Ask a Longbeard

[Pinkus]

I tried doing a search for this, but found nothing.

Say you have 10 thunderers with a veteran who has a brace of pistols. I understand that the BoP let's you always stand and shoot. However my question is why do I see so many people take this unit. Does the fact that the veteran can always stand and shoot mean your entire unit can always stand and shoot?

Another quick question. Say I have a veteran in the front ranks of my warriors. I get charged and take over 5 wounds, but there was no challenge, or he challenge a hero in the unit. That mean my veteran still can attack back?

[Arklite]

1st question: i would say that only the champion can stand and shoot if the rest of the unit isn't able to. however as the unit must stand and shoot together, you'll find that the thunderers in the unit won't fire until the pistols are in range. this can make quite the difference as you are firing at short range. -1 to hit opposed to a -2 to hit is a good thing i reckon

2nd question: yes, the champion may still attack. unlike musicans and standards the champion shares some rules with characters and in order to eliminate them from fighting they need to be targeted. however if a champion is killed directly, he's gone. unlike standard bearers or musicans who are there until you run out of unit memebers

[Pinkus]

Okay played vs the Brets today and a situation came up.

He double charged my longbeards and I broke and 2 units of KoTR pursued off of the table. When he came back on my cannon was literally next to the one with the other one behind it and slightly to one side. I chose to grapeshot it targetting the first KoTR model. If I could aim it whereever I want I could have gotten 3 partials on the first unit and 2 hits and 2 partials on the units behind the first unit. Those 2 hits luckily being his 2 paladins. He argued I had to aim at model and then aim at the center of that model. Meaning I got 3 partials on the 1st unit and 2 partials on the 2nd unit. Obviously this is a huge swing, 5 partials vs. 5 partials and 2 hits on paladins. I argued as long as I can see the unit I'm attacking I can aim it in any directions from that unit as long as I hit a model in it(i couldn't see the second unit at all). We rolled for it and he won. I ended up not killing anyone in his first unit and 2 guys in his send unit.

I really would have liked the 2 hits on his paladins causing d3 wounds. I could have gotten lucky and killed 1.

The only thing we found in the rule book stated that I got to choose which model I targetted. It never said where on that model I could aim at.

[kroxigor01]

Sorry to steal Arkies and Kuffies thunder but I think I'll take this one.

You where in the right there Pinkus. The rules of firing grapeshot state that you must fire it 'towards the target', not towards the centre of one model. Your opponent may have been confused by 40k blast marker weapons who must be centred on one model (however, template weapons MUST be placed to cover as many enemy models as possible in 40k).

[Pinkus]

Do the master rune of spellbinding and the master rune of valaya stack to give +3 to each dispel?

[Arklite]

indeed, both runes do stack, no rule saying otherwise after all

generally speaking, this combined with a runelord on an anvil of doom and perhaps a runesmith with a master rune of ballance is the most dangerous anti-magic available for the 2000-2999 points range. 9 dispel dice, 1 powerdice stolen from the enemy pool and 3+ to all your rolls. monsterous to say the least

[Lachlarlan]

How many points should I typically spend on Lords and Heroes?

How many Lords/Heroes should I typically take?

[wraith20033]

For lords and heroes its all a matter of preference really. Due to recent army books coming out, there are a lot of magic heavy armies out there, so dwarf players tend to stock up on runsmiths and spellbreaking runes, not to mention the trusty anvil

Personally i tend to go with one lord character and 1-2 heroes (BSB and Runesmith) in a 2k game. While i may not be that heavy on magic defence, the sheer amount of troops you obtain from the tradeoff is worth it.

Dwarfs are perhaps the only race that doesnt need heroes to bolster its leadership. instead, a thane armed with a GW is a cheap and deadly killer for a front rank.

Slayer heroes i have never seen used, and master-engineers (too expensive in my book) are an acquired taste, although their ability to fortify one machine is awesome.

[Pinkus]

Slayer heroes are the best artillery/anvil defense. 50 points of killer goodness.

[wraith20033]

So out of character for a slayer though, and with no armour, if anything with strength 4 or more charges him, dont expect him to last long.

might as well put a thane with MR of challenge, a gw and rune of stone. more expensive but more effective