Mighty Armies: Tweaking the Border Dwarves

The Border Army Dwarves are one of the original boxed armies for first-edition Mighty Armies. I started using them under the first-edition army list, and I've found that in upgrading to the second-edition army list that I don't always like the changes. Fortunately, it's easy to tweak things in Mighty Armies. Time for some house rules and tweaks!

House Rules

New Abilities

Slow. Reduce movement by 1. Costs -1 AP.

I'm adding this, because I think Dwarves should get a break on points when their units are forced to be slower!

Rules Interpretations

Generals. I am assuming that General units get the General ability for free. That seems to be how the new army lists work, but the cost is not explained in the rulebook.

Unit Levels. The second-edition rulebook mentions 'unit levels' but fails to explain them. However, in the Mighty Armies: Ancients rulebook, units can be upgraded as follows: Seasoned (+1 Fighting, +1 AP) and Veteran (+2 Fighting, +2 AP).

Revised Units

Dwarf Lord

3" Move
+6 Fight
+2 Support
Abilities: Disciplined, General (free), Magic Resistant, Tactician, Slow
7 points

The old list called him a King; the new one says General… I'm calling him a Dwarf Lord, which reserves the possibility of an upgraded Dwarf King someday. I've given him Slow to reflect the fact that he's slower than a normal General, and lowers his point cost.

Dwarf Warriors

3” Move
+4 Fight
+2 Support
Abilities: Disciplined
4 points

No changes.

Dwarf Rangers

3” Move
+3 Fight
+1 Support
Abilities: Scouts, Shooting II
5 points

In the first-edition army list, Rangers were great! They fought like warriors, shot like crossbows, and because they were scouts, they could deploy in advanced locations.

In the second-edition army list, Rangers lost all their cool abilities! OK, I can see weakening the Rangers in combat (after all, they are apparently just wearing ranger robes), but I've added Scouts back as an ability.

Dwarf Crossbows

3" Move
+4 Fight
+1 Support
Abilities: Shooting II, Seasoned
5 points

The second-edition army list takes away Disciplined from Crossbows and Rangers; OK, I can live with that. But I think the Crossbows should pay for Seasoned because of their elevated Fight score. So I've made them 1 point more expensive.

Dwarf Slayers

3” Move
+2 Fight
+2 Support
Abilities: Fearless, Rampager, Slow
3 points

I'm adding this unit to my army, since I have some 'berserker'-type Dwarf figures. Based on the way the figures look, I am using the Light Infantry stats, adding Slow to reduce them to the same speed as other Dwarves, then adding Fearless and Rampager to reflect their berserker nature. I'll try this out, and if they need more punch, I might add some kind of first-combat-round bonus.

Reference Sheet

I like the idea that I can tweak an army list to be the way I want it to be, while staying almost completely within the Mighty Armies rules system.