[Question] Correctly Screening Units

[Aethyr]

One of my biggest issues I find is my troops getting bogged down. A bit stupid for one of the 'highly mobile' armies available in the game. I often deploy a unit of swordmasters, 7 wide behind some spears or another unit to shield them from missile fire, great, works well for me. Except for the part where I want them to join the fight.

As I advance, my meatshield unit usually takes a charge, time for the counter charge, but no, by the time I position myself to assist, my 'anvil' is rendered combat inneffective or wiped out, it is a rare occasion indeed that I get a flank shot. Once again, stupid for one of the 'highly mobile' armies available in the game.

I do blame this on the lack of my experience, and while I am getting better, I would appreciate some tips.

While writing this I have been concidering the issue a bit, and one idea I have is to have my swords adjacently placed to the rear with the spears still shielding, but not in the way should they need assistance. When the spears see the innevitable charge inbound they position themself on a angle presenting a target for my Swordmasters to take advantage of. Are there other things I am missing here?

A=Archer K=Knight S=Spear SM=Swordmaster

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[Musashi]

Try 10x1 Archers.

[Aethyr]

And just sit back the entire game hiding behind archers?

[Musashi]

They're bait; either the Knights charge and block their own archers, allowing a somewhat safe approach by the Sword Masters, or you decimate their opposite numbers, cutting down the return fire as the Sword Masters approach the Knights.

[Citizen Militia]

I've had success before using 2 lines of 15 LSG to shield some phoenix guard. Then when the enemy gets within their charge range change formation to 3x5 and push the phoenix guard up in the space that opens up in the middle.

I say 'I've had some success' - really I only tried it twice but it did work well for me

[saintjon]

You could try using shadow warriors as a screen too, they are harder to shoot at but block line of sight. I think using changing frontages as a screen is best used in tandem with some eagles or other harassers since you can really only do it for a turn or two, after that you're going to need to prepare to receive charges or countercharge or whatever. if your changing frontages units are seaguard then as you advance you can have your seaguard counter-shooting against enemy missile troops, which is super-effective if they are on a hill, after a turn or two of that kind of business whatever unit you are screening should be relatively safe by the time you pop them out. I haven't used this tactic in a while, I've been trying to get better at maneuvering but in skilled hands with the right timing it should work.

[Cythis]

screening is usually not done with fully ranked units. screening can also mean a number of things.

1. the basic reason for screening is to protect from shooting. The screening action is usually done by a somewhat disposable unit. You can also screen against shooting with a large unit, but, as you have seen, the unit being screened will find it hard to get into combat if this large unit is charged. I would only use a large unit to screen early on when I know that my swords will have time to move out from behind and into a position allowing them to fight. Screening with a large unit like this can work if you have a unit with high lateral movement capabilities such as a chariot or skirmishers.
A disposable unit is generally used to screen with the assumption that it will either be shot to death, allowing the fragile assault unit to charge, or that it can be sacrificed to gain a maneuver advantage. With high elves the sacrificial screen task usually falls to the core fielded as msu. This being because they are the cheapest and often not all that useful.

2. maneuver tactics are hard to do with m5 ranked infantry but not impossible. There are a number of things you can do if your msu core unit screening the swords is still alive when you want to move the swords into combat.

A. March them out of the way: if the swords won't be vulnerable to shooting or a nasty charge next turn you can simply march the lsg or archers to a position where they can threaten with shooting or a support charge next turn.

B. Bait and flee: The standard tactic used with fast cavalry. You push the msu core up and angle them so that the pursuit move with open them up to a flank charge or at least allow the swords to charge a different target. You will usually only succeed in saving the msu screen with this tactic when you are using it vs move 3 or 4 infantry. For this reason it is probably better to use one of the following.

C. Bait and die: This option is only usable if the enemy would not be able to hit your swords with its charge if the screen was not there. If they couldn't normally do this, or if by backing up with the swords you can get out of the charge range, you can shove your msu unit into the face of the enemy blocking los for other charges and march interdicting. If they elect to charge simply flee and they will move their full charge distance leaving them very close to your swords and battle line, ripe for the slaughter (and possibly still blocking line of sight to the swords).

D. Combat screen: If the enemy would hit the swords by moving their full charge distance the best bet is probably the other type of screening, used to block against combat. This is similar to the bait/die but in this case the swords will be close to the screen and the screen will elect to hold as opposed to fleeing. The idea is that the enemy will break the screen in their turn and pursue into the swords. The swords combat will be fought on your turn and this allows you to counter charge and cast magic before the combat is fought. One has to watch out for the swords being charged by another source as this would allow him to fight the swords in the same combat phase after breaking the screen.

I use these tactics with wood elves but it is much simpler due to the combat units being immune to psych. With high elves picking up the dragon horn or some such thing to protect against the swords being panic off the board may help.

[Prince of Spires]

A disposable unit is generally used to screen with the assumption that it will either be shot to death, allowing the fragile assault unit to charge, or that it can be sacrificed to gain a maneuver advantage. With high elves the sacrificial screen task usually falls to the core fielded as msu. This being because they are the cheapest and often not all that useful.

Actually, our specials as msu are cheapest. Our core has a minimum of 10 guys per unit. For spears this gives a 90pt unit. A unit of 5 white lions (naked) is only 75 pts. You can add in a musician (usefull when fleeing) and still be cheaper. And you get aditional protection against shooting, and stubborn. Only thing is that they will be seen as more of a treat and thus get more 'attention' than a unit of 10.

Rod

[saintjon]

with big seaguard units you often want to start battle with a wide frontage like 10 wide say. 2 units like this side by side with a little gap should block line of sight to a centrally placed unit behind them. When you anticipate the enemy charge you can reduce frontage of both units by 5 and still be able to turn a little bit, this opens a nice gap your screen unit can march into and become the front and center unit. that's what I was working off of but when I used to try it a lot I was a bit too green of a player to pull it off really. If I want a big swordmaster unit out there I would probably try to protect them like this though.

[Musashi]

I've been considering the Welome Mat deployment as well, but have yet figured out how to make it work; after all, there's these two 10 man Spear units that have to be utilized anyway.

[geoguswrek]

Instead of deploying behind an anvil unit, try deploying behind something softer. A unit of archers or similar is great for this, and it gets the swords across the table.
The main thing is to see before you get charged that you need to redeploy the hammer/anvil combination. This means you get a turn before combat starts so you should get in in the second round.

[Lord Anathir]

the problem lies in fielding swordmasters in only 7 and not more. With such a small unit you either chose to screen then and get bogged down, or not screen them and lose the unit. At least with 14 you can take some shooting and lose 5-7 and not care much. Really it should be the other way round...its the 14 swords that should be taking the charge and the ranked spears counter charging in the flank.

[Musashi]

Screening can take many forms, and it would depend on what you're screening them from.