Where is he now - Dwarf Mountaineer

Was it the climate change that melted the glaciers connecting the dwarf keeps and therefore making the ski troops obsolete? Or did the yodlers just blow themselves up with those blunderbusses of theirs? Perhaps we´ll never know...

The dwarf mountaineers appeared in WD116 where there was both rules and a new mini for them. Here´s the rule page:

Being scouts the mountaineer act in every sense as skirmishers except that they can charge normal troops and they don´t have to run away if charged by such (WFB rules page 101). Their points value is pretty low as normally scouts cost you additinal 5 points. "Correct" value for a blunderbuss armed dwarf should be 15 (dwarf 8 + scout 5 + blunderbuss 2).

A blunderbuss is a pretty rarely seen weapon in WFB. It has a range of 16" and it hits with S3 and -2 armor modifier on 0-8" range. For 8-16" range the strengh is reduced to S1 and no armor modifier. One of the mountaineer´s special rules is that the blunderbusses can be fired when doing a downhill charge or ski charge as it is called. With the blunderbuss´ tendency to misfire on to-hit-roll of 1 this can lead to pretty hilarious situations. Imagine exploding dwarves speeding down a hill side - yodeling as they come!

The rule about using a blunderbuss in ski charge lacks the explanation on how the casualties caused by shooting are handled. I would use the throwing spear rule as a basis so that the wounds caused would count directly towards close combat result. The other option could be to count them seperately which could lead into the unit that is shot at breaking before melee. Use a GM or agree before playing how to deal with this.

The ski charge is a nice special rule that lets your mountaineer charge triple their movement rate when going downhill. To help one to able to do that charge a player employing mountaineer can place one hill on his side of the table. That can give one a tactical advantage as you could place your heavy artillery and missile troops on that hill too. Perhaps the best way to use mountaineers is as artillery guards. Make use of the hill you get to place and blast away with everything you got. And if the enemy gets close engage him with your mountaineer.

On normal movement mountaineers can do double their movement rate if doing down a slope. Good skiing skills mean that they do not suffer penalties on going down a steep hill. They can also negate movement penalties for moving in a forest on a downhill slope.

Muontaineers can have a special magic instrument in the form of Yodel of Doom. The yodel puts the mointaineers in the state of battle lust that gives them a +1 to hit rolls on first round of close combat and on all following turns if they are not pushed back. Yodel is a must for mountaineers!

Dwarf mountaineer diorama from WD.

The original model is pretty sought after and you propably won´t get one for cheap. The only examply on ebay when this was written had a price tag of 84€ on him. And with minimum size of unit is five you´ll be paying A LOT to complete one.

Luckily Ral Partha produces a good alternative model in the form of DW020 Ullr the Intrepid. His weapon is not exatly a blunderbuss by the looks of it rather than a short musket or something like that. But as this mini costs only a friction of what the original mountaineer model does I think most of us can live with the not-trumpet-like barrel. Or can make one with some green stuff.

And this kickstarter should be a must for all mountaineer fans. A full unit of skiing dwarfs with real blundersbusses, a banner and all. Looks very promising!

A wonderful dwarf mointaineer from Billy Bunter´s Collection.

What I would like to see is a painted unit of mountaineers. I wonder if any of my readers has one? Or even better - a battle report including these alpine dwarfs.

If you want another view on the mountaineers Orlygg has written about them in his Realm of Chaos 80´s blog.