I have recently been in discussion with friends about how best to equip a dwarf lord.

One takes minimal runes, the other likes to shell out on a big magical axe

My current interest is in creating an unkillable dwarf lord. He has Master Rune of Gromril (1+ save), Rune of Resistance (that can be re-rolled), Master Rune of Spite (4+ ward). So that's 3 saving throws if he gets wounded.

I know this is something of a great debate amongst dwarf players, bit since I'm new to the forum I want to know what you guys think?

War machines are potentially a problem, but then a 'Look out sir!' roll is bascically a 2+ saving throw anyway

Of course there aren't many points left over for a magic weapon, but give him a great weapon and he can go toe-toe with most characters in the game and live!

My real hate is spells like Vauls Unmaking, worth keeping a dispel rune for!

You have enought points left over after takeing those items to take a rune of shielding for a 2+ ward save against warmachines, put ihim in a unit with a standard bearer with three runes of sanctuary and a thane with three of resistance and the unit would have magic resistance 6

And you're out a lot of points and two character slots. Not worth it, in my opinion.

Personally, I like a Master Rune of Adamant and Rune of Stone on Gromril Armour, and a Master Rune of Spite. You only have a 3+ Armour save, but T6 and a 4+ ward as well as 4 WS7 S6 attacks make him a real powerhouse, and for less than 300 points.
And with the number of 'no armour save' weapons around, why bother paying the points for a rerollable 1+ save, or whatever you decide you like?

Did you give him ag reat hammer also?
As for the save he wants an unkillable guy i was showing a way to make him almost invincible,
and i have used this except had two runes resistance on thane, and different lord.

As for your point on no armour save weapons, example you fight a lizardmen with blade of realities you lose your 4+ ward save but still have armour save.
Also in my oppinion a rune of adament is not worth the points it would be better to take the rune of fortitude for an extra wound.

Yes on the great weapon.
The blade of realities is in one list; every list has a no-armour weapon, as far as I know. Also, anything with a high enough S to consistently wound a T6 lord is going to seriously reduce your armour save as well, making the runes of gromril and resistance significantly less worthwhile. I find that the way I've got him set up makes him a lot more versatile than any other equip, as I can put him into combats with other characters with little worry.
The extra wound could be helpful, sure, but why not make it less likely that you'll take the wound in the first place? Being wounded on 6's by infantry and a lot of magic-weaponed characters seems a lot more useful to me.

im personally not a proponent of a defensive dwarf lord i prefer to spend my points on weapons as the way i see it if i kill them first they cant kill me :lol:
but as i said t6 is good but so is the extra wound but then there always killing blow but i dont take either usually as i see them both as a waste i normally take
a shield, gromril armour, rune of stone for a 2 + save while only useing 5 points of his magic allowance

Sure, but then you're spending a lot of points on a weapon that won't be significantly better than a basic great weapon. The only time I bother with a runic weapon is on my BSB, who gets the master rune of swiftness and a rune of cleaving.

Your joking not significantly better than agreat weapon please
firstly its magi so it can hurt etheral
secondly somecombinations of weapon runes,

m.rune of sfiftness, two runes of fury
m.rune of swiftness, two runes of cleaving
m.rune of sfiwtness, rune of fury, rune of cleaving
m.rune of snorri spanglehelm, two runes of cleavind
m.rune of alaric the mad, two runes of fury
m.rune of alaric the mad,rune of fury,rune of cleaving
m.rune of alaric the mad, rune of might, rune of fury
m.rune of alric the mad,rune of fire, rune of fury

shall i continue all of those combos are better than a great weapon and im not getting into race specific combos

Swiftness is good, but hardly necessary when you can survive the hit anyway. Runes of cleaving do nothing without swiftness, as a great weapon does the same, and for much cheaper. Auto-hit/wound isn't worth anywhere near 75 points with a lord's statline. No armour save? I'm fine with the -3 after my great weapon, and at ~40 points cheaper, too. Think about it; the 70-100 points you're spending on your weapon is better used making your Ld10 lord stay alive than killing an extra model or two per turn.
I don't know about you, but I find a 6 point great weapon much more efficient than a 70 point magic weapon that lets him go first...

auto hit and wounds can be very good.
As for great wepons its a metter of taste i like to hit hard and fast, besides i can get a decent enoughth save without haveing to spend my alloewance on armour runes

Really? And you play Dwarfs? Seems kinda weird to me. As far as I'm concerned, a dwarf army should be designed around surviving enemy attacks and dealing 'em back twice as hard. All my warrior regiments have great weapons and I don't use ironbreakers. :D
As you said, it's a matter of taste. I really don't understand why you'd be willing to pay 10x the points to go first instead of last, but if it works for you stick with it.

lol i suppose your right hitting fast is a bit of an oxymoron in the case of dwarfs :D
i use hammerers as my main unitthats why i like master rune of sfiftness with a rune of cleaving and a rune of fury so when im charged i can limit the attacks against my hammerers

i used to play very defensivly but have started playing more attacking, in between playing tomb kings.

Yeah, my list is pretty aggressive too, when I'm not playing Slaanesh. :D
I can understand the MR of Swiftness in a hammerer unit, but I tend to put it on my BSB as a surprise for anyone who decides he's easy VP. I find that the hammerers tend to do well with a lord who goes last as well, simply because of the number of wounds they can deal back.

Like i said taste, i also always take a rune of furnace for no reason other than ive been paranoid og warpfire throwers for awhile now.

I may be mistaken, but I thought it wasn't allowed to combine two master runes? Or is this an exception of some kind- I'm not a dwarf player after all.

You can't have two Master Runes on the same item, but can have one per.

m. rune of spite is talismanic m.rune of gromril is armour so thecy canbe combined on the same character.

Ok, just asking. An so we learn something new every day B)

I'm not sure about bothering with a normal armour save though. Most combat chars have a magical sword to cut staight through it...

Yeah, that's how I look at it, too. The way I see it, if they bought a no save weapon, they've got S5 max, meaning they'll have a tough time wounding T6. It really depends on your opponent, though, and what you expect from the character.

therin lies the point the players i play with often use flaming weapons so i always use a rune of furnace the opponents you play seem to take a lot of no armour save weapons, and thats why it can never be definitive about a good rune combo.

Agreed, though I don't understand why your opponents would face even the potential of a dwarf army without a no armour weapon. With all the combat units having the possibility of heavy armour and shield, it's alway worth the points...

I know that a runic weapon cancells all normal bonuses that the weapon normally has. Does that include the: fighing with a hand weapon & shield (+1as in hth)?

rookie question I know ( but I'm allowed :-) )
also does this rule apply to "normal" magical weapons for other races as well?

Yes, runes nullify the +1, as does any other magic weapon or shield.

I just take gromil armour with a couple of runes of stone and a shield, a talisman with the master rune of spite and a rune axe with 2 runes of fury and Master rune of Alric the Mad. This works well but against Elves I always take a great weapon, gromil armour, Master rune of Adament, rune of stone and a Master rune of Spite as I know how good the blade of sea gold is I have killed many chaos heros with it so I just do not bother with a great save any more as I will probably just lose it.

Prince Caledorian, you can't take more than one rune of stone per character.

I also agree with Vriishnak, what is the point of striking first and using more points when you can have +2 strength and likely to kill alot more.

I am sorry I did not have my book with me then and got confused with another army, which a was ordering some models for.

I normally bring M.R.o.Gromril or Gromril armour, Rune of Stone, Rune of Resistance and M.R.o.Spite for my Lord and then kit him out accordingly against whoever I'm battling against.

What do ye think is the best way for arming a Lord against the following;

High Elves
Dark Elves
Tomb Kings
Bretonnains
Empire

These armies are the main one I battle against.

Well, alot of the discussion is based on your character fighting another one. Some of the runes are meant for going against just normal troops.

For example, lots of talk has occured about the Master Rune of Swiftness. I find this pointless when against characters because, as someone said (can't remember), whats the points of striking first if you can survive and hit back harder. But when against troops, this is a very good rune to take. This can stop a cavalry unit from crushing lots of your GW armed troops before they can strike. Or it can potentially even take out a chariot in one go if you combine with Rune of Might (although, this is a waste of points IMO as it is a very specified character then, but I'm just showing the possible uses).

I would say nothing on the weapon for elves just a great weapon and a good ward save.
Tomb kings I would go for a rune of fire and the rune that gives you st 10 against t5and a good save.
Empire and brettonians alric the mad and fury with high save and ward save.
I think these work as they are suited to the army like killing the knights or instant kill or setting fire to them.

There is no way to make a weapon that will give you st 10 and fire damage.

Ok what about arming your lord like this:
Lord
great weapon
gromril armour
master rune of gromril
rune of fortitude
master rune of spite

He's talking about using Rune of Might (double S against T5 opponents or higher), Rune of Cleaving (+1 S), and Rune of Fire or something (flaming attacks).

What I can't remember is if the +1 S is counted when doubling your strength. Either way, you're wounding the tomb king/prince on a 2+ and doing double wounds.

Personnally I like the "Lord Of Pain" he's usually armed like so:

Grom armour, shield

MRoSwiftness, RoCleaving, RoCleaving/Fury (depending upon taste)
RoStone
MRoSpite

This lord is more than a match for most heros and a few lords too, he will get his attacks in first and with 4/5 attacks at S6/7 not much will be getting back up after. But with a decent save of 2+ and a 4+ ward he can still take as good as he gives.

Also Kurgaz I don't think the extra S is included, I think you double their base S and then add bonuses. So he'll be S9, which is still a very good S and will be wounding almost everything on 2s.

(Btw congrates on becoming mod at Khazad Grom, you deserve it. I derive myself to the elder and wiser longbeard ;) Anyways congrats)

That's what I thought too but I remember in an issue of White Dwarf, the Dwarf player had given his Lord Rune of Might, Cleaving and Fury and he said that combination gave him S10 whenever he was in a challenge against the Vampire Count Lord (or units with T5) and S5 against anything else.

I don't normally bring the M.Rune of Alric the Mad but against Bretonnains that would be very handy. My friend has just started to collect them so a battle will be on the horizon very shortly. He's had one or two battles already and he likes to take alot of knights so no armour saves should do the business on them.


Here's one. How would you Rune up a RuneLord to take part in Close Combat?

Hmm... I always thought you double the basic S then add bonuses, I suppose you should probably agree with your opponent before the battle or roll a dice for it.

Yes MRoAlaric The Mad is a great choice vs cav or any heavy armoured units, given to a Thane will really shock your opponent as a cheap hero cuts through his ranks :)

As to a Runelord, I wouldn't gear him for combat. I much rather use his large rune allowance on magic resistance and maybe some armour. I would always give him a master rune and a couple runes of spellbreaking or one spelleater rune. But if I had to I would probably go for:

MRoFlight
RoCleaving
RoFury

MRoGromril
RoResistance

This should give him a punch in combat and some pretty good defensive protection, and then his hammer will give him chance to wound heros before taking them on in combat.

I was thinking M.Rune of Flight too... great minds think alike eh! :D

It was just something I was thinking about. I took an Anvil of Doom in a 4000pointer and he seemed to hold his own with his anvil guards against a unit of 11 Kinghts of the Realm and a Paladin.

Of course the basic Lord is always gonna be taken... I've just always wanted to bring a fighty-Runelord for the fun of it!

just an additional question. I saw somewhere on the forum, a dragonslayer equiped with a runic weapon and given additional hand weapon. Is that ok? I mean do you get the extra attack (I would suppose that the extra attack would be without any runic bonuses, if at all viable)?

You do NOT get the extra attack. He will only use the runic weapon.

But if u want an unkillable ****** then try this combo.....
Lord
GA, HW & Shield
RoFortitude
RoResistance
RoStone
MRoSpite

2+ AS Re-Rollable (1+ in hth)
4+ WardS
WS7 T5 W4

Ok he will barely be able to kill a gobbo but he`s unkillable...

IMO this combo is better....
THIS IS MY FAVORITE COMBO:
Lord
GA, GW & Shield
MRoGromril
RoResistance
RoShielding
MRoSpite

1+ AS Re-Rollable
4+ WardS (2+ WardS versus shooting)
WS7 T5 W3

And this guy will deal 4 x WS7 S6 attacks (ouh)

Thi´s gy can walk around on his own due to the 2+ WardS vs shooting....

language.....