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Since Slayers always count Strength as equal to Toughness after weapon bonuses, is there any advantage to taking Great Weapons over Extra Hand Weapons?

Yes.

If Str = Toughness, you wound on a 4+.

However, if memory serves, the actual rule reads "The Slayer's Strength always equals the monsters toughness, unless the slayer's strength would be higher than that."

What that means is, if you fight an Oger (T 4), the Slayer would be considered to have S 4. Thus, you'd wound on a 4+. But, if you had a great weapon, the Slayer's modified str is now 5... which means now you wound on a 3+ (as the base Str of a slayer is a 3, if memory serves.)

And, I think you still use the "normal" strenth of the slayer for armor penalties. Thus, the great weapon gives you a -2 armor penalty, but the slayer using his special ability confers no armor penalty.

Though, this is all without the dwarf book in front of me to refer too, so... hopefully someone else can have a more definate answer.

Yup, that's right, the strenght modifier comes after the bonus for great weapons. But I do believe that you use the modified strenght for Armour saves (not 100% sure).

Also, the new slayers come with both great and additional weapons as standard, so you simply choose before each combat.

P.S this is even more hazy, but I believe that slayers are now a 5+ unit size unit together with all the dwarf special infantry.

If slayers are using their special rule for matching strength, they count their increased strength for armor.  So against Ogres, you can count it as str 4, save mod -1.

As I understand it, the new rules do allow all dwarf specials to be fielded in units as small as 5 a piece.  And the bit about slayer axes counting as either two hand weapons, or a single great weapon is also true according the word over at Bugman's.

RZ

I ALWAYS take great weapons on my slayers in my slayer cult army (only exception is my unit of st4 brotherhood) to wade through the mass of T3 and T4 troops and to get throught the armour of those almost unkillable T3 bretonnians.

*Waves fist at the idiot games designer who made the bretonnian prayer ward save apply in combat as well as shooting and increase to a 5+ for st 5 or more attacks (the only ones that ever have a chance to get through all that fast moving, exceptionally cheap armour).*