List Building, Deployment & Various Other Topics in Warhammer Fantasy

Preface:

This is simply how I think about the topics described in this document, it
is certainly not exhaustive, and nor is it necessarily the ‘best’ way to confront
these issues in Fantasy. Nevertheless, I do hope you guys will find it useful, for
whatever it is worth.

List Building:

The first thing to do, when building a list, is to take stock of what
‘resources’ you have at your disposal. These resources, for me, fall into three
categories: how many points do you have to play with, what units do you have at
your disposal (this is more about what models you actually own rather than the
units that have stats and profiles in your army book) and what equipment and magic
items are available to your faction? Of course, the first of these three categories
need to be kept in mind because it imposes certain limitations on your list.

For example: At 2500 points you have at maximum 625 points available to you in the
‘Lords’ section of your army, so you are unlikely to be able to field more than two
Lords fully kitted out (most often a combat character and possibly a level 3 or 4
wizard). This immediately poses some questions about which characters you are going
to bring along, how they will synergize with the other units you field and so
forth, especially for armies that have various specialty characters. Likewise,
there are limitations on how many points of magic items each character can bring
along, so constructing each character is a little bit like playing a game of
Tetris, where you try to make the different pieces fit together to make an
effective build - more on this later.

For the second and third categories, these will require a bit more thought and
preparation. I would strongly recommend having a thorough read through the profiles
of the units you own (or intend to utilize), and all of the magic items and
spells/abilities that are available to your armies when you have time. This will
give you a good sense of the tools you have at your disposal and help you to make a
plan and find solutions to problems you are likely to face, which (in my opinion)
is what list-building is all about.

Once you have a firm grasp of the resources at your disposal, it is time to move
from information gathering to execution. You must use the resources that are
available to you to produce an army that has all of the tools you will need to
claim victory on the battlefield. It is true that winning in Warhammer has a lot to
do with the successful execution of tactics and maneuvers independent of list-
building, but ensuring that you have the tools necessary to put yourself in
situations where those tactics and maneuvers can be successfully executed is an
exercise in list-building. How is this to be done? I would split this process into
three steps: having an archetypal plan for your army (or as I prefer, the vision
for victory), troubleshooting likely problems and ways to mitigate them (obstacles
to the vision) and finally constructing a plan to help you achieve these two goals
and illustrate in your own mind where each unit you select fits into this schema.
Have an archetypal plan for your army.

In an ideal game, how is your army meant to achieve victory? I do not mean
what are the strengths of your faction writ large (although this is likely to
factor into your thought process to some extent) - I mean quite literally how will
your particular army list - your build - claim victory. You should have a fairly
clear idea of this as you are building your army list. What does it look like to be
winning a game? To be losing a game? This is going to help you form a plan, and
everything in your army list should be included or discluded according to that
plan, which in turn is meant to help you achieve your vision for how your army list
claims victory.

Now, before I go into this further, I should hasten to add, this archetypal
plan and vision for victory are not rigid, unchanging things. The famous military
adage that no plan survives contact with the enemy is going to apply here. It is
very likely that things will not, in fact, go perfectly in any of your games -
units will likely flee when you need them not to, an enemy unit that should
(statistically speaking) have been broken holds a turn or two longer than expected,
units are out of position because of mistakes or bad luck. These are things that
need to be dealt with on the fly and will inevitably mean changes to your carefully
crafted plan to meet the needs of the moment. Your plan will likely also change
based on what your opponent’s army brings to the field, or how they deploy their
army (again, more on these topics later). Nevertheless, having a plan will help you
craft a cohesive army list and is necessary for determining which of the many tools
at your disposal you are going to bring to the field and which you will leave at
home. Crucially, this also will help you determine ‘why’ you are making the choices
you make, and how these tools will function together to achieve your vision for
victory.

I will use my Bretonnians as an example, and then give some thoughts about
one or two plans Dwarfs might use. So, how do my Bretonnians win (at risk of giving
away too much!)?

Of course, broadly speaking the Bretonnians need to charge (getting a whole

slew of offensive advantages such as lance attacks and impact hits) and break units
to win, running their enemies down to claim victory points and hopefully
overrunning into advantageous positions, but I want to go more in depth than this
surface level analysis. What does it look like for my particular Bretonnian army to
win in theory?

The vision for victory for P’s Bretonnians.

In my experience charging cavalry wantonly into enemy units head on is

generally a recipe for disaster. If knights cannot break what they charge in a
single round of combat they are suddenly on the backfoot and are extremely
vulnerable to being flanked or ground down by sheer attrition. So, how do we get
around this? My typical solution to this problem is concentration of force. I want
to use the speed and maneuverability of my cavalry to put at least two or three of
my four knight buses in a position where they can overwhelm an isolated or fragile
section of the enemy battleline very quickly (ideally in one, or at most two,
rounds of combat) and then either punch through to get behind the enemy line or
else to turn on the rest of the enemy’s units and begin rolling up a flank. The
enemy line is now disordered and without the speed of cavalry, my opponent will
struggle to redeploy quickly enough to staunch the metaphorical bleeding. This also
puts me in a position where I can multi-charge targets that are difficult to break,
and this is inordinately useful especially from the flank or rear, which will also
break steadfast under the WAP rules. The actual execution of this strategy begins
during deployment, which is something we will discuss later on. At any rate, this
vision for victory entails only fighting a small portion of the enemy army at a
time, with the rest of the enemy’s units uninvolved in combat and ideally
scrambling to redeploy, focusing all of my strength on crushing the enemy’s units
one or two at a time before moving on to the next target.

Threats to the vision, and weaknesses in the list.

Let’s think of all of the things that can cause problems for my Bretonnian army or
ruin my plans (which also should prove insightful for you guys). I tend to focus
heavily on knights, almost always run in four nine-man buses. An army that is built
around massed archers (the ‘Agincourt’ build) or a more conventional Footonnia list
with large blocks of Men-at-Arms supported by multiple cheap Damsels with the Lore
of Beasts and the Prayer Icon of Quenelles or Ruby Goblet is going to have a
different set of strengths and weaknesses, and thus will win in a different way.

The absolute bane of Bretonnian knights is chaff charge redirectors,

especially when they are used skillfully. Charge redirectors can really ruin my
plans, forcing my knights to charge into inexpensive junk units that my opponent
can afford to lose or not charge at all. Worst case scenario (for my opponent) this
keeps the knights busy for a turn while they are being peppered with missiles; best
case scenario the knights take the bait and my opponent is set up to make counter-
charges, or to have the knights overrun into a combat they don’t want to take.
Chaff will typically be either skirmishers or fast cavalry, as these are fast and
highly maneuverable, but Dwarfs, for example, can also field Gyrocopters that serve
this role in addition to a couple others.

Second - units that can take a charge and keep fighting. Stubborn units in
particular are brutal. Steadfast units can be broken by flanking them with a unit
that has at least 10 unit strength (9 knights have 18 unit strength, or more if
there are characters in the unit) in order to remove steadfast. Stubborn units are
stubborn to the last man (or Dwarf, or lizard, or whatever) meaning that the
knights will likely have to slay them all in order to get unstuck from a combat
with a stubborn unit. Knights only get to use their lances for one turn when they
charge - after that they hit like glorified Imperial State Troops at strength 3 for
many times the cost and usually with relatively little unit strength they
themselves will not be steadfast for very long, if at all. Units I cannot break I
want to avoid and ensure they have as little impact on the battle as possible.

Third - fast units that are able to counter-charge, especially enemy heavy
cavalry. Enemy heavy cavalry will probably win combat against Bretonnian knights if
they can charge them, and only Grail Knights are likely to hold in this situation.

Fourth - Defense in-depth, that is to say, having a multi-layered

battleline. An opponent who accepts that they will receive at least some charges
and plans accordingly can be very difficult for Bretonnia to overcome. A canny
opponent using this tactic will set themselves up so that they are likely to be
able to counter-charge knights
the bait units are inexpensive
this role as well. This tactic
hand to counter-charge knights
whichever unit(s) in your line
that break the units they initially charge. Ideally,
chaff, but in a pinch other units can be used for
will also usually entail having a unit or two on
that break through the line, positioned nearby
you think are most likely to give way if charged.

Fifth - Knights with Swiftstride charge 3D6 inches, taking the two highest
dice, plus their movement value of 8 inches (the Purebred Warhorse special rule
negates the usual movement penalties imposed by barding). Thus the knights are
likely to charge 16 inches on average. If you think the knights are likely to
charge from 15-16 inches away, backing up two inches (all most units can manage) is
enough to take your units out of the knights’ average charge range, and can buy you
another turn of shooting or possibly a counter-charge if the knights’ failed charge
goes far enough.

Sixth - While shooting writ large is not necessarily a problem for

Bretonnian knights (2+ armour and a 5++ ward go a long way), certain types of
shooting can be incredibly problematic. Gunpowder is the natural predator of
knights in the wild, and anything with poison or armour piercing is going to do
work. Even if the knight buses are not wiped altogether by shooting, it only takes
doing 4-6 wounds to the unit before it is functionally crippled and unable to
operate on its own (3-5 knights don’t have enough punch to break units without
support). A canny opponent will focus all of their shooting on one knight bus at a
time to maximize the effectiveness of their firepower.

Seventh - Magic can be brutal for knights. Blunting their charge with
debuffs or buffing the durability of your own units (Flesh to Stone, Earthblood)
can be instrumental in helping you survive that initial charge. Also, shredding
knights or stripping away armour with the Lore of Metal is always a good shout.

If you think about your own faction, and the vision for victory and
obstacles to that vision do not occur to you immediately, this will come with
experience and practice. To that end I would recommend settling into using a single
list for a while and seeing what works and what doesn’t through actual play.

Constructing the Plan

When you make your plan, everything in the list should either help you
achieve your vision for victory, or should help mitigate the problems with and
weaknesses of your list (the obstacles to your vision). Moreover, you need to think
about how your units will work together to support one another in the pursuit of
these two objectives. Everything you include in your list should have a purpose,
and a way in which you intend to utilize that unit. Again, this is not a rigid
exercise in planning exactly where you will deploy these units or exactly where
they will move - you should make these decisions based on the list and actions of
your opponent. It would be better framed as ‘what job is this unit meant to do?’.
If you need them to do a different job during the game this is fine, but having
some purpose in mind will make sure you do not include units needlessly in a way
that does not contribute to the strength of your list.

First of all, we must accept that some of the weaknesses or problems with a
list (and by extension, a faction) cannot be solved by the list. I cannot make
knights strength 5 in every round of combat or if they don’t charge. To be strength
5, they need to use their lances, so what I can do is play in such a way that they
get to use their lances more often than not, but that’s a discussion for another
day. It’s important to distinguish between problems that can be solved with your
list and problems that must be solved by conscious decision making and technique
in-game.

So, which of these problems listed above can I actually solve with my list?
I can’t prevent my opponent from taking Stubborn units or employing defense in
depth with my list, nor can I take any units or upgrades that can prevent enemy
cavalry from counter-charging me. The things I can solve with list building are as
follows:

1. I can take trash shooting to clear chaff and lots of chaff myself (as trash
drops at the start of deployment) to try to get good deployments for my knights to
avoid the enemy’s stubborn units and chaff. Having lots of chaff also helps me trip
up my opponent’s fast units that could potentially counter-charge my knights.
2. I can discourage the enemy from backing up by taking artillery that will punish
them for staying out of combat. Of course, if my opponent has supremacy in the
shooting phase, this will not work as well, but it always pays to bring at least
some shooting in order to have some response to gunlining or avoidance in the early
game.
3. I can take options that minimize the effectiveness of enemy shooting by various
means.
4. By taking two Damsels and running the Banner of Defence on my Grail Knights, I
can minimize the effectiveness of enemy magic that would otherwise be a strong
counter to my knight buses.

Now we have a vision for victory, and a good sense of the problems with the list,
as well as some initial idea of how they might be solved.

Applying these principles.

I will have a look at my own list in-depth, and discuss how each of the units
included is meant to help me achieve my vision for victory or mitigate the
weaknesses of my list as discussed above.

++ (Bretonnia) [2,498pts] ++

+ Lords +

Bretonnian Lord [267pts]: General, Hand Weapon, Shield, The Grail Vow
. Magic Items & Virtues of the Chivalric Knight: Gromril Great Helm, Potion of
Speed, The Heartwood Lance, Virtue of Heroism (1st)
. Warhorse: Barding

I will examine magic items and character builds in more detail later on,
but for now suffice it to say that the Bretonnian Lord is my fixer; he is a
generalist combat character and commander who can do a bit of everything. He’s
durable thanks to a rerollable 1+ armour save and 5++ ward. Leadership 10 Inspiring
Presence thanks to the Grail Vow, and he can slap down monsters and characters that
would otherwise stall out all but the Grail Knights thanks to Heroic Killing Blow.
He’s also pretty handy at slaying rank and file with five attacks on the charge and
rerolls to wound with the Heartwood Lance (which incidentally also makes him more
likely to proc Heroic Killing Blow on the charge).

He helps achieve my vision for victory by making one of my Knights of the

Realm units far better at taking on a wide range of targets, giving me tactical
flexibility regardless of what my opponent brings to the field.

Prophetess of the Lady [268pts]: Warhorse

. Magic Items: The Verdant Heart
. Wizard Level 4
. . Lore of Life 4: 2. Flesh to Stone, 3. Throne of Vines, 5. Regrowth, 6. The
Dwellers Below

The Verdant Heart (+D3 to each casting roll w/ Lore of Life) makes
Bretonnia’s typically mediocre magic phase go a lot further.

She provides two benefits to the army: First of all, she gives Magic
Resistance (2) to my Bretonnian Lord’s unit, helping to mitigate one of the
weaknesses mentioned above. Secondly, her spells are mostly geared around further
improving the already formidable durability of knights (protection against shooting
and high strength melee attacks) and Regrowth allows me to resurrect knights to
restore crippled buses to their former glory, especially useful if I happen to roll
poorly on my armour saves early in the game.

+ Heroes +

Damsel of the Lady [152pts]: Warhorse

. Magic Items: Dispel Scroll
. Wizard Level 2
. . Lore of Heavens 2: 1. Harmonic Convergence, 3. Curse of the Midnight Wind

I like to take two wizards in order to have six channels in each magic
phase Additionally, having a wider variety of spells grants greater tactical
flexibility, and makes it more likely I will be able to tip the balance of crucial
early combats where I have to either punch through the enemy line or face dire
consequences.

The Lore of Heavens is new for me. I have found that Lore of Beasts (which
I usually take) has very high casting costs for a level 2, even with the lore
attribute making Beasts easier to cast on cavalry. The Dispel Scroll is a necessity
as a tool for magic defense, and she also provides the benefit of Magic Resistance
(1) to her unit.

Paladin [177pts]: Army Battle Standard, Lance (Mounted), The Grail Vow
. Magic Items & Virtues of the Chivalric Knight: Dawnstone, Enchanted shield, Sword
of Might
. Warhorse: Barding

The Paladin’s role is to grant rerolls on panic and break tests to the
knight buses and to not die - because this list only has four combat units (the
knights) having even one of them run is an unmitigated disaster. In order to keep
him alive he has a 1+/5++ with rerolls on armour saves thanks to the Enchanted
Shield, Dawnstone and Grail Vow. Additionally, because it is possible to regenerate
even crippled units, it pays to have them stick around.

He will typically go with the Knights of the Realm w/ the War Banner (+1
static combat res) giving me a bus that can pin an enemy unit in place for a turn
or two to set up a flank charge. The extra static combat res makes this bus less
likely to run even if they start losing combat after the charge.

+ Core +

Knights Errant [244pts]

. Cavalier
. 9x Knight Errant: 9x Heavy Armour, 9x Lance (Mounted), 9x Shield
. . 9x Warhorse: 9x Barding
. Musician
. Standard Bearer: Errantry Banner

The Knights Errant provide a second bus with strength 6 lance attacks on
the charge thanks to the Errantry Banner (the other being the Grail Knights),
ensuring that they will wound toughness 4 infantry on 2’s, obviously a necessity
for our meta. While they are unreliable because of their Impetuous special rule
that occasionally forces them to attempt a charge when they probably shouldn’t,
nevertheless they are also useful as monster hunters since Impetuous also grants
Immune to Psychology on the charge.

These guys will usually aid in concentration of force (as per my vision for
victory) by being a sacrificial unit when I utilize an oblique deployment (a.k.a.
the ‘denied flank’ or ‘loaded flank’). This technique will be discussed later on
when I talk about deployment in a more general sense. If they are slain or flee in
this role it is not too much of a loss because they are worth relatively few points
compared to the Grail Knights or the Realm buses that serve as escorts for my
characters (which, when combined with the Realm buses, make them worth a
significant amount of points).

Knights of the Realm [265pts]

. Gallant
. 9x Knight of the Realm: 9x Heavy Armour, 9x Lance (Mounted), 9x Shield
. . 9x Warhorse: 9x Barding
. Musician
. Standard Bearer
. . Magic Standards: Banners of Chalons

Knights of the Realm [250pts]

. Gallant
. 8x Knight of the Realm: 8x Heavy Armour, 8x Lance (Mounted), 8x Shield
. . 8x Warhorse: 8x Barding
. Musician
. Standard Bearer
. . Magic Standards: War Banner

The role of both Realm buses is largely the same - they are the core and backbone
of the force and the escort for the list’s characters (the Lord and Prophetess
going in one, the Paladin BSB and Damsel going in the other). Typically, as
mentioned above, I will put the BSB in the unit with the War Banner to ensure they
have lots of static combat res in order to pin a unit in place for a couple turns
while I set up a flank charge.

The Banner of Chalons prevents stand and shoot, helping to cover one of the major
weaknesses for the army and giving me a tool for shutting down enemy shooting
without having to worry about retaliation. It is also important to keep this unit
topped up because it is the Bretonnian Lord’s escort, and I need to keep him in the
thick of the fighting for most of the game to make him worth his points.

The speed of these knight buses also makes rapid redeployment possible (essential
for concentration of force) if I find that I have been out-deployed; I can bring
these units together quickly to strike at a part of the enemy force that a turn or
two ago seemed very far away.

+ Special +

Squires [63pts]
. 9x Squire: 9x Hand Weapon, 9x Long Bow

Squires [70pts]
. 10x Squire: 10x Hand Weapon, 10x Long Bow

Yeomen [75pts]
. 5x Yeoman: 5x Bow, 5x Horse, 5x Light Armour, 5x Shield, 5x Spear (Mounted)

Yeomen [75pts]
. 5x Yeoman: 5x Bow, 5x Horse, 5x Medium Armour, 5x Spear (Mounted)

The Squires are a new addition to this list - previously I was using Peasant
Bowmen. Squires are essentially the same unit (and cost the same number of points)
except that they are skirmishers instead of having stakes deployed in front of
them. This makes them more maneuverable and easier to use as chaff redirectors, and
helps to ensure my knights are less likely to be caught up on them.

In any case, both the Squires and the Yeomen are here for the same purpose -
missile support to kill enemy chaff that could trip up my knights, and to chaff
parts of my enemy’s army I don’t want to deal with just yet (or at all). This is
one counter to the first (and arguably greatest) weakness of my list.
+ Rare +

Ballista [40pts]: Wall Warden

. 2x Peasant Crew: 2x Hand Weapon

Ballista [40pts]: Wall Warden

. 2x Peasant Crew: 2x Hand Weapon

Field Trebuchet [115pts]: Wall Warden

. 4x Peasant Crew: 4x Hand Weapon

As mentioned the artillery in the list is primarily meant to provide an

answer to gunlines and avoidance lists, punishing my enemy (so far as is possible)
for staying out of combat. They can also help to soften up hard targets that
knights will struggle to deal with on their own - providing a second counter to
monsters, for example, which the knights might defeat in melee, but are likely to
sustain heavy casualties. The Trebuchet’s template shooting also provides a good
counter to very large infantry blocks that the knights will struggle to break with
a single charge by reducing their numbers before the impact of Bretonnia’s cavalry.

Grail Knights [397pts]

. 9x Grail Knight: 9x Heavy Armour, 9x Lance (Mounted), 9x Shield
. . 9x Warhorse: 9x Barding
. Grail Saint
. Musician
. Standard Bearer
. . Magic Standards: Banner of Defence

These guys are an absolute hammer. Most of the time if they charge they can
solo units on their own, whereas the Realm buses more often have to work in tandem.
If I need to receive a charge with any of my knight buses, I will try to do it with
these guys, as they have a constant 5++ ward from the Blessing of the Lady (unlike
the other knights who have a 5++ ward against shooting and a 6++ ward in melee) and
with two strength 4 attacks each, even if they don’t charge they can give a good
accounting of themselves. Leadership 9 and Immune to Psychology also means they are
unlikely to run even if they are charged.

The Banner of Defence grants these guys a 4++ ward against shooting and
magic missiles, providing a good counter to both shooting (especially gunpowder)
and some spells that are very dangerous to knights (eg. Searing Doom).

++ Total: [2,498pts] ++

To illustrate these principles further, let’s construct some Dwarf lists, and talk
about the vision for victory, the obstacles and the plan, keeping in mind that I
have never played Dwarfs and thus it is unlikely I will be able to create as
effective a list for them as I can with Bretonnia on my first try. One suggestion I
would make is that, whenever you start utilizing a new concept for a list, if you
play a game or two and things don’t work out, don’t trash your list entirely.
Usually you will have to iterate on your list concept several times, perfecting it
a little more each time, before you arrive at a combination that works well.

We will start off with a balanced or hybrid Dwarf list, then examine a melee-
oriented Dwarf army, and then move on to a gunline list. The primary questions we
need to ask ourselves throughout this process are why, and how? Why am I including
these units/magic items etc. in my list? How does this help me achieve my vision
for victory or mitigate the obstacles to that vision?

The vision for victory for hybrid Dwarfs.

Threats to the visions, and weaknesses with this style of play.

Constructing the Plan.

A brief primer to building characters.

Applying these principles.