Greetings everyone, welcome to the first installment of my random musing on Kings of War. The focus will be on tactics and tips, narrowing in on a very specific topics. I’ll try not to get sidetracked and every once and a while there might even be a gem of information. Anyways, enough with the introduction, today’s topic is:
Not just your favorite KoW podcast, counter charging can be one of the most satisfying and climactic moments during a game.; your unit just took a charge, got battered around and smashed, only to hold against all odds. Everybody’s first instinct is to say, “Now its MY Turn!” but before we do, lets put our miniature general hats on and analyze the situation.
When is it OK to counter charge?
Without going too deep down the math rabbit hole, if you think it very likely to kill the opponent on the counter charge, then you should do it. It’s possible to burn your entire clock trying to construct the almost infinite parallel universes of spots your units can end up (believe me I have attempted it). But, it is safe to assume that the free pivot/movement you get, when wiping out an enemy, will net you the most advantageous position.
So, I am likely to just do some damage or on a lucky roll, waver the opponent. What now?
The next question to ask yourself, can my unit survive another charge? If you only held because of a snake eyes, then just send your unit in to do some damage, before they meet their inevitable doom. However, if you are setting up for a bit of grind, you need to look around the battlefield at what the role of this unit is, and how they can best accomplish it. If they are an anvil, and their goal is to survive as long as possible, you could be playing right into your opponent’s hands by counter charging. The examples below show how counter charging can be detrimental to your survival.
Terrain and hindered charges
In the example above, you have forced your opponent to charge hindered into your anvil, and they only do 4 wounds as a result. If you declare a counter charge, it means they can counter charge you back! Instead of doing 4 wounds, they will hit you back and might do 7. This makes your odds of holding the second round very shaky. You could set up a perfect flank charge only to find yourself staring at a unit that was able to pivot and face. Instead, we just hold tight and wait for the cavalry, forcing the opponents next charge to also be hindered.
Units positioned to flank you.
The example above, your clever opponent has set his units to team up on you, one unit positioning to hit you in the flank next turn. They are counting on you to counter charge and accept defeat, BUT we can play around that, by moving either sideways or backwards, instead of counter charging. Surviving one extra turn or even more, as they now have to weigh the repercussions of your units hitting them in the flank!
Opting not to Counter Charge
An often obscure tactic, is based on the option on the rules shown above. Declaring a counter charge is an option, so you have the ability to not only charge other targets, but even the target that charged you! Lets set up a trap for our opponent with this tactic.
The opponent sees you are allowing him to charge past the screen, and into your unit with his dragon, and takes it. His landing position has to be where he can fit, and even accounting for a 1 ” back up after combat, your opponent is safe from the rest of your army. A counter charge would force us to align flush to the targets front face. However, once the screen moves out of the way, a regular charge declaration allows us to get into the flank where we find ourselves doing twice the damage!
That’s Just the Tip for this month. Keep thinking if you should be *COUNTER CHARGING*
