Dealing with tough elite Units (e.g. 700+ & Character)

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[llct]kain
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Dealing with tough elite Units (e.g. 700+ & Character)

Post by [llct]kain »

​Hi,


after playing Chaos since Christmas I put my old Druchii back to the table.
So far not seriously, had 2 games just to get a feel how some parts of the army feels today.
I played DE until 2010 (and then one or two games) and I like how the army plays.

Just one one thing I wonder, and that also seems my biggest issue so far.
How to handle the big and tough main elite units, e.g. Res 4, 700 to 1000 points accompanied by a fighty "Lord".
Could be Choosen, SA, Iron Orks, etc.. I mean not real Death Stars, but around 25% of the points.

Especially if the units get some speed boost, like Relentless Company, Waagh or Magic it is hard to delay them to a sufficent degree

to deny them the time to earn their points. After my last game I am searchiung for a solution. In that game I singled out the mainstray unit of Iron Orcs (Greentide + Boss) and combo charged them. The Legonaries failed their charge (even with Altar buff) but 2 Chariots and the Hydra made it...just two stupid rolls in impact hits and I lost that fight with nothing left to deal with such a unit. And that even through I got the charge and led away the Idol and the GFerral Orcs that where protecting the flanks.
Most obvious thing would be to build a similiar unit with Judges and Prince and kill them - but that seems for me a stupid race for simply the best infantry, while being prone to catapults etc..

There must be a more elegant way around, that also works well against other armies. If possible I would also like to avoid the monster mash, one or two are fine - but not too many eggs into one basket :-)

The question is how to solve that ?
Happy to found a new home & love after the Old World was f***** up by GW: http://the-ninth-age.com/
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Marchosias
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Re: Dealing with tough elite Units (e.g. 700+ & Character)

Post by Marchosias »

Hi,

sorry for the late reply - time is scarce these days.

I am not sure there can be a generic answer. Too much depends on the unit in question since it's quite a difference whether you are trying to contain blades, kings guard or grail knights. Also, your army and the rest of the opponent's army plays a big role.

Ideas regarding army composition:
You can try out a big unit of blades or spearmen. That's a bit in the arms race category but they are at least from core and don't necessarily need the fighty lord. With death trance or some magic buffs (perception of strength, wheel of time), they can handle a lot and even unsupported they are decent.
I am not sure why would a monster mash mean "all eggs in one basket". Quite on the contrary: if you have one monster and your opponent one cannon, the monster will have a hard time. With three monsters against one cannon, you are pretty much guaranteed two of them will see some combat. Of course, if you dislike monster mash in general, it's a valid point.
You can also try to bring a unit with lots of ranks (with altar it doesn't even have to have a really big body count). Your opponent will likely be in line formation so from the start you are winning by 3 ranks, hopefully a charge and maybe the BSB. If you can at least match his kill score, he should run right away.
But all in all, we have lots of units that can do some nice damage. The trick is to bring them all to one place and to not roll utter crap.

Ideas regarding gameplay:
Big scary units usually have big footprint. This means it is difficult for them to circumvent terrain. Could buy you an extra turn or two with good deployment. Also, if you manage to deploy on the opposite side of the board than that scary unit, you can basically forget about it until late game.
An obvious solution is to feed them harpies and medusas all game.
Sometimes, you can march out of their line of sight. Or you can charge something next to them and avoid them that way.
Perhaps most importantly, the big unit won't go forwards if there is something scary awaiting them. That could be your blades supported by altar but also a medium sized unit that would go to their flank. It's not easy to win someone's flank but once he start adjusting his position to avoid that, you are stalling him which is a good thing itself.
Last but not least, if you create pressure elsewhere, say by threatening your opponent's mage bunker, you might force them to protect those soft points instead of eating yours.

Hope it helps at least a bit. :)
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