Taking lord hawthorn allows for a very hard line of 1x4 Rune golems

i just tried it and aside from the extremely wide tray limiting movement I was very impressed with how much damage the unit tanked and the potential damage.

What I’m interested in hearing about is what sort of upgrades you would take for this unit.

Wind Rune was not terribly impressive

raven banner still looks useful but Getting the drop on anything with a base that wide is difficult.

one very intresting thing about 4 wide formations is the degree of movement a reform gets you. You can swing around a good portion of the board with it.

The biggest problem with a 4x1 is lack of rerolls. To that end, I'd take Tempered Steel. You can gather inspiration tokens on the approach with the white rally modifier, and either use Tempered Steel on a good roll, or save it to cover your tail on a bad roll. I'd definitely try to use it early to take advantage of threat 5-6 before losing a tray.

Raven Tabards is nice and cheap, but the way I see it, you're going to want this thing engaged ASAP. To that end, what about Terrifying Heraldry? First off - theme. A line of brutal rock monsters attacking you with giant swords is way scary. Second, with two red dice, the Rune Golems can surely take advantage of placing extra panic tokens on their enemies, and then triggering severe morale tests.

Just watch out for Obcasium's Gauntlet!

P.S. I think the custom is to list width first, then depth, so a 1x4 of Rune Golems has threat 1 or 2, and 3 rerolls.

I like the idea of Wind Rune, but they already have a white reform modifier, so you're really playing it for the added shift. Will that shift do enough for 7 points.

My gut feeling is that you don't put any upgrades on them at all to keep their cost low. Considering that, Tempered Steel for 3 points doesn't seem like a bad bit of insurance. There are few enough surges on two reds that you won't need to rally it often, but it could easily come in handy.

2 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

.There are few enough surges on two reds that you won't need to rally it often, but it could easily come in handy.

Doh! Fail. How did I forget that, even when considering the morale results on red dice?

27 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

Doh! Fail. How did I forget that, even when considering the morale results on red dice?

My point was that since you won't need to rally often, you can still use your reform often enough. Wasn't trying to call you out or anything.

For starters, I don't think there exists a world in which 4x1 Golems has any edge on 4x1 Oathsworn for fewer points and with better upgrade options, but academically...

Wind Rune is probably an absolute must, because it makes them much more reliable. If the runes come up with no unstable, they can't move until initiative 8, and sometimes that is unacceptable. Plus, I am forever wishing I could use both their reform and rally modifiers, which Wind Rune kinda enables. Also anything that helps them get a flank charge will be huge because of the value of an extra die at threat 4/5.

Raven Tabards is probably the best bet for heraldry, not because of what it's likely to do for you in a game, but because of the way it will force your opponent to think. A speed 2 charge at initiative 4 is decent, but at 3 it actually out-threats a lot of targets. So, while taking their turn, your opponent has to say "there is a 75% chance that that unit will be able to threaten 2 next turn" and act accordingly.

I guess the wind rune failed to impress me thanks to my opponent constantly re flipping the runes in order to get more red runes.

I'm wondering if dropping wind rune in favor of an energy channeler is a good idea.

4x1 rune golems are much harder to kill than 4x1 horse

15 hours ago, TylerTT said:

4x1 rune golems are much harder to kill than 4x1 horse

In terms of raw damage, kind of true. But it's not that difficult for units to get through 4 armor and Rune Golems can only take 2 wounds. If your opponent has ways to cause wounds directly, Rune Golems are more fragile.

I'll second the recommendation that Oathsworn Cavalry are a better option for a hard-hitting Daqan formation. They may not have Brutal 1-2 but they roll an extra red die and can get a reroll in a 4-wide formation thanks to Rank Discipline. They're also faster, have a more traditional dial, don't rely on runes for some of their key abilities and cost less. They don't have Rune Golem's stun ability but if you're relying on the golems to do damage they won't be choosing to stun much anyway.

3 hours ago, Daverman said:

In terms of raw damage, kind of true. But it's not that difficult for units to get through 4 armor and Rune Golems can only take 2 wounds. If your opponent has ways to cause wounds directly, Rune Golems are more fragile.

I'll second the recommendation that Oathsworn Cavalry are a better option for a hard-hitting Daqan formation. They may not have Brutal 1-2 but they roll an extra red die and can get a reroll in a 4-wide formation thanks to Rank Discipline. They're also faster, have a more traditional dial, don't rely on runes for some of their key abilities and cost less. They don't have Rune Golem's stun ability but if you're relying on the golems to do damage they won't be choosing to stun much anyway.

I mean, Cav also only have two wounds per tray, so if they're doing wounds directly then they're identically durable. Cav frequently get to be Def 3 which in many cases isn't much worse than Def 4, but Golems ARE sturdier no matter how you look at it.

As for the rest, yes, completely agreed. Also one interesting part of such a wide unit is turning really swings that outside corner. Doing a 3-turn charge puts the corner approx 5.5 distance units straight ahead, so in some cases you can really cheat out some extra distance.

What about with visored helms? They hit and move late so they'd get the +1 to armour , all of a sudden it's hard to get that second wound. But the lack of reroll really does hurt them.