Hi Ho! Hi Ho! Dwarves are not just for show!

By ED BALDRIDGE

What could be cooler than dwarves with big hammers?  Well, maybe a pirate with a machine gun, but it’s close for sure.

While browsing the Privateer Press website, I noticed that one of the featured products was the upcoming release of their newest in the Dwarven mercenary line; The Horgenhold Forge Guard.

Dressed in Rhulic armor and armed with piston driven hammers, (Waahahahaha!)

Although I could not find any stats on them, I was still impressed with the look of the figs.

One of the reasons that WarMachine has become so popular is the fact that the models are well done. 

The detail is very clear, and all the models are metal.

Nothing like picking up your figure and have a little weight behind it. 

Rawr!

In my book, the Dwarven mercenaries have been overlooked, and while I await the release of Epic Caster Gorten Grundback (a rock solid mercenary stud upgraded to six focus and a feat that shakes mountains), I am contented to field what is available.

I have always liked the look and feel of the WarMachine product line, and the fluff is top notch. 

Additionally, just from playing the game it is clear that the inventors are also avid players.

Now, other folks may be happy with the new line of pirates, squishy as they are, but to me there is just something very cool about fielding a bunch of dwarves in steel cans.

In the WarMachine world, dwarves are usually very tough nuts to crack.  Sporting top of the line custom armor, the little guys from the Iron Kingdoms are usually easy to hit, but hard to kill.

Many an opponent would look at me in disbelief as I threw my Dwarven conquerors into melee with even Kadorian war jacks.

So you hit my little gun bunny, HA! Try to dent his armor!

Solid ground would allow me to pick my caster and literally toss him into battle.

I can say that though impressed with the overall feel of dwarves, I was a little disappointed in the Hammerfall High Shields. 

After purchasing them, I glued them and immediately threw them into battle only to find that they failed a morale check of eight on 2d6.

Not to be daunted, I upgraded them to a full squad, painted them thoroughly (everyone knows that unpainted figs only have half the amour) and them threw them back into battle. 

Still they ran.  Crap, I wish I could roll damage rolls that high. 

They ran so many times in the next two months of play that locals began suggesting that I paint “Miami or Bust” on their backs.

After failing morale checks in almost every game, I decided to use them as a stalling unit.

Undaunted by their running ability, I began dog-piling them onto the largest jack in sight to tie up the opponents behemoths for at least two rounds.

What fun, especially when you start chanting on turn two; “dog-pile on the Avatar, dog-pile on the Avatar!”

They served me well in that capacity.

Now I discover that in July Privateer is going to release a new Dwarven squad with very large hammers not unlike the Kador demolishers.

Nice.  And the fluff is sweet…

“The Horgenhold Forge Guard enter battle in superlative Rhulic armor, form an impervious line, and deliver blows capable of toppling warjacks with their massive, piston-driven hammers. Though the dwarves remain officially neutral in the southern wars of men, the Forge Guard hire out as mercenaries and bring the power of raw, blunt destruction to the battlefield.”

The Horgenhold Forge Guard will come in a box set (PIP 41067). A player may add up to two blisters (PIP 41068) for a total of ten models and field two units of Horgenhold Forge Guard for each warcaster in his army.

Horgenhold Forge Guard will not work for Cryx or Khador.

The Horgenhold Forge Guard will be featured in WARMACHINE: Legends, the next expansion to WARMACHINE, which releases this summer. You can get a preview of the Horgenhold Forge Guard in No Quarter #18 this May.