Unexpected Military Formations: 3 Formations for Fighting Against War Beasts

Good morning gamers,

Today we've got a very special formations post for you - different formations you can use to fight against war beasts (and particularly Mumaks)! War beasts are a special kind of unit in MESBG (see my Back to Basics article from a few months ago for what makes these guys special) and it's often daunting to fight them, since you know they could walk all over your army (quite literally!) and wreck your day.

In preparation for our recent The Hunter's Red October (THRO) tournament, I very strongly considered borrowing a Mumak and running two of these things - and BOY was that fun (and scary for my poor testing buddy, Gorgoroth). But as scary as being stepped on is, there are actually some very simple formations you can employ to defeat them - and they're primarily based on the following principle: manage how many models can be stepped on. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Formation #1: The Scattered Triangles

I've referenced an article about running "skirmish triangles" a lot this year - and it's because I love shooting and I love not having my shooting be constricted by the way I deploy/maneuver my models. Any three shooting models that are standing base-to-base in a triangle have 360 degrees of visibility (since you can "look over the shoulder" of a friendly model that you're in base contact with) and so skirmish triangles are a great starting point for whatever archers you want to run to harass a Mumak.

Having three models standing together and moving around the Mumak does a few things for you. First and foremost, they present enough of a threat that the Mumak has to deal with them (either with the guys in the howdah or by moving the Mumak itself). Having a lone warrior here or there isn't going to pose much of a threat, but having two or three triangles (6-9 shots) coming from a single direction can force a Mumak to actually do something (and this is especially true if the war beast is a Great Beast of Gorgoroth, since it has fewer wounds and its shorter height could mean that elevated archers don't have the howdah in-the-way for the Orc archers on its back - I was wrong, the howdah is always counted as in-the-way).

Second, having three models next to each other actually LOOKS like a good target for a trample. "Wait," I hear you say, "you want this formation to ENCOURAGE a trample?" Why yes, yes I do - because a choice to pursue these guys means that war beast isn't charging at a hero that I want to keep alive. The more triangles you have near each other, the more the war beast is encouraged to charge around in that area - and if you can use that to keep an important killing piece away from the models you need to win the game, you're fine.

Third, by having triangles set up instead of having your models in a line, you don't risk having your own troops get in the way of your shots if you have to move before the Mumak does. A smart Mumak player might look at a group of pesky archers and say, "Well, if I move to the side of that gunline, most of the archers over there won't be able to shoot at me without hitting their own troops." By spreading out in triangles, we avoid this altogether (which is the main reason for using this formation when shooting in general, not just when shooting at war beasts).

If you have lots of shooting attacks, this is a great way to harass war beasts (and potentially chalk up some kills for pegging guys out of the howdah) - but what do you do if you don't have a lot of archery (or none at all)? Well, I'd recommend you try the following formation . . .

Formation #2: The Double Columns

One of the first R-rated movies I ever saw was Ridley Scott's Gladiator - which, despite being released about 20 years ago, holds up to re-watching. In it, the Roman General-turned-Gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius instructs his fellow gladiators during a fight in Rome to form two columns to hem in the final remaining scythe chariot on the opposing side:

His men then form two lines around the chariot and as it runs between the ranks (not being able to turn fast enough to avoid the hedges of spears on both sides), Maximus's men are able to fend off the blades of the chariot wheels and a few are able to assault the rear of the chariot and yank off the riders. It's a great scene . . . and a surprisingly good strategy for use in MESBG against both chariots and war beasts.

Balin ended up speed-bumping the Mumak in this picture . . . but we only lost 4 guys in the ensuing charge and we won the duel that followed (but we rolled trash To Wound)!

The movement of war beasts is fairly predictable - they can pivot before they move and they will walk 8-11" forward in a straight line once they've decided their direction of advancement. They can stop when they come into contact with a friendly model to not trample them (unless they're stampeding of course, but you won't have to worry about engaging them if they're stampeding). These constraints on their movement means that when you're maneuvering your force to deal with the war beast, you know roughly where it can go - and that means you can form two nice lines that go wide of its arch of approach.

A few things to note about these lines: first and foremost, we're not bothering with ranking up our guys here - we don't want the Mumak to be able to walk over our first set of guys and then hit a second set of guys. No, we want the Mumak to be able to pick a part of this line to run into (eventually) and only clip a few guys. Ideally, the guys we have in this formation are infantry with shields (if something other than the Mumak tries to charge into us, we can at least defend by shielding).

We also want to make sure our guys are not touching each other - having a little bit of gap space between our models will limit the number of models that the Mumak base can run over (again, we want to limit it to 3 if possible, but more realistically, it's probably about 5 in this formation) - and having a little bit of gap space can still be a good deterrent against non-war-beast enemy units (assuming we leave less than 25mm between our units). This makes spears on these units optional, but if we have spears, they will be useful later. As a note, I didn't follow this advice very well in the picture above.

Third, we want these guys, if possible, to be F4 or above, so that they can at least tie the war beast's Fight Value if we charge it or if the warrior survives the impact hits of the war beast. Most of the units that are likely to accompany a Mumak are going to be F4 or below (Half Trolls and heroes are an exception, to be sure - as is the Royal War Mumak from the Mumak War Leader profile), so being F4 also gives us a good chance at fending off whatever hops out of the howdah (if that's an option) or whatever's buzzing around it on the ground.

Finally, if/when we get to charge the war beast, we want to engage from as many sides as possible. This is not so we can trap the war beast - their rules don't allow you to trap them - but because AFTER the fight is over, you want to have your units spread out to minimize the number of models that can be trampled should the war beast win the fight (or survive your punishment). You can leave an avenue of escape for it should it suffer wounds and stampede under your control (make sure it's directed towards some enemy units), but in my experience, Mumak commanders are usually high enough in the Courage department that they're going to pass most of their Stampede checks. The Orc Commander on the Great Beast isn't as good, but also only have fewer Wounds . . .

Okay, but what if you're an army that doesn't have great archery and doesn't have shields to help your "single columns" stay alive as they hem in the beast? Well, I give you one final formation to try . . .

Formation #3: The Thin Crescent

This formation is basically the same formation as the previous one - except that instead of having two columns that are going to try to wrap around the thing, we're going to have one curving line that presents no more than a few targets if the Mumak moves in any direction. If the Mumak gets to move first (which it probably wants to), it'll kill 2-3 guys (maybe 5 if they're infantry hit at an oblique angle) after moving in a straight line - and THEN we spring the trap and have all the other models pounce around its sides.

Having lots of units strung out in a row is going to not only give you lots of models to swarm the war beast when it's done moving, but it will also give you lots of targets for the Mumak to walk over - and the glut of options is going to force some very interesting decisions to be made. Will the Mumak count on charging a flank to limit its exposure (but also limit how many models it can charge on the next turn)? Or will it charge near the middle to keep its options open for next turn (but also expose it to more fire this turn)? The choice your opponent makes can play greatly into your favor - and that's why the formation works.

Conclusion

Hopefully you found this to be helpful - if you have other formations that you like to use, let us know in the comments below! This will be the last formations post until the new year - we have something special planned for December - but we'll be getting back to historical inspirations for formations next time. Until then, happy hobbying!