Forge Warrior

*"Rock and stone!”*

a forge warrior with his trusty hammer, shield, and glorious beard. stay proud, short king.

## Stats

### Strength

55

**Forge Warriors** are a unit in the **Dwarves** faction.

## Overview

When one often imagines a Dwarf, it is as a short, tough, and slow fellow with a glorious beard, and the Forge Warrior fits this description in every respect. With access to a wide variety of weaponry ranging from simple swords to lode rifles, these bearded boys march forth towards the enemy. Unfortunately, their slow speed means this march is at a snail’s pace, making it difficult for these warriors of the Forge to engage on their own terms.

## Abilities

### Stalwart Defender

When this unit ends a turn on an objective tile it gains one shield status.

### Sturdy Like A Mountain

If this unit is at 100% HP and is reduced to 0% HP by one non-true attack, they will be left at 1 HP instead. Additionally, this unit ignores one stun status when determining actions.

### Seek Vengeance

Every time this unit takes normal damage from a shooting or melee attack that deals 10 or more damage it has a 15% chance to generate one energy.

## Gear

### Weapon

SHORTSWORD

DWARVEN HAMMER

Ability: For every hit this weapon makes there is a 50% chance to stun the target. Stunned units have one less action per stun afflicted.

LODE RIFLE

Ability: For every attack with this weapon there is a 50% chance to completely ignore enemy defenses and deal full damage (not counting other abilities that negate damage).

PLASMA CANNON

Ability: When an attack with this weapon hits, each unit adjacent to the target also takes an attack from the same weapon.

### Shield Arm

HEAVY SHIELD

Ability: Units equipped with this gear have their defense stat increased by 60.

## Strategy

Once upon a time, Forge Warriors were a truly sorry unit. With a cost that was not worth their middling health, slow movement speed, and poor damage, they were the first to be replaced as Dwarf players began to properly build out their armies. Now, they are in a much better place. The first thing to consider when using these guys is weaponry. They have a wide variety that can be generally split into two categories: melee and ranged. When it comes to melee weapons, go for the Dwarven Hammer. It costs very little to run, only bringing the Forge Warrior up to 60 points, and provides a very strong damage increase. Along with this, the stuns that it can apply on hit give it more utility than the typical Shortsword. When looking at ranged options, both are worth considering but fill somewhat different roles. The major benefit of the Lode Rifle is the fact that it costs nothing. Its ability to pierce and surprising amount of strength makes it a decent ranged option for sure, but it's not nearly as powerful as something like the Artificer's Twin Lode Cannons. Its advantage instead comes in the fact that it costs half as much, giving you more flexibility in your army. The issue with the Plasma Cannon, in comparison, is that it isn't cheap at all and becomes much less consistent. With only one attack, missing hurts a lot, so it's often best to treat it almost like a Knight Gunner or Big One, keeping it as far away from combat as possible to take advantage of its massive damage potential. The final thing to consider when it comes to gear is whether to equip the Heavy Shield or not. Generally, if you have the space, do it. It will turn your dwarves into absolute TANKS against almost everything, though be wary that true damage will pierce right through the extra armor.

Once you've picked your weapon, the next thing to consider is the actual tactics in battle. If you've equipped your Forge Warrior with a melee weapon, remember this rule of thumb: LET THE ENEMY ENGAGE. With only 2 tiles of movement and 2 actions, trying to push towards your foes with a Forge Warrior often means leaving them vulnerable and out in the open; you generally just don't have the speed to close the distance. Instead, let your enemy come to you. Especially if you have the Heavy Shield equipped, Forge Warriors can take a fair few hits, meaning they can often survive if your enemy is the one pushing into melee. So let them. Especially given the low amount of energy gain from Dwarves, don't worry too much about closing the distance yourself and let the opponent do it for you. A good way to facilitate this is by having your melee Forge Warriors act as bodyguards to ranged units like Artificers or Explorators, staying close to them during battle and stepping in to kill any enemies that get into their melee range. If you're using a ranged weapon on a Forge Warrior, focus on setting up in strong sightlines in order to move as little as possible. This way you can avoid the unit's major weakness; it's speed. Finally, whether you choose melee or ranged, consider running these guys alongside a Forge Lord, as the accuracy bonus is genuinely quite strong.

The final thing to talk about is weaknesses. The big one is, quite obviously, speed. Two movement is extremely restrictive, especially in a faction which doesn't have very many options for energy gain such as Dwarves, and you'll feel it while using these guys. Position carefully to make sure that you can actually move in to support your more vulnerable units or escape behind cover if danger arrives. Speaking of danger, the other major thing to be concerned about are things which pierce armor, specifically true damage. While these guys have the health to survive a Blast, they won't be able to survive getting hit with a Nova, which is especially effective due to their low movement speed. Be very wary of that spell, and generally watch out for units that can pierce through armor, as they'll kill your Forge Warriors quicker than you expect.

## Lore

We ain't got much, but here it is:

*"The dwarves are a hardy people originating from the mountains around Mt. Ora. The great original dwarf clans were driven out of their homeland by the goblin hordes, who demanded they take control of Mt. Ora as "caretakers.""*

Honestly provides more interesting questions about goblins rather than dwarves. Caretakers of what, exactly?