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6 (+3) Dwarf Specialists

Update status: Seems to work fine with 6.2

This mod adds a few Dwarf units to the game that offer a few new interesting options without betraying the character of the Dwarves and maybe also by filling one or two unnecessary gaps the vanilla Dwarves have.

So without further ado, here is a description of the units that are part of this mod:


Bugman's Companions

A melee version of Bugman's Rangers.
They are exactly what one would guess with no extra fluff or creative additions.
Since the Dwarves had no melee rangers before, or stealth melee units at all for that matter, this now allows for more practical ranger builds and more interesting possibilities for stealth brigades.
They can be recruited from the Tier 3 Ranger Barracks.


Slayer Chasers

These are basically regular Slayers without the bronze shields, but a range attack of their own instead. They are also even faster (for a Dwarf). This means that they are opening up the option for Dwarf armies to actually skirmish against slow enemies.
They can be recruited from the Tier 2 Slayer Shrine.


Irondrakes (Cinderblast Bombs)

A regular unit of Irondrakes that is equipped with grenades.
They offer the opportunity to push the classic blasting charge miner strategy far beyond the early game.
If there are no enemies nearby they also have a higher range than Ironbreakers do.
They are recruited from the Tier 2 Arms Forge.


Spellbreakers

The first legitimately "new" unit.
They are leaning towards the fantasy of heavy runic infantry.
They have high armor, they hit hard, their protection runes grant a barrier and an antimagic aura and they cause fear.
Their entity size is rather small though and they have no impressive health pool either.
Its probably wiser to use them as a very beefy support unit instead of surrounding the army with tons of them as the main defensive line.
They can be recruited from the Tier 4 Runeforge.


Rune Master

A specialized Runesmith that acts as a single entity ranged unit.
He is not entirely useless in melee, but just like the actual Runesmith, thats not where he excels.
Instead he can throw rune powered magical axes. Since they are powered with the runes of flight and seeking they have a very impressive range compared to regular throwing weapons and basically never miss.
On top of that the Rune Master has two options regarding which third rune he wants to pick.
With the Rune of Spellbreaking the axe disrupts spellcasters and does concentrated armor piercing damage to single targets. With the Rune of Burning the axe will spawn a vortex of fire on impact instead that will easily chew through chaff.
He can be recruited from the Tier 5 Runelord's hall.


Sons of Morgrim

This unit is supposed to offer an upgrade path beyond Thunderers.
With their lack of shields they aren't necessarily tankier and their individual bullets do actually do less damage but thanks to using a gun that more closely resembles the Grudgeraker they can shoot in much quicker succession and due to them being the most elite gun unit of the very faction that engineered the best guns in the world, they also have a higher range compared to the regular handguns of other factions. Needless to say they also have Blackpowder Discipline. The Dwarves invented blackpowder after all.
They are recruited from the Tier 3 Arms Foundry.


Runic Berserkers

This is essentially an aggressive version of the Shieldbreakers.
On top of their health already being mediocre, due to their small entity size, they also lack shields and their barrier is very weak. But in exchange they constantly regenerate their barrier in melee and hit like an absolute truck.
They are recruited from the same Tier 4 Runeforge as the Spellbreakers.


Slayer Commandos

This is my attempt of creating a unique High Tier ranged Slayer unit.
The combination of Vanguard, Stealth and Snipe combined with the characteristic high speed (for a Dwarf) of a Slayer unit gives them very powerful ambush capablities. They are capable of doing some damage, but their actual strength is the fact that their corrosive AoE shells destroy enemy ammo, so they are best thought of as some kind of sabotage unit.
They are recruited from the Tier 4 Monument of Grimnir.


Valkyrie Guard

This is my attempt of creating a female Dwarf unit.
Primarily, they are a support unit, with two abilities that can either debuff enemies or heal allies. In the case of an emergency they are also not bad in melee, but they are not numerous enough to really use them as a core frontline.
They are recruited from the Tier 3 Beer Hall.


Known Issues

The latest Hotfix broke the animation of all Dwarven Grenade units.
I kinda managed to sidestep this issue with my Iron Drakes, but the result is that their animation looks a little weird now. As soon as CA fixed the vanilla units suffering from this problem I will also be able to return to their old animation.
The Valkyrie Guard has some weird voicelines. Thats because Dwarves have no female voicelines in vanilla, so some of them don't really fit.

Compatibility

Should be compatible with basically everything.
Adding it in the middle of a playthrough seems to be unproblematic, but I advise against removing it in the middle of a playthrough.
If people want to make submods, just go ahead.

My SFO Submod can be found here 6(+3) Dwarf Specialists SFO Submod


Credit

I want to credit all the other people who contributed to making this mod possible.
That includes, but is not limited to:

Ole for his amazing AssetEditor
DJ Fro-Fro for his RPFM
d3rpyn3wb for creating many great warmachine mods that inspired me to start unit modding in the first place and of course CA and GW for the game itself.

Overall I would appreciate if anyone using this mod as a blueprint or even entire units, would credit me and everyone else who contributed to parts of it for making it possible.
Other than that I have no issue at all with people using as much of my work as they want.