How do you decide on unit size?

[Doug]

I’m wondering how folks out there with more experience with this game than I have are deciding on what size units to bring.

Are you mostly leaving them at their base sizes or are you buying them up to their maximum size?

What factors are you considering when deciding on the size of your units?

• This topic was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Doug.

[Tim Haslam]

On a very simple level,
Shooting units keep at a minimum,
Combat units keep at a maximum.

Of course there are exceptions, and the game is more subtle than that.

Have a go with the above advice, and feed back.

[Doug]

Just curious, what’s the reasoning behind that? More orders and opportunities to apply pins from the small ranged units and more bulk of dice to win melees from the large combat units?

I’m putting together a Dwarf warband right now and it seems like even the shooting units are combat units =).

[Tim Haslam]

Well it was a broad statement, but basically yes!

Dwarves are a bit special.
I’ve still got 2 units of 5 Xbow
And 1 unit of 8 axemen, in my Dwarf force.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Tim Haslam.

[Gerry Brawley]

I have 3 x 8 Spear armed Dwarf combat units. I think you’ll find you are facing full size units especially with armies like Barbarians, Goblins, Undead and Orcs.

[Doug]

Apparently whatever civilization my dwarfs came from skipped discovering the spear. They’ve got hammers, axes, and crossbows covered with a couple of swords tossed in for the novelty of it but not a spear to be found.

When I finish painting everything dwarf that I’ve got in my queue I should have the following to choose from:

Dwarf Lord w/4 Bodyguards
Runesmith
Dwarf Hero
10 Dwarf Archers w/crossbows
10 Dwarf Rangers
10 Maniacs
Organ Gun with 3 crew
Bolt Thrower with 3 crew
Dwarf Flying Machine

I’ll have about a dozen unbuilt GW dwarf warriors (circa 2000) that I’m still trying to figure out what I want to build.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Doug.

[Tim Haslam]

All good stuff.
Don’t worry about spears, take big axes.

Split xbow into 2 X 5 small units.

War engines may be too good to… 😉

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Tim Haslam.

[AbsoluteZero]

The numbers break down that it is more feasible(and tactical)to have 5 man units of archers. They get 5 shots usually at 5acc. So about 2 to 3 hit. That’s a pin and maybe a wound. Now get two of those, 2 pins and maybe 2 wounds. Whereas with a ten man unit gets 5 hits, 1 pin, and maybe 2 to 3 wounds. By breaking the unit up into two, you gain and extra pin and(more importantly) 1 more order dice. Full ten man archer units are not going to wipe out units unless they are already hurt.
Now for crossbowmen, you will average more wounds over time and extra range. The bonus of having two units covering more of the battlefield can also not be understated.
Generally close combat units you have to have full size as to possibly soak some damage to get into combat. If you are foot slogging and finding more and more people in your gaming group are going ranged, just buy Sorcerer’s Shield with you Wiz.

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