I started going through TOW book last night, and haven’t gotten through it all yet, but it seems there’s some sort of bonus for having more than 1 rank. But it also seems like there’s advantages to having longer front ranks too. Is there a ‘sweet spot’ for Infernal Guard…and what about Bull Centaurs?
For my multi-model units I was planning on 2x20 Infernal Guard w Fireglaives, 10 Infernal Guard w halberds or great weapons (they’re armed with big weapons to be either one), and having 6 Bull Centaurs to start (plus the heroes and single model mechanical stuff). Gonna make my own bases and trays out of styrene sheet, as I can’t find the right sizes anywhere; so I’m flexible as to sizes.
I think a lot of this is dependent on terrain rather than minmaxing. What job is your unit doing, where is it positioned, what matchups does it have, what can it NOT do, all factors of deployment and mobility which are in turn impacted heavily by what the board will allow. It’s worth more to know the relevant WS, SvT and Init. of a given enemy than it is to be a particular width.
I think the compulsion to bring these abstract concepts of perfect or optimal build is really not a good fit for square base play. The joy of it is that there is strategy to list design and deployment but it’s relative to the board and enemy, not the rules themselves.
Chaos Dwarfs vs Dwarfs, where there is little to no automatic init disadvantage for our army, is so radically different a job to fighting Warriors of Chaos or Greenskins that I think your army should be deployed and shaped differently based on context. Trying to second-guess that context is counting grains of sand on the beach in my view.
Edit: I’d ask @Jasko if I wanted a proper answer though.
This is a tough but very important question and lots of factors play a part. There’s even one school of thought which heavily favours one single rank with lots or all the models over deep ranks.
Like Chitz said, it depends so much on your unit’s equipment, it’s battlefield role and who you’re playing against. As for your specific examples:
With it’s low movement and initiative, Infernal Guard is more about (standing &) shooting and being an anvil unit rather than a hammer. You have to expect your opponent to strike first, taking your models out and decreasing your attacks. You can try to adopt a very wide formation to still be able to hit back, or you take on the storm head-on and hold him with statis combat resolution until a relief force arrives. 10 models in a melee unit unfortunately combine the worst of both worlds. It is likely you lose some models, and as soon as you lose 2, you’ll also lose your rank bonus if you go 5x2. In those cases, you’re probably better served with as many models as possible in the front rank to fight back. in a unit of, say, 20 in a 5x4 formation, you can lose 6 models and still have your max combat resolution.
With your Fireglaives, you will want to get more models in the fighting (read: shooting) rank. They are not meant to just swallow enemy attacks. Having 20 Fireglaives in a 2x10 formation is tempting, but from my recent experience with Dwarf Irondrakes (who also have a 18" missile weapon) I can report, that a rank of 10 is veeeeeeery cumbersome now. Just think back to math class in school: Law of cosines tells us that a unit which is 25 cm (i.e. 10 models) wide and then wheels 3" shifts by only 17.5° That’s not much.
Bull Centaurs get a rank bonus with only 3 models and, despite what they look like, are better at soaking up damage than dishing it out themselves. 6 models is again the grey area, where you completely lose the bonus from putting them in a 3x2 formation over a 6x1 as soon as you lose one model.
Thank you both for the replies! I have some very deep learning to do. My Skaven army will help me to practice with Azgorh. They look to have different tricks altogether!
Getting models in the table and just playing the game will have you learn anything you need in no time. Theorycrafting and mathhammering is fun but can completely derail you. Not to mention you can find any possible opinion on any subject anyway.
Don’t think too much about all of this! Just play the game and have a good time.
I’m glad you found some use in my comment because it did feel like a bit of a cop out. Chaos Dwarfs have the blessing of a broad list with a lot of options.
The most valuable thing to do is take a glance at your enemy’s army list and consider - what’s the right tool for the job on average?
The mental load of knowing all the enemy statlines is unsustainable but if you know a match in advance then you have a better chance.
ideally, who’s charging who?
Can I force favourable matchups? How?
What charge reactions do I want to use?
How does my hammer compare to my anvil? How do mine respectively compare to his?
Can I set a trap for him? What bait do I have?
How fast is his army? How much give is there in my formation?
The great gift of the Chaos Dwarfs is you have one of most things. Harassment cav, monstrous, chaff, anvil, artillery, shooting - not everyone gets all of those things. The disadvantage is that you’re not very fleet of foot and therefore quite brittle.
Some things are intuitive. You want your BSB to be where they will put pressure on your line. You want to know who’s going to do the heavy lifting on a monster or a tough regiment (warriors of chaos, knights, swordmasters) and be careful to bring backup options in case you lose them - most useful stuff is a priority target.
Some things are fully useless in some matchups. By way of an example. I have 150 night goblins painted and was fighting Jac’s Warriors of Chaos. That man doesn’t even know how to spell “marauder”. The only thing in that army not encased in a spiked tin can were their pet dogs. WS2, S3 goblins weren’t going to do any damage, shortbows or not.
But what they could do, is transport fanatics who could do masses of S6 hits if they rolled well. So I broke them up into minimum size regiments instead of a big blob. Nine fanatics instead of three. The goblins themselves were merely a means to that end. The size and shape of the regiments were small to enhance their purpose. The fanatics did the work. Long thin two rank bowmen formations firing shit shortbows at Warriors of Chaos wasn’t important, even if it would have technically maximised shots.