WFB: Looking at Everyone’s Redirectors, part 1
Many people have heard me say that charge redirectors are important at one point or another, and a lot have asked exactly what units they have that can be good at this role.
Hey again, it’s Adam from TheDiceAbide.com, and hot on the tails of me talking about various armies Monstrous Cavalry, I’m back to talk about the opposite end of the spectrum, cheap disposable units that will likely do no damage at all, yet still win you the game.
Every army has access to something that they can use to get in the way, and with proper application of being irritating, you can really turn the tide of the game and control your opponent’s army. I’ve already talked about the specifics of charge redirection here, so today, I’m just going to go through the armies and talk about what options they have available and what I think of them. Just going down the list in alphabetical order (8 this week, 7 next):
Beastmen
Starting with the braying hordes of hairy man beasts, the Beastmen army has a wide variety of chaff available. A unit of 5 Harpies is fairly inexpensive, and for a few more points, you can make them scout. Harpies aside, my favorite redirector is a single Razorgor, which is the same points as 5 harpies, but protected with a T5 and the ability to stomp a character or a few infantry into the ground before it’s taken down (he’s especially fun vs S3). Lastly, you have the Warhounds and Ungor Raiders. Warhounds are fast enough to get in the way very easily, plus they will not consume your special points as Razorgor and Harpies would. Personally, I almost always try and fit in a few Razorgor, a unit or two of harpies and then Warhounds if I still feel like I need some more redirection. With the exception of the Raiders, all of the Beastman redirectors have the speed necessary to get in the way, unfortunately however, losing any of these units will cause panic checks to other units within 6″ of them, and they almost all have poor LD, so be careful.
Bretonnia
The primary redirectors in Bretonnians are their Mounted Yeomen. They aren’t terribly expensive, though the models may be. As redirectors, they have several very nice benefits though, they are fast cavalry, so they can flee and then act normally, but more importantly, they do not cause panic to your units of Knights and they can use the LD of nearby knight units, which pretty much makes them the perfect fast cavalry unit. Bretonnians also have the famed Pegasus Knights, which could be used as a redirector in a pinch, though I find their point value far too high for such a sacrificial role.
Daemons of Chaos
This is our first army on the list that cannot flee, that is of little consequence however, since often you don’t really want to. As far as redirectors go, you can get a unit of 5 Chaos Furies for about the same price as Harpies for Beastmen/Dark Elves, and since they are core units, you are not restricted in the number of them you can take. In addition to Chaos Furies, there are still plenty of other options. First instinct would be to mention Flesh Hounds or Screamers, but I think both of these are far outclassed by Furies for the cost in the same role. Seekers of Slaanesh are decent, incredibly fast and actually could even win a round of combat in some cases, they are twice the cost of Furies, but in some applications could be better. Lastly we have single Fiends of Chaos, which have the speed of Seekers of Slaanesh, but come at a much lower point cost.
Dark Elves
Much like Beastmen, the Dark Elves have access to Harpies, though with one very important difference, they’re core. You can field an unlimited number of these naked flying annoying monsters, who are very cheap and extremely irritating, which pretty much means you have no excuses to not use them. Also, Dark Elves have the Dark Riders, which while are expensive, they are still a fast cavalry unit with a good LD and are also core. Since Dark Elves are still Elves, they really need to be careful of what they fight and when, so a few units of harpies plus a unit or two of Dark Riders is always a good choice.
Dwarfs
I’m only mentioning these for the sake of completeness. Dwarfs aren’t fast, nor do they have any cavalry, so what could they possibly do? Since your army is most likely fairly static, you can take some single Slayer characters to run out in front, and if they’re not shot to ribbons, they might work as a redirector of sorts, alternatively you could use a Gyrocopter, but frankly, for their points, it is probably only wise to sacrifice them if the situation is grim. Sorry Dwarfs, you got the short end of the charge redirection stick… get it?! Dwarfs are short, so it’s funny!
High Elves
Alright, now we get to talk about my favorite redirectors in the game, Great Eagles! For a super low point cost, the High Elves can get a flying monster which is moderately hard to kill and can peck a couple guys eyes out. I would never leave home without at least two of these, but really, since High Elves can take 4 duplicate rare choices and these are so cheap, I would always want the max. With 4 of them, you can do the wonderful double flee trick, then as they’re regrouping, the next pair moves in to do the same thing. They have a good Leadership value, which means that they aren’t nearly as prone to panic as other redirectors may be, and with WS5, there is even a chance that the enemy could be hitting them on 5’s and lose combat anyhow (thank you Lore of Shadow). High Elves also have Ellyrian Reavers which could be used to redirect, but I don’t find them nearly as cost effective as just taking 4 eagles.
Lizardmen
The Skinks may have lost their ability to take a Cold One, but that doesn’t mean that Lizards are without options here. The best option I’ve found in my experience for this role is simply a unit of 10 Skink Skirmishers, they’ll be moving 12″ a turn, which should be quick enough to move into position, plus being Skirmishers allows them to reform however they want on the way. Terradons are another option which may be worth exploring, but their fragility and cost makes me wary to buy more than one unit.
Ogre Kingdoms
The last army I’m going to talk about today are my beloved Ogres, who only really have one good option for redirectors, the lovely Sabretusk. A super low point cost model, which can be taken in units of 1, the Sabretusk adds both a coveted trash deployment drop to the Ogre army, as well as a cheap redirector or warmachine hunter. The only big problem with them though is that they have terrible leadership and someone shooting down the cat early in the game could cause panic in your lines if you’re not careful. Always be sure to keep them more than 6″ apart from each other because once they start running, there isn’t much that will get them back in the fight.
Phew! This was turning into a longer article than I thought, hence breaking it up into 2 parts, but still! Every army (except Dwarfs) really has access to a lot of stuff that can be used to interrupt your enemy advancing towards your line, ultimately though you need to balance between the units cost and their potential to panic other units around them.
