Hammer Time (for Dispossessed)

[Dejnar]

On 3/10/2020 at 4:47 PM, readercolin said:

Ask yourself what the purpose for the unit is.

Longbeards are useful to bring out in a 10 man unit to get the re-roll 1's to wound bubble, and to have as a cheap unit for battleline.  It is really hard to justify bringing them in larger units or for another purpose though, because if you want bodies on an objective that are tough to move, then for 30 points less you can run freeguild guard.  For 220 points you could have 20 longbeards, or for 240 you could have 30 guard.  Additionally, the extra firepower that comes from running ironbreakers or hammerers for only a few more points makes the longbeards look even worse.  However, again, the re-roll 1's to wound aura is something that you can't get anywhere else, so a small unit or two can definitely make it into a force.

Ironbreakers cost 20 points more than longbeards, and in exchange get double the attacks.  Worried about lack of rend?  Grab a runelord and buff them (you should be running 2+ runelords anyways in a dwarf heavy force), and if it is super important, remember that you can double up on these buffs.  Remember, they can fight in 2 ranks, so it is really easy to get 20 of them into combat.

Hammerers cost 30 more points than longbeards.  However, when you run the numbers you will find that hammerers are actually one of the killiest units in the entire game.  While they have a base 3+/3+/-1/1 attack profile, it is really easy to give them extra attacks, extra to-hit, extra to-wound, re-roll 1's to hit, and re-roll 1's to wound.  An unsupported unit of hammerers isn't really worth the points compared to a unit of ironbreakers/longbeards.  However, if you are giving them the support they can easily hit well above their weight points wise.  For reference, the base damage of a unit of 10 hammerers is ~12.8 damage.  Fully buffed in tempest eye, that can get buffed up to ~39 damage.

Lastly, we have irondrakes.  Irondrakes exist for the purpose of having an extremely killy unit with good range.  An unbuffed unit of irondrakes is going to be putting out ~9.8 damage if they stand still.  Fully buffed, that can go up to 20.8 damage.  However, they don't have to get into melee to do this, so it is easier to keep all these buffs going for them.

So how does this all come together?

If you are running irondrakes, I would run a block of 20 drakes with a block of 10 longbeards screening them.  To get them fully buffed, park a hurricanum right behind them, and either have hawk eyed (if tempest eye) or give them ignite weapons (if hallowheart).

If you are looking for a large, hard to move block that is going to sit on an objective or to act as a front line that is hard to break, then ironbreakers is what you want to run.  That being said, you do need to make the decision that you want to be running dwarfs for this, because you can have 30 ironbreakers for 330 points, or 40 freeguild guard for 280 points.  Or for 320 points, you can have a block of 40 dreadspears, or 330 points for a 30 block of eternal guard.  None of these choices is going to be all that great for pushing out damage, though ironbreakers are probably the killiest of these options.  However, they all serve the same purpose, which is to be a tough unit that is hard to move.

Lastly, if you want a killy infantry unit, then you want to bring out hammerers.  However, they do have 1 major issue, which is mobility.  4" move is just... slow, which makes it hard for them to get into position to do damage.  Once they do though, if they have support they can delete whatever they run into.  However, they are really competing against irondrakes as being the killy unit that you bring out, and irondrakes tend to be able to apply their damage better.

Alltogether, I would highly recommend running a unit (or two) of irondrakes with a screen of longbeards supporting them and screening them.  However, both of the other units need a long hard look before you decide to run them, simply because of how much overlap they have with other units in the cities.  If you know you really want to take dwarfs, then look at taking the ironbreakers as your anvil, and then a mix (of your choice) of irondrakes and hammerers as your hammer.  But make sure you look at the other options before you decide to dedicate yourself to the dwarfs.

Wow man, what a fantastic write up. This will help me greatly. 

The army will mostly be for fun games in the local group so I will try and only use Duardin. Can't wait to se that on the field. 

Now I'll start making fun lists leaning on all the info you've provided. Excellent!