Following on from last weeks article where we discussed the unit redirct tactic, we return this week with another golden oldie; March Blocking.

March Blocking

To understand ‘March Blocking’ let’s first cover some of the mechanics around this.

Marching

Firstly, marching. A unit can march across the table if unhindered by dangerous terrain and the like. When a unit marches in The Old World, it can double its movement characteristic. If the unit is in a column formation (more files than ranks), it can triple its move characteristic. However, if a unit chooses to march, it can not shoot or charge. This is especially useful for those slower armies like Dwarfs with their 3″ movement being tripled to 9″.

Enemy Sighted

If a player wishes one of their units to march and it is within 8″ of the enemy (apart from fleeing units), it must first pass a leadership test to do so. If the test fails, it may move normally but importantly counts as having marches, so it would still be unable to shoot.

Hang On!: it’s important to note that units with the ‘Drilled’ special rule are not subject to ‘Enemy Sighted’ and can still march when within 8″ of an enemy.

The Tactic

So by now, you’re probably thinking that’s fairly simple, and you’d be right. The easiest way to stop armies from marching across the table is to place a unit within 8″ and slow the enemy down.

What’s even more effective is using fast units and flying units to do this. So units like Gyrocopters (Dwarfs) or Eagles (Wood Elves) are great to interrupt marches. If the enemy chooses to try and charge them as a response, their flee move should keep them safe (if you’ve positioned correctly) most of the time.

As a result, you’ll have an enemy that is struggling to move its force into the position they’d like, or they’re unable to move their key hammer unit into a position to be effective. Giving you time to respond with your own units and to take advantage of enemy units out of position.