Warhawk Riders

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Akaba
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Warhawk Riders

Post by Akaba »

This is the first guide that I have tried to put together, but I wanted to add to the post of GWH (8th Edition Wood Elf Tactica) and help the community in general. The idea behind this is to cover the uses of warhawk riders (WHR) and how they can be used. I know that in general there is a lot of hate behind this unit (that I personally love). The aim is to hopefully convert some haters to lovers and to provide insight on how these units can perform. It would be appreciated if comments could be kept to covering these units, and not why unit XXX is a better choice. Through either forgetfullness, tactica writing noobness, or even lack of knowledge ! I may have missed some things that can / should be in here. Feel free to constructively critique and comment!

While most of these tricks seem small, the true advantage is that it is definitely possible to set up for more than one trick in any one time. By combining several of these tricks together, and with tricks of other units, the WHR are not a unit to be sneezed at !

Useful things to remember
  • Being Monstrous Cavalry you are able to stomp.
  • As flying cavalry you are skirmished, so its -1 to hit you at range
  • Combined movement and shooting gives you an effective 50" range
Fast Cavalry

Firstly it should be noted that the WHR are fast cavalry, without rules that detract from what fast cavalry can normally achieve. All other rules that the WHR have augment the fast cavalry abilities rather than detract from it (for example wild riders are fast cav but also ItP so they cannot bait/redirect etc). The link (Fast Cavalry) does an excellent job of explaining everything about fast cavalry, so I will omit a detailed description of this. Some ideas are however repeated as I find them of particular use or worthy of highlighting.

Deployment

Because WHR are both flying and vanguard, they are a good unit to place early in the deployment phase in an attempt to reveal your opponent's play before you have to reveal yours. The idea here is that you place the WHR in generic mid left and/or mid right sides so that you are not giving information away while forcing deployments of the opponent. Because of vanguard and flying, it is easy to get these units where you want them when you want them.

This trick works particularly well when you combine it with eagles. A slight caution though; make sure that you leave enough empty area to keep your opponent guessing where stuff will go. As an (extreme) example, if you have a horde of treekin, but only one place to put them then the opponent will start to figure your plan out. It is ok to place eagles and WHR 1" apart, maximising the empty space for the rest of the army.

War Machine Hunting

Pretty straight forward. This unit is super mobile, allowing it to run down warmachines early in the game typically turn 2 or 3.

Mage Hunting

The idea with this trick is to kill mages while they feel safe in their bunker. If you have 4 WHR in a 2x2 formation and charge the bunker unit, you are able to dish out 6 strength 4 attacks onto the mage. This is a good trick to use for weaker mages obviously (compared to others like Warriors of Chaos). Once the attacks are complete then the WHR can flee if they survive to work on something else in the next turn. It is important to consider the unit that the mage is bunkering in as you are running the risk of trading the unit for weakening the enemies magic.

This is really only a good trick when the mage is in the middle of the front row, because you want to get as many hits as possible onto that character. Wiley generals tend to place casters on corners to mitigate this effect though it can still be possible, just not as efficient.

Generating Combat Resolution

Combo charges with other units, or charge into ongoing combat. What you are looking to do is hit the flank or rear of the enemy unit, adding static combat res and hopefully some wounds to your Combat res score to help you win. Once the combat is over, you can flee and repeat the tactic again and again... It is important here that you consider what you are going to be in combat with and how many wounds you are likely to take. You generally don't want to sacrifice the unit this way and there is a LOT in warhammer that can take the WHR out. But for chaff, its useful.

Double Charge Fleeing Units

Because of their mobility, WHR can be in the back lines of the enemy quite easily. This trick is a little more situational as it requires particular enemy reactions. By having a 'scary' unit charge the enemy, whether that be Treemen, Treekin, Wildriders etc, you may force or decide to have the enemy flee. Now that the enemy is fleeing, you can declare another charge with the WHR into the already fleeing unit, forcing them to flee again. This will either move the unit really far out of position, or if you are lucky you may even be able to catch the unit or knock it off the board.

Lookout Sir!

A popular hero/lord choice is a guy mounted on an eagle. Its worth noting that this converts the eagle from being a monstrous beast into monstrous cavalry. This means that if a unit of 5+ WHR are near the eagle character, then you are eligible for the look out sir! rule. A further advantage of having 5 WHR in a unit is that when a model is lost, you are not automatically taking a panic test.

Magic

All lore that a wood elf general can take are beneficial to WHR in different circumstances.

Typically Life will improve the survivability of the WHR through increasing their survivability or by returning fallen models. The different spell here is shield of thorns. By casting it on the WHR and charging them into everything and then buffing them up so that they are harder to kill, you can do damage to the enemy in ways they were perhaps not expecting.

The only spell in Beasts that works with this unit is the signature spell. +1S +1T to the unit can also help to hit just that little harder for when you need to force the battle a particular way. Potentially surprising, as most people expect big things to get bigger, rather than having smaller pesky units buffed. This spell is also easier to cast on WHR because they are monstrous cavalry.

Athel Loren Lore provides some survivability to the unit or can even force the WHR to charge in the magic phase into the enemy to reach that little bit further that the enemy was not expecting.

Units with random movement

By sitting 1" away from each flank of a random movement unit, the enemy unit cannot pivot as it would move too close to you. Consequently, you have limited the movement of the unit to be linear, potentially forcing the unit out of position.
Last edited by Akaba on 21 Dec 2013, 08:57, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by godswearhats »

Awesome tactica, thank you! I updated my post to include the link to yours.
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Akaba
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Akaba »

Thanks. Theres always more to add, like march blocking, redirecting etc. But I had to draw the line somewhere. If this 'where' was a silly place then ill add :D
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by mabelode »

Thanks Akaba, I've been trying to justify fielding a unit and you've given me some ideas on making sure they earn their way. Much appreciated :nod:
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Kakapo42 »

I'm not much of an experienced Wood Elf general (not yet at least), so I can't comment much on the article's merits, but it seems like a good write up. One thing that you seemed to have missed however, that might be worth noting, is that not only are Warhawk Riders fast cavalry, they're also monstrous cavalry as well, so they get all the added rules for them. This could be of benefit in combat, since at the very least they can also make stomp attacks after their regular ones.
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Akaba
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Akaba »

Kakapo42 wrote:I'm not much of an experienced Wood Elf general (not yet at least), so I can't comment much on the article's merits, but it seems like a good write up. One thing that you seemed to have missed however, that might be worth noting, is that not only are Warhawk Riders fast cavalry, they're also monstrous cavalry as well, so they get all the added rules for them. This could be of benefit in combat, since at the very least they can also make stomp attacks after their regular ones.
You are correct in that they do have stomp, but I wanted to try and focus more on what they can do with their abilities rather than what rules do they have. Example (though perhaps extreme), they also have bows so they can shoot their enemy.
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Slobber »

I think it's worth noting that they are one of the few units of flying cavalry in the game and therefore have their own set of rules. Mostly that they are fielded as skirmishers and are -1 to be hit by BS shooting.
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Akaba »

Added a section of "useful stuff" that is well, useful but not really a tactic
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Talarian »

Very nice write up Akaba!

I've always liked the Warhawk riders and this post has only inspired me more to make a flying oriented list.
I'm curious to know what changes (if they make any) they will make to the WHR in the newest Armybook.

Cheers,
-Talarian

EDIT: Also, I read in another thread that you don't leave home without 6-8 WHR? Would you mind writing up your list on the armylist thread, or point me in the right direction if you have already?

I'm curious to know what it is!
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by godswearhats »

Added this tactica to the LEAF.

http://asrai.org/leaf/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Gwill_of_the_Woods »

Good work! I enjoyed it!
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Allendor »

I can't help but like this post. Great write up Akaba.

I have used 2 units of 3 with a champion for a long time.
I think the mathhammer people have given them a bad rap here in the 8th.
You know not worth the points, get an eagle instead yadda yadda.
Don't get me wrong a Great eagle is super for the points.
I will use them as well.
How can you go wrong with fliers?

I will field them in my army whenever I can.
Look at my avatar for gods sake.
No amount of planning can ever replace dumb luck.
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Gwill_of_the_Woods »

The thing I'm not sure about is the forest strider rule with them. I seem to recall that they don't have forest strider.
What implication does this have on them, because surely they would move by flying over the forest.

Terradon Riders have forest strider, so it's not something that isn't applicable to flying units.

Does it mean if you start/finish your movement phase in a forest then you have to take a dangerous terrain test?

A strange thing not to have given them?!
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Re: Warhawk Riders

Post by Akaba »

Technically the WHR do have the forest strider special rule. It just doesnt count when using your flying movement. I know its a tad crappy :)

You only have to take a dangerous terrain test if you start or end in the forest AND you used your flying movement.
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