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How do war machines stack up in 9th age?

 

Admittedly I have not studied it very much but in looking through the dwarf book I was struck by a feeling that thay may have been powered down a bit. Some of the options (specifically the grudge buster and copter options) seemed pretty pricey for what they appeared to have. I could easily be missing important details, so I thought I would ask how they were from experienced players point of view?

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From my limited experience, war machines seems to have lost a little, gained a little. Cannons have to roll to hit now and catapults have a better chance of scattering further. Max damage is capped at 4 wounds per target (5 if you are a flyer). On the other hand, cannons don't pick a point and roll to "overshoot" anymore, so there's less of a guessing game there. Minimum wounds are also up to 2 (3 vs fliers), so the damage output is a bit more reliable. Engineers also help make them more reliable. 

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I'd say they might be a little overboard right now. They can do a lot of damage with little to no retaliation possible, depending on the matchup.

I can't speak about Grudge Busters or Copters specifically though. Have you checked out the Dwarven Holds forum? http://www.the-ninth-age.com/index.php?board/6-dwarven-holds-dh/

 

Some quick stats from a recent large tournament (ETC): 

6/15 dwarves took Grudge Busters, and five took two.

14/15 took some form of copter. Most took two Attack and one Flame, though the bomber was seen plenty.

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The fact that cannons ignore Pretty much every negative except for long range (which they rarely suffer after turn 1) and the +1 to hit Large Targets pretty much make them just as accurate and effective against their intended target as always...more so against character mounted monstrous beasts like manticore and griffons as these models are often capped at 4 wounds so a cannon has 2/3 chance of killing one outright

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Please convey this to my dice

Sorry you are having issues with them...I have issues with having to hide my alter behind a hill all game against lists with a single cannon that are hitting it on a 2+ or 3+. Also having to keep my Monsters in a box....on a shelf....far far behind all my other models :p

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Yeah, overall I'm pretty happy with all of the war machine changes, especially the ordnance damage as you're no longer able to do a huge 6 wounds and one shot almost anything, but you're also always guaranteed at least 2 wounds. Also, misfires are a lot less deadly with no chance to actually have your machine blow up (unless it's a flame cannon), just a chance to not be able to shoot for the rest of the game instead.

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Most of what has already been said is what I believe about war machines. They needed to be repurposed after the idiocy that was cannons in 8th and I'm glad they were. That said neither the Grudge Buster nor the copters are war machines in any capacity with the former being a chariot and the latter being cavalry.

 

If you're asking about how they perform then I'd say they range from decent to damn-near-autoinclude. The GB is a decent chariot in an army that is lacking in speedy combat choices. It's not as tough or as powerful at range as a steam tank, but it is well suited for the role it has in a dwarf army given their lack of competing options. The copters, however, are pretty much always in lists as chaff is incredibly important in any regimental game and they're all dwarfs get. The ranged options and bomber especially are pretty solid, but you'll start bleeding points the more you upgrade them which moves them away from their original design. In terms of game theory they're a little more expensive than other chaff options because both they and the army they're protecting are tough to bleed points out of as it is.

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