Whfb - Dwarves vs Neil’s Daemons – part 1 – My list and thoughts

I enjoyed my game with Luke so much that I was itching to get in another and during that game, Neil approached asking if I was free in a couple of weeks. After checking with the diary/keeper of my chain, I was able to book in a date and having forgotten how much I like them, I decided to again take the dwarves but a somewhat amended list from the previous game.

Throng of Karak Silvertop

Characters

Barlin Silvertop – Runesmith (General) – Ro Stone, Ro Spellbreaking * 2, shield – 113pts

Harek Silvertop – Runesmith – Ro Stone, Ro Spellbreaking, Shield – 93pts

Drugin Silvertop – Thane (BSB) – MRo Valaya, Shield – 158pts

Burrnoth Strongarm – Master Engineer – Ro Stone, BoP – 85pts

Dolgin Rockfist – Master Engineer -70pts

Core

25 Longbeards – FC, GW, Ro Stoicism – 415pts

14 Quarrellers – GW, Standard, Musician – 216pts

Special

23 Hammerers (The Silvergate Guard) – Standard, Musician, MRo Groth One-Eye – 417pts

Cannon (Lizardbane) – Ro Forging, Ro burning – 150pts

Gyrocoptor (The Valkyrie) – 80pts

Gyrocoptor – 80pts

Rare

16 Irondrakes (The Firewardens) – FC, Trollhammer Torpedo, Ro Slowness – 325pts

Organ Gun – Ro Accuracy – 145pts

Organ Gun (Little Betty) – Ro Accuracy, Ro Burning – 150pts

List thoughts

This is probably the most competitive list i’ve taken to date and on paper i’m really happy with it. It contains most of my favourite units. It is a bit cheesy but it’s rare I play in an uncomp’ed environment so I wanted to try out the double OG at least once.

Deployment

The Hammerers will form the centre of the line and with Groth, will extend a 12″ bubble of stubborn to anything nearby. One warmachine will be placed either side of the the Hammerers and likely the Quarrellers and Irondrakes will then flank them so they are still within the stubborn bubble. The final warmachine will go the other end of the Quarrellers and the Longbeards (also with stubborn through their standard) will anchor that end of the line. This setup should ensure that nothing runs and everything fights to the last Dwarf and the two blocks of troops should be able to counter anything that makes it into combat with any of the shooters.

Magical defence

Between the Valaya banner and the two Runesmiths, i’m hoping to be able to shut down the magic phase whilst, with a bit of luck, removing the most dangerous of the enemy spells.

Shooting

The 2 engineers, each manning an organ gun, will give them a 2+ to hit (or 3+ at long range). Two are to ensure redundancy. Between them and the irondrakes that is a lot of str 5 AP shots. One engineer has the brace of pistols and Ro Stone to make an effective warmachine guard (and if I put him in the quarreller unit, a short range stand and shoot reaction for them). The other is naked as I didn’t have the points to upgrade him. I did consider dropping the pistols in order to give both of them the Ro Stone. The Cannon is there for taking down the tougher models and with 3 warmachines it should prove harder for him to close them all down. I would have loved to have fit in a Grudge thrower (one day I will) but I would have had to remove too many options to fit one in, especially to fit on the runes of penetrating, accuracy and forging that I would want to include.

One of the breaks from my normal traditional list, is to give the Irondrake champion the Trollhammer Torpedo. After realising the Bo Drakepistols did not actually confer short range stand and shoot, I thought I’d try out something different. This will give another high strength ranged attack, with flaming, for the army and this should be on the other flank to the cannon.

General thoughts

Again I’ve gone Mro Valaya over Grungni on the bsb. With the almost guaranteed Lore of Death that Neil is sure to take, we will see if it works out for me but on paper I’m preferring the +2 to the dispel level and chance to get rid of remains in play spells over a 4++ ward on the bsb and 6″ bubble of 5++ ward vs shooting. I think it’s the small range of the bubble and how little impact the rune has made, in any game I’ve used it, that puts me off. A rank of 5 dwarves is around 4″ so it will basically give the warmachines either side a ward and that’s it and 5++ isn’t that great especially against multiple shots (I know others would argue differently).

Tactically, it will be the normal dwarf stance of shoot the crap out of everything and hope to soften it up enough to finish it off when it reaches our lines. In terms of target priority it has to be anything that flys and can reach the warmachines quickly. Furies are a prime example of this and they will be top priority for the organs, as with negative modifiers for skirmish and long range, they are the only thing that can reliably hit them. His skull cannon is also high up on the list as it will be gunning for my own cannon and will then likely try for the organ guns after (this is the one reason Grungni’s ward save would be useful).

In a break from the norm’ I haven’t see a copy of my opponents list in advance so can’t give any pregame thoughts so I’ll cover this in the battle rep.