Nick was kind enough to supply me with his list for our game tonight and I thought I'd bust out a quick breakdown and some thoughts on a plan (which he will read, counter, and crush me with). So...
Nick is King Fluffy as this list fairly soundly demonstrates. Fairly.
Master Engineer - General; Great Weapon; Gromril Armour
Thane - Gromril Armour; Battle Standard
Runesmith - Great Weapon; Gromril Armour
19 Longbeards - Heavy Armour; Shield; FC
3 x 19 Warriors - Heavy Armour; Shield; FC
2 x 10 Warriors - Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; Musician
14 Hammerers - Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; FC
14 Ironbreakers - Gromril Armour; Shield; FC
10 Troll Slayers
9 Miners - Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; Musician; Prospector
Dispel Pool: 5
Casting Pool: 2
Models in Army: 153
Total Army Cost: 1998
Well the first thing that strikes me is - that's a crapload of Dwarfs right there. Seriously - 153 models? Damn but that's freakin' HUGE man!
Next - no shooting or warmachines. Interesting tact given the army is led by a Master Engineer (questionably fluffiness actually Nick - what the hell is he doing there in the first place?). Anyway...
A good sized basic dispel pool - large enough to cause me anti-magical concern - and what I would expect from Dwarfs at FluffyCon. It's big enough to worry most armies who decided to invest heavily in magic (max 8PD at this tournament).
So what strengths does it bring to the table?
- numbers (I'm actually outnumberered for goodness sakes!) thanks to points saved from not taking toys and magic standards (not a dumb move by any means in a FluffyCon context)
- static res up the wazoo
- flankers/diverters (GW-Warriors, Trollslayers, Miners if they don't use Underground Advance)
- warmachine hunters (Miners)
- variety (some Stubborn - Hammerers, some exellent armour - Ironbreakers, some Unbreakable - Trollslayers
- as per Dwarfs: great toughness, armour and leadership
- lined up next to each other it's difficult/impossible to get a supporting charge with a detachment
Weaknesses?
- no shooting
- short, fat and slow
- possible to traffic jam them because there are so many big blocks (look for viable and advantageous terrain choke-points)
Hrm...
Well all those Warrior blocks spread out will make flanking the force with Knights difficult and a head-on charge is akin to suicide as I could only hope to win by 1 or 2 and rerolling on ld7 or so for a break test means the Knights are flanked and dead. Ok.
Hammerers, 10-man units and Trollslayers get shooty love first - anything I definitely cannot bust through with a charge needs to die and the 10-man units, being most mobile for the flank charge will wipe the floor by cancelling my valuable and important rank bonus (which I will definitely need as kills are going to be almost non-existant). After that (yeah right... after I've killed off the Hammerers and Trollslayers... ha!) I'll be going for the Longbeards where there is a serious points investment. I've got a funny feeling the Dwarfs are going to be the ones doing the charging in this game.
Magic rolling will be on Shadows - not to get Pit of Shades but rather Unseen Lurker or Shades of Death (a Fear-causing unit of Spearmen will sort those small Elite blocks out (except the Trollslayers).
The Flagellents will go for the middle of the line where they will hope to tie up as much as possible - if they can charge two units at once and tie them down for a few turns it will help immensely. They'll die, but hopefully they'll die slowly.
I'll lose a warmachine to the Miners if they come on behind my lines but really I don't see the Cannon or Mortar achieving much anyway (especially the Mortar).
So it looks like this:
- tie down multiple units with the Flagellents and/or just get the hell in the way of something
- try and reduce the Longbeards to 1/2 strength
- Hammerers, Trollslayers and 10-man units suck down the shooting
- magic will try for Shades of Death or Unseen Lurker but pretty much anything else in the list will be fine. Even Steed of Shadows on the Wizard will be fun (keeps him out of trouble). Soulfire will have it's uses in combat (especially against the Ironbreakers!) if the opportunity arises (and Unbreakable doesn't take priority
- pick on ONE unit of Warriors to get behing enemy lines
- try for the Dwarf BSB if I have the option
Nick's a clever player but his normally conservative Wood Elf approach has to be totally cast by the wayside. Seeing him play ultra-aggressively with combat Dwarfs will be very entertaining.
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