6th Ed. 1500 pts vs Dwarfs

[Old One Didums]

Hey All,

I am going up against some short lads next week. I have read most of the old threads relating to dwarfs but am still wondering how to create an army that can withstand the gunline. My opponent has all the dwarfs miniatures (as it is my first army) where as my Lizardmen is my second force and is a little more limited.

I have: 50 saurus warriors, 25 skinks, 5 saurus cav, steggadon, and several saurus heroes and skink priests but no slann.

I am thinking of taking Engine of the Gods for enhanced magic but do not know what heroes to take, and whether to leave out the saurus cav to take more magic items.

Any suggestions would be very appreciated. Cheers.

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Hey All,

I am going up against some short lads next week. I have read most of the old threads relating to dwarfs but am still wondering how to create an army that can withstand the gunline. My opponent has all the dwarfs miniatures (as it is my first army) where as my Lizardmen is my second force and is a little more limited.

I have: 50 saurus warriors, 25 skinks, 5 saurus cav, steggadon, and several saurus heroes and skink priests but no slann.

I am thinking of taking Engine of the Gods for enhanced magic but do not know what heroes to take, and whether to leave out the saurus cav to take more magic items.

Any suggestions would be very appreciated. Cheers.

Wow...

Will your opponent accept proxies?

You will definitely need a Slann and minimally a whole bunch of Chamo Skinks for the gunline. But I get ahead of myself, the proxies question comes first.

 

[Old One Didums]

Wow...

Will your opponent accept proxies?

You will definitely need a Slann and minimally a whole bunch of Chamo Skinks for the gunline. But I get ahead of myself, the proxies question comes first.

No proxies allowed for this one sadly. I have already thought about that one.

 

[Lizards of Renown]

No proxies allowed for this one sadly. I have already thought about that one.

The thing is I think you need to (in the spirit of sportsmanship) ask your opponent to rethink that. Having a heavy Saurus oriented army is a SERIOUS setback if you want to win. Their slow movement will kill them. The Saurus Cav will probably make it to combat, but will have taken casualties and won't stand up to a properly regimented Dwarf infantry unit.

Otherwise, I would say that you need to use all fast moving elements of your army, somehow use your skinks to get around and target the war machines. Definitely use Skirmishers (as they'll get an additional -1 to hit on any BS based attacks and he's unlikely to target them with cannons).

Use the Saurus Cav, but realistically their main purpose will be to draw fire from your Saurus units and maybe a flank charge.

Use all the Skink Priests and use Heavens, try to get chain lighning or comet of cassandora, but otherwise get as many of the signature spells as possible and cast whenever possible on the cannons as he'll have to start rolling to be able to fire.

The Stegadon should be an ancient Steg so you can get the ward save which is at least something of a protection. Then use the EoftG to bring down the casting cost on your Heavens spells.

If your opponent doesn't do the right thing and allow you proxies, then you have a very difficult battle ahead.

If you can, in the terrain placement, put as many big, line-of-sight blocking pieces in the middle as you can. It won't make a difference to your Skinks and it may help you avoid some fire.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

I can’t believe I’m about to betray probably my favourite army, but Lizardmen are another of my faves so it’s OK

A good Dwarf player will keep his melee infantry near his artillery, so if your Skinks try to get within their piddly 12” shooting range they’ll just get charged and either massacred or will fail to rally and run off the board if they flee due to their crap leadership. Chameleon Skinks are decent because they get a head start up the board and are very difficult to hit with BS weapons, but ordinary Skinks won’t cut it. Skirmishers can still get hit by bouncing cannonballs and template weapons, and the usual small units of Skirmishers will panic as soon as they lose about 3 or four models.

Having a couple of good sized Saurus regiments with Saurus heroes in there is a good start as either the Dwarfs will strike first but require 4s or 5s to wound, or if they have Great Weapons you’ll get to strike first with loads of attacks and they won’t have much armour to protect them. 2 units of 25 would be great if that’s possible because they can take some missile casualties and still have enough to pack a punch in melee, especially with an Oldblood in each, but hug cover as best you can to minimise casualties.

As @Lizards of Renown says Lore of Heavens is a great lore to pick here because there are loads of shooty spells in there you can use to bombard the Dwarfs. You might even be able to kill their war machines with your magic so you won’t need to waste so many points on Skinks to do that job. I’d say give most of your Priests Lore of Heavens, but don’t throw Beasts completely out of the picture because Wyssan’s Wildform can help protect your Saurus from missile fire (T5 is will force crossbows and handguns to wound on 5s and Organ Guns to wound on 4s).

An Ancient Stegadon will boost your magic to counter Dwarf anti-magic, that’s true, but try to keep him behind cover because any sane Dwarf player will try to shoot him with at least one cannon every turn.

Saurus Cavalry are fast and well-armoured but only 5 of them is a worry - one round of Organ Gun shooting could kill them all before they can fulfill their role to the full.

It’s a bit of a shame you can’t use proxies for a friendly game as @Lizards of Renown says, because Terradon Riders would be a useful asset here - faster than any foot slogging Skinks and able to drop rocks as they fly over means they would also be a good artillery hunting unit.

Hope this helps

 

[Lizards of Renown]

@Old One Didums

Hello mate. Did either @Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl or I give you anything that would help?

What did you decide to do in the end?

Maybe if you tell us your game plan we can give you some other pointers.

 

[Old One Didums]

@Old One Didums

Hello mate. Did either @Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl or I give you anything that would help?

What did you decide to do in the end?

Maybe if you tell us your game plan we can give you some other pointers.

Hi Guys, sorry for the slow reply I had some work commitments this week.

Your advice was extremely helpful. I went:
Engine of the Gods with lvl 3
skink priest lv 1
2x 10 skink skirmishes
2x 20 saurus with hw
5 saurus cav with sun standard of chotec

I played the game this morning and the game plan was to rush down the middle with cover from missile ward saves from magic whilst skinks and cav flanked the edges. The engine was killed off in turn 1 after 2 cannons took their shots but my priest could still provide magic support. Skinks distracted thunderers and an organ gun so within turn 2 my saurus warriors and cavalry had charged into combat. With all the dwarf shooting negated as I was in combat I ended up breaking all dwarf melee units and win the game in turn 5.

Thank you for all the help guys. Getting the Seraphon start collecting box and have Temple guard to paint up which will add some more strength to the force.

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Hi Guys, sorry for the slow reply I had some work commitments this week.

Your advice was extremely helpful. I went:
Engine of the Gods with lvl 3
skink priest lv 1
2x 10 skink skirmishes
2x 20 saurus with hw
5 saurus cav with sun standard of chotec

I played the game this morning and the game plan was to rush down the middle with cover from missile ward saves from magic whilst skinks and cav flanked the edges. The engine was killed off in turn 1 after 2 cannons took their shots but my priest could still provide magic support. Skinks distracted thunderers and an organ gun so within turn 2 my saurus warriors and cavalry had charged into combat. With all the dwarf shooting negated as I was in combat I ended up breaking all dwarf melee units and win the game in turn 5.

Thank you for all the help guys. Getting the Seraphon start collecting box and have Temple guard to paint up which will add some more strength to the force.

Nice one. Well played!