8th Ed. What's the best way to combat a Flyer-heavy army?

[Jabroniville]

My frequent opponent plays High Elves, and tends to take fairly Flyer-heavy lists featuring the Dragon Mage/Sun Dragon & Flame Phoenix, as well as a Skycutter Chariot in our last game- I've been having some trouble combatting the way he dominates the Movement Phase.

In our most recent game, I was able to pull off a minor victory (see it in the Battle Reports board), but even so I lost the Temple Guard, Slann & Oldblood to a combo charge featuring the Phoenix Guard, Phoenix (from behind) and Skycutter (hallway across the battleline!) after a few turns of combat! None of my armies seem to have real tactics in play for the "fly behind enemy lines, turn around, then charge from the rear" tactic.

Should I camp out smaller units in behind my lines to hopefully get a charge in? The Movement of Flyers is so high that they can just choose to simply avoid whatever I lay down, and most of our chaff can't handle a Dragon or Phoenix solo. We lack the War Machines of some other races (my Orcs & Dark Elves toss in Bolt Throwers), and turning around to meet the charges is impractical since the entire rest of the army is facing the other way, and the Flyer could simply move the other way, costing you a turn in order to turn back around..

The only advantage I have is that a fully-ranked unit can still handle a large Monster flying in from behind- but the loss of numbers is annoying.

 

[Lizardmatt]

You out range him.
Use table edges to cover your flanks and rears, and use the skink priests to spot for your slaan.
Lore of heavens with the S6 hits, and free S4 hits, is really good at taking out flyers.
Also, terradons are actually really good at counter flyer.
Drop rocks on enemy flyers and then pepper them with poison shots, while staying out of arc.

-Matt

 

[rychek]

Lore of Heavens is your friend when it comes to fliers (lore attribute hits them pretty hard). Another option might be Rippers (havent used them yet myself).

 

[Scalenex]

Razordons should be able to put the hurting on eagles and Skycutters but they won't impress griffins, phoenixes, or dragons.

Skink shooting will take down eagles and griffins pretty well.

 

[datalink7]

Stegadons should be a good foil. The nice thing about monsters on single bases is they are easier to maneuver. It can be hard to constantly change direction with the Saurus Horde in order to keep flyers in the front. With multiple Stegadons you can cover multiple angles very easily.

Just don't let them get charged. Have Skink Skirmishers available near by so if they fail the charge, you can park them in front to prevent a counter charge.

 

[Jabroniville]

The issue is as I advance, he flies in his units (Dragon and Phoenix) behind me to set up rear charges along with his main units charging in- Stegadons are a bit pricey to put in positions like that to counter them, aren't they? I would think that if I did that, my opponent would be less likely to throw a Dragon into charging position, but if he then didn't, I'd have a 200+ point unit just sitting there behind my lines.

I might try out Lore of Heavens, though I find that to be one of the weaker Lores out there.

 

[Rhodium]

The issue is as I advance, he flies in his units (Dragon and Phoenix) behind me to set up rear charges along with his main units charging in- Stegadons are a bit pricey to put in positions like that to counter them, aren't they? I would think that if I did that, my opponent would be less likely to throw a Dragon into charging position, but if he then didn't, I'd have a 200+ point unit just sitting there behind my lines.

I might try out Lore of Heavens, though I find that to be one of the weaker Lores out there.

Don't give them a rear then, sit back in a manner that the table edge dictates what can actually get him behind you

What has he on the dragon? A prince or a archmage?

If it is a prince, then he won't have a level 4 unless you are playing super high points so dominate the magic phase.
Sit back, allow priests to go forward for Los and range and fire spells at his army,

If he has a archmage or dragon Mage of caledor, these are squishy, fire magic missiles, lasers and 100 skinks at them and you should kill the Mage and probably kill the dragon eventually to.

I think poison is key here, get jungle swarms into combat too next to your saurus, poisoned saurus could be a force to be reckoned with and use a lot of jav skinks, fight shots in and then get a stand and shoot if you can't get out of charge arc

 

[Wizgamer]

Get tetto'eko into play. Use cloak of feathers on a skink priest. Take terradons and cham skinks

Wind blast the fliers into other enemy units...... Use vanguard to your full advantage as well

 

[The Hunted]

Stegadons should be a good foil. The nice thing about monsters on single bases is they are easier to maneuver. It can be hard to constantly change direction with the Saurus Horde in order to keep flyers in the front. With multiple Stegadons you can cover multiple angles very easily.

Just don't let them get charged. Have Skink Skirmishers available near by so if they fail the charge, you can park them in front to prevent a counter charge.

While stegadons are a good counter when charging, I don't believe they are the golden answer vs flyers. As you said, don't let them get charged. A M6 monster is always going to get charged by a flying one. So your impact hits will be negated, unless he fails absolutely horribly.
He is good at holding up a phoenix for a couple of turns, if you keep him in range of your Slann-bubble. But I don't think it is the go-to answer for flyers.

The Bastiladon is much more of a rear-guard I think. It has even less movement, but can present a threat with his laser beam. He can hold up lots of things an annoyingly long time, if in range of the Slann-bubble. Also, he's cheaper than a stegadon so it doesn't hurt as much when it dies.

Also, as has been said before: skinks and lore of heavens are good.

Carefull movement also goes a long way of holding back the scary flyers. If nothing else works, sacrifice units of skinks, so the combat starts in your turn. Where you can get some magic support in the combat.

The Hunted

 

[lizardmek]

skink chief on rippa with a relic blade, enchanted shield, egg of quango , pidgeon plucker pendant ,i used this build vs VC terrorgheist which did well on the 1st one

but could work on other flyers