Having discussed the Principles of war, we will now attempt to implement them. For my examples, I will use various iterations of the basic 2150 Slaaneshi Mortals army that I use. I have used each of these tactics in battles that I ultimately won. The changes represent the differences I have made from the lessons I have learned by playing this force against a variety of opponents. I have played this army against Bretonnians, Skaven, Tomb Kings, Dwarves, Wood Elves, High Elves, and Empire, and I have to date only lost to the Dwarves. Please bear in mind that this portion will be written in the first person, as it is all from personal experience, and I sometimes have difficulty detaching myself when I write.

The Army in general:
Exalted Champion of Slaanesh on Barded Steed
Sorcerer of Slaanesh (Level 2)
Sorcerer Of Slaanesh or Bray Shaman (Level 1)
Aspiring Champion of Slaanesh (BSB with Rapturous Standard)
11 Chosen Warriors of Slaanesh with 2 hand weapons (accompanied by BSB)
5 Knights of Slaanesh (Accompanied by Exalted Champion)
16 (or sometimes 20) Marauders with Flails
12 Gor, 8 Ungor Beast Herd
5 Marauder Horsemen (Always have Flails, sometimes have Throwing Axes)
16 Slaangors
Chariot of Slaanesh
Tuskgor Chariot
Spawn of Slaanesh

I feel that this army is fairly balanced, and that it has the ability to take on just about anyone, but the picking of troops is a discussion for another day. This force does exemplify the tactics that I will be discussing, so I will leave it as it is.

The Envelopment: This is a basic battle plan that many people try to use with some success. It involves Keeping the majority of your forces on line as they advance, and flanking around one side with your fastest forces. This is the basic squad level tactic of an infantry unit in the US Army. You set one team face forward, lay down fire, and flank around with second team, who then assaults through. Its as simple as that really, but how do you make it work? How do you set up your force on the battlefield to be in the position to bring hell in from the flank? Yes these are rhetorical questions, and I will be answering them momentarily.

In my example, I have lined up my forces from right to left by the speed with which they can move, all except for the Beast Herd on the left, as I want a little flexibility to protect my weaker flank. The Marauder Horsemen are armed with Flails and throwing axes, as this makes them a very good dual purpose unit. They can cause some hurt (5 S5 attacks) in a flank or rear charge, and they can take the occasional potshot at an artillery crew. Their Objective is to get into the backfield of the enemy and tear things apart. If my enemy has Warmachines, then these are the primary objectives for these guys, if not, then the objective is to get in and hit someone in the rear while the heavy hitters charge the front. Next come my Chaos Knights. I usually include an exalted champion in this unit, as it gives them some nice extra hitting power. The objective for these nasties is simple, come in on the flank, break through and roll across. This is what they do. Next we find the Fiend, or Spawn. His job is Multi-purpose as well. He is unbreakable, and therefore great for holding up a unit for a turn or so, he has many attacks, and causes fear, and serve well as a character assassin, or can take on whatever big ugly the enemy has sent out after you. Next come the two chariots. I like my chariots to work in pairs if I can as this allows them two dual charge, or as you’ll see in other formations flex to cover each other, or to support units to either side of them.

Some of you are even now beginning to see the flaw in this layout, Warriors and Bestigors can march faster than the chariots can move, but can they charge farther? In this formation, I would hope to get a dual charge with the chariots and a flank with the knights on the enemy force. This gives me a great deal of mass for a single combat, and kind of throws away economy of Force, but to a good end. If this charge succeeds, then the enemy’s extreme flank will very likely fall, you would attempt to pursue the fleeing enemy with only one chariot, while the other one falls in along side the knights, thus giving you greater hitting power for your very next charge. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Next to the Chariots you have Warriors, Bestigors, and Marauders, with a couple of spell chuckers mixed in for good measure. These are the primary mass of your army, and should stay on line up to the charge point. If possible they should hold off charging until the 3rd turn, as if all goes right, the knights and chariots charged on the second, and are now in position to support on the flank. Again, in my formation, the Chosen Warriors, combined with a chariot and Knights, should easily annihilate the enemy unit, which then allows the Warriors to pursue, while attempting to keep the knights and chariot in place for the next effort, or if they completely break the unit apart, they may both overrun into the next unit while the Warriors stay put.

For Objectives, My warriors are 2-hand-weapon armed, and so need to hit a unit with moderate to minimal armor saves in order to do any major damage, and so I will try to line them up against an infantry unit. The Bestigors are Great Weapon armed, and so should attempt to hit something more heavily armored, especially knights. And finally the Marauders, at 20 strong this is my largest melee attrition unit. They have to try to hold on for two rounds of close combat until the knights and Chariot arrive to support them. I give them flails as this lets them hit hard on the first turn of combat, but after that, they’re kind of on their own. Finally we come to the ever-flexible beast herd. These guys can hold the left flank by themselves if it really comes to it, but their primary purpose is to protect the flank of the Marauders, and if it looks like they are needed to flank charge whoever hits the marauders from the front.

Now with any luck at all, I have not violated any of the nine principles of War with this formation. Each unit has a task and purpose, (sometimes known as a mission or objective), and I have maintained enough flexibility in my force to react to whatever the enemy might do to break up my formation. As you look at the illustrations, you will note that the entire main battle line stays together, this means that even with march moves, no one moves forward more than seven inches (The speed of the chariots.)

The Wedge: The Wedge, or a modified Wedge is a good formation with which to defeat the Envelopment or Double Envelopment.

This formation puts your fastest, hardest units in the center of your line, with supporting forces to either side. This is a very good tactical formation if you have two units of Knights. In my case I have opted to use Knights and Marauder Horsemen in the role of Medium Cavalry, (Spears, two Ranks, Full Command). I have included in this formation a unit of Hounds to screen my Cavalry as they advance. (An important note, I don’t think I can say this enough, a 30 point unit of hounds is a great addition to any chaos force. They can screen, they can flank, they can release fanatics, they can flee from a charge resulting in an enemy failed charge, etc.)

This formation is for a very strong Cavalry type force, and Bretonnians and High Elves could use it well against us, especially if we were lined up in an Envelopment formation. As the Knights advance their full march move, everybody else moves up behind them, again trying to stay on line as close as possible. They also shift a little bit to the center, thus allowing us to protect the flanks of our precious knights. Just think of the ugliness, 5 chaos knights in cc with 8-10 empire knights (or silver helms, Dragon princes, bretonnians, etc.) then our knights get hit in the flank with 20 spearmen, who in turn are flanked by 12 chaos warriors. This has the makings of an ugly combat, but in the end, CR is in our favor, as we’re the only ones with 2 ranks at this point.

Again, it is critical to assign a role, or objective to each unit. In a capture scenario, the knights and horsemen are supposed to seize the objective, and at least one of them holds it. This is very hard to do with your knights, as keeping them in place at this point could be fatal. So as they move beyond the objective, the next unit relieves them. Marauders and beast herds are great to do this, as it still leaves your hard-hitting infantry and chariots available to fight around them.

Remember, the knights have swept clear the center, you put attrition infantry to hold the objective, and move the heavy infantry into position to protect the holders so that they can maintain it. As I said earlier, this is a good formation for a breakthrough scenario as well. It puts your heaviest and fastest forces right up the center, and hopefully off the board, while the infantry is still positioned in strong supporting positions. The strength of the wedge is in the speed and violence it is executed with, and in the secrutiy of the flanks (like an old Bretonnian Lance formation, you have very limited flanks.) If you play a wedge conservatively, it may fail you. The Wedge is probably the most reminiscent formation for the glory days of Chaos in 5th Ed.

The Double Envelopment: (or Bull horns Formation) The Zulus used this formation very well against the British, Boers, and other tribes in their day. It is very difficult for a Chaos army to utilize this formation effectively as it requires more fast-moving units than we can normally field. If your force consists of two units of horsemen, two units of knights, two chariots, and at least two units of infantry, you could effectively use the formation. Just like the Single Envelopment, the wings move forward at speed, break through the flank protection of the enemy, and collapse in on the center. This Formation can be very effective against an all infantry army like the Dwarves or the Skaven.

In my example, my left flank is going to move slower than my right, which can be hazardous to the plan, but in a battle against the Tomb Kings, I was still successful. This formation meets its tactical match against a wedge formation, and if the two face off, it can be very interesting. His fastest hit your hardest in the center, while your fastest hit his weaker on the flanks, but if the wedge maintains its security posture, it is very difficult to get the supporting flank charges needed to achieve mass.

It is critical to this formation to time your charges, as attacking piecemeal from the double envelopment can result in a tactical failure. Your enemy may end up attacking you piecemeal, and it may cause your formation to break, but the break can work to your advantage if you are flexible enough to work it. The true advantage Chaos has with this type of formation, or the single envelopment is the strength of our knights. A unit of knights can survive a charge, and still hold, or better yet win against an equal to superior force quite easily, and still maintain its ability to perform its objectives.

Lets say that in the enemy’s second turn he charges a unit of 8 knights into your unit of 5 with an exalted champion. He is going to have 5 attacks on you that will hit on 4’s, wound on 3’s, and save on 4’s. Basically, you can expect to lose 1 or 2 knights. You respond with 8 attacks that hit on 3’s, wound on 2’s, and save on 4’s basically, you kill 3 to 4 enemy, the result is you win combat, and if your enemy breaks, you can pursue deeper into his rear, which will then allow you rear charges in support of the infantry instead of flank charges, even better. Of course if your enemy happens to be Night Goblins, then you really should have the ever useful 30 points of hounds to charge forward and release the fanatics instead of doing it with your knights, because guess what, your knights will die quickly against S5 no armor save hits.

The Echelon: This formation works best when you have a lot of different speeds in your army, or if you can exercise enough control to keep your forces moving at differing rates. For my example I have dumped my chariots in favor of Daemonettes on Steeds of Slaanesh. Furies, Dragon, Giant, Minotaurs, Dragon Ogres, etc. also lend a lot to this formation, as they vary the speeds and hitting strengths of your force as you advance. One of the benefits of this formation is that your enemy will have to adjust his unit placement, and maneuver his forces to react to your advance. And if he overdoes it can expose his flank to you.

This formation is the only one that benefits from not keeping your forces online as you advance, as this would negate the benefits of the formation. Remember that your purposes (objectives) are critical to maintain, even in this formation. This is a great formation for a breakthrough scenario, but can function well for others. Again, remember to pick your fights. Minotaurs aren’t likely to break heavy infantry by themselves, but support them with a spawn or two, or some knights, etc. and you should get through well enough.

With each of these formations, remember that flexibility is still the key to success. Another thing to remember is the old adage “No plan survives first contact intact.” This means that you may have to adjust your plan based upon either the success or failure of your units as they make contact. It is also very critical to remember that in any tactical situation, the enemy has a vote. If you plan on doing and echelon left, and your enemy lines up with his forces attempting to envelop you on the same side, your battle plan may have to change.

Back to the Tower