Kings of War Tactics Against Flyers

Hello everyone, I am sharing a guest article written by Randy Atchley on how to face flyers. As a common threat in games of Kings of War I’m excited to pick up some tips myself, enjoy!

Against the Flyers

I despise large flyers (unless they are mine!),  and small flyers for that matter. Their superior mobility makes them the kings of the battlefield.  They dominate the movement phase not only of their own side but of your forces as well.  Every Kings of War player needs to learn to counter flying models or they will dominate your army. 

Rules to Keep in Mind:

• Units that have suffered at least one point of damage in the melee phase are Disordered – mark them with an appropriate counter.

• Units will remain Disordered until the end of their following Turn, when the Disordered counter is removed.

• While Disordered, this unit cannot use the Fly special rule. In addition, if a unit with Fly also has the Nimble special rule, then the Nimble special rule is also lost while the unit is Disordered.

• The unit can move over anything (Blocking Terrain, Enemy units, Friendly units when charging, etc.), and may pivot while above anything, as long as the flying unit’s entire move ends clear of any units or Blocking Terrain. The unit does not suffer Hindered charges for moving over or out of Difficult Terrain or Obstacles, unless it ends the move within or touching them.

The key to most anti-flyer tactics is to “disorder” the flyer keeping it on the ground or “grounded” as most folks call it.  The flyer loses the ability to “fly” and also loses “nimble”. Sometimes spells or abilities can also “ground” a flyer, but most of them disappeared when 3^rd edition appeared. 

Missiles

 “Missiles” are simply lone characters, usually mounted, that are used to try and at least “ground” enemy flyers.  Often times they are armed with an inexpensive magic weapon such as the Blade of Slashing or the Mace of Crushing, you can increase their threat by giving them the Blade of the Beast Slayer.

Speed is essential to a missile role.  A mounted character may have up to a 40” area of influence depending on the race.  The best missiles are individuals since they have the ability to change facing before charging. 

Multiple missiles can give redundancy and better board control, particularly in flyer heavy metas. Many missiles have armor 5 and usually at least average nerve.  As a rule of thumb, a 10 attack large flyer, will hit, 6.66 times, and wound defense 5, approximately 4 to 5 times.  Tough missiles such as what I call “Lord” level characters can survive all but the toughest of flyers for one turn keeping them grounded.   

Charging them with two missiles can keep them grounded even longer.  Even if they kill one of the characters, the flyer must still deal with the other one, provided of course they managed to disorder the flyer. You do want to be aware of the potential for a flyer to overrun, taking out both characters in one go though. (Editor)  

The key part of the strategy is to keep the flyer grounded until a melee unit can come to help.  Normally it takes at least a turn to get an infantry unit into place but faster cavalry units or tough characters can get there even quicker. 

Proper deployment is key to using missiles.  If you simply do not know where to put them just put them behind your lines.  I try to put them near my most valuable units as they tend to attract the most attention.  You must know your missile’s threat range.  An average mounted missile will have a 36” threat range.  That means you have a lot of flexibility in their placement. Ideally, you should try placing them after the enemy flyers have been deployed, so they are placed best to control board space against the flyer.

Counter Flyers:

One of the best tactics is to simply take your own flyers.  Even lowly flyers like a Pegasus or Gargoyles are still a threat to ground other flyers.  Often there is an intricate dance early in a game to see which flyer is the first to blink and commit to being charged.  Multiple cheap flyers can hold their larger brethren at bay for a long time. 

A good example of a “counter flyer” would be one of your own flyers with the Brew of Haste or Wild Charge. This gives you a crucial extra bit of charge range, helping control the opposing flyer’s movement. By including those in your own army just about guarantees that you will counter their flyer. 

Your own large flyers may not be a huge threat to your foes large flyers.  For example, the General on a Winged Beast from the Kingdoms of Men is not nearly the threat of a Dragon from the Elves.  Even though your own flyer might not be as awesome as theirs, they ignore your flyer at their own peril.  While their Dragon is off doing Dragon things, even the junior league of large flyers will affect enemy units.  If you have also used a missile-character, you may end up grounding that Dragon and use your lesser flyer to get a flank or rear charge thus evening the odds. 

Often these “weaker” large flyers are also cheaper, letting a trade-off to ground or control the placement of a more expensive flyer an advantageous exchange.

Shoot ’em

Putting a few wounds on opposing flyers will often affect their plans.  The odds of taking down flying units in Kings of War are small unless you have spammed shooting.  However, simply putting a few wounds on them may make your foe change their plans, putting pressure on them.  They may charge sooner than they want and against a non-optimal unit. 

The key thing for shooting or magic shooting is to force nerve tests.  A lucky dice roll, while not likely, can change the entire course of a game.  Shooting is the fastest way to force nerve tests.  Every wound counts.  Later in the game, those 3 wounds caused by a lightning bolt may cause a failed nerve test destroying or wavering your foe. 

Feed ’em

What does that even mean? It means allowing them to charge you so that you can destroy their flyer.  Sometimes that means sacrificing an important unit.  As long as you kill their important unit it works out.  You have to think of it as trading queens in Chess.  Yes, you lose your powerful unit, but so do they. 

In a recent game, I allowed one of my Orc MorAx units to be flank charged.  While it hurt losing that unit, the Great Ax unit behind it easily destroyed my foe’s flyer.  Both units were about the same point value, but I got rid of his flyer, which tactically presented a bigger threat.  

Sacrificing units can be a way of tempting opponents into giving up their flyers.  You just have to decide which one has the least value to your plan and let it go, keep in mind the sacrifice still needs to be tempting. 

Mathhammer:

So what is “mathhammer”?  It is simply knowing the odds of something happening.  For example, if I allow a Dragon with 13 attacks to charge me in the flank, what is the probability of my unit surviving and countercharging?  While it might be zero if a Dragon did it, it may be fairly high if a General on a Winged Beast did it.  Knowing the odds will help a lot.

That same dragon charging a unit in the front is WAY less fearsome.  The goal is to try and get the math in your favor. Use terrain, positioning, and abilities like phalanx to only offer tough charges.   

During a game having a rough idea of a unit’s output is always a good idea.  For example, I know a horde of Shield Wall against Defense 4 will do roughly 6 wounds.  It could do more or less, but the average is what you use in your calculations.  So if I’m fighting a unit of Defense 5 Orcs, I know it drops down to 4 wounds.  In other words, you may not have to defend against a flyer if the math is in your favor.  It just depends on the flyer. 

Much like the “feed ’em” maneuver, sometimes the only way to take them down is to allow them to charge your unit.  That only works to a point.  Charging units with 7 attacks will normally not break any horde, even in the flank.  However, it gets dicey once the has 10 attacks (mathhammer:  10 swings doubled; hit on threes equals about 13 hits, basically 10 wounds.  The units with 13 attacks though can “one-shot” a horde in the flank. 26 attacks; about 17 hits, and about 14 wounds).  That would put most hordes in the danger zone at a bare minimum.  Countercharging “might” do something, but with so many attacks the big flyer with 13 attacks should finish off the horde on the following turn. 

Time and Space

What? You ask?  The game is played with a limited number of turns.  What your task is to do is to minimize the number of turns an enemy flyer can be used.  That means combining many tactics to achieve your goals. 

Often the first turn of a game is uneventful.  Your job is to make it eventful by instantly moving to counter their flyers.  They are so fast you cannot delay taking action.  Try and simply take up “space” giving them no place to land.  Try and threaten any terrain that they might use for screening (if possible), position units, and layers so that they don’t have good spots to fly and pivot. 

Any turn you negate them is a win for you.  You simply do NOT want enemy flyers in your flanks or behind your lines.  

Your own flyers can help maximize space and time.  Simply lining them up opposite of the enemy flyers creates a “standoff” off situation. Neither of you can afford to move closer thus getting charged first.  Lower level flyers are not that lethal such as the General on Winged Beast but if it gets in the charge first, it is very equivalent.  

The next key is to master “space”.  Space simply means not giving them good places to land.  

 Avoid being “hopped”.  Hopping is when the enemy flies 20” over your army and makes a nimble pivot at the end.  They can only make a single 90-degree pivot, but that is usually enough to expose flanks or rears to attack.  Most flyers cannot deal with even a regiment one on one unless they get at flank or rear.  Flyers never want to attack the front unless it is a combined charge with a very powerful unit. 

The way to avoid hopping can be to simply slow your movement enough to prevent their movement, or position your units so they have no place in range to land.  You do not need to stay out of their charge range, but you do need to stay out of their hopping range until you deal with their flyer.  By doing this you are mastering time negating the flyer once again.  Often times your foes will be baited into a rash charge simply out of frustration. 

If I allow the enemy unit to “hop” you can bet I have a plan.  Lagging your missile-characters behind or holding back your own flyers can prevent hopping even if it is possible.  In a tournament I had three Ratkin Weapons teams and a Warlock with LB 5, just waiting for an Elf dragon to jump over my lines. 

Terrain:

Terrain is an enemy of flyers.  You can use impassible terrain to defend a flank.  The edge of the board is always there and always available to prevent the enemy from reaching your flank. 

You have to be careful as flyers can fly over terrain and are NOT hindered when doing so.  Your best bet is to be in terrain, or by it, so the flyer is hindered.  For example, a flyer can charge over a wall or unit to hit you.  All they need is line of sight (LOS). But, if you only give them a front charge, that will have them land on the wall, then they will be hindered.

Terrain though is their friend too!  Because a flyer is so fast they can move up and hide behind the terrain, and potentially angle for a follow-up move. Things like towers and woods are the best for them.  Watch out for this maneuver, as it can bog down your entire army, missile-characters are great to control these board space or ground aggressive flyers, as are shooting units.

Summary

One of the things I do when I create lists is to weigh potential threats against my army.  Some armies are all but immune to flyers like Undead. The Undead player can simply turn a unit and use the “surge” spell to ruin the flyer’s day.  Some armies are very vulnerable to flyers but have tools in their army list to help them out.  There are a couple of armies like Dwarfs that simply must build flyer defense into their strategy due to their otherwise slow speed.  Armies that have access to gargoyles or harpies can simply buy a cheap unit to assist in flyer defense.  

Flyers are a vital part of the game.  Who would want a fantasy game without a flying dragon or wyvern?  You simply must learn to deal with them and if you have flyers master the use of your own. When starting, everyone has gotten tabled by some flank charging flyers, that seem unstoppable, but with these simple tips, hopefully, you can begin to grapple with your winged foes.