I had a one day over the weekend with a tweaked version of my usual list.
Dropping bane chant to upgrade the brock lord for a lord on beast (thanks Counter Charge), plus a regiment of ironwatch with rifles to get to 2150 (and out of curiosity).
Which let me give the new rules a go.
I did better than usual; winning twice and losing the last game against other dwarfs (De 6+ heavy).
Which obviously means dwarfs are OP now [sarcasm].
Though there was some concerned chatter.
I used Ordered March most turns and it put me a turn (or even two) ahead of where I’m used to in terms of objectives.
No needing turn 7 to successfully walk somewhere.
In these 3 games at least.
Very inspiring on the standard bearer was nice.
I gave mine a boomstick, so lining up shots and keeping things inspired was easier.
For The King! did not come up.
The average of 1 headstrong per game that happened in range all passed anyway. I wouldn’t pay points for it, but it’s a nice and flavourful freebie.
I like the new standard bearer rules in general, though I hope that some of the lifeleech or strider (infantry) auras get replaced with something more thematic and creative. If every army has a unique banner, then those banners are a great place to show the army’s character.
I only had a regiment of shieldbreakers, but the CS (2) did add some damage.
I’m less keen on 140 points for a regiment and bemused at dwarfs hitting like greatax or ogres with two-handed weapons.
Vengeance on the brocks is a nice bump in damage in a grind and brocks have the nerve to hit back.
Even less reason to take beserkers on foot though.
No potshot plus ordered march made the ironwatch feel useful at least.
They could move AND probably put one damage on something, while being less durable than ironclad US 3 that can shoot a bit and then get somewhere.
Still probably the first thing I drop in list building, but during the game I asked myself what I was going do with them rather than why I bothered to bring them.
I didn’t manage to bring anything with secured position.
I lost loot in the last game so the idea of bring able to sneak a 20mm based induvidual into the scrum to grab a loot token while the regiments are engaged sounds awfully appealing though.
Cheaper rangers were nice (and offset more expensive shieldbreakers), but really wished they had headstrong a number of times.
The new rules definitely make playing dwarfs easier.
Which is nice for new players, except that there are now extra rules changing the basic movement rules.
Complaints about playing dwarfs have certainly been addressed.
I’m not sure those complaints were actually problems though. Did dwarfs really need fixing?
Dwarfs have good shooting and cost effective De with the drawback of being slow. That drawback has been diminished. Which could be a concern at top tables/events where players have already been compensating for less maneuverablity with skill.
On the other hand: in my experience and from what I hear, dwarfs tend to get narrow victories.
Which isn’t great for winning events, so maybe a bump was due?
What do you think?
Has Golloch risen to terrorise The Meta or have dwarfs simply stepped into a position of being as competitive as we deserve?
)
Interesting that y’all were playing 2150, I thought my group were the only weirdos working at that level - I don’t hate mixing it up but for my money I’d rather just go 1995 for that tighter comp or 2300 for standard full power gaming.