Dwarfs @ Runefang thoughts on my army list

Well I had a lot of fun at Runefang over the weekend and while not all of the results went my way I had some very enjoyable games and my Dwarfs got to blood their axes on some new opponents.  However, a couple of days of mulling over the weekends results has convinced me that I need to make some modifications to my list, and in particular to the large points sink that is my artillery park. My standard 2400pt Dwarf list for the last 4-6 months and this tournament was:

Runelord - 268pts

w. MR Balance, RO Spellbreaking, RO Preservation, RO Resistance, RO Stone, Shield

The MR Balance came in handy throughout the weekend giving me +3 DD in every phase and as I stated in an earlier review of Dwarfs in 8th Ed giving my opponents only 3 dice rolls in which they would get more PD than I had DD.  The armour runes of the Runelord are good but overkill as far as protection goes and probably unnecesary.  Swapping the RO Spellbreaking for Spelleating would be better.  In most games othe only time my opponent got spells off was when I rolled low or when they got IF. 

BSB - 165pts

w. MR Gromil, RO Preservation, RO Resistance, RO Furnace, RO Fire

Did his job stayed alive and helped me with re-rolls, but with L9 I wasnt having to make many twice and when I did it was usually because I needed Snake Eyes and a BSB isn't going to improve your odds much there.  But still having an almost unkillable BSB is handy.  So he stays.

30 x Rangers - 355pts

w. Full Command, GW

30 x Warriors - 325pts

w. Full Command, GW

Both units worked well and killed a lot of the enemy.  Bad deployment hurt in a few games especially with Rangers.  The Ranger upgrade though is gold as it leaves a big block of infantry for me to deploy "after" my opponents main units have gone down.  In Game 5 vs. Sam this came up big letting me put them down opposite his Knights.   Blocks of 30 also gave me Steadfast in a lot of combats as I started with 5 ranks running each unit 6 wide.  However, I could get 5 ranks running 5 wide in units of 25 and save myself another 100pts - the loss of 5 bodies wouldnt hurt that much.

16 x Quarrellers - 197pts

w. Musician

Analysis is simple - I didn't have enough of them.  With the Warmachines targeted from Turn 1 in pretty much every game they were the only shooting I had left in most cases.  Taking 1-2 more units as I did in 7th Ed is looking more and more necessary.

30 x Hammerers - 415pts

w. Full Command, RO Battle

When they got into combat they were brutal.  Problem is they didnt get into combat often enough, and when they did it wasnt always the right one.  Still this unit is pretty much perfect the only change I would consider is adding a RO Determination to the banner, or swapping it for MR Grungi.

20 x Miners - 245pts

w. Full Command

THE STAND OUT UNIT OF THE WEEKEND!! The only time they weren't was the game I forgot about them till Turn 5.  Essentially they were invaluable - Games 4 & 5 especially. Like the Quarrellers another unit of these would be good.

GrudgeThrower - 155pts.

w. Engineer, Pistols, RO Accuracy, RO Burning, RO Penetrating

Cannon - 150pts

w. Engineer, Pistols, RO Burning, RO Forging

Organ Gun - 120pts

My 425pt artillery park.  Or my collection of VP waiting for my opponent to swoop in and collect in Turns 1-2 as this was when they were usually taken out.  Sure as a way of getting your enemy to divert resources away from killing your infantry they work great but thats not what they are for.
Stone Thrower was solid and did its job very well, Cannon was good but was destroyed quickly in nearly every game.  Organ Gun never mis-fired and is still proving to be my favourite.Engineers with Pistols are quite frankly a waste of points, and RO Burning is as well given the 2+ WS most (but not all) key targets have against Flaming attacks now. Option drop the Engineers, Pistols and one of the three and divert the points elsewhere.

The other major is that I simply couldnt protect them.  In 7th I ran 2 small blocks of 10 Warriors as well as 3 larger blocks.  The larger ones were for combat, the smaller for guarding the warmachines or helping with deployment tactics.  Basically you  deployed the warmachines in a line close together with the small warrior blocks on either flank where they could charge or get in the way enemy units.