For those of you who haven't read King Ulrik's 'Themed Armies' thread, I was thinking of theming an Undgrin Ankor force because I have a great deal of respect for Dwarf miners.
Since the army is themed, I have restricted myself to the following troop choices:
warriors, crossbows, miners, longbeards, ironbreakers, slayers, organ guns
Here is my provisional list:
Boris the Bulletdodger (Lord). Two-handed pick (great weapon), gromril armour, Runes: Stone, Resistance, Spite (228)
BSB. Gromril armour. Runes: Stone, 2x Iron (123)
Runesmith. Great weapon, gromril armour. Runes: Balance, Spellbreaking (157)
20 Miners. Full Command (270)
12 Crossbows. Shields (156)
20 Warriors. Great weapons, heavy armour, shields. Full Command (245)
20 Ironbreakers. Full command, Rune of Battle (315)
18 Slayers. 3 Giant Slayers, Standard (255)
2 Organ Guns (250)
Total points value = 1999
Not sure if this would work: I got a feeling that it may suffer from a lack of thunderers. A fairly tight deployment (around a hill) would be the obvious tactic: the Ironbreakers (including Boris) and Slayers on either side with the Warriors (including BSB and Runesmith) in the middle.
The Ironbreakers and Slayers should be able to stand firm against flankers. Hopefully the heavy-armoured stuff my opponents might have will want to avoid getting bogged down in a protracted fight with my ironbreakers or slayers so choose to charge my great weapon-armed unit, which probably has the best chance of killing an armoured regiment.
I tend to deploy my organ guns on the front line (not on a hill) cos of their short range, set back slightly so that the enemy cannot charge them without contacting one of my combat units. This will leave only crossbowmen on the hill, so hopefully enemy flyers won't pose too much of a threat (the crossbows 4+ save, stand + shoot reaction and outnumber+uphill bonuses ought to be able to take care of light things like an eagle!)
Why did you add Slayers into your list? From the fluff I've read, it seems that only very small numbers would be underground at any time, making it very difficult to put together a unit of any significant size.
From a purely army-based standpoint, it looks like it could do reasonably well, but there are a couple of things that worry me.
First, you've only got 3 dedicated combat units until your Miners show up, and only one of them can deal with heavy armour with any consistency. Very rarely have I seen Ironbreakers survive a charge from a decently-sized unit of heavy cav, which is the only thing that's going to be going anywhere near them.
Second, it seems to me that the Slayers are going to be tied up by elite infantry, which, while it normally wouldn't be very good strategy, would leave your warriors unsupported in this list once the IB's are destroyed.
Basically, my feeling is that the line isn't strong enough. Your characters are decent, good aside from the MR of Balance, which I don't really see the purpose of when you could automatically dispel 2 spells for the same cost, and you have minimal shooting, which I feel is a necessity when you drop most of the powerful stuff from the list.
I think you've spent too many points on the Miner unit, which you can't depend on to arrive early enough to affect the game significantly, and 3 Giant Slayers is probably too many points that won't do very much. The standard in the Slayers is also wasted, as they don't need to worry about CR. Anything that can be broken by them should be punished by the number of attacks coming at them already. Also, drop the standard from the unit the BSB will join, assuming that's your plan.
Use the points freed to add another unit of Warriors, preferably with all equipment, though the GW are the important thing. Use the two Warrior units to support each other as much as possible until the enemy has been shattered against your line.
The Slayers are there for 2 reasons:
1) they are in the appendix list in the back of the army book
2) I figured they would be hunting for nasties to fight anywhere, even underground
There is a standard in the Slayer unit because I've converted + painted a model that looks ace, it's got an empty eye socket + everything! (so it stays!!)
I felt that I had to take the maximum unit size for the miners, since the army is themed around the Dwarf tunnels and mines.
I've taken on board what you have said and have chosen a 2500 point force, my group are getting into the habit of playing 2.5k games. I think the army is reasonably balanced. For smaller games I will just have to pick and choose between these units:
Boris the Bulletdodger, as above (228)
BSB, as above (123)
Dragon Slayer. Runes: Swiftness, Cleaving (110)
Runesmith. Gromril armour, great weapon. Runes: 3x Spellbreaking (157)
20 Warriors. Full upgrades. Full command (245)
20 Warriors. Full upgrades. Full command (245)
14 Crossbows. Shields (182)
20 Miners. Full command (270)
17 Slayers. 2 Giant Slayers, Standard (229)
20 Ironbreakers. Full command, Rune of Battle (315)
2 Bolt Throwers. Runes (between them): Skewering, Penetrating, Burning (145)
2 Organ Guns (250)
Total = 2499
Basically this army sticks to my theme, without costing much to make cos it mostly uses models I already have - just need some more miners, but I was planning on getting some anyway.
As the army progresses I might post piccies of it + some fluff. I also intend to build some Dwarf mine-themed gaming tables, although they will have to wait until after I have graduated in the summer cos I just ain't got the space to do it in uni accomodation!!
