Unofficial Warhammer Blogs

After an extensive report on other dwarven artillery, I purposely left out two machines that are either played much differently or require a different style army to a certain extent. The dwarf Gyrocopter and Malakai Makaisson’s Goblin-Hewer both bring interesting twists to an already potent war machine array.

Gyrocopter: The Gyrocopter is a flying war machine treated as a flying monster, but does not bear the burden of being a large target (thank goodness). It has an amazing range of 20”, avoiding all obstacles of terrain (it flies). That is nearly a 7x boost from our usual movement speed, so if you are getting bored of being bogged down, adopt a few of these into your army and you’ll have some fun.

Boasting very decent Str 4 attacks(2), a powerful T 5 and W 3, with the standard Ld of 9 for our stalwart friend, we are looking at a beast. It maintains a 4+ armor save, and a steam gun that operates with the flame template, dealing auto hits for fully covered units and 4+ hits for partials, dealing Str 3 hits at -1 Armor. Alright so he is basically a small tank that has a decent attack, fast as the wind, probably best for taking out lightly armored and low toughness units, march blocking, rear charging or mage/war machine hunting. Super!

This is just what the dwarf player so sorely needed. Using a Thorek line style where you make Swiss cheese of any unit that comes down your path, you run into trouble against heavy magic users. (Yes we are dwarves and with Thorek you get more dispel dice blah blah, silence that thought. We cannot fight against armies that bring 12 power dice to the board.) We also cannot deal with war machines as much if we have more important targets ie, the troops bearing down on our lines.

March blocking? What is that? An unfamiliar term to the dwarf player who merely glanced over the Rangers section in the army codex. March blocking can be a strong key to success for an army that employs many shooters and war machines. Having more time to shoot the opponent with our powerful guns before they arrive is always a plus especially against powerful charging armies like Bretonnians or Ogres that rely heavily on movement. Operating the Gyrocopter exactly like a war machine or similar dwarf unit is a quick way to misuse 140 pts. If I was to play with the Gyrocopter, I would use the Thorek battle line army, and run my Gyrocopter up the far flank of the battlefield, making full use of distance, speed and terrain. Dropping deep into the enemy lines versus certain armies can prove devastating, especially in the mirror, versus charging armies, or heavy magic armies (Gyrocopter= Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

Do not be afraid to flee! It has 3D6 flee power. You have a sturdy machine that can do a good amount of damage, but you must use it wisely. I would compare the Gyrocopter in chess to a knight. The piece itself is not seemingly powerful and is a bit quirky, but used correctly, it can be destructive.

Remember its purpose in battle; to march block, mage/machine hunt, and rear charge (since it only has a Unit Strength of 3, it cannot nullify rank bonuses and is too expensive and brittle to charge helter skelter into combating units from the flank.) It flies! Use this to your advantage. Run along the far flanks of the map. Draw attention away from your main army while you shoot the opponent to pieces. It is a knight, remember.

The flame template as noted before in a previous blog is 8 and 1/8th inches long, and about 2 and 3/8ths long at the widest part. That is not as long as you think. Most units have a movement speed of 4. Be very weary when you are behind enemy lines that you do not get charged and are forced to pray for a dice flee roll that does not throw you off the map.

Malakai Makaisson’s Goblin-Hewer: Not only a terrifying model to behold, this war machine can really hack units to pieces if used properly. Used in a Slayer army as a rare choice, or in a Dwarf army or an Empire army as a hero choice AND a rare choice (ouch). Do not fret though, there are not many other draw backs.

Sporting Malakai gives a WS 5, BS 5, S4, T4, W2, A3, Ld 10 hero while the crewmen are standard crew members but with the slayer leadership of 10. That’s a plus. Malakai also sports a great weapon and a repeating handgun(same as a normal) with 3x shots. The crew is armed with hand weapons and great weapons.

Now for the good part. The Goblin-Hewer operates much like a bolt thrower using Malakai’s BS(5). With a 48” range at Str 4, -2 save modifier, you are hitting on 2s. Additionally, for each rank in the unit, the unit takes D3 hits. So if a goblin unit comes charging down your path 5 across and 4 deep, and you roll a 2+ (83.33% of doing so) and you roll 4D3 for wounds. Using our law of averages thanks to Statistics 20 at UC Berkeley, I have calculated the number of to-wound rolls at 8. With a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 12. That is still good. A little close to the organ gun yeah? If you shoot at a unit along its flank, then imagine that flank is the new front, and how many wide it was originally is how many ranks there are (so try for flank shots).

So how is this monstrosity any good? Well you first hit on 2s. Secondly you are guaranteed 4 to wound rolls with a max of 12, mostly averaging 7-9. Third, it has a -2 modifier, so that covers just about most units in the game that are secondary in the army. Assuming most armies run one or two big units of heavy armor and shielded units, while the rest either have light armor, a shield, or both. So what to shoot at with this thing? Lightly armored units. Those pesky fliers that can really burden your slayers who lack armor or those big units of lightly armored goblins that just bog down your powerful slayer units who would be better off fulfilling their death pacts against minotaur or ogres.

Place this bad boy right in the center of your slayer army. It has an immense range of 48”. Your line of sight will be best functioned there in a slayer army. It will draw the attention of your opponents main units which is what you want in a way, since a clever charge with a Doomseeker on a side of a unit flanking your opponents hewer destroyer can be amazing for you.

Also another bonus that comes from the range is that your hewer can cut down those annoying bowmen that plague your unarmored (thus more manly) slayers. Archers and fast cavalry have little armor and not many numbers in their units. Allocating the hewers shots as shooting can force panic tests on strong fires or prevent your opponents archers from getting close enough to shoot your slayers for fear of being chopped down.

Recap: Gyrocopter: A powerful march blocker, with amazing range, and a strong weapon against low toughness or ill-armored units. Nothing more. Its power relies on smart movement strategies and even smarter plan b strategies when you flee after you whittle away at your opponents heels.

Great for hunting mages so definitely look into using one of these units in a very shooty style army. Also great against the armies that pack small amounts of units so you can rear charge once combat has begun.

I give this a low 8 on usability because of its superb mobility, and ability to adopt to nearly every army your opponent throws at it. Either a rear charger, march blocker, mage hunter or war machine killer. Even a powerful gun platform against units that are slow (MS 4) or units that cannot charge it next turn (abusing terrain).

Goblin-Hewer: In the Slayer army, a must have. It is a good fix to the problems that plague the army; shooting. It has an incredible range and can really even the fight out number wise before your slayers hit combat. Capable of dealing tons of wounds against certain units is great, although it lacks slightly compared to other war machines since it only has a -2 modifier. So target light units and shooters. The rest your slayers can handle.

Also you receive Malakai that can lay down the law in combat if it comes to that.

As for running the hewer in a normal Dwarf or Empire army, I sadly suggest against it. It takes up a Hero and a rare choice. Unless you are against an army that uses little to no armor and has tons and tons of numbers, perhaps Skaven, Vampires, or Lizardmen with tons of skinks, I would not run it. A -2 modifier does not tip games and neither does a hog of hero and rare slots. In a Slayer army, it receives a 10. This machine is key to your survival and takes up only a rare slot.

In a normal army, 5. At 130 pts, there are cheaper war machines in the above mentioned armies that do specific jobs better or are more globally sound such as a buffed out bolt thrower. These are merely my opinions and experiences coupled with other articles I have read and other opinions from other Dwarf players I have played with. If I offend anyone, my apologies. Also, I apologize again for any misspellings or grammar. If you would like to ask any questions, or leave any comments, feel free too. The more minds the better and I will respond promptly.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 12:35 am and is filed under Battle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.