8th Ed. Killing the insane Dwarf Lord

[Wistrel]

Hey guys, tomorrow I have a game against a dwarfs player, I've played against him several times before and gained a few victories, but now he's cottoned on to the idea of the invincible dwarf lord with 1+ armour and 4++ ward that has double strength against Toughness 5 and up, how do i kill this SoB? Especially considering how he has a Runelord AND a Runesmith, giving him +12 to dispel!

BTW the game is 2000pts.

 

[HoverBoy]

If it's a lord he'll likely have 1+ rerollable with immunity to KB and poison and the rune that makes any hit of streinght higher than 5 into an S5.
To deal with him you need to get rid of his armour without going above S5, this is done with a burning blade of chotec, with a saurus char that's already -4 to armorsaves, If you wanna be extra nasty have him in a unit with the armour piercing banner. If doing this with a scar vet he'll need some sort of magic support for sure, an oldblood can be kitted out with more defencive gear which would allow him to more reliably not die when the dwarf attacks him. Either way light/life magic will be a big help but relying on magic against dwaefs is sure to bite you in the tail.

That or throw a carnosaur's worth of attacks at him and hope for the best.

 

[n810]

The "other tickster shard" will force him to re-roll sucessfulll ward saves.

Ps. some of the buffs/hexes from heavens can help as well.

 

[HoverBoy]

The "other tickster shard" will force him to re-roll sucessfulll ward saves.

Ahh another reason to get an OB instead of the vet, more gear FTW.


Also you can allways be suicidal and seven dice some purple sun action.

 

[zamtap]

i don't think you do, i think you either avoid the unit he is with and deal with the rest of the army, given the manouverability of our skimishers and other things is should be possible
or kill the unit he is with, mutiple chargers hitting flanks and rear to destroy the unit on combat rez

really +12 on dispel? that sounds wrong, how ? and under what conditions?

 

[Wistrel]

Ok guys, so heres a rough plan, I'll take tetto for the irresistable force spells, to buff units and call comets, and I shall take an Oldblood with Burning blade, Armour of Fortune and the other tricksters shard.

However, this dwarf will probably be Strength 10 with D6 wounds, how do I deal with that?

zamtap: also good ideas on avoidance, and about the dispel, he says the runelord gives him +8 and the runesmith gives him +4, if you have any evidence to suggest otherwise i'd be glad to stuff it in his face

 

[Wistrel]

Actually, through referencing the rulebook and various dwarf rules on google, i have found the to be complete BS he gets +2 to dispel and +3 dispel dice. Im gonna be having a few words with him tomorrow...

 

[HoverBoy]

BTW if he really invests so much into magic defence why not go completely magicless yourself.
Get a pair of oldbloods and about three vets (one for BSB), have large units of saurus and a swarm of skinks, maybe even some TG. Our characters are total beatsticks just give them manshredder gear and rack up the CR.
Fun stuff to use are:
Hide of the cold ones: a lord with it and a stubborn crown/extra attack items can rape any dwarf unit without GWs.
Attack giving items are good for racking up the kill count in CC, any of the swords or even the carnosaur pendant can put a big dent in a unit.
The armor ignoring swords, ours is kinda better than the rulebook one but it pays for it.
Fencer's blades, they're ok and get really fun if combined with glittering scales.
Or you can go cheap and get more charracters AHWs, halbers or GWs are all nice options here.

 

[Wistrel]

Very nice Ideas HoverBoy, I like the Hide of the Cold Ones build but unfortunately every single one of his units has great weapons, even the flippin Quarrelers!

I think that in light of the lower dispel rolls I may go with some magic, probably tetto bacause most of the time he cant be dispelled!

 

[HoverBoy]

If you take him you MUST have a heavens frog too. If you have enough skinks you can plant 3 coments in a single turn. Dwarf movement speed hates the comets.

 

[Wistrel]

Hmm... that is starting to sound a bit too magic reliant, which against dwarves isn't great- I'm gonna take what everyone has said into consideration when I write my list and let you know how it goes.

 

[Qupakoco]

You can always go overboard with magic. If you run with a Slann, Tetto'eko, and a handful of lvl 1 priests you can easily overpower his magic defenses. And if you run a Metal Slann, his dwarf Lord will suddenly get wounded on a 2+ with "only" a 4+ ward save. Let your skinks get their magic out first to draw out his dispel dice.

 

[Lord Tsunami]

as already pointed out, the +12 to dispel is nonsense. best if you both sat down with the dwarf rulebook and give it a look. remember that dwarfs get +2 to dispel just from being dwarfs, but he can not under any circumstances get +12 to dispel.

about the super hard lord: why do you have to kill that? if your enemy presents you with a handful of targets, why would you try and kill the "immortal" one? As already mentioned, you CAN kill him (and you could make one pretty much as tough yourself with s7, 5A, 1+ rerollable save and a 4+ ward) but you do not HAVE to kill him. you could flank his unit, beat it in one round and run it down (unless they are hammerers ofc). you could completely ignore the unit, and toss a few skinks in front of it when needed and kill his warmachines and his weaker units meanwhile.

The hammer is not always the solution. sometimes a broom will do better

 

[Scalenex]

Here's a primer on dwarf anti-magic

Dwarfs get +2 on all dispel rolls (unless they are playing with a wizard in a team game or Storm of Magic). The Master Rune of Spell binding boosts this to +3 but it's an upopular choice.

They get the basic dispel dice (the higher of the two dice you roll). They get one extra dispel die per runesmith and two extra dispel dice per runelord. The anvil of doom adds another dispel die (in addition to the two that come with the dwarf lord using it).

Most dwarf lists take a Master Rune of Balance. This steals one power die from the enemy power dice pool (aka your pool) and turns into a dispel dice for the dwarf pool.

They can take any number of spealbreaker runes which functions as dispel scroll. They can take any number of Scrolls of spell binding that function as dispel scrolls that have a 50% of preventing you from using the dispelled spell for the rest of the game.

They have a number of runes that bestow magic resistance but they are a bit overpriced for 8th ed and are not often chosen by dwarf players.

 

[Wistrel]

Thanks for the insight Scalenex, I'll be sure to bring this up tomorrow at the game.

 

[Baggies]

I didnt think you could get a 1 armour save though 1 always failed!

 

[Scalenex]

I didnt think you could get a 1 armour save though 1 always failed!

you always fail on a 1 but if you have a 1 Armor save you can still save on a 2 versus a -1 AS attack.

 

[Baggies]

Ok forgive my stupidness does that mean if he is wounded by a s4 there is no armour save modifier and s5 -1 instead of -2?

 

[Wistrel]

No, he has a 1+ armour save, so he can only be wounded if he rolls a 1. (because 1 always fails)
If hit by a S4 attack he has a 2+ armour save, so he also can only be wounded if he rolls a one.
If hit by a S5 attack he has a 3+ armour and so on...

 

[Arli]

Something else to note is that Tetto'ekko only gets irresistables on one magic phase. Not every phase. He does get to reroll all tests to see if his comets land. Another much overlooked ability that he offers the army is the ability to re-deploy d3 units before the game starts. This is a huge bonus.

Don't forget to take a unit of skink cohorts to surround him and protect him from shooting and combat.

The ability to reroll comet arrival is the reason that a Heavens slann would be a good thing.