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STRATEGY
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INTERMEDIATE STRATEGY: JUNK UNITS
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I think that one of the most overlooked aspects of strategy is using the 
"junk" units. Most beginners don't think much about those slingers or
wolf riders that most veteran players will send at them, but there is 
a huge advantage to be gained if you use these units correctly, and
they can affect the outcome of a battle. 

What do I consider junk units? Any level 0 units that are cheap(4-16 gold),
or convert wounds to morale loss, are good junk units. Cheap units are good
junk units because you can purchase tons of them with minimal gold. 
The Russians often used the strategy of just throwing raw recruits at the 
enemy en masse in World War I and II, eventually wearing them down, and the 
concept applies well to Fantasy General too. Skirmishers and light cav, 
which can convert wounds to morale loss, are useful junk units because they 
absorb many wounds and are much more difficult to kill, usually absorbing
at least three attacks before they die, even from the toughest heavy infantry.
The best junk units for the evil side are goblins(they are cheap), wolf riders
(they are fast and convert wounds to morale loss), and flying monkeys(they are 
the cheapest air unit). The best junk units for the good side are slingers(cheap), 
light cav(they are fast and convert wounds to morale loss), and wyverns
(cheapest air unit for the good side). 

Now that you know what the junk units are, let's examine their usage.

The most important use of junk units is as screens for your better units.
Here's a little quiz: when is a junk unit as good as a shadow warrior?
Answer: When it shields a mortally wounded shadow warrior from attack.
After you attack, a very effective strategy is to stick junk units in front
of your attacking units and between them and the enemy in order to shield
your attacking units from counterattack. To get to your units, the other 
player will have to waste the attacks of his strong units to kill your junk
units, or devise a movement plan to get around them. And every attack wasted 
killing your junk units saves you wounds and kills to your good units, leaving 
you with a better counterattack next turn. And your opponent gets nothing from 
killing junk units, because they can be replaced easily,
while the units he uses to kill them will be open to your counterattack
and some of them will be killed. In effect, a poor opponent will sacrifice
a shadow warrior or other heavy unit killing some wolf riders, giving you
the advantage. To demonstrate the concept, let's say your units just killed
some enemy units in an attack but are now just within range of five enemy 
shadow warriors. Five shadow warrior attacks will likely kill 1-3 of your 
strong units. So you move 2 wolf riders between your units and the 5 shadow 
warriors for protection. Consider how much damage the enemy can do now... 
before those enemy shadow warriors can do anything to your strong units, 
they must dispatch the 2 wolf riders. It will take 2 attacks
on each wolf either to kill it or make it retreat out of the way, leaving
only one shadow warrior left to do damage to your valuable units, even
though 5 were within range. Note how the simple use of 2 junk units just
reduced your damage in the enemy counterattack by at least 50%!
Minimizing counterattack damage is one of the most important aspects 
of an overall attack strategy, and junk units are the easiest way to 
accomplish this. 

The other common use of junk units is to surround the enemy to get the attack
bonus or force a surrender. Most of you know about the +4 bonus an attackin
unit gets if two or more other friendly units are next to the enemy unit you are 
attacking. You can freely get this +4 bonus by putting two junk units
next to the enemy and then using your stronger units to attack. In fact, the first
thing you should do when facing a strong unit is try to surround it. 
Not only do you get the +4 bonus, but if you completely surround it you
can get a surrender(unless it is a shadow warrior, don't expect them to ever
surrender). When you decide you want to take out an enemy unit, you should first look
to see if you can completely surround it. If you can, try to use junk units 
for this job, since they are expendable and you won't waste the attack of 
a good unit to surround one enemy unit. Remember, your goal when executing a
surrender manuever is to waste only one attack in killing the enemy.
And junk units such as wolf riders are valuable because their excellent movement, 
especially over rivers, usually allows you to block off those spaces behind the 
enemy that are hard to get to. And once you surround the enemy with junk units 
from behind and use a strong unit to kill it from the front, that strong unit will be
well-protected from a counterattack since it will have tons of junk units in front of 
it. So junk units serve a double purpose in this situation. Even if you determine you 
cannot surround a unit completely, you can still get an advantage by placing one or 
two junk units next to it and getting the +4 bonus. With two strong units and the 
bonus, you can usually kill an enemy unit outright. 

Junk units can also be used to pin down retreating enemy units or block an 
enemy advance. Since most junk units have a greater range than your regular
strong units, they can catch those retreating units moving behind enemy lines.
And since junk units are expendable, you have no fear sending them behind enemy
lines, all the better if the enemy concentrates on them. Once your junk units pin down
a retreating unit from both sides and limit its movement to one hex, they
can wait for the reinforcements to arrive and finish off the unit. Remember,
even raise dead units can't do their spell unless they have no enemies around them!
In fact this tactic is the best use of flyer junk units. Imagine that strong 
5 shield harpy buzzing around behind your lines... your anti-air cav just happens 
to be out of range. No problem, just send two junk flyers and surround the harpy. 
The harpy will do some major damage to one of them next turn but won't be able to 
move more than one hex. If, by that time, your anti-air cav can arrive on the scene, 
the strategy has worked! Of course, if the enemy has other air units, they can free 
the harpy, but then those units will be under fire from the anti-air cavalry...! 
There are few ways to extricate yourself gracefully from that little trap, which is what
makes it so effective. Just make sure your junk flyers are full strength so the enemy 
air unit needs at least two turns to escape. 

Back to the ground units... if you are running interference against an enemy
force attempting to take a ground objective, or you are just trying to slow
them down so you can execute a stealth attack from the back, you need those junk units,
preferably wolf riders or light cav(goblins are ok). Simply send those junk
units en masse to the front lines, and make the enemy army weed through them.
Killing wolf riders takes a lot of units, and even goblins take two hits to kill,
so the enemy advanace will slow to a crawl if you keep sending the junk at them 
(if you don't think this works, just ask Serf; he'll tell you the effectiveness 
of this strategy first-hand as he is probably having flashbacks to our doubles 
game when reading this!). Since junk is inexpensive, replacing the killed junk and 
sending more of them the opponent's way is easy to do; depending on how much gold 
you have and how much ground you have to defend, you will need to decide between 
4/5 gold goblins or 13 gold wolf riders if you are playing the evil side. Wold riders 
will empty your pockets quicker but are more effective. If you are playing the good 
side, buy nothing but 4 gold slingers, since they are cheap and effective.

Which brings me to another point... a slew of junk can kill several very strong
units. In fact, a peasant CAN kill a full exp elephantmen. I have probably mentioned
this story to most of you already, but for those who are new to the ladder, I think it 
is a good case study. A while ago, I had 100 reinforcement gold but was soundly beaten 
in the battle, with the enemy having 4 elephantmen and some other stuff left.
In a last ditch effort, I bought up tons of slingers and a few peasants. Using the 
slingers to surround the elephantmen, I gained an advantage against them.
Since they were totally surrounded they could not move anywhere, and since they could
not kill those slingers in one shot, they could not kill my units. When they did damage
to a slinger, I just replaced it with another one and rested the damaged one. Since
all four were surrounded in a net of slingers and not next to each other, they could not 
even help each other. So I sat there with 7 or 8 skirmisher attack a turn against 
the elephantmen... while most did no damage, some did 1 damage, and once I broke an 
elephantman. Once that happened, it was easy. One attack from a peasant killed it. 
Why? Because a broken unit will always retreat, no matter what, if attacked by a melee 
unit such as a light inf peasant. Never mind it did not lose any energy, it retreated
and surrendered anyway. Even if they don't get broken, eventually they will be whittled
down to nothing. Now of course the effectiveness of this strategy depends on
how isolated and cut off the enemy units are, and how much gold and unit slots you 
have. But it can be an effective strategy. Now I'm not advocating going
out and buying up slingers like mad if you are losing... they are many times
it will not work; BUT if the enemy has few units left, and little money, it
might be worth a try. 

A final use of junk units is as decoys and distractions. Most people
cannot resist killing those junk units roaming too far from the herd,
even if they have to go a little out of the way. And what do you kill junk
units with? Strong units, of course, to make it quicker. But every enemy strong unit
pulled away from the main force gives you an advantage when you attack. 
In fact, chasing junk units or scouts is usually a desirable strategy, so 
that you can even catch veteran players expending resources from their main forces
chasing the junk(I know I have been guilty of this several times, leading to loses). 
To make the junk units more tempting, leave them within one or two moves of the enemy
unit you wish to distract, making it a minor detour as opposed to a long treck 
to kill the junk unit. A subtle yet effective strategy is to place several junk units
close to the enemy right flank or left flank, lure a few units that way, and then
attack the weakened other flank next turn. Another way to make junk units decoys more
tempting is to make a run for the enemy flanks. Even if they can do only minor damage,
nobody wants to see scouts behind their lines or headed there, so this sort
of ploy will almost always get a quick response in terms of enemy units send that 
way to dispatch the intruding junk units. But the best laid traps are those 
involving junk and invisible units. Say an unsuspecting enemy decides to use
a couple of decent units to take out that lonely wolf rider sitting by the river...
when the enemy units arrive at the scene, you unfurl several cloaked shadow warriors and
skirmishers at them, killing the units before the enemy has a chance to send more. The 
opponent won't know what hit him, and you have just taken out two units with no 
counterattack! Or place a lone skirmisher in front of a junk unit so that when the opponent 
dispatches units to kill it, he discovers the skirmisher. Now most people, upon seeing 
skirmishers, will attempt to kill them before they disappear again, so likely the enemy 
will dispatch even more units to the scene upon finding a skirmisher. This combination 
serves as an even bigger decoy. But remember, when using decoys you will have a window
of one or two turns to attack the weakened main force, adn you must take that opportunity
to attack, or else the decoy died in vain, and the strategy is uselss.

One thing I should mention is the full exp junk units, especially full exp slingers,
goblins and peasants. These are souped-up units that cost minimal gold(13-16)
and you should always buy souped-up junk units at purchase time when buying
the 4-5 gold variety junk units. For wolf riders and light cav it depends on how
much gold you have to spend. For reinforcements you can only buy the non-experienced
junk units, which is why you should take advantage of the opportunity to buy
stronger junk at setup. Souped-up junk units do all the same things regular junk units
do, they are just tougher to kill and more of a nuisance to the enemy, so don't toss
them away as quickly. I prefer to use them as screens as opposed to sacrificing
them in surrounding an enemy, but if you have no other junk units, do not hesitate
to use the experienced ones for whatever you need. Experienced junk units are even 
better decoys because opponents view them as more of a threat than the regular stuff.
They can actually do some minor damage to low level heavy inf with the +4 bonus.

The point of all this is that junk units can be very effective in disrupting, slowing, 
and harassing the enemy, and being a decoy. In fact, you might call them all-purpose 
units. Not bad for a 4-16 gold investment, right? But don't get carried away and start 
purchasing tons of junk at setup. Remember, junk units are only as effective as the 
heavy units behind them, and they are most effective if you have a coordinated plan
of attack. So I will conclude by mentioning when NOT to buy junk units.
If you have the money to fill your army with good heavy units, then do not
buy junk units because the heavy units are of course better, and it's better
to have a heavy unit on the front lines than a junk unit, even if the heavy unit
takes the damage and screens other units(after all, at least the heavy unit can 
attack back). The purpose of junk units is to save money while still getting
decent units, and they accomplish that. But they are of course not a substitute 
for heavy units if you can afford them. Do not buy junk units if the army limit 
is small, say 15. Usually with such a small limit it is more important to fill 
up with heavy units, and you usually have the money to do so. Junk units are most
effective in groups, and 15 units leaves you little room for that. And finally, 
do not buy too much junk for max unit grade 5. Although still effective, the junk 
units are much easier to kill for the mug 5 units and a little less effective. If 
you have lots of army slots to fill or have a specific purpose for them, yes, I 
would still buy the junk units for mug 5, but don't expect them to be as effective 
at higher grades. The opposite is true for lower grades.

NEXT ISSUE: Now that I've told you how to use the junk units, you might wonder 
how to stop that annoying opponent(usually me) who keeps using them against you. 
I will cover that in the next issue. 

Suggestions, thoughts, and feedback on my strategy articles is always welcome!

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A special thanks to everyone who great ideas have increased participation
and improved the ladder in the past year, including Maxwell and all the members
of the Executive Committee(Ventura, Crow, Will Caraway and Silkfoot). I could 
not have done it without you!

Regards,

BloodLord the Lich
FG Laddermaster
E-mail: "nvayn@chesco.com"
ICQ 8062414