Dogs of War Tips for Jungle Fighting – What to take over the high
seas?
By D’Argent
(This Article is in response a Games Workshop Article which was discourteous
enough not to include Dogs of War tips.)
Basically, the general idea for
fighting in Lustria based games is this:
* Don't rely on shooting.
* Don't rely on large ranked up
units.
* Take as many skirmishers as you
can take.
* Don't rely on big monsters/fly
creatures. (It seems that the Giant is the only exception here...)
Issue on armour
Normally, armour is fine, armour
is great. Now, the biggest difference between fighting in Lustria/Jungles is
that your own armour is an enemy. A few of the Events and Encounters are worse
if you have more armour; others just aren’t stopped by armour! The many
different unfortunate things which could happen to your troops often make it
that all ranges of armour have a strength and weakness. For example,
Carnivorous Plant could kill as many as three duellists but easily shuged off
by your Heavy Cavalry and, equally, duellists can be immune to Quicksand as
they can have no armour save but your Heavy Cavalry will be sucked down almost
every time with their armour save of 2+!
So, without further ado, here are
my tips for what units to take for jungle fighting! I will examine as many
units as I can, putting them into three categories:
“Don’t get on the boat without
‘em!” – These are the better choices to take and can be used very effectively,
possibly even more effectively than in normal conditions.
“Meh.” – These choices aren’t the best, but aren’t the worst
either. Prehaps this will fill up your ranks once you’ve had your fill of the
better choices.
“Oh dear Sigmar,
NO!” – These are the worst choices and
should possibly be afforded like the plague.
“Don’t get on the boat without
‘em!” (Best choices)
* Duellists/Vespero's Vendetta -
Skirmishers, and lightly armed. Sometimes with no armour what so ever.
Suggested weapons would be Hand Weapon, Buckler and Throwing Knifes (Totalling
at 8 points each and the unit has a 6+ save in shooting and attacks from
encounters and a 5+ save in close combat and a 6” S3 ranged attack each when
they're charged or get close to enemy units.) or Hand Weapon, additional Hand
Weapon and Throwing knives. (Two attacks each and the 6” S3 ranged attack.)
Vespero's Vendetta is useful (For once) as they have everything the second set
up has, as well as a 6+ armour save in close combat. The armour saves doesn't
count with quicksand, etc.
* Lumpin Croop's Fighting Cocks
(That's as in cockcrows...) – Skirmishers, lightly
armoured and they have bows. The only one who is in danger to quicksand is
sadly the leader Lumpin Croop, with a 5+ armour save, which is 4+ in combat,
which means that there is a 33% chance that he will pass his armour save and
thus sink. The mix of skirmishers and bows should mean that they can move
around in the forest (They can move through Undergrowth, Light Jungle, Dense
Jungle, Rivers and Ruins as if it was Open Ground.) a lot easier than normal
Halflings and the amount of arrows they should be able to let fire should make
up for the fact that there’ll be trees in the way of most targets.
* Halflings – Normal Halflings
have no penalty for moving through Undergrowth or Light Jungle, but not Dense
Jungle, Rivers or Ruins unless they are in Loose Formation. This means that
they won’t be able to shoot if you plan to move them around through that sort
of terrain. They don’t have armour saves which makes them vulnerable to the
various events and encounters, but not to quicksand.
I don’t normally use Halflings
with spears, light armour and shields and I wouldn’t recommend them. WS2? S2?
Bah. Give me a S3, 24” range bow to arm my Halflings with any day. You may feel
different, so take the above advice but be fearful of quicksand. 5+ armour save
means that the Halflings will sink 33% of the time!
* Norse Marauders/Beorg Bearstruck
and the Bearmen of Urslo – Same as what is said for Chaos Marauders. “Lightly armoured and
skilled fighters, these make an excellent choice to fore the core of your army
for Lustria, and well as following the background theme closely as ship-borne
raiders.”
“Meh” (Mediocre choices)
* Long Drong’s Slayer Pirates –
Although they won’t be able to shoot their pistols when not in combat, they
count much the same for slayers and Drong should give your opponent a run for
his money. Sadly they are rather slow with 3” movement, but they should perform
well when you finally get them into combat.
* Tichi’s Huichi’s Raiders – Fast
cavalry, who are Lizardmen so aren’t effected by
Stifling Humidity, Hopelessly Lost, Native Guide, Malodorous Malady, Native
Curse or Mad Cap Fungi Cloud! Their armour save, not counting Scaly Skin, is
4+, so they are still vulnerable against Quicksand.
* Fast Cavalry, Oglah Khan’s
Wolfboyz, Desert Dogs – Fast moving, and don’t have much of an armour save
(Maximum is 5+/4+/5+ When against quicksand) so aren’t as the heavier kind. The
Wolfboyz and Fast Cavalry both have (or have the options to get) bows, so can
take a few pot-shots at enemy units. Their Fast Cavalry ability allows them to
shot in 360 degrees, so they aren’t as restricted to shooting as other units
are.
* Crossbowmen and the various
crossbowmen Regiments of Renown – The Besiegers belong in the in the “Oh dear
Sigmar, NO!” section, as they have a high armour save, and are expensive.
Although they have a hero for panic tests, you can’t afford losing these 11pts
a piece models every time you come across an event or encounter which negates
armour saves. The Marksmen of Miragliano are slightly better for Jungle
warfare, and have a hero for those panic checks, and have 4BS for most of them.
The main problem is cost, the fact that you have a standard bearer for some reason.
Crossbowmen aren’t meant to go into combat. Normal Crossbowmen could quite be
the best choice out of the three. 8 points each, no armour saves so aren’t
affected by quicksand; they really don’t have that much which can be negated by
the many ways of dieing by the jungle.
* Giants of Albion – Same as Orc and Goblin
Giant except they aren’t Stubborn
(“Although they will be slowed down by the terrain, Giants are a
terrifying prospect for the smaller and less heavily armoured units you're
likely to encounter in jungle fights. ... (just watch
out for poison!)”), there’s two of them and a level 1
wizard. The Wizard isn’t much, but the Giants are used somewhat like the Orc
and Goblin version. They’re very expensive, though and take up two rare
choices. Although, the only things they could be replacing are a Cannon (Not
that useful if a tree is in your way.), Halfling Hot Pot (Reasons similar to
Cannon.), the Birdmen of Catrazza (Who, incidentally, will be mentioned in the
“Oh dear Sigmar, NO!” selection so I won’t go into them here.), or Asarnil the
Dragonlord. (Also mentioned in the “Oh dear Sigmar, NO!” section.)
“Oh dear
Sigmar, NO!” (Really bad choices
i.e. leave these cursed things at home!)
* Heavy
* Birdmen of Catrazza and Asarnil
the Dragonlord– The Birdmen and Asarnil are flyers, so
not a good idea in the deep jungles.
* Pikemen and the various Pikemen
Regiments of Renown – These often need the biggest armour save possible, and
come in large units. 5+ armour saves aren’t that good in Lustria, but usable.
The biggest problem is when they go in loose formation, and that’s because they
don’t get the special abilities from their pikes, turning them into expensive
duellists. For the best use, they wouldn’t be using Loose Formation, just waiting
at your side of the jungle, in any available space to take the change on the
front rank.
* Cannons, Halfling Hotpots and
Bronzino’s Galloper Guns (Oh my!) – As with all warmachines in Lustria, with
range and sight will suffer from the trees. Cannons and the Galloper Guns are,
of course, Black Powder weapons so can, if you roll a six as a 1 (Lose the
Armour Piercing rules for that turn) doesn’t affect them, end up not working.
This is all I can think of at the
moment, but I’m sure that there are many others which can be said as usable or
not.