Flanking with Gryph hounds

[Mayple]

A while back, I was proposing a 'freezing' maneuver where if one would somehow manage to get two units on opposite sides just inside 3' (but as far away as possible within those boundaries. IE; 2,9') - to accomplish a freeze/stall where the enemy unit would be unable to pile in properly, if at all, and would be forced to retreat/do nothing at all. 

Now, the problem that arose was that there's really no way of accomplishing this kind of placement without either removing casualties with this in mind once the enemy attacks (forcing it to be a defensive move, rather than an offensive)  - or inflicting controlled casualties upon your own units by blasting them with spells. Neither are optimal, and become highly situational at best.

Enter Gryph hounds!
Using their darting attacks, you enable yourself the free movement required to position yourself as far away as you can while still being within 3' - thus, you can effectively stall out a high-value elite unit with two low-value gryph hounds. 

"But Mayple, why would I waste my points on Gryph hounds just to do that? Also, what if the gryph hounds die before they can make their attacks?" 
- Hopefully you have some other, primary function for your Gryph hounds, and did not pick them solely for this maneuver. I am merely pointing out that the gryph hounds are one of the few units in the game that are capable of this, and I would place far more value in them doing just that, as opposed to sending them into combat to inflict actual casualties. There is always the risk of the enemy either sensing what you're up to, or just feeling bloodthirsty, and whacking the gryph hounds the moment they approach the enemy unit, but that's more of a strategic concern, which I trust some of you will sort out on your own. 

tl;dr: If you have ever thought "Gosh darn, I've got these gryph hounds, but I don't know what to do with them once all the fighting starts." - here's your answer. 

Or is it!? You tell me. I'm sure someone thinks otherwise

[rokapoke]

Why bother putting them within 3"? Your opponent would still have to pile in toward a Gryph-Hound if it was the closest enemy model, even if it's outside the 3" "attackable" range. Plus, keeping them out of combat keeps PETA off your back...

[Mayple]

13 minutes ago, rokapoke said:

Why bother putting them within 3"? Your opponent would still have to pile in toward a Gryph-Hound if it was the closest enemy model, even if it's outside the 3" "attackable" range. Plus, keeping them out of combat keeps PETA off your back...

Hence why there's one gryph hound on either side of the unit. 

[HadrielCaine]

I think that works if you charge a character into the middle of the line and hounds to the flanks.

e.g. Stag Lord goes into middle. only the central five from ten would be able to pile to him and maybe not even get within 1" range attacks. leaving only a few attacking each hound. Could be viable.

[stato]

I get the theory, but its only going to work if your opponent has strung out their elite and valuable unit to maximum 1" separation and no-where near any other units that could end up within 3" of one of the gryph hounds. It could work, it'll be very rare that it does, and i think using the 2 hounds as a buffer to force the elite unit to go around them would more often be a useful purpose for them.  Of course this all assumes the opponent doesnt have any ranged abilities to just pick off the hounds as they see fit.

[Mayple]

4 minutes ago, stato said:

I get the theory, but its only going to work if your opponent has strung out their elite and valuable unit to maximum 1" separation and no-where near any other units that could end up within 3" of one of the gryph hounds. It could work, it'll be very rare that it does, and i think using the 2 hounds as a buffer to force the elite unit to go around them would more often be a useful purpose for them.  Of course this all assumes the opponent doesnt have any ranged abilities to just pick off the hounds as they see fit.

Does it actually require them to be at 1' from eachother beforehand? This is one of the things I wanted to playtest, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If it's the case, then the maneuver becomes more situational than it already is.

 

My general thought on it is that it's one of several tricks up one's sleeve, and one wouldn't neccesarily use it often, but when it works, it works great. 

[stato]

2 hours ago, Mayple said:

Does it actually require them to be at 1' from eachother beforehand? This is one of the things I wanted to playtest, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If it's the case, then the maneuver becomes more situational than it already is.

 

My general thought on it is that it's one of several tricks up one's sleeve, and one wouldn't neccesarily use it often, but when it works, it works great. 

For pile in the restrictions are;

Upto 3" movement (unless some special rule allows otherwise)

Any model you move must end move closer to the enemy model they were nearest before they moved

Unit coherency must be maintained, so you cannot move a model if it ends up out of coherency.

Additionally, if a unit is out of coherency (due to removing casualties) no movement can be made unless it returns the unit to coherency, so often that means no pile-in

 

So for a double flanking move, if the enemy is a blob, they have a lot of mobility before they string out. A strung out unit can often retain efficiency by removing killed models from the centre of the line (breaking coherency, this is allowed), but obviously this prevents them from piling in. This is where you could potentially 'pin' an enemy.  Of course with any pin manoeuvre like this the enemy could always try to withdraw, losing a turn with that unit but attacking you back the next turn. A trick there is to restrict their movement by having other units in the way as the enemy must stay 3" away. Still, it seems like more of a opportune tactic than something you could aim for.

Other cases that come to mind are buffed units, often the owning player needs to keep them near characters so they are often strung out, so easier to 'pin' by attacking one end. 

Im still new to AoS but from what ive seen its a pretty tactical game and having little tricks up your sleeve like this for pile-in and other situations can be the key to winning, just as much as the power of your units (which seems to get so much focus).