We are new to the game, please note.
My opponent tried the humans for the first time tonight, and found them quite lackluster due to the slow speed of the Rune Golems. He was not keen on their lack of movement (or apparent so). I flanked him and they just couldn't hold up. With a bit of bad luck on the runes cast during a crucial turn, they both fell.

what are your thoughts in comparison to the only other faction choice , the undead, at this time ?

They can be both surprising fragile and surprisingly durable at the same time. Their movement is predictable sure, but the reform modifier allows them to adjust. They are not a very consistent unit. They can hit like a truck yet the lack of rerolls can lead to flops. Your best option for them is the single tray or a 4 tray formation. I used one to stall an enemy Oathsworn for two turns to great affect. Allowed me to really go at it.

Stuns are lackluster currently though. I like em, just wish they had one more wound as the Defense Modifier [stable rune] isn't all that useful.

If your having trouble with movement, throw Wind Rune on a 2x1 or a 2x2 and they can do all sorts of maneuvers. I plan on trying a 6 tray formation soon.

Yeah I'm still not quite sure how I feel about them, but there are some perks. The white reform modifier is excellent for setting up flanks, so they're not fast, but they always go the right direction. They're allergic to mortal strikes though, so keep them the hell away from carrion lancers (and death knights). Other than that they take a fair bit of effort to shift, and are dangerous even at a single tray. No rerolls definitely hurts their consistency, but the fact that a single golem on a flank CAN spike 18 damage demands respect. Same thing with the unstable move, it's always a threat.

I've been liking the 2x1 so far. The second golem comes at a steep discount, adds a threat, and doubles the wound count. Since I usually go into defensive mode when the unit gets down to a single wound, this usually doubles the number of offence rounds they get out.

If you are facing a deathstar build or an auto-wound build, they have a rough time. Against la high number of low damage attacks (MSUs), they feel unstoppable.

Yeah, they are clunky. Locally, we haven't stress tested them in larger formations. Seems like 2x1 could be a sweet spot. We see a lot of embedded golems though.

I prefer a 4 block to a death star. I don't much like running death stars. A bit dull.

They already get at least Brutal 1 since there is always one Stable rune.
Maybe take them one wide, two deep with Hawthorne to get re-rolls?

Or if you find them weak, plonk one as Front Line Golem into 3x3 Spearmen Unit with at least Shield Wall. Season with Citadel Weapon Master if you have the points. The "Spearstar" is stupid good for the point cost.

51 minutes ago, Church14 said:

Against la high number of low damage attacks (MSUs), they feel unstoppable.

The smallest units in this game still have 2 threat. It's likely that any of those units will roll 2 hits for 4 damage to get through your defense and then your Rune Golem is half dead. You're relying on a bad roll and/or a defense modifier to stop that. As imposing as 4 defense looks, pairing it with 2 health just doesn't make for a sturdy unit, especially when you factor in ways to just add wounds directly. I'd trade 4/2 for the Carrion Lancer's 3/3 any day.

I think they make good units to bring in toward the end of the battle to mop things up, or as ranged attackers who can later rush in with the Fire Rune upgrade... but they're not frontline troops like they look like they'd be.

58 minutes ago, Polda said:

They already get at least Brutal 1 since there is always one Stable rune.
Maybe take them one wide, two deep with Hawthorne to get re-rolls?

Or if you find them weak, plonk one as Front Line Golem into 3x3 Spearmen Unit with at least Shield Wall. Season with Citadel Weapon Master if you have the points. The "Spearstar" is stupid good for the point cost.

Going 1x2 does in fact increase their average damage very slightly compared to 2x1. Also consistency, which is nice. Of note though, it means that half the game they'll only be at threat 2, which is much worse against most heroes, Carrion Lancers, and Death Knights.

Also worth mentioning the increased danger with Greyhaven Channeler - he can virtually eliminate turns with zero unstable runes, so no longer do you have to cry when you set up a sweet 2-distance flank charge and then have to wait until initiative 8 to do it.

Bad or not I just love the idea of running an entire battlefield of golems because they look so cool! Maybe with the Greyhaven Channeler standing at the back, controlling the entire army like a conductor.

Runegolems are one of those units that are technically bad but viable enough to still field and be surprised with.

4 damage is laughably easy to do, and since they attack so slowly they will never fight anything and get their bonus armor w/o doing their init3 action instead. However theyre oddly great at picking off archerspam, with windrunes theyre pretty reliably quick and nimble and the multiple units of archers usually dont have rerolls so hurting them is less likely. They may not have the forward speed of cavalry but they weirdly enough can turn/reposition to catch a squirrelly archer unit better than cavalry.
I like having Hawthorne make them a 1x2. The reroll is far, far more important than +1 threat when their dice have the most blanks of them all.

Like ive mentioned in other posts i just hate that 4 damage is so easy to cause. The only units that cant dependably hurt it are 2x1s since they must roll 2 hits w/o rerolls, and thats still common enough to be an issue (just not practically guaranteed)
If they had a faster attack, it wouldnt matter. Getting +1-2 armor does vastly improve their odds, but next to nothing lets you do it fast enough to matter.
Or, if they had 3 wounds, it wouldnt be as big an issue. A lancer will last far longer than a golem despite having less armor because 3 armor is almost just as good as 4 in a game of multiplied damage values. Heck its even easier to 1shot a golem than it is a lancer, even though both is kinda unlikely outside deathstar levels of damage.

i will never not field them though both because theyre just too cool looking and ive had them cause a ton of damage since theyre the "not as deadly unit so i can deal with them later" kind of thing. If my opponent makes the mistake of not taking them out while he has high damage output, hes going to be sorry.

Figure upgrades are the best use of Rune Golems in my experience. I'm looking forward to trying the Support Golem.

38 minutes ago, Contrapulator said:

Figure upgrades are the best use of Rune Golems in my experience. I'm looking forward to trying the Support Golem.

I'd like to try a unit that doesn't need a 9 block for a siege figure upgrade.

Does Hawthorne let you rearrange your golem so that it is in the back tray?

25 minutes ago, Hepitude said:

Does Hawthorne let you rearrange your golem so that it is in the back tray?

If you are taking the 2 tray one? Yes.

26 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

If you are taking the 2 tray one? Yes.

Sorry, I meant a Siege upgrade golem in a block of spearmen. Can you put him at the back row instead of the middle front with Hawthorne?

I imagine no because the upgrade card states its in front.

I wouldnt want it anywhere else anyway. Its hardest to hurt w/o accuracy in the middle front.

I don't think you can change it no. Figure upgrades are supposed to go in the front rank which I think is independent of Hawthorne's ability. With support rune golem and support carrion lancer, I'd actually want them in the back to make it harder to chip away to my front trays.

2 hours ago, Darthain said:

I'd like to try a unit that doesn't need a 9 block for a siege figure upgrade.

Hehehehheheheheheheheh Ardus hehhehehehehehehhe I still loose because Waiqar are too combo-y and Daqan are idiot-proof hehehehehehehehhehehehehehehe. I hate Daqan so much.

Daqan are kinda idiot proof. The golem being a bit on the lackluster side is dismissable because the spearmen and cavalry are so dang good.
And like i said earlier, even the golems can be a problem, just not a guaranteed one.

12 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Daqan are kinda idiot proof. The golem being a bit on the lackluster side is dismissable because the spearmen and cavalry are so dang good.
And like i said earlier, even the golems can be a problem, just not a guaranteed one.

Oh I don't know, I beat a Cav w/hawthorne, spearmen block using 2 2x1 Reanimate archers, ardus, reanimate block with Maro in it, Carrion worm. Used the terrain a bit, but the player tapped out before I even took casualties.

I normally play Daqan, but I think Waiqar options are filling out nicely. ((And I do miss not having the higher upgrade slots when I don't have Ardus.))

Maybe Front Line wyrm handing out some Mortal strikes to reanimates, and of course Ardus being able to mimic the ability, will help.

Thats the thing: Daqans are idiot proof, but when the shenanigans of the Waiqar fold out correctly they can ruin some faces.
My regular opponent actually questioned if Daqans were OP, so we switched. Literally never played Waiqar prior to that game, just theorycrafting since i have the models i want to know what they can do. Still beat him lol. (man i want more opponents...).

Tbh the only reason i even play Daqans is, ironically, the rune golem. Its aesthetics win me over alone, dunno why but i think golems are cool as hell and always have. Doubt i'll get a full 6tray block of golems though. Waiqar playstyle is more of my thing: shenanigans upon shenanigans. Talk to any of my xwing friends and they'll immediately say my playstyle is unorthodox shenanigans especially around movements lol.
But, rule of cool man, and Golems are cool. Even if theyre not the greatest technically . Still have fun with'm and thats what matters

8 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Thats the thing: Daqans are idiot proof, but when the shenanigans of the Waiqar fold out correctly they can ruin some faces.
My regular opponent actually questioned if Daqans were OP, so we switched. Literally never played Waiqar prior to that game, just theorycrafting since i have the models i want to know what they can do. Still beat him lol. (man i want more opponents...).

Tbh the only reason i even play Daqans is, ironically, the rune golem. Its aesthetics win me over alone, dunno why but i think golems are cool as hell and always have. Doubt i'll get a full 6tray block of golems though. Waiqar playstyle is more of my thing: shenanigans upon shenanigans. Talk to any of my xwing friends and they'll immediately say my playstyle is unorthodox shenanigans especially around movements lol.
But, rule of cool man, and Golems are cool. Even if theyre not the greatest technically . Still have fun with'm and thats what matters

Rune Golems are the reason I started collecting the game. They just look so awesome!

I too was psyched about the Rune Golem, and then disappointed by their failure on the tabletop to function as I expected.

Now, Front Line Golem kind of makes up for it. I wish Support Golem had a way of adding to Spearmen's defense than costing only 1 less point than Frontline in order to.... add stun tokens.

Got my rune golem box so now i own 4 of them YAY

Gotta say, the new sculpt is even more badass than the original.

Also...did anyone else get 2 wind runes? for some reason that strikes me as odd to give me 2 wind runes in that box (especially since they cant even equip it without being in a 2x1)

I spend my time on Golems going back and forth if they are worth it.

On one hand, they are slow, they don’t hit that hard, and they are fragile.

On the other hand, they amazingly cheap, faster than you would think and tougher than the points they cost would indicate.

I own 2 Rune Golems, and I’m going to buy a pack to I have 4. I plan to run them as a squad and see what happens… at least a time or two.