Suggestion: Help the Dwarves with Runes

[Shangular]

Okay, so most players will agree that Dwarves are the most difficult to play competitively. There are suggestions in prior threads of adding an Engineer or buffing Slayers. But one suggestion I'd like to add is to create Rune items that dwarves can equip in their bag. So perhaps have a Speed run that adds +1 Movement, or a WS or BS rune adding +5, or even one that can add existing skills like Ambush. Runes are very much inline with Dwarves lore in the WH world so this could fit

 

[Skrit9]

Hmm, that's a really cool idea. The question is how effective would that be if it takes up a bag space? Functionally, you can already do most of those things using consumables, albeit at a price (have to accrue enough consumables). Could they potentially be cast as a series of spells by a runesmith hired sword? Where each "spell" he learns is a one use per game (i.e. skaven giant rats spell) and gives a buff for the rest of the match? I guess the problem you run into there is that increasing the move of one warrior by one is not going to solve problems. I love the idea, just trying to think how it would work practically.

 

[Shangular]

The way I see the balance is that you only ever have 4 spaces to equip things. So if you choose say 4 elven cloaks to be resistant to shooting there is an opportunity cost of crimson shade and map cap which makes you less effective in melee. Same with runes. Yes, crimson shade can give you the +1 movement, but your enemy can also use crimson shade and thus nullify the effect. Now if you have crimson shade and a rune that gives you +1 movement, you'll get the net benefit of being able to actually catch your enemy in close combat. Seriously the way it is today its comical in that you can just keep running from a dwarf and they will never catch you with their 3 movement. Since dwarves can't get Quick Reaction, there is also no penalty to simply move out of combat.

So perhaps skills such as Quick Reaction could be an option for a Rune item, as well as Ambush, emphasizing this again would be nice, and perhaps the one that rune of stealth that gives you that one skill that allows you to hide in double distance (can't remember the name atm).

 

[Skrit9]

That's a good point. If you could stack the two +1 moves it would make a pretty big difference. Also, getting speed skills as runes is an interesting flavor. At that point Dwarves essentially end up as a really flexible warband, but with sacrifices to make in any direction. The question is would they be competitive? Maybe a rune to increase AP on ranged weapons? Hmm. It's an interesting potential solution.

 

[Shangular]

I think it will allow players to specialize their dwarves to they can create a competitive build. Perhaps add a bunch of speed and Quick Reaction runes on the dwarf armed with a pick axe and call him Speedy. Then put the BS skill and Ambush runes on a dwarf with a rifle and call him Shooty. Then one dwarf can have defense runes to take all the hits and he can be Grumpy. Create your own specialized 7 dwarves

 

[CzaRus]

Dwarves are nor tall, nor extra small, but they suffer from ranged fire a lot. How about bonus aginst ranged fire -10 (halfling is just a bit smaller and has -15 so why not)

 

[Shangular]

But dwarves are wide. The novels describe Gotrek as being 2 humans wide. Dwarves probably need a icon on their shields that says warning Makes Wide Turns

 

[Pokey5]

I think tunes sound a cool idea, we don't want dwarves sprinting everywhere, I don't know how it was compensated for on the table top

 

[Skrit9]

On tabletop it was compensated for by the fact that dwarves were almost unkillable. Plus that got cheap access to gromril at the start. Essentially in TT when a model went to 0 wounds, you rolled a d6 to find out what happened. 1-2 knocked down, 3-4 stunned, 5-6 out of action. Dwarves could only be taken out of action on a 6 and had good saves against being stunned. Plus they had high toughness, which made it hard to wound. They re-designed both of those aspects of the mobile game, so it’s hard to represent them accurately.

 

[Skrit9]

I guess to try to represent it you could give dwarves a suit of gromril in the shop only when you first start the warband that is only 150 gold and could give them a 50-50 “death save” every time they would be taken out of action that leaves them with one wound (still stunned though). They tried to compensate for toughness with armor, which is nice but not necessarily equivalent

 

[Shangular]

Also in TT, most models only have 1 wound so can be taken out in one hit. Here is not the case which allow nullifies the dwarves' innate toughness advantage.

 

[Bringabong]

Adding runes sounds great. Helping the Dwarves with mobility by creating a new unit or two is needed imo.
New hired sword / Hencemen suggestions
Gyrocopter
Dwarf Scout
Dwarf Adventurer
Dwarf Pathfinder