The Pitfalls of Frenzy

By Tom K, aka subversive

When I first read the rules for frenzy, I had to do a double take. I get an additional attack on each model, and all I have to do is charge when I'm in range? Being naive in the ways of WHFB, I thought "well, that's what they're gonna be doing anyway, right?" I casually breezed over the parts about having to pursue or overrun as afterthoughts. All I had to do was screen my troops from being able to see charge targets until I was ready to pounce. A couple of 30 point units of chaos hounds would do nicely in that regard, I was set. After playing a bunch of games with those most insane of beserkers, the hordes of Khorne, I've come to see frenzy for the double edged sword that it truly is.

My force for our recent round robin consisted of:
Chaos lord on steed with hellfire sword (khorne)
Exalted champion on steed with rending sword (khorne)
1 unit of chosen knights (khorne)
1 unit of knights (khorne)
1 unit of chosen warriors (khorne)
2 units of warriors (khorne)
6 units of chaos hounds

Playing low to mid level players, I was impressed with the results. My warriors and knights pretty much wiped out anything they hit. I was able to screen and redirect most threats away from me using the hounds, and position the knights and warriors to support one another.

Then I faced a fast cav heavy force of orcs and goblins played by a general who knew how to use them. With 6 units of wolf riders running around the board, I had pretty much no chance to position my troops where I wanted them. I ended up outflanked and mashed by 2 giants.

Following that, I played a game against an empire force heavy on knights. The empire general set up a refused flank with his artillery and foot troops holding the flank and his knights coming up the center, with one lonely cannon on the far end to set up an ugly crossfire. Not really knowing empire that well, I took the bait and set up to plow into the infnatry and cannon, leaving three units of hounds to redirect his knights until I was ready to deal with them. The final bit was a unit of scouts that he deployed in the woods separating my knights from his flank.

Overconfidence was my failing in this game on all fronts. My first mistake was thinking that the hounds would hold up the knights long enough to make a difference. They didn't. I am still just learning the principles of redirecting, so what was supposed to be a major speedbump turned out to be more like a small pebble in the road.

My second mistake was thinking that his infantry was something that I would need to deal with. It wasn't. For the 200 or so points it was worth, i could have just left it alone for the whole game and it wouldn't have mattered.

My third mistake was thinking that my heavily armored knights had nothing to worry about from his scouts. They did. When he charged my knights I assumed it was meant to slow me down a bit if they survived. I had forgotten the bit in frenzy that says you MUST overrun. My big unit of chosen knights of Khorne overran right off the table. They then came back on the table lined up nicely for a cannonball in the flank.

What I learned:

Frenzied knights are like a nuclear warhead. They are utterly devastating, but if you don't use them right, you blow yourself up too. You need to do more than just screen your troops from the front, you also need to protect them from flyers, scouts and anything else that might pop up from the back or flanks.

Frenzied troops are not forgiving when you make a mistake. If they fail, the fail big.

Use fast, light troops to take out siege engines. Use your Knights and Warriors for what they're good at: killing big stuff.

Cannons in the flank kill knights like Raid kills roaches.

I've since retooled my list considerably. It still centers around the hammers of knights, and still features a ton of hounds. But I've replaced the warriors with another unit of knights, 4 units of marauder horse and a unit of Furies. The fast cavalry and flyers will be ideal for march blocking and taking out pesky cannons, as well as flanking, redirecting and protecting my knights from scouts and flyers. The hounds continue to be great screens, flankers and redirectors, and the addition of another unit of knights will make it easier to deal with losing one unit in the unfortunate (but all too likely) event that happens. The whole army becomes a fast delivery monster. I'll add more as I get a few games under my belt with this list.