I played dwarves for the first time yesterday with my beastmen. Came out to a draw, but some questions came up that could have drastically changed the game.

First Question: How does the rune of smiting work?

He told me that the d6 wounds it causes are spread out among the unit. Meaning a single guy can swath through an entire unit! that's heinous! Too heinous, and reminds me of a similar weapon upgrade called the hellfire sword. That causes each unsaved wound to cause d3 wounds. So my question is does this work like a cannon on models that do not have multiple wounds?

For example, he caused 1 wound and I saw 4 of my critters die due to it. Or does the rune in fact work like a charm against multi-wound critters, but against rank and file just kills 1 unit? I ask because a slayer hero cut through an entire herd and took a big part in destroying my hero running unit.


Second question: How does the oathstone work in terms of ranks, who can attack, challenges, moving characters/champions.

Basically I charged an oathstone carrying unit. He poped the oathstone which I know nothing about and started listing out what it did verbatim from the book.

Let me see if I get this:

• He has no flank/rear, thusly I get no bonuses for that.
• He still gets ranks?
• How do you determine what gets to attack if the models "surround the leader"
• What about models that were in a non fighting rank before? IE I hit him in the flank and rear, and he poped the oathstone. Can his character/champion now fight?
• How do you determine how many attacks you can make?

This cost me my minos and my bestigors, so It's a curious question to me, because I'm sure I'll face it in the future.

I'm no expert on dwarves, but I'll give it a shot.

An enemy wounded by a wepaon with the master rune of smiting (after saves) takes not 1 but 1d6 wounds.

The way I read that, and they way most weapons work is that the wound is made on a single model and therefore does not affect more than one model. However, in a challenge you can get a lot of overkill with such a weapon.

I'd say he used it the wrong way. It's great against multi wound stuff like characters, ogres and huge monsters, but against 1W models it's a wast of points.

• He has no flank/rear, thusly I get no bonuses for that.

Correct

• He still gets ranks?

Correct

• How do you determine what gets to attack if the models "surround the leader"

You don't move the models in the unit to form up around the character carrying the stone so the unit still looks pretty much the same. The character in on the stone may not be moved in the unit so he'll still be in the "front".

• What about models that were in a non fighting rank before? IE I hit him in the flank and rear, and he poped the oathstone. Can his character/champion now fight?

The character can (and have to) challenge and accept challenges even if not in combat. As it says he's not that hard to find, he's the one on the stone. Any champion in the unit on the other hand would still follow the normal rules for challenge and could move around if he wins a round of combat.

• How do you determine how many attacks you can make?

Well, you see how many models you have in base contact with the dwarven unit. It's still a square or rectangular unit you rank up against.

Okay, just asking because he said we literally put the character in the center and move all the dwarves around him. Which to me sounded a bit shady. I am curious because with 3 dwarves on the side, my minotaur killed 2 and suddenly he is swinging back with 3 attacks and I questioned it. Even with the champ it would have taken 2 attacks.

buddha have it pretty much covered. Just want to add that the champion can move into fighting poisition in any of his turn(unless it is the turn he charged) even if he dosen´t win a round of combat. :)

Well, it was my turn, I charged, first round of combat and the champion was in the front I charged in the rear and side.

Unless the champion was on the edge and therefore touching one of your models he should not be able to fight then.

Okydky then, that makes a huge difference, I'll keep that in mind in the future. As for the weapon it works like every other "multiple wound" thing in the game?

Of course. It multiplies wounds, not attacks.

*Grumbles* I might have actually beaten a slayer with warhounds if this is true. Because I caused a wound, he caused a wound and I outnumbered. That would have been hilarious!

Well, slayers are just roadblocks anyway, but cool of them to wound something T5. :)

unbreakable road blocks, so those hounds'd probably have died eventually :P

True, but it would have been the difference between him having to fight them for another turn and getting a charge off on my minotaurs. Last thing I need is a multi-wound beast cutting through my minotaurs.