Tactica: Dogs of War Heavy Cavalry RoR

Hello all, Slick here. In the last part of the Dogs of War cavalry tacticas we will be taking a look at the Heavy Cavalry Regiments of Renown.

Voland's Venators
Let us begin by taking a look at Voland's Venators which is easily one of the best Regiments of Renown available and should find a spot in most Dogs of War armies. For 195 points you get five knights including Voland himself. Best of all, the Venators are a Core choice and thus they keep those important Special and Rare slots open. The Venators differ from regular mercenary cavalry in that they have a base strength of 4, thus you will have Strength 6 on the charge! The Venators are definitely capable of being a hammer unit. Voland himself is a standard Captain-level hero and as far as gear is concerned the Venators come fully loaded: heavy armor, shield, barding, and a lance. The minimum unit size is five and it's worth paying for some extra Venators so that you can take a few casualties and not lose combat effectiveness. While these guys may not have the 1+ armor of Empire knights or the customization of Bretonnian knights, the Venators are the premiere mercenary heavy cavalry. Unlike most Regiments of Renown, the Venators are reasonably priced so that you are not sinking excessive points into them to build an effective unit.

Voland's Venators can pack a lot of power in a charge but they are best used in a combination charge, flank charging in support of one of your anvil or tarpit units or in concert with another hammer units such as Maneaters. As most players have experienced, cavalry always seem to suffer from rubber lance syndrome when you really need them to inflict serious damage on a charge. With so many 'ard units out there now, you really have to be careful about which ranked units you send the Venators at. For added punch you could try sticking a Captain with a lance in the unit for 9 S6 attacks on the charge. One tactic I have used with success is to have the Venators go for the frontal charge while I flank charge with my Captasus (Captain on Pegasus).

Tichi-Huichi's Raiders
Anyone who has read the rules for Tichi-Huichi's Raiders might be a bit surprised to see them discussed in a tactica on heavy cavalry. Indeed, the Raiders do lack several important characteristics typically associated with heavy cavalry, such as the ability to withstand attacks thanks to good armor saves and the ability to dish out serious damage. Instead, the Raiders are something of a hybrid light-heavy cavalry unit with a few interesting tactical wrinkles. Let me preface this portion of the tactica by saying that this is another one of those Regiments of Renown that have an excellent conceptual idea that is let down by rather mediocre rules and points cost. Let's start with the essentials - for 250 points you get six riders including Tichi-Huichi himself. Additional riders will set you back 22 points per model. The unit is equipped with spears, a scaly skin bonus (6+), and shields. Their lack of heavy armor is balanced by the fact that the Cold Ones grant a +2 armor save bonus rather than the typical +1. The unit does not come with barding, thus your expensive heavy cavalry clocks in with a 3+ save. Surely the Raiders can dish out damage? Not quite. A quick glance at the stats reveals the true weakness of this unit - at least in the role it seems intended to fill. Skinks are not meant to be close combat powerhouses and that is certainly the case here. While a 3+ armor save is decent, the paltry Toughness 2 of the riders (Tichi-Huichi is a whopping T3) means that the expensive Raiders are easily wounded. Their average strength is only Strength 4 on the charge so they definitely lack the punch to breakthrough most ranked units.

Let's take a quick look at the Special Rules the Raiders have as these do add some value to the unit. As with other Lizardmen, the Raiders have the Cold-Blooded special rule meaning that you should be able to pass most psychology tests with relatively little worry. Break tests are another matter as Tichi-Huichi only has an average leadership of 7. Taking a look at the mounts we see the aforementioned armor save bonus granted by the Cold Ones. Additionally, Cold Ones also casue fear but are subject to stupidity. Having Cold-Blooded here is really a blessing. The Cold Ones also have 2 attacks at Strength 4! Clearly the mounts are better than the riders in this case. Thus, the unit can actually dish out a respectable amount of medium strength attacks on a charge. Against light units they do have the ability to cause some mayhem, although your best to-hit roll with the regular riders is sadly going to be 4+. Nevertheless, if you can cause some casualties and make your armor saves, the autobreak from fear could see the Raiders defeating light units such as skirmishers, light cavalry, and smaller units of light infantry.

The Raiders also feature one more Special Rule that adds some interesting tactical possibilities if only the unit had some better rules, stats, and/or equipment to better suit this ability. If the Raiders are broken in combat, opponents will never pursue them. Thus, the unit is always guaranteed to escape. This is fortuitous as the unit will keep its banner since the enemy unit cannot pursue. The Raiders could have potentially been the ultimate hit-and-run unit. Unfortunately, to effectively use the unit in its current incarnation you really do not want to put them in positions where they will be easily broken. Do you really want to sacrifice really expensive cavalry? No, of course not. The types of units that the Raiders should be engaging are ones that should pose little danger of breaking them in combat. The types of units that can break you are likely to seriously maul the Raiders so that you will be left with a largely ineffective unit once they escape. If the Raiders had poisoned weapons I could see the value in sending them at an otherwise tough to beat unit and then run away. However, most killy units in the game nowadays can dish out copious amounts of high strength attacks, and there there are those which also have the Always Strikes First rule. You would have to take quite a few Raiders to have enough left against such units once you flee. This of course would be a serious point sink and would push the unit close to 400 points or more. I do think the Raiders could have some application although it would take some serious playtesting to get it right. Even then, the Raiders are simply overshadowed by the cheaper and better Ogre units available. If you have used the Raiders with any degree of success please feel free to share!

Hopefully you have found the above tactica useful!

Tactica: Dogs of War Light Cavalry RoR

Hello all, Slick here. Continuing with the mercenary cavalry tacticas, we now move to a review of mthe various Light Cavalry Regiment of Renown units available.

Al Muktar's Desert Dogs
The minimum unit comes in at 245 points for 6 cavalry (technically 5). Extra riders may be purchased for an additional 13 points per model. The Desert Dogs actually feature three named characters, however Ibn the standard bearer actually does not have any attacks so you are actually losing some offensive punch with this unit. Although he is named, Ibn cannot be specifically targeted (read challenged). The other two named characters are Al Muktar himself and Sheikh Shufti. While Al Muktar is the unit's captain, Sheikh Shufti acts more like an overpowered champion. The Desert Dogs are also one of the few Regiments of Renown that come with magic items - the Scimitar of Dakisir and the Black Banner of the Muktarhin. You might think that the unit's captain would be the one to wield the magic weapon yet the Scimitar actually belongs to Sheikh Shufti. The Scimitar provides Sheikh with an additional 2 strength on the charge and +1 strength bonus at all other times. Having S6 attacks in a light cavalry unit does provide some serious offensive punch. Unfortunately, Sheikh is hampered by only having a measly 2 attacks. The other item is the Black Banner which adds D3 to the Desert Dog's combat resolution.

With two solid combat characters as well as two magic items one would think that taking the Desert Dogs would be a safe bet. Unfortunately, the Desert Dogs suffer from some serious flaws that make them a second rate unit and best left to casual games and/or themed armies. As mentioned above the Desert Dogs are expensive! You are paying a hefty price for the characters and magic items. The Desert Dogs also seem to have a bit of an identity crisis: Are they a combat unit or a fast cavalry unit? Aside from the characters the regular Desert Dogs riders have an average human statline and their equipment is also generic. They do count as fast cavalry and so are quite maneuverable. Like all other light/fast cavalry, the Desert Dogs are fragile. Generally speaking, expensive units that are extremely fragile are a gamble and rather difficult to use well. As discussed in the Light Cavalry Tactica, the role of such cavalry is generally to serve as flank units, march blockers, bait & redirection units, and on occasion to engage targets of opportunity. While the Desert Dogs can certainly fulfill this role, you certainly do not need to spend an exorbitant amount of points for such a unit. To really recoup your invest would require getting the Desert Dogs into combat. While they do have some offensive punch and should be able to break small and lightly armed units (many skirmishers, war machine crews, vulnerable non-elite infantry flanks etc.), they simply do not have the staying power for protracted combat. If you were to just take the minimum unit you could lose a total of three regular riders before you get to the named members of the unit and losing any of them will essentially spell certain doom for the Desert Dogs. The Black Banner should tip combats against weak units in your favor (on the charge) and between Al Muktar and Sheikh you should be able to wipe out a front rank. Unfortunately neither Al Muktar nor Sheikh have any better armor than the rest of the unit so you really want as few attacks coming back at the Desert Dogs as possible. Like similar units, the Desert Dogs also will not stand up to shooting or magic. Sadly, the Desert Dogs, like many Regiments of Renown, are a really cool concept with excellent minis, that are let down by mediocre rules. Taking enough Desert Dogs to ensure that you can deliver a solid charge will push the unit close to 300 points. Are you really going to invest that many points on a fast cavalry unit? Should you be unlucky and the Desert Dogs break from combat you will of course be handing your opponent a 100pt bonus for losing their banner. They are simply too much of a liability when you can accomplish more with generic mercenary Light Cavalry and for far fewer points.

Oglah Khan's WOlfboyz
The other Light Cavalry Regiment of Renown are the infamous Oglah Khan's Wolfboyz. This unit provides some interesting tactical wrinkles for the mercenary general. The basic unit comes in at an hefty 190 points with additional Hobgoblins costing 15 points per model, however you are also starting out with 6 models like the Desert Dogs sans the standard bearer who doesn't attack. Oglah Khan's unit is unique that you are actually fielding a unit of Greenskins but do not have to worry about that pesky Animosity rule. This is also the fasted Dogs of War cavalry unit as the Giant Wolves have Movement 9 which helps to close the speed gap against armies that also have access to M9 cavalry (see Elves). As far as stats go, the unit is average across the board, although their leadership is a paltry 6 (good for Greenskins though!). Oglah Khan essentially has Captain-level stats although he only has BS4, and is quite slow with I3, and his average leadership of 7. You certainly do not want to put these guys into situations where they have to take leadership tests! The Wolfboyz are also one of the few units that have a capped unit size. A unit of 20 would be rather unwieldy but it is nice to have that option for those crazy enough to try it! As for equipment, the Wolfboyz are loaded and come with spears, bows, light armor and shields! They also have the fast cavalry special rule. Their equipment provides them with an armor save of 4+ which does grant them some solid protection. The Wolfboyz also benefit from a rather cool magic item, the Pelt of Wulfag, which lets them pursue an additional D6 inches. Yes, that means they can pursue 4d6 for a potential total of 24 inches! You should be able to catch any fleeing unit.

On the tactical level, the Wolfboyz present some interesting options. They can fulfill all the roles of Light Cavalry while also having solid offensive punch (for Hobgoblins!). If the Wolfboyz can find a beatable enemy unit on the flanks, their pursuit roll should place them well within your opponent's deployment zone where they can wreak havoc. If an opponent is unlucky enough to have units along the Wolfboyz' pursuit route, they may face a dual threat - a potential panic check from the fleeing friendly unit (if the Wolfboyz do not catch them) and the Wolfboyz slamming into them off of the pursuit roll itself. The Wolfboyz would also seem to make an excellent flanking unit to support charges of your hammer units, as you can be fairly certain that the Wolfboyz will catch broken units while you can attempt to restrain pursuit with your hammer unit(s) if pursuing with everything would place the other units into vulnerable positions. I would certainly recommend trying Oghlah Khan's Wolfboyz. For those of you who do not want to shell out a large sum of money for the actual models, it is entirely possible to make the unit out of the plastic Goblin Wolfriders set. A little bit of conversion work to give the unit a more unique appearance would not require a great deal of work. The money you save by going this route will go a long way towards completing your army! Hopefully the above tactica has been helpful to you.

Tactica: Light Cavalry

Hello all, Slick here. Today I would like to continue the Dogs of War tactica series and finish up the core selection by discussing Light Cavalry. Mercenary Light Cavalry are one of the little gems in the Dogs of War list. At 11 points permodel these guys are a steal. Their stats are average across the board so if you are used to having units like Dark Riders you may be in for a bit of let down. Nevertheless, they do have a solid place in mercenary armies. What makes them a key piece in most armies is that it allows the mercenary general access to cheap and plentiful core fast cavalry.

Light Cavalry have several options to make them a very flexible unit in mercenary armies. There are essentially two builds with this unit: scout/light combat and scout/light missile. The missile variant equips Light Cavalry with a bow for an additional 4 points per model. Small units of missile armed cavalry can make solid flanking units for harassing lightly armored enemy flankers, flyers, war machines, and the occasional lone character. They are of course also useful as march blockers regardless of how you build them. With only average skill you should not expect too much from their shooting attacks unless you take a large unit. However, Dogs of War can field enough missile troops that makes going overboard on a fragile light missile unit inadvisable. Their primary targets should be small and lightly armored units or to try and get a kill or two on heavier units to take away 1pt of rank bonus (assuming a unit if 5 wide of course). It is not always possible to soften up all of your opponent's units before you meet in close combat, thus being able to pick off the odd trooper here and there can pay dividends later on in a battle.

The more common and in my opinion more useful build for Light Cavalry is to equip them with spears for just 1 additional point per model. You can also add shields for an additional 2 points per model. Thus equipped, a unit of Light Cavalry can provide a solid flank or even rear charge on occasion. It is fairly easy to field 2-3 units of Light Cavalry in a standard game (2000 points) so that you can lose a unit or two and still have options. These guys are the premier flanking unit available to mercenary generals unless of course you care to try the more hybrid medium (non-barded heavy cavalry) version of heavy cavalry. Command groups are an debatable for this unit, although I personally would advise against ever using a standard bearer in one of these units. Light cavalry are simply too fragile to include a potentially free 100 victory point bonus for your opponent. A champion and/or musician are more worthy options and I would tend towards just running a musician if you plan on hit and run tactics. You cannot and should not rely on these guys to take on anything tougher than other light cavalry or infantry (skirmishers). Avoiding ranked units and heavy cavalry are essential. Light Cavalry do make excellent bait units which you can use to redirect your opponents units. Just make sure to have a musician so that you are not relying on Ld 7 for rally tests.

Tactica: Dogs of War Heavy Cavalry

Hello all, Slick here. Today I would like to continue the tactica series on Dogs of War units. I have previously covered Pikemen, Crossbowmen, and Duellists. To finish off the review of our Core units it is now time to take a look at mercenary cavalry. First off, I will review Heavy Cavalry, one of the few 'hammer' units available to Dogs of War generals.

For a mere 19 points, Dogs of War have access to core heavy cavalry which come with a solid stat line. The heavy cavalry feature a Weapon Skill of 4 as well as Leadership 8, which is certainly above average for generic troops. The remaining stats for heavy cavalry are 3s. Their initial cost includes good equipment which gives them a 3+ armor save. Typically this still falls under the medium cavalry category. However, with rumored changes to cavalry in 8th edition, having access to both heavy and medium cavalry as core will certainly be beneficial to mercenary generals. Currently, rumors are that cavalry with a 2+ or better armor save will not be able to march. You can imagine how this will impact armies that feature heavy cavalry deathstar units. The only upgrade options for heavy cavalry aside from a command group are to add barding for an additional 2 points to bring the total to 21 points per model. In most cases this is the preferred route to go as you can field several 5 man units of heavy cavalry that will hit with Strength 5 on the charge. They lack the 1+ armor of Empire Knights or the pure skill of comparable elite cavalry units in other armies, but they are also fairly cheap.

Command groups for these units depend on which role you want them to fulfill on the battlefield. Small groups of 5 heavy cavalry do not need a full command and are typically best served by adding a musician and/or champion. If you intend the unit to be sacrificial then no command is needed at all of course. If you plan on building a hammer unit then a full command group becomes viable. A typical hammer unit would optimally run between 7-9 heavy cavalry with full command and would typically be joined by a Captain as well for extra punch.

Using heavy cavalry without barding does not seem to be too popular or widespread from what I have seen in Dogs of War builds. This seems to be more of an issue with the current state of Warhammer Fantasy than the Dogs of War rules. There are so many high strength units/spells/etc. currently in the game that any competitive Dogs of War build (DoW are competitive?!) is better off forgoing this option. Personally, I think it would be fun to try and make this variant work as you trade 1 point of armor for an additional 2 inches of movement. This can add some interesting tactical wrinkles to your battle plan and your opponent may be caught off guard if they are used to slower moving heavy cavalry. The extra movement afforded by not using barding should be enough to setup more advantageous charges or for getting up the flanks. Note, you are still Strength 5 when you charge with this variant.

A unit or two of heavy cavalry is always a welcome addition to a Dogs of War army and is one of the few units with good armor and high strength (on the charge) that mercenary generals have access to. Again, they are core, and have no other restrictions on them whatsoever. Take them! Hopefully you have found the above tactica helpful. Stay tuned for a review of Light Cavalry.

Mini-Tactica: Vespero's Vendetta

Hello all, time to focus a little bit on Dogs of War as I've been neglecting them as of late.

For this mini-tactica I’ll be discussing Vespero’s Vendetta. As with many other Regiments of Renown (ROR) it is a case of cool minis that suffer from mediocre rules. Vespero’s Vendetta are both overpriced and lack any rules or stats to make them worth taking (unless it’s just a casual game or themed list), especially when compared to the superlative regular duelists which you could purchase more of for your army list instead. All of the negative aspects aside, let us take a look at what Vespero’s Vendetta can do.

The members of Vespero’s Vendetta are essentially standard duelists led by Vespero, a captain level hero who has slightly higher Weapon Skill than an average captain. The duelists of VV have two hand weapons and throwing knives as well as cloaks, giving them some small protect in combat.

As with regular duelists, VV have the skirmish special rule.

Unlike most Regiments of Renown, Vespero’s Vendetta has a magic item, although its use is rather limited. Vespero himself has a mask that causes fear. This ability is only for Vespero himself and is not conveyed to the rest of the unit. A unit strength (US) 1 fear causing model is practically useless and a clear sign of the age of this Dogs of War army list. It will only have a very limited effect if any.

If you are intent on using Vespero’s then they would be used much like regular duelists, although they are nowhere near as useful across as many situations as pistol-armed duelists. They are as fragile as regular duelists with an increased cost to boot. Even in combat, Vespero’s higher than average weapon skill will not mean much in today’s Warhammer environment as many unit champions from newer books could easily deal with Vespero.

As with regular duelists they would excel at protecting lone characters or the precious few war machines available to mercenary generals. Alternately, you could play this unit more aggressively and try to hunt down lone enemy wizards and their war machines. With as much shooting and magic as most armies currently bring to the table, the chances of survival for Vespero’s on the tabletop are rather bleak.

I could see the unit being used in a themed list and casual play but certainly not in any type of competitive list. Sadly, Vespero is best left on the shelf.

Tactica: Duelists

Hello all, it's time for another Dogs of War tactica. This time I would like to discuss perhaps the best unit in the entire army, namely Duelists. If you think of Dogs of War, the terms 'elite' or 'powerful' are not typically associated with the army. Nevertheless, Duelists occupy a key spot in the Dogs of War army and are a true multi-tasking unit, and to top things off, they are also a Core choice. In short, you can have as many units as you can afford. There are no restrictions as with Special and Rare choices, and no army-specific constraints such as the 'mainstay unit' rules. Quite simply, Duelists are the best unit available to the Dogs of War general for a variety of reasons which I will discuss in greater detail below.

As I mentioned, Duelists are a Core choice for Dogs of War and are an infantry unit. Unlike the rather static blocks of pikemen, Duelists are much more mobile as they have the Skirmishers special rule. Statistically, they also stack up favorable to other generic Dogs of War units as they have both a Weapon Skill (WS) and Initiative (I) of 4. In an army where 3 is the average stat, it is quite an improvement. Their other statistics are all average and their leadership is also the average 7 for most humans. What makes them such a useful unit then?

Their equipment options for duelists, one option in particular, make them an indespensible unit for the army and one of the few mercenary units that actually stacks up fairly well against other armies out there. Duelists come standard with a hand weapon but may purchase an additional hand weapon, pistols, and throwing knives. Duelists are also extremely fragile (as are most skirmishers) in that they have no armor, but may opt to purchase bucklers for a scant bit of protection in combat.

Of the 3 main weapon configurations, purchasing throwing knives is perhaps the least desirable choice (unless you are doing this for fluff or thematic reasons). For a few points more than throwing knives you can purchase a pistol for your Duelists. Armed in this manner, Duelists become quite a fearsome unit as they provide a bit of punch (albeit short-ranged) in the shooting phase while also getting an additional attack in the close combat phase again, thanks to the ruling regarding pistols in the most recent Warhammer FAQ. What makes the pistol-armed Duelists so special? Let us briefly examine the profile of the pistol. You have a range of 8", Strength 4, and as with all firearms, you also benefit from the Armor-Piercing special rule. Lightly armed troops and even medium cavalry will come to fear a big volley from a Duelist unit. To make things even better, a unit armed with pistols may ALWAYS stand-and-shoot, regardless of how close the enemy chargers are, thus an opponent will have to weigh their options before recklessly charging the Duelists. The major downside with the Duelists' shooting, is that they languish at the average ballistic skill (BS) of 3, which means you'll be hitting on 5s at best, on a Stand-and-Shoot. Nevertheless, their potential damage should give opponents pause unless they're charging in with a Deathstar unit.

In combat, Duelists armed with pistols or an additional hand weapon are no slouches. They will be throwing out 2 WS4 attacks each which means most enemy troops will need a 4+ to hit them. If charged, you cannot expect the Duelists to survive in combat as their lack of real armor means they will be dropping fast. Even equipping a buckler only provides the bare minimum of armor saves, and let's face it, there are so many S4 or greater attacks in the current Warhammer environment that those points would be best spent elsewhere. Where Duelists excel in combat is against small or lightly armored units, or weak individual characters such as wizards, or in certain cases getting a flank or rear charge in support of other units such as pikes, ogres, and cavalry.

Where Duelists can truly excel is in the role of baiting enemy troops into bad (read failed) charges. Duelists work well as screening units, keeping lightly armored units such as pikes and ogres safe from direct missile fire for a few turns. As part of the screening role you can employ the Duelists as bait, only to flee when charge, hopefully setting up good charges for your main combat units on your turn. Allow me to provide a few examples of using the Duelists to devastating effect as baiting units:

There are two parts to effectively using this tactic and it requires 2 of your units - it can contain more units, but at its heart, 2 units are at the heart of it.

You need both a screening unit and the hammer unit.

Ideally the screening unit will be a group of skirmishers --- for me this is almost always going to be pistol armed duellists. While we do have other skirmishing units available (Lumpin Croop's, Mengil's Manflayers etc), the RoR skirmishers are far too expensive to be used as front line shields for the hammer units.

I do use Lumpin Croop's in my army (much to the annoyance of my opponents), and they have never failed to perform. Their role is one of harassing and annoying the enemy, hopefully putting wounds on small weak units (fast cav, and generally anything T3 within their range, and of course as marchblockers).

Why duellists? Why not? They are one of the best units available to a DOW general. There are several different equipment options available. Lets break these down briefly:

Vanilla Duellists - comes with a handweapon - not really good for much of anything - these guys will struggle to kill anything

Duellist w/2 handweapons - 2 WS4, I4 attacks are great, and they can chop up small weak units with relative success, although they lack staying power

Duelist w/Pistol - I realize there is some debate as to whether this version should count as having 2 attacks in close combat - I certainly think they should, and most opponents will see the light of reason. Now we have a duellist with 2 WS4, I4 attacks in close combat, but perhaps most importantly, we have a fairly powerful and often underestimated ranged attack (several of my opponents learned this when my duellists proceeded to tear their units apart in the shooting phase). One key ability the pistol armed duellist possesses over other ranged units (bows etc) is that you can always stand and shoot with a pistol (-1 to hit still applies). Opponents will often reconsider charging for fear of potentially getting whiped out on the charge. Yet for me, close combat is not the primary role for the duellists, unless the situation is just too good to pass up (judgment call).

Duellists w/Buckler - give you a wimpy 6+ save vs shooting and 5+ in CC - While the 5+ in CC could give you some survivability vs your average S3 footslogger, it really isn't worth it IMO, as their primary purpose for me is to be shooting the enemy and acting as tempting bait.

Duellists w/Throwing Knives - the other missile option for these guys - with a range of 6" at S3, is it really worth it over the pistol? NO! Unless you're going this route for fluff reasons, leave the knives at home and pack on the black powder.

Duellist w/maximum equipment - This will easily bring your duelists past the 10pts/mini margin and frankly isn't worth it either. Yes, they will be a shooting and CC threat, but with their average T3 and 6+ AS while out in the open they just will not survive, despite being at -1 to hit from being skirmishers. Your points are really better spent elsewhere.

As DOW, I would say we have access to perhaps the most diverse array of troops among the various Warhammer Fantasy armies (if not always the best or flashiest troops). Its always fun beating down opponents with their power units, decked out with magic banners, and expensive characters and their various magic items. No sir, we win with skill and a few common magic items.

In my army I use what I will refer to as 'hammer' units. I'll explain my reasoning behind these choices, and possible alternatives.

Hammer unit 1 --- 20+ Leo's Leopoard CompanyHammer unit 2 - 3 Maneaters.

What do both of these units have in common?

Both are immune to psychology.

This is crucial on various levels. Both units are also very capable of beating most units that they will face.Leo's Leopard Company - now I know many will say to just use vanilla pikes, or even go for Ricco's, Alcatani, or Pirazzo's, but I have found the Leopard Company to be winners. Their cost (most expensive pike unit) can be prohibitive, but I have found them to be worth it. My first few outings with DOW were without duellists and after Leo's demolished one of my opponent's units, they began drawing heavy fire in subsequent games, leaving them to be less than effective. Be well aware, with only light armor, pikes will die in droves to handguns and xbows, to say nothing of warmachines. Hence, the duellist screen. Yes, opponents, can still target them from hills etc. I try to make sure my opponents have so many things to worry about, that if they focus too much attention on eradicating the pikes, other parts of my army can and will make them pay dearly.

Now, back to the immune to psychology ability. You will get shot at and you will lose pikemen, but you will not be running away from these losses. I also find the ability extremely valuable, as I play against WE (who uses a lot of dryads, treekin, treemen), VC (undead - duh), Ogres (more fear). I can't have an expensive block of troops failing a fear check and leaving a gap in the battle line.Pikes oddly enough work best vs infantry, light cavalry, ogres, and units of that size/toughness. Pike will struggle vs 1+ or 2+ save knights (even with the +1 str bonus). I find that the sheer number of attacks + the fact that you go first (except versus HE and magical ASF) allows you to easily wipe out the front rank if not 2 ranks of most infantry units.

I should also mention I place my paymaster in my Leopard Company unit - if the paymaster dies (likely in CC) then you will have pikes + hatred vs the unit that killed him - very nice! We also can't ignore Leo himself, a fairly generic captain, although he 'technically' gets an additional attack as he carries a pistol. Leo also carries heavy armor so he has a bit more staying power than the rank and file pikemen of the unit. I also arm my paymaster with the following wargear: pistol, heavy armor, shield, morningstar. This makes the entire pike unit able to throw out 2 pistols shots at nearby units to either boost the duelist shooting or put a few wounds on another unit. These two shots may not seem like much but anything casualty you inflict on your opponent is worth it. Most opponents also don't expect to be shot at from an infantry unit, so its just another little surprise I use. These two shots will also hit most of the time - Leo is BS5, and the paymaster comes in at a respectable BS4. Again, they can always stand and shoot as well which can take out a couple of enemies before you unleash the massive number of pike attacks in CC.

Hammer Unit 2 ---A unit of 3 maneaters. I have seen lists use units of 3 with a braces of handguns (pistols for the maneaters) to great effect and I might build of unit of these in the near future. My unit of three contains 2 maneaters with cathayan longswords and one with a great weapon who is placed in the middle. Maneaters already come with an impressive statline and several nice abilities (immune to psych, stubborn, cause fear). I find the WS + I boost of the longswords nice because it lets these guys compete with most hero level characters in terms of speed and the extra WS ensure you should be hitting most enemy units on a 3+, and with a S5, you can expect to usually wound on a 3+, and often a 2+. The one maneater with a great weapon is there to have a S7 chariot killing machine (4 S7 attacks is nothing to scoff at). With a S7 this guy will also put fear into heavily armed cavalry with a nice -4 modifier to their armor save.

On to the actual implementation of the tactic: I deploy my duelist units as screens directly in front of my hammer units to prevent them from getting shot up as much as possible. During the first few movement phases the duelists units advance so that they are anywhere from 5-8 inches in front of the hammer units. I also try to keep the rest of the batteline roughly even with my hammer units so that flank charges on the hammers do not present themselves.What do I do with each unit?

The duelists will engage enemy units within range using their pistols, hopefully inflicting a few casualties. I will rarely charge with duelists unless I see a strategic advantage in doing so which will help me in the following turns. There is no point in wiping out an enemy unit only to get yourself out of position in their turn. If the duelists are in range to shoot then anyone but dwarfs should be able to charge them. Depending on the enemy and the opponent, you will likely get charged. If its a weak enough enemy or if my shooting phase has inflicted a decent amount of casualties, I might stand and shoot. Typically, I will choose to flee (remember - 5-8 inches away from the hammers). I typically roll fairly high, so my duelists will flee through either of my immune to psych units who will ignore the fleeing troops. Make sure you do not have any other friendlies in their path who might be affected. It will also take some careful positioning so that your duelists flee through your hammers and not in a direction which will cause other units to panic. Depending on the type of unit that charged the duelists, the enemy will either get a failed charge or carry on through to your hammer unit. I should mention I leave a tiny gap so that my hammer unit can see the enemy unit in question so that they could be a legal charge target.Preferably, I want my pike unit charged, whereas I want a unit getting a failed charge and stopping short of my maneaters who will of course charge that unit in my turn. Thus I usually leave the duelists screening the maneaters a bit further out than the ones screening my pikes.

As outlined above, the combat prowess of these units ensure they will win most fights, and hopefully the duelists will have put some wounds on the opposing enemy units. If everything works well, the duelists will rally in the subsequent turn and will again work their way forward to support the battleline. It can of course happen that you do not flee far enough with your duelists resulting in their death. If the duelists die, then they die.

The pikemen who will have their static combat resolution (paymaster helps here as well) in addition to the wounds they cause in combat will likely break most units. The maneaters undoubtedly can dish out lots of punishment which should mean that they will face few if any return attacks depending on the situation of course. As they cause fear and with a starting US9 they should auto-break a lot of opponents (in the unlikely event someone rolls insane courage). I've used this tactic quite successfully. My opponent can either charge the duellists, shoot them (which is their major weakness), or try to maneuver around them. If they are ignored, I continue to put pistol shots into whichever enemy is in range.

Keep in mind that none of this is occurring in a vacuum - the rest of the army is there as well as the rest of your opponent's forces + the terrain. Every unit in my list works in concert with the other units of my army. I try to make sure that any of my opponent's units which I try to draw into these baits have been shot at by either my xbows, cannons, halflings, duellists, and if possible by either of my wizards. The tactic isn't going to be a guaranteed success, as anything can happen at any point in the battle. You also shouldn't limit yourself to one strategy. It takes a combination efforts in all phases of the game to be successful. There are many issues within the metagame which can help make you a more successful general, but that is for another tactica.

As good as the pistol-armed Duelists are, they are not the only option in fielding Duelists as multiple such units can get expensive. If you are worried about protecting your war machines such as Mercenary Cannons and Hot Pots yo could take a small unit of bare-bones or two hand weapon equipped Duelists to protect your vulnerable war machines. These Duelists can then serve to either harass, redirect, or directly engage units such as scouts, miners, waywatchers etc.

Duelists are suited to virtually every army build for Dogs of War armies. They complement infantry heavy armies as well as more mobile armies, as their skirmishing rule allows them to keep up with the fast moving elements of an army. Beginning generals may find them hard to use but with experience and practice you will learn how to employ them to devastating effect. Hopefully the above tactica has been helpful to you.

Mercenary Tactica: Crossbows

Mercenary Tactica – Crossbows

If Pikes are the iconic combat weapon of the Dogs of War, then the Crossbow is certainly the iconic missile weapon for mercenary armies. The crossbow is essentially the only long range missile troop that Dogs of War players have access to. Duelists may have pistols and throwing knives, but these both lack range. The mercenary general does have access to core troops armed with bows in the form of light cavalry but it is obviously impractical to field enough sizeable units of such light cavalry to make an impact with their shooting. The major benefit of light cavalry lies in its mobility and thus using them as static shooting platforms is practically pointless. The only other troops with access to bows are Halflings, who are quite able archers, but that is best left for a future discussion. Crossbows provide a relatively cheap and powerful long range missile unit that should find a place in nearly all Dogs of War armies, aside from themed armies such as an all cavalry force. Like Pikes units, the Dogs of War player can choose between regular mercenary crossbowmen and various Regiment of Renown crossbow units. The player also has the choice between Human crossbowmen or Dwarf crossbowmen.

As with most of the units available to the Dogs of War player, the stats for crossbowmen are not impressive, in short they are your average human trooper. They are fairly cheap though and being a Core Choice means you can field several sizeable units of them. The minimum unit size for crossbowmen is ten. Typical unit sizes will range anywhere from ten to twenty depending on how and where the unit is being used. While crossbow units can have a full command it is best avoided as the full command will cost you an additional thirty points, which would be better used adding more regular crossbowmen to the unit. As with all missile units you really do not want to add a standard bearer to a crossbow unit as you will be essentially giving the enemy a big chunk of victory points should the unit break from combat. If the enemy is engaging your crossbow units in combat then you are likely facing enough problems as it is and there is no need to give the opponent extra points. The only member of the command group that could be worth adding is the musician to help with rallying.

The decision on how many crossbowmen to take in a unit depends on where and how you intend to use them in your overall battle plan. Small units of ten crossbowmen work well to cover the flanks and the combination of their range and hitting power should be able to deal with most of the fast, lightly armored units typically found there. Larger units of around twenty crossbowmen deployed ten wide and two ranks deep can work closer to the center of your lines and can pump out a large volume of shots if you’re lucky enough to get them on a hill. The volume of shots will make up for their rather average shooting skill. The large size of the unit means you can also take a few casualties before having to worry about panic tests. Deploying such large blocks of crossbowmen may also cause your opponent to change his deployment and battle plans as they will have to carefully consider placing any valuable units in line of sight of the crossbows. If an enemy unit does manage to close on your crossbow unit it may be advisable to reform the unit to gain more ranks, especially with a unit of twenty. Reforming into five wide with four ranks provides some useful static combat resolution and you will hopefully still have outnumbering on your side. This will maneuver is situational though as sometimes it may be better to keep the wider formation to gain more shots for a stand and shoot charge reaction.

The same rules for Human mercenary crossbowmen apply to dwarf warriors equipped with crossbows with a few minor differences. While their shooting skill is the same the Dwarfs have several much better stats overall, although you will be using up valuable Special Choices should you decide to hire some Dwarf crossbowmen. Unlike the Human crossbowmen the Dwarfs are rather resilient with their higher toughness, are less likely to run due to their superior leadership, and can hold their own in combat due to their higher weapons skill. The Dwarfs also come with light armor and can be equipped in any number of ways to further augment their combat abilities. A typical combination is to equip Dwarfs with crossbows and shields making them both a solid missile unit and fairly able in combat as they will gain the hand weapon and shield bonus. All of these upgrades do drastically increase the cost for even a small unit of these warriors so you will need to weigh their use against the Human crossbowmen.

Deploying your crossbow units can be tricky as long, thin lines of missile troops can have a fairly large footprint and the terrain will of course affect your deployment as well. You will want to maximize the number of shots you can get with the crossbowmen without cutting off valuable maneuvering space for your mobile units. It may happen that you will have to deploy your crossbows in a smaller frontage or even behind other units. In general you will want to avoid moving with crossbows as much as possible – they need to be shooting virtually every turn to gain the maximum use from them. If necessary you may need to have your crossbowmen sacrifice themselves to ensure other units in your army aren’t exposed to flank charges or to simply buy some time while your other units get into better positions. In my army every unit has a definite role and every unit is also expendable. If you are in a position where sacrificing a small unit of crossbowmen will prevent an enemy from rolling up your battle line or just simply breaking through to vulnerable war machines or lone characters, then the crossbowmen will make a sacrifice for the greater good. Try to angle enemy chargers so that it will take them several turns to get into a position for further charges. After all it is better to lose an eighty point unit of crossbowmen than having a big unit of pikes or your Paymaster’s Guard unit flank charged. In a typical 2000 point army I would suggest taking no fewer than two units of ten crossbowmen. As an example, my typical 2250pt army uses two units of twenty crossbowmen deployed ten wide and two ranks deep. I found that these large units just had a far greater and noticeable impact on the game, or at the very least give my opponents something to worry about – 40 potential crossbow shots is nothing to sneeze at. When I first started playing Dogs of War, I used two units of ten, and while they generally performed well, they never quite managed to kill enough enemies and were easily panicked which opened up big gaps in my battle line. I may be switching things around after a year or so of going with this setup and will try to give my unit of Marksmen some more time in the spotlight.

Hopefully the above tactica has been useful to you. Now get out there and hire some crossbowmen!

Slick

Warhammer Etiquette

Ever have a bad experience playing Warhammer? Welcome to a multi-part etiquette tutorial on how to make the game a better experience.

Here are some thoughts to serve as a guideline to help ensure your games are enjoyable experiences.

I: The Physical Aspects
---Have a typed list, with unit costs and a total in an easy to read format. All important information should be easy to find.
---Be prepared: Have all the materials to play the game such as dice, measuring device, templates, a copy of the main rulebook, and a copy of your armybook or codex.
---Along with the above, make sure your dice a normal dice (no huge dice or micro dice please), have a working tape measurer (the game is played in inches not centimeters), don't rely on your opponent to have the template(s) you're missing, always have a copy of the main rulebook especially now that they are available in the small format, and last but not least, bring the rules for your army and know what the latest FAQ is and how it affects your army.
---Be clean. Don't propagate the negative stereotypes about gamers. There is nothing worse having to play a game in a shop full of people who haven't showered in a week. This also includes your clothes - don't show up wearing something that hasn't been washed since you've bought it or the shirt you've been wearing nonstop for the past week. Don't be that guy!

II: Measuring
---Be consistent in how you measure. It's a good idea to ask your opponent how they measure before a game starts as well to make sure you're both on the same page about measuring (this applies to dice rolling as well).
---For movement, measuring from the front of your base to the front of the opponent's base. Apply this consistently and there should be no arguments about movement.
---Be sportsmanlike and give the opponent the benefit of the doubt where possible with movement, shooting, and templates.
---Make sure both you and your opponent are aware of how facing works for the various types of units in the game (ranked units, skirmishers, ridden monsters, characters on foot, and mounted characters).

III: Dicerolling
---Be consistent in how you treat all cocked dice, if it's "okay" on a piece of terrain for one roll, then it's always "okay". A good way to aovid problems with cocked dice is to roll in a relatively open area close to whatever combat etc that is occurring at that moment.
---This ties in to the cocked dice issue - re-roll any dice that your opponent questions. Your opponent should show the same respect to you.
---Perhaps most importantly - announce what you are rolling for and which of your units is performing the action against which of the opponent's units before rolling any dice. Your opponent would have every right to ask you to re-roll your dice if you don't announce what you're rolling for.
---Once you've established the above, roll your dice, pick up any misses and proceed with any further dice rolls as necessary.
---This goes without saying but do not make any rolls without your opponent or in some cases a neutral third party witnessing a roll.
---The following are all related: use normal sized gaming dice - no micro dice or giant dice. It's simply annoying. The results on your dice should also be easily recognizable so if one or more numbers are fading off then simply replace the dice with new ones. If you wish to use "casino dice" or any other large dice then roll them in a box - dice have to bounce at least twice in casino craps for a reason.
---Absolutely no cheating with the dice: this can take the form of "practiced rolling" or using "special dice" for such things as leadership tests or break tests. These are all forms of cheating.

Part IV: Behavior
---You should always try to keep cool, as losing your temper is almost certain to make the game and the situation worse. Throwing dice, minis, measuring tapes or any other objects is rather childish and can be dangerous, both to people in the store and the store itself. Doing this may in fact get you kicked out of a store so just don't do it. If you're really angry then just take a 5 minute break from the game, cool down, and resume playing. Winning is fun, but you generally learn more in defeat, so if you're getting massacred just bear with it, analyze what you did wrong, adjust your army if necessary, and try to play a better game next time.
---This ties in with the above - be respectful and commiserate with your opponent if they have bad luck. Conversely, do not complain about their good luck or your own bad luck. In addition avoid trash talking as you'll quickly find yourself without anyone willing to play against you. Note, a little bit of friendly jesting between two regular plays is fine. In addition, do not insult another player's paint job or make any other disparaging remarks about their army (whether it be the minis themselves or your opponent's armylist). Instead you could offer your opponent some advice on painting or modeling, as well as having a discussion of the battle with them after the game and help them with their armylists. This is especially useful with new players as the learning curve for the game can be quite high depending on the army.
---If you believe your opponent has broken the rules, ask them a question rather than making an accusation. It may just have been an honest mistake. If you think your opponent is deliberately and/or repeatedly breaking the rules then ask a store employee (or other neutral third party) to act as a referee for the game if possible.
---Try to play at a consistent pace with the goal of finishing the game in the alotted number of turns for each player (typically 6) within a reasonable amount of time (typically 2-2.5 hours at 2000 points). If you agree beforehand to play at a slower pace that is fine. Playing at a relatively fast pace is good practice for the tournament environment where every second counts.
---This also ties in to the previous point. While you're playing the game try to avoid any activities outside of the game such as engaging in lengthy conversions with people who are watching the game or spending excessive time on cell phone calls while the game is in progress. It's not fair to your opponent to waste their time while you're off doing something else. Along with this, it's clearly bad form to solicit advice from other players. Asking for a neutral rules clarification or interpretation is fine though.
---Try to keep the area on, under, around the table tidy. Yes there are dice, templates, armybooks, armylists, FAQ sheets, tokens, counters, casualties, etc that fill up a table but it also doesn't have to be strewn about all over the place. Space within most stores is at a premium anyway, so don't take up any more space than necessary. Other customers still need to be able to walk around the store without tripping over your stuff.

Part V: General Etiquette
---If you're playing a friendly game (especially against a beginning player) then try to bring a friendly list instead of a waac (win at all costs). Save the 'hard' lists for tournaments.
---Try to show up on time to your game, especially if the store is busy and there are other people who want the use of the table. Let your opponent know if you're running late or can't make it after all.
---Learn the rules, and know your army's rules. It is understandable that beginning players will have a lot to learn, both the rules for the game as well as their army's rules. Help these players whenever possible. You can point out to them that each armybook has a quick reference sheet (which they can copy or download and print from GW's site) to save time looking up stats and important rules. If you have to look up the rules every few minutes you will greatly lengthen the game - no one wants to spend 5 hours playing what should be a 2 hour game. A useful suggestion to help your opponent's is to either use post-it notes or to highlight important sections in the rulebook (armybooks) to save time looking them up. If both players have a good grasp of the rules the game can actually flow pretty smoothly.
---Have a post-game discussion with your opponent (time permitting). If your opponent lost maybe ask them where they felt the battle turned against them, and you could also point out any tactics which may have gotten them in trouble. Perhaps your opponent needs help with deployment or armylist construction. All of these are useful discussions and can help a beginning player learn more about the game and their army.

Following the guidelines above should ensure for a good gaming experience. Hopefully the above guide has been useful to you.

Slick

Regimental Review: Crossbow Regiments of Renown

This will be part of series of Regimental Reviews mainly for Dogs of War units, but I may expand it for other armies and units.

Regimental Review: Crossbow Regiments of Renown

When it comes to crossbows the Dogs of War player has two primary choices among the Regiments of Renown, namely the Marksmen of Miragliano and Braganza’s Besiegers. A third option would be Pirazzo’s Lost Legion, as they are a mixed unit of pikes and crossbows. As with all Regiments of Renown, their generally superior abilities also come at a high price as you could easily hire twice the number of normal mercenaries, and in many cases this would also be better. Enough about the normal mercenaries for now, let’s dive right into these regiments!

First up are the Marksmen of Miragliano. They are the best crossbowmen and best overall long range missile unit available to a Dogs of War player. The major difference between the Marksmen and other crossbowmen is that they are all BS4 and are led by a captain level hero, Maximilian Damark who has a BS of 5! What does this translate into? As those who dabble in Math-hammer will tell you, this means you will hit far more often, and with the solid strength of 4 for crossbows you will also wound quite a bit. The Marksmen can open up holes in enemy lines with a few turns of concentrated shooting. Place them on the flanks and watch them pulverize enemy fast cavalry and other light armored units. With the crossbow’s superior range, you can also safely engage enemy missile troops such as handgunners, longbowmen, and even other crossbows. While longbows and crossbows all have a 30 inch range, the Marksmen’s superior skill should mop up most enemy units in short order and cause panic tests. Be wary of other high BS shooters that the enemy player might bring to bear, especially if playing against any of the Elf armies. A nice tactic to increase the impact of the Marksmen is to have one of your Hireling Wizards cast the spell Portent of Far on them. The re-rolls to hit and to wound granted by this spell will lead to many more enemy casualties and will hopefully open up a hole in the enemy’s battle line.

Everything sounds pretty good so far, right? So what disadvantages do the Marksmen have? The minimum unit you must hire gives you 9 Marksmen plus their captain Maximilian. Also included in this minimum size unit are a standard bearer and musician. All of this will cost you a whopping 180 points. For this price you could purchase a unit of 22 regular crossbowmen. While having a standard bearer can help tip a combat in the Marksmen’s favor against any lightly armed and armored units that might be rushing the flanks, it becomes an almost free 100 victory points against any of the high powered heavy cavalry or elite infantry units which can dominate the game in today’s Warhammer environment. The Marksmen can handle virtually all depleted light units in combat that survive their missile barrage on the way in. In this situation having a captain level hero is a definite plus. As mentioned above though, don’t expect them to survive against any serious combat unit.

In order to really have an impact with the Marksmen you will have to hire some additional troopers beyond the minimum required size and this is where the points cost of the unit quickly adds up. A unit of 15 or so Marksmen is generally the optimum size and will cost 235 points. When choosing the Marksmen you will have to weigh the potential damage they could cause along with the points compared to what the same amount of points in regular mercenary troops could accomplish. One thing you can be sure of is that the Marksmen will attract a lot of the opponent’s attention. You will need to adequately support them with units such as duelists or light cavalry that can either intercept of redirect serious threats heading for the Marksmen. However, an opponent may focus too much attention on the Marksmen which may open up some opportunities for the rest of your army to get into position for favorable engagements. As with virtually all missile troops, the Marksmen are fragile and will still die in droves should the enemy start dropping template weapons and magic on them. They have some limited protection in the form of light armor but it would be foolish to rely on that, thus it’s highly inadvisable to use these troops recklessly.

While the Marksmen can be devastating missile troops, let’s not forget about the other crossbow equipped Regiment of Renown, Braganza’s Besiegers. As you can probably infer from their name, this is a more defense oriented crossbow regiment. The Besiegers are slightly more expensive than the Marksmen, coming in at 185 points for the minimum size unit that you must hire. As with the Marksmen both a standard bearer and musician are included in this price. The drawbacks of having a standard bearer in a missile unit were already discussed above so they don’t need to be repeated again here. Like all Regiments of Renown you also have a captain level hero, Braganza, who does provide a BS5 shooter along with some solid combat support should the unit get charged by an enemy. There is no difference between a Besieger and a regular crossbowman as far as their stats are concerned. What separates the Besiegers from other missile troops is that they pack on the armor. All of the Besiegers (including Braganza) wear heavy armor and also carry a pavise which provides them even more protection from missile fire. Unfortunately, the pavise does not work in close combat so the Besiegers must rely on their heavy armor to see them through.

The Besiegers may lack the skill of the Marksmen but they can act as reliable counter missile troops as they will be able to shrug off S3 bows and even crossbows fairly well. Black powder equipped troops will be more effective against the Besiegers heavy defenses but with their shorter range, they will expose themselves to fire from the Besiegers before they can even get their first shots off. One notable exception are Skaven Jezzail teams which can comfortably sit outside the Besieger’s range and pick them off with their powerful guns. Interestingly, the Jezzails also use a pavise although they lack the heavy armor of the Besiegers. The Jezzails may even blow themselves up while shooting. The Besiegers make an excellent you to anchor one of your flanks as they can weaken most flanking units and have the ability to hold up against these typically lightly armed units. As with the Marksmen however, any of the elite units in the came that can get into combat with the Besiegers will almost certainly break through them. Again, this is where having a standard bearer can be a hindrance.

The final crossbow equipped Regiment of Renown is the hybrid unit of Pirazzo’s Lost Legion. As far as stats are concerned, both the pike and crossbow equipped troops of the Lost Legion are the same as their regular mercenary counterparts. Their uniqueness lies in their mixed formation. You have the ability to shoot up incoming units while also being able to engage the survivors with numerous pike attacks. While the initial investment in the Lost Legion is relatively inexpensive at 160 points, you will want to greatly expand the unit to maximize its effectiveness. A unit of 21 deployed in a 7x3 formation provides you with a decent number of shots while also ensuring that you have ranks and numerous pike attacks to engage enemies with. As with the other two crossbow Regiments of Renown, the Lost Legion lend themselves to holding down flanks and obviously offer the best combat potential of the three units. They don’t carry much armor though so be wary of needlessly exposing them to enemy missile fire.

So how do these units stack up against their regular mercenary counterparts? As mentioned above, using Regiments of Renown is always a gamble as their cost is simply so much more than regular mercenaries. That said, they can perform well in the right situations, if used with caution, and as with all units in your army, supported as part of the battle line instead of being left to deal with enemies on their own. Compared to Regiments of Renown you can generally get double the amount of troops for the same price. In many cases this is also preferable as you normally wouldn’t bother taking a standard bearer in a crossbow unit. The best bet is to try out all of these units in some friendly games and see how they work for you. Maybe you’ll find that they work really well for you!

Hopefully the above article has given you a good overview of these Regiments of Renown.

Slick

Updated Tactica: Baiting the Opponent

I will be discussing the tactic of luring the opponent into either failed charges or situations which will be disastrous for them.

This tactic is simple enough in concept, yet often difficult to execute properly, especially when playing against a skilled opponent who can recognize the tactic and will make efforts to disrupt your plans.

There are many different ways and situations in which you can use this tactic and it will depend on which units you are using and the unit(s) which your opponent is bringing to bear.

There are two parts to effectively using this tactic and it requires 2 of your units - it can contain more units, but at its heart, 2 units are at the heart of it.

You need both a screening unit and the hammer unit [COLOR=green][COLOR=green]Ideally the screening unit will be a group of skirmishers --- for me this is almost always going to be pistol armed duellists. While we do have other skirmishing units available (Lumpin Croop's, Mengil's Manflayers etc), the RoR skirmishers are far too expensive to be used as front line shields for the hammer units.

I do use Lumpin Croop's in my army (much to the annoyance of my opponents), and they have never failed to perform. Their role is one of harassing and annoying the enemy, hopefully putting wounds on small weak units (fast cav, and generally anything T3 within their range, and of course as marchblockers). Why duellists? Why not? They are one of the best units available to a DOW general. There are several different equipment options available. Lets break these down briefly:

Vanilla Duellists - comes with a handweapon - not really good for much of anything - these guys will struggle to kill anything

Duellist w/2 handweapons - 2 WS4, I4 attacks are great, and they can chop up small weak units with relative success, although they lack staying power

Duelist w/Pistol - You have a duellist with 2 WS4, I4 attacks in close combat, but perhaps most importantly, we have a fairly powerful and often underestimated ranged attack (several of my opponents learned this when my duellists proceeded to tear their units apart in the shooting phase). One key ability the pistol armed duellist possesses over other ranged units (bows etc) is that you can always stand and shoot with a pistol (-1 to hit still applies). Opponents will often reconsider charging for fear of potentially getting whiped out on the charge. Yet for me, close combat is not the primary role for the duellists, unless the situation is just too good to pass up (judgment call).

Duellists w/Buckler - give you a wimpy 6+ save vs shooting and 5+ in CC - While the 5+ in CC could give you some survivability vs your average S3 footslogger, it really isn't worth it IMO, as their primary purpose for me is to be shooting the enemy and acting as tempting bait.

Duellists w/Throwing Knives - the other missile option for these guys - with a range of 6" at S3, is it really worth it over the pistol? NO! Unless you're going this route for fluff reasons, leave the knives at home and pack on the black powder.

Duellist w/maximum equipment - This will easily bring your duellists past the 10pts/mini margin and frankly isn't worth it either. Yes, they will be a shooting and CC threat, but with their average T3 and 6+ AS while out in the open they just will not survive, despite being at -1 to hit from being skirmishers. Your points are really better spent elsewhere.

Of the various options, I run with the single pistol duellist. I use 2 units of 9 in my 2250pts build. These 2 units screen my two 'hammer' units. As Dogs Of War, I would say we have access to perhaps the most diverse array of troops among the various Warhammer Fantasy armies (if not always the best or flashiest troops). Its always fun beating down opponents with their power units, decked out with magic banners, and expensive characters and their various magic items. No sir, we win with skill and a few common magic items.In my army I use what I will refer to as 'hammer' units. I'll explain my reasoning behind these choices, and possible alternatives.

Hammer unit 1 - 20+ Leo's Leopoard Company
Hammer unit 2 - 3 Maneaters
Hammer unit 3 - 15-20 Marauders with Great Weapons

What do these units have in common?

They are immune to psychology.

This is crucial on various levels. These units are also very capable of beating most units that they will face.Leo's Leopard Company - now I know many will say to just use vanilla pikes, or even go for Ricco's, Alcatani, or Pirazzo's, but I have found the Leopard Company to be winners. Their cost (most expensive pike unit) can be prohibitive, but I have found them to be worth it. My first few outings with DOW were without duellists and after Leo's demolished one of my opponent's units, they began drawing heavy fire in subsequent games, leaving them to be less than effective. Be well aware, with only light armor, pikes will die in droves to handguns and xbows, to say nothing of warmachines. Hence, the duellist screen. Yes, opponents, can still target them from hills etc. I try to make sure my opponents have so many things to worry about, that if they focus too much attention on eradicating the pikes, other parts of my army can and will make them pay dearly.

Now, back to the immune to psychology ability. You will get shot at and you will lose pikemen, but you will not be running away from these losses. I also find the ability extremely valuable, as I play against WE (who uses a lot of dryads, treekin, treemen), VC (undead - duh), Ogres (more fear). I can't have an expensive block of troops failing a fear check and leaving a gap in the battle line.Pikes oddly enough work best vs infantry, light cavalry, ogres, and units of that size/toughness. Pikes will struggle vs 1+ or 2+ save knights (even with the +1 str bonus). I find that the sheer number of attacks + the fact that you go first (except versus HE and magical ASF) allows you to easily wipe out the front rank if not 2 ranks of most infantry units. I should also mention I place my paymaster in my Leopard Company unit - if the paymaster dies (likely in CC) then you will have pikes + hatred vs the unit that killed him - very nice!

We also can't ignore Leo himself, a fairly generic captain, although he 'technically' gets an additional attack as he carries a pistol. Leo also carries heavy armor so he has a bit more staying power than the rank and file pikemen of the unit.

I also arm my paymaster with the following wargear: pistol, heavy armor, shield, morningstar. This makes the entire pike unit able to throw out 2 pistols shots at nearby units to either boost the duellist shooting or put a few wounds on another unit. These two shots may not seem like much but anything casualty you inflict on your opponent is worth it. Most opponents also don't expect to be shot at from an infantry unit, so its just another little surprise I use. These two shots will also hit most of the time - Leo is BS5, and the paymaster comes in at a respectable BS4. Again, they can always stand and shoot as well which can take out a couple of enemies before you unleash the massive number of pike attacks in CC.

Another hammer 'unit' is a unit of 3 maneaters. I have seen lists use units of 3 with a braces of hanguns (pistols for the maneaters) to great effect and I might build of unit of these in the near future. My unit of three contains 2 maneaters with cathayan longswords and one with a great weapon who is placed in the middle. Maneaters already come with an impressive statline and several nice abilities (immune to psych, stubborn, cause fear). I find the WS + I boost of the longswords nice because it lets these guys compete with most hero level characters in terms of speed and the extra WS ensure you should be hitting most enemy units on a 3+, and with a S5, you can expect to usually wound on a 3+, and often a 2+. The one maneater with a great weapon is there to have a S7 chariot killing machine (4 S7 attacks is nothing to scoff at). With a S7 this guy will also put fear into heavily armed cavalry with a nice -4 modifier to their armor save.

Lastly, another good hammer unit is a medium-large unit of Marauders armed with Great Weapons. Being Frenzied means they are Immune to Psychology, however you will have to keep them under control. Each marauder will put out 2 WS4 S5 attacks, a champion will put out 3 WS4 S5 attacks. Even in the current Elite Unit environment of Warhammer, they can provide a lot of punch.

On to the actual implementation of the tactic:

I deploy my duellist units as screens directly in front of my hammer units to prevent them from getting shot up as much as possible. During the first few movement phases the duellists units advance so that they are anywhere from 5-8 inches in front of the hammer units. I also try to keep the rest of the batteline roughly even with my hammer units so that flank charges on the hammers dont present themselves.

What do I do with each unit?

The duellists will engage enemy units within range using their pistols, hopefully inflicting a few casualties. I will rarely charge with duellists unless I see a strategic advantage in doing so which will help me in the following turns. There is no point in wiping out an enemy unit only to get yourself out of position in their turn. If the duellists are in range to shoot then anyone but dwarfs should be able to charge them. Depending on the enemy and the opponent, you will likely get charged. If its a weak enough enemy or if my shooting phase has inflicted a decent amount of casualties, I might stand and shoot. Typically, I will choose to flee (remember - 5-8 inches away from the hammers). I typically roll fairly high, so my duellists will flee through either of my immune to psych units who will ignore the fleeing troops. Make sure you dont have any other friendlies in their path who might be affected. It will also take some careful positioning so that your duellists flee through your hammers and not in a direction which will cause other units to panic. Depending on the type of unit that charged the duellists, the enemy will either get a failed charge or carry on through to your hammer unit. I should mention I leave a tiny gap so that my hammer unit can see the enemy unit in question so that they could be a legal charge target.

Preferably, I want my pike unit charged, whereas I want a unit getting a failed charge and stopping short of my maneaters who will of course charge that unit in my turn. Thus I usually leave the duellists screening the maneaters a bit further out than the ones screening my pikes.

As outlined above, the combat prowess of these units ensure they will win most fights, and hopefully the duellists will have put some wounds on the opposing enemy units. If everything works well, the duellists will rally in the subsequent turn and will again work their way forward to support the battleline. It can of course happen that you dont flee far enough with your duellists resulting in their death. Be prepared to sacrifice your units.

All of my opponents suffer from the problem that they hate losing their units, even more so if it is one of their favorites which they expect to do well. Nothing like psychological warfare...

Losing certain units typically results in my opponents losing their focus and they will begin to make tactical mistakes. My regular opponents become too emotionally attached to certain units and when these don't perform well they get upset - An agitated and distracted player is far easier to beat than someone who is focused.

One thing I can say about my style of play and overall strategy is this: I'm prepared to sacrifice any unit in my army if it presents me with an opportunity to smash my opponent. Thus, if I happen to lose my duellists, I certainly won't like it, but I won't get upset over it. Losing any expensive unit and getting visibly upset over it lets your opponent know they just killed something important to your army.

Case in point: My goblin wizard lord wiped out 2 units of my opponent's wood elf cavalry - a unit of glade riders and wild riders in 2 turns of magic - the way I deployed seemed to suggest it was a weak point in my battle line as I placed more troops on the opposite side of the table. This was the first time my opponent was using these units and we had been talking about the various uses of cavalry and how we thought that the wild riders could and should be deadly if they got a charge off. In other words, he valued that entire flank considerably. He also place a unit of wardancers and dryads on this side of the board. My forces in comparison were weak on the surface level. 20 gobbo archers, 1 unit of 20 Night gobbo spears (with 3 fanatics), my wizard lord, and 1 bolt thrower. I also had a unit of 5 spider riders on that side which ran up early to disrupt his movement and they actually managed to kill 2 glade riders in CC. Once in range I was able to wipe his wild riders out with a nice roll on the d6 s6 magic massile the gobbos have. Judging from his facial expression he was certainly upset about this. To make a long story short, I managed to wipe out that entire flank with comparatively fewer points. I knew which units he hates to lose and so deployed my units to maximum effect. He actually won the other flank due to fanatics not managing to do anything that game and some poor rolls on my part in CC - it was a 6 turn slugfest that resulted in a draw - I did lose several units which I find crucial, but I did not let on that their loss bothered me or disrupted my plans.

Back to Dogs Of WarIf the duellists die, then they die. The pikemen who will have their static combat resolution (paymaster helps here as well) in addition to the wounds they cause in combat will likely break most units. The maneaters undoubtedly can dish out lots of punishment which should mean that they will face few if any return attacks depending on the situation of course. As they cause fear and with a starting US9 they should auto-break a lot of opponents (in the unlikely event someone rolls insane courage). I've used this tactic quite successfully. My opponent can either charge the duellists, shoot them (which is their major weakness), or try to maneuver around them. If they are ignored, I continue to put pistol shots into whichever enemy is in range.Keep in mind that none of this is ocurring in a vacuum - the rest of the army is there as well as the rest of your opponent's forces + the terrain. Every unit in my list works in concert with the other units of my army. I try to make sure that any of my opponent's units which I try to draw into these baits have been shot at by either my xbows, cannons, halflings, duellists, and if possible by either of my wizards. The tactic isn't going to be a guaranteed success, as anything can happen at any point in the battle. You also shouldn't limit yourself to one strategy. It takes a combination efforts in all phases of the game to be successful. There are many issues within the metagame which can help make you a more successful general, but that is for another tactica.

Some other potential candidates for hammer units: Dwarfs - high WS, T, Ld, can always march, with many different equipment options, HW + Shield + Heavy Armor gives them great staying power. Giving them a great weapon brings you to S5 and can let you death with the many T4 baddies out there.

Marauders - High WS, high I, average Ld but frenzy - immune to psych but they need to be controlled, different equipment options means you can easily cut through low T, low armor save troops, or great weapons means you will put out a healthy number of high WS S5 attacks. I list them here again just because I haven't included them in my army for a while. It may be time to try them again. You could try to use Beorg's Bearmen although that will set you back a lot of points.

Generic pikes + other RoR pikes - all good for the various reasons outlined above, minus the immune to psych, although you will save some pts

Halfing spearmen - just kidding

Other ogres - high S and T, multipe wounds, and multipe attacks, but average leadership, stilll cause fear though, and far far cheaper than maneaters

Cavalry - I haven't tried this yet as the major drawback to this is that you really need to get the charge off on an enemy for cavalry to be at their best and even then rubber lance syndrome can strike. You would also need to set the screens further out than normal which might result in them either getting annihilated or fleeing in the wrong direction. Still, a potential cavalry charge (Voland's potentially) against a unit that failed a charge could be devastating.

This concludes the tactica. I hope you can find something useful for your future battles.

Slick

Updated Tactica: Beating the Ogres

Time to ring in the new month with an update to a tactica.

Greetings all,the following will be a detailed account on how to deal with the ogres and have success vs them with DOW.

My examples will be at the 2000-2250 pt level as thats what I typically play.

First up lets take a look at the enemy in detail:Special rules to note: Ogre Kingdoms Ogres cause impact hits. All Ogres cause fear, which can be a problem if you're not prepared.The good news - Ogres will rarely outnumber your RnF troops - unless of course you take some serious casualties to their magic and shooting (lead belchers)

Lords - not a whole lot of options here, Ogres can use a Tyrant or Slaughtermaster. However, you will only see the Slaughtermaster at the 3k point level or above, so really, you should see a Tyrant in virtually every Ogres army that you face.

The tyrant is a close combat powerhouse, with a high toughness, high strength, solid number of attacks and good leadership. We cannot really field anything to deal with him in close combat on even terms. Perhaps some of our special characters, but its always more rewarding not having to resort to those to win a game, and our special characters just aren't on the same level as many of those from other races. Perhaps one of the best weapons for a Tyrant is the Tenderizer. With its ability to cause D3 wounds combined with the already powerful stats of a Tyrant, this weapon will quickly break down just about anything the Tyrant has to face.

Where you will see the Tyrant: In my experience I typically encounter him in 1 of three places:

1 - in a unit of iron guts; 2 alone (but not unsupported); 3 attached to rhinox riders.1 probably the most common place for him - here he boosts the abilities of the ironguts with his Ld and adds several more high Strength attacks.

One also needs to be wary of the Tyrant charging out of a unit while the unit either stays put or charges another unit - depending on his equipment the tyrant is capable of dealing with certain units on his own2 The lone Tyrant is no less dangerous, although a bit more vulnerable to shooting/magic. This provides the ogres with flexibility as he can go where needed to support their units and spread his Ld range around. The Tyrant (again depending on equipment) can thus act as a flanking unit on his own while ironguts etc do a frontal charge.3 This may not be that common, although my regular Ogres opponent started doing this. The Tyrant will either deploy according to 1 or 2 above, and will at some point join a unit of rhinox riders or do a flanking charge to support the rhinox riders.

A Tyrant with the 'longstrider' kin name is something to watch out for as he can conver a considerable charge distance with this option, and when attached to a unit of rhinox riders will not slow them down. This can be especially effective against opponents unfamiliar with the Ogres and who may view the move of attaching the seemingly slower Tyrant to a Rhinox unit as stupid.

Butcher - 'the' magic user for the ogres with some damaging as well as buff spells, also not a bad fighter.

Ogre magic is very easy to cast and contains a good mix of destructive spells along with spells that buff your own units. The butcher himself is a fairly capable fighter unlike virtually all other human-sized wizards in the game. I'm going to exclude vampires, as we all know their new rules permit some very scary fighter-wizard combinations. Butchers can be carrying a variety of items.

I commonly faced an Ogre army with a Tyrant & 3 Butchers which could put out quite a few low-casting-cost spells & bound items. The bound item I most typically encounter is the Bangstick, a nasty little item that contains a magic missile. It is only power lvl 3 but if you're facing several butchers, chances are a few spells will get through. I'll go into detail about the ogre spells below.

Gut Magic - 6 spells like everyone else and alleasy to cast, although many are damaging to the cast himself. Look for ogre players to lure out your dispel dice by casting a few spells successfully with 1 power die and then saving up 2-3 dice for something they want to get through. It can be difficult to choose which ones to get through. It certainly makes things difficult if you have a T5 ogre unit getting the charge off on you, or S7 ironguts. Ogres also have access to a few bound items such as the bangstick which contains another magic missile. If left unchecked you can have several 'buffed' ogre units hitting your lines at once and causing massive damage.

Ogre remains in play spells can be dispelled on a 7 in the follow turns despite their low initial casting value. Once a spell is cast, the casting value for that same spell becomes progressively more difficult should other butchers attempt to cast it.

Bloodgruel - allows a Butcher to regain a wound up to his starting total, although if a 1 is rolled he takes a S6 hit which can be humorous of the Ogres player keeps failing these Braingobbler - Forces a unit within 18 to take a panic check. Can be deceptively effective especially if several butchers start casting this. Needless to say its useless vs undead and immune to psych units.Bullgorger - butcher must pass a strength test first. If passed, a unit within 6 gets +1 to its S; remains in play.

Bonecrusher - short range magic missile that does 2d2 S2 no AS hits - absolutely deadly vs cavalry units.

Toothcracker - A unit within 6 gets +1T and Stubborn, Bucther takes a S6 hitTrollguts - A unit within 6 gets MR2 and Regen while the caster takes an unsaveable wound

Bruiser - a hero level version of the tyrant. These guys can still put the hurt on you.

Hunter - an interesting hero choice with a wide variety of applications. One couldsay that the hunter is a jack of all trades - fighter, flanker, missile threat, march blocker, warmachine and/or wizard hunter - pun intended.Statswise hes what you would expect from an ogre level hero and he does get the sabretusks which he can send off to 'hunt' targets of opportunity.

The Hunter also comes with a harpoon (?) that he can launch and it acts just like a bolt thrower, albeit with a shorter range.

The other key feature of the Hunter is that he allows you to take an additional unit of gnoblar trappers. Trappers used in conjunction with the hunter present several key opportunities. If the hunter is charged the trappers can stand at shoot at the charger(s) if they are close enough to the Hunter (6 inches?) - Yes, its only sharp stuff, but then again, it can and will kill your troops in one of those critical situations. Case in point, Empire knights charged a unit of trappers at one of our local tourneys. The trappers managed to down an Empire knight (1+ armor save) - not bad for a gnoblar. The trappers can also use the Hunter's leadership if they are close enough. Lastly, the trappers can scout.

An army with 1 Hunter can run 2 units of trappers, 2 Hunters can run 3 units of trappers etc. This can create quite a flanking force as the trappers can marchblock, shoot (sharp stuff can be deadly vs T3 troops with little to no armor), setup enemy units for charges which will bring them out of position, possibly presenting a flank or rear charge to Ogre units. Used in conjunction with the Hunter, you have a powerful hero who can handle small flanking units on his own. Do not leave your flanking units unsupported - a strong flanking force which is also rather mobile (Hunter is an independent character and will have to worry less about terrain than a unit of Ogres 3-4 wide) can wrap up a weak flank by mid-game.

The Hunter can also be a missile threat. Lets be clear - an elf archer he is not. Nevertheless, I have seen a Hunter get off a lucky flank shot on a cavalry unit, killing 3 of 5 and causing a panic which the unit promptly failed. Another interesting tactic with Hunters, which takes some skill to pull off, involves getting a unit of trappers behind an enemy unit, charging the enemy unit with the Hunter and preferably another Ogre unit. With all of the high strength attacks coming against the unit, they should auto-break (outnumbered + fear-causing). Yes, there is always insane courage... The unit will break and if the ogres do not catch the fleeing enemy unit, the strategically placed trappers (who will hopefully still be at US5 or more) will destroy the enemy unit as it flees into them. There are some variations and additions to this tactic that I'll elaborate on during the discussion of Ogre troops.

Core Troops

Bulls --- The average ogres - average WS, Str & T of 4, 3 Wounds, 3 Attacks, and a Ld 7. Can be equipped with either an additional hand weapon or an ironfist. Ogre clubs count as armor-piercing.

Ironguts --- A slight upgrade from bulls and probably the unit which you will see the most. Points to note: Ironguts use great weapons which brings them to S6, and their leadership is slightly better than the average ogre - Ld8

Leadbelchers --- the main missile unit of the ogres. These guys can be a gamble, as they often do as much damage to themselves as to the enemy, but their shooting attack can be absolutely devastating. Think of flamers, but not as cheesy. A major weakness of the Leadbelchers is their short range. It is worth noting that they can stand and shoot as well, so consider the risk before charging them.

Unlike most missile units, these guys are good in combat and still benefit from all the ogre rules such as bull charge and fear. Once they fire they must spend a turn reloading. A typical tactic is to move up to a unit, shoot, and either take the charge from any survivors or charge something on their following turn. They can make excellent flank chargers while bulls or ironguts charge head on. A flee and rally move also counts as a 'reload' turn which is a very efficient use for them. Their flee move can bring enemy chargers out of position for a flank charge by other nearby units.

Gnoblars --- Suffer from animostiy, mediocre stats, can throw sharp stuff (not a major threat, but they can do multi-shot, rubbish Ld, suffer from bickering (animosity). They do work well to bait enemy troops, and if the ogre players loses a unit, you're not exactly gaining major victory points for them. Also worth noting, Ogres will not be panicked by gnoblars.

A special note regarding Ogre troop selection which will influence the design of armies. Ogre players may have one unit of gnoblars for every unit of Bulls and one Scraplauncher for every unit of Gnoblars.

Special Troops

Yhetees --- These guys can be deadly and can present a serious threat to your line if left alone for too long. You don't want these guys charging you at full strength. They are M7 - so they're fast. Treat them as cavalry for all intents and purposes. They pursue & flee 3d6. They are also -1 to hit in combat. They also have a better initiative than the core ogres. Perhaps most importantly - these guys ignore terrain (an ogre version of spider riders).

Scraplauncher --- A mobile catapult/chariot combination. Some people swear by them, others see them as a waste of points. It does cost quite a few points. The charge from the rhinox can be dangerous and sometimes the sharp stuff hurts too.

Gnoblar Trappers --- Skirmishing gnoblars that can scout. Effective marchblockers that really come into their own when used in conjunction with a Hunter.

Rare Troops

Gorgers --- a really interesting unit that gives the Ogres a bit of a surprise unit similar to Miners/Tunneling Teams/Tomb Scorpions/Tomb Swarms. As far as stats go, the Gorger is pretty solid and he can dish out serious pain although his average WS prevents him from being overly reliable. Good for sneaking up on warmachine crews, lone characters and wizards or getting of a combined rear-flank-front charge. They are immune to psych which is nice. They cannot pursue as they have to stop and feed on whatever they kill so you do have a bit of time to react should you lose a warmachine to one of these baddies. 1 Gorger can be effective, I've seen lists that use two which can be really painful if you're not prepared for it.

Slave Giant --- I haven't seen too many people use them. They aren't as good as the O&G giant. Still, its a giant terror causing monster that can and will put the hurt on your units if he is allowed to make it to your line unscathed. Xbows and duellists should pound these guys and they will fall (literally)!

Maneaters --- Ahhh what can I say about Maneaters that hasn't already been said - these guys rock! Stat-wise these guys stand above bulls and ironguts and are the equivalent of many other races' hero lvl fighters.

You have 3 options for these guys - Cathayan Longsword - Great Weapon - Brace of pistols.

Each of these is useful in their own way.

Let me briefly mention the abilities of the Maneaters: Fear + Stubborn + Immune to Psych + Bullcharge. You do pay for this with their extremely high points cost - but they are highly effective and rightly feared by opponents. If not, your opponent will learn to fear them.

Cathayan Longsword - +1 WS, +1 I and its also armor piercing, effectively making you S6 for armor save purposes. Apparently not that popular of an option yet I always take two of these guys in my DOW list. The extra WS means you should be hitting most footsloggers on 3s and with a -3 to AS, everything but knights will get saves.

Great weapon - A S7 Ogre that isn't a character. Can be a nasty surprise for the opponent who doesn't realize that they are going up against a S7 wielding ogre - They might know that the ironguts are S6 but may make the mistake of thinking the maneaters are the same. Great chariot smasher.

Brace of Pistols - The ogre is actually wielding 2 handguns but they follow all of the pistol rules. This option also gives you +1 attack in CC so a unit of 3 Maneaters will throw down 15 S5 attacks + bullcharge if you can manage. Now that is some serious hurt. Another great aspect of this is that they can ALWAYS stand and shoot due to the pistol rules. So that same unit of 3 can put out 6 armor piercing shots if you care to charge it. Their 6 shots are also effective at whittling down your opponent's units until you're ready for a charge.

You can also equip your maneaters with heavy armor. While this isn't the greatest protection, I generally take it for them in my Dogs of War army, as the points your're investing for this unit shouldn't go to waste if the maneaters take missile fire (and they will).

Rhinox Riders --- Rhinox riders are the ogre HEAVY cavalry! They are also extremely rare --- this mainly comes down to two factors: 1) They are very very expensive pointswise, and 2) They are very very expensive to buy. Many people will convert them from the scraplauncher rhinox, however Forgeworld does produce excellent resin versions and you end up with an extra plastic bull.

Now how about their abilities? Well, combine the combat power of a bull and a rhinox into one and you have a seriously power unit that can wreak all kinds of havoc. Rhinox riders come in two flavors, regular rhinox riders and bull rhinox riders, which are an upgrade. Rhinox riders are slightly faster than Ogres, giving the army a little bit more speed. Both rider and mount have average weapon skill, but this is offset by their high strenth, toughness, number of wounds, and attacks. The rhinox also causes D3 impact hits. Rhinox riders cost quite a few points so you may often see a lone rhinox rider used as a support charger to help rack up combat resolution. They can also make devastating flank chargers. Regular rhinox riders do not count as large targets, whereas the bull rhinox riders do. Regular rhinox riders also cause fear, whereas bull rhinox riders cause terror.

The maximum unit size you can have is 3 per selection - in Ogre armies they take up both a rare and special. This is a significant points investment, especially if your opponent decides to upgrade them with ironfists, a full command, magic banner etc. A bull rhinox is an upgrade which is basically a fully-grown rhinox --- for the points you get better weapon skill, more strength an extra attack and the aforementioned terror. They are also unit strength 6, so a single bull rhinox rider can become a devastating flank charger. Regular rhinox are mounted on a 50mm monster base while bull rhinox riders are mounted on chariot bases, which gives a unit of them a rather large footprint and can make navigating terrain difficult.

One potentially exploitable weakness of the Rhinox Riders is the 'bad tempered' rule which means they must charge any enemy unit in sight (unless they pass a leadership test). Thus the same baiting and redirect tactics used against frenzied troops will apply here.

There are very few things that Dogs of War have which can directly take on a unit of Rhinox Riders. Even a unit of pikemen will be hard-pressed to withstand a charge from them head-on. The best bet is to either hammer them with shooting and/or magic, of get a charge off on them - preferably a flank charge. Charging a unit of Rhinox with Voland's, Maneaters, Ironguts, GW dwarfs/marauders, and/or a giant are all viable. Keep in mind that too much focus on the rhinox riders allows the rest of your opponent's army to move up unharmed - which can be really costly against fast-moving ogres.

Beating the Ogres --- Ogres rely on one thing to win and that is getting the charge off and killing your units. They can't win on shooting or magic alone, and they will have virtually no static combat resolution.

What I have found to be keys to successfully beating Ogres

Numbers
Shooting
Solid Magic

Numbers --- As mentioned Ogres suffer from a lack of static combat resolution. So keep your infantry blocks big to keep the maximum rank bonus for as long as possible. +3 ranks, standard, and outnumber mean the Ogres player is already down quite a few points.

Shooting --- Ogres are not a great shooting army. We as DOW have acces to a lot of S4 firepower. Duellists and plenty of Xbows will ruin the Ogres day.

Solid Magic --- You can go magic heavy and annihilate the Ogres. However, you can get by with an average amount of magic. Depending on the type of list your opponent brings, you will need to contain his spells which can be quite dangerous if left unchecked. A couple of lvl 2s with 2-3 dispel scrolls should be plenty. You do not want his units buffed to T5 and/or regnerate etc.

Ogres in general are fairly vulnerable to magic as their magic items and spells are mostly geared towards offense. Their magic defense is predicated on directly protecting their units from magic as opposed to actively interfering with enemy spellcasters. Several Magic Items allow you to provide your units with Magic Resistance, notably the Cathayan Jet, Gnoblar Thiefstones, and of course the Trollguts spell. Other items of interest are the Skullmantle which inceases the chances of an enemy wizard miscasting as well as the Runemaw Banner which can direct enemy magic onto a nearby friendly unit. This can take a potentially damage magic missile and dump it off onto a unit of Gnoblars, leaving the Ogres unscathed. If the Gnoblars run, no one will care. On average you can expect to see two Butchers with at least a scroll or two. If you go magic heavy, you will quickly wear down their magic defense and you should be able to get the spells off that you need. On average you can expect to see two Butchers with at least a scroll or two. If you go magic heavy, you will quickly wear down their magic defense and you should be able to get the spells off that you need.

Most Ogre units will range from 3-4, sometimes 5-6. Rarely will you find a massive ogre unit.

The key to dealing with the many and varied ogre units is to blast them with shooting and magic to make his units combat ineffective by the time they hit your line. If you can kill 2 of 3 bulls/ironguts etc than that last ogre doesn't pose much of a problem. Your opponent will also not sit back with ogres. It just doesn't work for that army. They have to get into combat where they can bring their S, T , multiple wounds and attacks to bear.

If I see my opponent bringing Yhetees and/or Rhinox riders, they get a lot of my attention. Getting flank-charged by Yhetees is extremely dangerous and can roll your flank. Rhinox riders can cause way too much damage to let them reach you unharmed. You also have to be on guard for Gorgers popping up. Deal with these guys like any other unit that comes from below ground. They can't charge the turn they come in so you need to hit them with everything in the area. You may want to keep some pistol duellists or fast cavalry in the back to protect your cannons. Another safety check against Gorgers is to make sure you're moving up so you limit their potential charges. Cannons work great against Ogres and I always roll with 2. This will give your opponent some pause as he may not want to put in expensive units in their line of fire.

Creating firing lanes and areas where you want to try to direct the Ogre player's movements is key.Pikes Pikes Pikes! Call them Ogre skewerers. Pikes will ruin an Ogre players day. You should be able to take down at least one, possibly 2 ogres on average with a pike unit. RoR are actually useful here.

Pirazzo's give you the ability to put some wounds on the ogres before they get to you and then the pike attacks should take care of the rest.

Ricco's will let you hit bulls and ironguts on 3s

Leo's is highly useful vs Ogres as the immune to psych eliminates the usual problems of going against a fear-causing army. Leo also has a pistol to cause that odd shooting wound or two and can be an extra little annoyance to an opponent.

What else works well against the Ogres?

Heavy cavalry - S5 on the charge (S6 if you use Voland's) should take care of an ogre unit especially if they're already depleted from shooting.

Light cavalry - march block and redirecting Ogre units. Possibly a good unit to interfere with Yhetees.

Duellists with pistols - an obvious solution to most problems.

Dwarfs - Depending on the build, dwarfs can be a solid anchor unit and they can take a lot of punishment and stick around. Give em great weapons and they'll start pulling down ogres.

Halflings - Lumpin's - march blocking, redirecting, annoying the opponent - Lumpin does it all. Nothing irritates an Ogre player more than losing an expensive Irongut to S3 bowfire from halflings - try it.

Norse - Give em great weapons and their high WS, S + frenzy should start cutting up ogres pretty quickly.

Cannons - don't leave home without them

Giants - will cause fear in ogres and can be effective in combat against them - be careful of your giant getting charged however.

Last but not least - beat the Ogres with their own units. Most of the Ogres list counts as DOW so fight them on their own terms. Maneaters in particular will make short work of other Ogres.

Hopefully the above tactica was useful to you.