WFB TACTICS: Of Reforms and Steadfast
Hello BoLS Nation. Wiley One here with some tactical advice for the 8th Edition Fantasy player. With the upcoming New Year, and that bringing with it the new tournament season, I had a couple of things for all of you to keep in mind – Reforms and Steadfast.
In our latest tournament here in the Austin, Texas area I noticed a couple of things that a few players weren’t taking full advantage of. I will talk about them individually and the explain their overlap. So, away we go……
First, Combat Reforms!
I love this mechanic. I can’t begin to tell you how many games this pretty little wonder has won for me single handed. It’s your opponents turn and he/she fights a combat with you. You win the combat by either wiping out or breaking his/her unit. You reform to optimize what you want to charge next turn. Now you’re on the flank of a unit that they really didn’t want to have flanked. The way that I try and abuse this rule is by charging into combats where my opponent should still be Steadfast at the end of this round, statistically, by having more ranks than me. Though they are combats I know I can win, either straight up or by buffs from spells. On my opponents turn we fight again and he loses the important Steadfast rank and or ranks. The opponents unit breaks, you announce your restraint and reform and set up the charge for your next turn.
One of the other not as tactical elements of this rule, but useful none the less, is when you charge into a unit and win and wipe out or break the opponents unit and don’t wish to pursue or overrun. You take your free reform to make sure that you are no longer a sitting duck for your opponent to wipe out or break in return. A very welcome rule change in 8th Edition in my opinion at least.
Second, Steadfast! (of course)
Steadfast is an amazing mechanic that has ssssoooooo many uses in this edition. The fact that even the most useless of troops now has a place on the battlefield is something long over due. Sheer weight in numbers is all it takes for your lowly Skaven Slaves to become one of the most amazing units in the game. Think of it, you have a unit of around 70 Slaves 5 wide making your unit have 14 ranks. Now, think about having your General near by for his Inspiring Presence. That amounts to a Steadfast leadership 10 for most of the turns in the game no matter what you’re fighting! On top of that you can give them shields for a parry ward save. All of this from a unit that you paid 175 points for. That’s a unit from just one of the current Codices. Imagine the possibilities!
Finally, how do these overlap?
Well, it came up in one of the games in this past weekends tournament, that I just so happened to be running. I got a rules question about the Combat Reform for a Steadfast unit that lost combat. Well, I have pretty well scoured through the 8th Edition book so I knew this when it came up. The rule states that if a unit that lost combat is considered to be Steadfast for the purposes of their break test then they use the same unmodified leadership for their combat reform check as well. Pretty snazzy little bit.
Lessons learned. Use your combat reforms people, when timed well and done right they just might win you some games. Don’t underestimate the seemingly crappy little dudes that you could field a ton of, they just might hold up a unit that you don’t want to fight for the entire game just because they are steadfast. Finally, remember how these two rules overlap one another. Abuse them all accordingly and make your opponents say, “I didn’t think of that!” Oh, and tell them Wiley One sent you…
Do you have a rule that you regularly abuse in 8th Edition? Have you been on the sending or receiving end of one of these rules already? Let us know in the comments folks. Have at it!
