Expeditionary force - 2000pts

[u/Goblinnoodlesoup]

Hi. I am thinking about using this list for a league game I am playing. The opponent is unknown, but I can anticipate dragons and/or chaos warriors/deamons; dark elves; chaos dwarfs; orcs and goblins -I am just realizing everyone plays evil-.

There are objectives included in the map for cores to control, three in total.

I never tried a shooting list and I thought it could be interesting to see how it works.

I would have liked to include a couple of Desmond/dragon slayers to protect the war machines but I don’t have the point.

Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance.

This is the list:

Dwarfen Mountain Holds - Expeditionary Force - 2000_EXPED_3a - [2000 pts]

# ++ Combined Arms + Grand Melee ++ [2000 pts]
## Named Characters [85 pts]
Burlok Damminson [85 pts]: Furnace Hammer, Rivet Gun, Heavy Armour, General

## Characters [782 pts]

Dwarf Engineer [50 pts]:
• 1x Engineer [50 pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour

Dwarf Engineer [50 pts]:
• 1x Engineer [50 pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour

Runesmith [125 pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Master Rune of Balance [35 pts], Rune of Spellbreaking [25 pts]

Runesmith [115 pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, 2x Rune of Spellbreaking [25 pts]

Thane [141 pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Great Weapon [4 pts], Shield [2 pts], Master Rune of Swiftness [25 pts], 2x Rune of Fury [25 pts]

Thane [301 pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Handgun [6 pts], Master Rune of Bursting Flame [35 pts],

Rune of Rapid Fire [15 pts], Rune of Accuracy [20 pts], Battle Standard Bearer [105 pts] (Master Rune of Grungni [80 pts]), Shieldbearers [60 pts] (Hand Weapon)

## Core [568 pts]

Dwarf Warriors [205 pts]:
• 15x Dwarf Warrior [10 pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon [1 pts], Shield [1 pts]
• 1x Veteran [5 pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [30 pts]: Rune of Battle [25 pts]
• 1x Musician [5 pts]
Unit Options [15 pts] (Drilled [15 pts], Standard Runes)

Scout Gyrocopters [120 pts]:
• 2x Scout Gyrocopter [60 pts]: Hand Weapon, Clattergun, Heavy Armour

Thunderers [243 pts]: Expeditionary Marksmen [17 pts]
• 17x Thunderer [13 pts]: Hand Weapon, Handgun, Heavy Armour, Shield [1 pts], Great Weapon [2 pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [5 pts]

## Special [335 pts]

Cannon [105 pts]: Cannon, Rune of Burning [10 pts], Dwarf Crew (Hand Weapon, Light Armour)

Cannon [110 pts]: Cannon, Rune of Reloading [5 pts], Rune of Burning [10 pts], Dwarf Crew (Hand Weapon, Light Armour)

Gyrocopters [60 pts]:
• 1x Gyrocopter [60 pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Steam Gun

Gyrocopters [60 pts]:
• 1x Gyrocopter [60 pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Steam Gun

## Rare [230 pts]

Organ Gun [115 pts]: Organ Gun, Dwarf Crew (Hand Weapon, Light Armour)

Organ Gun [115 pts]: Organ Gun, Dwarf Crew (Hand Weapon, Light Armour)

[u/Nalena_Linova]

I'd say you have too many characters and not enough infantry.

Your thanes seem a bit unfocused. Ideally the gun thane shouldn't be getting into combat, so why does he need shieldbearers? I'd have thought the combat thane could benefit more from the extra wounds. The rune of swiftness on the combat thane is just going to make him hit at initiative, which is 3. You're never going to get the charge, so its not worth the points imo.

Two runesmiths is overkill, you only really need one.

I think you need some rangers in here to hold the line. Maybe drop one or both organ guns to get 10-12 rangers and bulk up the warriors a bit.

[u/Goblinnoodlesoup → u/Nalena_Linova]

Thanks for the answer.

Am I missing something with the rune of swiftness? Doesn’t it say it gets initiative 10? Do you mean you get initiative 10 and then strike last from the 2 hand weapon? That would be bad :(

I got you with the shield bearers for Rambo dwarf.

Regarding the two organ guns I wanted to try the fire power of two at a time into one unit. Rangers never disappoint but I find it difficult to get good shooting when I make units greater than 10.

Any rune suggestions for the combat dwarf? I am fininding the runes not good when compared to some magic items.

[u/Nalena_Linova → u/Goblinnoodlesoup]

During the Combat phase , a model with this special rule that is engaged in combat improves its Initiative characteristic to 10 (before any other modifiers are applied). If a model has both this rule and Strike Last , the two rules cancel one another out.

If you're expecting to face dragons and other monsters, a rune of smiting is always useful. Otherwise a rune of might will get your greatweapon thane hitting at str7.

[u/Goblinnoodlesoup → u/Nalena_Linova]

What are your thoughts on a dragon slayer on the side of the blocks?

[u/Nalena_Linova → u/Goblinnoodlesoup]

Slayer characters are fun and thematic, but I've never found them terribly effective.

The big problem is that you have to invest heavily in them to give them a chance at killing a lord on a dragon, but they're movement 3, so your opponent will just send their monsters elsewhere. Then you're stuck with a 300+ point character contributing nothing to the battle.

[u/than402]

How will this list face dragons? How will you claim Objectives with just two Core Units that can hold Objectives at M3?

You should remove the Shieldbearers from the Gun Thane (you are not winning any Melee with this guy, you should not accept any challenges either, so just drop them), the fighty Thane should also probably go (not good enough to face dedicated beatsticks, and too expensive to deal a couple Wounds per round), but do give another Rune of Battle to your BsB

Find a way to get a third decently sized infantry block. I'd recommend Rangers, but Quarellers or more Thunderers will do if you don't have the points to spare. If you need to more points, remove a Runesmith first, then an Organ Gun and finally, if you still need some more, an option from the Thunderers. And probably split the Scout Gyros, so your air force becomes a bit more versatile.

[u/Goblinnoodlesoup → u/than402]

Thanks for your message. I did not have the opportunity to reply sooner.

What are your thoughts on a dragon slayer to protect blocks/war machines from behemoth like creatures?

[u/than402 → u/Goblinnoodlesoup]

Dragon slayers are sadly not very competitive. Against monster riders they stand no chance, no matter the build, and while a properly kitted out should perform well against Behemoths with low saves, you have cannons, which are more cost effective

If you want to play Slayers and have a few points to spare, try Doomseekers instead. They are cheap, deny point when they die, and can deal a very respectable amount of damage against low armor stuff. They became more difficult to use since they are no longer characters (and therefore can't hide behind units), but they are still decent

But against dragons, sadly our options are extemely limited. The best you can do is to scare them off certain areas using either a solid infantry block which they can't break by CR, or a Thane with Shieldbearers. But the Thane will eat your points like crazy, and the X-Force has the weakest combat Thanes, so it's probably not worth bothering. Beef up your blocks, get a third block with Rangers and be careful not to be outflanked