Aethyr

I'm trying to figure out what the best way to build a few kits would be, so I'd appreciate any advice. First off I want to say that magnetising isn't really an option as these kits are generally too small to do it easily (dwarves are only little...), and I find it fiddly to switch bitz anyway, so I'd like to just straight up build one or the other option. 1. Dispossessed Warriors. More of a rules question here I guess: the way the warscroll is written seems to say that you can take either the one-handed weapon or the two-handed weapon, and in either case, you can take shields. Is this correct? I like the extra point of rend on the 2H weapon but the reroll on the shields is too good to give up. I assume the entire unit has to be armed in the same way as well. 2. Dispossessed Thunderers/Quarrelers. I have two boxes of these guys, so I'd be building a 30-man unit to reliably maintain their unit size bonus. The Thunderers have a 16" shot at 4+/3+/-1/1, with their To Hit going to 3+ while they have 20 or more models. The Quarrelers have a 20" shot at 4+/4+/-/1, being able to shoot twice while having 20 or more models. I'm not sure whether having fewer shots that are more likely to hit/wound and have rend is better or worse than having more shots that are not as good. Also, losing their 20+ buff seems like less of an issue for the Thunderers; the Quarrelers halve their fire, but Thunderers still keep their better To Wound and point of rend, just going to a worse To Hit. I have a Runelord that I'm planning to usually include, and he can give an extra point of rend to a unit, so that might be a consideration. 3. Fyreslayers Vulkite Berserkers, I'm inclined to go with the Picks and Shields for a point of rend (tho 4+ To Wound rather than 3+) and the shields giving a chance to drop Mortal Wounds, and improve the save if they didn't charge. The handaxe and shield trades a point of rend for 3+ To Wound, and two handaxes sacrifices the shield for rerolls to hit. Thoughts on this unit? 4. Fyreslayers Hearthguard Berserkers. I have two boxes of these guys. The Broadaxe has -1 rend and 2 damage, whereas the Poleaxe has no rend and 1 damage, but does 2 mortal wounds on a To Hit roll of 6. The weapon profiles are otherwise the same. Which is the better option? Should I maybe build one unit of each? Alternatively, would I be better building some as Auric Hearthguard? Their shooting seems a bit underwhelming compared to the Irondrakes I'll be including, and they're not as survivable due to lacking the save-after-the-save of the Berzerkers (or the Gromril Armour of the Irondrakes), but there might be something I'm missing. 5. I also have a Luminark of Hysh/Celestial Hurricanum kit I've not built yet (so I can actually have some magic with my Duardin). The Hurricanum seems like the better choice as it's significantly more points, but given that I'll be having artillery like the Cannon, Organ Gun and Grundstok Gunhauler in the back field, the Luminark's 30" range and 6 damage seems like it'd fit right in. Can anyone weigh in on the relative advantages of these models? I feel like the Luminark's save-after-the-save buff isn't going to be all that much use if it's going to be in the back (though maybe for the other artillery?), while the Hurricanum would be more likely to be further up meaning the +1 to hit would be more useful. Any help and advice would be really useful! Not sure if there's a place to post lore stuff here, but I came up with a reasonably good lore explanation for why these factions would band together - the practical reason is that Dispossessed, Kharadron and Fyreslayers are all fairly small ranges and I like variety.

OK, gotcha. It's a bit of a pain but it's good to know. I suppose at least the stuff from Malign Sorcery isn't tied to any particular allegiance which gives some more options. Appreciate the quick response

I'm putting together a combined Duardin army (including Fyreslayers, Kharadron, and Dispossessed) which means I'm taking the ORDER allegiance. However, according to the Warscroll Builder on the Warhammer Community site (with allegiance set to ORDER), if I select the Runefather on Magmadroth as my general, it still lets me take the command traits, artefacts and mount traits from the Fyreslayers book. Similarly, if I include a Kharadron ship in my list, it lets me take a Great Endrinwork. I know I definitely don't get the allegiance abilities for the subfactions, that's not what I'm asking, but I'm unclear on whether I still have access to the artefacts and such. Can someone clear this up for me? I can't seem to find an official ruling on it; I know the Warscroll Builder has had some glitches in the past so I'm not sure whether I should take that as "official" or not.