Unexpected Military Formations: The Quagmire and the Battle on the Ice

Good morning gamers,

We're back with another formations post - and this time, it seeks to answer the question: how do I try to handle an elite infantry force with a less elite mixed arms force? Unless you run Elves all the time (some players do), chances are good that you may find yourself with an army that has lower Fight Value and possibly lower Defense than your opponent. So the question is begged: how can you take a lower-quality battle line and beat a higher-quality enemy? To address this, let's look at a battle that was fought in the frozen north of Europe and served as the last battle in the Northern Crusades during the thirteenth century: the Battle on the Ice.

The Historical Record: The Battle on the Ice

You can read an exposition on this battle with old iconographic paintings here (though beware the propaganda in the article, as usual), but the gist of the road to this battle is as follows: the Orthodox Novgorod Republic (modern day northern Russia) had a long-standing feud with the Catholic German Holy Roman Empire during the 1220s - so much so, that Pope Honorius III wrote letters to Catholic lords in northern Europe to place embargoes against Novgorod sea towns. By 1240 (while the Mongols were oppressing the Novgorod Republic from the east, tools of soft power were abandoned by the Teutonic orders and German/Danish kingdoms in modern-day Estonia and they began to attack Novgorod tributary lords. In reply, former Novgorod prince Alexander Nevsky (called "Aleksandr Iaroslavich" in the text listed above) was recalled from his banishment to lead the armies of the Novgorod and drive out the Teutons.

Both armies postured for a while, harassing towns along the way, until they both came to Lake Chudskoe. Though the Teutons were outnumbered 2:1 by conservative estimates (~2600 Teutons vs. ~5000 Novgorodians), their elite training made them a more fearsome force than those of the Novgorod. The battle, however, took place on the icy surface of Lake Chudskoe and when the Teutons advanced against the Novgorod militia (by far and away less skilled than the Teutonic knights), their charge was slowed and their progress halted because they had problems keeping their footing on the ice (and couldn't bring the weight of their charge to bear).

While the majority of the Teuton force was held up, the cavalry of the Novgorod swept in from the flanks to relieve pressure on the Novgorod militia and to sweep through the Teuton ranks. With their footing already bad and their position looking dire, the Teutons attempted a retreat - and while a famous 1938 film shows the ice breaking and men dying in the lake, the more likely scenario is that the Teutons retreated, leaving Nevsky in command of the field. For those wishing to see a quick visualization of the battle, you can view it here.

Nevsky is a legend in Russian military history and his defeat of the Teutons in 1242 is hailed as one of his greatest victories. But how can we use a horde of less-elite warriors to tackle more elite warriors in MESBG? Usually when you get into a shieldwall grind against these guys, you just end up throwing troops at the enemy and not getting anywhere. To see how we do this, let's take a look at the following forces . . .

Formation: The Quagmire Anvil

Our armies today will be thematic enemies and aligned with the recently-released Defence of the North Supplement:

• Forces of Good: Lothlorien (32 models, 550pts)
  
• Galadriel [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors
  
• 2 Galadhrim Warriors with spears
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• 2 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears
  
• 2 Guards of the Galadhrim Court
  
• Orophin
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 3 Galadhrim Warriors with spears
  
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with spear and banner
• 2 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• 2 Guards of the Galadhrim Court
  
• Forces of Evil: Assault On Lothlorien LL (39 models, 550pts)
  
• Druzhag the Beastcaller [ARMY LEADER]
• 12 Moria Goblin Warriors with Orc bows
• 1 Moria Goblin Warrior with shield 
• 1 Warg Marauder
  
• 1 Giant Spider
• Muzgur, Orc Shaman
  
• 5 Orc Warriors with shields
  
• 9 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
  
• Wild Warg Chieftain
  
• 5 Wild Wargs
• 1 Bat Swarm

Like the Battle on the Ice, the Evil force has a slight numerical advantage over the Elves - and thanks to the "we only fight at night" rule, they theoretically have a slight shooting advantage against the Elves (though their damage will be mitigated by Blinding Light). So the question becomes this: how can they bring their numbers to bear against the Elves to win? Well, it'll require two formations working together: an anvil, and two crescent hammers.

The "Hammer and Anvil" strategy is well known and we've not only referenced it here on TMAT, but we've also talked about crescent wrapping in an article on shieldwall formations. In our case, we're going to force our opponent to come and fight our "anvil" by filling it with archers who are REALLY good at killing things - but we're going to go a step further by making our anvil "heroic combat proof". Assuming that we're playing Destroy the Supplies, let's see what happens if we have a pretty normal shieldwall formation against the Elves:

We're going to take advantage of a few things here: first and foremost, we have two ranks of archers - but NOT a rank of archers and a rank of spearmen. Heroic Combats can make a mess of two-rank shieldwall formations, mostly because a hero like Orophin who charges into two models can call a Heroic Combat, kill those two models, and then take out their spearmen:

This then causes our line to have a gaping hole in it and if we don't have models to plug that hole, we're going to be wrapped from the outside of the battle line (or he'll race ahead towards the supplies). It's a pain - and if we had a banner in the formation, we'd have to choose how to keep it safe from the flankers. So instead of welcoming Orophin to trash us, let's bring over two more models and set it up so he has nowhere really to charge:

In THIS formation, we have three ranks - and while this is usually reserved for Easterlings, we've left a gap big enough for a model to Make Way for the front rank and move into base contact with a spearman in the second rank. This does a few things: first and foremost, even if Orophin calls a Heroic Combat, he won't be able to cut a hole through our formation (because we'll have a rank of Orcs in the way). If our goal is to buy time for our other troops to destroy the enemy supplies, we'll have at least two turns of our ranks not collapsing.

But more importantly, the second thing we get from this formation is that if Orophin calls a Heroic Combat, he won't have a spear-support in the second fight and we will (and he may be outside of the banner's radius too, depending on where he moves). While Orophin will lose his supporters, the guys he charges into will have spear supports of their own, giving us (potentially) a dice advantage. This is a dangerous thing for a hero - the fewer dice you roll, the more likely you are to roll poorly (and against a horde, that could be REALLY bad).

This is actually a variant of an old formation I've run with Goblins before (called the "foxhole" - you can read about it here) and while that one threw the spearmen in the front, we've basically sacrificed the front line in order to save the middle-line. The goal of this formation is to die slowly, so if we don't have spears all over the place, we are willing to let the front rank die in order to keep the army as a whole strong.

I should note that if I ran one fewer Wild Warg, I could have equipped half of my Goblin bowmen with spears - and at that point, they could have supported their friends in both fights. I could have also pulled over two Orc spearmen and made my shieldwall a little thinner elsewhere. If you would prefer to do either of these things, do that.

I've also omitted some very important pieces to this battle - first and foremost, we have FOURTEEN fast models for the Goblin-Orc-Warg horde (1 Wild Warg Chieftain, 1 Warg Marauder, and 12 Wild Wargs). The Marauder, with all the dice he rolls, can crash through Elven ranks if he can out-dice them. The Wild Wargs are great for pulling spearmen out of fights (in the first round of fighting if you go first OR during the second round if your opponent charges into you). While these guys have incredible speed, you want to make sure they hang close to your lines so that they don't take 2-3 turns to get into the action.

Finally, the Wild Warg Chieftain will either distract the magic of Galadriel (which can be oppressive) OR he can become the source of your nuclear power by using Enrage Beast on him. Usually a Wild Warg Chieftain would feel uneasy fighting Elves (tied Fight Value without the Elven-made weapon, wounded on 5s or 4s depending on whether the Elves two-hand or not), but with F7/S8/5A with a normal Enrage Beast (or F8/S9/6A with a channelled Enrage Beast), this guy is a real threat to Elves (especially if he calls a Heroic Combat).

Conclusion

While we focused on an Orc-Goblin-Warg horde, you can apply a similar strategy to armies like Theodred's Guard, the Serpent Horde, Lake-town, Goblin-town, or Angmar quite easily. In each of these armies, you have the tools you need to hold just long enough for your flankers to change the game - so long as your numbers are high enough to absorb losses. If any of this was new to you, let us know in the comments! Until next time, happy hobbying!