As it turns out, all of that thought processing for my dwarves was, in fact, for something. I got a test game in this weekend and walked away with a few thoughts on improvements. Perhaps the most shocking thing is that I’m quite pleased with them right off the cuff. They worked as I expected and I even pulled a close cut victory on time in the exact way I’d want to.

The short batrep is easy: we were fighting over a center objective and my dwarves are slow. I decided to anchor the center with heavy units, then sweep along one side with my Rockmaws (suicide worms) and ranged units. My opponent setup an L-ambush along the other flank. I more-or-less allowed him to do so.

I used my worms to distract and harry him as his forces closed in. this allowed my Chorusbound (golems) to take the center objective and body block while my infantry went off to further slow the Anoethlinge advance.

This allowed my opponent to further swing around with his shooters into the woods behind me, leaving me in a pretty bad spot even if I controlled the objective. The game ended on time, with my boys holding the center, but only just. We agreed the true outcome was a coin toss, perhaps favoring me a bit.

As to how the force played? I was surprised by just how much it got right. The Rockmaws did a great job of delaying the enemy and causing harm, but I think I want them to be even more of a glass cannon, so I’ll be giving them the aggressive trait in the future, which will increase their offense and decrease their defense. The idea is for them to be a threat that has to be respected and to have the range to create a bubble of denial for certain unit types. Conversely, they’re fragile and can be dealt with. This buys times for slower units to do their jobs.

The other experiment was the idea of the Cantors providing rerolls. I really liked how this came out. They have just enough magic points to not feel like a drain on the army, though they do take up about 1/6th of the force’s points. I felt that the return on that investment was worthwhile. Cantors provide rerolls to nearby units in the form of Chant tokens. Each can be spent for 2 rerolls on an attack or defense. I’ll expand this to include removing stress when breaking. The limit is any given unit can only hold three tokens at a time, but Cantors that overlap a unit each grant a single token. So if a unit is next to two Cantors, it gets two tokens.

Again, they’re a bit of a tax, so I’m debating if this is really the way forward, but it reinforces the army’s musical/chanting theme in a way I really like. It needs more playtesting. For example: I hadn’t even considered that because Cantors are leaders (even in the adjutant role) they can also rally units in range. They serve as an almost battery, really enabling their surrounding forces.

I think I’ll make Cantors a bit cheaper (or more magically capable) and Rockmaws a bit deadlier. The combination of these two things should serve to round the army out nicely.

It was a fun battle and I’m stoked to play them more and paint up a few more units. I think that’s really the key feedback: I enjoyed the army and can think of a few different build I want to try. As I often say: rad. That’s rad. That’s exactly what I want.

Certainly more testing to come. And an “Off the Bench” or two, to boot!

May the Voice guide your hammer.