Soon I will begin a Bronze age campaign in the Levant set during the 13th century bc set between the Egyptian and Hittite Empires, I'm introducing 1-3 new players to Warmaster and I thought I should write them a preamble on tactics, then I thought why not blog it so if anyone else was ever looking to get into Warmaster or wanted to learn some tips and tricks.
The basics
Warmaster is a game that rewards generalship and good planning, army composition is relatively straight forward, especially in Warmaster Historical where there is far less access to an already limited pool of special units and abilities.
Leaders and telegraphing
When you move your leaders, place them in front of your troops about 19cm of them, if your opponent tries to rush them they can pick a unit within 30cm to join. In your next turn it means you're less likely to suffer a distance penalty for orders.
A trick you can use is to place a leader forward in a position that telegraphs a move next turn, maybe a flanking move? this can trick your opponent into moving troops into a compromised position for another unit to flank charge or it can slow them down and push them into a defensive posture giving you the initiative.
Line vs Block
Brigades are formations of 2-4 units that can be commanded together so long as they maintain physical contact, I will assume the reader has read over the rules at least once and so understand the penalties to leadership, a new players first impulse with their brigade is to place them in a linear fashion to maximise unit frontage, that's not to say this is a bad formation, it can be quite effective during an offensive as it makes it easier to ensure all your stands are going to reach them enemy.
This formation is ideal for when you have a mixed force of Hand Infantry and Archers, where the archers can fire from the front whilst the Infantry provide support from the rear, however in some situations it can be far better to place your infantry in blocks, unit stands stacked one behind another in a column.
This formation takes advantage of the rule forcing chargers to maximise their frontage when charging, so your opponent must spread a single unit out across the frontage of the opposing formation and then during combat evenly distributing their attacks across multiple units instead of a single unit like in a linear formation.
As an example a Unit for Egyptian Infantry are charged by a unit of Hittite infantry, the Hittite infantry get 12 attacks - 9 base +1 for charging over open ground per stand.
They must spread these attacks across the 3 opposing units, hitting on 4's they hit each unit statistically 2 times, the Egyptians now reply with 9 attacks back but all these are focused on a single unit, hitting 4.5 times, lets say they're unfavoured in the exchange and cause 3 wounds.
Now players count up supports, both sides get 3 supports from the stands behind them, so the total comes to 6vs3, however there is one more step, the defender divides the number they lost by the number of units involved - lose by 3 divided by 3 = 1 they only fallback 1cm. This means instead of getting the +2 to attacks for winning combat and pursuing the attacker only gets +1, additionally because the attacks were spread across all 3 units and the owner gets to allocate wounds any stands lost can be removed from the back meaning the frontal stands remain supported for the next combat and the line is maintained, presumably at men from the rear surge forward to support their unit.
This tactics is best used in a defense, when you want to pin an enemy in front and have a reserve to line up a flank charge. One trick I liked was to place a cavalry unit off to one flank within 20cm of the front rank so in my next turn as the line is pushed back the flank of the attacking enemy is within Initiative range and there is no need for risking a poor roll on a counter charge.
Some risks involved in this kind of formation is that it's very vulnerable to sideways shooting and can lead to a cascade of confusion if you're unlucky and your opponent is smart.
Chariots and Cavalry
For ease of writing I will refer to Chariots and Cavalry as Cavalry, the advantage cavalry has over infantry is concentration for force and speed, they can focus their attacks across a smaller frontage however they cannot be supported in combat so depth is far less useful in cavalry formations than infantry, its important to note that sometimes Cavalry are mounted on the long edge in Warmaster Historical so some of these tactics won't work.
One of the best ways I've found to use cavalry offensively is not just to charge the flank but also charge the front corner simultaneously.
Place the Cavalry greater than 20cm from the target infantry so they don't incur the -1 penalty for proximity and then charge with the LHS in the front arc and the RHS in the flank, make sure when you place the Cavalry brigade LHS sits on the front arc of the their 45 degree and the RHS on the Flank side of the RHS, use a piece of folded a4 paper with a corner folded down to the side to form a triangle to make a simple guide, interestingly the long edge of the folded section is about 21cm so can also be used to check you're outside of 20cm.
The infantry supports actually work in our favour in this situation, if a stand is forced to retreat and it moves into a unit locked in combat it is destroyed, by attacking in the front and side the front unit must fallback diagonally into the rear unit retreating sideways and is destroyed, this means an only slightly favorable win causes an outsized loss on the enemy and allows the follow up attacks to also crush the second unit in line in round 2 of combat.
Blocking
Another useful tactic with cavalry, especially light cavalry is to use them to intercept retreaters. If you can manage a powerful frontal charge you will force your opponent to withdraw, however they cannot withdraw into an enemy unit and are instead destroyed, this is best used with 'Light' Cavalry you'd prefer not to use in a charge such as Light cavalry, Wolves, Light chariots, Pistoleers, etc, they also have the added benefit of being able to shoot any unengaged model potentially breaking them away from their brigade and preventing them supporting any troops in that combat.
Skirmishing and throw away units
This is a simple one, using Goblins in fantasy or Skirmishers in Historical. Skirmishers in Historical can use their initiative to withdraw from a charge or shooting attack, effectively nullifying their arrow fire or at worst wasting it on a low value unit. You will incur losses, and you should try to mitigate them where you can, as shooting can really mess up your offensive plans through confusing and drive backs. In fantasy they cannot withdraw but it's far better to lose goblins or some other throw away unit than your precious shock troops.
Skirmishers and close combat
Skirmishers in Historical can use their initiative in the enemies turn withdraw when charged after shooting, much like using skirmishers to screen your main body of troops. If your opponent falls for this trick it will open them up for your own counter charge or even flank charges if you're really clever or lucky (be both).
This finishes up what I can remember of tips, tricks and tactics I've used to fight and win games of WARMASTER - have fun.
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