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Greetings, all. I'm getting into Fantasy, having only played 40k before (Guard), and I'm going with Dwarves. I only have the 25th Anniversary kit, and the Dwarf Army set, so that's the only stuff I have access to right now. Please keep that in mind when critiquing the list; if you do have a suggestion, though, by all means make it. Also, feel free to (over)explain stuff related to Fantasy's game system.

Master Engineer (1#, 95 Pts)
1 Master Engineer @ 95 Pts
General; Hand Weapon; Gromril Armor
1 Runic Talisman @ [25] Pts
Master Rune of Dismay

Dwarf Warriors (20#, 205 Pts)
19 Dwarf Warriors @ 205 Pts
Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield
1 Veteran @ [19] Pts
Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield

Dwarf Warriors (20#, 315 Pts)
19 Longbeards @ 315 Pts
Upgrade to Longbeards; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield
1 Veteran @ [22] Pts
Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield
1 Runic Standard @ [50] Pts
Master Rune of Grungni

Ironbreakers (20#, 340 Pts)
19 Ironbreakers @ 340 Pts
Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Gromril Armor; Shield
1 Ironbeard @ [25] Pts
Hand Weapon; Gromril Armor; Shield
1 Runic Standard @ [50] Pts
Rune of Battle; Rune of Stoicism

Quarellers (10#, 175 Pts)
9 ~[(^One or more selected options present a potential usage conflict]×~[(#]Quareller Rangers @ 175 Pts
Upgrade to Rangers; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Crossbow; Great Weapon; Light Armour; Shield; Scouts
1 Veteran @ [25] Pts
Hand Weapon; Crossbow; Great Weapon; Light Armour; Shield

Quarellers (10#, 145 Pts)
9 Quarrellers @ 145 Pts
Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Crossbow; Light Armour; Shield
1 Veteran @ [22] Pts
Hand Weapon; Crossbow; Light Armour; Shield

Thunderers (10#, 175 Pts)
9 Thunderers @ 175 Pts
Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Dwarf Handgun; Light Armour; Shield
1 Veteran @ [25] Pts
Hand Weapon; Dwarf Handgun; Light Armour; Shield

Thunderers (10#, 175 Pts)
9 Thunderers @ 175 Pts
Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Dwarf Handgun; Light Armour; Shield
1 Veteran @ [25] Pts
Hand Weapon; Dwarf Handgun; Light Armour; Shield

Airborne Assault (1#, 140 Pts)
1 Gyrocopter @ 140 Pts
Flyer

Artillery Battery (5#, 115 Pts)
1 Cannon @ 115 Pts
Rune of Reloading; Cannon
3 Crew @ [0] Pts
Hand Weapon; Light Armour
1 Engineer @ [15] Pts
Hand Weapon; Light Armour

Artillery Battery (4#, 120 Pts)
1 Organ Gun @ 120 Pts
3 Crew @ [0] Pts
Hand Weapon; Light Armour

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Thanks!

1st things 1st: Drop the Rune of reloading. What that cannon needs is a Rune of Forging. Those things are worth their weight in gold. I don't care where the pts come from, but the thing is unbelievable. You get to re-roll when you misfire, and you can do it for both the shot and the bounce? Unbelievable. This means you're misfiring once every 6 games instead of once every game, which means your cannon is always shooting. And if your bounce sticks, the awesomeness that is a cannonball careening through the enemy lines is also lost. You again drop that from happening once per game to once every 6 games. There is absolutely no question: Rune of Forging. Always.

Next: you have missile units of 10 with full command. They are tough, but they won't hold up to a cavalry charge. They might not even survive an infantry charge. And because you're Dwarves, you won't be dictating movement. Losing a standard is worth 100 pts. You don't want that. I'd drop the standards and even the champions, but keep the shields and musician.

Having done that, we now have some questions. What does your army actually do? I fear that it neglects to do either combat or shooting terribly well. That was the first mistake I made when I started playing Dwarves. I had to go one way or the other. You don't have enough infantry units, and certainly not backed up by your GW-wielding killing machine characters, to make HtH work in your favor. And for shooting, while you have 4 units of missile troops and some artillery, you still lack the power of a full gunline, but you are sort of getting there. I just think it's going to be too hard to defend 4 units of missile troops. War Machines may suck in combat, but they are much smaller and easier to defend with infantry blocks.

I think you either need to go more shooting-heavy or more infantry-heavy. And the two won't balance in the same way. While a gunline will always need a few (2-3) units of infantry to work, an infantry army might not need more than 1 shooting unit.

I like your choices. Basic warriors are always a good choice. The new longbeards are solid as well, and IB are always winners. Cannons, the Organ Gun, and Gyro are all great choices. But even in your rare slots you have internal conflict. For a true gunline, you'd want both slots allotted to Gyros for march-blocking. Now, you have one to march block, while you have an organ gun for exterminating skirmishers and such. And both Quarrellers and Thunderers are good choices, but again, you lack a cohesive strategy. I opted to go for a gunline backed up by an anvil. Many generals opt to go infantry heavy. Regardless, it's tough to win when you fail to focus on making your army excel at one thing it can use to steamroll the opposing army.

We could really use a more accomplished general who's run the tourney circuit to give you the lowdown on exactly how to change this. Now where is Mannahin...

Thank you. Again, not only is this a first list, but it's also with only the things I'm getting from the 25th Anniversary special and the Dwarf Army box. I'm making sure that I actually like Fantasy before I dive head-first into it (Like I did for 40k with the Guard. I'll have you note that I don't post much, if anything, on the 40k boards that isn't tainted by bile).

Getting to the list, by dropping the standards and champions for each unit (except the ones on the Rangers), I can afford the runes of reloading and of forging. is this a good combo, though? I also figure I'd stick my Master Engineer-General here.

Concerning more infantry, that's what I would want, but again, I don't have them right now. I'll have to make do with what I can have.

You're absolutely right to put him with the canon. The D6 wounds is very useful, especially as the cannon might not last the entire game. Also, for 5 more pts, you might throw a rune of burning on it too. There are so many treemen and so much regeneration nowadays that it seems 5 pts well spent.

But I don't see the logic in the 10 pt Rune of Reloading, to be honest. If your crew gets charged, it's game over anyway. If you're taking missile fire, your war machine is taking 2/3 of the hits anyway. You still have 5 crewmen with the Master Engineer (he can stop doing the D6 wounds thing so it can fire that turn). Essentially, you can trade D6 wounds for D3 wounds so you can fire in a turn where the enemy has killed everyone but your Master Engineer and one crewman. Would you spend 10 pts every game so that you have a shot once during the game at doing D6 instead of D3 wounds when the game has already gone on for a while and your firing lanes are diminished? I don't think so.

Having said that, I can't believe I forgot to mention this: you have no magic defense after your 4DD. Don't get me wrong--it's a good start, but a Runesmith is always worth taking. He adds an extra DD but more importantly can carry a few Runes of Spellbreaking. This is important because the magic phase is about avoiding that back-breaking, game-changing spell, momentum-altering spell. You need to be able to stop that Comet of Cassandora, or that last Danse that goes off, or what not. Only a Rune of Spellbreaking (referred to colloquially as a "scroll"--short for dispel scroll) can guarantee that dispel when you really need it. Figure out which unit of missile troops you want to drop and take a Runesmith with a GW, Shield, and 3x RoSpellbreaking.

Concerning the rune of reloading, isn't there a turn between cannon shots? As in, shoot, wait, shoot? if so, that's why I have the rune of reloading. If not, well then i can ditch it.

Concering the Runesmith, I just got another Master Engineer last night (and an Anvil of Doom), so I could use that as a Runesmith, so I can ditch a unit (I'm thinking one of the two units of Thunderers) and throw him on. Concerning Greater Runes (or other runes) for a Talisman carried by him, though, would the "steal a power dice to use as a dispel dice" be a good one? Or the one that adds +1 to dispel checks? Or what?

Also, what's your opinion on the Anvil of Doom? I mean, I know that the Ancient Runes, while pimp and all, have a 50-50 chance of screwing up; the normal runes, though, look like a nifty thing to use every now and then.

Finally, concerning the Organ Gun, it says that as long as I didn't roll a misfire for the number of shots, I can re-roll the shot number; now, I'm assuming that means if I roll a 2 (or 4) on the artillery dice, it'd prolly be a good idea to re-roll it, but do I have to accept the second roll, or can I choose which one is better (as long as it's not a misfire)?

if your gonna take an anvil you might as well take Thorek (3+ ancient power!!)

you can't choose to keep your first roll if you reroll but it can't misfire on the second roll

MR of balance is nice, increase your dispel while reducing your opp casting

I like hammerers better than ironbreakers, stubborn is great

Papasmurf

The Anvil is unbelievable. It really brings the gunline together. You can finally make threats with movement. I myself use it to charge with Miners on turn 2. You can use it to slow down fast-moving units you can't quite march-block. It drops flyers with ease. And you don't even need to do damage!

Having said that, it's pricey. I'd take a Runesmith with some RoSpellbreaking. The MRoBalance is nice, but again, you really want to stop the game-breaking stuff for sure, which is where scrolls come in. As it is, you get 7 DD without the MRoBalance. And when you use the Anvil, always use the basic power. Ancient powers are a waste of time except with Thorek.

About Thorek: he's really good. I mean, really good. Expensive, but unbelievable. I don't believe in special characters, so I don't take him, but then again, I haven't played Dwarves competitively in some time. You are suddenly casting Ancient Runes on what is essentially a 2+. But he's pricey. And what if a tournament doesn't allow him? I know with the new Demons book its much tougher to outlaw special characters, but it certainly happened with Thorek after the book's release. Thorek will not make you any friends. But he's damn good.

Hm, ok. Maybe I'll save the Anvil for bigger games; I'm just trying to get a feel for it first.

Concerning Dispel Dice, how do I figure out how many I have? The Dwarf book doesn't say, "You have X amount of DD"; is it somewhere in the Fantasy rulebook?

Last, concerning the Anvil, it seems you use it just for the movement-slowing rune; Valya's rune, though, does stuff with terror/panic/that stuff; is that as big a role in WH as I think it is?

It's in the BRB in the part concerning dispel dice, I don't have it in front of me or I'd give you the page. I had trouble finding it when I started playing too.

You get 2 base DD, then extra depending on the levels of any wizards you have in your army. Dwarves get and extra 2 for being Dwarves so your army has 4 base DD.

Nifty. So, with a Runelord and an Anvil, I'm looking at 7 Dispel Dice? 8 if I get the Rune of Balance. And the Anvil can give the infantry another 3 inches of movement if necessary (right?), so I might be able to surprise them with an unexpected charge....along with screwing up the movement of some of their armies to expose them to fire longer...

Oh, but concerning the Anvil's ability to re-roll fear and panic, is fear and panic as big a thing in the game as I think? When are they used?

Last, would putting an Engineer on the cannon (which I plan on having the Master Engineer assigned to anyways) really do anything, other than provide another warm body for the gun crew? His Artillery Specialist confers the ability to re-roll a misfire, but the Rune of Forging does that anyways...

Fear and panic for you? Not really. Ld9 across the board.

The killer rune for the gunline is Wrath and Ruin, although once in a while the Movement one can be a killer. Like when you get to charge something in the flank that is immune to psychology and can't flee.