I need a counter to ambush !!!

[Boratheal]

I just had my first game with a Beastmen army today and I need help on countering their ambush rule. I still won technically, but I had only a high born squad and my Corsairs left. I'm running a basic army, a high born, some crossbowmen, Corsairs, 1 Repeater Bolt Thrower, a Witch and a knight squad. I've put the high born in that squad of knights.

So, my first question is, how is the best way to counter their ambush?

Secondly, should I focus on killing what is in front of my force first or, should I split my force, as I did, and try to fight their 2 fronts?

Last, I didn't have a problem with their shaman, at least I think it was a shaman, I could easily have that wrong, I'm doing this from memory, but he miscasted second turn and created a lovely and quite colorful explosion. I need to know if the caster will be a problem in future games.

So, any comments will help and I'm terribly sorry about the grammar, I'm slightly rushed and I hope I'm putting this in the right post.

Thanks guys for your any input

I'm left to assume that you were slightly rushed when you composed your signature and location blurbs too. Mere hurry does not account for such a result. I have edited it. Learn from the example so provided.

Layne.

[Dyvim tvar]

The ambush rule will cause you the most problems if you have a static, shooty army, since the enemy units can come in right behind you missile units and take them out. If that's the kind of army you have, the best option to deal with ambush is to take a couple chariots since they hit very hard for their points cost. Position them near your missile units, and point them back towards your own table edge to charge any ambushers when they come on the table.

If you have a more aggressive, combat-oriented army, then rush ahead and deal with the enemy in front of you. Splitting your forces in that situation is generally a bad idea. It's better to take advantage of the fact that the enemy has split his own forces by overwhelming part of his army than it is to try to deal with his whole army at once.

[Ehakir]

Use your Dark Riders to deploy at the rear of your table, in a 1 wide, 5 long formation. With 2-3 units doing this, you can make it hard for the enemy to pick a good spot for his ambush. The rest of the sides of the table can be controlled by moving chariots/monsters/knights/any unit that can take a herd frontally in the right place. Use some shades/harpies to charge the rear/flank of the beastherd, and there go his ranks, as when you charge a skirmishing unit from both sides, you end up with one unit in the front, and one unit in the rear.

[Bad beast]

Use some shades/harpies to charge the rear/flank of the beastherd, and there go his ranks, as when you charge a skirmishing unit from both sides, you end up with one unit in the front, and one unit in the rear.

couple of problems here, shades and harpies don't negate rank bonus, and a flank charge with harpies, will often times end up giving away more combat resolution then you gain as the harpies are easier to wound then what you normally throw into the front of the unit

the problem with using the dark riders as up describe is that odds are this is a small point game (I'm assuming he means noble instead of highborn as the army looks incredibly small for 2000 points) and you end up spending a lot of points that really can't do anything except make sure that his on average less then 100 pt ambush unit can't appear behind him

granted I'm going on the assumption that this is only about 500-1000 pt game based on what he said was in his army, and at a higher point value your tactic does have some merit (though it's still spending more points then i care for just to make sure his expendable units don't appear exactly where he wants them to

honestly there is only one fool proof method of dealing with his ambush, and thats to not let it happen, if you can manage to kill his general before he gets to his second turn (or later if he decides to hold off on calling the ambush) then he can't call the troops, and you get full VP for all troops that never ambushed

[Seanzala]

I definitely agree with Bad Beast's last method. I played Beasts for about a year consistently, and still do occasionally, and this has caused me a lot of pain in a couple of games. If you manage to do it, you will almost definitely win the game.

If he does get the ambush off however, that's a different matter. If your willing, you could leave a chariot or a unit of dark riders protecting your rear, but this wastes a unit that you could have in the field. Next time you play him, try a fast moving army, with dark riders, some knights, a terror causing flyer, a hydra or two and a unit of warriors as static combat res. You'll be long gone by the time he can ambush.

Anyway, hope this helped. Good luck.