FACE YOUR FEARS
Understanding Fear and Confronting It
by Ken Kennedy

"... the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

These famous words were spoken by the great American President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1933 inaugural address regarding the Great Depression that was plaguing the land. Had Roosevelt been a Games Workshop fan, he would have realized that in the Warhammer world, "fear itself" is more than enough to be afraid of!

Having recently fought Rob Hawkin's Vampire Counts army a half-dozen times in the last month as part of The General's Compendium Campaign, I know firsthand how devastating this psychological effect can be. For those of you who haven't been following the campaign, my Dwarfs have held their own against the Undead hordes, but every game has come down to a few key rolls that were due to Fear.

Nameless, Unreasoning, Unjustified Terror

Most players that haven't played against a lot of Fear-causing opponents have, at the very least, read the Psychology section in the Warhammer rulebook. Let me tell you this: reading about something is not the same as experiencing it! Until one bad roll causes your best infantry unit to be run down by a slightly larger unit of rag-wearing, bone-toting Undead, you don't know Fear.

Okay, what does it mean to fight an opponent with Fear? First off, you need to test against your Leadership every time you want to charge a unit with Fear, even if its Unit Strength is lower than than yours. If you fail the roll, you can't move or shoot and have set yourself up to be charged next turn by the unit (only one unit if you're lucky) you hoped to slam into.

How bad could a charge from a Fear-causing opponent be? If your Leadership is questionable, it can be catastrophic. Again, you must take a Fear test regardless of how large the charging unit is. If you fail, you will run away from a larger unit. If you fail when confronted by a smaller unit, you will require 6's to hit, which can be even worse than running away as your enemy has a good chance of breaking your unit in combat and running you down (especially if you are slow, like Dwarfs).

I'm good at tests and my troops have great Leadership. Okay, so you didn't run away and cry to your mama. All you need to do now is win every round of combat until the Fear-causing unit either runs away (which never happens in the case of Undead) or is utterly obliterated (if your enemy has Necromancers, this could be never, too). If you lose a round of combat and are outnumbered, you automatically break from combat. Many an elite unit of Dwarfs has been destroyed by these means. Win, win, win, lose by 1... run away!

Convert Retreat into Advance

In order to understand the mind of a player who relies on Fear-causing units, all we need to do is review the words of their Dark Lord Alessio Cavatore. In his Basic Rules of Engagement found at the back of Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts, Alessio instructs a recently deceased Warhammer general on how to lead an Undead horde: "The key to success with Fear is to outnumber your enemy..." The difficult part about confronting a Fear-based army is that cheap troops organized in large units usually have poor Leadership and will fail many of their Fear tests. Conversely, high Leadership troops are expensive and get outnumbered easily. So, what else can you do?

• Blast them down to size before they get to you. If you are facing slow units, then missile fire, artillery, and magic can even the odds a bit.
• Outmaneuver the enemy. Not an option for Dwarfs, but other armies can pull this one off. Cavalry, flyers, skirmishers, and fast infantry can allow you to choose your battles and avoid tough foes until you've whittled them down.
• Magic Items. You want magic items that can help in combat EVERY round to help fight Fear. If you depend on a character (as opposed to a unit standard bearer) to carry these items, you had better protect him. Your hero's death could spell the doom of your unit and others behind it. Also, magic items that add to Combat Resolution are very useful.
• Field a host of low-cost troops and hope for the best. If you outnumber your Fear-causing foe and survive the initial round of combat, you should be set. Eventually, one of your units will build up the nerve to make a flank or rear attack and then you can grind your enemy to dust.

"Keep your characters with your units..." This tactic is used by Undead armies more than other armies with Fear-causing monsters, but it should still be examined since your major Fear-causing foes are Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. The flaw in this tactic is that if your opponent selects characters who are good in close combat, they will usually get less magic to use against you. Below are some ways to counter this Undead strategy.

• Counter with your own characters. The same problem stated above applies to you. If you choose characters that like to rumble, your Magic Phase will suffer. Also, few armies can field characters that can go more than 1 round with a Tomb King or a Vampire Lord/Count of any kind.
• Avoid/Slow Down. If you have some way to keep your enemy's uber unit from Marching or moving, then you might never have to face it. Cheap, fast troops that you can get within 8" are ideal. If they charge, run away and send another quick unit in to do the same thing next turn.
• Kill those characters from afar! This is easier said than done, especially with the "Look out, Sir!" rule and the regenerative magic of Undead armies. Magic-proficient armies might find something useful in their spell list. The Dark Emissary's Coils of the Serpent (remember the Dark Shadows summer campaign) comes to mind. Remember, if the General or Hierophant dies, the Undead start to crumble.
• Play low-point games. Fewer points, fewer characters. Admittedly, few units are available to put characters in. Now, the decision between magic or melee characters becomes more difficult. The fact that no Lords are allowed in armies with less than 2,000 points could be a huge factor when facing a powerful character of some armies.

"Boost your magic capability..." Again, while this tactic is not unique to Undead armies, it is more commonly used by them. While all armies have magic (even Dwarfs, with the Anvil of Doom), only the Vampire Counts have the ability to make an entirely new unit of Fear-causing creatures and charge them into your flank! In this case, magic is something to be feared itself.

• Counter with Wizards. If you find yourself fighting a magic-heavy opponent, you will probably not need melee characters to counter his. Fight fire with fire, but remember that you get fewer Dispel Dice than Power Dice when using/facing Level 4 and Level 2 Wizards.
• Magic Items can help. Dispel scrolls, items that add to your dispel pool, items that add to your dispel rolls, and spell-destroying items will all help your cause. The Master Rune of Balance (take 1 Power D6 from your opponent and add to your Dispel pool) is a standby of many Dwarf players.
• Kill the Wizards. Again, easier said than done, especially if you have a slow moving army or your opponent is good at controlling his characters. If you have a fast army, all of your efforts should go to killing these linchpins.

"Watch out for enemies that are fearless..." Finally something useful against all Fear-causing units: fearless units!

• The Unbreakables. Many armies have Unbreakable swarms, but beyond that, there are pretty slim pickings. Slayers, Flagellants, Undead, and units under the influence of magic that causes troops to become Unbreakable can all hold up, and in some cases subdue, Fear-causing (and Terror-causing) troops.
• Immune to Psychology. Again, if you find yourself lucky enough to have access to troops that are Frenzied or Immune to Psychology, take them! These troops are very rare. One troop option that everyone but the Bretonnians can field is the Regiment of Renown, Leopold's Leopard Company. This regiment is Immune to Psychology.
• Fear/Terror-causing units. If you cause Fear or Terror, you are not going to run away from something that is just as scary as you. A small unit of monstrous troops can make short work of a weaker unit when used correctly. Also, an elite infantry unit carrying a Fear banner will do very well under normal circumstances.

Things You Should Really Fear

Fear-Causing Fast Cavalry. Inexpensive, weak cavalry units will scare off your war machine crews and slam into your side or rear at the most inopportune times. If you are already engaged in the front when they strike, you will have to take a Panic test and a Fear test. If you decide to stay, you will lose your rank bonus (assuming Unit Strength of 5 or more), and your opponent will get a +1 to combat resolution for hitting you in the side (+2 in the rear). Not a bad effect for 50 points of Dire Wolves. Whittling these units down to two models is a must!

Fear-Causing Hard Cavalry. Cold One riders, Stegadons, Black Knights, and Undead Chariots all fall in this category. They are designed to break your units in the initial round of combat. They will do exactly that if you don't take matters into your own hands. They WILL almost always win the 1st round of combat, so reducing the Unit Strength of these units beforehand is a must. If you fail to do so, even Leadership 10 troops will have no choice but to break and run automatically.

Fear/Terror-causing Flyers. Ugggg... these critters are my bane. Fell Bats are not so bad; I can accept them. Sometimes they will make it past my barrage of hot lead (they are Skirmishers after all) and scare off or destroy all of my artillery. I don't like it when they do so, but at least the Flyers are not going to contribute to the destruction of any of my large units. A unit of 10 Dwarf Thunderers can usually handle a Fell Bat charge. The kind of Flyers I can't stand are characters on Fear-causing monsters or terrifying super Daemons. An Exalted Daemon and six Furies single-handedly sacked my Dwarfen Fortress when John Shaffer and I played our Siege game. The same Exalted Daemon did unspeakable things to the flank of my Dwarf army when I met John again in Pitched Battle. Those guys are despicable.

Understand Your Fears

The key to winning against an enemy that uses Fear-causing troops is knowledge. If you have a good idea of what your opponent will be bringing to the table (perhaps after having played him multiple times and knowing his collection), you have a good chance of setting up a counterstrategy. Sometimes no matter what you do, the army you are playing is just not suited to facing Fear-causing foes. Troops with very low Leadership are not ideal. Sure, you get a lot of them, but never getting to charge and always running away when threatened is not a good trade-off. If you have tried all the tricks and are still regularly getting beat down by your Fear-causing opponent, my only advice is another famous idiom: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."