I’m a recent jumper-on-er of the Chaos Dwarf bandwagon and quickly learned the value of the Earthshaker. My question is - do most people use it as a weapon to kill things that also has the side benefit of slowing down the enemy/stop shooting or is its primary focus to slow down the enemy/stop shooting with the side benefit of occasionally killing something? I’m having a hard time prioritizing my targets with it and I’ve started to wonder if I’m not applying it efficiently. Especially in the initial turns of a game, what sorts of targets should it be focusing on? Thanks for your thoughts!!
Oh, well the answer is pretty easy: slowing down things and shuttin’ archers/gunners/crossbow/machines of war. I rarely kill anything with the shaker and I consider it a bonus effect.
Normally I use only one earthshaker, so it is really important to prioritize targets. Its radius is normally 4-8" if you are lucky could be 10-12" but it happens rarely. If I’m facing a shooty army and I feel confident to be able to handle the rest of the army I concentrate fire on the main shooty units. Somtimes could be necessary to “cover” my advance, so I concentrate the fire against the troops opposite to my bull centaurs or dwarfs to avoid them to be shoot to pieces and to slow down tropps that could counter charge. Remember: warmachines stop firing only with a 4+. For this reason I prefer to target troops.
If I’m facing a C&C fast army, I concentrate the fire to disrupt his movements. If you slow down one wing of the enemy army the rest will have problems to move properly. Nobody wants to advance with an exposed flank. If I manage to slow down the flank with marchblokers or hobgoblin speed bumpers, the centre will be slowed down by the shaker. You can even slow down nasty stuff (tree men, chaos knights, black guards…) and let the rest advance, to kill the army piece by piece… :hat
If you want to kill more people use it in combo with the death rocket, bolt throwers, archers and blunderbusses. But remember, this is an additional bouns… Bye and have fun! :hat off
P.S. and welcome on board the coolest warhammer army!
You dont want to know how may times i’ve shot at skinks/cameleons with the earthsaker just to protect my centaurs. but you should allway try to hit/kill something, it might scatter sure but it is really good at killing knights/monsters (no save, D6 wounds).
Oh and get your hands on the GW green template, not only is it 2 mm bigger! the hole is a lot bigger so its is easy-er to get something at S8!
My first aim is to slowing down units and mainly to stop enemy’s shooting…
If you need a stone thrower to damage death rocket it’s cheaper and more reliable.
I use a combination of them: eartshaker usually fires on the side of shooters/fast cavalries and death rocket on the side of infantries/heavy cavalries
personally when i did run it i used it as a stone thrower that had an additional effect and a better misfire chart. Stone Throwers with a player who can guess range well can equate major problems for the enemy… and the slowing effect is a nice added bonus… Personally, I found that for the points my rares were better spent elsewhere and took death rockets. which essentally are the best Stone Thrower in the game. 1/3 of all misfires don’t roll on the chart and instead deviate a random amount, They have a shorter range but have no minimum range, and when it does roll a misfire to the chart the 2-3 result doesnt kill a crewman.
Oh and get your hands on the GW green template, not only is it 2 mm bigger! the hole is a lot bigger so its is easy-er to get something at S8!
Bolg
Ha! I just measured the 3" Small Template on pg 272 of the rulebook and it is 2 and 7/8ths of and inch across! Thats hilarious. I'll have to check my actual templates now.
Anyhow, as to the Earthshaker....
I use them to slow down the enemy. Any wounds I cause are just a bonus. With scattering 2/3rds of the time an average of 6", odds are not favorable of hitting the enemy directly. 1/6th of the hits will be a misfire anyway.
Use them to slow big nasties and shut down enemy missle fire. As already noted, combine with march blocking wolfboyz and your opponents flank is slowed to a crawl. Gives Bolt throwers more time to shoot.
I downed a Juggernought first round with my shaker (admittedly I never ended the frenzy on the opposing army and I was slaughtered).
That was my first real Warhammer battle. The opposing general used every trick to kill my love of the game before it had even started damn Korne Chaos players. Too bad for them i’d already spent the cold hard cash and become addicted to the personalised army idea. It was a bit anticlimatic though everyone watching was impressed but I had no idea why.
I’ve only played 10 matches but while I seem to be a crack shot with the shaker the rockets always let me down, btw against chaos esp knights you can not beat it for the way it allows breathing room. You’d have to give me a big arguement not to take one esp because I have no luck with bull centaurs. I don’t know why? my wolf riders do okay.
