OK, it has taken me a while to get back to this article, but hey, we move on. Let’s now talk about tactics against our enemies, since this is the meat and potatoes of a tactical manual. How do we effectively fight our enemies without violating any of the principles of war? Answer, just do it. Without the principles in mind, we may very likely lose.

Let’s first look at the likely types of armies, by category, which we can expect to fight against. There are shooty armies, all Cavalry armies, all fast cavalry armies, small elite armies (usually when we face off against other chaos players), Hordes, and balanced armies (referred to hereon out as Combined arms.)

The Shooty army can be very annoying to play against as it will hold back as far as possible and attempt to destroy your forces long before you can get to the one thing that you do really well, close combat. Several examples of the shooty army are the Empire Gun Line, the all archer wood elves, the Dark Elf RXB line with RBTs, the Dwarven Thunderers line, and a skaven army with all clanrats and Ratling guns. The science of beating a shooty army is open to discussion, but there are several things that seem to work well against them.

First is to try to envelope them as quickly as possible. I would recommend a single envelopment or echelon formation for this mission, as a double will limit the odds of getting your forces into CC as effectively.

The second option against this type of army is to confuse him with many units (sometimes referred to as a target rich environment.) The confusion doesn’t usually work well for us, as we are likely to be outnumbered to begin with, so I’d say go with the single envelopment as your primary means. Above all avoid the wedge. I say this with some force because this formation will allow your enemy to prioritize his targets based upon who moves the closest to him. Just think about it for a second before you disagree with me on this point. If you try a wedge, led by chaos knights right down the center of the battle line, then every single shooting model in the enemy force will target your knights first, then your monsters (ogres, minotaurs, etc.), then your warriors and/or your chariots, and finally your beastmen or marauders. As this type of army will generally be set up to allow it three rounds of shooting before you can get to close combat, you will be reduced to combat ineffective by the time you get there.

With the envelopment/echelon, if you deploy your fast movers last, you will face less fire on a single flank then you would in the center. If you have flyers in your army, then these are the guys to move furthest and fastest along the extreme flank of your army. Remember, a standard battlefield has 24” of ground to cover between deployment zones, and with the shooty army, you should expect it to be more like 30 – 32” of ground. That’s 3 march moves and a charge for your warriors to get into close combat, two march moves and a charge for your beastmen, bestigors, minotaurs, trolls, and Dragon Ogres, and one flight and a charge for your Furies, Daemon Characters, or Mounted Daemonettes. Who then do you think your enemy will shoot first?

The fun part about this enemy is if you do make it to close combat. His shooters may try to flee as a reaction to your charge, but in doing so may flee off the board, or they may choose stand and shoot as you close, which is fine for Khorne, Slaanesh, and Undivided marked units, who will not panic as a result, and in turn just crush the unit that did it (most shooting units will be deployed at maximum two ranks deep, and won’t have a banner, so you can expect to need only a CR of three to beat them, this means Warriors with a rank (what’s left after shooting), and a banner need only to kill one shooter to win close combat. Any weapons combination for your warriors will do well in this role, as most shooters tend to only be T3 troopers with a maximum of 6+ AS. But, the question remains, how do you get to this point? Easy you just have to make sure that your warriors don’t get shot. Here is where the envelopment is worth its weight in gold.

Flyers or fast cav down the extreme flank have the best chance of reaching the enemy on turn two, so your enemy will shoot at them first, leaving your knights as the next juicy target to deal with, (OK, I’m with you on this one, that’s an awfully expensive sacrificial unit, but bear with me.) This means that your Beasts and/or monsters will be set to charge on turn three, and they should expect to win nearly as easily against shooters as the warriors. If you break your enemy’s units on a turn three charge, he will now have to maneuver his forces to protect the collapsing flank, thus allowing your Warriors and marauders a relatively easy turn four frontal charge, that they should be able to win on. Of course, I have to say it again; here is where the 30-point unit of hounds has great value. They will act as a screen line for your warriors against any stray enemy shots for the first, and hopefully, second turns of the game.

Deployment is critical in success against this type of army, as you don’t want to tip your hand early. My deployment scheme would be, in order: Marauders either off left or off right of center; my beast herd, far right or left (same side as marauders), my Bestigors (or non-chosen warriors), between the marauders and beast herd; My hounds, dead center; my chosen Warriors directly behind the hounds; my chariots, either as a squadron to one side, or one on each side of my chosen; my marauder horsemen, Mounted Daemonettes, or furies to the other extreme flank; my Spawn, to either the right or left of the chariots (same side as the speed troops); and finally my knights to that same flank, between the spawn and the fast troops. The reason to deploy this way is to keep your opponent off balance during deployment. If he thinks your intent is one thing, he will deploy to prevent it rather than deploying his own fight of evenly spaced units, giving your units a better chance of surviving to the third or fourth turn for close combat, and thus dividing his fires between your units instead of focusing on one threat at a time.

All Cavalry armies can prove to be a difficult force to fight as well. The High Elf Cavalry patrol will usually be equipped with at least two bolt throwers, a character with the Sea Bow (effectively a third bolt thrower), and three mages, plus lots of Silver Helms and a strong central unit of Dragon Princes. The Empire Cavalry Patrol will have up to two units of Inner Circle Knights, two plus more units of knights or Winged Lancers, and some pistolliers and possibly Horse Archers, and the really cheesy ones will manage to justify having two great cannons and a Hell Blaster or Steam Tank for good measure. Dark Elves will field Dark Riders with RXBs as their core choices, Cold One Knights and Chariots as their Specials, and a monster of some sort, plus they’ll probably try to work in to RBTs as well. Are you seeing a theme develop here? No matter what the all cav army will somehow manage to justify an all fast attack army supported by at least two non-moving units that are deadly, with the one exception of Bretonnians. How then do we beat them?

Tactically speaking, we are ill prepared to fight this type of army. Think about it for a second, this is an army designed to hit harder, and with more shock value in close combat than we do. Plus we are ill equipped to take a charge, since we have no spears, pikes, crossbows, artillery, or rifles. The answer here is that we must do something completely un-chaos like; we must screen our main forces with smaller, cheaper units, and then flee from a charge. Against this type of army, Khorne and Slaanesh stand the best chance of taking the fight to them, but Tzeentch, Nurgle and Undivided can also win through different means. With Slaanesh or Khorne we need to have at least an equal amount of throw-away units as we do hard hitters, this means we need lots of small beast herds, marauder units, hounds, or horsemen, at least equal to our Warriors, Knights, Chariots, and Daemons. The joy of this force is that if you can lure them in, you will actually outnumber them in most cases, which is a rare and special occasion for a chaos force, and you just might win the CR fight. Think of it, 12 Chosen Warriors, armed with Great Weapons or Halberds charge a unit of 5 Knights, whoohoo! You now actually have a CR value of 4 at the start of the fight, plus a good chance of killing one or two of the enemy, and the enemy with a not-so-good chance of hitting you back. Even the toughest knights in the game (namely our own,) would have a seriously difficult time overcoming this advantage. So how do we get there?

The Double envelopment, or to be more precise, a reverse wedge, is a good formation to work with against these guys. The center of your force should be stacked with beast herds and hounds supported by warriors, Bestigors, and monsters in the center, with wings of knights, Chariots, more monsters, and fast Cavalry or fliers. The fast cav/Flier is mandatory here as the enemy, as stated earlier is likely to have some heavy support backing up its knights. If you are playing an army other than Khorne or Slaanesh, it is vitally important that your main units outnumber your throw away ones, as panic can still beat you more easily than a 12-strong unit of knights.

In proper Chaos fashion, we must still advance rapidly to give us a reasonable chance at winning this fight, but we must do this with some uncharacteristic caution. The wings can advance faster than the main body, and the fast cav should haul-butt towards the enemy arty, but otherwise, you have to be very aware of your enemy’s charge range. If your enemy moves first, and is foolish, he will move fast towards you, this is anywhere from 14 to 18 inches on turn one. Mathematically, if he goes balls out, you can charge the enemy on turn one, and the game is yours, if your enemy is more tactically minded, he will advance 8 or 9 inches, and wait to see what you do. Pay close attention to your enemy’s movement here, as he is trying to get you into his charge range, while keeping you out. This is where it can get interesting. If your enemy has a charge distance of 14 inches, and moves forward 8, then you need to move your forces forward in this manner: Your screen troops move forward 5”, and your heavy forces move to where they are exactly 1 ¾” forward of your deployment zone edge. OK, this is gamesmanship, here, but remember, your enemy is armed with a can of cheese wiz, so beat him with it.

If he charges your screen unit, you flee. You need to roll a grand total of 3 or higher on your flee roll, easy to do, so that your troops won’t block your charge LOS, and your enemy, having failed its charge, and unable to redirect into your main unit, is within your 8” charge range. If the enemy charge range is greater than 14”, you have to do the math, and figure it out, but it basically equates to your main unit may have to move forward to exactly the 12” deployment line, and risk the redirect, or you march your sacrificial unit forward, and hope they get run down by the chargers, who will now be in your charge range. Elves get even worse, in that you are facing an 18” charge range, so you definitely have to lose your sacrificial unit to be able to charge them with your warriors. Bestigor math is a little better against 14 or 16” charges, but the 18” is still difficult.

OK, lets face it, you’re going to lose some units in this one, but do what you can to limit the damage. If you succeed in getting some charges off, do what you can to break through in a hurry, and get back to help your other units. The more CR you can bring to bear against the all cavalry army, the better chance you have of scattering them to the four winds.

The all fast cavalry army is only playable by a wood elf or a dark elf. This is a force that is all core, all fast Cav, and a real pain in the butt. These guys will avoid contact at all cost and lead you on a merry chase. Khorne is the least preferred god against this army, as the Frenzy is what these guys are set to use. Nurgle is perhaps the best choice against this force, as Fear can really mess up their world. The way to fight this army is to line up all the way across the board and move forward on-line. This is not a tactic that was discussed in part two of this document, but is your best hope for achieving victory. You must herd these guys towards the rear of their own deployment zone as they will flee from any charge, and will be trying to work their way behind you for a rear charge. Both of these armies can be expected to have some form of flier included, and likely some big ugly to cause terror in the ranks, but we can deal with those fairly easily. The trick is to not open any holes that they can easily slip through. If you charge, make sure everybody around you moves a similar distance, if possible, to not open up any corridors for the fast cav to sneak through.

One thing you don’t want to do is get caught up with one of your heavy hitters playing the reform peek-a-boo game with his fast cav or fliers, as you’ll never succeed in catching them. If they do get in behind you, take a page from their own book and flee from a charge (marauders and beast herds only), or hold your ground and beat them to a pulp with warriors, Bestigors and knights. Its a cool thing that the best these guys can manage saving throw wise is a 5+, which against warriors with hand weapon and shield is reduced to a 6+, and knights eliminate totally, plus the best S they can hit you with is 4, so again, you have the advantages of numbers, toughness, and strength to use to your advantage, plus they will be in small units without banners so you can probably take the rear charge, and still win the CR fight.

The other option we might consider here is an echelon. Provided we can set it up without any holes large enough for him to sneak through. The bottom unit of the echelon needs to be the pivot man, and treat the entire fight as a single unit doing a huge wheel if you can picture it. The anchoring unit needs to be basically against the board edge in our deployment zone, and then every other unit moves forward on a wheel. This effectively drives our enemy backwards as we approach it, eventually allowing us to charge his low toughness, low CR units at our pleasure. Winged things may hurt us a bit with this tactic, but we should be able to beat off a small unit of flyers into our rear, especially since they don’t nullify our rank bonus.

The small, elite army is usually what we face off against from other Chaos Players. These will usually contain Chosen Knights, Chosen Warriors, Shaggoths, Giants, A super Lord on Dragon, etc. In fact, I have seen this very army in play, just as spelled out above. When facing one of our own, we just have to beat them straight away. Let’s face it, we know our weaknesses, so we can use them to our own advantage here. Lets put our own general someplace centrally located to help out with the LD tests for the Beast Herds, Marauders, and doggies. Make sure we have enough units on the board to charge each of his tiny little units in the front, flank and rear all at the same time, and just beat the hell out of him with CR.

Let’s look at the components of this force. Chaos Knights, usually chosen, usually 4-5 strong, usually with an exalted champion or Lord. OK, how do we beat them. We charge them with our own knights, and flank with dogs, marauders, and chariots. Impact hits will still hurt one or two of them, our knights may cause a wound, and our doggies will give us outnumber and +1CR for the fight. In return, we can probably expect to take two or three casualties, which means we win by one or two, and any fool can roll a seven on two dice to break. Guess what, you’ve now taken a ¼ of his army.

Then we have the giant, If we charge a giant with frenzied, or immune to Psych Bestigors, complete with the Beast Banner, we can really do some damage to this guy. We wound on a 4, and have 9 attacks hitting on 3’s. Plus we have a CR of 3 Ranks, a banner, and outnumber. OK, the bastard is stubborn, but if he falls over when he makes his stubborn test, we’ve really got him nailed. The Shaggoth is more troublesome. I mean, this is the hardest of the hard when it comes to Chaos. To beat him, we just have to swarm him. Even a shaggoth can’t beat a CR of 8 (3 ranks, outnumber, flank, Banner, Rear) Now for the final piece of this puzzle, the lord on dragon. Yuck! OK, well, I don’t really know either. Empire, Dwarf, Dark Elf, and High Elf armies can kill this guy relatively easily, But what have we got? We just have to slug it out with him with great weapons, Halberds, and Knights, and hope we can cause enough wounds to kill it, and over power it with CR. Having went through all of this, it looks as though the double envelopment is the tactic of choice against this force, as it gives us the best opportunity to get simultaneous front, flank and rear charges in multiple locations at a single time. The difficult piece to this army is if he uses something other than a wedge against us. If he tries an echelon or envelopment against us, its just going to be head to head fighting, and then all bets are off as to who will win.

The Horde army. This is just a nasty piece of work if done right. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately most Skaven players will be so busy adding nasty shooty stuff that they’ll forget that their strength is in numbers against us. Other hordes we can expect to fight are Infantry based Empire with lots of detachments, and the ever present Greenskins. Some might even be willing to make up a Beasts or Marauders based Horde army. If done right the Horde should outnumber us anywhere from 2-4 to 1. This means our chance of getting flank and rear charges is severely limited. Against a true horde, I feel the wedge is our best chance. Just thinking about it, we just need to send everyone as fast and as hard as we can straight through the middle, break up his battle line, and then turn around and face off against anything he has left (that hasn’t panicked off the board.)

Of course there are still some cautions to this tactic. Against a green player, there is likely to be some nasty units, especially Night Goblins, not that the Night Goblins themselves are particularly difficult, but those nasty little fanatics in them will slaughter our chosen Chaos knights with little effort, and no armor save. My suggestion then is if he deploys his NGs on a flank, then ignore them, if he deploys them in the center, then lead with the almighty hounds, who cares if we lose 30 points to spring 75 points of potentially lethal force.

Against Skaven, the hounds (screening this time) are also a logical choice as any unit of Clanrats is likely to be supported by the ever despised ratling gun (this thing is nasty, even to our most powerful units, it auto hits, it is S5, and is –3 to our saves, basically it kills chaos knights quite handily.) Fortunately, if we can break the Ratling’s parent, he will most likely panic on his LD5 attempt, but we have to get them first. Spawn are potentially the single answer to the ratling problem, but we still have to survive a hail of warpstone bullets as we charge in.

The Empire Infantry Horde is problematical as well. The detachments can counter charge us in our flanks and ruin any hopes we have of CR wins. The answer to this one is that we just have to charge the parent and dets all at the same time. A spawn, some knights, and some hounds should effectively ruin this guys day. The spawn goes into the det with the missile weapons, hopefully surviving the inevitable stand and shoot reaction (hitting on 5’s wounding on 5’s, and making a fear test), The Marauder horse into the Infantry det, and the Knights into the parent. This makes the Empire less effective in close combat. The Shooters will likely break, thus allowing your spawn into the enemy backfield, and moving as fast as possible towards the nearest artillery piece, the marauders should be able to achieve at least a draw, and your knights should easily chop through the main unit, or at least be able to hold for the first turn.

Finally we come to the balanced, combined arms army. This army will have some fast cav, some heavy cav, some heavy infantry, some light infantry, some artillery, and one or two specialty units (maybe a monster or two, or some Ogre sized critters.) There really is no secret to beating the balanced army, because it is balanced. This is an opponent who has taken a lot of time to develop a force that is not to over-the-top, and supports its own weakness with its own strengths. A balanced Empire army may look like this: 2 units of 20 infantry (spears or swords) each supported by a shooting and a close combat detachment, some handgunners, one or two small units of Knights, a unit of Pistolliers, a Cannon, a Mortar, and a Hellblaster. This army, in the hands of a good player will give even the best general fits. As this army will likely be playing an envelopment tactic, so them should we. The trick here is to meet his envelopers head on with our own. Our knights, on the charge at least stand a better chance of beating his, and so maybe breaking through, and running amok in his rear. Our fast cav must move down a flank, and get set up to charge his artillery by turn 3 at the latest, and our infantry must just slo it out in the face of his fire until we can get close combat.

Again, we must set ourselves up to hit his infantry and detachments at the same time if possible, this time with warriors in the center and marauders on the detachments, or beast herds, daemons, whatever. A 12 strong unit of warriors with any weapon choice is usually enough to break ranked up regular infantry, all we have to do is cause a grand total of three unanswered wounds, even with non-chosen warriors with hand weapon and shield we should do this handily, five attacks, hitting on 3’s, wounding on 3’s should get us there, Chosen warriors with HW Shield combo definitely does it, Chosen with 2 HW’s as well, Halberds and great weapons wound on 2’s, so again we have it. Our marauders will take on a unit that they actually outnumber, and the guys who face the shooters once again just have to face the blast of 5 handguns in the face, heck hounds can do this, lose and panic, and the fight is still ours.

Well, I think this should wrap things up for now. I will continue to work on this as I can, but for now, I think it is a fairly good manual for the Chaos Player.

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