B.A. T. T. L. E. D.
Before Assault: Thoughts on Tactics Leading to the Enemy's Defeat
by Zythaar of Mousillon
1.Introduction
From many centuries, since the wars began the generals cracked their heads on how to defeat the enemy. Many strategies that were wrong cost the lives of thousands of soldiers and ruined the whole countries. The goal of this article is to present you some of the strategies drawn out from the real wars and adapted to the Warhammer Fantasy Battles. With the new edition coming I thought it would be great to gather up ideas and make a primer for new adepts in the arts of war helping them to learn and understand the basic rules of the battlefield. This article is addressed to people familiar with the rules of 
WFB although the changes in 8th edition will be explained as they are discussed.
2. Basic elements of the army
This section of the article will be about basic roles that each element inthe army has to fulfill on the field of battle. I will put important conclusions in bold text so that you can get the point without reading the whole article. So let's move to the article itself...
TheGeneral:
His role on the battlefield is obvious. He is the one who leads the army to victory. His main task is to confer his high leadership to other troops so that they don't break so easily. The general has to be either where his leadership will boost troops most (ie. in the middle of peasant crowd) or in the heat of battle where every point of leadership counts.
The Battle Standard Bearer ( BSB )
His role is also quite clear buthis position, with the new rules for him, is not so obvious however. The new rules say that he can be used to re-roll every failed leadership test. (break, panic, fear, stupidity, frenzy and impetuous too). If a unit containing the BSB gets broken, then he DIES immediately. So now we have a dilemma: Put him into the fray or let him sit behindthe troops safely? My answer is:
it depends on the strategy and the army you have build.
Wizards:
Support characters capable of destroying whole unit with one spell (be it your own or enemy's) so their use must be thought over carefully. “Should I make his an offensive caster, or shall his only duty be to disrupt enemy magic?” That's the question you must ask yourself in the first place. There are two types of offensive casters: Buffer and destroyer. Buffer powers up his units to maximize their combat abilities. The destroyer concentrates on the enemy units either wreaking havoc or casting hexes that will decrease their combat potential. The passive caster focuses only on dispelling enemy magic. A Prophetess with 4th lvl is enough in most cases.
Infantry:
There are two types of infantry in our army: close combat infantry (CCI) and ranged or missile infantry (RI). CCI has two uses: static combat or dynamic combat. The first one bases on static CR, the other one baseson kills. In 8th edition both get an upgrade. If you have more ranks than the enemy (at the end of combat) then your units benefit from steadfast (stubborn). Also always there are two ranks fighting. Spears, horde formation (10 models in a rank), and citizen levy add another rank (cumulative).
Cavalry:
There are three types of cavalry in warhammer: fast, light and heavy. Fast cavalry's main attribute is the mobility. Light cavalry is more armored than than fast and thus cannot perform free reforms but it's ideal for hunting enemy cavalry and flanking. Heavy cavalry relies on the impact of the charge. They are heavily armored and thus are slowed down and have lower movement rate than other cavalry. Our heavy cavalry is not slowed down by the barding so they are as mobile as light cavalry.
Flyers:
Excellent machine hunters, those units have many various tasks toperform on the battlefield.
War Machines:
In our army we have only one warmachine: Trebuchet. Thank's to his improved strength he's very dangerous to infantry units. A direct hit from a trebuchet missile wreaks havoc on entire units leaving only dead and sreaming soldiers.
That's everything for this section. Feel free to comment it andaccuse me of saying rubbish.
Next time: The Gallean Bow!
Important disclaimer: Warhammer Fantasy Battles is agame developed by Games Workshop Ltd. The author of this article claims no rights for any of their products. All units, items and rules belong to their respective owners. The author would like to apologize in advance for all grammar mistakes made in this article.