Dwarfs, the 16 pointas

[GrandmasterWang]

Now I like to try different things which often fly in the face of interweb "wisdom".

I have not yet tried this but will report once I have.

29 long beard ranger scouts with shields, greatweapons and throwing axes.

This is as elite as you can make a dwarf.and I have a whole squad painted up and ready to go.

Has anyone used a similar squad and can post some experiences. Tactics I should think of.

Squad is as above, dont lecture on competitiveness, wasted shields etc. I dont care and the squad looks awesome. Do tell me things to watch out for.
Please privide thoughts, tactics, sneaky tips etc on how to use the squad.

Thinking about adding strollaz for first turn shooting.

My current 2500pt list includes a brotherhood thane with the squad due to models. I have 36 pts to spare and am contemplating the challenge rune on the thane. However with the 20 inch range on it, it might be a waste of the scouting??? Although this guarantees 1st turn challenge.

Squad is in horde formation due to aesthetics and shooting. Hoping to ideally get 2 rounds of str5 axe goodness with them.

Thank you for your time warseerans

[bigbear bailey]

Seen a lot of people do this, but without the shields. It does great and is pretty cool to see on the table!

[bad dice]

Stick that charge me banner in there and your golden. My friend uses this and its a pain in the but. Cause he just depoys in my face and then forces my main unit to charge him or flee of the board. Works like a charm.

Things to look out for?

units that are cheap but can cause a lot of casualties.

Like chartiots and small units of Witch elfs or sword masters. Altough the trowing axes do help against those.

Also dont get in combat whit squigs they will duff you up.

[GrandmasterWang]

With the charge me banner, axes have a range of 8. Say I deploy 20 inches from some knights, pop the banner and they roll say a 3 and fail their charge and end up 18 inches away, I still get my stand and shoot right, even though the end up out of range?

Cheers

[bad dice]

With the charge me banner, axes have a range of 8. Say I deploy 20 inches from some knights, pop the banner and they roll say a 3 and fail their charge and end up 18 inches away, I still get my stand and shoot right, even though the end up out of range?

Cheers

Wierd as it is YES

[Cortomaltese]

i used a 20 strong longbeard rangers unit in my anvil list in a tournament at the beginning of 8th edition. they performed pretty well, but always were wiped out by the end of the games.
often they repayed their price fully before, finishing off monsters or keeping deathstars pinned for 3-4 rounds of combat, but globally i felt them too expensive to be a simply sacrificial unit.
nowadays i dropped both them and the anvil, and my list performs slightly better..
Mostly because for the price of that unit you can have a full horde of warrior rangers that can be both used as an annoying hammer, a durable anvil and will be very hard to wipe out.

[Morax]

I haven't done the throwing axes and shields but the rest works out really well for me. I take 40 in an anvil list with greatweapons and a thane with master rune of challenge. I give up the first turn and deploy them off to a flank while my hammerers hold the center of the field. On my opponent's first turn you use the rune to protect them from the worst of enemy magic and shooting and then start rolling up the flank with them. Something is going to have to turn to handle them and thats where front facing cannons come in. It gets nasty quick but I'm a grumpy dwarf player that doesn't get to play them that often. I like to make the most of it when I can.

[russellmoo]

Go for it- the only problem I see is that the unit is only 29 strong- this means that in horde formation you won't get all of your attacks- 35 would be better-

[bigbear bailey]

The funniest thing about this thread is that I thought it was going to be 16 points on how to play dwarves well... hahahhaa

[GrandmasterWang]

Lol bigbear. Sorry to disappoint . Cheers for the replies. Had a fun game last night using our 'friends' version of warhammer which resulted in the squad getting charged by bloodletters, keeper of secrets and an empire general (logan grimnir model). This was on s tiny board with no strollaz or challenge rune. 30 rangers with full command. I stood and shot at the bloodletters which in hindsight was a mistake, shood have gone for keeper or general armed with chaos dwarf dark mace. Lesson learned. Killed 8 from 20 shots. Whole squad eventually eliminated but did a lot of damage. I shouldnt have wasted attacks on the letters so much though

Have written a 2500 pt strollaz list which ill have to test in a proper game.

Anyone use throwing axes? Theyre only 1 pt for strength 5.

[Lord Solar Plexus]

With the charge me banner, axes have a range of 8. Say I deploy 20 inches from some knights, pop the banner and they roll say a 3 and fail their charge and end up 18 inches away, I still get my stand and shoot right, even though the end up out of range?

Cheers

I know it's probably just an example but do they even have to charge? BWH could only travel 19" at the most.

[GrandmasterWang]

Yeah, whoops, forgot the barding. If 19 away they have to, not at 20.

Had another game 1500 pts last night. The 505 pt squad did really well. 30 with full command. Vs empire. Stand and shoot killed 2 knights and they later killed the general and were a constant threat. I still had 20 at end of battle. I had less drops so them deploying last was a great help. Was able to get a flank charge with them after ironbreakers tanked a squad. Overall the throwing axes only did 3 wounds but they had a largereffect in the game and made their pts back

[bad dice]

Yeah, whoops, forgot the barding. If 19 away they have to, not at 20.

Had another game 1500 pts last night. The 505 pt squad did really well. 30 with full command. Vs empire. Stand and shoot killed 2 knights and they later killed the general and were a constant threat. I still had 20 at end of battle. I had less drops so them deploying last was a great help. Was able to get a flank charge with them after ironbreakers tanked a squad. Overall the throwing axes only did 3 wounds but they had a largereffect in the game and made their pts back

I would never skip out on the trowing axes on a squad like this.
Sure they dont realy do that many wounds. But it helps against the great weakness of this unit.

Ppl are starting to take unts that are purely there to reduce numbers in hordes. So they can take em on later

Units like 5 swordmasters/ witchelfs/ plague center bearers or chartios can be a real pain. They don't cost that manny points but will kill a lot of you dudes.
The trowing axes can realy hurt those units. Sure it's only 3 wounds but thats half the unit right ther and it will kill elf en goblin chariots two.

It also gives you a way to remove redirectors blocking your unit without haveing to charge.

[Montegue]

Throwing Axes really earn their points when they are used by a unit occupying a building. Since the weapon is Quick to Fire, you can always stand and shoot no matter how close an enemy is. So, put them in the Watchtower. Anything that charges gets a Stand and Shoot. Then you shoot during your turn. Then they charge and you Stand and Shoot. If you have Longbeards, that's S5.

[Excellis]

Hello, I am new too warseer and warhammer and cannot yet make new threads, so I am gonna post my query here as it seems like the most logical place.

In a 500 point dwarf army list, would you suggest Thunderers or quarrelers? Most people will argue that the quarrelers are cheaper for a small point game but thunderers +1 to hit and ignore Armour save would be deadly to most armies i will be versing. Keep in mind i have never played a game before and am working of limited knowledge here .

Thanks.

[Wesser]

In small games I'd usually say every unit must count for something in every phase.

Quarrellers can take greatweapons if Im not mistaken. Means that they're a very decent combat unit after they are done shooting.

[MOMUS]

The thing i would be most worried about is that you are sticking out alot of your points unsupported. Irrelevant of opponent, you are placing a game deciding chunk of your army in front of the enemies entire force. Some cheeky opponents would be tempted to just wipe it out and then avoid the rest of your slow moving force.

Luckily as you are playing dwarves you have access to some good ranged options which means you could support it from afar.

[Bollogs]

if your alowed special chars then go the bugman route! on unit of longbeards and another for bugman hero with challenge rune and away you go

[GrandmasterWang]

Just to say I have been using my 16 pointas to great effect. The other day their axes took out a chariot before it got to do impact hits. I find some opponents seem to fixate on the unit as it starts so close to them.

I personally think quarellers vs thunderers are well balanced vs each other and up to personal preferance. Cant really go wrong with a unit of 10 each with shields. Quarellers have the potential to shoot from turn 1 which is a plus.

[Lord Dan]

Momus has a good point. Additionally I'm not a fan of having so many points in one unit, given the prevalence of "Look you're dead" spells in this edition.