How To properly Tarpit in Warmachine.

Tar-pitting is one of the biggest fundamental tactics in any war game. Here we will be looking at proper tar-pitting specifically in Warmahordes. The reason why is because Warmahordes require specific placement of the individual models compared to Warhammer 40,000 where that's more of a unit based placement, but the tactic is sound in both games.

The Idea of a tar-pit is to slow your opponent's momentum in the game. Tar-pits achieve this by forcing your opponent to engage the unit and only deal out the minimum amount of casualty's possible. Forcing your opponent to engage a tar-pit unit will take the enemy unit's out of combat from more important things or prevent the unit from controlling an objective.

 Here we have a basic deployment of Satyxis Raiders that have positioned themselves into a loose tar-pit formation. Ideally with a Unit like the Satyxis Raiders or any unit with reach you want to keep each model barley within 2" of each other staggered so your opponents models will not be able to charge the one in back. The measurements aren't precise but you get the idea.

In this image you can see a standard unit who just charged the Raiders. As you can see the Raiders where positioned in such a way that the unit would have to engage the models in the front row. If they tried to charge the models in the second row they would be taking two free strikes severely weakening the charging unit. Effectively I was able to force my opponent to charge ten models and only take five casualties.

Alternatively my opponent could also only dedicate one model to one model only using five models to kill off five of my models. Which is one of the best ways to counter a tar-pit. The down side would be that the other models would only get one chance of killing that one model so on a counter thought sending the entire unit into melee would grant a better chance of killing those models. This would be situational, depending on what unit you are using and what unit you are charging.

As for tar-pitting in Warhammer 40,000 it's a lot simpler than Warmahordes since you don't need to worry a whole lot about model position.

So if you are looking for a way to improve your infantry in Warmahordes I highly would practice this sort of unit placement. When you're  bored grab your models and practice placing them apart so that enemies can't charge through them. If they have reach then you want the models to be roughly 2" apart while blocking any charge lanes. If they don't have reach then you have .5" to work with or keep a good distance between the first and second row of the unit so the second row will be out of melee of your opponents unit. I would also note any special abilities units have like shield wall since that can also affect placement for tar-pitting units.

Good Luck!