Tactics Pt II or Spearmen, an exercise in futility
Posted by Anonymous | Labels: Tactics | Posted On Thursday, January 21, 2010 at Thursday, January 21, 2010
Spearmen are perhaps the second biggest disappointment in the entire list IMO. Lets look at the positive first. You attack first no matter what and you fight in three ranks if you don't charge. Just a quick note on strategy before the math. NEVER CHARGE A MELEE UNIT WITH SPEARMEN unless worse things will happen to you if you don't. The only difference between charging spearmen and holding spearmen is that the charging spearmen lose their third rank.
So again to the math.
Charged by dwarfs. Okay, sorry that's too unrealistic. Charged by Black Orcs. Lets also say you are going with a 6 man front (which is really the way to go) you get 19 attacks (because you have a chanmpion and 3 ranks). Hitting on 4s, so 10 hits, wounding on 5s, so 3 wounds. Good news is they may have just light armor, so you probably kill 3 orcs if the dice are in your favor. Their turn, 2 guys get to swing back, but they are probably using two choppas and one guy is a champion, so 5 swings back htting on 4s, 3 wounds wounding on 2's the first turn, so probably 3 high elves die the first turn because the elves won't get a save resulting in a draw....
A draw against a charging unit of black orcs!!!! thats awesome!!!
Unfortunately, what I've found is that your spearmen aren't going to be charged by those black orcs, instead they will have to try their luck against cav. So lets use Empire knights, the to hits are the same, so 10 hits wounding on 4s so 5 wounds. 1+ save though so only one dies....their turn, 5 attacks so 3 hits, killing on 2s so three die... so if its 10 knights you are now out numbered. Score High elves 1 kill +2 ranks = 3 Empire 3kills + outnumbering = 4....but don't forget about the horses...statistically speaking they should only kill one, but lets face it the horses always do more damage than the riders. Ultimately, you should lose by 2.
To make matters worse, if you get charged in the flank or rear, you might as well just hand them the unit.
Okay, so let me put my nerd theory glasses down. Even though the numbers aren't atrociously bad, the results in practice always seem to be much worse. The reason for this is because it is very easy for opposing armies to beef up their offensive output through characters to counter the loss of regular guys. High elves have no real way of beefing up their defense, so putting a character in the unit is risky at best, and there are much better choices.
So again to the math.
Charged by dwarfs. Okay, sorry that's too unrealistic. Charged by Black Orcs. Lets also say you are going with a 6 man front (which is really the way to go) you get 19 attacks (because you have a chanmpion and 3 ranks). Hitting on 4s, so 10 hits, wounding on 5s, so 3 wounds. Good news is they may have just light armor, so you probably kill 3 orcs if the dice are in your favor. Their turn, 2 guys get to swing back, but they are probably using two choppas and one guy is a champion, so 5 swings back htting on 4s, 3 wounds wounding on 2's the first turn, so probably 3 high elves die the first turn because the elves won't get a save resulting in a draw....
A draw against a charging unit of black orcs!!!! thats awesome!!!
Unfortunately, what I've found is that your spearmen aren't going to be charged by those black orcs, instead they will have to try their luck against cav. So lets use Empire knights, the to hits are the same, so 10 hits wounding on 4s so 5 wounds. 1+ save though so only one dies....their turn, 5 attacks so 3 hits, killing on 2s so three die... so if its 10 knights you are now out numbered. Score High elves 1 kill +2 ranks = 3 Empire 3kills + outnumbering = 4....but don't forget about the horses...statistically speaking they should only kill one, but lets face it the horses always do more damage than the riders. Ultimately, you should lose by 2.
To make matters worse, if you get charged in the flank or rear, you might as well just hand them the unit.
Okay, so let me put my nerd theory glasses down. Even though the numbers aren't atrociously bad, the results in practice always seem to be much worse. The reason for this is because it is very easy for opposing armies to beef up their offensive output through characters to counter the loss of regular guys. High elves have no real way of beefing up their defense, so putting a character in the unit is risky at best, and there are much better choices.
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