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I am adding a unit of 10 duelists to my 2k Empire list (NEB); but can't decide what to equip them with.  They come with handweapons and WS 4/I4 for 5 points each as a rare choice in my army.  They skermish.  (Oddly they lack the 2Attacks of an empire Duelist.)

They can take one of the following:  Bucklers, pistols, or another hand weapon.  On top of these they can take throwing knives.

Their purpose is to defend my 2 (maybe 3) cannon from enemy warmachine hunters; and I can't decide if I should give them bucklers (which count as shields) or if I should give them pistols.  It's very unfortunate that they don't get any armour options, which makes me tilt twords bucklers, but seince shields don't protect against missile fire, and seince they are skermishers and get no/don't negate any rank bonuses, I'm tilting back twords pistols and keeping them out of combat all together.

AFAIK I can "stand and shoot" with throwing knives, which means I *could* give them buckers and knives, and try for it that way.

What say you guys?  I've little experience guarding war machines...  

For starters, this should be in the WHFB forums...

I myself have a unit of Duellists armed with Pistols. Of course, I made the unit during 6th Edition, where pistols could be used in combat. However, when using them for defending against war machine hunters, this should be enough. A handful of pistol shots should take care of most light troops.

WOOT! A Dogs of War question! That's right up my alley!

Anyway, Duelists are very good as 1 turn speed bumps. And, in some ways, they are better than Free Companies. Skirmish makes them very resistant to small arms fire.

Now... if 7th ed lets you use Pistols in HTH, then get pistols. Like Manf, when I had duelists I put pistols on them, which made them more Dutch duelists than French or Castillian. Pistols hit hard, are cheap, and give the duelists much need bite for minimal cost. Not to mention that in 6th ed, you could use Pistol and sword in hth, giving you 1 str 4 and 1 str 3 hit on the first turn, and then a 2 str 3 hits on following turns.

Now, if 7th ed doesn't let you use Pistols in hth, the question gets trickier. WS 4 and I 4 are... okay as bonus' go. Acutally, in my opinion, WS 4 is no better than WS 3, and I 4 only comes into play during protracted combats, which the duelists usually are not going to be in. Duelists are very much 1 turn speedbumps.

Shields no longer help against missile fire? Are you sure about that?

Anyway, I would still have to lean towards pistols. Given the fact that they are humans... slightly faster humans, but humans, giving them the ability to have a "EAT THIS" shot before they die, might cause enough damage to buy your artillery crew that 1 turn it needs.

I use duelists too, they're fun and fluffy for my pirates mine have pistols as well.. I use them (and archer detachments) to screen my front lines try and bait the other guy into charging them, so they can flee and he fails his charge, and gets stuck out in the open so I can charge him instead. If I stand and shoot, usually they'll get wiped out and he'll overrun into my other troops :/

Shields work against missle fire. Where on earth are you getting the idea that they don't? That's the only reason to equip halberdiers with shields, after all, since halberdiers can't use them in close combat.

As for the duellists, definitely go with pistols. Pistols can _always_ stand and shoot, and suffer no penalties for moving or range. Keep them between your warmachines and the enemy.

Whoops I ment that handweapon and shield dosn't work against missile fire; must have been really tired o_o;

Yes I think pistols shall work well. How about unit size and use? I dislike suicide units so I'm thinking 15-20 as a large mass of skirmishers for march blocking/flank harassing.

Depends on a) is there an upper limit on duellists' unit size, and b) how many points do you want to spend on a rather fragile rare choice? Noting that 20 pistol shots with a 360 arc of fire is really sweet.

Well I have about 250 points left, and I dislike all the current Empire rare choices to be honest.  Sadly, IIRC skirmishers cannot march block anymore, but they can still pour fire into a flank, forcing a unit to turn their way to deal with them (exposing their flank to harder units) or causing another unit to re-rout.   20 pistol shots are awesome for 180 pts.  Pitty they're not BS4 or something, but still a good deal.