Rathnards True Dwarfs - The Fists of Golloch

[Rathnard]

So first thing’s first - Thankyou for all the positive feedback! It’s great to know that I’m not the only one who likes what I’ve done with these guys.

Anyway, I figured it was time to update the thread with what I’ve painted most recently…

My Steel Juggernaught and second Greater Earth Elemental. While my Warsmith and Battle Driller are Forgefather minis, I feel like this represents my first serious foray into the range, since I very deliberately ordered these from Mantic!

I don’t really NEED a second Greater Earth Elemental. But as much as I love the original cork version, it doesn’t really match the more technological theme of the rest of my army. Hence why a second was needed!

Bulwarker Regiment #2. I actually bought a starter box second hand just so I had enough of the right models to complete this unit! The fact that the new Dwarf formation in CoK 2022 happens to need two Bulwarker units is a very fortunate coincidence.

My Vanguard Warband, converted from Steel Legion Warriors. I’ve been reluctant to dip into the Forgefathers range for rank & file units, so to keep the technology feeling new & rare for my Dwarfs. But for an elite team of spec ops style dwarfs, I felt I could make an exception!

Battle Driller #2. Rumour has it that these guys will be getting better with the CoK update. I hope so. In my only game with them thus far, they arguably made my army worse!

[wilberforce]

Some truly excellent and foreboding looking dwarves!

[Rathnard]

Hey all, it’s been a while! My last update was a good 9 months ago, so i figure i should update with some progress on my Authoratarian Dwarf Loyalists.

This year, 2022, has not been a great one for hobbying, thanks to adding a third child to the family late list year. Since then, my painting has slowed down to almost nothing. Still, i have managed to complete a few more units, and the army is very slowly approaching 5000 points.

Anyway, on to some pics…

Faber Ironheart, along side my original Steel Juggernaught. A necessary addition after his debut in the last CoK book.

My first proper Stone Priest. Granted it’s a non Mantic model, but he looks much more appropriate than the Dreadball Star player i was previously using!

Ironguard Regiment. I’ve used the cloaks to differentiate them from my Ironclad, but TBH is hard for the opponent to tell them apart from the front. I’m still thinking on how best to fix that…

Throwing Mastiff markers. Because only some kind of monster Free Dwarf would throw dogs at the enemy.

Stone Priest #2. TBH I don’t love the sculpt. But he was there, so i painted him.

My Vanguard warband, this time on a multibase in case i ever decide to use rangers! If i ever do a Free Dwarf Army (heresy!), I’ll likely convert up even more of these guys for use as my ranger units.

Berserkers - 3 troops made from 2 boxes of Dreadball Forgefathers. I love how these have turned out, so much so that I’m tempted to buy even more boxes and start a Berserker Spam army!

Flame Belchers, converted from yet more Forgefathers.

Random Dwarf hero. I don’t really have a place for this guy as of yet. Maybev as one of the unique heroes?

The whole army, packed and unpacked, minus the Flame Belchers and Random Dwarf Hero. I’ll have to get an updated pic at some point. Maybe once i finish another unit or two!

[DanKennedy]

Love this army mate, looks class

[Gerrcinn]

love this army so much.

How about using gold/bronze edging on the shields of the ironguard. It keeps the orange and black theme but will make them stand out from the regular ironclad units?

[DarkBlack]

For ironguard vs ironclad I used as many of the command heads and the sculpt with the helmet over the eyes as I had and added a small embellishment to the symbol on the shield (as if they add it when being promoted to ironguard).
You can see mine here.

[Rathnard]

Thanks for the advice @DarkBlack & @Gerrcinn!

I’ve got a couple of spare painted Ironguard (well, spare until i finish the second regiment) so i thought I’d experiment a little with some variations to make them easier to pick out from the Ironclad;

For the first I’ve added blood to the weapon & shield, sort of denoting them as the elite “Blooded” soldiers. In my head they might ritualisticly dip their weapons in blood before the battle to become more intimidating, similar to that scene with the security guards in “Snowpiercer” (love that film, BTW!).

The second is just the addition of some white triangles to the shield. Much cleaner and more regimented, which perhaps fits the role of the Ironguard a bit better? I tried painting the rim white instead, but TBH it wasn’t going to work!

[Sceleris]

Epic stuff mate.

I love the Vanguard warband on the display base

[DarkBlack]

The white triangles will be easier to see for your opponent.

[JoeMcLaren]

Gorgeous army!

[Rathnard]

Hey folks! So as usual progress has been slow, but it’s progress nonetheless!

I’m halfway through my second Ironguard unit now - just 5 more models, some basing and I’m done…

Speaking of which, i did take the time to upgrade my existing Ironguard to help differentiate them from the 'Clads…

The extra chevrons on the shields should help them stand out. It’s not immediately obvious, but it’s easy to see once you know and I’m reluctant to do much more - repainting them entirely is out of the question!

Once the second Ironclad are done I’ll officially be at 5000 points of dwarves (yay!). I was thinking of leaving the army at that and moving onto other projects… but then Mantic announced that upcoming Big Red Rulebook.

The Ambush, Siege and Legendary Battles rules have gotten me pretty excited. So now I’m thinking how i might expand my Dwarfs even further, not just by dipping into the Forgefathers range (and yes, i will!), but also building on existing sub-themes within the list…maybe more of my Cork-built Elementals for a Stoneshaper (pseudo Forces of Nature?) Detachment? Or perhaps going back to the “official” Mantic Dwarfs and further splitting my army into “traditional” vs “high tech” detachments?

In other words, I’ve got lots of ideas! I’m just hoping I’ll have the time to actually go ahead with them…

[Rathnard]

So this weekend I’m flying across the state for a 2-day tournament (MOAB, in Sydney). So i finally get to put my efficiently packed, “Travel Friendly” Dwarves to the test!

The event is 2300pts, which comfortably fits into the two boxes above. It’s small enough that i could have packed it in my carry-on luggage, but I wanted to bring the display board so it’s in my check-in bag instead.

In the meantime, I’m still making slow progress on my second Ironguard Regiment (no pics yet), but I’ve also assembled & undercoated a few extra bits…

That will be Battle Driller #3, plus another 5x Throwing Mastiff markers. These new units were inspired by an absurd MSU Dwarf list with 9x Throwing Mastiffs and 3x Drillers that I’d like to try. It should be a quicker project than the Ironguard at least!

[Gerrcinn]

good luck in the tournament and can I say once again how great that army looks, I love that you’ve doubled down on Mantic even drafting in the sci-fi and footballers to keep the consistency.

It’s a fantastic looking force when viewed en masse (even more so stacked up )

[Boss_Salvage]

Happy travels and good luck! Hope the airline treats the Fists well. Also the army really fills up that display board, what a mass dark armor and light beards

[Rathnard]

Update Time!

So first up, the MOAB tournament a few months back was great! I mean, yes, i lost 5/6 games… but that’s beside the point! Here’s some random pics of me getting trashed in all those games.

I think my losses mainly came down to inexperience with the army (I’ve not played alot of games this year), combined with some solid opponents, the innate slowness of Dwarfs and a bit of bad luck (especially in my last game!). After the event i took lots of notes though, so hopefully I’ll be better prepared for next time!

The army itself travelled well for the most part. About half a dozen models came off their multibase after each trip, but they were easy repairs to make. However the display board didn’t fare so well - it basically came apart on the flight over and i had to hold it together with sticky tape during the event. The display base itself was just a modified cheap picture frame, but i clearly underestimated how rough check-in is on ones luggage!

My next event (and test for the army) is Cancon on the 21-22 Jan - located across the country in Canberra and probably the biggest KoW event in the country (64 players at last count). It’s 2000 pts, so this time I’ve been able to fit the army into a single 3.5L storage box…

I’ve also decided against taking my display board, so I’ll be able to fit my army, plus clothes etc into a single carry-on bag! This should hopefully minimise the risk of any breakages on the flight over.

I do still need something to carry my army around though… maybe something more functional, like a small tray or sheet of MDF.

Finally, with it being the holidays i managed to get some more painting done;

Second Regiment of Ironguard. Nothing much to say here, I’m just glad they’re done!

5x Throwing mastiffs and a Battle Driller, bringing my total to 10 and 3, respectively. I’m one step closer to the all-Throwing Mastiff, Max Battle Driller, MSU Dwarf Army.

Flame Priest #2. I wasn’t expecting to paint a second one but he ended up in my Cancon list and, well, here we are!

Next up for painting are a horde of Shieldbreakers and a Regiment of Crossbows. Although given how busy i was last year with family business, it could be a while before those are done!

[Boss_Salvage]

Thanks for the battle shots, great to see your army in action Commiserations on the record but so it goes. Good luck at Cancon! I continue to be a big fan of the army, props on somehow continuing to add to it - new flame lad looks great, proper sci-fantasy bad ass

Also I will never stop high fiving you for taking any battle drillers, let alone maxing them out

[Cyberactivity]

The army looks great.

Instead of a display board, have you considered a display mat? Fabric or neoprene mat that can be folded or rolled up small to take with you. You can then unroll and display the army on top.

Idea was from a friend of mine that just had a thick bit of black cloth and displayed the army on top. It was simple but effective and think it would be a travel friendly option. Now that you can get custom mats printed it could have several applications.

[Rathnard]

Time for another of my infrequent updates!

So when i last posted, i was poised to go to the January Clash Of Kings event here in Australia - a 2-day, 6 game tournament and the largest in the country. After my abysmal performance at MOAB, my expectations were pretty low. Basically if i managed to win at least 2 games then I’d consider it a success.

In the end i did FAR better than i could have hoped, winning 4/6 games and placing 6th out of 62 with my Imperial Dwarfs!

My only losses were on the second day, against the eventual tournament winner (with Northern Alliance), and a Flyer heavy Salamanders list - both very tough but enjoyable games.

The list I took is below, but basically I went with an all-infantry army with alot of mid-range shooting (Flame Belchers, Flame Priests and the Mastiffs). The shooting helped alot with ranging out my opponents units and dealing with chaff, while the Infantry proved to be incredibly tenacious, usually grinding through the enemy once they finally connected.

I don’t think I could pick out a single unit or upgrade as possible dead weight - everything had its place in the army and proved its worth at least once throughout the weekend. The biggest issues I found were the slowness of Dwarfs for achieving scenarios, and the lack of long ranged shooting for threatening similar ranged units (both of which came into play against those Salamanders). So I’ll have to think about how best to deal with that. In the meantime, I’m VERY happy with my 6th place!

Dwarfs [2000]

Berserkers Troop [105]
Berserkers Troop [105]
Ironclad Regiment w. Mastiff [125]
Shieldbreakers Horde w. Chant of Hate [235]
Flame Belcher [90]
Flame Belcher [90]
Berserker Lord w. Brock & Blade of the Beast Slayer [160]
Flame Priest w. Fireball (10), Bane Chant (2), Scorched Earth (2) & Conjurer’s Staff [130]
Flame Priest w. Fireball (10), Banechant (2) & Inspiring Talisman [120]
Faber Ironheart [1] [175]
[F] The Hammers of the King, Bulwarkers (The Royal Guard) Regiment w. Throwing Mastiff [165]
[F] The Hammers of the King, Bulwarkers (The Royal Guard) Regiment w. Throwing Mastiff [165]
[F] Anvils of the Mountain, Ironclad (The Royal Guard) Horde w. Throwing Mastiff & Brew of Strength [255]
[F] The Lord’s Bannerman, Standard Bearer (The Royal Guard) [80]

Part 2 to follow…

[Rathnard]

One last thing i wanted to add before i go to sleep…

With Cancon being held across the country in Canberra, this was my second opportunity to test how well my Stackable Dwarfs go on a plane!

This time, my 2000pt army was able to fit in a single 3.5L container! This meant i didn’t even need to check in a suitcase for the flight - everything i needed was able to fit snugly into a single backpack.

Overall, the dwarfs travelled extremely well, with no breakages at all. I also took a very simple “movement tray” made from an MDF placemat (pic in the last post, but here it is again below). It turned out to be a great decision, fitting easily into my bag and it making it very easy to move my army between tables.

BTW, I still love the suggestion from @Cyberactivity to source a neoprene mat for a display board. I’m currently keeping an eye out for some options i could use!

[Boss_Salvage]

Awesome result! And a very cool list, quite the carpet of stunties looking to flex their short range shooting if not their sprinting muscles.

The army continues to look great, and its stacking powers are second to none