Three Easy Anti-Flyer Formations

Good morning gamers,

This formations post is dedicated to Rythbyrt - why? Because he loves to field big, flying monsters. Flying monsters can be tricky to deal with - they can charge auric heroes by hopping over your battle line, they can Hurl one of the models on the end of your line through the rest of your ranks, and can Heroic Combat from one place to another to avoid getting swarmed (if they have enough notice).

I have faced Rythbyrt three times in our tournaments here at TMAT when he's fielded flying monstrosities: once when coaching my son (The Witch-King of Angmar on Fell Beast) and at our two most recent TMAT GTs (both times with Gwaihir). Preparing for the second time led to a few formations that can mitigate the effectiveness of a flying monster (and preparing for the third led to some refining of the strategies) - let's take a look at how they work.

Formation #1: The Backward Bubble

Let's assume we have the following forces on the table:

Lothlorien - 500pts, 26 models

• Galadriel
• 3 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 5 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• 4 Wood Elf Warriors with Wood Elf spears
• 1 Wood Elf Warrior with Elf bow, Wood Elf spear, and banner
• Galadhrim Captain on armored horse with Elf bow
• 5 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 4 Wood Elf Warriors Wood Elf spears
• 2 Galadhrim Knights with shields and Elf bows

Mordor - 500pts, 29 models

• The Witch-King of Angmar on fell beast with the Crown of Morgul, Morgul blade, 3M/15W/2F
• 7 Morannon Orc with shields
• 6 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Morannon Orc with shield, spear, and banner
• 3 Orc Trackers
• Orc Captain with shield
• 5 Morannon Orcs
• 7 Morannon Orcs with spears

The Lothlorien list has two heroes who are vulnerable to a charge by the Witch-King - and since Galadriel doesn't want to be on the front line, she could be charged from behind if we don't protect her properly. With the Witch-King able to Compel models as well, we need to have at least 2 models forming a bubble around Galadriel so the large base of the Witch-King can't fit.

You can see here that we've placed archers behind Galadriel and have left gaps in our lines for them to shoot at the approaching Orcs. The models in the rear have a simple purpose: keep the flying monster from being able to charge Galadriel immediately. Yes, a charge-and-Barge could mean Galadriel gets engaged, but you can control an immediate charge this way.

It also makes it hard for the base of the Witch-King (and most flying models) from being able to land if you line up near terrain. If you don't have terrain at your back, we have set up spears in FRONT of our archers so that anyone charged from behind at least gets that second dice (and banner reroll) to beat the Witch-King should he descend on the archers to the rear. A Barge could still be bad, but with F5 Elves against a F5 Witch-King, I'm feeling better about it than other monsters.

One final benefit of running this particular formation is that the spacing of our models makes it harder for a Hurl to clear out our front ranks. We may only save a model or two that would have been hit, but every little bit helps (especially if you're Elves).

Formation #2: Open Skirmish Triangles

If you have a bunch of your warriors in a long line, flying models don't tend to have a problem getting around your line to a good position to Hurl one guy through everyone else. The thing about the Fly special rule is that you can't end in a model's control zone without charging them. So, when you're facing something that is big and flappy, you can control where they go by placing control zones all over the place. While you could haphazardly place models all over the place, I've found there is a simple geometric formation to make life surprisingly difficult for a flying monster: triangles.

Triangles are great geometric shapes - especially when you're playing a game with circular bases. The models in the picture above are 4" apart - and I landed on this for several reasons. First and foremost, it makes it so that a flying monster that charges one of the front models from directly in front is unlikely to be able to Barge into more than one model (probably the guy he charged originally) because you'd need to get a 4+ on the D6" roll for additional movement. 

Second, Hurls are very ineffective when models are spaced 4" apart (and you probably only clip one model with a Hurl). Most flying monsters want to be able to Hurl - and denying them the ability to clip more than one model is pretty discouraging. This does require that these triangles be set up away from your main battle line - otherwise, the monster could fly into one of the rear models and Hurl towards your main line (which probably gets 2-4 extra models).

Third, if a monster flies within the triangle, he may be able to Barge into two models - but probably not more than that. No matter how the flying monster attacks this formation, he's probably only taking out 1-2 models - and THAT's probably less than he was hoping to get. Once again, you don't want this too close to your main line so you don't encourage the monster to Barge into them instead of fighting with the skirmishers.

Fourth, an equilateral triangle with 6" sides (4" gap between two 25mm bases) will make it so that a 60mm base (2.4" diameter) can't land inside the triangle without entering (slightly) into someone's control zone. To land inside the triangle requires the flying monster to charge someone - and if he can't reach either of the rear models, he has to charge the front model. Furthermore, because there's a 4" gap between models and a 60mm base is only 2.4", the maximum models that can be charged is one - unless someone gets Barged (in which case, it becomes two, as we've talked about before).

Finally, by having lots of space between our models, we can have them in front of our bow-armed models and you'll have plenty of firing lanes to tear into the enemy. Sure, you may not be able to pick ALL of the targets in your forward arc, but you should be able to hit most of them - and if you criss-cross fire, you can probably get the same result as having a wide-open view in the front. As an added bonus, these guys will be in-the-way rolls for some of your archers (unless your opponent criss-cross-fires as well).

While you can certainly run this formation with melee troops (I don't recommend archers - this formation needs to be able to move quickly to be effective), I highly recommend that you have throwing weapons on as many models in this formation as possible. The ability to harass and shoot (especially if you're evil - which we aren't in this case) gives you a lot of options for continuing to do damage to the flying model if he can't engage you effectively.

One last note on this particular formation: with the Defense of the North supplement, we saw the Dragon Emperor released - and he sits on an 80mm base with no ranged threat capability. Spreading out skirmisher models like this in front of your ranks can be an effective deterrent from him being able to do much beyond supporting his warriors as he won't be able to Heroic Combat into more than one other guy if your skirmishers are 80mm apart (just under 3.25 inches) and any shots you pile into him reduces his wounds or the wounds of the palanquin (a win-win if you ask me).

Formation #3: Closed Flanker Triangles

While there are advantages to having big, open triangles for your skirmishers, there is another way you can deal with flying monsters: have a tight cluster of models that draw the flying monster away from the rest of your army. 

We actually talked about this in a formations post earlier this year - tightly-packed, three-model triangles are great for skirmishing as they get 360 degree vision around them (all in base contact) and they remain an easily maneuverable block. Yes, these guys are probably on a suicide mission, but if they've got shooting weapons (throwing weapons or bows), you can encourage a flying monster to "deal with them" and leave the rest of your army alone OR face harassment from the periphery (either for the monster or the rest of his army).

If the small hit squad distracts the monster, you need to have the rest of your army advance hyper-aggressively to deal with what's left of the enemy force while your hit squad lasts for as long as possible. Flying monsters are dangerous (and a Heroic Combat can see them get a LOT of movement), but if you beat the monster in a single round, you can buy the rest of your army a lot of momentum.

If the hit squad doesn't distract the monster, you need to have the squad focus on winning the scenario. Perhaps it's head-hunting models sitting on objectives, shooting banner models, or "just getting kills." However you want to do this, consider talking up what they're doing so your opponent has at least a niggling desire to pursue them.

Conclusion

Flying monsters in this game are powerful - and dealing with them can be very, VERY difficult. Hopefully at least one of these formations will be useful to you - not all are effective for all armies, but they are generic enough that you could at least give them all a try. If you like these posts, leave a note in the comments for what kinds of dilemmas you'd like help with (or scenes from the films that you'd like to see us recreate in a viable way).

Usually this is the part where I sign off and say "see you next time," but now that December has started and Christmas is coming, I'm very excited to announce that through the rest of December, we're cancelling our usually scheduled programming so that every Monday and Thursday, you get "early Christmas presents" in the form of TMAT, fan-made Legendary Legions and faction revamps. Starting Monday, we'll be releasing PDF documents with the faction information, as well as a write-up about why the faction needs help (or why the Legion should exist), what's in the Legion, and some lists that exhibit how it works. Up first is a Legion that I wanted in Quest of the Ringbearer and is inspired by my favorite Battle Company. Christmas will be here soon - but why not celebrate now! Until next time, happy hobbying!