With my recent tournament at Storm over Stirling I have found myself thinking more and more about what I want to do with my Dwarf army.
The list I produced the night before the tournament performed well, although there were a few areas that I needed to look into.
There were some big areas that my army struggled. In this article I am going to cover the movement phase, and some of the options available to me. They are possibly obvious to others, but with me playing Warhammer so little being obvious is probably the best option for my memory if nothing else.
I also appreciate the irony of an entire article devoted to a Dwarven movement phase!
My first game consisted of my enemy (Wood Elves) running away from my advancing Dwarves. The second one went wrong as I couldnt control my enemies attempts to charge me, and I had similar problems in other games where my opponent gets more decisions around where, when and who engages me in combat.
What can I do to make me catch em? Well growing longer legs would be a start, but short of some unforseen evolutionary jump that aint gonna happen.
However the Master Rune of Challenge... 25 points of problems resolved for me. At one point my opponents BsB & 10 Glade Gaurd were 2" from the table edge and too far for me to charge. Had I had this rune and used it they would have had to charge me, or automatically flee... either way would have been a good result.
The other bonus of a combat in this method, is that if the enemy runs away / is wiped out I get a Reform... something that saves movement for me to catch other units.
So note to self... this is a huge bonus, and this rune should not be left at home!
The second way of dealing with this would be by using a unit of Rangers, more exspensive that the first way, given that a unit that could do it effectively would need to be large (20-30 I think), and if given shields for extra survivability prior to the charge then it works out at an additional 90 points. Not terrible, but not as good as 25 points.
These points do buy me Great Weapons on my Longbeards, something I do not actually run, as well as throwing Axes (S5!) which are both decent buffs for me.
This option would mean I need to get another unit of Dwarves to equip with Great Weapons, but a reason to buy Dwarves is not a bad thing!
The third way, well to avoid avoiding the obvious... the Anvil of Doom can help out here. One or more units getting an extra move really makes a huge difference for Dwarves, can't combine it with Rangers for a turn 1 charge (which makes sense) however this would certainly help me in getting across the board.
The cost for this option is obviously significantly more, I only use a Runesmith, so for the Runelord thats an extra 70 points, followed by another 175 for the Anvil itself. Ok so these points also buy me 2 extra dispel dice, and a nice big warmachine but my Runesmith does the job of shutting down enemy magic in most circumstances (he even did it well against two different Slann this weekend.
The Fourth way makes your BsB more vulnerable in combat as its a Runic Standard on him. Strollaz's standard gives you free movement at the beginning of the game. So you count as having moved which may mean you dont move your Quarllers / Thunderers / Warmachines if your enemy has 1st turn (they run at you and you really want to be able to shoot).
However if you go first and find yourself out of range, or know you will be barring any vanguard moves then moving everything to get that extra movement is probably a worthwhile shout.
The Fifth way means spending points on a runic banner and then the chance that you advancing on the enemy reduces their charge enough that they dont hit you and you can then hit them. Works well against other Dwarves, but beyond that its much more random than I like. A useful trick but coming in at 50 points (or so I believe) its your entire allowance gone.
Although you could get the 6 you were after and suddenly the enemy are just sitting there waiting to get charged by you. Random effects vs Random charges probably work out as a decent shout.
So there you go the 5 main ways I can think of to improve your movement with Dwarves, my last few games have found me moving my Dwarves more than my opponent... something I found amusing while he found worrying.
So what do you do to help out our short legged friends?
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