Unexpected Military Formations: Fighting On The Ground?

Good morning gamers,

In the past year, we've published articles that took real-world formations that were used in antiquity or the middle ages and applied their principles to MESBG. These formations have included things like Tercio Squares and the Svinfylking. Today, we're looking at a formation that I've heard rumor of but can't find any documentation that it actually existed. It involves . . . fighting while lying on the ground.

I've heard that during the raids of the Vikings in northern Europe, there was a tactic that could have been employed by having some warriors lie on their backs on the ground with swords in hand over their heads while other warriors stood over them with spears held high. Why this odd formation? Because Norse shields were rounded and were not long enough to guard both a warrior's head and legs at the same time. If a Norse warrior held his shield high to guard his head from being skewered by a spear, the warrior lying on the ground would swing his sword and hack the warrior's feet off. Should the shield be dropped to guard his legs, the Viking would find a spear impaling him in the face. I can't find it documented anywhere, but it kind of makes sense (at least, if the Vikings didn't have a multi-layered shieldwall active).

But the idea of having some of your troops on the ground while others are standing over them with spears intrigued me - and it got me wondering if fighting on the ground is ACTUALLY valuable in MESBG. And the surprising answer is . . . yes.

Fighting On The Ground: Rules for Backing Away, Making Way, and Spear Supporting

The rules for Prone models can be found on pages 32-33 of the main rulebook, though there are sections on pages 45 and 84 that apply as well. Here are the highlights:

• A model that is Prone has no control zone;
• A model that is Prone is considered to be half of its normal height for the purpose of working out Line of Sight;
• A model that is Prone may move up to 1" on the ground (crawling) but may not Charge this way;
• A model that is Prone may spend half of its movement to stand up or to lie down (you can't stand up and lie down in the same turn);
• A model that is Prone may be jumped over like an obstacle on a 2+ (a friendly model who gets a 1 on the Jump test just stops moving, while an enemy model who gets a 1 on the Jump test must charge the model instead);
• A model that is Prone does not make Strikes if he wins - instead he stands up;
• A model that is Prone and loses a fight counts as being Trapped and must back away the required 1" if possible; and
• A model that is Prone may be supported by a friendly model with a spear or pike but cannot support a friendly model with a spear or pike while Prone (you need to dig in the Designer Commentaries of the Main Rulebook for this one).
  

Another important thing to point out is that Prone models still need to Back Away if they lose the fight - even though models that can't Back Away are treated as Trapped, if you can back up, you have to back up. While Backing Away isn't optional, Making Way with a friendly model for a Trapped/Prone model IS optional. Not Making Way will Trap the friendly model, so most players choose to Make Way when they can. But is there a value to NOT Making Way for a friendly model? Yes, there is. Let's illustrate how this might be employed with the following armies:

• Minas Tirith - 600pts, 30 models:
• Denethor, Steward of Gondor [ARMY LEADER]
• 5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield, spear, and banner
  
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
  
• 3 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields
• 3 Rangers of Gondor
• 1 Ranger of Gondor with spear
  
• Madril, Captain of Ithilien
• 5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 5 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Cirith Ungol LL - 600pts, 39 models:
• Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol with heavy armor and the Shield of Cirith Ungol
• 9 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows
• 3 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows and two-handed maces
  
• Gorbag, Orc Captain with shield
• 7 Orc Warriors with shields
  
• 4 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• Orc Captain with shield
• 11 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
  
• Shelob
  

The Minas Tirith army is outnumbered (Mordor has almost 33% more models than Minas Tirith does) and has fewer archers (though it's 10 good archers vs. 12 so-so archers - expected hits is about the same). Their Defense is (on the whole) better, but with a lot of S4+ on the other side of the table, they may struggle to kill the Orcs and Uruks fast enough to win the game. Let's assume that we're playing a game of Domination (or some other kind of control-based scenario) and we're trying to control more objectives than our opponent - how do we do it? Well, we can try to hedge the enemy away from the objectives. Let's see how that plays out . . .

The Cirith Ungol army deploys on the center line because they don't want to trust to a shooting war. They have a few models positioned to defend their starting objectives, but most of the army is positioned to charge forward towards the Minas Tirith positions. In contrast, Minas Tirith does think it can win a shooting war and so has barricaded up their two starting objectives and have some models ready to advance towards the center. Here's what happens:

Gandalf goes crazy, trying to Blast Gorbag into some of his Orc buddies to thin the numbers down (he resists with 1 Will and 1 Might), but the enemy are already here, so the Minas Tirith band charges. Some shooting happens - one Uruk is killed:

In the fight phase, blows are traded equally between the two armies - both sides have lost three models:

On the next turn, the Orcs and Uruks are pressing the other two objectives and the Minas Tirith army is on the back-foot. Over the next two rounds, Gandalf breaks through to one of the rear objectives and clears it (with all his Might) and starts working the other down with magic. Denethor does his best to keep one flank from collapsing, but the Minas Tirith force suffered great losses by the end of the third round:

Yikes - that's not good. So is Minas Tirith just doomed against this kind of list? I don't think so - they just need to focus on winning the game . . . something that can be done by lying down on the ground.

Fighting On The Ground: Why Do It?

Let's reset the board and instead of hedging on our starting objectives, let's form up to fight the enemy away from these objectives. We have our Warriors of Minas Tirith and Rangers of Gondor positioned away from the objectives with Madril, Denethor, and a handful of Rangers guarding our starting objectives.

As the Orcs and Uruks advance, we do something unexpected: we advance half our movement forward and the front rank "lies down." Lying down, as we've already covered, takes half of the model's movement - and moving half-speed is conveniently the maximum distance our bows can move while still being able to shoot. Gandalf and his riders skirt the enemy lines and Gandalf focuses his efforts on Blasting Shelob instead of crumpling the enemy ranks (she's the only model that will mess up our plans).

Why are we lying down? It does a couple of things: first and foremost, lying down telegraphs to our opponent that we have vulnerable units that can be killed - killed VERY easily. Our Warriors of Minas Tirith don't have Shieldwall up while lying on the ground, they won't be able to Strike if they're lying on the ground, and the Orcs and Uruks will get double-dice to wound (potentially with +1 To Wound if they have Animosity up). Very tempting targets - is that a good thing for us, though?

The second thing it does is lying down restricts how our shieldwalls can maneuver (since the front line can only crawl 1" each turn). With them packed tightly together, we not only make it so that the models in the front don't have 1" to back up on their own (they're dependent on the model behind Making Way), but we also make it so that you can't get through our models. Interestingly enough, even though our front rank is lying down, so long as they are blocking the shins of the Rangers behind them, the front rank will STILL provide an in-the-way against archery for the Rangers . . . though it won't be at D7 like it could be with Shieldwall active.

But herein lies our strategy: 

We're going to make the equivalent of impassable terrain between our opponents and our objectives by NOT making way for our Prone models. 

In control-based scenarios, whoever has more objectives when one side is quartered (like in Domination) or one side is broken and a 1-2 is rolled (like in Command and Control or Hold Ground). That doesn't need to be the side with the most models - it just TENDS to be the side with more models. Instead, we can rely on a dicey tactic of breaking or quartering ourselves while controlling more objectives than our opponent. With the majority of our opponent's force tackling the majority of our army (and many of them lying on the ground as tempting targets), we can steal an extra objective or two from the rear while the rest of our army dies.

The Rangers of Gondor with spears (or Warriors of Minas Tirith with spears) are not prohibited from making Strikes if the Minas Tirith side wins a fight, so the only negative we have from lying one of our models down is -1 dice to wound the enemy. That's not nothing, but it's also not as much as you'd think. Should you win, the Warrior of Minas Tirith on the ground stands up instead of making Strikes, making him a valuable tool in the following round (instead of a potential liability).

It's important, though, that these models be backed up by spearmen because the prone models don't have control zones. By placing models in base contact with the prone models, you make sure that these guys aren't bypassed by enemy models. By not Making Way when you lose, we trap the guy in front - but the front-rank models are already trapped because they're Prone (so nothing lost there). Yes, he wouldn't HAVE to be Prone, but our opponent could also shove us away from an objective if we were both standing (and we'd be far less tempting as a target if everyone was standing up).

Should the front-line guy be killed, we lose no ground and have another model within 1" of the enemy (vs. 2" if the models backed up). This further slows our opponent, who doesn't have as much room to move around our models because they're still up in the face of the enemy. Should Gandalf clear an objective or two with his Knights (via Sorcerous Blast, Command, and of course charging), you can win the game despite getting quartered - and you'd be surprised how easy it is to kill a few warriors with these kinds of fast models. Shelob is really the only model who has enough Will to challenge Gandalf AND is fast enough to keep up with the cavalry (but even she fears Gandalf in a fight). So is it possible to get the objectives you need? Yes, I think it is.

One final note: if you're facing cavalry, this is a surprisingly effective method as well, since you'll be knocked Prone by a charging cavalry model anyway, but you won't give up ground to their charge. Should you win, you can swing at the horse with the spear-supporter, hopefully dismounting the enemy that charged you before the next fight (it's usually easier to wound the mount than the rider - though if you wound them both on the same difficulty, just swing for the rider).

Conclusion

This is an unconventional way of tackling an objective-based scenario, but it plays on one very natural instinct for most opponents: your opponent wants to kill lots of things. No matter what the scenario is, killing lots of enemy models feels good - and makes you feel like you're winning. Many players get carried away with killing things that they forget about how to win the scenario - and that can play to your favor if you're willing to do something so stupid that it couldn't possibly be helpful. And yet . . . it is. If you have thoughts on this formation (or want to see other weird formations), please provide your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time, happy hobbying!