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Hail! Finally, the time has come for the Dwarf Reclamation, and none will stand in the way!

Personally, I am very satisfied overall with the new book, and I have been creating more and more combinations of Runes, units and armies, one of which I got a chance to use recently, and I wanted to know what others think.

This army consisted of two units or Hammerers which is one my favorite builds, two units of Irondrakes, two units of Quarrellers, Grimm Burloksson, a Thane and an Organ Gun... The Irondrake units consisting of 12 each, a Trollhammer Torpedo, Cinderblasrlt Bombs, and a Rune of Strollaz for each giving one a RoSanctuary to avoid the Rule of Pride, and giving them different Rune combinations. They both advance forward to begin detering enemies and burn them to ashes.

The methods used for the Hammerers though, are what I am interested in knowing others' opinions of. Two units, one of 24 and one of 23, the one of 23 has the MRoValaya, and a Thane who has 3 Runes of Battle, and the MRoGroth One-Eye. The unit of 24 of have the MRoStromni Red-Beard, the idea of course is to spread the effects of the Master Runes to surrounding units.

The unit of 23 with the Thane however, is truly powerful. Working with the Irondrakes, the Hammerers may attempt to assault a tied down unit, gaining the +1S from Resolute, giving them S7 attacks! Additionally, there will 24 attacks total, 2 for each in the first rank, and one for each in the second and third rank, thanks to the Runes of Battle. I also have given the unit captain a RoCleaving, RoStriking, and RoSpeed (alternatively the Grudge Rune) to challenge the opposing unit commander during combat. The unit will also be able to use Ld 10 (should they ever need to) and will have a +3 to Combat Res, should the other unit be within 12", as well as full command, additional banner, and the inevitable large number of enemies who will be struck down.

This unit especially and the other can smash away any enemies before them with ease, in fact in a recent battle againat Lizardmen this tactic worked with a smashing (pun intended) success, when they assaulted a unit of 24 Saurus Warriors, and completely decimated the unit causing them to flee and be caught underfoot, destroying the unit in a single combat.

This unit and the Thane is an expensive investment overall, but even when assaulted will have an advantage, and as I said, keeping the Master Runes with range of eachother is very important, and they should all be when the real combats begin.

So I am interested in what others think of this tactic, and I would like to see other peoples favorite or powerful tactics which they seen or come up with! Questions and comments welcome!

 Mountain-Breaker wrote:
The unit of 23 with the Thane however, is truly powerful. Working with the Irondrakes, the Hammerers may attempt to assault a tied down unit, gaining the +1S from Resolute, giving them S7 attacks! Additionally, there will 24 attacks total, 2 for each in the first rank, and one for each in the second and third rank, thanks to the Runes of Battle. I also have given the unit captain a RoCleaving, RoStriking, and RoSpeed (alternatively the Grudge Rune) to challenge the opposing unit commander during combat. The unit will also be able to use Ld 10 (should they ever need to) and will have a +3 to Combat Res, should the other unit be within 12", as well as full command, additional banner, and the inevitable large number of enemies who will be struck down.

Keep in mind that this unit will almost never actually get the full 24 attacks. With ASL, 90% of enemies you go up against will kill a good number of models before the Hammerers swing.

The weakness to Hammerers is that they can't take a punch as well as you'd like. They hit really hard, but T4 and 5+ isn't great defense. Take going up against a unit of White Lions, as an example, that has the same 6 model frontage. At the very least, they're going to strip the back rank off of the Hammerers before the Dwarfs have a chance to swing. Phoenix Guard and Swordmasters would have the same likely effect, as would units like Executioners or Savage Orks. Even a unit of 12 unbuffed Witch Elves in a 6x2 formation should take 5-6 models off the back rank of the Hammerers. Khorne WoC should kill 8 before ASL swings.

In each of these cases, the Hammerers still might win combat, but they're going to take pretty heavy losses to do it.

(As to your success vs Saurus Warriors, keep in mind, those aren't elite infanty. An elite combat block like Hammerers is supposed to carve right through them.)

I use 14, 7x2 and they aren't a TON of points but they dish out enough as a support unit to make up for it.

Hammerers benefit more now because of the extra attacks for they fit a great support role.

MSU can work.
3 units of hammers, 3 units of slayers, and then steadfast core, and sneaky miners.

Go narrow for agility, and get the charge into the flanks, while the core strips steadfast.

-Matt

Going along with what Matt said, you can add the rune that gives stubborn to everything in a bubble.

Makes MSU pretty nasty for dwarfs.

 HawaiiMatt wrote:
MSU can work.
3 units of hammers, 3 units of slayers, and then steadfast core, and sneaky miners.

Go narrow for agility, and get the charge into the flanks, while the core strips steadfast.

-Matt

Smaller units of Hammerers into the flanks of enemy units would be amazing. You would keep the strong offensive capacity of the unit while mitigating their relative squishiness by reducing the number of incoming attacks.

Slayers in the front to pin a unit allowing the Hammerers to hit the flank isn't a terrible idea at all.

Last game I played, I used a horde of 50 hammers with a runesmith for AP, a BSB with 3 runes of battle, and one of those 300 point "unkillable" kings. I was against warriors of chaos and I killed two big blocks of chaos warriors, a slaughter brute, a giant, some big thing casting bound spells (never know what it was just killed it), and I lost 15 hammerers the whole game. My cannons and organs guns supported the flanks. Hammerers are pretty boss in the new version.

TheyTarget wrote:
Last game I played, I used a horde of 50 hammers with a runesmith for AP, a BSB with 3 runes of battle, and one of those 300 point "unkillable" kings. I was against warriors of chaos and I killed two big blocks of chaos warriors, a slaughter brute, a giant, some big thing casting bound spells (never know what it was just killed it), and I lost 15 hammerers the whole game. My cannons and organs guns supported the flanks. Hammerers are pretty boss in the new version.

And any opponent that went into combat with that needs some help with his game.
It's ~1250 points in one unit, and he should have just blocked and redirected it and killed the rest of your army instead.

How on earth did they kill so little?
All of those units should have struck first to full effect.

 HawaiiMatt wrote:

TheyTarget wrote:
Last game I played, I used a horde of 50 hammers with a runesmith for AP, a BSB with 3 runes of battle, and one of those 300 point "unkillable" kings. I was against warriors of chaos and I killed two big blocks of chaos warriors, a slaughter brute, a giant, some big thing casting bound spells (never know what it was just killed it), and I lost 15 hammerers the whole game. My cannons and organs guns supported the flanks. Hammerers are pretty boss in the new version.

And any opponent that went into combat with that needs some help with his game.
It's ~1250 points in one unit, and he should have just blocked and redirected it and killed the rest of your army instead.

And, to make your point even more valid, it's probably closer to 1400-1500 points assuming the Hammerers had full command and a magic banner of their own and the Runesmith had equipment.

I certainly hope its not to much of a suprise that a good unit will be effective in a gigantic horde?

As for myself, right now im pondering the whether to go 5x5 or something like 7x2.
Both have merits. I guess a few games with sort it out.

TheyTarget wrote:
Last game I played, I used a horde of 50 hammers with a runesmith for AP, a BSB with 3 runes of battle, and one of those 300 point "unkillable" kings. I was against warriors of chaos and I killed two big blocks of chaos warriors, a slaughter brute, a giant, some big thing casting bound spells (never know what it was just killed it), and I lost 15 hammerers the whole game. My cannons and organs guns supported the flanks. Hammerers are pretty boss in the new version.

A horde of 50 hammerers with all characters inside is going to get flanked from all directions. Lets say 4 skullcrushers and 2 gorebeasts flank that unit, thats 2d6+2 S5 impact hits, 26 S5 attacks, 12 S6 attacks and 4 S6 stomps... 23 casualties (rounded up) before hammerers get to swing. Then hammerers would strike back with 6 attacks from each flank, not enough to even kill a single skullcrusher, so they are destined to endure 38 S5 attacks + 4 S5 stomps more before they can use their full offensive potential, which won't be that great with 10 guys left. Add any hex to the mix and hammerers won't even get the chance to retaliate after they have reformed, virtually doing 0 damage, which I find particularly hilarious.

That was 600pts vs 1300pts.

To be more specific with the hammerer horde thing. First we got the valley battle so the board was shortened, then I managed to control an area of the battle field where terrain was guarding one flank, with a block of warriors on the other side of it to stop armies from going around for a rear charge. With 2 cannons, 2 organs, and 28 thunderers and engineers guarding my exposed flank. The low kills was actually just unlucky dice rolls for him when combat started. So I out played him by a lot in that battle, and yeah it was probably over half my points in that one unit counting the runesmith, BSB, and dwarf lord.