The 5 Kinds of Units You Should Always Bring to the Table

With over a dozen armies available from Games Workshop alone, there's a huge level of diversity between the different kinds of units that the armies have access to. However, most of these unique units seem to serve the same purpose in all armies across the board, leading to the axiom that there are always things you're going to need in a competitive army. They may take different forms, but they serve the overall same purpose as a whole. So, let's take a look at what exactly these units/models do and why you always see them. Note that these are not listed in any order, they're just placed at random because in my mind they're almost all equally necessary in a competitive army.

#5: The Footmen Horde
Quantity is a quality in and of itself, and one need look no further than the humble infantry horde. However, a lot of people misinterpret this unit. For a lot of players, a horde formation brings to mind the cheapest infantry unit from the Core section in a 10x4-5 formation with full command to act as an effective tar pit for stopping monstrous cavalry and other nasty units like that. But that doesn't always need to be the case. Unless you're playing Bretonnians you will always need to have to have boots on the ground, and with artillery and bomb spells being as prevalent as they are, having a lot of guys to back up the ones that get killed off before then comes in handy. The Footmen Horde acts as a very flexible unit that can be used to tie up enemy units, punch through enemy lines, and act as a bunker to provide shelter for your General, BSB, and Level 4. Depending on what kinds of troops you're using, the horde will function more effectively in different capacities. For example, a horde of Ironguts will function differently than a horde of Longbeards will. Whether you want to make an offensive or defensive build, you will use different infantry for the different uses. However, you will inevitably find a use for a horde in any situation. It's a great mental intimidation tactic, because even Goblins looks scary when there's fifty of them gumming up your battle plan. Trust me, no army is complete without a horde of some kind in it. Even MSU lists tend to have a single horde to help provide the extra punch due to it's necessity. Seriously, it's an indispensable tool in the toolbox that is your Warhammer Fantasy Army. With the prevalence of artillery and big bomb spells that absolutely kill lone characters, having some bodies to form a meat shield can come in real handy.

#4: Level 4 Wizard
I know I've said it once already, but a Level 4 Wizard is completely necessary for any and all competitive army lists. Even for armies like Orcs n Goblins and Skaven where they're pretty much restricted to their signature lores, the power of adding +4 to any casting or dispel value is damned irreplaceable in any situation. Ask a Dwarf player why he brings a Runelord, because +4 to dispel kicks ass even for an army that can't use magic (not counting the Anvil of Doom cause that thing sucks now and nobody takes it anymore) and has all kinds of tricks and runes to counter magic. No matter what kind of list you're building, he's a piece that's well in your advantage to have regardless of what he costs. If you're building an MSU style list, I suggest lores that have a lot of Direct Damage or Magic Missile spells to help clear dangerous chaff and shave the numbers off of a few units your opponent may have in bigger formations. The Lore of Fire and the Lore of Metal I find compliment MSU lists very well. For a Horde style army, I tend to find that lores with more of an emphasis on Augments and Hexes help gain an advantage in the dreaded horde-on-horde grinding that sometimes comes with a combat-oriented army with lots of guys in a single unit. The Lores of Life and Shadow seem to be most effective in my experience. In Gun Line armies, look no further than the more utilitarian lores like Heavens and Death. Lores that have spells that cover certain niches that your build can't cover very well. Like sniping a character out of a horde with Death Magic or making all enemy artillery have to a roll a 4+ in order to hit their target. However, I've heard many proponents of a different magical synergy theories and I can't say for sure that my theory is in fact the axiom of magical use in various army builds. At the end of the day, bring a Level 4. Consult my article on Combat Lords vs Support Lords for more information, but please, if the point allowance is high enough, take a Level 4.

#3: Expendable Units
In war people die, and since warhammer is a game revolving around war, it stands to reason that models are going to die. No matter how lucky or how superb you are at list building, you are always going to loose models. In fact, Games Workshop makes quite a few models that are specifically designed to simply get killed right off. These units are as essential to an army as the other two subjects mentioned above are. The have many names, you may recognize a few of these; Chaos Warhounds, Pegasus Knights, Harpies, Terradon Riders, Dark Riders, Pistoliers, the list goes on and on. Mostly, they have three main purposes. A) They are used to redirect and put enemy units out of position. B) They are effective for hunting lone characters, other weaker units, and artillery pieces. C) They are used to engage enemies in support in the flank or in kamikaze engagements designed to detain or whittle down enemy units. No matter what scenario you roll up, chaff will almost always have a necessary place in warhammer fantasy. Considering how important the movement phase is in this game, redirecting and out positioning can be the difference between winning and loosing the game. Most of the time these guys are cheap, fast moving, and may have long range capabilities for going after other people. Regardless, all MSU lists, Gun Line lists, and Horde list all have a need for expendable units and chaff.

#2: Shooting Unit(s)
Now, before all you people start dropping comments about how bad BS-based shooting is in 8th edition, I am well aware of that fact. However, I do feel that a lot of people view this phase as a whole is simply wrong. See, people tend to have a habit of treating each phase individually. There's a vague inkling of realizing that they all work together in certain ways, but people seem to think that each phase is to cause as much impact in that particular phase as possible. Need I say more than bomb spells? So many people I know think that the magic phase is just there to shoot off a Purple Sun with six dice. I think it's more to support your different units given their positions on the battlefield. The same goes for the Shooting Phase, it's not their to remove whole blocks on models at a time, it's designed to support the strategy of your army. Most especially when two big blocks are about to crash into each other. In grinding situations, any shred of advantage you can get, any small amount of kills will help you. For example, when I play my Bretonnians, my Trebuchets and Peasant Bowmen are there to take a few models off those hordes I charge my lances into in an attempt to eliminate Steadfast that so troubles Bretonnians. They're not there to completely destroy units, unless it's chaff that's going to block up my units. I think that all four phases of the game are important, but I will grant you that this one is probably the least important of the four in total. Still important, but not as important as the other ones. Unless you play Wood Elves or all artillery lists, in which case you've already gone off the reservation more than I can fathom.

#1: Killy Unit
Yes, the humble unit that everyone dreams of having in their army, standing in the middle of the board, slaughtering enemies left and right. This takes many forms and many guises so it's hard to really describe what exactly this unit is. The more accurate thing I can use to describe it is by what it does. Even if you play Wood Elves, you have to get into combat eventually. You need a unit that can compete in combat, that can kill and avoid being killed as much as you can. The list for these guys is insane, but I will try to list as many as I can to describe exactly what I'm talking about. White Lions, Demigryph Knights, Hydras, Maneaters, Minotaurs, etc. See what I mean? This unit can be a monster, a block of elite infantry, elite cavalry, monster cavalry, monster infantry, basically anything that's got high stats, lots of combat potential, and some form of protection. They're also usually very expensive and also usually the best units to send into combat unsupported. Every army has a unit designed to do this, even those avoidance loving Wood Elves. Treemen specifically. Hell, some armies specialize in fielding these units. Warriors of Chaos armies are filled with all kinds of nasty things that are just designed to be erasers in combat. This is also what ties up all of these factor together, without a killy unit, your army would be essentially a meal with no meat and potatoes, something that I have a  problem with. Now, you do need to know exactly what units you need to given the situation. For example, a Giant can kill a whole lotta shit. However, it's not the best thing in the world, especially given it's performance and price. A wizard can kill it with magic, a flank charge can result in loosing combat and being run down. So, this results in seeing elite infantry and cavalry more often then not to be used for in this situation.

So that's all I have for today, and I hope all you tactical guys got a kick out of this list, and if you agree or disagree please leave a comment below.    
  
    

Bringing Bretonnian Into the Future: Part 4

Now we get into the core section, the section that really needs to be improved to keep Bretonnia anywhere near usable. So, we're going to start with one of my bread-and-butter units of my army, the Knights Errant. So for 20 points, you get a unit that has automatically has heavy armor, a lance, a shield, a hand weapon, and mounted on a barded horse. They're also rocking a stat line of M8, WS, BS, I, S, T of 3, A1, and Ld7. Now, for 20 points, that's a damned good bang for my buck even at this point in time. However, I would like to see them a little cheaper just to allow more models to help deal with those damned Stubborn or Steadfast hordes. You're going to be hearing that a lot in this series by the way. Now, for the cheaper cost of the two mounted knight options in this book, you do have to pay the piper. Their special rule (Impetuous) means they must take a Leadership test to restrain from a possible charge, meaning they can be Frenzy-baited. However, they are ITP on the charge, which allows the Cruise Missile Lance (refer to the Virtue of the Impetuous Knight) to take out nasty things like Soulgrinders and Daemon Princes. They're also one less WS than their big brother in the same section, but being cheaper balances this out for me. Now, they get a champion upgrade for free, but the Musician and Standard  upgrade needs to be balanced out with the other army books at 10 points per upgrade. They can take a 25 point magic standard, which I gladly will trade for sole access to the Errantry Banner. Also, the last thing is that they need to have their unit size restriction increased to more than 15. Maybe 21 or something, I don't know if that's truly feasible, I'm just throwing a number out there right now. But that's all that needs to be changed for me. Their stats are fine, their cost is not in that desperate for a decrease, and they're still one of the most effective Core units in the game in my humble opinion. Now we go to their big brother in the Core section, the Knights of the Realm. They have the same stat line as an Errantry Knights, with the exception of having +1 WS and Ld. They cost 24 points a piece, and they have the same equipment as the Errant Knights. They also get a free champion upgrade, and yes their Standard and Musician upgrades need to be upgraded. They can also take a magic standard worth up to 25 points. Again, I have practically the same opinion of these guys as I do the ones above this. They need to be tweaked slightly, but not my too much and they're not in that desperate of a need of an overhauling. I think they should not have access to magic standards, but that's just my opinion. By now you may be wondering why I was so forewarning about this section needing to be fixed. Well, it's coming up right now. Men-At-Arms. These guys seem like a brilliant idea at first. You can take a huge block of these guys as a tar-pit without running the risk of panicking any of your important units. Then you look at their cost, 5 points a piece. You're idea seems even better at this point. Then you get to their stat line. WS and BS of 2, S, T, and I, of 3, M4, A1, Ld5. That's when all hope begins to fail. Then you see their only defense is 5+ armor. These guys are too slow and too weak to actually be even effective at this. They need to be tweaked very seriously in their stat line, and their cost would still be effective in my opinion. They should have WS3 right off the bat in order to make them anywhere near as close to usable as Peasants can get. Just, just horrible. The only redeeming grace of these guys is that they are cheap both points and actual money. Next we have Peasant Bowmen, a much better choice in my opinion. For 6 points you get a Peasant with a BS3 and a Longbow. Having 36" range on anything can really make you a threat anywhere on the battlefield. They also have a really cool ability to take braziers (which means they get Flaming Attacks) and defensive stakes (the best way to make BS shooting units destroy fast cavalry). I will be sad to say that the defensive stakes will probably be gone in the next book, because it's just a little wonky in 8th edition. But still awesome and I would really like to see it stick around. They can skirmish, which is interesting but I've never done it and I know of no one who has. These guys are so much better than Men-At-Arms, it's ridiculous. Having a unit or two of these guys on the board makes your knights a little safer with some shooting to help support them. I have seen these guys with a brazier wipe out Troll blocks. The best Peasant bang for your buck until we get into the Rare section. So, most of our stuff just needs to be repriced and have some slight things re-worked. I don't think we're missing anything except for a fast cav unit. Almost every book nowadays has chaff available in their Core, Dark Riders for Dark Elves, etc. The Mounted Yeomen, those bastards need to be in here in the next book. That's really all I would like to see on our Core section. Stay tuned next time to here about the Special section.