Pure gold at the end there, though I think the excution was a little far fetched.
anyways, with the move of rangers from core to rare, we now have more rare choices then we do core. There's a few changes here and the only new units weigh in here, so.....
Organ gun
same points, same stats.
So, what changed? The organ gun is now a ballistic skill based weapon. It used to be a roll of the artillery dice and you automatically hit any 1 unit within range that many times. Now, you roll TWO artillery dice and can potentially cause that many hits depending on a ballistic roll. This can cause a possible maximum 20 shots at S5 with armour piercing. The range also increased from 24" to 30" Now, the change works nicely I felt. With the ballistic skill roll, you get a -1 penalty if over half range, so 15" and with ballistic skill of 3 on the crew, this does mean that at some units you may need a 6+ to hit them (longe range, skirmishing). However, you can mitigate this as well. Taking an engineer increases the BS able to used from 3 to 4. You can also take runes on the organ gun now up to 50 points, one of them being +1 to hit. So at the long range you may only need 3+ now (you can see why the change of the Engineers BS wasn't that bad, having him at BS 5 would make the organ gun way too broken)
Since you're rolling 2 artillery dice for number of hits, you also need to roll misfire on BOTH dice to suffer a misfire. This makes the organ a stellar warmachine choice for the dwarfs. Its now twice as reliable when rolling the dice and you can rune it up?!
I'd say this will be seen on the table. I'd even look at taking it for a mixed arms force and not just a gunline.
Flame cannon
same points. same stats
So, one major change here is that it can runed up as well. 50 points, but this is better than what it used to get, which was nothing. It's also changed the way it shoots. It's now a fire thrower, so you place the tear shaped template at the end of it and roll the artillery dice and move the template that distance. You can also perform a supercharged shot where you can place the template up to 12" from the end of the cannon then roll the artillery dice. It used to be the cannon just did the super charged attack.
I'm not sure there's not that great a change for the flame cannon to see it anymore on the table.
Rangers
2 points more. same stats
So, this was a big move, and to be honest, I cant say yay or boo about it. I'm just unsure because I'm not too sure how I'm going to be building my list. I may still use them, but as a small chaff unit to hold up the enemy vanguarding units.
Anyways, for the same amount of points you now have all the tools. You get throwing axes, great weapons, heavy armour, scouting and dwarf crossbows. The crossbows werent an option previously, so really, you're getting crossbows for 1 point per model, which is a bargain and a half?!
Like I said, I'll probably look at a small unit of these as chaff or march blockers.
Irondrakes
Brand new
This is the first of the new units that the Dwarf book has been gifted. Now these boys have special rules oozing out of every pore. so lets try and break them down.
They have forge-proven gromril armour. this gives a 4+ save in combat and a 6+ ward save. It also confers a 2+ ward save against flaming attacks. This is interesting as Irondrakes are one of the few "infantry" units in this army that cant take a shield that could possibly use them, so they cant gain the parry save that is prevalent through out the rest of the army, however, their ward save can be used outside of combat as well.
They come armed with a Drakegun. Now, this has a semi short range of 18" (short compared to most of their war machines and other shooting units) it has a S5 shot that is armour piercing. Its dwarf crafted, so no penalties for standing and shooting, its quick to fire, so you can always stand and shoot. Oh, it also has flaming attacks. Now, whats interesting here is that unlike the other shooting units, its NOT move or fire. You can effectively move 3" and shoot it's 18" giving it a threat range of 21". Combined with a simple Strollaz rune which grants the unit vanguard (I'll touch on runes in the next post) you can effectively have a first turn threat range of 33"
Now, there are some other options for the unit as well. Your champion, called an Ironwarden can take cinderblast bombs, same as the Ironbreakers champion. These are the stonethrower template boms with a very short range of 2-8".
He can also replace his gun with a brace of pistols, basically a short range pair of mini drakeguns OR he can replace it with a Trollhammer Torpedo. A rocket launcher that has a range of 24", a S8 multiple wounds D3 flaming attack that is slow to fire, which means he cant stand and shoot.
I'm personally liking the thought process behind these guys and I'm thinking of taking that vanguarding unit and smashing it into the face of my opponent in the first turn then holding back and shooting them in their eyeholes.
Gyrobomber
New unit
This is the 2nd new unit we were gifted with. So what is it? its an upgraded gyrocopter, but isnt included in the maximum amount. Because its an upgrade however it gets a Clatter gun which is a 24" S4 multiple shot (4) weapon which is Dwarf crafted (no penalty to stand and shoot) quick to fire (can always stand and shoot) and armour piercing. Like its little cousin, marching is going to stop you from shooting, and it suffers a -1 penalty to shoot multiple shots. Also like it's little cousin the Gyrocopter, it has a 4+ armour save.
What most people will be taking the bomber for however, is the bombing ability. Unlike the Gyrocopter, the Gyrobomber can drop more than the one bomb in a battle. It still acts the same, dropping a bomb on a unit it passed over during the movement phase. Where it differs however is that you place the large 5" template anywhere over the unit and scatter as per a stonethrower. It's only a strength of 3 (6 in the center) that is armour piercing and causes D3 wounds for each wound caused. It can then bounce and explode again using the small template if you roll a 4+ after resolving the first explosion. This secondary explosion scatters like a stonethrower as well and has the same strength as the first explosion. Of course, if you roll a misfire on the first roll, bad things can happen.
Again, this unit is relebntless, so you're looking at being able to march at all times if you want to with this unit, but again, you cant march and shoot.
I dont mind this unit. I'm not ecstatic about it, it seems like you dont want to move it as far or as fast as the Gyrocopter, it also doesnt vanguard, however, like many, the thought of having a potential 8 fliers on the table makes me grin, though the player in me definately doesnt see this being a viable list at all.
I'll reserve judgement after I've tried it a few times.
No comments:
Post a Comment