Hi everybody! Back for another tactical talk, this time all about my favorite stat in KoW, Speed.
I wanted to hit on three things important to understanding how to utilize speed based armies, and some tips on how to play against speed.
I make a lot of general statements, assume I’m talking about a list with 1-2 flyer/hammer units Large Infantry/Large Cavalry, 2-3 Cav units/dragons and vs a similar setup. This is a massively broad subject so I didn’t want to get too involved in stat by stat analysis.
So before I get too deep into the uses of speed, there’s a few qualities I wanted to go over:
- The actual number! Obviously a speed 7 Stampede is going to play differently from a speed 10 flying Drakon Horde. Whats important here though, is I consider anything speed 7-11 as a speed threat. The logic behind this is pretty simple, any one of these units can charge the opponent at the top of turn 2, and often these can limit the pressure you receive if you go bottom of turn 1 since they can charge past the midline.
- The height of the unit. If you’re spending extra points on a unit to go faster, being able to ensure you can see over hills can be an important difference. A height 2 cav army sees the table very differently from a height 3 Fiend based army. If you’re speed elements are height 3/4 you are almost always guaranteed at least 1 probably 2 good lanes for charging, because those hills are usually along the middle 24″ of the table and you effectively ignore them.
- Nerves tend to be lower on speedier units. This is a generalization (looking at you Brock Riders) but an army built around utilizing its speed will be prone to more streaky nerve tests. When you only need to take 7 wounds, to get wavered on a 7 with your knights; an unlucky 10 at the wrong time can spell doom. This is important to understand for the underlying timing of your army, which I’ll be going over later in the article. To combat this, I like adding Headstrong/Fury when possible if the units in question don’t need something like sharpness or elite to function.
- Expected damage output. This number I like to see as high as possible, but generally I want to deal 8-10 wounds a combat to defense 5 with my speedier hammer units, often I have my army designed around doing that. 8-10 wounds means you are threatening a waver for a 15/17 unit on 7’s, and a 10 can rout Elemental Hordes on a 7 as well. 2 units together can also pop hordes when you throw in some bane chant support. Keep this number in mind when you’re playing, since you paid for speed, you usually cant afford to bounce at the wrong time.
Alright, so with all that generalization out of the way I can go over some general specifics!
Speed when going First or Second
Going first is usually ideal for an army built around utilizing it’s reach and alpha strike ability. When you get to go first, you set every available charge, and get to dictate roughly where the fighting is going to take place. Since the game is increasingly scenario based (at least in the U.S. ) this can win you the game on something like Invade or Push. Ultimately, what the reach of your units is doing is claiming the board space, each unit is going to project an arc of its threat, and this can be used as a powerful deterrent for scenario play.
With fast armies, going second is not usually ideal. You give your opponent the opportunity to get extra space on the table, and potentially let them dictate the pace of the game. This could involve them getting their chaff pieces in the right places to prevent alpha strikes, and possibly matching your speed with their own speed in a stare off.
This is why I generally don’t like armies that are all speed 8, or flying spam, there’s a lot riding on a 50/50 dice roll for first turn. Now when you do get stuck going 2nd, you can still threaten like when you go first. The difference is you’re inherently playing defensive for the first 2-3 turns, often against reasonably fast builds. This obviously isn’t the same when against shooting armies or other builds.
When you’re deploying your army, always think about what your flanking block, or flying unit is going to do if you win turn 1, and what it will do if you lose turn 1. There’s a lot of 1 off scenarios that I’m not gonna cover in this because then we’d have a 19 page article and Jake will yell at me, but if you get a denied flank then going 2nd will be similar to going 1st on that side, just be sure you can get to where the majority of the opponent is, before he can turn the corner/beat the stuff across from them.
How Fast should you go?
Well that’s a loaded question for someone trying to avoid specifics. What I mean by saying this is a speed 10 unit, is also a speed 9 unit, and 8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1. You pay the points for the ability to go 10″ advances and 20″ doubles with a 20″ charge range.
You can still double 14, or advance 5. Just because you have the ability to go really fast, does not mean its in you’re best interest to do it. A horde of Wyrmriders at speed 9, moving 6″ behind Depth Horrors is an extremely annoying block to try to remove. Even though its not utilizing the extra speed it paid for in the movement phase, it’s serving a job by still threatening out 18″ since it sees over lower heights, while also contributing to counter attacks.
Slowing down your fast hammers while you move and utilizing their threat range is a perfectly valid, and often better way to use speed units. (As a side note, this also applies to a cav unit with Pathfinder. Just because you spent 20 points on the ability to go through a forest doesn’t mean its the best place for your cav to be)
This is especially important if you’re going 2nd in the turn order. Be willing to just use your threat to counter their advantage in board space. This will tie into my 3rd point, but if you only have 3 good hammer units, you really can’t afford to lose one to an early snake eyes or whiff, so it’s better to play cautious with them. Make your opponent have to pay attention to where they could be in 2 turns.
Timing is Everything
It really is. With the exception of the new Clash of Kings 19 scenario that can score as the game goes, all missions are won on turn 6/7, not turn 2. If you get a fed a mistake flank you probably should take it, but know how much punishment your stuff can handle.
If your list has a lot of 14/16 units, then you’ll need to be careful with how early you throw them into stuff. The speed advantage only matters until you charge them in, once they get stuck in a battle line they can likely get counter attacked. I’ve lost quite a few dragons/drakons/kaisenors to a turn 2/3 charge that I didn’t really have to take, but I thought had blowout potential, then rolled a snake eyes and that breakthrough move turned into scramble for a draw for 4 turns.
Something I like to do when I’m looking at my opponents list is to count up how many hitty hordes/regiments they have. If I have more than them, then I have the space to throw a cav unit away on a bait unit, or try and trade 1 for 1, because I out hammer them, so I will eventually win that exchange.
If I have fewer punchy units, then I have to play more cautious, and try not to be trading 1 for 1, or you’ll look at the table on turn 6 and realize you have a wizard and bsb left, to their horde of infantry in Dominate. Building in control pieces, like mounted heroes, or cheap scoring heroes like a Dreadfiend are ace for this, since they can buy you an extra turn, if you don’t out hammer an opponent, or ensure you are trading 1 for none/chaff and can deal with portions of the opponent’s army instead of wholes.
How do you deal with speed?
Well the obvious answer is to be faster than them, but that’s not super helpful for everyone.
Terrain is massive when dealing with opponents’ speed, as is line of sight blocking units. If your opponent puts a Werewolf horde by the side of the board, they have limited nimble options. So, you can now protect with chaff, by guarding the other side of your valuable unit. This same idea applies for buildings. Speed and nimble only matter if units can actively fit into places, so terrain that limits that is very helpful.
LOS blocking is my personal favorite way to answer speed. Take a horde of Tortured Souls, height 2 fliers that can usually hit for a solid 6-7 wounds a combat without any items. Stick a Red Goblin Scout Troop 1 inch in front of them and the Tortured Souls’ 20″ threat range is now 1″, if you don’t have any height 3-4 stuff they can charge.
Just because you can’t outrange them, doesn’t mean you can’t control their range. A lot of players like to sit a hair out of their opponents charge range. It’s a smart thing to do, deny them a charge and you get the most possible board control. This however often means you can double a chaff unit to an inch away, and if it can block their LOS now all that board control is flipped. You can double freely and now you are within charge range of them and not the other way around. Be careful if doing this to fliers, they can still fly 20″ and pivot, so make sure to cover their good landing spots with units/counters. This is one of the big things my Masters Nightstalker list could do, since it contained a lot of height 3 chaff and a height 4 monster for dealing with dragons LOS.
So that’s a few tips to using speed in your armies. Hopefully the rambling helps you get better use on the table. This was really just a few points in what could easily have 20 situations where you want speed instead. Every army has their own twist on the stats, and how you build your list will determine the most on what you get out of it. I didn’t really cover it here, but heavy shooting can dictate as well as speed can, so lists that incorporate it can use some of the same ideas.
