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Master engineer ( Organ gun )
Master engineer ( Organ gun )
Runesmith - Rune of Stone, Rune of Spellbreakingx2, Shield
Runesmith - Rune of Stone, Rune of Spellbreakingx2, Master Rune of Passage, Shield
Thane - Master Rune of grugni, Rune of slowness , Shield

38 Longbeards - Shields, Great weapons, Musician, Standard bearer, Strollaz rune
34 Hammerers - Musician, Standard bearer, Strollaz Rune,Rune of slowness

3x Gyrocopter
Cannon - Rune of Forging, Rune of burning

5 Rangers
Organ gun
Organ gun

Hail! I like the idea and have experimented with Vanguard type lists as well.

The primary concern I'd say is covering the rear of your infantry as they advance. Gyrocopters can be excellent for this, but consider a Gyrobomber and have it just fly around the backfield to ward off enemy war machine hunters. A back set Organ Gun or even a Flame Cannon also covers well.

I am curious as to how you would set up this list though.


I tried one list in which two Flame Cannons alternated moving forward with groups of Quarrellers or Thunderers while the infantry advanced in the middle. It worked well, the advance was a slow one, but it won the day.

A few things:

- have you considered just dropping the war machines all together? I know that's very much against the normal Dwarf concept, but you've got, what...almost 700pts in war machines, while the rest of your army runs off?

- Gyrobombers are, generally speaking, not very good. But for this list, they might offer something.

- I think you could benefit from some medium-sized units of Miners and Irondrakes. Maaaybe Rangers. Maybe.

The idea of getting rid of the war machines is interesting, however they are crutial in the coverage of the forward moving units.

How so?

With Gyrocopters, Miners, and Irondrakes, you can still be applying early-game pressure, and with a 5+/5+ or better on your main blocks, they're pretty darn resilient to shooting.

I could drop an organ gun, but i feel playing dwarfs and not using at least 2 cannons is not the best idea as there so accurate and with flaming can deal with chimeras easily etc.

If i drop the runed up organ gun i could add a few rangers or 2 small miner units but i really feel i need the warmachines as dwarfs cant do anything in the magic phase so we gotta have something to soften up any big units/chaff/big monsters.

You don't "need" to take two cannons, or any war machines at all.
That Chimera...where is he going? Into combat with your WS5 S6 blocks? He's not going to last long.

Rangers are normally frowned upon, but I could see how a small unit of Scouts would be nice, since the rest of your army is headed out that way anyway. They can clear chaff, threaten flanks, etc. Might be worth a try.

Again, Dwarfs don't "gotta have" any kind of shooting. Big units? Uh. You've got two blocks of 35 Elite models. They'll handle big units just fine.
Chaff? You've got 'Copters! Monsters? Show me one monster that wants to get into combat with either of those blocks.

And aside from all that, I say again: Irondrakes. S5 flaming shots that can keep up with your main line, offer supporting fire, and lend a hand in combat.

If your entire army is based around Vanguard, you absolutely must have at least one small unit of Rangers.

Without them, if your opponent has any scouts and/or vanguard units of his own, he'll just put them 12" in front of your two blocks, and you will be doing no Vanguard move at all, thereby negating your entire tactic. Having a 60 point Ranger unit at least gives you a roll-off to allow you to place your Scouts first, protecting your Vanguard lanes.

As to leaving the warmachines at home; that's not a terrible idea. It's actually close to 550-600 points for the three 'machines and two Engineers. With that, there are a couple of interesting options. You could take another 30+ block of Vanguarding Ironbreakers. With this option, you could make more of bus formation, include the BSB in this unit, and place them between the two other units, allowing all three units to benefit from the 5++ vs shooting. It would give you a central "anvil" unit with two "hammer" units flanking it. Another interesting option would be to take a large unit of Irondrakes with Vanguard. Put the BSB with this unit to take advantage of the Slowness rune on the unit to increase the odds of getting another shooting phase and another stand and shoot. Irondrakes with their S5 AP Flaming attacks should take away a lot of your fear of Chimaeras. Or, you could take two smaller Irondrake units with Vanguard (just have to play with the no-duplicate runic banners thing) to go on the flanks to soften targets or deal with chaff.

Just some additional ideas. Hope they're at least thought provoking.

Your list shows 3 'Copters with Vanguard. Not sure if that's a mis-type, but only half (rounded up) of your 'Copters can be given Vanguard, so only 2 should have it.

I'd put double Slowness on a mid-sized unit of Irondrakes. They'll be a little behind your main lines, but that's a good thing. You don't want them getting tangled up in combat or the target of tons of shooting, if you can help it.

And Miners. Miners all the way. Units of 10, 15-20, and 30 are good sizes, depending on the role you want them to have.

Good point on the Rangers, though. A unit of 10 would pose a threat to chaff/other Scouts. 15 or more could help out in combat, if need be. 5 are a pretty nice little speed bump. And with WS5 T4 5+ Ld9, they still require some kind of a commitment to get rid of.

I like the list a lot, I may try this out when I buy the new codex

Any reason for the double Organ Guns?

I like organ guns

I miss read the gyrocopter part so if i dropped the points i spent on those 3 having vanguard, i could add a min unit of rangers maybe even drop a couple points elswhere just to add 2 x 5 man ranger units. I could drop 1 rune of spellbreaking just kind of trim the fat off the list.

Is it worth dropping both engineers and just taking accuracy on both organ guns again to save points?

Oh, wow. Didn't even catch that. Yes. Drop those Engineers and take Accuracy. It's the same thing for the Organ Gun, only a lot cheaper and harder to get rid of.
Accuracy and Forging on one, and either Accuracy or Forging on the other.

Though, honestly, with only two blocks? I'm just going to tie those units down with tar pits, slip past them, and take out all your war machines. If I just play keep-away for the rest of the game, I'll still win.

I agree with what you say but slip by with what? 2 Organ guns with the master engineers they will be in hard cover so -2 to hit and organ guns are pretty much designed to wipe out fast cav and anything else like that.

I also have 3 Gyros to deal with that or try to stop redirecters of the main blocks, but of course this list has many downsides but i dont wanna have a boring stand back and shoot army.

Accuracy and forging on the organ gun is what i was thinking but the defense i gain from the engineer and the fact that the organ guns wont be magical so i can actuall kill banner the world dragon units =).

Personally I love the list. but one unit of rangers is missing. getting out deployed and lacking the vanguard invalidates a lot of your list.

Warsphinx are the only monster that will be like "need 6's to wound anyway brah" provided they get the charge off.

I think if you shave off points by dropping the engi's and one vanguard you should have enough points to drop it into a unit of rangers. Or maybe just do that to one gun as botwd is a pain.

A Flaming rune on Hammerer champ, for regen and ethereal units could be huge.

Haha. Arcadia hit on something.

BotWD is a pain. It's a reason that my gunline has one un-runed Grudgethrower.

Take that, dirty elf.

 bennyboy6189 wrote:
I agree with what you say but slip by with what?

2 Organ guns with the master engineers they will be in hard cover so -2 to hit and organ guns are pretty much designed to wipe out fast cav and anything else like that.

I also have 3 Gyros to deal with that or try to stop redirecters of the main blocks...

You've got two blocks. So...I send in two of my units to get chopped into mince meat, and I've got the rest of my army to deal with 3 Gyrocopters and two war machines. Those Organ Guns won't just have to deal with fast cavalry. They'll have to deal with, well, pretty much everything that gets by your two blocks and Gyrocopters.

 bennyboy6189 wrote:
but of course this list has many downsides but i dont wanna have a boring stand back and shoot army.

No! Never. But Dwarfs have quite a few options out there to fit a list like this. My friend tried a bunch of Gyrocopters, two small blocks of Rangers, and a big ol' horde of Miners. It was really hard to deal with; Dwarfs coming in from all sides like that. And it was dynamic and fun and new, too.

 bennyboy6189 wrote:
Accuracy and forging on the organ gun is what i was thinking but the defense i gain from the engineer and the fact that the organ guns wont be magical.

Forgot about the added defense. But you don't need war machines to take on that unit. You've got two blocks that'll put up a good fight against it. Not to mention the Flame templates from your Gyrocopters that just love-love-love T3 elves.