Khitan Liao  907AD-1125AD;  Book 3, List 55, pg 53

Cold.  Aggression 2

Terrain = WW Rv, H(G), H(S), RGo, BUA

Interesting and colorful army that is really fun to play, with several tricks to it.  Relatively easy to control due to the regular generals.  It isn't a slam-dunk killer army, but one that can be tiger if played well.  It is NOT forgiving in mismatches.  You can build it as a completely mounted army (think Mongols with some KnF), or a mostly foot army (it ain't reall good foot).  But the best way is to treat this as a combined arms army, with a strike force of mounted and a foot command to dominate a piece of terrain or protect a flank. 

In placing terrain, you'll want to get as much open ground as you can.  While you can get some foot to work the terrain, it's not a lot and it's not good.  If you use the inferrior blade and bow, try to get gentle hills in your zone where you can put them on the defensive, i.e. uphill for the +1.  Or the Bw could work in rough.  I'd advise not trying to attack with the inferior troops, but to use the to secure some defensable terrain.  The BdF can be used to attack, particualrly a block of Bw, but be careful.  They're brittle against other Bd, Sp, or Pk.

You're able to get up to 10 horde inferior (HdI).  Cheap and they don't cost against the army break points when they die.  However, they still fight at a 2 and have been known to break up line and even kill something now and again.  Of course, anything that beats them on the die roll kills the stand (but no 'zone of death' behind!).  One great way to use them is to have the HdI precede the KnF or Cv (historically correct - mounted driving the slaves into the enemy to absorb casualties and break the enemy up), then follow up into the gaps with the mounted - with luck some of the Hd will survive and help provide some cheap overlaps allowing you to extend your line.  Don't forget to leave some reserve (LhF are good), because the Hd WILL quickly die, leaving holes in your line.

Another trick is to build the army for a massive flank march with the (up to) 30 Chinese HdO available.  Unlikely that any counter flank attack will outnumber 30 stands.  Using a LhF sub-general that's only 54 points on a flank march, leaving a pretty good amount of fight on the field, even if the flank march doesn't come on.  If you bring the HdO, you're required to bring the rest of the Chinese (Reg CvI, BdI/F, and BwI/O) but don't have to keep them in the same command.

A nice thing about building a Khitan Liao army

 Create your own free wiki!Support CommunityPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS