Ok! So I have been whishing for a Dwarves faction since release. There is such a thing in the Terrinoth universe, and it's called the Dunwarr Dwarves. They are not fleshed out in the lore, but they appear in Descent, Rune Age etc. so they still might come. But who has patience to wait?

I see the Dwarves as race who's strengths are their technology, strategy and their endurance. Their weaknesses are their speed and the cost of training and fielding them. As of stocky physical build, they offset their natural weakness of reach by hardiness, long spears and ranged attacks.

The Dunwarr Dwarves

In the Dunwarr Mountains, dwarves build massive fortresses and great works of cunning and skill. But now all is changing. A new darkness threatens to engulf the known world. The dwarves of Dunwarr put aside their craftsman’s hammers and take up axe and shield, suspicious of all outsiders and determined to weather the oncoming storm.

Heroe(s)

Grisban the Thirsty

At first glance, Grisban's story is an old and familiar one. A dwarf from Dunwarr, Grisban has left the mountains to travel through Terrinoth, making his way as a mercenary. His skill with an axe is undeniable and his love of good, strong beer memorable. An oft-repeated joke (oft-repeated by Grisban, at least), is that no one is certain if his name should be “Grisban the Bloodthirsty” or “Grisban the Beer-thirsty.” Consensus seems to have settled on simply “the Thirsty.” Grisban drinks with a will and fights with a terrible rage, both seeming to hint at a darker reason for leaving his home than he has yet been willing to share.

Art and mini from FFG's Descent 2.0

Notes:

Due to his army building ability, Grisban can be both Bloodthirsty AND Beerthirsty.

Of course, drinking a good pint of beer strengthens the body and rallies the mind The stun token though will admittedly not do much if other banes are not piled on.

He has the ability to reform into a charge. Thematically it symbols a spin with his giant axe stretched out.

Raythen

Escaping the certain death of the Dunwarr expedition massacre, this clever rogue understands one simple thing: the greater the stakes, the greater the payoff. Not one to be easily frightened off, he knows there has to be something valuable left in Sudanya to create this kind of brutal response. Whatever riches may be found, Raythen just needs to find another group of rubes - or rather stalwart heroes - capable of getting him there.

Art and mini from FFG's Descent 2.0

Notes:

Raythen is a driven adventurer, bringing all tricks he can to succeed. The effort is to make him work like an unpredictable assassin on the battlefield. He is not supposed to be good vs infantry and other soft targets, though he can snipe figure upgrades.

He is as of now the only unit with 2 different range attacks I think, and the later one is supposed to emulate a careful aim.

The Brews are his bag of tricks. By using his special action he rumage through his rucksack and gets a Brew ready. Some of them can only be used once and then need to be reequipped (as it gets removed), but the Sedative Serum and Toxic Tonic are only removed when another Brew is gained. The thought is that Raythen only dips his bolts in these, while he drinks (consumes) the others. Also note that the abilities on these are supposed to work like a escalation effect when you get 3 instead of 2 surges. Also, if you manage 5, you can use both. Finally, note that the Brews are hidden to the opponent until activated (but still irrevocably chosen), which makes sense and adds to the mind game (that no one knows what he drinks).

Infantry

Cleavers

These axe wielding and throwing furies are known for their ability to cleave skulls with speed and precision matching the famous chefs' of the deep holds chopping groceries for a great feast.

Art from FFG's Descent 2.0

Minis from "The Hobbit strategy battle game".

Note:

Their ranged special attack have the yellow surge modifier, which makes the attack weaker than the proper melee attack, but with Tempered steel it still packs a punch. The attack should be strong since the projectiles certainly are (bearded axes).

Skewerers

The center of the Dwarven armies usually contains these uncoerciable heavy pikebearers. With their phalanx formation, with spears and shields like an armored hedgehog, they can slowly push the enemy to defeat.

Art from FFG's Lord of the rings: The card game

Minis from "The Hobbit strategy battle game".

Notes:

This unit does not have a charge modifier. Instead, trying to symbolise the "sarissa" type spear/pike, they walk into combat, points first. The early attack is also thought of as symbolising a wall of spears. Both the yellow and the red shield is for the phalanx formation.

Cavalry and Heavy

Rammers

Skewerers mounted on the huge rams bred from the stock of the Dunwarr mountains are the sledgehammers of the army. They cannot cover quite the same distance as lighter cavalry, but they are explosive and a crushing force.

Minis from "The Hobbit strategy battle game".

Notes:

I wanted this unit to kick like a mule. I also wanted it to be tough, but not a jack of all trades. So the compromise that felt sound was to make it less damage dealing in prolonged melee (they have one dice less than Oathsworn, Death Knights and Flesh rippers). But when charging, and equipped with Column tactics, they can have 4 dice at threat 3 dealing 3 stuns

Ballistas

The giant bolt throwing constructs from the forges of Dunwarr are military mysteries to most. The crack crew consists of one calculator, one vanguard observer and two cogwheel-turners. Together they assail enemies from far and above with high precision and deadliness.

Art from FFG's Rune age

Minis from "The Hobbit strategy battle game".

Notes:

The main feature is of course the lack of needed line of sight. The thought is that heavier ranged weapons can have a higher arc on the projectile and still have proper impact.

The second thing is that it in addition to panic, it also gives mortal strikes on an ally engaged with the enemy when rolling blanks (even when the blank is rerolled away). This is to symbolize the lack of accuracy and the deadliness of launching large projectiles into a mass of units where some of them are yours.

The third thing is the possibility to increase it's deadliness on siege unit targets and heroes by equipping the Runeforge arsenal upgrade (ZZ = Mortal strike) or unit blobs with the Incendiary load. If you run Grisban you can run both of these (or one of them with tempered steel), but when activating Incendiary load the others can not be used for that attack.

When dialing in a shield, I'm thinking that the crew is cowering behind the Ballista.

I've been pondering doing some more official looking cards and dials for my homebrew stuff. Any chance you could supply me with the templates/files/images/resources you used to make these? I wouldn't need the art just everything else

In any case, fantastic work!

A couple things:

• The Cleavers' dial is too good. That initiative spread on their moves combined with the free turn and wheel at only -1 is pretty top-tier for infantry, which doesn't fit dwarf theme very well. Also, shift at 5 is almost unprecedented, and reserved for heroes and special cases.
• Better to give the Cleavers a proper ranged attack and specify it as range 3. As typed, they can't benefit from the surge, because the melee attack that their special action allows them to make has no colour, and so can't match any colour modifier (even white).
• Grisban's Veteran Mercenaries ability is probably too big a headache to balance, and would restrict design space.
• Skewerers have a cool theme, and I think the chargeless charge is a cool concept, but they're crazy overpowered. Compare them to Spearmen, and they essentially get free File Leader and inexhaustible Lance Corporal, though can't threaten long charges. A naked 3x2 is incredibly effective. I do like the late reform action though, maybe consider bumping it back to 6 to really double down on that weakness.

Added Rammers and Ballistas!

15 hours ago, Willange said:

I've been pondering doing some more official looking cards and dials for my homebrew stuff. Any chance you could supply me with the templates/files/images/resources you used to make these? I wouldn't need the art just everything else

In any case, fantastic work!

Thanks!

I don't have any proper templates I'm afraid. I downloaded the images from http://runewars.wikia.com that I needed and basically just copy-pasted (and some cloning tool cleaning) using Paint.net ( https://www.getpaint.net/ ). The "custom art" are mainly from other FFG products.

@Bhelliom Thanks for some great feedback! I wanted to get the cavalry and siege posted before I started to make adjustments to the others (I saw some other stuff as well once i posted, doh!). I will get back with updates in a couple of days.

I have now overhauled Grisban, his upgrades and the infantry. Too many changes to list (but I'l note some below). Big thanks to @Bhelliom for the feedback! I would greatly appreciate more feedback from anyone passionate about Dwarves !

21 hours ago, Bhelliom said:

The Cleavers' dial is too good. That initiative spread on their moves combined with the free turn and wheel at only -1 is pretty top-tier for infantry, which doesn't fit dwarf theme very well. Also, shift at 5 is almost unprecedented, and reserved for heroes and special cases.

Can't argue with this now that you pointed it out. I made the turning penalties and shift to match spearmen. I also made the 3-speed move slower and the Spearmens' 4-move is of course not applicable to these guys. The cleavers may be stockier than spearmen, but they are not carrying tower shields, so the still-quick short moves feels like they should be on par (at least).

21 hours ago, Bhelliom said:

Better to give the Cleavers a proper ranged attack and specify it as range 3. As typed, they can't benefit from the surge, because the melee attack that their special action allows them to make has no colour, and so can't match any colour modifier (even white).

I thought the action would still be yellow. Thanks for pointing this out.

21 hours ago, Bhelliom said:

Grisban's Veteran Mercenaries ability is probably too big a headache to balance, and would restrict design space.

At least the latter part is probably very true. I changed the ability to limit both of these problems, though I certainly don't think I managed to fix them completely I'm open to suggestions (but I want something to do with upgrades/ veteran mercenaries of thematic reason).

21 hours ago, Bhelliom said:

Skewerers have a cool theme, and I think the chargeless charge is a cool concept, but they're crazy overpowered. Compare them to Spearmen, and they essentially get free File Leader and inexhaustible Lance Corporal, though can't threaten long charges. A naked 3x2 is incredibly effective. I do like the late reform action though, maybe consider bumping it back to 6 to really double down on that weakness. 

Thanks!

I slowed them down a bit more (reform and movement). I haven't proxied and tested them yet, but are you sure they are "crazy overpowered"? Compared to spearmen (which I would consider a bit too expensive for what they do, i.e. I consider the cost of both units to be on the higher end of melee infantry), they have significantly worse movement and damage dealing capability. They are clearly better defensively, but again, are you sure they are crazy overpowered? I'm thinking that both movement and damage is super important in this game.

Love these! The rams are excellent!

Cool Ideas.

Your Cleavers don't have dice for their ranged attack though.

Agree with Bhelliom on Skewers being crazy overpowered. They will dial in melee attack on Init 3 with a +1 defense almost every turn. The way you have their "file leader" ability worded, they will attack almost everything that touches them since it procs on collision instead of charges. The only way around it is to collide with a non-front side to avoid their melee attack triggering, oh, and they're Def 2 for that. File Leader is massively restrictive by it only proccing on charges. A pair on naked 3x2s would allow a smart player to completely protect the rest of their army (most likely ballistas) and hail steel with very little risk for counterattack. That's Negative Play Experience in a nutshell.

6 hours ago, rebellightworks said:

Agree with Bhelliom on Skewers being crazy overpowered. They will dial in melee attack on Init 3 with a +1 defense almost every turn. The way you have their "file leader" ability worded, they will attack almost everything that touches them since it procs on collision instead of charges. The only way around it is to collide with a non-front side to avoid their melee attack triggering, oh, and they're Def 2 for that. File Leader is massively restrictive by it only proccing on charges. A pair on naked 3x2s would allow a smart player to completely protect the rest of their army (most likely ballistas) and hail steel with very little risk for counterattack. That's Negative Play Experience in a nutshell.

I'm sorry to hear that you don't like them at all, but I very much appreciate your feedback!

Ok, so I will try to break this down in questions in a way that I better can interpret the issue with the unit as it would seem I have gotten home-blind (if that is a word in english as it is in swedish). I can see that they can be very strong when used corrrectly (as they should), but I can't get "crazy overpowered" to really sync with me. If you or anyone have the patience with me I would appreciate some help on them

Firstly: I'm going for the army style of pike and range combo supported with some side charging units. This is how I like to play Rome 2 Total war (as Macedonia), and therefor is intentional. Is it this play style that is the "negative play experience in a nutshell" or just that I've not nailed down a good enough balance yet?

Secondly: I am trying to map the Skeweres on the Macedonian sarissa phalanx. I.e. using the longest possible spear and move forward in a shielded formation. Do you think that the unit conveys this somewhat proper or am I missing something that just makes the unit weird? They are getting critique on their File leader-like ability, but File leader works in all directions and this only in the front. Both require the dial to show something specific. The skewerers are better as you can't "slide" past it, though I see that as a bug in File leader (which does not rectify much for my case admittedly).

Thirdly: To me the unit does not (as of now) seem uncounterable. The extremely sluggish movement makes them a prime target for enemy ranged attacks as the skewerers are not likely to catch any archers. Without the extra shield modifiers they would be picked off as nothing. The Ballistas hiding behind them will be out of range to fire back if they and the blockers are just standing there (though this does not apply to the heavy upgrade). Slow movement and reform should also make it possible to flank them more easily than most other units. So it seems to me that without the shield they become too weak. Does this make sense?

Fourthly: Can I take it that the main issue is the melee shield? At first glance it does not seem that important as spearmen have both blue and green shield, but early red IS stronger. Though I get the feeling that you guys think it makes them indestructible (though I might be overinterpreting) My thought was that the trade off, apart from the downside of extreamly slow movement, was that they did not get any hit, surge or fear modifier (compared to all other infantry) and that they also can't get extra dice from either Moment of inspiration or champions.

Lastly: If my "explanations" still don't make sense, I would be very thankful for any ideas on how to fix them (but still keeping uniqueness and theme). Should they only have 1 attack dice? But if the unit DOES make sense thematically and mechanically, just being too strong, what should the costing be? On a side note before we compare on the costing, are we sure that infantry (mainly Spearmen and Reanimates) isn't just a tad too pricey and maybe should be slightly cheaper (which sort of would justify the cost of Skewerers a little bit)? I could definately see both Spearmen and Reanimated having a few points knocked off?

Thanks!

56 minutes ago, Maktorius said:

I'm sorry to hear that you don't like them at all, but I very much appreciate your feedback!

Ok, so I will try to break this down in questions in a way that I better can interpret the issue with the unit as it would seem I have gotten home-blind (if that is a word in english as it is in swedish). I can see that they can be very strong when used corrrectly (as they should), but I can't get "crazy overpowered" to really sync with me. If you or anyone have the patience with me I would appreciate some help on them

Firstly: I'm going for the army style of pike and range combo supported with some side charging units. This is how I like to play Rome 2 Total war (as Macedonia), and therefor is intentional. Is it this play style that is the "negative play experience in a nutshell" or just that I've not nailed down a good enough balance yet?

Secondly: I am trying to map the Skeweres on the Macedonian sarissa phalanx. I.e. using the longest possible spear and move forward in a shielded formation. Do you think that the unit conveys this somewhat proper or am I missing something that just makes the unit weird? They are getting critique on their File leader-like ability, but File leader works in all directions and this only in the front. Both require the dial to show something specific. The skewerers are better as you can't "slide" past it, though I see that as a bug in File leader (which does not rectify much for my case admittedly).

Thirdly: To me the unit does not (as of now) seem uncounterable. The extremely sluggish movement makes them a prime target for enemy ranged attacks as the skewerers are not likely to catch any archers. Without the extra shield modifiers they would be picked off as nothing. The Ballistas hiding behind them will be out of range to fire back if they and the blockers are just standing there (though this does not apply to the heavy upgrade). Slow movement and reform should also make it possible to flank them more easily than most other units. So it seems to me that without the shield they become too weak. Does this make sense?

Fourthly: Can I take it that the main issue is the melee shield? At first glance it does not seem that important as spearmen have both blue and green shield, but early red IS stronger. Though I get the feeling that you guys think it makes them indestructible (though I might be overinterpreting) My thought was that the trade off, apart from the downside of extreamly slow movement, was that they did not get any hit, surge or fear modifier (compared to all other infantry) and that they also can't get extra dice from either Moment of inspiration or champions.

Lastly: If my "explanations" still don't make sense, I would be very thankful for any ideas on how to fix them (but still keeping uniqueness and theme). Should they only have 1 attack dice? But if the unit DOES make sense thematically and mechanically, just being too strong, what should the costing be? On a side note before we compare on the costing, are we sure that infantry (mainly Spearmen and Reanimates) isn't just a tad too pricey and maybe should be slightly cheaper (which sort of would justify the cost of Skewerers a little bit)? I could definately see both Spearmen and Reanimated having a few points knocked off?

Maybe if it wasn't a free attack but instead something like "If an enemy unit collides with this unit's front edge while it has (Melee) revealed it takes damage equal to your threat."

This lowers the potential damage of it but makes it consistent and keeps the flavor you are after.

My comment is based on my experience with spearmen. I've been taking the 3x2 with Lance corporal for a while now, and feel that it generally puts in good work in games. In particular, fighting with +1 defense lets them put out decent damage with siege-like durability. They're generally quite favoured in attrition battles, though the unit is costly.

Maybe tie the free attack to the speed of the maneuver used to engage them? Something like "if, after performing a maneuver with a speed of 3 or 4, an enemy unit collides with your front edge, immediately make a melee attack targeting that unit."

This adds a layer of counter play, in which you have to get close to them one turn and then close the distance the next. Dwarves ought to be slow, and this has the interesting effect of forcing the opponent to also be slow.

On 7/10/2018 at 3:45 PM, Maktorius said:

Ok! So here goes my latest pet project Why did I do it? Don't know, just want Dwarves! I've tried to think things through, but at least the different costings are probably off in some (if not many) cases. Hope you enjoy fantasising about Dwarves in Runewars as much as me

Heroe(s)

Grisban the Thirsty

Interesting. Am I correct in saying English isn't your first language? There is a way that FFG writes their games that can take a little getting used to. The way you've worded Grisban's special ability is a little lengthy, but if we steal syntax from Meagan's ability, we can bring it much more in-line with FFG's style.

"Each Infantry unit from the Latari Elves in your army can equip 1 upgrade from the Latari Elves with "Sorceress" in its name, in addition to its available upgrades."

So, using this basic structure and language, i'd suggest rewriting Grisban's ability to something more similar to this.

"Each unit from the Dunwarr Dwarves in your army can equip 1 different non-figure upgrade for each upgrade slot available to that unit, in addition to its available upgrades."

Now, this can still easily get out of hand. Suddenly, you have to take this ability into account with every Dunwarr unit that could potentially be developed. A similar example already in Runewars is Combat Ingeunity. Waiqar has only a few multi-surge abilities, mostly because there is tech that can reduce the number of surges by one. This is a powerful ability, and one that needs to be remembered when developing units. I would suggest something along these lines instead (especially if you want to keep the hero under 40 points).

"Each unit from the Dunwarr Dwarves in your army can equip 1 non-figure upgrade in addition to its available upgrades."

This wording allows units to equip 1 additional non-figure upgrade, which can still lead to some powerful tech, but since it's only one upgrade, you have more freedom to add upgrade slots to units without worrying about adding their ability to bring double the number of upgrades.

Quote

He has the ability to reform into a charge. Thematically it symbols a spin with his giant axe stretched out.

Units can't end their reform touching "any obstacles it was not already touching." RRG 68.0 Sadly, while cool sounding, doesn't work in the current ruleset. Upgrades could always change this, but those would need to be developed.

On 7/10/2018 at 3:46 PM, Maktorius said:

Infantry

Cleavers

These axe wielding and throwing furies are known for their ability to cleave skulls with speed and precision matching the famous chefs' of the deep holds chopping groceries for a great feast.

Note:

Their ranged special attack have the yellow surge modifier, which makes the attack weaker than the proper melee attack, but with Tempered steel it still packs a punch. The attack should be strong since the projectiles certainly are (bearded axes).

Again, we can clean up the language a little bit. Maegan already has precedent for reducing a range to 1-3, so let's just steal her text, word for word.

"Your Ranged Attack can target enemies at range 1-3 only."

Other than that, I find it curious that they have a red and yellow surge. Why not just make the surge White? Then it would work for either Ranged or Melee, and would free up a slot on the modifier dial. I would also be interested in moving the reform over to the modifier dial, make it yellow, and force the player to choose between the Surge (clearly intended for Tempered Steel) or a Reform to setup the next range attack or a march. With the theme being dwarves, and veteran mercenaries, I would fully expect these units to be highly coordinated, especially as the Cleavers strike me as skirmishers. Other than that, the dial looks pretty standard, with just a few tweaks on initiatives. With this being a whole new faction, i'd love to see them twist the dial as a part of their faction identity. Uthuk does this slightly in part with the prevalence of White March-1 on the modifier dials. I'd love if that faction identity was white surge modifiers.

On 7/10/2018 at 3:46 PM, Maktorius said:

Infantry .

Skewerers

The center of the Dwarven armies usually contains these uncoerciable heavy pikebearers. With their phalanx formation, with spears and shields like an armored hedgehog, they can slowly push the enemy to defeat.

Notes:

This unit does not have a charge modifier. Instead, trying to symbolise the "sarissa" type spear/pike, they walk into combat, points first. The early attack is also thought of as symbolising a wall of spears. Both the yellow and the red shield is for the phalanx formation.

Okay, so these guys have already had quite a bit of talk about them so far, and I'm gonna respond to your response from earlier in this as well. I'm also gonna copy over File Leader, as I think it's word text will be relevant.

So, the important thing about File Leader isn't the revealed Melee Attack, it's that it only procs when the enemy unit Charges you. The way Skewers are worded, their ability would work on any Collision (from a front edge). So, theoretically, you could pull a Flee in Terror on another unit, have the fleeing unit Collide with the Skewers, and the Skewers would make a melee attack against the fleeing unit. Additional effects like Beastmaster Thu'uk Tar's ability to move units around could potentially proc Skewers. The big issue I believe people have been saying is overpowered is the ease of procing the Skewers ability versus the only other ways to generate additional Melee Attacks out of sequence, namely File Leader and Dispatch Runner. While the ability is a nifty idea, mechanically it's built to be incredibly powerful. It would be very easy to setup a pair of rock terrain spaced to fit a 3x2 unit of these inbetween them. This unit would dial in a Init3 Melee/Rally with the +1 defense, and would be very hard to shift, not only being Defense 2, but also having the ability to attack out of activation. When you add in Ballistas that can ignore Obstacles for LoS, this issue gets compounded, with the ability to deploy a formation that would be incredibly difficult to "crack" while delaying it's own losses. While this is always the intended gamestate in Runewars, I feel that these units would wreck the curve so strongly that it would be incredibly frustrating to play against.

On 7/10/2018 at 3:46 PM, Maktorius said:

Cavalry and Heavy

Rammers

Skewerers mounted on the huge rams bred from the stock of the Dunwarr mountains are the sledgehammers of the army. They cannot cover quite the same distance as lighter cavalry, but they are explosive and a crushing force.

Notes:

I wanted this unit to kick like a mule. I also wanted it to be tough, but not a jack of all trades. So the compromise that felt sound was to make it less damage dealing in prolonged melee (they have one dice less than Oathsworn, Death Knights and Flesh rippers).

So, interesting Dial again. Currently, you have yellow and blue Charges, I would recommend just making the charges white, and then move the Shift to the modifier dial. This would net a similar result.

You talk about the unit kicking like a mule. I'm not seeing that. They only roll two dice, and don't have a threat 3 option. While they do add Surge Hit to a successful charge, this doesn't really equate to ""kicking like a mule". Have you considered something along the lines of:

Melee Attack: After completing a successful charge, add Red Dice equal to the speed of the March maneuver.

Now, this can compoundly get scary. I'd remove their 4-march option if you go this route, and would move the 3-March over to yellow (and drop the yellow charge completely). I'd then swap the Blue 2-march for a White 1-march.

Also, i'd just swap the language of the Stun Tokens on collision for a new Keyword: Ram

"When a unit with this keyword collides with an enemy during a charge, that unit receives X stun tokens."

Firstly, I am very happy that this project is turning into a community effort

Please consider putting your stamp of approval (likes) on the design posts you think are up to snuff, as the arrogant fool I am, I envision that enough support could get FFG:s attention and get them to design the official Dunwarr Dwarves (and the likely to be paired Orcs of the broken plains).

Now to the updates of July 14th:

Big thanks to @rebellightworks for the detailed suggestions and feedback, many of the suggestions are incorporated more or less directly in this update. And yes, English is not my first language Also, thank you @QuickWhit and @Bhelliom for brainstorming fixes for the Skewerers.

Grisban

-Added the ability to reform into collision with an enemy unit on the unit card (and perform a charge).

-Reworded the army building ability and limited it to 1 extra Dunwarr Dwarves upgrade. Note: Don't want a slot to be used for 2 neutral upgrades.

Cleavers

- Reworded the ranged limitation on the Cleavers unit card.

-Made the surge ability white.

On 7/13/2018 at 11:31 PM, rebellightworks said:

I'd love if that faction identity was white surge modifiers.

I was very intrigued by this. The change noted above is the only instance I can think of to use it, but I might be missing something. Please elaborate and I will try to accomodate.

On 7/13/2018 at 11:31 PM, rebellightworks said:

the Surge (clearly intended for Tempered Steel)

Originally I had them at Red Blue dice in order to give a good chance of triggering the Runeforge Arsenal mortal strike. But I was unsure if it would be too powerful, and I thought the army needed a unit that could get some morale tests against blobs. I'm certainly open to thoughts on this issue.

On 7/13/2018 at 11:31 PM, rebellightworks said:

I would also be interested in moving the reform over to the modifier dial, make it yellow, and force the player to choose between the Surge (clearly intended for Tempered Steel) or a Reform to setup the next range attack or a march.  With the theme being dwarves, and veteran mercenaries, I would fully expect these units to be highly coordinated, especially as the Cleavers strike me as skirmishers. 

I cannot argue with the utility of this adjustments. However I am seeing them throwing their relatively heavy and ammunition-wise limited axes, and by thematic reason, but also power-wise, I think there should be a bit of limitations on the number of range attacks they are likely to make. The thought is that you should be able to throw the axes before a charge (either incoming or your own the following turn). So maybe ambushers or heavy skirmishers. The coordination you describe can be somewhat achieved by taking the Formation Drill upgrade (change a blue or green modifier to a reform).

Skewerers

-If I interpret the discussions correctly, the main issue was the power of the "sarissa spear" ability. Several interesting suggestions were given, and I think that the change to reduce the attack dice by 1 accomodates the main problem and matches the suggestions at least partly? I want to avoid setting damage without a dice roll, partly because that would make some units totally immune to the ability and loosing the chance of doing nothing. With this change, even Rune golems MIGHT take a wound, even though the probability is low.

-To mend the power-to-cost concern further, the costing table of the unit is bumbed up by roughly 12%, and is now up on cavalry level per tray.

23 hours ago, rebellightworks said:

It would be very easy to setup a pair of rock terrain spaced to fit a 3x2 unit of these inbetween them. This unit would dial in a Init3 Melee/Rally with the +1 defense, and would be very hard to shift, not only being Defense 2, but also having the ability to attack out of activation. When you add in Ballistas that can ignore Obstacles for LoS, this issue gets compounded, with the ability to deploy a formation that would be incredibly difficult to "crack" while delaying it's own losses.  While this is always the intended gamestate in Runewars, I feel that these units would wreck the curve so strongly that it would be incredibly frustrating to play against.

When I read this I instantly thought about the movie "300" and the scene(s) when the Spartans defends the narrow mountain pass against the onslaught of Persians (though they used regular spears). The description is also a big part of what I am going for as it is what made the Macedonians so successfull, and thematically the long spears are the most obvious way for a Dwarf to offset their natural weakness of range (axes are actually illogical to some degree). I agree that it probably was frustrating for the Macedonian enemies, and not that it is a good reason by a longshot, but the upcoming Ventala skirmishers seems very much like the Mongol Keshik horse archer who just rides around the enemy and shoots them down without a chance to catch them, which also is very frustrating, but effective.

With the two adjustments noted above, the issue hopefully is limited, or even mended, and I do not believe that holding a pass effectively is a sure way to win most games (in big part thanks to the objectives where you have to move around, which also favours the Ventala skirmishers).

Rammers

-Made Ram a keyword as @rebellightworks suggesterd, very neat

-Made the charge augmentation even stronger to kick more like a mule. One comment was that the unit does not have the 3 threat formation, but do note that it can have it by using column tactics.

-I did not make the suggested changes to move the modifiers around and change charge to white as I want to limit the power-level a little bit but still allowing the maneuver by taking the upgrade Formation Drill. It might sound obvius, but this, the column tactic note above and other stuff is what I'm going for in general, the units should have flavour and be useful naked, but it's tactics should be enhanced and stronger with upgrades, which you pay for and therefor keeps the power level (somewhat).

Please keep the ideas and feedback coming, and don't forget to like the "design posts" if they are in your taste

Thanks!

Added pictures for minis from other games that could be used to proxy the actual models. Luckily there were pretty good matches just from The Hobbit strategy battle game (and of course the movies was one of the inspiration sources).

Added the new hero Raythen (in the first post)!

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/279048-homebrewn-dunwarr-dwarves-updated-july-30th/

No love for Raythen ? Maybe my fantasy has drifted too far

-I increased the size of the Brew images so that they are easier to read.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/279048-homebrewn-dunwarr-dwarves-updated-aug-10th/

Made a bit of a rework on the Ballista ( https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/279048-homebrewn-dunwarr-dwarves-updated-aug-10th/?do=findComment&comment=3400729

-Added a new upgrade just for the Ballistas, Incendiary Load, perfect for soft targets.

-It can now have multiple ranks, but the collateral damage triggers for EACH roll, not just the final result, which better maps the fact that more projectiles increases the collateral.

-It can now dial in a shield, I'm thinking that the crew is cowering behind the Ballista.

-I made the surge white to accomodate @rebellightworks

As always, I'm interested in any ideas or feedback

Ok, so I know I'm crazy in spending time on this project (my gaming buddies has informed me But it's something "artistic" (in lack of a better word) for me to do when the kids have gone to bed. So lets put that aside

But I'm very curious about that this thread pretty much has fallen flat after the initial units. 0 comments on the second hero for instance. There are buzz over other threads that discusses stuff they want to see in the future. Is it the "dictatorship" of one member "owning" the thread that is off putting? Could I handle input in a better way? Is a Dwarves faction not that compelling? Or is it just that it is sort of a waste of productive time fantasising about something that is not in the game*?

I'm truly interested in your thoughts on this, I won't take anything personal, just want to become better at "sharing" fantasies and at collaboration so to speak, and can take that wisdom with me even beyond this forum

*Everything in this project can be proxied and played though. Thats why I put in the pictures of actual miniatures that can be used.

Personally, I think that the thematic you chose for dwarves doesn't really suit them. Dwarves aren't known for their quickness, but rather for durability, defense, morale (quick reforms/rallies for example in the context of this game and potentially steadfast) and of course ranged attacks should be their strength (maybe I played too much Warhammer, but that's the image of dwarves drilled into my head). Imo, the dials for the dwarves would suit Orcs more (quick and fighty). What I would imagine from a dwarf is a reform/rally at very quick initiative with a white +1 defense (so they could actually benefit from the +1), otherwise everything else should be slower than the other races.

Otherwise from the units, I think the attacks are a bit too strong compared to other races, again, this is just my opinion and how I imagine dwarves. The scouting aspect for dwarves is fine, as they can dig out from the terrain. Maybe somehow incorporate the lore of their mining capabilities (if they have any in Terrinoth) to somehow avoid the terrain or have the ability to destroy it using explosives, making playing against them require some sort of different aspect.

The suggestions I would make for units is as follows (relying heavily on thematic rather than numbers):

-Rams: the first move is slow, but they have the ability to select the special modifier, which makes the next move go much faster, but they are unable to stop and are automatically charging. This produces the stun effect. Thematically speaking, rams are quite slow until they actually start charging at which time they are inertious and easy to dodge (but if you don't, then you're in for a concussion), which could go in line with the sluggishness of the dwarves, but at the same time give them something unique that could be quick.

-Ballista: I feel that this unit is actually too weak (or maybe I just want it to see as too weak so I could incorporate what would give it more theme). I thematically would like to see something like Brutal: Enemy ranks (+1 for each enemy rank past the front line), as the bolt flies through the people, rather than stopping on the first dude in line.

-Raythen: I feel like he's a one man army. The dice rolled are higher than anyone else in the game as far as I am aware. Initiative is very high, plus a chance to add more unavoidable wounds. And on top of that there's potions (which I don't think I would use, since I would want to maximise his power of sniping creatures out and taking a potion is effectively wasting a turn). When I look at the cost of him, it's as any other hero, but he can practically one shot other heroes (if you're lucky) or siege units. Oh and he has an innate reroll on 2 white dice. Maybe split off the brews into a separate hero and allow him to choose one brew along with his dial (oh and maybe give him 8 and make them non reusable. He brings just enough to the field to last fully through the fight).

I would like to see some unit of full range that specialises in range and is week in melee.

Sorry for the wall of text.

Neat! I only just today stumbled onto this thread, it looks fun.

If I find some free time without something else to work on (unlikely, but possible?) I might look at adding these to the TTS mod (or making them as a separate mod). Would love to see something similar for orcs as well.

I think this is a very cool project and would like to see more, I still check it out.

Do you not need one of those heroes to have a cavalry form though?