So I’m curious…does anybody out there actually ever use the Iron Daemon as a steam carriage to tow their war machines around in a game? I have never seen or heard of anybody doing it.
I see no point in it, and more than not it strikes me as a disadvantage to do so.
So am I missing something in the rules? Has someone tried it and can offer advice to the pro’s (and con’s)?
Being a military history nut I was excited when I first heard of it, I envisioned the WWI Austro Hungarian armored trains…but reading the rules I thought “mehhh…”
If the Iron Daemon is locked in combat, then the entire train can’t move…can’t really use your war machines in the train to fire into combat to free the Iron Daemon, so they’re stuck too…if any forward unit in the train is destroyed, the ones in the back are stranded…the sheer length of the train means you’ll have a tough time to move/position around dangerous terrain, buildings, etc…it can easily block your line of sight being so large…not to mention grouping that many war machines into one bundle is an obvious “can’t miss” target for enemy magic/template weapons/scattering…
Nah, I don’t think anyone does at all. The rules are only there because they built a model that assembles into one big train; there’s no gameplay justification for it in the slightest.
Seems like it might be a nice idea for someone to come up with more usable rules for it, although I doubt any will be optimal simply because the Iron Daemon should be driving into things rather than moving stuff around.
Even getting back to the rumored rules that let you outfit a carriage with a unit of Chaos Dwarfs might find some interesting uses. Sticking a unit of Blunderbusses or Fireglaives on there and allowing them to fire even though the train has moved would be a good start (seeing as the unit hasn’t moved relative to their footing, they’ve just been displaced across the terrain along with the Iron Daemon as it moves). Another helpful aspect would be that the Iron Daemon and any of its hauled cars could be charged in the rear or flank, but that neither of these routes of attack can stop it moving, only a direct charge to the front (which you could argue forces the crew to take up arms and aren’t as available to coordinate their operations to continue driving the engine forward).
Letting the train and its cars continue to move when it is attacked along its flank could make the points cost to attach other components attractive, this way your DQM could stay mobile until the Iron Daemon is locked on close combat to its front or the tender is detached. I guess you’d need some way of working around having CD players trying to get the nose of their Iron Daemon close to a table edge to avoid frontal charges though
Sticking a unit of Blunderbusses or Fireglaives on there and allowing them to fire even though the train has moved would be a good start
Nicodemus
I like that idea...rules kind of like the FW Empire Marienburg Land Ship perhaps?
Thommy H makes a good point, as the rules stand, there just is no game play justification for the land train...it needs new rules to make it more plausible in any sort of WFB gaming context.
And I'm curious...as the rules stand, if the Iron Daemon is towing multiple war machines behind it, does the entire train move/position only in a long straight line? Or could it be curved in a large arc?
I can't imagine the thing turning on spot, it would seem it would turn in an arc...which leads to some interesting cheese uses:
You could use it in the sense of the Old West cowboys/Indian tactic of the wagon train forming a circle against Indian attacks. War machines are tough to wound, so a cheese maneuver would be to turn the train into a Chaos Dwarf Great Wall of China (a wall that could be hellbound and stomping on bad guys)...position it into a "U" shape with a Blunderbuss unit within, they can shoot out with no worries of being flank/rear charged.
Cheese :cheers
I put carriage rules into the warmaster list I might mention that compatible 10mm model range will be available from eureka models next year. Just sayin…
