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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:48 pm
by Calisson
The cage tactics is designed for a specific threat:
an opponent choosing to take only large units, and playing pts denial with them.

No cage is feasible against an opponent who has some shooters or light escorts.
Hence the necessity to get rd early of these.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:58 am
by Setomidor
Masked Jackal wrote:One tactic I don't see in there is simply tying the mammoth up with something tough while you maneuver, apart from the Black-Guard tactic. I think that, with only a little luck, a chariot or Hydra should be able to hold a large unit several times it's cost for awhile. Snipe off characters, and they might even break it single-handedly.


I agree on this. Even though the Chariot will most probably lose and break in your opponents turn, you will have denied him to move his large expensive unit in his movement phase. He will get a 2D6 pursuit move, but will he dare use it? A low roll means you successfully held him back (while hopefully inflicting some damage), and a high roll means his big unit is heading unsupported towards the rest of your army.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:05 am
by Meteor
Jadin wrote:I dont think the cage tactic is viable, they can prevent the whole thing by just keeping a unit of their own on either side of the giant unit.

I think number of attacks will be important, and it will make Witch Elves and Blackguard shine, and makes the Cauldron of Blood a no brainer.


Unless those flank protecting units can freely rotate to breathe fire on you or shoot you, you could cage them in with the mammoth. Treat the whole thing as the mammoth and follow a similar method in restricting its movement. You probably could only keep it caged for a turn or two, since the individual elements could wiggle about to escape or angle themselves to charge your cage, but you'll have effectively disrupted their advance. Hopefully by then you'll have dealt with the other elements to tackle the herd inside your cage.


Calisson wrote:The correct way for the Mammoth to escape the direction they are trapped in is in two steps (plus one step from the opponent):

Step 1 - Mammoth's turn
rearrange the 5xR Mammoth by turning 90° into a Rx5, with the exact same footprint, just facing 90° right or left.

Step 2 -in the opponent's turn
The "cage" does not want to remain in the way. It moves, so it covers the new flanks of the Mammoth rahter than stay in front. In the process, the cage has to enlarge itself.

Step 3, in the Mammoth's next turn.
rearrange the Rx5 Mammoth into a 5xR, keeping the same centre, but turning it, as much as the wider cage now allows, towards the desired direction.


Can't they, if they have sufficient movement, march far enough that their back line is now out of the cage, then they could use any remaining move to wheel towards the general direction they want to head. (I think someone mentioned something like that earlier on.)

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:08 pm
by L1qw1d
I have a query- what happens if we have a front line holding the mammoth, and have shooters on the sides or just something there statically that doesn't do much (for point of question) but then we have a rear flank unit come up and kinda cut up the middle? Can't we target the units adjacent to our tiles? in theory a row of 5, targeting the 3 in the middle of a row of 12 or something. Would we cut the unit into non mammoths?

also: How much FUN will Piercing Bolts of Burning be?

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:51 pm
by Phierlihy
L1qw1d wrote:I have a query- what happens if we have a front line holding the mammoth, and have shooters on the sides or just something there statically that doesn't do much (for point of question) but then we have a rear flank unit come up and kinda cut up the middle? Can't we target the units adjacent to our tiles? in theory a row of 5, targeting the 3 in the middle of a row of 12 or something. Would we cut the unit into non mammoths?

also: How much FUN will Piercing Bolts of Burning be?


Uh...what?!

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:23 am
by Dalamar
Ummm, you can't split one unit into two L1qw1d.

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:57 am
by Meteor
In real life yes, in the game, no. There's something very wrong if a mammoth ends up in that situation.

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:32 pm
by L1qw1d
Curses! Foiled again! Well, at least we get to just grind down the extra attacks, and can try to put one unit LONGER than theirs to get rid of Rank Bonus.

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:39 am
by Meteor
One unit longer? Do you mean one rank more than theirs? If that's the case, you'll deny their steadfast rule, not rank bonus. To deny rank bonus you need at least two full ranks in a unit hitting their flank or rear.

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:21 pm
by L1qw1d
Oh, I was hoping it went along with the Disrupt of just needing a minimum of 2*% units, not "an additional". re-working my army list now lol