I’m a big fan of Thommy H’s Chaos Dwarf Army Book and use it exclusively. What I miss though, is a place to talk tactics. I’m not sure how many are out there who use this book, but I figure one thread to discuss it all might be nifty. So here we go!
I figure it might be nice to talk about personal favourites that perform well on the table, but maybe even more importantly units that prove to be problematic.
I’ll start off with a personal favourite of mine: The lone Bull Centaur Elder Battle Standard Bearer.
This guy can pretty much do it all. He’s very mobile compared to the rest of the army with movement 7 and the freedom of movement that a lone character gives. He’s pretty hard to kill with T5, 4 wounds and a relatively high WS, although cannons and the like are obviously still quite deadly.
Thanks to his high mobility you can quickly move him to where he’s needed most, whether that’s because of his BSB rerolls or creating thread zones for small units or even lone monsters. (Hydras don’t like being charged by him). You can even use him to hold up an enemy unit for a turn or two if your desperate.
Later on in the game he can add his weight to an ongoing combat by charging in the flank of an enemy unit. I often find that my blocks of troops tend to pull out a draw in combat resolution; they don’t die too much, but they don’t kill too much either. The added bonus of a flank-charge from the Bull Centaur plus the damage he causes on the charge is often enough to turn combat resolution in your favour. He won’t take any damage in return from anything with Str 3, so it’s free combat resolution when fighting such troops.
Alternatively, he can simply spend the game hunting chaff and war machines.
The BSB upgrade is obviously optional, and it does pose some problems when you want to send him after war machines, but also want the BSB aura closeby your main line. I prefer this over having to buy a separate Despot and spending more points on characters than needed.
What’s your favourite or least favourite unit or tactic?
Although I must say that I used this list only twice (I hardly play more than one game per year) what I liked the most are… Doomcannons and Infernal Engines. For the following reasons:
-Even without upgrades they are a force to be reckoned with. To the point that (in my opinion) Two Infernal Engines “naked” are better than a single one tooled up (T6, S5, 4A and W6? For 180 points? Hell yeah! Even without saves!). Doomcannons shoot like a stonethrower with S5(10), can thunderstomp and have 3 S5 attacks for 130 points!!!
-They are powerful yet fluffy, and despite what I wrote above I like the fact that you can give them heaps of upgrades! I like a list that makes me tinker and think about connections and synergies with other units. Plus, it’s an excuse to make some really crazy models just like a mad Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmith.
By my small experience I found that infantry bricks are very resilient but don’t dish out much damage, even with great weapons, and need support. In one game I ran a unit of Stormcallers with Sappara and noticed that although they don’t die easily they also don’t kill much stuff. I think that if you need a shooting unit (other than warmachines) Hobgoblins with bows are better than Blunderbusses, just for the sheer cost of them.
My two games were played against Dwarfs and Beastmen. In both games I had a unit of 23 Immortals with a Lord and the BSB. Both my opponents made a terrified face when I explained their rules. In one game they just died under a barrage of volleys by turn 3, whilst in the other they hacked to pieces a horde of Bestigor and resisted the charge of a Spinogor and a Horde of Gors with Heroes… They killed the Spinogor, held their position and the turn after an Infernal Engine flank charged the Gors winning the game. When a unit of Immortals gets into combat than there’s nothing that can resist them, they are the definitive defensive unit. Especially when you have heroes boosting their lines.
Yeah, Doomcannons and Infernal Engines are great from a fluff and conversion point of view. I actually haven’t used a Doomcannon yet. I usually run a zero-shooting list, simply because I don’t really have a lot of shooty stuff modelled/painted up. I have run Infernal Engines a few times though, and I like what they add to the army.
My favourite setup is giving it Thundrous Charge (D6 Impact Hits) and Fiendish Blast (S4 Flame Breath) along with possibly Ironclad for some defence, although I figure that anything that threatens T6 will probably bite through a 4+ armour save too. Either way, along with Thunderstomp that’s a serious amount of damage it can do on the charge.
One thing however, is that adding crew seems like an absolute must. I’ve used an Infernal Engine (IE) with no crew once to see what would happen. I even gave it the Ferocious upgrade for good measure. With Ld 3 you can be sure that it rampages every turn. It’s pretty hopeless You’re basically putting a model on the table and letting your opponent control it; it’s amount of movement is random, but it’s direction of movement it decided by the position of your enemy’s units. So your opponent has more control over it than you do!
Apart from the Ld issue, adding a couple of Str 5 attacks from GW-wielding crew members for 12p each seems like a great deal in itself. I just can’t always fit 3 crew members in my IE conversion ideas. :hat off
My most complete IE conversion has the option to put a Character (Sorc Lord) on top of it, but it seems like an extremely bad idea. Has anyone had any success using an IE as a character mount?
You’re basically putting a model on the table and letting your opponent control it; it’s amount of movement is random, but it’s direction of movement it decided by the position of your enemy’s units. So your opponent has more control over it than you do!