is pretty fast. It is good against monsters and units (sometimes). It would be an easy target for shooting though. Sometimes, though, that’s not a bad thing. Put him on a flank and let the enemy think about that while your horde approaches. Sometimes it’s good to have an elite something in your army to throw against the unexpected.
OK…..so, I have talked in general about this strategy, but I haven’t really talked about the different scenarios. How would this type of a list work for the scenarios?
Pitched Battle
I don’t think I need to write much here. We are all familiar with it.
Dawn Attack
This one is interesting. It has potential to really screw with you, but it also has potential to NOT screw with you. On one hand, your units will most likely be spread out a bit. That means that you can still swarm the enemy and they will be less organized. You should have enough troops all over the place to form a battle line. A lot of our troops are interchangeable and you won’t be too fazed depending on which troops go where. I think this could be a strong one for this strategy. The only down side is that our characters might end up in bad locations. Still, though, you probably can jump your general or BSB out on their own to switch units pretty quickly. Have one of your characters on the flank? Have him jump into a different unit in the middle! It wouldn’t take too long to get them situated. While it might be great to have your characters in specific units, you might need to get over it.
Battle for the Pass
Lots of medium sized units would be great against enemy shooting! They would have to spend significant effort to destroy a single unit, but you have a lot! If you can, just try to have orcs between gobbos, if you can. Have your main characters set up to offer their bonuses to ensure panic doesn’t hit your lines. If you go strong magic, you will hopefully be able to Waaagh! across the battlefield. If you have some war machines, you should be able to soften them up as you advance. Oh, same for the rest of the Greenskin magic, too. This one is normally terrible for Foot-Sloggers, but this stratagem would be perfect.
Blood and Glory
I would recommend putting banners in almost all of your units. Why not? They don’t cost much and only offer up 25 pts…if you don’t get the banner back. In this scenario, you could have a LOT of Fortitude Points. I played with a regular list vs. Empire recently and had 7 FP with a break point of 3. That meant I had to lose 4 banners before I lost the game. If you go with MMU, you could easily have up to 10 FP (general, BSB, and 7 units with banners). You will need to focus on his units with banners.
Personally, I think a lot of people haven’t fully grasped this one and built lists around it. There are a lot of people with small FP and if you focus on their banners, you can get them. They aren’t thinking about defending their banners. Their banners and generals are usually their combat units and moving up, anyways. If you focus all your fanatics, magic, and shooting at these guys, you can whittle down the big units.
You can also try to lure some units away from the main fight by offering up an easy banner for them. You will probably have more units than them, so imagine if one of their standard units was off in the corner for most of the game. Let him face off against a sacrificial unit that you “screwed up” and let him get. Maybe offer a flank charge, but it will put him way off in the middle of nowhere. This is great against Frenzied troops as they have to overrun. Get his large unit of minotaurs off into the corner for most of the game! If that unit has a banner, you can get an easier one elsewhere. Then, when that unit is off distracted, pick apart the rest of his army.
Meeting Engagement
This can be both good and bad for MMU armies; If you spread out too much (especially if you go first), than they can focus their forces and punch through your lines. I would prefer to keep my army together and support each other. If you go second, though, you can probably swarm the enemy no matter where they set up. This could be great if you go second.
As for units not showing up, it could be bad for war machines and/or characters, but otherwise you should be fine. As stated before, most of your units are interchangeable and you aren’t relying too much on a specific unit for your plan. So, the special rules for this one don’t mess with you too much.
Watchtower
This one might be the worst situation for us. It focuses on one location that has to be fought over. If an enemy elite is in the building, than we might have a hard time removing them from the building. Your horde can swarm the position and take out support units or even just keep them busy, but you are fighting over the tower. Only 10 models can fight per turn and the combats end after each round. If you charge and lose, you won’t get to fight on his turns. It will be hard to whittle him down.
If we get the tower, it might be hard to hold. Our own slow troops will need to rush out there to defend it. If we can get out there and deflect and/or slow down the enemy, than we might be good. We have enough chaff to throw in their way to prevent them from even fighting over the Tower. If we can get the general and BSB in range, the unit inside will be Steadfast. 20 Night Goblins with nets and hand weapons might be the best bet. They can weaken the enemy strength and have a ward save. 20 Arrer Boyz might be the next best thing; They can shoot, but have the T4.
If we need to take the tower, this is the major problem. If you take a heavy hitter, this would be the place to use them. Trolls would be great. A giant would work, too. Besides combat, you might want to eliminate the support for the tower and hit the tower with all your magic and shooting (especially war machines). Just try to whittle down the enemy in the tower as you clear up all support for them. Maybe push back any general or BSB that would help the lone unit. If you can isolate the tower and then weaken the unit, a unit of orcs or goblins might be able to take it, especially if beefed up with characters.
Alright…..I have spent most of the morning typing this up. I think I’ve given enough food for thought. Let me know what you think!
There’s another layer to this, as well. You get to wear the enemy down. Sure, they might kill your unit, but you have a lot of ‘em. It might take them a couple turns to kill you. You kill as many as you can in that time. Eventually, even the nasty units will be taken down. If you use shooting and magic to wear them down ahead of time, you will eventually wear them down through your units, too. Even just enough to take one rank off can be devastating. There are a lot of nasty combat units out there that we have nothing to face up against. We can kill some, but always lose combat. So, the idea is to grind them down slowly. You will (hopefully) eventually be able to either grind them down enough or flank them to the point that they finally miss a LD test.
These medium sized units don’t cost much, either. Banners don’t give too many VP. If you have to feed a couple of units to the enemy, they don’t really get many points. In fact, it is a good way to just tie your enemy up! He might have an Abomination, but if all he does is kill 2-3 units of 20 Goblins, that’s not many points he earned, is it? Also, you can be smart with how you sacrifice your units, too. Remember how you tilt your units at an angle to make the enemy align to you? You can still do that! So, if your unit holds, you have a flank charge. Or, if he smashes your unit and overruns, he misses the unit you want to save!
You know how fanatics can really affect your opponent’s movement? With several of the nutters flying around, they can’t really approach in a regular battle line. Fanatics get in their way of charging and things like that, right? Well, with so many units, we can do the same! We can put some units out in front of others and such. This will block some units from being combo charged or block the elites from hitting the units you want to save. Even if they happen to win combat and overrun, they will then be staggered. If you have different waves of units and even prepare for some of your units to break, you can then get flank charges on some of them with full ranked units.
I can’t say how good flanking is in this edition. Normally, the enemy gets 2 full ranks of attacks. With the flank, they only get one attack per model in base contact. If the unit doesn’t have many ranks, that might not be a lot of attacks. 10 Chaos Warriors fighting forward is pretty scary, but 2 attacking to the side aren’t so bad. Oh, we get less attacks, too (don’t forget diagonal attacks), but sometimes our attacks just aren’t that great. We still get 2 ranks, too. So, for elite units that really need lots of hits for CR to win combat, this is a fantastic way to deal with them. Thinking of the 10 Chaos Warriors, they would normally get one rank and one banner. The rest is up to kills in combat. If a unit of 20 Goblins flanks them in the side, they would only let 2 models attack. We would get 8 models attacking. Their static CR would be 1 for the banner and ours would be 2 for ranks (let’s assume they kill at least one!), banner, charging, and flank. That’s a CR 5 vs. 1 (not counting wounds).
I’ve found it is important to accept charges and not flee too often. The chances of rallying aren’t that great. Also, failed charges don’t move the enemy much and you want them to get all mixed in your lines so you can take advantage of it. Also, sometimes enemies fluff. They miss their rolls or you actually hold. This can put a huge wrench in their plans.
One of the strengths of our list that I have found is the Waaagh! spell. Sure, you can’t rely on just one spell, but our is so good! All units move towards the enemy. All units get ASF and re-roll misses. This is golden when fighting in this style. It makes it easier to swarm the enemy. Even crummy units get a decent chance to do some damage. Goblins getting to re-roll and ASF have a chance of taking down tougher opponents due to sheer volume of dice. Sometimes the extra movement will allow a unit to hit someone in the flank, too. Besides the Waaagh! spell, there are a couple others that mimic it. There is Bash ‘em Ladz. I often like to try Waaagh!, but my opponent will often spend all his dice to block it. I then cast Bash ‘em Ladz on the one unit that it is most important to get it off with little resistance. The Hand of Gork also moves a unit in the same manner. Do the same trick here and get that one unit in the flank of that one combat that is vital to actually win.
While we are talking about magic, I’m finding magic to be much better and more reliable in this version. The enemy won’t usually have a million dispel dice (unless they are Empire or another OnG!) and we have chances of getting spells off. I am finding I prefer Big Waaagh! magic to Little Waaagh! The casting values are lower and the spells are that much better in 8th Ed. With a lvl 4, you can get a lot of spells off with one or two dice. It will be harder for your opponent to stop a lot of spells instead of putting all your points into the Big One. I know Brog said he is thinking of 1000 pt games, but still just talking generally here.
Gaze of Mork
Good for taking just a few more models off units. Maybe eliminate a rank. Also good for killing off units that have been weakened. Anything that can whittle them down even further. I’m also finding there are some small units of scouts, fast cav, or lone heroes that are there to be blasted.
’Eadbutt
Great for assassination! Put a wound on that hero that is advancing! Let’s see how long that enemy BSB survives now that he has only 1 wound left. Or, take out that unit champ! Even just knock one model off and maybe reduce a rank. Against heavily armored models, it’s great! You can always save one die and use it as your last with a decent chance of getting it off.
Bash ‘Em Ladz
Already went over this one. This is great! Allows ASF and re-rolls! 6+ to cast, too!
Fists of Gork
This spell is great! With opponents also taking lots of Core units and a decent number of Horde units, this spell is great. What to do about that unit of 50 Halberdiers? 20 HE Spearmen? This spell will whittle them down. Even use it on elites, too! Anything to knock a few more down. 8+ is still a good chance of getting it off.
Gork’s Warpath
Tough units to take out? War machines? Elites? Monsters? This is it. Even just to whittle a regular unit down that much more…..
Waaagh!
Already talked about this one. I know Ben from the Bad Dice podcast just had a tournament where he went with a Lvl 4 and a power stone just to use on Waaagh! His whole strategy was to get within range and Waaagh! into the enemy with IF Waaagh!
Let’s say you like Gobbo Shamans….or you have a lvl 2 w/ the Staff o’ Sneaky Stealin’ and want to think of his spells:
Gaze of Gork
Good to use against armored opponents. You could get lucky and take a bunch out! Another thing to try to take guys down with. Only 5+ to cast!
Brain Bursta
A lot of people think blasting spells are done with. I disagree! 2d6 is great! Hit a normal unit with it and have potential to take a lot out! I think I took 8 Storm Vermin out with this spell the other night. Take out Core infantry, too! Throw it at elites and with lots of dice, luck is involved. It just might take out a Chaos Warrior or two.
Gork’ll Fix It
Great Spell! You want to whittle enemy down? This spell is GREAT! His attacks tend to cause less damage. No poison or killing blow. His saves tend to fail more. This is ideal to use with this strategy.
Foot of Gork
Same as Warpath. Even better used WITH Warpath! Stomp on those elites and support things out there. Rinse, repeat.
Hand of Gork
Again, great to move guys where you want. Heck, even just slamming one of your units into one of his units in his battle line will slow him down! He won’t be able to advance in a whole line as one of his units has to deal with yours for a turn.
Mork Wants Ya!
Perfect for taking out those nasty war machines. They don’t get to dodge. They get auto hit. They take lots of damage. What to do against a gunline? Smash it! There are other odd things that you can hit, too. War Shrines are good. Characters usually have a high Init, but it is sometimes good to attempt this spell in case they fail. It’s best used for things that can’t defend against it (auto fail Init tests or have low Init).
When it comes to characters, it could be good to have a number of cheap characters. You don’t even have to give them magic weapons, but you could always toss on some of the cheap ones. Even the cheap goblin one that gives you bonuses to flank can be effective for not many points. One of the things you will need to watch out for is making your characters too expensive. You can have more if you spread the points out. There are also some good character fighting items. A goblin with a great weapon and the amulet of protectyness might be able to hold off a combat Lord for a while. The sword that causes Fear might work on a unit and give them WS1 to hit Gobbos or even stop your gobbos from having Fear. Try some of the cheap weapons out just to try it! The Crown that makes you Stubborn is also good.
Characters are also good to give that extra Ld point to for those away from the center.
Units should also avoid spending too many points. I love nets, but you can’t put them on all your NG units. It might be better to have more units without nets than all your units with nets. Then again, you can always have a couple of larger units to be more of your main anvils that have nets. The same for fanatics; the more fanatics you have, the greater the chance of them hitting your own units. You will have a lot and they will just rip through your own lines. I wouldn’t go with too many. You can, though have one sacrificial unit that sends the fanatics from the rear of your own unit and try to land right where the enemy is charging. They do 2d6 for each one they land on. You can sacrifice one gobbo unit to wreak havoc on another enemy unit.
What size units? Well, a lot depends on point sizes. Goblins are minimal 20 and that’s a good number. Orcs are minimal 10, but I would always want at least 15. I can see units of 20 as good. I can see smaller units of Arrer Boyz working, too. Maybe 10, 12, 15, or 18. The smaller the unit the greater chance I see them as just support. As I stated above, you might want to have a unit or two that can hold against an enemy charge. This can be an anvil unit that is Steadfast or an elite unit that can fight. Trolls might make a great unit for this, though they are expensive. 40 Night Goblins with nets in ranks of 5 near the general and BSB can withstand a lot. I love nets!
What about support units? Well, I’m torn on chariots. You can get a chariot for about the same points as you can get a cheap unit of goblins. Which is better? Well, more units help you swarm. They are more resilient when it comes to shooting and magic. That’s b/c it takes a lot of hits to kill the unit. They don’t do impact hits, but they will probably hold longer in combat on their own. Chariots won’t break ranks. The impact hits help whittle the enemy down, though. It’s a tough call. I highly recommend Snotling Pump Wagons! They are only 40 pts and they do even MORE impact hits! They are also smaller and can go 360. These are great to zip around between your other units.
Rock Lobbas are great. They are the new spear chukkas. I take 2 of them in a list and would even be tempted for 3 of them. They see above combat. They can do S9 d6 hits if you do a direct hit. They can template lightly armored foes. You fire from the crossbeam, which is above your infantry. They can do indirect fire.
Spear Chukkas? I don’t care much for them anymore. Maybe it was all those missed shots, but I don’t care for them so much. If you miss, you miss. Rock lobbas can still scatter. Spear chukkas are only S6 and not as good at taking out monsters. They also need line of sight and can’t get it as much with a horde. They do negate armor saves. The only time I see them being superior is when you have ranks of highly armed enemy.
Doom Divers are brilliant. They can re-direct a bit and do d6 S6 w/ no armor save. They are better for the highly armored opponents. Not quite as good against monsters, but good against elite troopers. This is a great thing to whittle down those nasty elites (like Chaos Warriors).
Single trolls are also a good investment to throw in as support. On the second round, they can give you a +1 CR for charging. They make the enemy take a Fear test, which will even make them WS 1 vs. the goblins. They can also block or redirect the enemy. If the enemy spends magic or shooting to take it out, it saves the rest of your army, and doesn’t waste too many points.
One thing I would not take would be Black Orcs. These guys are SO expensive. Just taking them prevents you from taking a couple more cheap units. They will be targeted by the enemy with everything. If you have a horde of nothings, you spend your big stuff on the Black Orcs. They are the worst thing to take with this type of a list.
Squig Herders might be good. They might cost some points, but they could be good 2nd wave units. Just be careful they don’t break near most of your units. That would be a lot of your units taking damage. They might be good to take on the flanks as they don’t need the Ld as much being ItP. They can chew through the enemy, though, even elites. I haven’t used these much as I just don’t have a lot of models.
I think any boar boyz or savage orcs would be too expensive. Sure, they might be great as a hammer unit, but they would also be targets. Just think about what you can get for the price of them. Then again, maybe try things out. A unit of 10 Savage Orcs with 2 choppas might be a great unit to flank with or even just chew through an enemy unit before dying. Boar boyz might be the only thing that can get around enemy flanks of a cagey opponent. A Waaagh! might get you into the flank or rear at an excellent time. I just have a hard time seeing how they are better than fast cav in this regard.
Fast Cav, though, can be used. I wouldn’t use a lot and you don’t have to have them, but they could be useful. Against an enemy with shooting would see these guys dead fast, unless terrain allows you to sneak in there somewhere. They might be able to hunt war machines, which is good. Also, they can charge in a flank or rear at just the right moment to give +1 CR for charge and +1 CR for flank. They also might just cause enough of a threat to make your opponent change his plans a bit.
A giant might be a good thing to take. It can go on a flank and is pretty fast. It is good against monsters and units (sometimes). It would be an easy target for shooting though. Sometimes, though, that’s not a bad thing. Put him on a flank and let the enemy think about that while your horde approaches. Sometimes it’s good to have an elite something in your army to throw against the unexpected.
OK…..so, I have talked in general about this strategy, but I haven’t really talked about the different scenarios. How would this type of a list work for the scenarios?
Pitched Battle
I don’t think I need to write much here. We are all familiar with it.
Dawn Attack
This one is interesting. It has potential to really screw with you, but it also has potential to NOT screw with you. On one hand, your units will most likely be spread out a bit. That means that you can still swarm the enemy and they will be less organized. You should have enough troops all over the place to form a battle line. A lot of our troops are interchangeable and you won’t be too fazed depending on which troops go where. I think this could be a strong one for this strategy. The only down side is that our characters might end up in bad locations. Still, though, you probably can jump your general or BSB out on their own to switch units pretty quickly. Have one of your characters on the flank? Have him jump into a different unit in the middle! It wouldn’t take too long to get them situated. While it might be great to have your characters in specific units, you might need to get over it.
Battle for the Pass
Lots of medium sized units would be great against enemy shooting! They would have to spend significant effort to destroy a single unit, but you have a lot! If you can, just try to have orcs between gobbos, if you can. Have your main characters set up to offer their bonuses to ensure panic doesn’t hit your lines. If you go strong magic, you will hopefully be able to Waaagh! across the battlefield. If you have some war machines, you should be able to soften them up as you advance. Oh, same for the rest of the Greenskin magic, too. This one is normally terrible for Foot-Sloggers, but this stratagem would be perfect.
Blood and Glory
I would recommend putting banners in almost all of your units. Why not? They don’t cost much and only offer up 25 pts…if you don’t get the banner back. In this scenario, you could have a LOT of Fortitude Points. I played with a regular list vs. Empire recently and had 7 FP with a break point of 3. That meant I had to lose 4 banners before I lost the game. If you go with MMU, you could easily have up to 10 FP (general, BSB, and 7 units with banners). You will need to focus on his units with banners.
Personally, I think a lot of people haven’t fully grasped this one and built lists around it. There are a lot of people with small FP and if you focus on their banners, you can get them. They aren’t thinking about defending their banners. Their banners and generals are usually their combat units and moving up, anyways. If you focus all your fanatics, magic, and shooting at these guys, you can whittle down the big units.
You can also try to lure some units away from the main fight by offering up an easy banner for them. You will probably have more units than them, so imagine if one of their standard units was off in the corner for most of the game. Let him face off against a sacrificial unit that you “screwed up” and let him get. Maybe offer a flank charge, but it will put him way off in the middle of nowhere. This is great against Frenzied troops as they have to overrun. Get his large unit of minotaurs off into the corner for most of the game! If that unit has a banner, you can get an easier one elsewhere. Then, when that unit is off distracted, pick apart the rest of his army.
Meeting Engagement
This can be both good and bad for MMU armies; If you spread out too much (especially if you go first), than they can focus their forces and punch through your lines. I would prefer to keep my army together and support each other. If you go second, though, you can probably swarm the enemy no matter where they set up. This could be great if you go second.
As for units not showing up, it could be bad for war machines and/or characters, but otherwise you should be fine. As stated before, most of your units are interchangeable and you aren’t relying too much on a specific unit for your plan. So, the special rules for this one don’t mess with you too much.
Watchtower
This one might be the worst situation for us. It focuses on one location that has to be fought over. If an enemy elite is in the building, than we might have a hard time removing them from the building. Your horde can swarm the position and take out support units or even just keep them busy, but you are fighting over the tower. Only 10 models can fight per turn and the combats end after each round. If you charge and lose, you won’t get to fight on his turns. It will be hard to whittle him down.
If we get the tower, it might be hard to hold. Our own slow troops will need to rush out there to defend it. If we can get out there and deflect and/or slow down the enemy, than we might be good. We have enough chaff to throw in their way to prevent them from even fighting over the Tower. If we can get the general and BSB in range, the unit inside will be Steadfast. 20 Night Goblins with nets and hand weapons might be the best bet. They can weaken the enemy strength and have a ward save. 20 Arrer Boyz might be the next best thing; They can shoot, but have the T4.
If we need to take the tower, this is the major problem. If you take a heavy hitter, this would be the place to use them. Trolls would be great. A giant would work, too. Besides combat, you might want to eliminate the support for the tower and hit the tower with all your magic and shooting (especially war machines). Just try to whittle down the enemy in the tower as you clear up all support for them. Maybe push back any general or BSB that would help the lone unit. If you can isolate the tower and then weaken the unit, a unit of orcs or goblins might be able to take it, especially if beefed up with characters.
Alright…..I have spent most of the morning typing this up. I think I’ve given enough food for thought. Let me know what you think!
