Monday 20 June 2011

Tactical Review: Massacre at Fortress Malefic

TIM: 

Well! I finally beat Mike! 

But was it a fair fight?

Certainly I can assure you that there was no skullduggery on my part, but the Siege rules as they currently stand are extremely dodgy and severaly disadvantgae certain armies. Fortunately for me, I was up against Skaven, probably the worst army to be defending a castle. 

Mike fought hard but he as fighting an uphill battle. In a building, Skaven can't call upon their ranks and Strength in Numbers to hold on tight. The battle comes down to kills, pure and simple, which they struggle to inflict with their normal infantry. 

Things could still have possibly worked out but for two further elements.
  1. Mike chose to bring Warlock Engineers to the battle. Not a bad choice for the magic, but they didn't have the Leadership or combat accumen to lead the defence sadly (for them).
  2. I very carefully chose my own forces to maximise my hitting power and minimise Mike's ability to strike back. With my Varghulf and ethereal units leading the assault and elite units and characters following on from behind, I was in a superior position from the get go. 
 The Siege rules are very sketchy at best and get very weird when units start fleeing in all directions at once. Who knows if we interpretted what sketchy rules we had correctly but none of it made much sense realistically! 

Next time we're going to just use the fortress as a back-drop and fight a normal game. It's a shame but until GW release a proper update, I would advise you all to steer clear. 

MIKE: 

Well I got it all wrong.  I hadn’t played a siege battle before and after this result I’m not sure that I want to again. 

After a very brief look at the rules that Tim sent me I understood it that I had to hold as many parts of the castle as possible so I stayed rooted to the spot.  Unfortunately in a low leadership army like those little rat bastardo’s as soon as you lose in combat you are stuffed.  I lost every combat, I fled every time and I lost by the end of round 2!

For the future I think that it is a must to charge out of the castle and meet them on the battlefield!  Still a lesson learned…

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