Throng of Barak Varr update

Last weekend ive played a 3rd game and tested some new things and ideas.

This is the army list ive used:

++ Characters [608 pts] ++
Thane [139 pts]
(Hand weapon, Great weapon, Full plate armour, Battle Standard Bearer, On foot, Master Rune of Gromril, Rune of Stone, Master Rune of Stromni red beard, Rune of battle)

King [289 pts]
(Hand weapon, Great weapon, Full plate armour, General, Shieldbearers, Grudge Rune, Rune of Cleaving, Rune of Parrying, Rune of Fortitude)

Runesmith [122 pts]
(Hand weapon, Great weapon, Full plate armour, 2x Rune of Spellbreaking)

Engineer [58 pts]
(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Handgun)

++ Core Units [782 pts] ++
29 Dwarf Warriors [316 pts]
(Hand weapons, Heavy armour, Shields, Veteran, Standard bearer [Rune of Battle + Rune of Courage], Musician)

10 Thunderers [105 pts]
(Hand weapons, Handguns, Heavy armour, Veteran)

10 Rangers [142 pts]
(Hand weapons, Crossbows, Heavy armour, Great weapons, Ol’ Deadeye (champion), Standard bearer)

14 Longbeards [219 pts]
(Hand weapons, Great weapons, Heavy armour, Elder (champion), Standard bearer [Rune of Battle])

++ Special Units [879 pts] ++
1 Gyrocopters [60 pts]
(Hand weapons, Steam guns, Armoured Fuselage (Full plate armour))

Cannon [115 pts]
(Cannon, Hand weapons, Light armour, Rune of Forging)

Cannon [130 pts]
(Cannon, Hand weapons, Light armour, 2x Rune of Forging)

Grudge Thrower [120 pts]
(Stone thrower, Hand weapons, Light armour, Rune of Forging, Rune of Burning)

14 Ironbreakers [266 pts]
(Hand weapons, Shields, Full plate armour, Ironbeard (champion), Standard bearer [Rune of Confusion], Musician)

14 Longbeards [188 pts]
(Hand weapons, Great weapons, Heavy armour, Elder (champion))

++ Rare Units [130 pts] ++
10 Rangers [130 pts]
(Hand weapons, Crossbows, Heavy armour, Great weapons)

Ive recenlty painted a unit of longbeards so i wanted to test them. Ive also removed some units that were underperforming last time like thunderers, slayers and gyrocopters. I will bring them back eventually since they have their usages but for now i wanted to focus on other units.

Again i set my gunline on a hill with thunderers guarding its front and bigger units waiting on sides. I had two main fighting units (iron breakers and clansmen) and two supporting units of longbeards ready for charging flanks.

I set rangers on my flanks to counter harpies and centigors aiming for my warmachines. This time around my oponent brought a horde army. Four magic users including deamon prince and many chariots. Chariots proved to be rather underwhelming. Tuskgors are better choice. Most laughs came from gaze of the gods giving stupidity four times during the game to the same beastmen character. Deciding moments in game happened in last turns when my clansmen unit with brb failed multiple ld 9 rolls in a row fleeing off the table. They need to shave their heads now, so ill probably bring a slayer unit next time. It was a big multiunit combat with multiple factors involved so it was very cool moment in the battle. After that longbeards had to step in and brought their axes upon the victors. It left me in a losing position though especially with my ironbreakers unit surrounded by big unit of gors with two shamans and deamon prince charging their rear. I finally won after a climatic duel between my king and the big daemon.

Here are my afterthoughts:

– runsmith is a must have (or allied wizard). Some spells delivered at right moment can be very brutal so you need a way to stop them. Ive used runes of dispell to block some conveyance spells twice desorganising my opponent movement phase which probably gave me one more turn of shooting

– battle standards are an upgrade to Thane that have no downside. You have separate point allowance for magic banner and separate for his other stuff so he can still be fighty and give Bsb bonus at the same time. I see no reason to not include it every time. Same goes for runes of battle on every possible banner. +1 to combat result for 20 points makes difference. Especialy if you have multiples of them in same fight on different banners.

– Rangers are still best shooty units in dwarf army. Scouts with BS4 and crossbows can put lot of wounds on crucial enemy units and get rid of flanking distractors. Better than crossbows and thunderers. Not many other dwarf rare choices can compete with them and you can even take one unit as core.

– Engineer also was a needed update for my warmachines making them more predictable.

– Great weapons in at least 7 models long line are very good. I still have no idea how long those units should be. More than 7 long will be hard to manouver so im not conviced about very long lines. But im very tempted to try out 20 models long line of rangers with crossbows and great weapons placed in front of my army. Its a core choice and can be placed after deployment. Getting shot on charge with 20 BS4 crossbow bolts and then have a round of combat vs 20 great weapon armed dwarfs sounds solid on paper. It can be overcome with multiple units charging in specific order but still should hurt. I expect limitations to 'whole rank can fight’ rule at some point.

– Flying daemon prince is very difficult to take out. When played smart it can avoid strong units and cannon shots. With 4+ ward it can also often shake off the ocassional cannonball that hit him. This time it was really devastating against my gunline while at the same time making fools of my general with iron breakers retinue who tried to chase him. Finally he got frenzy from eye of the gods or something and was unable to restrain itself from overrun which placed him in a position that i could use to engage it. Even then it was not easy to kill him but with some lucky rolls my king finally took it down losing 4 wounds in the process. Flying monsters are scary this edition.

– Gyrocopters are very useful for distracting enemy movement. So far the damage they did was not very impressive but restricting enemies from march moves is very usefull.

– I thought saves are good now beacuse you dont get many reductions to them, but there are always great weapons hiding somewhere which left my iron breakers dying quite often. Im thinking of dropping them in favour of another big clansmen unit or hammerers.

– There are many one time abilities and temporary bonuses your unit gains during the game. Amount of book keeping is really serious this edition. Especially against chaos which grants their characters some extra bonuses each round. Ive did some tokens for abilities which proved to be very usefull. Especially for those temporary or one time abilities like stubborn, shieldwall, frenzy etc which many units may have and its easy to forget which one already used theirs. I will do more for characteristics improvements and unit formations. Its really helpfull to keep yourself and your opponent aware of whats going on.

– Im still not sure how to play this game right. Its similiar at glance to old editions but all those small diferences makes it really really different. I belive it have the best ratio of hero vs normal units power making most things usable and needed. It looks like you need a lot of characters but they are more of a buff for units or serve some tactical purpose rather than be one man armies.

Next I need to try out organ guns, anvil and hammerers and play against other armies than Chaos. After that i will wait for the jurnal to arrive. Im curious about this slayer army.