Dwarfs 2.0, guide to taking your own toys off

LORDS:

The biggest changes here, and one that I'm not unhappy with, is the balancing of item points. In the previous book, what cost 10 points for the lord choice, cost 6 points for the hero, so seeing a constant price was a good change. This means that a lot of the choices for the heroes went up a couple of points, but this wasn't a bad thing.

Dwarf Lord.
No change in points or stats.

Some mundane items dropped in price like the handgun and pistol, but these are to me at least, suboptimal choices for your lord. Others stayed the same, shields, great weapons blah blah blah (let's be honest, a lot of these things you won't even be getting unless its the great weapon or shield, remembering he benefits from the increased parry save when he's charged and +1 Strength when charging.)

The biggest changes both game wise and points wise are the oath stone and shield bearers. The stone went down by 5 points. Oath stones allow your unit to never be disrupted, you can use your parry to the flanks and rear,can not flee as a charge reaction and must always issue a challenge for the character on it. You lose the magic resistance 1 that you got in the old book, you no longer have to set the stone and if you end up fleeing and rallying later, you dont lose the stone, for those who get the reference, it's like a raven familiar in many ways.

The other big change are the Shieldbearers. This went up 15 points. However, for that you get 2 S4, Ws5 attacks, your character gets +2 to their armour save (and with a shield means you're at a 1+ without magic items) and he gets 2 wounds?! And, he still gets to make a look out sir roll! The only change from the previous book is you get 2 more wounds. For 15 more points, I'm quite happy to have those 2 extra wounds thanks!

Depending on your play style will depend on what you want to do here. If you are looking for more help for your unit, take the Oath stone. The anti-disruption means you'll always count your ranks and the parry to sides and rear are always helpful. The flipside is you may want to take a tank character who can have a good save or ward save as you have to challenge and without the character, you lose the oath stone benefit. The Shieldbearers to me give you more of a nasty outfit. You can of course still do the jammy crap 2 wide stubborn unit with the shield born Dwarf in the front that never moves anywhere (see units later)


Runelord
20 points less but same stats.

All the extra equipment stayed the same points wise. It's the special rules around these guys that have changed significantly. Every Runelord grants the unit he is with Armour Piercing, he grants magic resistance 2 to the unit and he can channel dispel dice like a wizard. He no longer generates dispel dice himself though.

This is a big change. It's not exactly a bad change, I feel the MR2 and AP add a lot to your units (put him in a unit of hammerers and watch as they have the potential to rip apart 1+ save model.) What it means is that with the innante dispelling of the Dwarfs, you're no longer this magical black hole anymore. Even the runes you used to get are toned down a little. It means you have to actually think about what spells you need to dispel, those you can let go, and those you want to let go and dispel in your magic phase. If you think this is crap and you want to quit the Dwarfs because, go for it. I like this change, it means you have to learn to play better, suck it up short round!

The Runelord can also come in on an anvil. It's 5 points less than what it used to be. But, it's also in many respects a shadow of what it used to be. It confers a 5+ ward, confers a dice in the magic and dispel rounds. However, it now only has 3 bound spells. A 24" augment that makes every Dwarf unit Immune to Psychology, an augment that increases the save of any 1 Dwarf unit by 1 and a 24" 2d6 S4 magic missile. Gone are the movement shenanigans, which in a way, Dwarfs need. What you do get though, is the loss of a miscast table. Being bound spells, if you cast with IOrresistable force, you lose that spell for the rest of the battle. Although there are some pros to taking the anvil, I personally don't think it's going to make it's way to the table anymore.


Daemonslayer
30 points more. same stats

So, he's increased in price, he's a slayer, but what do you get for that 30 points? You make your opponent reroll their sucessful ward saves that you have hit AND you also cause D3 wounds per wound caused. Now, lets couple that with the slayer stuff. You now always wound on a 4+ if you needed a higher amount, though your strength doesn't increase because of this, so your opponent still takes saves at your base strength. You're unbreakable, have no save and can switch between an additional hand weapon or great axe before at the start of a combat. You also now get Deathblow. When you die you get 1 free attack back. With slayers this may not do much, but with the Daemon slayer, this may help drastically, it's one more chance to cause a wound and make them reroll their ward save and cause the D3 wounds

Although they used to be used as sniper missiles and speed bumps, I'm not sure if you want to do that anymore. Sure, that's still a viable option, but no ward save or save makes the points loss a lot worse now. Maybe in a unit of say 10 slayers, meaning theres more chance to cause nastier damage to your opponents units.