Flying cavaly units are pretty rare in Warhammer: The Old World, and the Warhawk Riders are definitely the fastest and most mobile. But even in army that’s all about mobility, do they have what it takes to make them effective?

Continuing my series on Wood Elf units, in this article I take a look at the Warhawk Riders and try to answer that question.

Stats and Special Rules

Warhawk Riders are the only Monstrous Cavalry rank and file unit in the army, and come on a 50x50mm base (which is bumped from previous editions when they ran on 40x40mm), the same size base as their larger cousins, the Great Eagles. Also like the Eagles, they have T4 but sadly only 2 Wounds (compared to the Eagle’s 3). Other than that, the Rider statline is the same as for a Glade Rider, and like the Glade Rider comes equipped with both Asrai Longbow and Cavalry Spear. The hawk itself gets 2 attacks at WS3 and S4 AP -2, which is not bad.

For Special Rules, the Warhawks come with everything you’d expect from flying Elven cavalry: Elven Reflexes (which only applies to riders), Fly (10), Skirmishers and Swiftstride. There’s also a few extra rules that start to flesh out what their intended role in the army is meant to be. Oddly, like the Glade Riders, they don’t get Move Through Cover.

Feigned Flight, Fire & Flee and Evasive combined with their ability to take enchanted arrows for their Asrai Longbows all lean toward this unit being a ranged threat (although the 8pt champion upgrade gets both +1 BS and +1 A–more on this later). However, at 44pts per model, plus 2 points for e.g. Hagbane tips, you’re paying 138 points for a minimum unit size of 3 which has just 6 wounds total. Having Evasive helps protect the unit from missile fire, because even though they have T4, they have no saves whatsoever, which makes them a prime target for your opponent’s ranged attacks.

The unit can’t have a banner or a musician, but with Feigned Flight giving an automatic rally when you Fire & Flee, this isn’t such a big deal. The champion can take a magic item up to 25 points, which might potentially be an Obsidian Lodestone, but I suspect the fewer points invested in the unit the better, given their likelihood to die.

The final special rule is Fear, which I’ll cover next as we discuss their role on the battlefield.

Battlefield Role

With only 3 shots in the unit, the ranged damage output on this unit is minimal. Compared to 138 points of Deepwood Scouts (9 models with Hagbane tips), you’re getting one third of the shooting power. So, how would I use Warhawks?

I think their potential use is to help huntdown War Machines and solo Wizards in the backfield. Getting into combat on T2 after a 20″ march down the extreme flank is pretty essential if you want to avoid them getting shot or magic missiled to death. Causing Fear means that they’ll ignore the Fear caused by e.g. Liche Priests and potentially even get the drop on some cowardly war machine crew. Against a lone wizard, you’ll get two models into base contact, both doing 3 S4 attacks, likely hitting 3 times and maybe getting one wound in, which might be enough to win the combat. If you’re able to cause Fear, the odds of surviving go up.

However, it’s hard to recommend them for this role, because of their lack of survivability. It’s just as likely that the wizard or war machine will shoot them off before they get into combat, and most assailment spells will likely do more wounds than the Warhawks will in close combat – the hawk being only WS3 makes hitting a lot less consistent than I would like. Deepwood Scouts are both a Core choice and are definitely better at war machine hunting. But maybe there’s something to this Wizard hunting thing, particularly as I see more and more players deploying their wizards beside the bunker rather than in it …

Wizard Hunting

What if I put a combat character on a Warhawk into a unit with them? That would certainly make them more likely to kill Wizards, and it would give some shooting protection to the character in the form of warm bodies to soak up the damage. This is maybe a niche use for them, but you’d be then committing somewhere between 250 and 350 points into that unit … increasing the likelihood that they become a primary target for your opponent which is not great when they have no saves. A Glade Captain on a Warhawk is 100 points base, or 104 if you give her a Great Weapon, and that could potentially do a decent amount of damage in hunting an enemy Wizard. Taking a BSB with the War Banner, you could now get 2 base combat res, cancelling out some static res of your opponent’s. Give the BSB a Giant Blade for some extra oomph …

I’ve considered them also as a bunker for a Warhawk riding Spellweaver, but my ‘Weaver ends up being great at dodging enemy fire anyways, and you’d need a unit of at least 5 Warhawks to actually give the benefit of a Look Out, Sir! roll … spending 132 points for a meat shield seems like it would be better spent on a Glade Riders unit with Reserve Move (110 points for 5 with Hagbane Tips). But let’s explore it a bit further. If the Wizard has High Magic, he could at least make them Ethereal from Walk Between Worlds, which would protect the unit for a lot longer, and Drain Magic would make them harder to nuke off the board with a Ruby Ring. Shield of Saphery could offer a further 5+ Ward Save if the enemy had a lot of magical attacks that would cancel out Ethereal, and Fury of Khaine would give each model 2 more attacks (one each for rider and mount) in close combat. So now you have a unit that can pump out 20 attacks from 4 models and take zero damage back, assuming the enemy has no magical attacks. They can get way in the backfield and harrass whatever they like, from pretty much any angle because Skirmisher gives them a 360° charge arc. The wizard build might be: L4, High Magic, Warhawk, Lore Familiar, Talismanic Tattoos, Ruby Ring of Ruin and optionally Spealleater Axe for an extra MR -2, coming in at 325. Add 4 Warhawks in at 176, and you have a 500 point unit that is very difficult to kill, can easily hunt down enemy wizards or war machines and protects your L4. It’s not optimal, but it is at least viable.

You could put both the BSB and the Wizard into the unit, and now you have a 700+ point unit that will be really hard to kill and that can dish out some decent combat damage, be in combat virtually anywhere on the battlefield by T2, and can likely win any non magical combat, and most likely kill a wizard before they have a chance to strike back. But that’s the rub: a lot of armies have access to magical attacks (e.g. most of Warriors of Chaos, Chaos Dwarfs, Daemons, heck even our own Forest Spirits) and of course all the magic missiles. So this is definitely risky tactic to use. Fun though!

Conclusions

When comparing Warhak Riders points-wise with other units, it’s hard to justify them on the battlefield at all. Sisters of the Thorn cost the same for a minimum unit plus champion and standard, and will put out more shooting potential, more battlefield threat (with their bound spell) and survive longer having only 1 wound less (5) but protected with a 4+ ward. And the Great Eagle does a lot of the same job but for half the points, while also doubling as chaff.

So sadly, Warhawk Riders are really only likely fielded in a general purpose “take on all-comers” list for one reason: because you like the models and want to play with them (aka The Rule of Cool). Any role they have on the tabletop is probably better filled by a different unit: Deepwood Scouts or Great Eagles for War Machine hunting, or Glade Riders as a Wizard Bunker. The one niche might be for hunting wizards with the help of High Magic Spellweaver, but unless I’m taking two L4s, I prefer my Spellweaver on her own Warhawk, with the brOaken Stave, Talisman of Protection wielding Battle Magic.

Maybe the Arcane Journal will gift us something to make the Warhawk Riders a bit more appealing. Or maybe I’m missing something that you’ve found? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, or on our Discord!

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Probably my favourite unit in the army roster, I’m stoked to move on to writing about Wild Riders. The ultimate “glass cannon” unit, Wild Riders hit like a truck but die to even the mildest attacks. In this article, I’m going to talk about the pros and cons of the unit, and techniques I’ve found for getting the most out of them.

Stats and Special Rules

Wild Riders are elite cavalry, and their stat line reflects that. They have 1 Attack at WS5–I think only Grail Knights have higher WS?–and S4 base, along with I5 and Ld9 (you’ll rarely use their Leadership though!). Their mounts are also S4, something that often catches opponents by surprise and usually helps with getting an extra wound or two. Like all Elves, they are T3, and they come with Light Armour and a Hunting Spear for 27 points. An extra point per model will buy you shields, and each of the command group costs 7 points. The banner can be up to 50 points, and the champion has a 25 point item limit. That’s it! Not a lot in the way of customisation, and frankly not a lot of need for it either. The Hunting Spear can only be used on the charge, and is S+1, AP -2, AB (1) (don’t forget the Armour Bane! It can really help at times).

Like all Wood Elves, they have Move Through Cover and Elven Reflexes. The unit is Light Cavalry, and has Swiftstride, Fast Cavalry and Open Order special rules. Those last two mean that after any move that isn’t a charge or flee, you get a free pivot up to 90° (more on this later). And then finally, they have five rules that really make them into the Wild Riders: Fear, Frenzy, Furious Charge, Counter Charge and Talismanic Tattoos. Frenzy and Furious Charge both only affect the riders, not the mounts, but it means that any turn in which you charge more than 3″, you have 3 attacks per model, which is monstrously good! Counter Charge means you’ve a 2/3 chance of being able to get that Furious Charge off even when someone else is charging you. The Frenzy also means they don’t care about Fear/Panic/Terror, and they do also cause Fear. Cavalry have Unit Strength of 2 per model, so Fear will occasionally come into play (more on this later too!). Talismanic Tattoos grant a 6+ ward save, so if you take the shields that’s a 5+/6++ which is … well, it’s crap, but occasionally it will keep one model alive, and that’s not nothing.

Battlefield Role

The Wild Riders role is very clearly defined: they are fast moving, hard hitting shock troops. They always want to be charging, not just because of Frenzy, but because it’s the best way to keep them alive and have them score points for you. They win by killing enough models on the charge that there are few to no attacks back, and so you want to select targets that are most likely to give you that opportunity. Here are the criteria I’m looking for:

• WS4 or lower
  • this means hitting on 3+ rather than 4+
• T4 or lower
  • wounding on 3+ or or 2+
• 4+ AS
  • AP -2 makes that a 6+
  • Normally you’re hitting things with a 3+ AS though
• 1 wound each
  • Monstrous Cav / Infantry have an annoying habit of taking 2 wounds and still being around to hit you back and then stomp on you

This means that when the Wild Riders charge on their own, they are usually charging other cavalry, and occasionally infantry. However, the golden rule of Asrai close combat is (say it with me!) “Never charge alone!“

When taking Wild Riders in my list, I am usually running 6. 7 is often a bit too wide for manoeuvring and usually when I get into combat the 7th rider is only able to give 1 supporting attack. 5 didn’t seem to pack enough punch, so 6 it is! People run their heavy cav 4-5 wide, so if you are charging (or counter charging) in the front, you’ll still get all your attacks. You don’t want to have your Wild Riders in two ranks – you want to maximize the chances that you get all 4 attacks per model (3 rider, 1 mount) actually into the unit you’re charging.

Combo charging with two units of 6 Wild Riders is actually pretty difficult and rare just because you’d likely need to be able to charge them into two different arcs to really get the benefits of charging with both. So, I’ve found that the best pairing to combo charge with is your favourite build of Great Stag riding combat character. Here’s the BSB build that I’m enjoying:

There’s a lot to be said about this build, and I’ve now run it often enough to say that I will likely not run Wild Riders without this BSB (or similar). She has a 2+ Armour Save (Great Stag has Armoured Hide (2), +1 from Helm of the Hunt (or HotH as it’s often abbreviated, and so I call her The GotH BSB – hmm, maybe she needs to be painted black …), plus Light Armour and Shield) although this only applies to shooting attacks – it’s 3+ in Close Combat because she uses a Great Weapon. She has +2 static combat res (BSB + War Banner). She’s also a Skirmisher, giving her that amazing 360° charge arc meaning it’s a lot easier to position her correctly to combo charge with the Wild Riders (in other words: you can focus on positioning the Wild Riders correctly for a charge, knowing it’s easy to move the Skirmisher into a complementary spot for combo-charging).

She pumps out a decent amount of damage in combat on the charge:

• 1 S5 impact hit at I10 (Great Stag
• 4 S6 WS7 attacks at I9 (Great Weapon)
• 2 S5 WS4 attacks at I7
• 1 S5 Stomp at I0

The real trick comes from the Befuddlement of Mischiefs, which puts 1 unit in base contact at -1 WS and -1 I for the combat. The GotH, as I’m now calling her, is WS7 and the Wild Riders are WS5. Here’s the To Hit chart with the relevant parts highlighted (blue for Wild Riders, green for The GotH BSB):

As you can see, when a target is WS3 and then drops to WS2 because of the Mischiefs, the Wild Riders go from hitting on 3+ to 2+, and are only hit back on a 5+ (rather than a 4+). This same effect happens for The GotH at WS 4 – they drop to WS3 and are now hit on 2+ and hitting back on 5+. There’s also a minor buff for Wild Riders hitting targets of WS5, as they’ll drop to WS4 and thus can be hit on 3+ instead of 4+. This changes the combat math a lot, and so really helps when thinking about target priorities. Now we know we’ll hit harder against WS3 targets, which includes most monsters and monstrous infantry. We also know that against WS4, the BSB will get that same bump (and the Stag gets bumped from hitting on 4+ to 3+). The BSB is also not afraid of T5 targets, being S5 and S6 for all her attacks. (A final note on the Mischiefs – the -1 I rarely comes into effect except when fighting other things with Strike First, at which point you put them on I9 and striking simultaneously with your BSB. I would not recommend charging a Strike First unit with Wild Riders if you can avoid it.)

Let’s do a little math! In the games I’ve been playing, I’m most commonly charging my Wild Riders into other people’s knights, particularly Chaos Kinghts (at WS5, T4), Knights of the Realm / Empire Knights (WS4, T3) and Knights Errant (WS3, T3). These are all prime targets. Not counting the BSB or mount attacks for the moment, 6 Wild Riders charging into one of these units will do damage as follows:

Clearly Wild Riders blend up other cavalry really well – going first makes a huge difference, and the -1 from the Mischiefs really helps with extra damage output against WS5 and WS3 opponents. Obviously there will be more actual damage output, once you include the mounts and the GotH BSB, and then +3 static combat res for 2 banners and the War Banner. You can also throw this into large infantry blocks, monstrous infantry … pretty much anything that isn’t T5+ and expect the combo charge to do very well.

Here’s the part where causing Fear comes in! Your unit Strength is 12, and your opponent will roll for Fear after you’ve had your attacks, so most likely their unit is quite depleted at this point. [Edit: your opponent must roll for Fear at the start of combat, not when its their turn to fight–thanks Vít!] If they fail that Ld test, they are at -1 to hit back, meaning they hit the Wild Riders on 5s and the BSB on 6s. It’s not going to happen very often, but maybe once or twice over the course of an event, and it’ll be useful if it does!

The other advantage the GotH BSB will give you is the ability to block the compulsory charge from Frenzy. Putting the BSB in front of the Wild Riders will prevent them from being forced to charge. With T4 and a 2+ Armour Save against shooting, she can sit up front and not be afraid of what your opponent might try to shoot her with (although cannonfire is always something to be wary of!). She also has Evasive, if you need to get out of the way in a hurry!

By being in front of the Wild Riders, she’s actually providing them with Partial Cover if someone decides to shoot at them. If you aim to keep Wild Riders at long range for BS shooting attacks, your opponent will be forced into choosing between shooting Wild Riders at -2 or a tough and Evasive BSB, neither of which is a great choice.

Hammer and Anvil

In this classic tactic, the Wild Riders (+ GotH BSB) are of course the Hammer. We have a choice of anvils to use, which will depend a lot upon the style of army you’re playing and your model collection. There are pros and cons to each, which I’ve outlined for them all here. They are all Stubborn, which I think is essential for a good Anvil unit. Likely your army will include at least 1, and potentially more.

Anvils

All of these will work great as anvil, depending on what the rest of your army is doing. If in doubt, use Dryads, as they are the cheapest and most flexible. They can also be used as a screen, chaff, etc. but because of Stubborn, they are still suitable for use as an anvil, taking a hit for the team then Falling Back at an angle to present a flank/rear for the Wild Riders, like this:

In this example, what appears to be a head on charge will become a flank charge, giving you much less risk of attacks back and +1 combat resolution. Make sure when you Fall Back In Good Order that you use your free reform to form into Open Order so that it forces the redirection.

Vulnerabilities

Obviously the biggest risk you have with Wild Riders is Frenzy. The most recent FAQ (1.1) means that there are pretty easy ways to block it, just by putting another unit in front as a screen. I’ve already outlined that I use the GotH BSB for that, but you can also use Great Eagles or even Dryads for this role. Any kind of screen will also help with the next major vulnerability which is being T3 with a 5+ AS … in other words, a prime target for BS shooting attacks. I mentioned eariler about using your GotH BSB to act as Partial Cover, it’s a neat trick. Oh, in case you need the reference, the rules for being in cover are actually in an unintuitive place in the rulebook: p103 under “Obscured Line of Sight”, which is actually a part of the chapter titled “Model & Unit Facing”.

Be wary of other armies using their chaff to bait the Riders into a charge – whoever is screening for them usually needs to be placed correctly to prevent charges in every direction. Also, if you do end up having an overrun you don’t like, Wild Riders have the Fast Cavalry rule, meaning that they can pivot up to 90° after an overrun (Quick Turn rule, under Open Order: after any move that isn’t a charge, march or flee), so it’s a little easier for our Riders to get back into the thick of things if they do accidentally get pulled off course chasing down enemy chaff. [Edit: with the FAQ, any unit (including Frenzied ones) can make a Ld test to reform after wiping out an enemy unit and overrunning – I guess you can still Quick Turn if you fail your Ld test]. Use whatever shooting or magic missiles you have to deal with enemy chaff as early as you can.

But the real problem is currently the meta-defining Magic Missiles, particularly Fireball (and the Ruby Ring) and The Summoning, both of which can easily wreck your Wild Rider unit if not dispelled. There’s no silver bullet here, but here are the different things I’m using to help keep them safe.

• Bring the Oaken Stave (or Broaken Stave as it’s been nicknamed locally). This is our most potent Arcane item, on your L4 Spellweaver. I can’t overstate how good this item is. 27″ Dispel Range vs everyone else’s 24″, so you can stay out of range of their Dispel while still being able to Dispel them. Oh, and when you are Dispelling? Roll 3d6 and drop the lowest. It actually feels like cheating: it’s not, but the math is very good! Apparently the probability shows that 62.4% of the time, 3d6 drop lowest is higher than 2d6, 27.6% of the time it’s lower, and the other 10% of the time it’s a tie which in the case of Dispelling means a loss. The odds of winning a straight up Dispel roll (my 2d6 beats your 2d6) is 44.4%, so it’s like you just got a 40% boost to your odds of winning that roll, which is why it feels like cheating 🙂 Yours for the low price of 40 points. (The downside is very mild: you must be within 3″ of a Forest.)
• Deploy the Wild Riders last, just before characters. This gives you the best chance at being able to keep them away from Enemy Wizards. Figuring out where your enemy will deploy those ranged threats is definitely an important part of the Deployment phase. It also helps you deploy in such a way so as to maximize your chances of getting a charge at your prime sorts of targets, as mentioned earlier.
• Keep a screening unit between the enemy Wizard and your Wild Riders. The GotH BSB can do this pretty well but not entirely on her own, as she only has a 50x50mm base – she doesn’t care about being Fireballed (note, she can use Evasive to get out of range or line of sight, and even if you don’t want to do that she’s still got T4 and a 2+ AS).

Summary

Wild Riders are great, far and away my number one favourite unit to use. They are not the easiest to get the hang of, and there’ll be games where you’ll just lose the whole unit to a Magic Missile because you didn’t position things quite right. But for all those games where you use them right, they will blend up most armies. And always remember the golden rule of Asrai combat:

Never Charge Alone!

How do you use your Wild Riders? Is there any tech or kit you consider must have? Let me know in the comments!

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

I’ve been asked a lot about Eternal Guard, and my feedback has been fairly negative up until now. I’ve had a bit more time to think and test, and I feel like I may have found their role in an Alpha Strike army list that I’ve been calling Eternal Vanguard in my head. It’s reminiscent of the old Sethayla lists from the 6th Edition. I’m going to use a 2,000 point list as an example, but it can be done at 1,500 points by dropping the Glade Lord and Glade Riders.

The List

First off, if you want to play with the list in Old World Builder, here is the data file you need to import it. Strong caveat: this is a theory list that hasn’t been tested in battle yet, but I’m putting my thoughts down here first and then will report back the level of success. There are many options for building the list, I’m just using a concrete example as a good starting point.

Units highlighted in cherry are damage dealers, and are your Attack Wing. Some units are highlighted in leaf green, those are your Drilled Vans (in this case van as in vanguard) and finally, units highlighted in birch are chaff, used to help prevent enemy units from prematurely charging, to help set up favourable charges and so forth. The Spellweaver is magical support and is dealt with in detail in her own section.

Characters

Glade Captain

• Great weapon
• Light armour
• Shield
• Hagbane Tips
• Asrai Longbow
• Battle Standard Bearer [War Banner]
• Great Stag
• Helm Of The Hunt
• Befuddlement of Mischiefs

Spellweaver

• Level 4 Wizard
• Warhawk
• Lore Familiar
• Talisman of Protection
• Battle Magic

Glade Lord (drop at 1,500pts)

• Great weapon
• Shield
• Hagbane Tips
• Asrai Longbow
• General
• Great Stag
• Armour of Destiny
• Annoyance of Netlings (put this on BSB at 1,500pts)

Core Units

5 Glade Guard

• Trueflight Arrows

21 Eternal Guard

• Full Command
• Shields
• Drilled

10 Glade Riders (drop at 1,500pts)

• Full Command
• Hagbane Tips
• Drilled

Special Units

6 Wild Riders (x2)

• Full Command
• Shields

Rare Units

Great Eagle (x 3)

Deployment

Any game of Warhammer can easily be lost in the deployment phase, depending on the army you bring. This list is designed to make use of a kind of Feigned Flank strategy as part of deployment.

Generally in the Deployment phase, if you put most of your units on one flank, your opponent will deploy to match, and you’ll end up having an unfavourable battle because most other armies are better in tight quarters than Wood Elves, who really want to be able to use all the space on the board. The ideal would be if your opponent would agree to deploying everything in a nice even spread across their battle lines, while letting you deploy everything on one side, so that you can take on half their army with all your army for a turn or two.

The goal of this strategy is to get your opponent to do exactly that, but without them being aware that you are doing it. The deployment of your units is going to appear as if you’re spread out across the board, just like your opponent, but the reality is that you will use your extreme mobility to create a lopsided battle. It’s called a Feigned Flank because part of the technique is feigning that you will actually deploy more of your force on one flank, and then actually preparing to redeploy in turn one to the other flank (the Attack Flank).

It’s typical for Wood Elves to have fewer models on the battlefield than our opponents, due to the higher points cost per model that the Asrai face. When you’re successful with this strategy, you get to use 100% of your models against 40-60% of theirs, but usually only for one turn. That means it has to be an amazing turn in terms of damage output, hence the Alpha Strike. Two things primarily affect the success of this strategy: how deep your force strikes into the Attack Flank, and how quickly your opponent can redeploy to face the attack.

As you can see in all these images you’re trying to bring the attack from the side, forcing your opponent to waste time wheeling, turning or otherwise redeploying to come face you. The aim is to face those units in waves rather than all at once, and to consistently be on the charge to maximize damage output and minimize losses.

The more of their combat units that are committed to the Feigned Flank, the easier it is for you to manoeuvre on the Attack Flank. This is why it’s important to use your units and deployments to really try to get your opponent to think that you are intending your main attack force to be on the Feigned Flank.

You may be thinking to yourself that this strategy is going to be rough against a gunline, and you’re right … a potentially better strategy against a gunline is to bring all the shooting and just outrange our opponents for as long as possible. However, the positive note here is that you only have to weather one round of shooting, because you’ll be in combat from turn 2 onwards, and sometimes as early as turn 1, depending on how things are deployed and who goes first. As a play style, it’s definitely more my vibe than outgunning the gunline. I’ll actually use a gunline as an example through the article, written by my co-host Ben, who plays a heavy shooting Empire list.

Units and Roles

The reason the Eternal Guard have Drilled is so that they can really help sell your commitment to a nice even spread of deployed units, and still be able to migrate very quickly to the other side of the board. They can also help provide good static combat res as part of a combo charge. They appear to be a combat block of spearmen facing the Feigned Flank and preparing to march forward to be an anvil on that flank. However, being able to move as a Marching Column means that they can easily redeploy to the Attack Flank

I’ve experimented with giving them the Vanguard banner, so that they perform a Turn manoeuvre (using up 1/4 of their move and putting them into Marching Column), then move toward the Attack Flank with the other 3/4. On turn 1, they can then march 15″ up the Attack Flank and be potentially ready to charge turn 2 (by using Drilled to Redress the Ranks). They also Fight in an Extra Rank when flank charged which means that, in a Marching Column, they will get more attacks back at the enemy! They lose their static combat res though–can’t have everything.

Their job is to absorb whatever the enemy throws at you on your flank, and help get your damage dealers (Wild Riders + Characters) perfectly positioned for charges or countercharges. They can even accept a charge in the side, fight back relatively well because they get supporting attacks on the flank due to Martial Prowess, and then Fall Back In Good Order due to Stubborn. Remember your opponent has to decide whether they will pursue or not before you Fall Back, so if they do choose to pursue you can use your free reform after fleeing to position the Eternal Guard at an angle to offer a tasty to flank to your Attack Wing, especially your Stag characters who have a 360° charge arc. In the example below, the Knights have won combat, the Eternal Guard Fall Back and reform at an angle giving the BSB an easy rear charge (this would still be a flank against a Lance formation).

One neat trick I picked up on the Asrai forum (thanks Cerve!) is where you can cast Arcane Urgency on one of the Drilled units to have them move again. They Redress the Ranks and get into attack formation (i.e. by giving themselves combat ranks!) and march again to get into the most favourable position for the next turn. I’ll deal with Glade Rider tactics in the next section, but for Eternal Guard you can use this to march 25″ … First redress into Marching Column, march 15″, then cast Arcane Urgency, redress into Combat Order and march a further 10″, getting 1″ away from your opponent’s big fighty scary unit. Thus when charged, the enemy is getting only +1 Initiative, whereas the Eternal Guard get +2 – 1 for Elven Reflexes and one for the Asrai Spear. You’ll get 15 attacks at WS 5, Initiative 6, AP -1. Against most units you’ll be going first and killing a couple of models and having +4 static combat res (Close Order, 2 ranks and a banner) – you’re not really aiming to win, but to minimize damage taken, and then you’ll use Stubborn as above, and you’ll have your countercharge set up for a tasty flank on your opponents big combat block.

Glade Riders also take Drilled and deploy in a Marching Column. Any character who joins the unit also gets Drilled (as per the TOW rulebook, p. 167). This means they can march 24″ (when joined by a Great Stag character, 27″ otherwise) to get into place on turn 1, and then charge turn 2. Their job is also to sell the Feigned Flank, and to bring a fighty character on a Stag into combat with an extra 8″ of movement due to the Marching Column. I like to put the Glade Lord in here, so I’ll call them the Lord’s Riders to refer to the combined unit.

You can also cast Arcane Urgency on the Lord’s Riders to get a massive 40″ move on turn 1 and still be pointing exactly where you want for a charge next turn. What’s more, the Glade Lord can leave the unit and prepare for his own charge–the much higher mobility of the Skirmishing Stag will mean that he can march 16″ and put himself behind your enemy in their deployment zone. If they shoot at him, he’s Evasive and has T4, and a 2+/4++, so he’s likely to survive before then charging things in their rear arc. This kind of thing really messes with your opponent’s battle line, and again tries to push them into being a long line of the individual units so that you can tackle each unit with combo charges.

The Glade Guard are a tax, and should be used as chaff – if we didn’t have the tax, they would be replaced by a Great Eagle. I’d actually deploy them in a marching column to enable them to redeploy or move to be a speed bump more effectively. The Great Eagles (+ Glade Guard) give you 4 drops of deferring which flank is the Feigned one, and which for Attack. Then you have 4 more drops of rank and file troops, followed by the 3 characters. The chaff are most helpful to again help sell sell the commitment to an even spread, and then slow down any fast movers that the enemy sends from the Feigned Flank to try to reinforce the Attack Flank. I’m sure the Glade Guard will … do something … anything!

The Wild Riders are, of course, the primary damage output for the list, and typically will need to be deployed on the Attack Flank, or in the centre, as they really want to just march forward (in Combat Formation) 18″ and then pivot (using their Quick Turn from Fast Cavalry) to face the enemy for charges on turn 2. Remember you can also use that up to 90° pivot after an overrun, something that virtually every other Frenzied unit cannot do, and so is often unexpected by your opponent. You can use it to pivot away from a charge you don’t want to make if necessary, but in general you just want to set yourself up to charge the next thing anyways.

I’ve written about the builds for the characters on Great Stags in this article (even if the intent in that article was all wrong), but at least one of the characters should be deployed in the Marching Column of the Glade Riders. I’m using the Glade Lord here, because then the rest of the army is more or less identical to the 2,000 point list if I just remove that unit. The other can go in with the Eternal Guard if you don’t need to use the EG for blocking, but is probably better just hanging solo (I like the BSB for this one). You can even have them join a unit of Wild Riders, but I’d do that only if you were sure the WR don’t need to use their Countercharge. When the unit charges it will gain the benefits of a First Charge because of the Great Stag, but I think you can accomplish this by just combo charging, so my recommendation is keep the second character out as a solo. There are lots of ways to build out the Stag characters, so enjoy yourself 🙂

And finally the Spellweaver. She’s on a Warhawk for ultimate maneuverability, and a 360° line of sight, and for survivability. She gets an extra point of toughness, and avoids being shot or charged with Evasive and Feigned Flight. She can’t be targeted as long as she’s within 3″ of any other Cavalry unit, which often helps in turn 1. She also can participate in the Alpha Strike, although it is risky and I wouldn’t recommend it. However, this whole strategy is very much high risk, high reward!

I’m not 100% sure on Lore yet, again this needs testing, but I’m assuming Battle Magic because of Arcane Urgency – no other lore we have gives as much mobility. The other spells I’d take would be Fireball to kill chaff, and Pillar of Fire and Curse of Cowardly Flight to help with board control–being able to move a chaff unit out of the way with a Panic test is actually possible with the Curse, although not reliable. Possibly Hammerhand if you want to throw your Wizard into combo charges later in the game. Elementalism‘s got Plague of Rust to help with killing and Earthen Ramparts to make your opponents charges Disordered, and maybe Wind Blast … not sure what else though. In High Magic, there’s Fury of Khaine which really works well with Wild Riders and the characters on Stags, because the mounts also get an extra attack and their attacks are actually meaningful. Tempest, Corporeal Unmaking and Drain Magic are all usable in this list also, but really only Tempest directly helps by slowing down enemy units on the Feigned Flank. Illusion is the other main contender, where I’d choose Column of Crystal and Miasmic Mirage (to delay enemy units on the Feigned Flank), but likely you’d want to put the Spellweaver on a Unicorn and in a unit with the Glade or Wild Riders to take advantage of Glittering Robe and Spectral Doppelganger. There’s need to be some minor adjustments to the list to make that work, but it’s definitely doable – like I’ve said a few times, testing needed. This is an area to experiment and find what kind of build works for you!

Example

Here’s a sample deployment between myself and Ben. It’s a bit of a contrived example because I deployed all my stuff first and then asked Ben to deploy all of his. I chose to put the Woodland Ambush forest on the Attack Flank to try to provide some cover for the Attack Wing from all that shooting. In real life, this is a tough match up – a gunline with fewer drops than we have, so likely to get the first turn. I think the strategy is broadly still the same though, and I’m going to assume we have the first turn for the purposes of this example. Placement is also imperfect, but should help illustrate the overall strategy.

When attacking, you want to be able to try to maximize how much you get done on your turn, before they have a chance to get any magic buffs (for instance). So, when you set up your charges, you’re looking for ways to be able to hit multiple waves of units if you can. You’re also trying to split their forces, holding up one side while you try to kill the other. Finally, you want to make use of your Spellweaver outside of the 24″ Dispel bubble of the enemy Wizard, before you then move her forward.

Note in this example I chose to deploy the Lord beside the Glade Riders not in them, becase as you can see, they are being sacrified to Hellblaster Volley Gun, blocking it’s field of view to my Wild Riders. In this position, I’ve avoided combat on the left flank, and pushed the Eagle past the Outriders to threaten the cannon. The Glade Guard will … do something … anything! The Eternal Guard are waiting to have Arcane Urgency cast on them – it’s only a 15″ range so make sure you keep your Wizard in range (something I didn’t quite do in this example, but you can see I could easily have placed the Wizard correctly a few inches to the left).

Eagle #2 (in the middle) is preventing the Knights from charging anything else, in case the Arcane Urgency does not go off. The Glade Lord is hanging out behind his Riders, ready to charge where he is most needed. Eagle #3 on the right will actually force the Knights to pivot to face the soon to be dead Lord’s Riders, hopefully opening up a flank charge for the Wild Riders.

Here’s the final look after turn 1 movement is done. The Eternal Guard have Redressed into Combat Order and are now 1″ away from the Knights. The Archers on the right may have been panicked off by Curse of Cowardly Flight, in which case the Wild Riders would have charged, causing them to flee again (likely through the Outriders) so the Wild Riders would have a failed charge. Even if they didn’t, I’d move them to this position – at long range for Outriders, so only being hit on 6s (behind the cover of the BSB). If the Outriders shoot the BSB, he is Evasive and will Fall Back through the (Immune to Pyschology) Wild Riders and be unable to be shot. I’m more concerned about the Steam Tank cannoning off the BSB (it can’t see anything on the other side of the forest), but a lot of things would have to go right for Ben in order to one-shot the BSB – I’d probably lose another Wild Rider though. If the Archers aren’t fleeing, the Spellweaver will attempt to Fireball them. I’d also try to cast Pillar of Fire in front of the Steam Tank, although I suspect it wouldn’t last long given his two Wizards.

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy, but I think this will be a decent start. Depending on what survives the shooting, I should have plenty of combo charge targets for my Attack Wing to hit. Ideally, I’ll be able to charge and overrun into a combat not-yet-fought, so that I can maximize damage output, but a lot will depend on how Ben moves.

Here’s how it might look at the bottom of Turn 1. I’ve lost some Wild Riders and Glade Guard to shooting, and most of the Glade Riders died to the HBVG. The Knights took 4 Eternal Guard to the grave, in return for 2 of their own number, and so they Stubbornly Fall Back and reform to for the Knights to open up their flank. The Eagle beside the Eternal Guard might also be dead from Cannonfire – about 60% chance it will survive, once all the rolls are taken into consideration (shot, bounce, to wound and number of wounds), so I’ve kept it on the battlefield. It’ll charge the Hellblaster, and the one beside the outriders on the Feigned Glank will charge the cannon. The Glade Guard … do something … anything!

Depending on whether the Knights who charge the Eagle can restrain or not will dictate what I do next. The Eagle is most likely dead, but it has a chance of living on 1 wound – I’ve treated it as dead. The Knights might reform and present a front arc for Wild Riders and Lord to charge into, and given how close the units are, the Knights won’t be able to Counter Charge. Otherwise, they’ll overrun into the Glade Riders and the Lord and Wild Riders will likely get flank and rear charges. Either way, that Knight unit is toast – the Wild Riders will delete that unit on their own. I suspect I would instead charge the Lord into the Knights on the left, providing some much needed punch to my Eternal Guard, but it’s also OK to leave them to duke it out for another turn or two. Given that the Wizards are all in combat, my Spellweaver should be able to put a Pillar of Fire in front of the Steam Tank. Likely the Outriders will fire and flee from the Wild Rider + BSB charge, but not much I can do about that. Perhaps the Wizard will be able to get them in range of a fireball. With luck I can avoid the Steam Tank, and maybe use Arcane Urgency to move the Wilders back toward the fight. Remember Swiftstride is optional, so you can add it to the roll of a Failed Charge or not, as suits you.

So here we are at the top of turn 2. I’m avoiding the Steam Tank, everything is engaged in 2-on-1 combats, except the Eternal Guard who are doing their job of holding up a combat unit. All the war machines are in combat, and Outriders are fleeing possibly for good (they’ll take another BSB charge if they do rally), while the other Outriders have no targets. Most likely I will spend a turn bringing all my units around to chase down everything on the Feigned Flank, but really the teeth have been removed from this army at this point. The Alpha Strike has happened, even though not everything made it into combat. The Attack Flank has been more or less won already, which allows your units to sweep to the left and finish off the feigned flank. The game isn’t won yet, but it’s looking good for the Asrai.

Summary

I really like this style of play. While there are no Forest Spirits in this list, it is a combat heavy Wood Elf list which really makes me happy to play. It’s not shy about combat, it just has to be smart about it.

1. Sell the idea that you are deploying on the feigned flank
2. Stop reinforcements with the Eternal Vanguard
3. Deliver your Attack Wing safely up the Attack Flank using Glade Riders and the Woodland Ambush Forest as cover.
4. Push as much to the flank and the back of the board as you can.
5. Eagles and Spellweaver can really help provide board control.
6. 360° charge arcs on your two combat characters are very good, use ’em!
7. Glade Guard will … do something … anything!

Many thanks to Ben for helping out with prepping this article, and to Cerve for the excellent tip with Drilled and Arcane Urgency. Keen to hear what you think of this idea, if you have any other combos in your pocket that would work well with it, or experience running similar lists!

Originally written for rankandflank.com.