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Starting searforge, any "wish I knew when I started" advice you can share?  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in us
Battlefortress Driver with Krusha Wheel






Mostly interested in dwarves for my dwarf fix, since playing fantasy dwarves I would need something like 700 bucks in models alone not including books before I could get a decent game in. Anyway that's not important. I would just like feedback on how you play them, whats effective, whats not, or playing against them, whats nasty. I like the looks of their jacks a bunch, but I have the feeling its another khador (one or two max) army. Aside from their colossal being fantastic, what should I use? Are there just 3 casters? Do they (privateer press) plan any more units for the searforge? Any advice would be appreciated.

warhammer 40k mmo. If I can drive an ork trukk into the back of a space marine dread and explode in a fireball of epic, I can die happy!

8k points
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Made in us
Master Tormentor





St. Louis

Dwarves actually have some of the most focus efficient jacks in the game, and they're stupidly cheap. You're only going to use one or two heavies (or the Earthbreaker), but three or four of the gun bunnies is pretty easy to do.

There are currently only three Warcasters for them, but they add new ones periodically. All three are pretty good, although I'm partial to Durgen for the synergy with the Earthbreaker's torpedoes, but I do play him as Four Star Syndicate in order to field Kayazy in addition to my dwarves.
   
Made in us
Paingiver







1: The earthbreaker is very strong and you'll want it sooner rather than later. Buying a colossal is a step that players of other factions will take much later in their development as new players. Be aware that getting into mercenaries will make you want to make a big purchase ahead of the curve.

2: Don't be afraid to shift out of searforge to include a few non-dwarf models. A core of rhulic units and battlegroup can be strong in both highborn and fourstar while they both spice it up with units and solos. No harm in mercenaries bringing a few hired hands when even the big factions do the same. You'll want an edge when you only get one Thor Steinhammer.

   
Made in us
The Conquerer






Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios

Run 4 gun bunnies(2 of each) they're fantastic!

Thor Steinhammer is also an important solo to get.

From there, you'll want one unit of Forge Guard and one unit of High Shields(with UA)

That will cover your infantry for a while. You might end up getting a second unit of Forge Guard eventually.

One of each heavy jack and 2 of each gun bunny will be a solid start.

Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines

Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.

MURICA!!! IN SPESS!!! 
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





Honestly, the most important thing I can tell you is that 'dwarves are not a faction.' Dwarves are a subset of a faction, and that is a huge distinction.

Now, you can certainly make an all dwarf army work, but it's similar to a 'themed' army in any given game. They are reasonably complete, and will put up a fight against most everything, but at the same time they are not completely balanced, nor are they meant to be completely balanced by themselves.

More units/casters/etc will be coming to them, but at a much slower pace than for other 'real' factions.
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran




Illinois

 BoardroomHero wrote:
Honestly, the most important thing I can tell you is that 'dwarves are not a faction.' Dwarves are a subset of a faction, and that is a huge distinction.

This, so much this. Dwarfs in warmachine fluff that fight in the game are all mercenaries or ogruns out on "proving" style quests before they return the dwarf homeland. The reason for this is because Rhul is currently not at war with any of the other major powers, and so the dwarfs actual rank and file military are in Rhul, the dwarf homeland.

The only dwarfs out fighting outside of Rhul are I said are mercs or ogruns out on proving quests. So dwarfs are a sub group of mercenaries, therefore you can play with only dwarfs but miss out on a lot of stuff that is really good fielded alongside dwarf models. With mercs you use contracts, which help determine what models you can field, they are The Four Star Syndicate, The Highborn Covenant , The Searforge Commission , and The Talion Charter. The Searforge Commission is only dwarf and ogrun models but honestly every dwarf model can also be played in Highborn Covenant, and Highborn Covenant also gives you access to a lot of REALLY good solos and units that are not dwarfs or ogruns. You can totally play really good competitive lists using a dwarf warcaster, dwarf jacks, and some other dwarf infantry as well as human or maybe elf infantry and solos to do some of the heavy lifting or support your heavy hitters and do really well. A dwarf only army is missing out on a lot of key mercenary pieces like Gorman that just too good to pass up.

Also dwarf only armies tend to get stomped by cryx, since dwarfs are very slow and easy to hit but have decent armor. Cryx has a lot of very fast moving hard hitting models that will touch your dwarfs in all the wrong places.
   
Made in us
Battlefortress Driver with Krusha Wheel






Thanks for the advice all. I got the cards, a leader, and 2 of the small shooting jacks. They were surprisingly effective. I proxied in some of the guys with the sledgehammers, and the shooting guys with the shields. It was just a 15 point game. Unfortunatley I ran into severus, and he pretty much paid all his focus to have my own guys kill themselves before I could do much damage. Next time I will keep in mind that him with an arc node is a bad combo heh.

warhammer 40k mmo. If I can drive an ork trukk into the back of a space marine dread and explode in a fireball of epic, I can die happy!

8k points
3k points
3k points
Admech 2.5k points
 
   
Made in us
Storm Guard





pSeverius convert is a Star Action which means he can only do it once per turn and has nothing to do with Focus.

Some things not specifiaclly mentioned by others(though again the gun bunnies are some of the best light jacks in the game)

The Thor and Earthbreaker combination is probably one of the best two model combinations in the game.

Look into the Tactical Arcanist Corps, they're extremely versatile having both strong offensive and defensive abilities.

Brun and Lug are really fun to play. They're one of those models that are fairly powerful but people skip over because they're essentially a melee beatstick and that's not a problem that dwarves usually need fixing. Plus you get to make all of the stupid jokes about killing people with your Bear Hands.


When/if you expand into other Mercenary models,

Gorten run the Pirate Boat fairly well. Solid Ground protects all of your key Solo models from blast damage, keeps your super tough infantry from getting knocked down, and his feat allows you to get a second charge in which is great as Pirates almost always get the first charge. (If you couldn't tell from my Avatar I'm a big fan of Pirates in this game)

Ossrum is really good at running loads of solo's.

Sample list:
Ossrum [Highborn]
-Ghordson Earthbreaker
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
-Gun Mage Officer
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Herne & Jonne
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Gastone Crosse
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Harlan Versh
Taryn di la Rovissi
Viktor Pendrake
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile
Thor Steinhammer
3-Points Remaining

Which has multiple ways to Knock Down (EB/Gun Mages/Pendrake), Push (Gun Mages), ignore LOS (Taryn), extend range (Snipe/Double Powder Ration) all go toward enhancing assassination potential - backed up with plenty of strong shooting.




This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/07 14:59:39


 
   
Made in us
Battlefortress Driver with Krusha Wheel






If thor gets assassinated, say by a pistol wraith, dosent that pretty much shut down earthbreaker, or does he just add extra abilities on top of my leader being able to give it focus and marshal it?

warhammer 40k mmo. If I can drive an ork trukk into the back of a space marine dread and explode in a fireball of epic, I can die happy!

8k points
3k points
3k points
Admech 2.5k points
 
   
Made in nz
Longtime Dakkanaut



New Zealand

Thor doesn't give Focus and you can't Marshall a Colossal even if you wanted him to (they can only go on Casters or Journeyman casters). Thor is amazing because with single action he effectively gives the Earthbreaker between 4 and 8 focus per turn (depending on how many shots you get with the Repeating Guns). However it isn't actually focus so you can combine it with 3 from your caster - so you could get 5 melee attacks with all of them being boosted if you wanted to swing in melee (which with Strength of Granite is going to put pretty much anything in the dirt), or be boosting both hit and damage for some of his shots. He also has Repair if you need to fix up a system (which you rarely will, but can be useful if you need movement to get a charge off for instance).

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/08 11:08:45


 
   
Made in us
Sure Space Wolves Land Raider Pilot



Schaumburg, IL

I play Searforge. The only thing you won't want to purchase of what is available is the artillary pieces.

Playing a purely Searforge army and wanting to be competetive almost requires the Earthbreaker and Thor. To avoid having Thor assassinated by a pistol wraith or anything else, I'd suggest the Tactical Arcanist Corp. They are only 4 points and provide smoke grenades so that LOS to Thor and/or caster is blocked and they also give you magical weapons (not to mention a couple of spells). The Forgeguard are a must. The Ogrun assault corp are pretty good too. The ranged unit when adding the attachment is decent, however I don't use them that much.

As for warjacks, the gun bunnies are good, I tend to only use the ones with the spray attack. As said earlier, the Earthbreaker is a must buy for this army. The Driller is good for a 6 point heavy. The Rockram - ehh, it has its moments, but the short range on the gun doesn't help much. The avalancher - don't bother, It costs way too many points for what you get out of it. The Basher is really good, it is faster then the rest of their warjacks and is focus effecient because it has free slam attacks, not to mention it can follow-up after the slam and then it also has a flack field autohitting attack on everything around it. Brun and Lug - can be used to decent effect, but it is more of a niche thing to use - definitely a purchase made after you've been playing the army for a while.

For solos, Thor is a must buy. Gudrun the wanderer is pretty good and the Ogrun bodyguards are pretty good too - they match up really well with the forgeguard or Brun and Lug.

All three casters are good and worth buying.

Good luck - always glad to see more Rhullic/dwarf players.

I'm not prejudiced, I hate everyone equally 
   
 
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