Catapult Tactics & weaknesses

fritskuhntm · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:18 am

Severed Heads or Cursed Ammunition? Not an everyday decision, but such important Life Questions can't be put off any longer with my Mordor Catapult ordered.

Severed Heads: what has the better odds of 'killing' : A) making the victim pass a courage test at C3 (or C4 for Dwarfs) OR
B) an attack that wounds on a 4+ roll (5+ for Dwarfs with shields)

Cursed Ammunition: Dead of Dunharrow from the air: wounds all Courage 3 humans & Courage 4 dwarfs on roll of 3+.

I am leaning heavily toward the Numenorian Catapult with Cursed Ammunition, despite higher cost, no Troll option and more expensive extra crew, etc.

Any opinions from experience?

Speaking of extra crew: they seem the best 'defense' against the inevitable volley fire---which appears to be the biggest weakness of a catapult...yes? What am I missing? Why are they so rare?

cereal_theif · **Posted:** Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:24 pm

I use cursed ammo because ...
1) though only firing once it generally has a better chance of killing vs elves, dwarfs and men.
2) black numenorian men become 8pts rather than 9pts for a standard black num
3) even minor heroes have to be careful, courage 4 or 5 is not good vs S10 or 6.

I used one at doubles a couple of years ago, great laugh, there was one this year too.

Rare because for that many pts you can get several heroes who would be more CONSISTENT (aka boring). Rare also because quite simple tactics can give a near 67% negation of the catapults effectiveness.

Normally I go for 1 BN captain, and 9 crew. ONLY the captain and 3 crew stick around as D6 means they don't die that often.

fritskuhntm · **Posted:** Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:08 am

Great. What are those simple tactics that negate 67% of the time?

When you say "ONLY the captain and 3 crew stick around"--do you mean that you keep the other six reserve crew out of volley target area range... Or that you take advantage of the 1 point discount to have six more BN on the field, because the three first string aren't going to die often anyway?

How vital is that BN captain to the Catapult's effectiveness? Lotta points to swallow. Really worth it to use 2 might points? Tell me some stories, if you got'em. Thanks

cereal_theif · **Posted:** Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:38 pm

Take advantage of the 1pt discount and run around kill goodies and being terrifying... you know the normal day job of a black numenorian.

The thing is if you roll a 5 to scatter you will rue the day you didn't take a captain.
I think it depends on the importance of the catapult. As I normally field a captain of some sort it doesnt bother me. The catapult captain can just walk away from it if his might isn't going to be crucial.

typhoon2 · **Posted:** Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:52 am

Forget ye not the virtues of having a Nazgul or some similar negative modifier on Courage within range of the target of Cursed Ammunition (but obviously not in range of Scatter!).

On the other hand, the primary target of Cursed Ammunition is any Hornblower in range!

SuicidalMarsbar · **Joined:** Sun Apr 24, 2011 1:14 am **Posts:** 1712

Best tactic i know of is a black numenorian catapult with severed heads+Golden king.

Beowulf03809 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:53 pm

If I remember right the Troll loader w/ the Mordor catapult was a bit cheaper (points) as well and had the same profile as the Mordor Troll. One of our local players used it a few times where he’d keep the Troll w/ the catapult for a couple turns of increased shooting and then scamper it off to battle.

fritskuhntm · **Posted:** Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:54 am

Nice. What are the simple tactics that can negate a catapult's effectiveness... Killing off crew, OK. What else? Enemy contact can destroy it, yes. I suppose my enemy would scatter his troops...but that could go a far way to weaken his assault. What else?

Beowulf03809 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:14 pm

The risk of scatter is really a negative as well. Get in close to your enemy fast and they are far less likely to risk dropping a rock on you in case it misses.

theavenger001 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:45 pm

Also, if you scatter a few guys behind your main line, but within the 14cm scatter range, unless he rolls a perfect six on the scatter he will hit and kill only a single model. I find this works the best if they don't have an engineer captain, otherwise I don't risk it and end up scattering my whole army. Then you just run forward as fast as possible, and get them. Also, remember what the scenario is, you might be able to just ignore the catapult, depending on the scenario.

Catapult Tactics & weaknesses

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