Dwarfs can run some very interesting (and scary) artillery pieces in 4E. Previously, some martial contraptions have been for the Imperial Dwarfs only, but hey, we’re pressing on and going to be exploring what we can as long as we can, and we will just adjust as new book releases inevitably make changes. Up now are some war machines for the (Free) Dwarfs!
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| Little, versatile, Bombards. |
First up are some Jarrun Bombards! The machines are from an old GW kit (Battle for Skull Pass, I think? A bit before I started.) The cannons are pretty cute, and were picked-up second hand. I liked how compact they were, which I felt read as a lighter cannon, and would let me get the gunner on the base without issue. They got a simple paint job, and the gunners are from Mantic bundles over the years.
The Bombard looked like a neat little pressure piece, slightly weaker than a normal cannon, but able to use different shots to play around cover penalties and hit things at range no matter what. It is a typical war machine and just hitting on 5’s while standing still, and is limited to 2 per battalion now, so they might not make a big splash, but at 85 points, they seemed worth checking out at least.
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| Iron Belcher cannons! |
Next up are Iron Belcher Cannons, which are all Mantic, procured second-hand and pre-assembled through one of the handful of ebay bundles I somewhat absentmindedly picked up over the years. I was surprised to find out that Grapeshot without Reload was around in 3E, though that does ring a vague bell. The rules back then meant you were very often hitting on 6’s, so it wasn’t that impactful. In 4e, the various big Cannons all got a silly buff to their Shooting value, and can be aiming and blasting away on 4’s at range, or moving and Grapeshotting on 5’s, which are some very serious buffs, as some of my recent games have showed. I have to imagine someone screwed this stat up during formatting, but time will tell. Alongside a Warsmith, Dwarven Cannons will get Elite, and will be extremely dangerous.
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| Yay, an Organ Gun! |
Last up is an Organ Gun. Way way back, I was look at expected damage per point imvested on some ranged units, and stumbled across the Kingdoms of Men Ballista as a points-efficient shooter. The Organ Gun is and was similar. Right now, for the same cost as a Troop of Ironwatch Rifles, you get 50% more attacks, up to 12 from 8. There are some other differences, but it’s a pretty effective mid-range shooting platform and a good way to deny an area of the board. It has done some ridiculous work in my demo games. It eats into Support slots now, which are way harder to come buy in 4E than typical unlocks were in 3E, but it is still neat and worth exploring more too. This was previously a Imperial-only pick, so we’ve just hobbied one up for now, and haven't even glued it to the chassis, so we can wait and see what the future holds.
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| Oh, the poor, neglected Battle Driller. |
...And speaking of Imperial-only stuff, we’ll pour one out for the old Battle Driller. Almost all my Dwarf stuff was purchased years ago, in the beginning or the midst of 3E. I knew that I wanted to run Free Dwarfs, but alongside the Organ Gun, the Battle Driller caught my eye as a fun-looking unit, and I picked one up way back when, just so I could dabble with some imperial ambitions if the mood struck me. A plain and simple, Brutal 2 was pretty unique at the time, and sticking just one of these around a more Defensive Dwarven line looked like a lot of fun. It’s unfortunately no longer an option currently, but we’ll see what the future holds!
These are all some neat additions. I want to explore shooting more with the army, but I also realize that gunlines might not be run to play against regularly. I think limiting things to one battalion will help the fun factor, and we’ll try and use all of these in moderation.