When most People work up a tactical guide to an army for Warhammer, they tend to focus on unit selection and general roles for each unit type, and not on how to solve the individual tactical problem that is faced on the battlefield. My intent here is to focus more on the actual particulars of a game, than on the particulars of a unit. First off is a discussion of tactics based upon the 9 Principles of War (as defined by the US Army). After that I will present several tactical formations in the form of set-up and movement for turns 1 and 2 of the game. And Finally I will discuss likely match-ups and which formations to use against the enemy (based on his army selection and setup.)

The US Army has established 9 Principles of War. They are Objective, Offensive, Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Unity of Command, Security, Surprise and Simplicity. I decided to think in these terms while getting a cup of Coffee the day after I was soundly defeated by a Dwarf Army. (Let me explain, I am a US Soldier that works in a Planning Cell and right above the coffee pot we have the Principles of War Posted to give us something to look at while we get our daily fix.) I just went down the list and compared the tactics (or lack thereof) I had used during the game, and I discovered that I had ignored in the game everything that I teach in real life. I was a bit disgusted with myself after this, and figured I would actually attempt to include these basics in my gaming, and I haven’t lost a game since.

Objective: Each element must have a clearly defined purpose within the battle. Before you even start deploying your troops on the battlefield, you should have a clear idea in your head as to what you want them to do. You have to be realistic about this though. If you set out to break a unit of Halberdiers with a detachment of Handgunners, and a second detachment of Swordsmen with a unit of Marauders, you will probably fail to achieve this objective. If you choose to try to break the same unit with a unit of hounds, a unit of marauders and a chariot, you stand a pretty good chance of succeeding. As an example, Marauder Horsemen are ordered to move deep and attack artillery crews against an Empire army. OK, with this statement, if you follow your objective, by turn 3 you should be rid of at least one cannon crew, and on your way to running down a second. Now we come to human nature, lets say you second guess this, and instead of charging the cannon and then overrunning into the Hellblaster, you change your mind and do a rear charge to support your warriors, who after breaking their opponent are blown to hell by the Hellblaster on the following turn. You have just neglected the first principle of war. If you had stuck to the plan, you would probably have still beaten the unit of swordsmen, taken out the cannon, and nullified the threat from the Hellblaster because the crew are too busy fighting to shoot at the warriors.

Offensive: We’re Chaos! We should always be on the Offense. Defensive formations are for sissy elves and weakling pink skins. Actually, this principle is key in the battle, as you want to have the initiative in your fights. You don’t want Bretonnian Knights charging you (or Empire or elves for that matter.) This means you have to take the fight to the enemy, and use everything you have to lure the enemy forces in to your charge range. Going back to Objective, assign your unit of hounds the mission of sucking in a unit of enemy cavalry and then fleeing the charge. In this case the hounds are a great choice for this mission as they only cost 30 points and are not likely to cause a panic to any of your units. On your next turn, you now have a fat cavalry unit who failed its charge sitting in your charge range. By the Way certain Slaanesh spells also can do this job very nicely as well, and without even the possible loss of 30 points. The only reason Chaos should ever adopt a defensive strategy is to lure the enemy into your charge range, and then unleash the hounds of hell as it were.

Mass: With the 6th Edition rules now firmly in place, many of us have learned the value of Combat Resolution (CR). Having mass means having the power in an engagement to break apart your enemy as quickly as possible. In terms of the game, this means having a good CR to go along with your hitting power. It is better to have a frontal and flanking charge then a frontal charge alone. To achieve this mass at the decisive point of the engagement, assign your units in teams. Good teams are Chaos Warriors and a Warrior Chariot, Bestigors and a Tuskgor Chariot or Beast Herd, Marauders and Marauder Horsemen, etc. I have left Chaos Knights out of this equation as I feel that they are very capable of fighting on their own, especially if they are joined by an exalted Champion, Lord, are Chosen, or both. Another example of Mass is to get several (at least two) units to charge the same enemy. 2 Chariots working in tandem can often achieve a large enough CR to defeat your foe.

Economy of Force: This is the flip side of Mass in a way. You still need to achieve mass, but you don’t need to overdo it. Economy of force is the art of being able to defeat the enemy with the minimum necessary resource expenditure. To a Chaos player, this is very critical as we are generally speaking always outnumbered. To achieve the necessary mass to win the CR fight, we need to be able to defeat a basic CR of 5 (3 ranks, Standard and outnumber.) If we take a unit of Warriors that is 12 strong, we can have 2 ranks and a Standard, and therefore need to achieve a minimum of 3 unanswered wounds in the CC to just win the fight. If we have that same unit of Warriors with a Chariot in the flank, we only need to do two wounds to win, which the chariot should be able to achieve with impact hits and CC, basically 4-9 S5 Hits, plus 1-2 S4 Hits. Couple that with Warriors with Halberds you have 3-5 S5 Hits, with 2 Hand Weapons you have 5-9 S4 Hits, With Hand Weapon and Shield you can expect 3-5 S4 Hits, and with Great Weapons 3-5 S6 Hits. Odds are with any of these Choices you should be able to win CR by a score of 2 or better (most likely better). If this unit of Warriors is Chosen, you will do even more. And this equation also works well with a unit of 5 Hounds in the flank as well. 20 Marauders with flails, teamed up with Marauder Horsemen with Flails or Spears in the flank should also easily achieve this end.

Maneuver: Many People have noted that this is the meat and potatoes of a 6th Ed. Game. You must be able to effectively maneuver your forces to achieve your Objective, Mass, and Economy of Force. All of these contribute to your success in combat. Gone are the days of a single unit of Chaos Warriors massacring everyone in their path by just marching as fast as they can into whatever gets in their way. Nope, It came as quite a surprise to many when the new Hordes of Chaos Book came out that we Chaos players would need to develop tactics. The Second part of this treatise is on a variety of tactics and maneuver options, so I shan’t go too much in detail here.

Unity of Command: This principle is not so readily relevant to a common game of Warhammer, with a single Commander to a side, but when you start playing multi player games, especially 3+ players to a side, you really need to appoint an overall commander for the force. This is the guy that you should check with before you do that sudden surprise charge into an enemy unit, thus screwing up the carefully lined up charge that another player has worked on for 2 full turns. Again this inter-relates with all of the other principles as well. The Commander dictates the objectives to each subordinate, say in a three to a side battle, Player 1 is to collapse the right flank, and then join Player 2 in the center, Player 2 is in the Center, and must hold the enemy in place, while Player 3 is to deny the enemy access to the left flank. In this case, everyone knows what they are supposed to do, and if they succeed in doing it, the end result should be at minimum a solid victory. But suppose then that Player 3 chooses instead to advance quickly into say a Bretonnian force, and finds himself run down by four Lances of Knights, who then swing around to attack the center player in his rear, You have now lost this battle. It is critical to remember that “there can be only one” Commander per force.

Security: Security in this case is protecting your own forces from losing that all encompassing CR. Do not stick a unit out in front of everybody else without some form of support or protection, unless you have assessed the risk to said unit. If you line up your unit of Chosen warriors in a location where they can be charged in the front and flank simultaneously, the chances are you have just lost your 400 + point unit. Again, assigning teams to your units goes a long way towards mitigating the risks your force will have to take. Fighter Pilots the world over have a wingman, even on the ground tanks work as two vehicle teams, so why should Chaos Warriors not learn the same techniques. Now you have to be careful, as you don’t want your enemy to bypass your main unit by charging his wingman, and this again links in with everything else previously discussed. Lets take the example of a unit of warriors with a flanker chariot ready to charge a large block of empire swordsmen with a detachment of halberdiers. If the warriors charge the parent unit, they will be flanked by the detachment, lose their rank bonus, and likely lose the combat. In this case, it would be better to charge both the parent with the warriors and the detachment with the chariot. The chariot will likely break through the 8 guys with no command rather easily, leaving his partner in the front of a big unit that it may lose to, but you have a better than even chance of winning the fight this way than you do if you don’t get your 2 ranks.

Surprise: Don’t do what your enemy expects you to do. Be patient, and let your enemy open up the battlefield for you. Unless you are playing against a shooty army that can really hurt you (Empire Gun Line, Dwarven Artillery, etc.) keep your forces basically on line as you advance. There’s nothing that says your Chaos Knights have to be in combat by Turn 2. Every player expects a unit of Chaos Knights to move forward quickly and charge the first unit that gets in its way. Some people really count on it. Take for instance the ever-popular skirmish screen. If you charge the skirmishers, they will flee leaving you open to an enemy charge by the heavy Knights that were being screened. If said chaos knights don’t charge the skirmishers, he will have to either move them out of the way so that his knights can charge, or he will charge you with the skirmishers, which you should easily slaughter, and allow you to pursue into the Knights behind. Other elements of surprise that really catch the veterans of 5th Ed. Off guard is the choice of flee as a charge reaction. What Chaos player in his right mind would flee from a charge? This can leave your enemy off balance, and maybe even open to a flanking charge by a unit of warriors, or marauders, or worse still chosen Knights.

Simplicity: The army believes in the word KISS. This stands for Keep it Simple Stupid. A plan does not need to be complex with a hundred moving pieces to be good. It just has to be understood and executed. When you start the game, make a plan and try to stick with it, but don’t be a slave to it. If there is the opportunity to charge something really juicy that you’re sure you can beat, do it. Remember this whole thing is meant as a guide, and you don’t have to follow it slavishly, though as a Slaaneshi Lord, I do enjoy my slaves.

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