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Ellyrian reavers are the fast cavalry of the HE army. As such, they have a very different role to play than silver helms or dragon princes, and I will try to outline how reavers can be used. This is intended for newcomers to either HE or WHFB, so please excuse me if I cover what may seem to others to be obvious ground. A lot of this advice can also be applied to DE dark riders.

First of all, reavers are fast cav. It is important that the rules concerning fast cav are understood in order to get the best out of this unit. I will not repeat the rules verbatim here (as we’re not allowed to, although I will refer to them) but direct readers to page 70 of the rulebook.

Roles that reavers can perform

Reavers are fast (obviously…). As their horses are unbarded, they can move very quickly indeed. Also, given the ability of fast cav to reform freely, they can move through narrow gaps left by terrain or even blocks of troops (move through in single file and then reform once through the gap). These things allow them to quickly get into a position within the enemy lines. Once there, they can perform many different tasks:

Marchblocking

Units cannot march if an opponent’s unit is within 8”. If you can get reavers this close to an enemy unit, it prevents them from marching and thus slows them down. This is particularly useful against fast moving units, such as other cavalry.

Make sure that your reavers are not within the charge arc of the enemy units, unless you want them to be charged, which brings me on to the next thing…

Bait

Tempt an enemy unit to charge you by deliberately placing your reavers within charge range (or better still, just outside of the charge range) and within the charge arc of the unit. As reavers are lightly armoured, the enemy might well see them as an easy target and charge. Declare your charge reaction as flee. Given the high Ld of HE, it is likely that they will rally and so you are now in a good position to follow through in the next turn, as reavers can move after rallying.

This approach can be used to either tie up an enemy unit for a turn (or more, if they carry on following the reavers around, such as frenzied troops) or to lead an enemy unit into a position where they can be charged by your better armed and armoured units, such as dragon princes or swordmasters. Make sure, however, that your reavers are at least 6” from your other units – if they are (heaven forbid) destroyed, you don’t want them causing panic.

War machine/character hunting

Given the speed at which fast cav can move, it is not unreasonable that they could well approach a war machine quickly and dispose of its crew. This can be risky as war machines could well decimate a unit of reavers if you don’t get there first.

Alternatively, reavers can be used to hunt for that pesky wizard that hangs around the back of all the other units, making a nuisance of himself. Don’t forget that reavers can shoot after marching and have 360 degree line of sight, which helps enormously when using this approach.

Outfitting reavers

Reavers are special choices and so the overall army composition needs to be taken into account, but assuming you have decided to include a unit, what should you include in the unit?

Size of unit and Command group

Reavers are usually put together as units of five. Fast cav don’t get any rank bonuses, so an extra rank won’t provide combat resolution and can’t take part in close combat. They are there to annoy enemy forces, not engage in close combat, so five is usually considered optimal.

A reaver champion (harbinger) has an additional +1 to his BS rather than +1 attack and so is more likely to hit with his longbow, if equipped. This is a personal decision but I don’t think the points spent on a harbinger are worth it.

A standard bearer will probably not be useful either. It is more likely (from what I have seen) that the standard will be a hindrance (100VP to the opponent if he captures it) rather than a help (+1 combat resolution). However, if you are using reavers as bait, a standard does make them more tempting.

A musician, on the other hand, is very useful, especially if the reavers are used as bait. The +1 Ld when rallying can be invaluable, and so overall I would recommend a unit of five reavers with a musician.

Equipping the unit

Reavers come equipped with a spear as standard. This can be swapped for a bow or the unit can have both spears and bows at extra cost. How you equip them is entirely down to how you want to use them. If you expect your reavers to get into close combat, take spears; if they are hunting take bows. Taking both is the best option, but of course there is the extra cost involved; personally, this is my favorite as it allows you to cover most options during the game and means your reavers can take on different roles.

Conclusion

Although eagles and shadow warriors can perform the same tasks as reavers, there are restrictions to them. Shadow warriors are expensive for what they do whereas eagles are a rare choice. Reavers are versatile and as long as you can guess distances well and use terrain to your advantage, a very useful addition to any HE army.

Well, I was browsing through the anti-hydra tactics discussed over here previously and I came across a rather interesting use of Reavers (or any fast cavalry for that matter) : Large Monster hunting.
The reasoning is as follows: Buy a unit of five Reavers with a champion and a musician. Move behind the enemy hydra/stegadon/Greater Daemon, ending your move in a long 1×5 line, with the champion at the front. Charge the enemy in the rear next turn. The enemy can’t challenge, and can only attack the champion, thus netting a maximum of 1 CR. The Reavers have 3CR, and thus win by 2 (Rear + outnumber). Hopefully the enemy breaks and the Reavers can run them down.

What I like about this is that even if the Reavers fail to break the Hydra, they tie it up for a few turns at least, and should they survive and break, the hydra must pursue, back to the enemy deployment zone. This could even work against a large block of infantry with hatred.
Obviously only usable if the enemy can’t challenge.

What do you think about this idea? Workable?

I personally like it. It is simple and relies on a formation not some special trick or magical item that you would waste extra points on.

Jose Manuel Palomares Nunez wins Silver in the Polish Golden Demon 2008 for his High Elf Prince in the Large Scale Model category.

Very nice!

Via: GW

Sorry for the long break in writing as I have been very busy this year end. This also means very little time for Warhammer games and painting my 1000pts army. Well yep, as expected I have not finished painting said army. But the good news is I got my Warhammer fix by finally buying myself a High Elf Dragon for Christmas! Also picked up some of GW’s new “Foundation” paint and also some great painting advice from the Manager of the Sydney GW store. I will this painting advice as soon as I can!

Now if I can find the time to get to it and get it done…

My 1000pts Fast Response Force is about a team, on constant Alert, that gets send out to do the dirty work. So I am going for darkish look, rather than the happy blue/whites. Overall color scheme is Red or Green with White, Silver and Gold. The flavor of Caledor!

Silver Helms or Cav models - Here I was experimenting with something different. Perhaps I should call them White Helms perhaps!

Here is my Swordmaster placeholder. Notice the color scheme is the reverse to the Silver Helms?

Some comments on the paint scheme, also found on my Ulthuan.net forum thread.

Hmm…I find my old painting technique very annoying. These models were painted a few years ago, especially the Silver helm. These models were started up with base coats and left my army shelves. What I used to do was inking as shading. Unfortunately inks made the models very patchy.

These days I tend to blend without using inks, rather instead working up from dark colors to light. Anyways as I don’t have much time to paint, it would kill me to dump them in thinner as a reset. I have decided to choose my battles. I’ll just leave them as it is and keep them as table top quality.

Grrr…I’m on a mission to finish up this army before the end of the year.

I am writing this self help guide for all of us who sometimes get ahead of ourselves when preparing to play a game of Warhammer. It is a check list of sorts that (hopefully) helps the user improve their tactical skills in Warhammer. It will cover each gaming-related area of the hobby; building your army, deployment & battle.

This article is about the difference between the Tactical Mind & the Emotional Mind. The Emotional Mind is basing your decisions in Warhammer on what you think is cool or how you feel. The Tactical Mind is making decisions without emotions influencing you. Obviously it doesn’t mean you can’t have emotions, but they need to be recognized & funneled it into your gameplay, instead of subconciously affecting it.

Note: Much of this Guide will be reiterating the basics but it is often the basics that are forgotten at a crucial moment in battle.

Part 1: Building your Army

Making a good army is generally always a 3 step process;

• Gathering the models.
• Painting said models.
• Putting an army list together.

Now I have written the above steps rather simplistically but for the sake of my argument bear with me.

Generally people make mistakes in 1 or all 3 steps, and don’t know it or don’t care. Below each step you will see questions in italics. Ask yourself these questions when doing the relevant step for each unit or character & improve your Tactical Mind (probably Wink).

Step 1
In the gathering of models certain emotional attachments are often made to special models or units. Why can this be bad? It can be bad because the model/s can be overvalued in game just because it/they look cool. So avoid overvaluing a model because it has a nice sword, pose etc and thus avoid lavishing magic items on it or getting more to construct a ridiculously large unit. Why spending lots of points on items or large units is bad will be covered later in the article.

Is this cool looking model or unit going to detract from my armies tactical ability to win games if I have more of them, or make them central to my army battle line?

Step 2
Painting models well places an increasing value on certain models or if poorly painted does the opposite. It is simple psychology; if you spend more time painting the Hero or Elite unit then you’ll be more motivated to protect them with expensive items or tactics. Why can this be bad? It can be bad because it creates emotional reliance on those units. People get upset about losing the fully kitted out, well painted Prince on a Dragon and practically hand the rest of the game to their opponent because the game is “nearly lost now anyway”. Ask yourself these questions when doing step 2.

Does the fact that I’ve spent lots of time painting this mode or unit influence my game play?

Will I get upset if my incredibly well painted General/Mage/Dragon etc gets killed or threatened in the game? If yes, will it affect my game play?

There is also an opposite of this. It is when you don’t care about your troops & throw them away needlessly. Even Skaven Slaves have value in the game but a callous disregard for the poorly painted units could lead to blaze` sacrifices. So poorly painted massed rank infantry shamelessly pushed forward in clumps is not highly regarded by the player & is readily sacrificed, forgotten or just too bothersome to move. So the player has paid points for this unit, using a finite amount of points & doesn’t use them to their full capacity.

Are my less well painted/modeled units going to be ignored or used poorly?

Step 3
Now if a gamer has slipped up in step 1 or 2 then step 3 might also be at risk of emotional attachment. The most expensive models & better painted ones often garner more attention when assigning equipment in building the army list. This might lead to overprotecting the unit or model with expensive items, sacrificing other units to protect them in game or purchasing more troops for the elite (pretty) unit than the effective. Balance in an army is an effective way to win battles. Why? Because most players cannot gear their army specifically to yours & vice versa, making Warhammer very similar to Russian Roulette if you load most of your points into one aspect of the game. The phrase “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” comes to mind as there is always a list that can do what your army list can. Then it all comes down to luck, just like Russian Roulette.

Are there models I have that make me want to spend extra points on them?

Why have I spent 40%+ on Characters & what was I smoking at the time I wrote this list?

Summary of above
So how it is exactly that valuing certain models or units but not others is bad? In a game of Warhammer each side has an equal amount of points to spend on troops, characters & both magical & mundane items. So it is necessary to spend these points in the best way possible. If a unit is the crux of your game plan then any opponent can identify it & neutralize it. Singular units & models are also vulnerable to bad luck, which can also ruin your game plan. The reliance on “Uber units of Doom” or incredibly expensive combat characters is generally the act of “The Emotional Mind”.

By this I mean in a game of Warhammer a player can revert to the “Rule of Cool” instead of the practical, that is, they grab some characters & elite units, then, spend lots of points on them. This splurging of points leaves few points for the Core troops & Support troops, which then causes all sorts of difficulties for the player later on. Difficulties such as fewer troops to soak up casualties. Fewer units to prevent the opponent from identifying your deployment game plan & to discover theirs. So what we all should be aiming for is a balance between quantity & quality of units & different roles for our characters, other than just the combat character.

Conclusion
Good Tactics starts with you. As Sun Tzu said;

‘Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril’.

So mastering yourself & your emotions can lead half way to victory, or maybe even further……

So the idea of this section is:

Know thy self implicitly, recognize attachments before the game & don’t let them get the better of you so you start on the right foot before every game.

Congrats Anthony!

The Ulthuan All-Stars

Prince Lubricate II (General)
Riding Star Dragon
Vambraces Of Defence
Armour Of Caledor
Amulet Of Light
Halberd
621

Spitros (Wizard)
2 x Dispell scrolls
140

Randy (Noble)
BSB
Battle Banner
Lance
Dragon Armour
Shield
Barded Elven Steed
218

The Stiffado’s (20 Spearmen)
Standard
Lion Standard
215

The Errecto’s (10 Seaguard)
Shields
130

The Adulterer’s (9 Dragon Princes)
Standard Bearer
Standard of Balance
Champion
Helm Of Fortune
380

The Rent Boy’s (7 Sword Master’s)
Champion
Talisman of Loec
127

The Fluffer’s (7 Sword Master’s)
Champion
117

The Nailer’s (3 Reapers)
300

Army Total – 2248pts

Anthony Spiers – Las Vegas GT 2008 (High Elves)

Here are some of his thoughts in preparation for the GT:

Hopefully I can answer all of your questions…

before we go into details I will let you in on the preparation before i went. 34 practice games vs daemons winning only 6, learned a hell of a lot and tweaked my list to maximize potential vs daemons. Played all different daemon combo’s to understand every strength of the list as it was well and truly winding me up how strong it was. … Then I headed for Vegas…

First let me say it was a brilliantly organized tourney and it was great to play guys from other countries. Before I went I was advised the armies would be more fluffy in the USA not like the English GT, how wrong was I !! There was loads and loads of powerful lists.

The games were 2250pts and all scenarios, from capturing banners to character assassination and objective captures. max 17pts for a win (17 massacre, 14 major, 11 minor then up to +3 for the scenario maxing a max of 20pts per round)

For the full lowdown and his Round 5 battle report check our the full thread on Ulthuan.net.

OMG! This is awesome! A touch screen gaming table for measuring movement and shooting. I want one for fantasy too! What a great idea for a university project. Well done guys!

Via: YouTube - Warhammer Tech Table

I’m speechless. I was not planning on getting the game, but now I must!

Via: Kotaku