Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Why don't I ever see hero/lord with rune of brotherhood on a miner unit. Wouldn't it be a nice idea to let the hero swoop in from the back, being all killy and stout? Maybe with the MRo Challenge, so the forces NEED to split to go and attack the tough-as-nails-hero? And then you can go shooty and chargy in the back of said forces (when you have the anvil, ofcourse).
Curious after the answer, thanks in advance.

I've been thinking about doing something like this with a runesmith armed with the brotherhood and rune of challenge or some other cheap hero and placing him with 7-9 miners. The problem with the rune of challenge is that the unit you use it on must be able to charge, so they have to be facing you, or a skermish unit. Luckily that means most arty will be suseptable to this rune and therefore sintead of them shooting and standing and shooting again when you charge them, you can force them to charge you on their turn. Which means you protect yourself from getting shot at by other things on that turn and you may break them, but not kill them allowing you to chase a bit and get some extra movement before your turn. If you try it out let me know how it goes.

You don't see it probably because most enemies will be on the other table edge fighting the camping dwarf army. A flank charge, sure could work. But miners fulfill 2 roles:
1: Capture a quadrant late game.
2: Take an enemy from the flank or rear, be it warmachines or to deny rank bonus and get bonus combat res vs units.

The chance that a 100+ point character is off table for several turn, then can't charge the turn he arrives is a big downside.

Would love to hear how they go though if you do run the hero in the unit.

I'll consider taking one then in a friendly game, and will awaken this , then years old, thread. :p

Which hero to send is the question.

A runesmith off table supplies no dispel dice and can't use dispel runes.

A thane tends to be more expensive overall but can rack up more kills if he gets to hth.

No book with me opinion:
I thought that for the rune of challenge to work there had to be a character or champion in the unit thus challenged. If no character then no challenge. And I'm not sure how many war machines come with champions of some kind.

I'm not sure I'd use Miners for this anyway....why Miners and not any other unit? Maybe I'm missing something here, but.....

Also--whoa---Waaaagh Gonads! wow....you're still here, eh? I was a member here something like 6 years ago now, but I remember you were here back then too. Glad to see some of the old crew is still kicking around!

Because the question is about the rune of brotherhood, which lets you deploy your Hero/Lord with a unit of Miners underground or Rangers as scout. And Rangers are my least favorite (and only not favorite) dwarf unit.

hm. just read it, yeah....you know, I'm not entirely sure that it would be worth it to 'hide' your general by keeping him off the table for so long. You can't control when the miners arrive (unless you give them a steamdrill of course, which I wouldn't do unless it's a big unit)....so you run the risk of your hero being kept out of the game, *not* killing things or otherwise adding bonuses to your side for a good portion of the game, rolls depending.

Also--when he *does* arrive, he's with Miners. 5+ save Miners, who will die quickly and have no other special rules for leadership tests, etc. Hardly worth it I'd say.

I think the rune of challenge states any unit, not a champion or hero. So you can use it on anything, but I don't have the book with me atm so could be wrong. And I would not use this on a general of the army, but I would do it with a runesmith hero that I have sitting around as suuport anyways. I was not aware that the rules specified that the unit had to be on the table to generate power/dispel dice. Again I don't have the books on me, but doesn't it say one dispel dice per lvl of mage IN THE ARMY. Not "on the board" as someone above suggested.

I don't believe it was a suggestion. So far as I know models have to be on table to produce power/dispel dice. Following the "in the army" idea means that even if your mage has died or fled off table you still get dice just because he was paid for already. Nah.

Present on table gives you abilities and dice.

I double checked and on pages 106 and 107 it states that fleeing and off table characters produce no power or dispel dice.

The rune of challenge does effect one enemy unit that can charge. Of course the rune of brother and challenge are 45 pts together so on a thane or runesmith that leaves 30 pts for weapon, armor, or other talisman runes.

Allright, but let's ignore the MroChallenge, which wasn't the real issue. The issue was rather: why don't I ever see a Rune of brotherhood?

Basically the rune of brotherhood just isn't useful unless combined with some other tactic like MroC or just wanting to pay some extra points to get your leader a free scout move and then detach from the rangers/miners and fight on his own. Both of which rarely happen.

I've used it successfully once to come in bang in the middle behind a long gunline. The thane split off and went one way while the unit went the other.

It was okay, but they didn't arrive till turn 4, and so didn't really cut down on the incoming fire too much. It was fun, though.

RZ

I don't know...I still don't think it's worth it to have a Dwarf Thane, which is one of the most powerful hero-level characters in the game, sit out for what could potentially be half of the game (or more in uncommon cases). Such a waste of points and effectiveness.

just take bugman with some rangers and that is going to be more effective than your miners with thane

General_K wrote:I don't know...I still don't think it's worth it to have a Dwarf Thane, which is one of the most powerful hero-level characters in the game, sit out for what could potentially be half of the game (or more in uncommon cases). Such a waste of points and effectiveness.

Then again... isn't he going to do that anyway? He won't see combat for at least two turns,IF he goes second. If the other army isn't offensive, you might be lucky to get into a fight at turn 5+, if not at all.

@ orkyboss: Actually, Bugman with a bunch of longbeard rangers could really put on the hurt early on... I might think that one over...