Havoc War Clans Skirmish Tactics

Havoc War Clans
Setting:	Age of Fantasy
Games:	Age of Fantasy: Skirmish
Species:	Mixed
Version:	v2.50

Note: as v2.50 is in constant development the following might not be accurate.

Why Play Havoc War Clans

Like the Rift Daemons, the War cry isn't one army as much as it is a collection of smaller armies, each with a special focus.

Pros:

• A decent bit of diversity in clan choices

Cons:

• Generally poor defense
• Narrow unit choices
• Certain clans have very limited shooting

Units

The Beasts

The Beasts all tout Furious, marking their specialty in melee. Your buffs help either maximize your aggression or your mobility, as your ranged capabilities are rather short ranged.

Special Rules

• Frontal Assault: Units within 12" gain +1 attack when charging.
• Hit & Run: Units within 12" can move 3" after shooting.
• Words of Haste: Once per activation, mark one unit within 12". That unit any anyone within 6" of them can move 6".

Heroes

• Untamed Champion: An aggressive hero, touting an AP(1) Hand Weapon on top of Furious and a 4+ quality. Your three buffs are Heart Eater (Frontal Assault, which stacks with Furious for even more charging power), Sacred Fang (Hit & Run, which makes sense if you have plenty of Runners with Boomerangs) and Beast Master (Words of Haste lets you amplify your mobility to get everything into charging range).
  • Melee: While the Hand Weapon comes with AP(1), you can change it depending on your opposition. The Great Weapon gives you AP(3) to shatter heavy armor and Dual Hand Weapons allow you to overwhelm Tough enemies by doubling your attack output.
  • Ranged: You have two ranged weapons for the champion that you can buy. The Barbed Whip gives you Rending for potential AP and the Javelin gives you a surefire way to nail most beasts and heroes.

Infantry

• Horned Prowler: While none too powerful, this beast is still plenty powerful with a 4+ quality for its lone attack and Impact(1) in order to maximize on charging. Strider also lets it move through terrain of any sort, letting them get set up for charges more easily.

• Veteran Hunter: A champion-tier grunt, limited solely to mele with either an AP(3) Great Weapon or AP(1) Deadly(3) Great Axe. With nothing else to support them, your best use for them is to support someone else and assassinate key targets.

• Runners: Your chaff lackeys, carrying a 5+ to quality and defense and Dual Hand Weapons. These happen to be your only other option for shooting, as you can trade in one Hand Weapon each for a Boomerang to benefit from Hit & Run. This makes Runners into some of the most vital parts of your army between either being your frontliners or your flanking force.

The Crows

The Crows all carry Fast, so closing the distance is not an issue. The fact that your Cabalists can shoot even makes it a little better since they're your only troops.

Special Rules

• Swoop Attack: Units within 12" get +1 to AP when charging.
• Takedown: When fighting, the unit can make an additional attack on a 2+, dealing an AP(1) Deadly(3) hit to take down heroes.

Heroes

• Cabal Champion: An assassin of a hero, touting an AP(1) Hand Weapon and a 4+ quality, but isn't very focused on supporting your troops. You can gain the element of surprise by buying wings for Ambush and Flying to help avoid terrain. If you don't need to fly, you can instead buy a Pet Bird for a cheap ranged attack. Your three buffs are Gruesome Trophies (Fear to break enemy morale), Shadow Master (Takedown to make quick work of various enemies) and Piercing Master (Swooping Attack, your only support ability).
  • Melee: While the Hand Weapon comes with AP(1), you can change it depending on your opposition. The Great Weapon gives you AP(3) to shatter heavy armor and Dual Hand Weapons allow you to overwhelm Tough enemies by doubling your attack output.

• Shadow Master: Your bruiser, though not your most elite. This guy carries a great weapon to chop up armor, and with Fast you can expect it to happen in short order. You can buy some Gruesome Trophies so you can add on some Fear and tip the battle further in your favor.
• Stalker Master: This hero lacks any manner of AP. What you use them for is the access to Infiltrator, a costly way to gain Ambush for half the army. This on top of your speed makes a surprise attack way faster.

Infantry

• Stalker: While only strapped with Dual Hand Weapons, the Stalker is highly mobile with Scout and Strider. Combined with Fast, the Stalker becomes a flanker and kiter without equal, though capable of holding up a bit in a fight.

• Shrike: Ambush makes your Shrike into your surprise attacker, with Rending to help get past most armored foes. With Fast and Flying, they'll have plenty of ways to keep hidden until they can make their opportune strike against an opponent distracted by your Cabalists.

• Cabalists: Your goons, three men with 5+ quality and defense. While only given simple Hand Weapons starting out, they have plenty of options between Spears for Phalanx's defensive perks, Dual Hand Weapons for extra attacks, and a Pet Crow for some ranged attacks while keeping them capable of fighting up-close.

The Cypher

The Cyphers all have Strider, allowing them to move through terrain without issue. The reason we mention this? Because your troops rely on it to get into the thick as soon as possible, as they're given AP(2) Great Weapons by default.

Special Rules

• Shadow Illusion: This allows the up to half of your army to use Ambush, but they need to deploy within 3" of the unit with this rule.
• Smoke Globes: Units within 12" of the unit gain Stealth.

Heroes

• Lord Champion: Your hero with a 4+ quality and an AP(1) Hand Weapon for some decent offense. They can buy Slave Master to throw around Smoke Globes for protection or Illuminated to get Shadow Illusion's Ambush power.
  • Melee: While the Hand Weapon comes with AP(1), you can change it depending on your opposition. The Great Weapon gives you AP(3) to shatter heavy armor and Dual Hand Weapons allow you to overwhelm Tough enemies by doubling your attack output.

Infantry

• Bounded: Your weaker goons, given a 5+ to quality and defense. Their Great Weapons give them a hefty punch in melee, but you can instead buy them Throwing Stars for short-ranged sniping. Because of this, they can best use Strider to leap through cover in between shooting bouts.
• Mirrored: Slightly more elite goons with 4+ quality. They also have Great Weapons for melee punch, but they can only swap that for Dual Hand Weapons. Because of this melee focus, they best benefit from Smoke Globes to protect them until they can make their charges.

Golem Clan

The Golems act as massive meatshields, with at least 4+ for defense and all but your weakest goons carrying Tough(3). This makes them annoying to remove, but it also means that you'll lose out on how many models you can field at once.

Special Rule

• Destructive: This unit can move through enemy units, dealing three AP(1) hits when they do so and roll a 2+.
• Repair: When activated, this unit can roll a 2+ to restore d3 wounds to a Tough unit within 2".
• Set Example: When an attached unit fails a morale check, you must kill a model in order to make it auto-pass. This works best for your Legionaries, whom have models to lose, rather than the rest.
• Strong Leader: Units within 12" gain +1 to AP when fighting in melee.

Heroes

• Iron Champion: Your supreme bruiser hero. He's got a great weapon to smash things open, and with a 4+ to quality and defense that's going to be a supreme hero. Your three buff options are Standard Bearer (Fear to overwhelm enemies in a fight), Dominator (Strong Leader to buff your forces in melee) and Drill Master (Set Example to sacrifice models so your Legionaries keep fighting).
  • Melee: While the Hand Weapon comes with AP(1), you can change it depending on your opposition. The Great Weapon gives you AP(3) to shatter heavy armor and Dual Hand Weapons allow you to overwhelm Tough enemies by doubling your attack output. The Ball and Chain doesn't change much on the Hand Weapon, but it also gives Destructive to let the champion ram through lesser enemies while pursuing the stronger ones.

• Dwarf Armourer: Unusually, the Golems can take a second hero. Slow hampers the armourer, but you'll have plenty of reasons to take one. Not only do they have AP(1) weapons to let them rain down blows upon the enemy, but they also have Repair to heal up your Golem Breachers and Iron Champion.

Infantry

• Legionaries: Your grunts. Straight-up puny with 5+ quality, but the 4+ defense is unusual. Each model carries Dual Hand Weapons for extra swings up close, but buying Bolas allow for your unit to have some manner of shooting.

• Ogre Breachers: This guy's essentially as tough as the Legion Master, carrying a Dual Wrecking Fist for AP(3) attacks made to rip apart armor. If you need something to tie up mobs or bruisers, you won't find much better. If you need a reason to grab the armourer, this is a solid one.

The Mutilators

The Mutilators have the morale buffs normally reserved for the undead, allowing you to easily keep fighting despite the odds. Their AP weapons are very few, and their shooting is similarly limited.

Special Rules

• Agony: Your entire army is immune to morale. Instead, you roll a number of d6 equal to the number of models/wounds remaining. On a 1 or 2, the unit suffers a wound that can't be regenerated.
• Takedown: When fighting, the unit can make an additional attack on a 2+, dealing an AP(1) Deadly(3) hit to take down heroes.
• Torment: Units within 12" gain +1 attack when charging.

Heroes

• Unmade Champion: Your lone hero with a 4+ quality and defense, with a gift for assassination over support. This guy comes with a bundle of AP(1) attacks for real punch, but you can buy a Flail instead for some short-ranged shooting. You have three buffs in Bliss (Fear to break enemies while not worrying about yours as much), Joy (Takedown for assassination) and Ecstasy (Torment for free charging support).

Infantry

• Ascended: Elite goons with AP(2) Great Weapons. With nothing else going for them, the Ascended are pretty much made to be assassins and beatsticks and little else.

• Awakened: Your lackey group, gifted with Halberds for Rending. These guys get to buy Chain Hooks for some shooting with Rending but sacrifice it on their melee attacks.

The Serpents

The Serpents rely on Poison to get kills, so you'll be relying a lot on luck to prevail. While you have some ways to bolster your attacks, you're going to have to work around the lack of AP, an issue against high-defense armies like the Eternal Wardens.

Special Rules

• Serpent Call: Units within 12" get to trigger Poison on a 5+.
• Tireless Killer: Units within 12" score an additional attack on a natural 6 to hit, though you can't trigger extra attacks from these rolls.

Heroes

• Splinter Champion: A bruiser of a hero, gifted with 4+ quality and a powerful AP(1) Hand Weapon. You can buy Poison Darts for a measure of precision shooting. Your buffs are only two though, with a choice between either True Master (Serpent Call for maximized Poison) or Snake Charmer (Serpent Call to make more attacks and potentially overwhelm with even more attacks).
• Melee: More than any other hero, the Splinter Champion has some very unique weapon choices for their loadout. The Spear gives Phalanx on top of AP(1) and the native Poison, the Net & Spear adds Impact(1) for a charge bonus and the Snake Bond provides a flurry of extra AP(1) Poison attacks, ideal for Tireless Killer to exploit.

Infantry

• Pure Elite: An absolute assassin, gifted with a 3+ quality to make short work of anything they come across. Though lacking in AP, Poison gives them the chance for more weight on hits.

• Snake Swarm: Absolute fodder, but you get Tough(3) and Fearless to keep it together. Strider can let them pop through any cover to hamper anyone.

• Clear Rookies: Your basic goons are even flimsier than most as they're stuck with a paper-thin 6+ defense. Furious makes clear their singular purpose in charging and tying up units. If you feel the need to make them more dangerous, you can purchase a second hand weapon for more attacks.

• Venom Veterans: Stronger goons, gifted with 4+ quality and 5+ defense but lacking Furious. come with the valuable addition of throwing in the option for throwing darts, giving you the most numerous option for shooting. This can prove to be more useful than the ability to grab a second hand weapon for more melee.

List Building & Tactics

General Advice

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Tactics

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See Also

• Havoc War Clans
• Havoc War Clans Skirmish Quickplay Armies
• Age of Fantasy: Skirmish

Havoc War Clans
Overview- Skirmish Tactics - Miniatures - Skirmish Quickplay Armies

Age of Fantasy: Skirmish tactics

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