Stubborn as a Dwarf – Post Masters Update.

Greetings, friends!  Masters has come and gone, and I know some of you are interested in how my games went.  In my previous article I had discussed my philosophy for army construction and some thoughts on my particular unit selection.  It also gave a window into how my stubbornness adversely affected my tournament placings.  All of that being said, how, you may ask, did a mediocre list do against the best players in the country?  Well, it was unsurprisingly….mediocre…

First off, I finished the weekend with a whopping 2 wins and 4 losses.  I had taken an army with 31 unit strength, and it (sort of) paid dividends on the table.  In all of my games I was winning on scenario until turns 6 or 7.  The downside to the list was that almost all of my units had toughness 4.  I was bringing lots of nerve, so I thought that I could weather the storm and come out on top in the end.  It turns out that I was being optimistic :).  I will be going over the different components of the army and discussing how they performed over the course of six highly competitive games.

So let’s start with the shooting portion of the list.  I had intentionally skewed away from three cannons in favor of four troops of sharp shooters, in effect losing out on shattering and some wounds of damage for four extra unit strength.  In addition, I had five shots each from the two Steel Juggernauts, giving a total of 30 shots, mostly hitting on 5s (taking cover into account), with pierce 2.  I also had throwing mastiffs on my four regiments of shield breakers, but that was mostly scattered and ineffectual.  All in all I spent 460 points on shooting.  So how did it do?

There was lots of terrain on the tables at Masters, which meant that most of my targets would be in cover of one sort or another.  In each of my five games I deployed the sharpshooters opposite of my opponent’s biggest close combat threat.  In my two games against Northern Alliance, that meant the Frost Fang Cavalry.  In my two games against undead, that meant the obligatory hordes of wights.  And I also pitted them against hordes of Rhordian Honor Guard or Mincer mobs.  Against the undead I had poor results, because my opponent could just heal up the damage I did from round to round.  But in all the other games I was able to remove those targets with two-three rounds of shooting.  All in all the sharpshooters, with the help of the mastiffs doing a random two points or so, did excellent work.  That being said, it would have been nice to have the cannons because the higher wound rate and the shattering would have allowed me to remove targets faster.  The unit strength from the sharpshooters didn’t really come into play in most of my games.  And even though enemies don’t triple their attacks against them like war engines, the sharp shooter troops have less nerve.  This came into play a lot, getting consistently wavered with one or two wounds on them. 

And the Steel Juggernaut shots?  They didn’t do very much at all.  They come with steady aim, but usually I was hitting things on 6s due to cover or the individual rule.  There were games where I wish I had swapped one of them for a king with wings.  Or if I could have paid 50 extra points for a king on large beast, which is sooooo much better for the points.  So, in future games I’d probably keep the Juggers at home.  They were good in close combat, but there are much more efficient inspiring combat options in the dwarf list. 

My four regiments of shield breakers brought 12 unit strength to the party, but not much else.  Over the course of the six games they killed two troops of tundra wolves, a bunch of goblin rabble, and that was about it.  In both of my games against undead a single horde of wights removed three regiments of shield breakers.  They just couldn’t take a punch over the course of the tourney.  I expected them to be expendable, but they didn’t do much in the way of damage on their way out.  They did more wounds with mastiffs then they did with their close combat attacks.  This was due to their movement 4.  They would inevitably get charged first, and half the time they’d be removed outright before getting to swing back.  I did notice that a lot of my opponents had units with 18-24 attacks with crush 1 or 2.  And even when I forced my opponent into hindered charges it just delayed the inevitable. 

I did change my deployment over the course of the tourney, by clustering three of the regiments together so they could mutually support eachother and also release multiple mastiff packs at a single target.  This helped a little, but it just wasn’t enough.  In the future I could see taking those 560 points and taking two hordes of shield breakers and a regiment of ironclad.  This would project a lot more threat.  The hordes would be able to take a punch and do a dozen wounds on the countercharge.  Not too shabby.

I took two regiments of Brock riders (one with movement 9) to project some threat, and a BSB with the Lute for some sweet Bane Chant action.  These worked out ok.  But, as I mentioned, the tables had lots of terrain, and getting a clear charge was almost impossible.  This made it so they were hitting on 5s with no TC.  Not the best… The reduced nerve made them really susceptible to war engine fire as well.   I still think they’re worth taking, but I would go with pathfinder on one of them, and maybe CS1 on the other.  The reduction in nerve really means that you’re getting one charge if you’re lucky, so I have to take items to make it count. 

Lastly, the army had two freshly painted hordes of earth Elementals and a Stone Priest.  These were, hands down, my MVPs.  They were the only units that really did any consistent work over the course of six games.  Between the high toughness and the ability to surge they made a real mess of my opponent’s plans.  The new ability to cast bane chant on a unit after you surge it into combat is super effective.  The imperial dwarves don’t have ready access to heal, and I really missed Martyr’s Prayer.  (Further proof that Free Dwarves are the best dwarves).  In the future, I want to try taking either a third horde or a greater elemental and a second rune priest to include some real surge shenanigans. 

So how did it all work together?  I consistently lost my games in turns six or seven.  Some aspects of the list worked synergistically pretty well.  In particular I was able to put pressure on my opponent’s big threats using the sharpshooters while pinning the slower moving elements in place with my Brock riders.  The shield breakers were usually relegated to scenario duty, but they died too easily to go the distance and contribute at the end.  I intentionally fielded an imperial dwarf list to gain access to the Steel Juggernauts and the Sharp Shooters.  But in exchange I gave up on the Martyr’s Prayer and the scout/pathfinder on the shield breakers. 

All of that being said, what changes would I make to my list to make it more combat effective, while still holding to my desire to field actual dwarves?  Based on my observations, I can see fielding the following Free Dwarf listed a start:

2 x Hordes of Shield Breakers (460 pts)
BSB with Lute (75 pts)
3 x Hordes of Earth Elementals (660 pts)
Stone priest with Bane Chant (110 pts)
Stone priest with Martyr’s Prayer (125 pts)
3 x Cannons (360 pts)
Dwarf Lord with Iron Resolve (120 pts)
Regiment of Brock Riders, Macwar’s (215 pts)
2 x Regs of Mastiff Hunting Packs with throwing mastiffs (160 pts)
Add in 15 points of magic items to taste to make 2,300 points.

Despite my poor performance at Masters I’m still enthusiastic about the game.  I’m looking forward to further exploring what dwarves can do in 3rd edition.  There are plenty of units that I haven’t fielded yet, like the free dwarf Shield Breakers, the Lord on Large Beast or the Mastiff Hunting Packs.  Looks like I have some more painting to do….