Bugmans Brewery - The Home for all Warhammer Dwarf Fans: Offensive Army Tactics

Offensive Army composition – Shooting in 7^th Edition



Shooting is important to the dwarf army and the dwarves have one of the best arrays of war machines in the game. However, the role of missile weapons in an offensive army should not be to win the game, but to set up the victory. Shooting is a great way to create a combat advantage by weakening units. As combat is about combat results battles can often be determined beforehand by shooting rank bonuses off of the opponent units.



Army construction and shooting units need to be chosen carefully as one does not want to waste points needlessly. Thewrathchilde provides some comments in addition to his method here,



“With shooting units I do the following:

1. Look at the army I am playing against and what they typically field; knowing their movement rates and how to deploy to give me the maximum number of shooting turns I determine how many times a given unit is likely to shoot.



2. Knowing what they are likely to field (based on what armies of that type typically field or what that player tends to field) I decide what they are likely to shoot at each turn.



3. Then it is simple odds to determine how many hits, wounds, failed saves are going to result from their shooting in each turn they shoot against the given target which gives you a base point return for them.



Shooting units are one of the easier units of the available choices that may be included in an army with which you can fairly accurately assess and predict their effectiveness and likely return in a given game and will generally be useful or effective in almost any game. Therefore their inclusion can provide a degree of certainty for how an army will perform in comparison to an army that is focused on things that are much more circumstantial. In a dwarf army the shooting units also provide a good deal of flexibility in serving in the role of flanking units/flank protectors as well given their WS 4, T 4, and ability to get a decent armor save (4+) in HtH combat while still maintaining a relatively low points cost.



Shooting units may also be used to compensate for weaknesses of a given army as well without spending (proportionally) a significant number of points to do so; a prime example of this is the inclusion of an Organ Gun in a dwarf army. For a fairly insignificant amount of points the organ gun provides you with a method of dealing with skirmishers and flying units which are typically units that dwarves have problems with dealing with; however its usefulness extends past there also lending a significant amount of strength to a gun line army or a machine that can be used to support the HtH army by knocking down the combat resolution of opposing units or dealing with flanking units as well.”





Missile Troops





Missile troops placed on the flank make excellent flank guards. Even though the center of your line may advance, quarrelers and thunderers can often force break tests on the opponent's small but fast flankers. They can also advance to get the important flank on an enemy unit or to protect the flank.



It is important to reflect on the importance of equipping your shooting units with shields. Some players will insist upon them and others don’t take them. Let’s look at both sides shall we.



Yes to Shields: Example 1; One of the tactics used to destroy our armies is to engage our support units, kill them and then run away from our main combat units and grab table quarters. Putting shields on our support units increases their survivability. They are more likely to get into close combat then some of your close combat units so protect them. The 4+ save for hand weapon and shield in close combat is what makes the shields worth it and not necessarily the 5+ save vs. shooting. Additionally equipping them thus allows them to double as an additional HtH or flanking unit when your main battle line is engaged, if they are close by.



Example 2; Quality over quantity - especially in the case of thunderers, your paying quite a bit per model so you need to protect your investment. If you’re paying 14 points per model, give them shields for that added defensive value.



No to Shields: Depending upon what enemy you face or your personal style of play you may determine that shields are not worth the points. These arguments usually only stand up if they are referring to the minimum size for a shooting unit (10 models) Example 1; Dwarven shooting tends to be targeted by other shooting first. Especially if the enemy plays a shooty army, or finds himself outnumbered by dwarves and decides to play defensively. Elves and their RBTs come to mind. These RBT have a -2 AS modifier thereby negating the light armor and shield on a given Dwarven shooter so why bother giving him a shield? The unit would be 1 point cheaper per model without them.



Example 2; Minimum size shooting units can be cheap and effective. They are designed as bait and to shoot until engaged and destroyed. If opponents allocate troops to destroy these units, that task can take them out of the game for awhile as they seldom have time to turn around and punish the dwarven center if it has advanced. Also the points scored for the missile troops are minimal that the advanced Troops can’t make up elsewhere.



From what we have gathered here it depends on the roll and unit size of the shooting units as to whether or not they will have shields or not. The choice is an individual one. Personally I like minimum sized units (10 Dwarves) which need no other upgrade other than Shields. I always take shields now with the Thunderers/Quarrellers because our armor saves are one of our biggest strengths as a race. Now I still believe that missile troops should only really shoot but if combat should happen they should still have the best save (4+) that the Light armor/shield/hw bonus provides.





War Machines


Despite the usefulness of the dwarven infantry there are still problems which they can not handle. These are usually big single items like chariots, monsters, or fliers. In all these cases the dwarves have to use war machines to solve the problems. Most dwarf players start out with a favorite war machine and stick to it and over time your ability to guess ranges and/or handle problems will change so it is important to keep experimenting.



I believe War Machines should be taken based upon 1) army strategy then 2) dealing with Dwarven weaknesses. Example, dwarven weaknesses are; heavy magic, skirmishers, chariots, fast cavalry and large flying monsters to different degrees. Now your shooting units can take out the fast cavalry and the skirmishers to a limited extent if you choose to field them, so pick war machines that will take care of the rest.





The Humble Engineer Apprentice





Probably the best 15 point upgrade in the game bar none. What these guys can do for your war machines and army makes them earn their points back, time and time again. Let’s look at the crews with a little more depth.



The Engineer Apprentice (ENG) provides a special ability to the war machine that he crews. Whether it is a re-roll of a die on the misfire table, or using his BS for shooting the ENG has a place in your army. This “special” ability is worth the 15 points for his upgrade alone - but wait, you get more.



The crews now with the revision are stubborn so they test on their unmodified leadership for break tests. This is huge, especially with the next benefit of the ENG – their champion status.



As an ENG, they are treated like unit champions of line units. This is significant because they can issue and receive challenges. This is great if your war machine is attacked by a lone hero as you can just challenge with the ENG and at most you will only lose him and still have the 3 crew as added US and outnumber bonus for CR. In essence the ENG is a sacrificial lamb but he may buy you enough time to get another unit over to help the combat or just keep an enemy war machine hunting unit tied in combat for an additional turn or two.



The ENG also adds one to the unit strength of the war machine bring it up to US4. This keeps those US4 Tomb scorpions or other similar war machine hunters honest by making us equal in US going into the fight. This also works hand in hand with making it harder for the undead to auto-break us in combat because we have the extra guy. If your war machines can take this valuable upgrade, you need to as they are so worth the points.



If you choose you can upgrade your Engineer with either a brace of pistols or a handgun. Both provide your war machine with a stand and shoot reaction when charged, that has a negative armor save modifier. It is more of a “salt and pepper to taste” kind of an upgrade that is totally optional. If I was to upgrade my ENG with a weapon upgrade it would be the brace of pistols. You get two shots but also an additional attack in HtH combats due to fighting with a pistol in each hand. (They count as hand weapons once in combat).



The Rise of the Bolt Thrower





I have been shifting my thoughts more into the quantity realm for various reasons. I want to apply these reasons to what thewrathchilde is taking about above.



I am beginning to see a trend in the amount of supporting units that are being played. Support units that hunt war machines and work to deny ranks. The advantage of having multiple support units is that during deployment one can hide the armies main effort long enough to see where the enemy is placing his main effort. These support units are cheap and disposable able to kill war machines or just tie them up.



Having these inexpensive units tie up war machines is just as bad as killing them, for the points you spent on your war machines you want them firing every turn. With the elite example of shooting (a big unit of thunderers, a runed up cannon with ME and ENG, and an OG) I was seeing a considerable effort to tie down or wipe out these two machines. Also, it should be noted that individuals on this board have even said that their Anvil was made ineffective for 5 out of the 6 turns by just having these small units “fed” to the anvil. The anvil was not destroyed mind you but it nullified the 500 some odd points by tying it up in combat while the opponent killed the other 1500 points of the opposing force.



Seventh Edition has brought with it a change in the targeting systems of the shooting phase. Most notably is that a unit can now only shoot against one enemy unit and not multiple enemy units in any case, with no exceptions. So the age of dividing shots is over, this means that shooting units don’t need to be over their minimum size now – ever.



The next most notable rule change has been the deletion of the rule protecting Characters within 5” of friendly units. If not inside a friendly unit, characters are a unit of their own and can therefore be targeted normally! This is huge as it was one of the primary reasons in 6^th edition for selecting a cannon or GT as they were special and could violate the old rule.



With these two solid points made it brings me to list creation. In determining what I should take for my valuable special slots the cannon and GT are less appealing now for their points as they are not “special” (in ability only) anymore. And because they are no longer “special” why put up with the additional hassle of firing them? (i.e. rolling the artillery die)



So this brings me to the humble BT. The BT is great as it allows us to take two Bolt Throwers for 1 special slot, leaving room for Hammerers, and/or other “elite” infantry choices. BTs are cheap for their effectiveness and are now better after the dwarf revision; being stubborn, and the option to add an ENG apprentice and can be improved further by runes. Using the BS of the Engineer hits on most things are generated on 3s at short range which is awesome, runed up or vanilla.





A Note on Redundancy





On Bugman’s Brewery we have debated the Quantity vs. Quality debate when it comes to shooting units. What that has taught me is that it doesn’t matter if you prefer quality or quantity, what matters is redundancy with shooting units in your army.



Taking multiple units creates redundancy so when you do roll the dice and miss, there is another shot available because you have more then one unit. I’m not a math/percentage guy but this would make two BT shots more reliable in terms of hitting then a one shot machine like a cannon. Also, by taking multiple units it will be harder for the enemy to silence them all allowing you to still be able to fire every turn vs. maybe only half the game.



Having redundancy also mitigates risk. Instead of having all of your points in one “uber” shooting unit, spreading the points out into multiple units makes sure that in the event a unit is destroyed it won’t cost so many VPs that your army won’t be able to make up elsewhere.





The End Game





Shooting units play a significant role throughout the game, attritting some enemy units and killing others. What they do in the endgame is also significant and I want to illustrate that here, specifically the change in focus that shooting units take on in the end game.



In the endgame the targeting priority shifts. In turns 1-4 shooting is devoted to killing big things and force multipliers (i.e. chariots and monsters) and spreading the damage over many HtH units to whittle them down before combat with your units. In the endgame (turns 5-6) shooting is used to knock units below half and/or shooting to cause panic in a unit. A failed panic check in the bottom half of turn 6 is as good as running the unit down in terms of victory points - All the more reason to take the second turn.



Also in the endgame position of your units also becomes an issue. Units with US5 or more can claim/contest table quarters and additional victory points. One unit of Quarrellers/Thunderers equipped with shields sitting on a hill or just in the open ground, on a flank may make it through the entire game without having been engaged in melee. These units can sometimes pay for themselves just by claiming or contesting the table quarter they are in.





The Dark Dwarves