by Patrick Nevan

Good old fish elves. One of uniquely high fantasy factions in AOS, their presence in the meta seems to ebb and flow like …. something or another. Like a lot of Order Wanker filth-chaser factions, which lack the foundation of devoted fans who stick with them through thick and thin, they’re in much the same boat as DOK, KO, Cities or Seraphon. If the going gets tough, or encounters the slightest difficulty or even if there is an easier option available, 90% their playerbase will move on and you will rarely see the Fish at tournaments.

How IDK players see themselves

Mind you they are one of those factions I have always liked the look of, largely because I hate painting eyes and like Turtles. When the Craichouse Patreons floated the idea of an article on IDK battle tactics I decided to give it a crack. After all, these bait articles draw a lot of clicks and the fish/ocean puns pretty much write themselves if you are floundering for ideas.

As always we will be doing a deep dive into the battletome tactics using our standard set of criteria. Then taking a look at the unique grand strats and GHB battle tactics before assigning an arbitrary number to the whole mess.

How the world sees IDK players

The Criteria

• Turn 1 EZ Mode.  Is there a gimme that you can bank turn 1?  Always important because it gives you an easy flow into the game, lifting the mental load on you and putting scoreboard pressure on your opponent.  It’s the first thing people look for in the GHB tactics and even when you can reliably score one of those early on, having a guaranteed one-two punch for the first two rounds is a huge quality of life boost.
• Grand Strategy.  The GHB Grand Strats are often “win more” and are variations on have stuff left at the end of the game / stop your opponent having stuff left.  In this context, having an absolute gimme in the book can swing tight games without any skill or good fortune required – Tzeentch and Fyreslayers are the benchmark here, offering you a 3-0 headstart in most games for no real reason.
• Zingers.  Are there 2-3 tactics you can reliably hit in almost every game, to complement 2-3 from the GHB and give you 4-5 every game?  In the race to five there’s usually more value in a couple of zingers to get you over the line, even if the book is padded out with some dross and filllers, as opposed to having a whole bunch that are all kind of feasible but also dicey. In practice, you’d generally prefer a couple of superstars over strength in depth.
• Synchronicity.  How does this army work in with the GHB tactics – are they achievable for common builds?  An example here would be Sons of Behemat – their own BTs aren’t amazing, but they had a really nice run with the first GHB in 3^rd Edition that rewarded Monsters.  With Gally Champs – not so much.  So today we’ll be looking at battle tactics in the context of the 2023 GHB.
• Flavour. Getting hit with the “thematic” stick in Battle Tactics is usually a sign that you’ve been stiffed with something random and dumb, like the one in Sons of Behemat where you have to hit a series of dice rolls to fling a model around and achieve Man-skittles.  While it won’t always help you to hit those consistent 10+3 VPs, good design that makes tactics actually interesting deserves some kind of recognition.

The Battle Tactics

All rules Credit Games Workshop via Wahapedia

Assassins of the High Tide: Cha-ching. This one is pure money. Like all the best battle tactics you complete it by doing things you were doing anyway. Kill two of anything with attacks from IDK units during High Tide. High Tide rolls around in turn 3 (or 2 if you are one of those reversing weirdos) so it is tied to a specific turn, but it’s easy enough to cross that turn off your battle tactic planning list – and even easier if you use the Akhelian King’s Lord of Tides ability, which would let you knock it off as early as turn 1.

Anything that requires you to kill something comes with an inherent risk but if you are running IDK and can’t kill two units in High Tide you’ve probably either lost anyway or already tabled your opponent.

Plus it’s thematic as hell. Reading this I can only wonder that they didn’t come up with a battle tactic for all four phases of their goofy tidal structure and a grand strat for hitting all four of them. Ideally they wouldn’t all be as easy mode as this but it’s a pretty obvious idea.

First Turn: Nope

Overall Quality: Excellent. Works with any units, you’re typically destroying more than 2 units in High Tide anyway and if you can’t hit it you’ve probably already won or lost the game.

Predators of the Deep: Battle tactic for the sharks. It requires an unwounded target with 8 wounds or more which is going to be a tough ask for a lot of armies. The good news is that shooting and melee both count; the bad news is that there is good chance anything with 8 or more wounds will be too tough to kill with a single shark. This is really one for people spamming Bloodthirsty Shivers in Fuethan.

First Turn: Actually a half decent chance of pulling this one off if you are spamming sharks and the right target is available. With their 14 inch move and 24 inch shooting they are a solid threat to behemoths. Avoid anything that can receive a finest hour.

Overall Quality: Garbage but situational, you need the unit and the target. If you are spamming sharks it’s ok, but it’s desperation time with one shark on the table.

Revenge of the Namarti: Kill a hero or monster with Namarti. This one is good if you are spamming Thralls, great if you have a whole bunch of Reavers. Shooting-wise weight of dice against support heroes is your best bet, so it has lost a bit with the 12 inch targeting rules changes. The good news is there are no goofy restrictions on declaring a target or targeting something at full health. You can always whittle something down with other units or wait to find some schmuck is staggering around on his last legs so you can wipe them out with a minimum or depleted unit.

First Turn: As always if they take first turn and come close enough go for it. Reavers have a 26 inch threat range so taking down a monster is doable in your first turn if it is parked close enough and you have a “fight in the shade” number of arrows. Probably better for late game.

Overall Quality: Good. No need to declare a target so you can chance your arm against multiple units. It does require you to bring Namarti but you don’t need a legion of the eyeless schmucks if you are willing to risk whittling your target down with other units or waiting for one on its last legs.

Deny Trespassers: Ah the classic “Make sure a thing near your thing isn’t a thing anymore” battle tactic. The IDK have ridiculous killing power so this one probably works better for them than an army like Khorne. Obviously dependent on someone standing near your shipwreck, these are equally obviously best done when only one enemy unit is eligible. Bear in mind that lots of armies have out of phase movement, so people will move into range or redeploy to deny this one. On the bright side you don’t have to kill them if they move out of range.

There is an artefact to give you an extra shipwreck but it goes down end of the movement phase. If you are the type to plan ahead you could drop a ship in your enemy lines and score it next turn.

First Turn: Nah, unless someone is kind enough to park one unit in range of your boat in their first turn. You have much better options available if someone goes for a full alpha.

Overall Quality: Better than half the crap in the GHB. You’ve got a terrain piece, your opponent has units, it can happen.

Trapped in the Undercurrents: Another tide themed unique one. On the face of it this seems like a pretty obvious choice for retreating and charging with whatever in the ebb tide turn. The issue is fish players are unlikely to have three units in combat the turn after High Tide. If the fish go bottom of High Tide they tend to kill their enemy, if the enemy go they are generally unwilling to move into combat to be slaughtered by first-fighting fish. I suppose this one becomes relevant if you go second in turn 4. There are a few other options for retreat and charge so if you’re rocking a few storm Ediolons and the general with the command trait, why not.

First Turn: Nah, unless you reverse the tides and they Alpha you

Overall Quality: Meh, I may well be wrong about this but I don’t think it becomes doable very often.

Isharan Defiance: This one is a very mixed bag. It’s not particularly hard to do if you have the upper hand but the wholly within enemy territory requirement means there are only 3 out of 12 eligible battleplans in this GHB. One of which is the Icefields one which you won’t find in sane Player Packs. I guess you could count that goofy wizard’s tower one as well. The best use for this one (when it crops up) is probably mathing out your turn 4 and 5 points after you have smashed someone in turn 3.

First Turn: Eh if it crops up

Overall Quality: Crap by virtue of how infrequently you can score it.

Grand Strats

Not everyone gets a bonus 3 points like the SBGL or Orruk Warclans. What we are looking for here is something better than the absolute garbage in the GHB.

Akhelian Pursuit: This one is for Eel or Shark spammers. Chances are you will have destroyed your opponent or lost well before turn 5 rolls around. 3 units could be tough depending on your build but better than anything in the GHB.

The Creeping Gloomtide: Winner, winner Seafood dinner. These sort of strats are far from perfect and can be stopped by an opponent taking the second turn in the 5th battleround but this one is available to any type of IDK list. All you need is one of those stupid bits of Aquarium terrain.

Dominon of the Deep Ones: Garbage, actually worse than the GHB strats. Not only do you have to keep your Turtle alive you have to kill every enemy monster including anything your opponent might summon.

Namarti Assault: One for the Namarti spam lists. I don’t love this one at all. You can score it locked in combat which is nice but with all the recursion/summoning around it is way too easy to pop a unit of battleline back on the table turn 5 to deny it. Avoid.

GHB Battle Tactics

Depending on your build you will be wanting to land 3 or 4 of these. Fortunately fish are pretty good at most things.

Intimidate the Invaders: The utility of this one tends to depend on the size of the territory in your battleplan. Eel heavy lists are certainly fast enough to get to wherever they like but you might be holding back for high tide. If it’s a half territory battleplan this is a natural for late game. Otherwise you can step over the line earlier without too many dramas.

Reprisal: IDK are pretty good at targeted killing so if someone bumps your general go for it. Volturnous qualifies through Warmaster as well,.

Endless Expropriation: I don’t think I have ever seen this one scored but I guess it is still relevant. As noted fish are good at targeting specific units so if someone is eligible, go for it.

Magical Dominance: This one is good for single caster armies who can park some goof out of unbind range turn one and have at it, so it suits IDK armies. The Wizard Eidolon rocks a natural reroll as well which makes this one pretty safe if you bring one. It can be worth saving for late game or a Hail Mary.

Magical Mayhem: Situational; you really want to wait to find a wounded opponent and have a couple of options to finish it off and the IDK don’t have them. You can always chance your arm on a Blizzard but there’s better ways to score your points.

Bait and Trap: A good one for the IDK who do a lot of retreating, charging and shooting anyway. You can’t count a unit for retreating and charging in the same turn but who cares? You were going to retreat and charge that Eidolon and Akhelian King anyway, just charge two more units in.

Led into the Maelstrom: Another one for the Eel spammers who are blessed with stupidly fast heroes and battleline. Your biggest problem with this one will be making sure you don’t wipe out all the units you charge so be sure to have something to drag into combat.

Surround and Destroy: Another one that is fairly battleplan dependent. You have lots of fast options available to score this easily but you might not want them exposed or out of position. IDK don’t have a Fell Bat/Fury type of disposable unit to knock this one out.

The Verdict

• Turn 1 EZ Mode.  Not too shabby. Nothing from your book but throw in a Sea Eidolon and you are in good shape for Magical Dominance. Intimidate the Invaders and Surround and Destroy are both pretty achievable with the right units in your list. A bit of pre-planning should see you right here.
• Grand Strategy.  Yup. The Creeping Gloomtide is available to any IDK build. Sure it isn’t on the “Return 3 Summonable units” level of ease but it’s a lot better than the crap in the GHB. Akhelian Pursuit is arguably better for the eel spammers but one solid option is what we are looking for here.
• Zingers.  There are no book tactics on the level of standing next to a piece of terrain and trying not to look too embarrassed about it. That said Assassins of the High Tide is something you should be able to pull off against anything but Mega Gargants. That’s really about it for book tactics before you get into situational teritory.
• Synchronicity.  It’s there. Eel heavy lists will find it much easier to score battle tactics by virtue of being fast and lethal. Who knew? But if you run Namarti or Sharks you get your own half decent battle tactic to take a crack at. I can’t help but feel Turtles should have got a battle tactic instead of an awful grand strat.
• Flavour.  Eh, they all seem kind of nautically themed. Assassins of the High Tide is your best tactic and fits in with the brand. What’s missing is more of a mystery. Nothing for Eidolons? I still reckon the battle tactic for each of the tides is an opportunity gone begging.

Overall Score: 3 and a Half out of 5

I started this article willing to let my wholly-justified prejudices against Fish Elves cloud my judgement but couldn’t avoid the conclusion that their book tactics were kind of crap. Assassins of the Deep is the real winner in that if you can’t score it you have either lost the game or won it before High Tide rolls around.

Still, you are really looking for two solid options from your book in this GHB and they don’t have them without getting really situational for builds or battleplans. You are left hoping an appropriately destroyable unit stands next to your shipwreck.

The fish have solid scoring options for GHB battle tactics but they favor Eels and Eidolons over more varied lists. The achievable grand strat for any build is a blessing and saves any amount of mental anguish from trying to pick from amongst the first elimination round ‘reality’ show rejects of the GHB, and that is worth quite a bit.

Thanks to our Patron Xander Bennett for his feedback and contributions to this article, specifically on the Akhelian King and Akhelian Pursuit, as well as to Taco and Bragg for requesting it. 

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