Size and type and tactics of skirmishers (or all troops for that matter) vary on the type of player you are and what you want to accomplish. That is something that makes wargaming (and especially for me WAB) so much fun.
Skirmishers and light troops can fill different roles depending on what you want your army to do. The standard roles for skirmishers in a Celt army are human shields and flank protection.
Human shields – Since your guys are cheap but basically naked except for a big plank they call a shield…they are susceptible to missile fire. Put a thin line of youths with whatever they want to call a weapon (javelins/slings/rocks/insults) and you have cheap protection. If you have a 13 person skirmisher unit you'll require something like an average of 48 shots at long range to get the required kills for a panic check on 1 unit of wimpy javelin chuckers. Basically…they're cheaper and harder to kill at range than your rank and file. You don't want too many as they can get in the way…but they are darn useful.
Flank protection – As your solid line of hairy barbarians drives forward to crush all before it…you don't want parts being hung up because there is something annoying on the flank. You'll need actual units guarding your flanks for real opponents (like cavalry or solid light infantry)…but luckily at 5-6 points a model you can afford to peel off a couple units for that duty. The skirmishers however deal with annoyances. Reasonably big sized units of slingers or javelins can chase off small light cav (by shooting holes in them) or other missile armed skirmishers. Or, just distract them/slow them down as the main blocks to the bulk of the work. This allows the main line to keep rumbling forward and getting you victory. In the end your skirmishers are either just as cheap (or usually cheaper) than whatever they're facing. Kills are a bonus and just tying the units on the flanks up is a win.
Now there are other ultra aggressive ways to use lights and skirmishers as well…but we can talk about that later as they have their own risks. Also...I haven't had a chance to play them in WAB 2.0 but Celt Chariots seem pretty solid. Would like to build an army around them once I get over the shock of painting 200+ of the half naked warriors.
-Brinton
--- In WABlist@yahoogroups.com, "igwarg@..." <igwarg@...> wrote:
>
> 12 men units of skirmishers sounds good. You can always reduce the number of skirmishers by just adding them to the ranks of your warbands. 1 skirmish unit for every warband unit is what I like. It will work against missile heavy enemy.
>
> Slingers pissing people off remark by Jeff is his personal opinion. Not everyone always agrees with him or with me, for that matter. A lot of personal opinions about warhammer games are based on 1 game only. WAB is a flexible system where army lists and tactics always change with opponents. Unlike other systems where army lists are fixed, there is no one trick to win a game or to compose your list.
>
> Just like others mentioned your strength are your warbands with characters leading them. Check the main rules for characters. Maximize your character allowance and give each shock unit at least one character to lead them. Skirmishers are to soak up missiles and slow down the enemy. Celtic cavalry is better than average for WAB and you should have at least one unit of heavy and one unit of light. I never played with barbarian chariots, so can't give you advise on those. Fanatics are very useful for pinning the enemy and helping your cavalry outflank him.
>
>
> Igor
> Sent via Interstellar Space Vox
>
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> From: "coabyray" <coab@...>
> To: WABlist@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [WABlist] Re: Building Celt Warbands
> Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:09:18 -0000
>
> <!--CTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dt--><span style="display: none;"> </span> <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStartT|**|-~--><div id="ygrp-mlmsg" style="position: relative;"><div id="ygrp-msg" style="z-index: 1;"><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEndT|**|-~--><div id="ygrp-text"><p>Morning,<br><br>Sorry for the double post but thanks for the tips.<br>Sounds like I can make the Big Warbands as big as I <br>want or until I get bored building them.<br>Going by what was said I think I'll go with 12<br>man skirmishing units, does that sound about right?<br>I'm wondering how many units of skirmishers to<br>take, is there a ratio between the big warbands and <br>the skirmishers? Or would the setup be, a unit of<br>skirmishers on either flank with one in the middel?<br>I'm curious what you said about the slingers, why<br>would it piss people off if I used them?<br>I tried looking at the army list in the file section<br>but didnt have any luck, I'm pretty sure I've been a <br>member for a while but the files wouldn't open.<br>Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look <br>for tips on playing WAB, like army list and tactics?<br><br>Thanks again,<br>Coaby Ray<br><br></p></div><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~--><div style="height: 0px; color: #fff;"></div><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~--><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~--><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~--><!-- end group email --></html>
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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