Since we're short on articles for the contest I thought I'd enter this article as well.
Action and Reaction
This article is designed to illustrate and compare the difference between actionary and reactionary strategies and tactics. During any given battle there are moments when its proper application can turn the tide of a battle from loss to win.
First, it is important to understand what all these terms mean: Actions are categorized by executing an initiative; Reactions are categorized by executing a retort; Strategies are long term plans for one’s army; Tactics are short term plans for one’s army.
Second, one must understand that you cannot have one without the other. An example on the differences between tactics and strategy is: a weighted flank strategy cannot be properly employed unless supplemental tactics are also used. I.e. there’s no point in a weighted flank strategy if you cannot generate a single flank or rear charge. Likewise, a single flank charge to a lone unit will often have little effect on an opponent if not properly supported in order to maximize the resulting chink in his line. Actions and reactions operate in a similar fashion. A proper action is designed to minimize any possible harmful reactions from the opponent, just as a proper reaction is designed to minimize the opponent’s actions.
Third, remember to think during the battle! Going on hunches and gut feelings leaves a lot to chance and can result in disaster (though it does often result in hilarious battles).With every move that is made, it is wise to ask oneself a number of questions; am I achieving my strategic and tactical goals, what are the possible outcomes (positive and negative) of this move and how are my other units benefitting from it?
Actions vs. Reactions
A lot of emphasis in Warhammer is placed upon seizing the initiative and taking action, and rightly so I may add. But just as often a good reaction to this can render the opponents action useless and turn the tide of his plans. Think of it this way: in a game or football between Italy and Holland you will often see the Dutch in possession of the ball, passing it around and trying to dominate the field. Their theory is simple (actionary): in order to score you must have the ball in the first place, so creating chances depends on whether you have the ball or not. The Italians will often take a different approach (reactionary). They place a lot of emphasis on defense and lightning counter attacks against the Dutch, who not geared toward defending such a strategy. This often results in a win for the Italians (much to the fury of this author
).
The example does not to imply that reactionary strategies or tactics are better than actionary ones. Rather, it demonstrates that the proper implementation of the correct strategy at the right time can secure success on the battlefield.
Unit choices
References will be made in this article to certain unit troop types. These units will have specific roles to play during the course of the battle. Keep in mind that the following definitions are relative to the conditions in which the units are fielded. A unit of glade riders will have a much more deadly assault upon a unit of gnoblars than chaos warriors. For the former unit, they could be described as a heavy hitter, for the latter they are a support unit. Nonetheless there are some clear distinctions to be made of Asrai and forest spirit units. Listed below are four general unit types:
Heavy Hitters
Heavy hitters can be split into two categories: Fast heavy hitters, which are comprised of cavalry and flying monsters and slow heavy hitters, which are comprised of infantry and terra firma monsters. These units can take on normal rank and file opponents and come out one top.
Wood elves have 3 fast heavy hitter units: a mounted dragon, alter characters, and Wild Riders; and have 4 slow heavy hitter units: Wardancers, Treekin, Treemen and Dryads.
Support Units
Support units are units that harass an enemy with missile fire or other means and can assist in an assault on the enemy. Their combat prowess in limited, however they can lend an invaluable hand in altering combat results. They’re primary roles are harassment, march interdiction, charge redirection, support charges, war machine hunting and mage hunting. Examples usually include but are not limited to Glade Riders, Waywatchers, and Warhawk Riders.
Stick Units
Stick units are called so, due to their sticky nature, funnily enough. A stick unit uses its static combat results, stubbornness, or unbreakable ability to stick a unit in place long enough for a counterattack to be launched. These are also called anchor units and usually include Eternal Guard and Treemen.
Missile Units
Though there are numerous units in the wood elves army that can use missile weapons, most are skirmishers, flying cavalry or fast cavalry and will tend to fall under support units rather than missile units. There is only one true missile unit in the wood elves army and that is the Glade Guard. Their sole objective is to lay down a torrent of arrows upon the enemy. They are suited for little else.
Strategies
Strategies are grand schemes used by generals to coordinate the efforts of all units on the battlefield to achieve a common goal. This means that every unit in the army is dedicated to making this happen, whether that is; creating a flank charge or creating a donut, the strategy applies to all. Tactics are used to make the strategy a reality.
We will now look at some basic strategies and how to make them succeed. It is important to realize that most of these strategies are quite theoretical and are tooled to give generals a means of achieving a certain goal. In practice a lot of these strategies will vary in implementation, but their essence remains the same.
Actionary
Full Press
This strategy is simplest in form, though perhaps hardest to execute. The idea is to advance upon the enemy while maintaining a simple battle line. It relies on hitting the enemy simultaneously across the battlefield letting no unit act in unison. Further, the battle line ensures that no flanks are exposed. A full press properly executed is a nightmare to react to, it is hard to determine where and when to strike. You will commonly see this tactic employed with horde armies, who have the numbers to keep the line. Remember Maximus in the opening sequences of Gladiator when he keeps shouting: “Hold the line!” This is what he was employing for a rear attack against the barbarians. The combined assault is devastating.
Breakthrough
A breakthrough strategy has been used extensively throughout history (think of Alexander at the battle of Gaugamela etc). It relies on applying a large pressure somewhere on the enemy line and breaking it at that point. This break in the line is then used to pour through to roll up the flanks. At the point of pressure it is vital to place the fast hard hitters, followed by slower hard hitters. Maintaining pressure and momentum on this attack is crucial for it to succeed. The support units should be used to widen the gap and work the flanks of enemy units while the main stick units provide a solid advance.
This tactic only really works if you can have sufficiently hard hitters. In games of 2000+ points, think of a mounted dragon combined charge with a basic unit of wild riders with a warbanner. You should be able to autobreak most unit quite easily. If a dragon cannot or isn’t desirable on the battlefield think of an alter character supporting a 7 model, full command, wild rider unit. Maintain momentum!!
Weighted Flank
The weighted flank is a simple strategy which involves putting slower stick units on one flank of the battlefield and deploying the faster harder hitters on the other flank. The fast moving units then sweep across the battlefield rolling up units with flank charges. Like the breakthrough it is important to maintain momentum and pressure in the assault or else the fast moving units could get stuck in a combat which would prevent the sweeping movement of the flank. The Germans employed this tactic against the French Maginot line in WW1 with the von Schlieffen Plan. All went awry when they were bogged down in the Ardennes. The plan failed and the assault ground to a halt. If it had succeeded, they would have been able to capture Paris without breaking much of a sweat. This is a good example of how things can go wrong if the momentum is not properly maintained. Maintain momentum and pressure and Paris will be around the corner!
Pincer
The pincer is similar to the weighted flank strategy in that it requires a sweeping movement of fast hard hitters and stick units. The main difference however is that the pincer employs two flanks on which a sweeping advance takes place. All the advantages and disadvantages of the weighted flank attack also apply here. Momentum must be maintained! Eventually both sweeping flank advances should meet in the middle providing the pincer movement, much like the crabs claw.
Hammer and Anvil
The hammer and anvil strategy is similar to a weighted flank. It requires fast heavy hitters on one flank and a line of stick units on the other. The heavy hitters’ objective is to sweep across the board eventually rear charging any units engaged with the stick units. The main difference with the weighted flank approach is that you have a large gap left in your line. If momentum isn’t maintained by the heavy hitters, the fatal rear charges cannot be unleashed upon the enemy. While this approach will most likely make the enemy split his forces it is important to realize that the gap can be exploited to flank the anvil units. In order to minimize the chance of this happening momentum must be maintained in the hammer, so that the gap is closed as soon as possible.
Stepped
The stepped strategy is a little unorthodox in its approach but can be highly effective. It requires stick units to be placed in a forward position to its heavy hitters. The stick units act as bait for the enemy, enticing them to charge into the trap. The enemy then is stuck in place ready for a flank charge from a heavy hitter. Even the best of enemy units will crumble under these conditions. Subtle tactics are required though, due to the delicate nature of this strategy.
Bastion
The bastion is a formidable strategy that is rock hard. It is very defensive in nature and you will often see dwarves or empire use it. It is relies on a hard shell of rank and file troops to defend missile troops who pepper the oncoming enemy. Once the enemy gets close they get beaten back by huge static combat results of the rank and file units. Though this strategy doesn’t require much tact on the battlefield, it requires huge tact during army planning and deployment. Keeping close ranks is important! There should be no gaps in the line which can be exploited. This strategy is also sometimes called ‘The Castle’ or ‘Castling’.
The main priorities of the missile units should be to neutralize the opponent’s tool for breaking through your line. The rest of his units should break upon your walls…
So, what does this all mean?
The strategies listed above are not a comprehensive list and there are many other types and variations. To understand how these strategies work and what the pros and cons are is crucial in making your army list and establishing your battle plan.
First decide what strategies you want your army to be good at. Would you like an army which can do something along the lines of a weighted flank or pincer movement? Then choose your units appropriately. It is best to choose 2 to 3 strategies which can be employed by your army, so to give it some flexibility when you set up the battlefield.
Second, choose the best of the strategies when you know your opponent and the lie of the terrain.
Third, follow through with the chosen strategy. Despite possible setbacks during battle it is important to keep your goal in sight. If you employ the breakthrough strategy, make sure you maintain pressure and momentum. This cannot be stressed enough, the rest of your army has deployed to make the chosen strategy work, so don’t get bogged down in tricks of the enemy.
Action is all about maintaining your initiative and keeping the enemy reacting to your onslaught. If you manage to do this, you will have a good chance of winning the battle!
Reactionary
Reactionary strategies are similar to actionary strategies, except for one thing: you allow your opponent to make the first move. Better still, you allow your opponent to make the first move, which you have anticipated from the start. This in turn will allow you to undertake the necessary counterattack to thwart the enemy onslaught.
In the following section appropriate reactions to actions initiated by the enemy will be explained. The opponent’s strategy will be listed and then the appropriate counter will be explained.
Full Press
If you see that your opponent is deploying in full press formation, then you already know a couple of things about his strengths and weaknesses. He will try and attack your units simultaneously, providing little room for successful counter charges. However the main weakness of this approach is maintaining the line. If you apply a large amount of pressure at a given point in the line you should succeed in breaking it, allowing you to roll up a flank attack. Therefore strategies like the breakthrough or weighted flank can best be employed. The pincer can be applied if you have enough units to apply two decisive pressure points, otherwise just stick to the breakthrough or weighted flank. Your hardest unit should be at the forefront of your attack, supported by other heavy hitters to push through into the enemy rear.
Breakthrough
The breakthrough strategy can be tough to counter. One effective and tried method (notoriously by VC in Vietnam) was to use a pincer counter attack against it. Force your opponent to apply his breakthrough pressure on your stick units. While he attempts his fruitless application of pressure cut off his reserves with your own heavy hitters and rear charge the opponent. Your opponent will be unable to maintain pressure and momentum of his attack and it will fail. A weighted flank or hammer and anvil approach may also work to counter the breakthrough strategy.
Weighted Flank
The weighted flank strategy relies on the heavy hitters sweeping across one flank of the battlefield. The proper counter to this is to deny the opponent the sweeping advance. A stepped formation could counter this attack effectively allowing you to counter charge his heavy hitters with flank attacks that would cripple his advance. A decent bastion would also do great damage to this tactic, if the stick units are placed on the proper flank. The remainder of the bastion could then focus its attention on a counter charge on the heavy hitters and taking out the remaining support units from a distance. Outflanking the weighted flank might also be an idea with a hammer and anvil approach, but relies on too many ifs to be really effective.
Pincer
The pincer strategy is well countered by a stepped approach. The opponent would have to divide his heavy hitters between two flanks, allowing the stick and flank method to be very useful here. Once the momentum of the heavy hitters is halted an effective counter attack can be made to crush the flanking heavy hitters and leaving the enemy stick flanks open to charging.
Hammer and Anvil
The hammer and anvil tactic works well as long as the fast heavy hitters can make the rear charge at the anvil. If this is in anyway hampered by lack of momentum or destruction of the anvil or delay of the hammer, this tactic will fail. A breakthrough approach could work to take out the stick units, accompanied by a flank stick for the hammers. The gap in between the hammer and the anvil can be exploited to get behind enemy lines. Give fast units this goal. They should be able to turn the stick units into a sticky situation for the opponent. March interdiction and charge misdirection of the hammer should prevent a successful blow to the rest of your force.
Stepped
The stepped strategy is best countered with a full press assault. Take on the enemy stick units with a heavy hitter, while keeping the heavy hitters flanks guarded by another unit. It is vital that the opponent is denied the advantage of the crucial stick and flank charge. If successfully denied, this tactic ceases to work effectively.
Another measure taken against this tactic is the breakthrough tactic. Instead of focusing on the close stick unit, charge through the gaps of the enemy towards the hard hitters, taking them out in a successful charge and then lapping round to the rear of the stick units.
Bastion
This defensive strategy is a hard shell to crack. However like a shell, once cracked it can be broken down into little pieces in record time. Aim your heavy hitters for the weakest link in the chain, in a breakthrough fashion. The point of this is to get behind enemy lines and to be able to rear or flank charge the other units, thus denying their rank and file capabilities. The reserve and support units should be slightly slower than the heavy hitters, their charge combining with the flank or rear charge. Make sure the heavy hitters are well protected from missile fire. If these guys are taken out by a couple of decent war machine shots, the bastion becomes an awfully hard stronghold to take.
Tactics
Tactics differ from strategies in that they are the tools used to allow a strategy to come to fruition. The wood elves army lacks the unit types to really field a traditional army. In fact the only real battle line units in the army are glade guard, eternal guard and our cavalry. This means that wood elves have to rely heavily on tactics rather than static combat results to beat opponents. Do not despair however, this is what WE (pun intended) are great at!
Tactics are geared to create uneven combats for your units, allowing for quick victory. If you are ever faced with an even battle with an enemy unit, something has gone wrong with your tactical approach to your strategy and you might need to alter some plans and wait a couple of turns to create better victory conditions. This is an important notion which must be obeyed, in order to uphold momentum and pressure of your chosen strategy!
Some basic tactics will now be discussed in terms of the initiation, mechanics and results.
Actionary
March interdiction
March interdiction is one of the most powerful tools in the wood elves army. It basically means: denying the enemy the chance to march by keeping a unit within 8” of them.
Why is this such an important tool you ask? Well think of this scenario… 3 units of rank and file are moving towards your battle line with an 8” march move. With an average of 24” between your units and these three rank and file unit, they should be able to close the gap in 3 turns. If however, you use a march interdictor (read, a great eagle ideally) to fly behind those three units you can effectively slow these units down to a crawl of 4” per turn. Or you cunningly place the eagle just so that only 2 of the three units are slowed to a crawl and the other is free to march, allowing the opponent to break the line and expose critical enemy flanks.
Confused? See the below diagram. In the left scenario the three units are allows to make a full march move towards your lines. In the center scenario the clever position of the eagle hampers the movement of all three units and in the right scenario the eagle only hampers the right two units, allowing the third to march, thus exposing its flanks and the flanks of the other unit.
Charge misdirection
Charge misdirection can be used to expose enemy flanks, lure enemies into difficult terrain or create mayhem in the enemy advance.
A simple scenario of exposing an enemy unit’s flanks is demonstrated below. Here the enemy charges the only unit in range, the glade riders, who turn and flee. The result is a failed charge of the enemy cavalry, exposing their flank to a wardancer charge. This tactic is especially effective against frenzied opponents who have no choice but to charge the glade riders.
The same principle can be used to lure an enemy unit into difficult terrain. In this scenario 5 scouts lure a frenzied unit of chaos knights into a wood, taking them out of action for at least a turn or two as they try and get out of the wood. While the unit is caught in the wood, a barrage of tree singing spells should be able to whittle it down into a more manageable size.
Or it can be used to disrupt enemy advances. Here you can see that the line has been disrupted exposing the flanks of the rank and file units as well as the cavalry to any counter attack from your units in flanking positions.
Three units one can use for this are glade riders, great eagles and scouts. Each unit has their pros and cons: Glade riders benefit from fast cavalry rules, allowing them to move and shoot on any turn they rally, however there’s a good chance your opponent knows this as well and so might not charge this tricky unit if he knows he cannot catch them; Scouts are an alternative, they are relatively cheap 85 points for 5 and can flee a good 7” through rough terrain, they cannot move or shoot however on the turn they rally; great eagles are the cheapest option at 50 points and are prone to more or less the same pros and cons as the scouts.
Charge Blocking
Imagine a mistake being made on your part in which a unit of fanatical-chosen-knights-of-the-grail-of-khorne is going to charge your precious unit of wardancers. How do you make sure this fails? You can accomplish this by charge blocking. The ideal unit to use for this is an eagle. This tactic works as follows.
The unit of knights moves within charge range of your wardancers. In order to prevent this you place an eagle in the direct path of the charging knights, not in the middle of the path, but just clipping it, while the wardancers move diagonally. In order to charge the wardancers the knights would have to wheel through the eagle, which is impossible. Therefore the knights have no choice but to abandon the charge on the wardancers or charge the eagle. If they charge the eagle they will most likely break it in combat or overrun, thus exposing their flanks to the deadly wardancers. Your eagle will be sacrificed, but you gain an advantage in combat by flank charging the unit of knights.
Beware of large target monsters which can simply move around the eagle on the charge!
Stick and Flank
The famous stick and flank tactic is the most deadly tactic in the wood elves arsenal. Two units are needed to perform it, a stick unit and a flanking unit. The stick unit can either be a treeman, ancient or a unit of eternal guard with a noble/highborn. The flanking unit can be anything which negates opponent’s ranks or can cause it heavy casualties, ideally both!
Why is this, an important tactic? Let’s look at some statistics to answer that. The charging enemy rank and file unit is a standard unit of 5x6 halbediers with a full command. The stick unit is a 5x4 unit of eternal guard plus eternal noble and standard, while the flanking unit is a unit of glade riders. The charging enemy unit should cause 1.67 wounds, the eternal guard ,in return, cause 3.11 wounds. Combat results are as follows: Halbediers (2 wounds + 3 ranks + 1 standard + 1 outnumber = 7) vs. Eternal Guard (3 wounds + 3 ranks + 1 standard = 7), thus most likely a draw. Thanks to the stubbornness of the eternal guard, they are most likely going nowhere even if they lose the combat significantly! Now for the counter charge… In the turn after a unit of glade riders charges the flank of the halbediers. The resulting combat would most likely result in 7 wounds on the halbediers, 1 wound on the eternal guard and 1 wound on the glade riders. Combat results are as follows: Halbediers (2 wounds + 1 standard = 3) vs. wood elves (7 wounds + 1 standard + 1 flank charge + 1 outnumber + 2 ranks = 12), thus the wood elves win by 9, meaning the halberdiers can only pass their break test on snake eyes. I.e. they are in big trouble…
Screening
Screening can be an effective way of creating favourable combats and is probably the best tactic for taking out the enemy’s main combat unit. It requires a screening unit and two other attack units. A good screening unit would be a unit of glade guard, while the attack unit could be a unit of eternal guard and a unit of wild riders.
An enemy unit approaches wants to charge into the glade guard, who stand and shoot. In the ensuing shooting phase they should be able to kill a model or two, hopefully removing a rank in the enemy unit. The unit then causes severe damage on the glade guards, though chances are they shouldn’t be annihilated. The glade guard will then flee with the enemy in hot pursuit, who charge into the fully ranked unit of eternal guard. This combat can only be fought in your combat phase allowing a flank charge by the wild riders in your turn. The result is that the enemy is able to charge your unit of ranked eternal guard and get counter charged by a unit of flank riders. The combined result of static combat results plus a flank charge should be more than anything your opponent can throw at you! The combat will be won by wood elves convincingly. The glade guard will have been sacrificed, but the enemy will have lost his most precious unit.
Reactionary
As with strategies, reactionary tactics exist that enable us to counter any actions made by our opponent. Countering actionary tactics mainly focuses on countering what makes a specific tactic work. In order words, void the pros of a tactical initiative.
March Interdiction
March interdiction is a crucial thing to counter if you are playing wood elves. It is something WE should be doing and not our opponent. March interdiction is crucial to dominating the movement phase, and if wood elves fail at this, they stand very little chance against any enemy. Therefore priority number 1 of any WE general should be the elimination of march interdictors.
The typical enemy march interdictors are very similar to wood elves’. Scouts, flying monsters and cavalry are all units which can effectively hamper wood elves’ movement. Pinning these maneuverable units is a hard task, making it hard to deal with these guys in combat. Luckily these units also have the same weaknesses wood elves have in general: they are few in number, have little armour and have little magical protection. So the most sensible thing to do is to shoot these units into oblivion. Glade guard shooting should be more than a match for any scouts or fast cavalry. Likewise waywatchers can take on these pests in shooting, but can also take on most of these units in close combat as well.
The unit to really watch out for is a flying monster. One saving grace is that this type of unit doesn’t make many appearances due to high point cost. However if you are facing one which is hampering the movement phase, try and catch it with some dedicated treesinging spells. Once flyers are even slightly touching a wood, they have to use ground movement in order to get out of it, making them sitting ducks to counter charges.
Charge misdirection
As is known the purpose of charge misdirection is to lead the opponent away from weak units and exposing the enemy’s flanks. If an occasion arises that an opponent places a unit of fast cavalry in front of one of your units hoping to draw it away, just ignore it and march to within 1” of that given unit, preferably on that units’ flank. Then make sure your glade guard set their sights on the given fast cavalry unit and let missiles take care of the lightly armoured opponent.
This has the effect of negating the misdirection and taking out the enemy’s pesky misdirecting units. Two birds with one stone as it were.
If you are using two units in unison, keep both of them close together and keep the flank exposure minimized, by charging the misdirecting unit and moving the supporting unit in to protect the exposed flank. Therefore no advantage has been gained by the opponent other than that your movement has been slowed slightly. More importantly, he hasn’t gained control on that situation!
Stick and flank
Wood elves’ units are notoriously weak vs. stick units. WE rely on combined charges and not getting bogged down in attrition combat. Breaking the enemy on the charge is key in maintaining momentum and pressure. Therefore a simple and effective tactic to the stick and flank tactic is to avoid such a trap entirely. If there happens to be a stick unit in sights and a seemingly innocent unit alongside, avoid the stick unit and choose another combat, or charge the flanking unit if movement permits! The flanking unit is the chink in the enemy’s armour. Don’t be heroic and answer to your opponent’s taunts. Be smart and take him down where it hurts.
Screening
Screening units have a tendency to be lightly armoured and relatively few in number. The idea behind them is to survive combat and to break so that a counter charge can be set up. If the opponent is allowed to overrun, this tactic will fail miserably. Therefore it is crucial to weaken a screen before charging into it, get it down to a manageable size, so you can mow it down and avoid any counter charges. Shoot it, blast it with magic and give it a fair number of psychology tests.
Wrapping up…
I would like to give a special thanks to Hyarion at Asrai.org for helping me out with the article, couldn’t have done it without you, and thanks to Mach for laying the foundation of most of the ideas in the article.
I guess I didn't include the combined strategies and tactics to counter an opponents plans.