Wolfen Battle Tactics
by Thane Morgan

The Wolfen are a very different army to play. Their combination of fast footspeed and good offensive attacks plus a variety of unusual troop types (2 wound berserkers, cavalry with 1 strong multiwound attack, lots of double attack second tier troops) let them employ much different tactics than about any other army currently in the game. However, more standard tactics are very hard to employ with the Wolfen, due to their very poor armor and typically higher costs.

Because of these differences, the Wolfen are an army built on offence, and depend on closing quickly with their enemies before the enemy can build a strong defense or organize a strong offensive battleplan. Wolfen armies are capable of engaging in melee combat on turn 2 with their infantry - in rare cases, they can even engage in melee on turn 1 if the enemy is also aggressive with their faster cavalry units. Wolfen have no units which are great against missile fire, thought the 2 wound troops have some ability to soak up damage.

The Wolfen have access to 9 troop types, which I divide into 5 categories:

Basic Melee
Elite Melee
Shock Melee
Missile
Cavalry

Basic Melee	Elite Melee	Shock Melee	Missile	Cavalry
Swordsmen Spearmen	Hunters Nightguard	Lunatics	Bowmen Javelins Scouts	Great Wolves

Basic Melee: These troops are relatively inexpensive and capable of mass army tactics. Because they move so quickly, they are actually better at mass combat tactics than most armies - they are better able to pick their fights because they both have 8" of movement while their opponents will usually have 6" or less. They are very lightly armored to preserve their speed, and so cannot take hits at all. Wolfen spearmen do not carry shields because they would lose speed, so they are especially vulnerable to missile fire. These units are best used in combination with other units, adding their mass to affect enemy morale rolls and to pin enemy units to prevent them from pursuing other fragile-but-expensive Wolfen units.

Elite Melee: The hunters and night guard both have moderate defensive but strong offensive abilities.

The Hunters have evasion (1) but no armor, move 10" with the forester ability, and have two skill 3, strength 1 attacks each. The evasion 1 is very significant against skill 2 opponents, but against skill 3 is not much defense at all. They are normally best run in a skirmish formation, where they can maximize their attacks against opponents. However, this tactic often means they themselves will be taking morale tests based on the mass of the surviving enemy unit if it is in RaF. They should be able to pick their fights in almost all circumstances, except against faster cavalry and flying units (and flying units will also be in skirmished formation). Enemy cavalry should be kept away from the hunters.

Night Guard are less fragile, but slower. They have two wounds, and an armor 3, but only move 8". Just like the hunters, they have 2 attacks at skill 3, strength 1. They are the closest thing to a defensive unit the Wolfen have. While the two wounds each gives them a big advantage in terms of avoiding morale tests, when they do take them, they usually have bad morale penalties. They are a great choice to designate a unit objective. Alternatively, they are the best unit to send at the best unit of the enemy. 8" movement still allows them to pick their fights well, while the 2 attacks per model allows them to dish out the damage in combat. Because of the morale advantage of 2 wound models, I generally keep them in RaF formation to minimize enemy attacks on them while counting on their attacks to still cause a morale test in the enemy. If this unit overruns, there will likely be no enemy survivors.

Shock Melee: The Lunatics are one of the best berserker units in the game, with two strong attacks and two wounds each. They can soak up a lot of missile fire on the way into combat, and with their 10" regular movement, they usually don't have to take too many turns of missile fire getting into combat. Because of the double wounds, they also have an advantage over most berserker units in avoiding morale tests when they hit RaF units. However, because of the double wounds, when they take morale tests they do so at enormous penalties and typically loses 2 and 3 wounds per missed point on failures.

Still, this often requires the enemy throwing two and three units into the berserkers to force a morale test, which normally leaves the enemy line in disarray for the next wave of Wolfen soldiers. This is the real purpose of shock troops, and while the kills they get are nice, having an enemy turn his units' flanks to your advancing line is the greatest value.

Cavalry: The Wolfen only have one cavalry choice, the Great Wolves. They are a very unusual troop type in the game, which can obliterate big multiwound enemies but then achieve almost nothing against regular troops. The are very fast (18") and foresters, so they have a lot of maneuverability and like most Wolfen unit can pick the fights they want, and should be as selective as possible, because they have no defenses at all.

The Great Wolves attack is a single, skill 4 strength 2 strike that causes d3 wounds. This makes it an awesome killing machine against enemy cavalry and other big monsters. Its not so great against single wound creatures or infantry - its a lot of power wasted, though skill 4 still isn't bad. Also, while most cavalry have lance options that give them first strike and a second row of attacks, Great Wolves do not. Great Wolves have no evasion and no armor, and so good first strike attacks can greatly reduce their own attacks. Likewise, they cannot take the retaliation of enemies well either, so it is very common for them to devastate their enemy - then break and run.

Still, they are a fantastic counter to enemy cavalry, even if they run themselves. The odds are that the only enemy troops faster than the Wolfen infantry will be cavalry, so if you can neutralize the enemy cavalry early, the Wolfen infantry can roam the battlefield at will. That is a nice feeling for a Wolfen commander.

Missile: Wolfen missile troops are bit more challenging to use than most other armies' missile troops. This is again because of the speed of the Wolfen forces - most of the time their potential targets are engaged by turn 2 or 3, so their shot selection can be reduced to nothing pretty easily. However tempting it may be to leave them home, though, it is a bad idea. At the very least, Wolfen archers can counter enemies archers that have been fielded in well defended or hard to access positions. The Wolfen are nearly armorless, so missile fire can really wreak havoc on their advance. An "untouchable" enemy archer unit is the perfect target for Wolfen archers.

Wolfen Javelins are extremely fast (10") and can thus move as fast as many enemy infantry units and still fire at no penalty. Their speed is great to react to enemies, to taunt enemy berserker units (while peppering them with missile fire), and for getting a couple of good tosses in before they engage in combat. They are also fantastic in enemy backfields, making certain broken enemy units stay broken. Another thing Wolfen javelins excel at is getting at hard to reach archer units - those which have covered their approached carefully with blocking terrain. Because of their speed and natural missile attacks, they can duck out from behind a corner and unleash a hail of javelins on the same turn, and so don't have to take a turn of getting shot up before returning fire.

Wolfen Magic

Wolfen can use Earth, Chaos and Nature magic. All three of these have distinct benefits for a Wolfen army.

Earth Magic has Stone Armor, which really, really helps the armor-deficient Wolfen army. It has several attack spells which are great for dealing with highly armored troops. It has spells to immobilize enemy units which threaten the Wolfen speed mastery. Geyser can break up enemy formations, and Wolfen almost always come out ahead in a skirmish. But lets face it, you'll probably just cast stone armor a lot...

Nature Magic has the Strength spell, which gives a Wolfen unit the ability to break down heavy armor and gives them an even more obscene movement advantage. Use it on the double attack infantry to make the most of the spell. Create Forest can block enemy archers and further hamper the enemy's ability to move units. The Wolfen Hunters and Great Wolves are both foresters and so can move through the forests while the opponent gets mired in them. Entangle will slow enemy units which threat maneuverability.

Chaos Magic is always good clean fun. Put Aura of Chaos on a grunt troop unit. Berserk a Great Wolf unit to make an unstoppable killing force. Cast Confusion on enemy spell casters before they can adversely affect your army. Use Chaos Vortex to hurt heavily armored but poor magic-defense units.

Wolfen Tactics

The Wolfen are all about speed. As such, they are one of the most aggressive armies you can play unless you take a specialty army from another list, such as an all cavalry army. They have lots of double attack infantry, which tends to favor skirmisher units which can surround an enemy and inflict lots of casualties.

However, the Wolfen are really weak defensively. Only one unit has an armor over 2, and most of the Wolfen list has armor 1 or 0. They can dish it out, but they can't take it. One solution to this is to use Earth Magic and throw out stone armor spells on your units, which greatly improves survivability. But magic is expensive, and not dependable - it hurts when an enemy dispels the stone armor on an engaged unit.

This means that it is best to have Wolfen units closely support each other as they attack the enemy. Do not hit an enemy unit with one Wolfen unit, use two or three instead. What is best is to use one RaF unit of basic troops with one elite unit with double melee attacks - it is very unlikely that both Wolfen units will break, so one can cover the retreat of the other after the combat - assuming the enemy unit is in any condition to pursue. If the enemy has a battle line, leave an inexpensive unit to sacrifice hitting its center (and pinning it for a turn) while two or three units chew up one flank thoroughly. One on one engagements often end badly for Wolfen units, unless the enemy unit has a weak melee offense.

Because enemy cavalry are usually the only units that can counter your speed, it is best to try to neutralize it early. The Great Wolves are fantastic cavalry killers - assuming they don't die in first strike. Here again, Stone Armor can greatly improve the longevity of the Wolfen units. I am often willing to sacrifice my great wolves IF they can wipe out the enemy cav, leaving my infantry with free reign on the field.

You can often catch enemy cavalry with Wolfen infantry units, again because of their speed. An opponent who plays with his cav aggressively may be used to making a full move forward, which is often within range of your faster infantry unit. Jump them quickly if they make that mistake. Sometimes, you can taunt out the enemy cav by offering up a weak melee unit or archer unit as bait.

Another fun tactic is to make a sweep from one flank of the battlefield to the other, leaving slower enemy infantry essentially out of the battle while the mass of your army falls on the enemy's other flank. This is normally a cavalry army battle tactic, but because of the speed of the Wolfen infantry, you can often get away with it. To achieve this tactic, place your slower units early on one flank, which typically gets an enemy to counter by putting his early setting units on that flank. Then place your faster units on the other flank, which an opponent will again typically try to counter. If he sets up a lot of slow infantry to counter you fast flank, you've got control of the game. On the first turn, move your slow flank forward, but turn your fast flank into a slant towards the other flank your slow troops are advancing on. By turn 3, you will likely be engaging one flank of the enemy army with both flanks of yours, while the enemy's other flank is still a turn or two away from the combat.

There are situations which can really mess up this tactic - archers in the center shredding your slant, the enemy putting a bunch of fast troops or cavalry to face your fast side being the worst. There are things to do to counter these counters. A dragon is always a missile sponge - archers can't resist them. A dragon flying just out of short range in the center of the table will often shield the sweeping troops from missile fire, and usually survive several rounds of enemy archer attacks unless your armor saves roll badly. If you don't have a dragon or like using it that way, lunatics facing off directly across from the archers also typically draw a lot of fire, because they are half way across the board on the first turn. They have no armor, but with two wounds they can soak up damage, and because they are berserk they keep on going at the enemy even if they take bad casualties from missile fire. And you can always use your own archers to neutralize the enemy archers.

Against a fast enemy flank, you can use a trailing RaF unit to threaten the rear of the enemy slow flank - they can't turn to follow your fast flank without exposing themselves to a charge from the rear. Alternatively, you can use a unit to crash into the lead unit of the pursuing enemy flank, which interferes with all of the other trailing pursuing unit as they have to maneuver around the combat or become bogged into the combat. Typically, you should be able to hit this lead pursing unit with your trailing sweep unit on turn two.

If these seem like an unsporting tactic, you aren't thinking like a wolf! There are a reason they are called wolfpacks, and you should think about your army like a pack of wolves looking for the weak and straggling units first. If he sticks a unit out front of his main line, bite it! If a big mass of infantry advances across the table, go around it and get the softer units behind them. Try to sneak food from your opponent's bag. "Mark-your-territory" on his figure case. Anything that helps you think wolf-like!

The speed and general defenselessness of the Wolfen army makes selecting objectives more challenging than most armies. You don't want to pick many terrain objectives on your side of the field, because you are probably advancing and don't want to leave many units behind. But you also don't want to make objective units that are likely to break the first time they engage in combat. I usually have a unit of 20 Night Guard plus a Shaman, which is durable enough to make an objective. If the points are available, I'll add a lord for good measure. I often pick terrain objectives for the opponent to take which are in the center or even on the opponents side of the table. I know my troops will be there quickly and hopefully own it - it also can make an enemy defend an area he wouldn't want to normally, or split his forces up leaving some vulnerable. It is also demoralizing to take away on turn two an objective the opponent got on turn one.

Morale is on the Wolfen side - not the dice morale, but real player morale. A player who sees his troops threatened on turn two by a mass of Wolfen infantry becomes often becomes confused in their own battle plan, leading to disorganization and hopefully leaving some units vulnerable to the wolfpack. Sometimes you can see enemy armies paralyzed by the Wolfen advance, again leading to opportunities. Don't be timid in your advance, move forward decisively, and make your opponent think you've already found vulnerabilities you are going to jump all over. This is good for all armies, but especially effective with the speed of the Wolfen.

I've not really tried playing defensively with wolfen, but I would think it would be very hard, especially against a missile heavy enemy.

© 2007
Thane's Games