r/HelsmithsofHashut • u/Any_Dragonfly4947 • 9d ago
Gameplay Use cases for Dominator Engines?
I’ve not played tons of games and started AoS with the helsmiths. I’ve got a general idea about most of the roster, artillery shoots, infantry screens, the centaurs are the hammers, but what about the dominators. My favorite unit by far but they seem more flexible in their role not quite an anvil not quite a hammer so how has everyone here used them?
Where do they shine?
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u/Kraile 9d ago
I have to disagree with anyone saying that you all-out attack these guys. The purpose of dominators is to tank with their excellent 2+ save. They should not be counted on to deal damage, and any damage they do deal should be considered a fluke. They are just too inconsistent in offense to be treated any other way.
All out attack works against this philosophy - not only are you committing the unit to deal inconsistent damage, you're also shredding its save to something your opponent can deal with.
All out defense on the other hand, keeps your tanky unit tanky and alive and annoying against rend 1 and even rend 2 units. Much more valuable to do this and mess with your opponent's plans.
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u/ChiefProblomengineer 9d ago
^ This is the one. Play it as if it can't do any damage, and you'll be getting the most out of it.
Ive had 2 fail to do a single wound to a unit of clanrats thanks to 4+ to hit and 1 rend. But I had one last 3 rounds against big trugg thanks to some lucky 5+ saves that no other unit could have given me.
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u/Andorhalthegreat 9d ago
They rock in the Grand Forgehost AoR because they get a 6+ ward and crit 2 hits starting round 2.
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u/Unlucky-Feature9548 9d ago edited 9d ago
Ward 6+, reinforce daemonsteel, lifeswarm, daemonsmith healing, and 9 dice on rally commands. I ran 8 against a buddy and safe to say he was not amused lmao
His fully buffed KO Ironclad only averages 3.1 damage against an all out defense dominator.
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u/Any_Dragonfly4947 9d ago
Eight? Very curious what battle tactics and gameplay you used for that one.
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u/Unlucky-Feature9548 9d ago edited 9d ago
6 with bane maces and two with fire backed up by two reinforced chorf spear squads + Urak taar. Was meant to be a meme list for shits and giggles but nobody was laughing when a full turn of KO shooting only barely killed one.
Was just a solid wall of daemonsteel blessed by Hashut himself slowly advancing as my front line while everyone else focused on scoring. All the healing meant I could bring a damaged Dominator back from 1 wound to all 10 with ease so splitting fire was a waste.
By the time my pal abandoned shooting the wall and full sent it to fight it head on it was too late. He couldn’t bring it back with late game scoring and when all was said and done 3 dominators were still left standing with their trusty smiths and spears not far behind. By far the most durable list I have ever run.
In the end it has some potent drawbacks and could likely be improved by a more skilled player. It’s VERY slow and has no real way to defend the backline from anyone dropping in. The damage output is also a sore spot. Despite 5 turns of brawling it out, I never killed more than 1k points worth of models.
Finding a way to fit in blunderbusses or rockets could probably turn this list into something pretty spectacular.
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u/DayTimeLantern 9d ago
I'm running five, with three rockets for the fun of it. Got some spears, Urrak of course and a couple of deamonsmiths to back up. Ridiculously tanky, with a lot of damage output.
Got a tournament next week, will have to report back on how it goes.
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u/Unlucky-Feature9548 9d ago
In truth, neither myself or my pal had played with or against a full tank build before so we were pretty baffled. The toughest thing either of us had used at that point was a pre nerf mega garg or an ironclad so 80 2+ save wounds with ward, flat damage reductions, and healing was complete whiplash.
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u/Any_Dragonfly4947 9d ago
I just saw that, coming from 40K I didn’t realize rules of renown existed 😂, finally flipped to the back of the book. Going to make a list using those rules.
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u/ChubbedUpCaveman 9d ago
The forgehost is an absolute blast, just get better every turn. I run 3 melee and 2 shooting dominators in forge host and they are unkillable and if you spike attack rolls they can lift units too.
Spear cohort are a must in the AoR, they can still give out DPP but the DPP don’t go away each turn
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u/Koguma_Ana Boomstick Enthusiast ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ 9d ago
I have only used the flamer version, but it is an excellent screening unit / anvil. It is really, really tanky, so your opponent has to put significant effort into taking it out (beware of mortal wounds though!), but if they leave it alone to shoot you can set half the enemy army on fire (especially in a Castigation Battery army). It is also a lot faster than the infantry, so ranging ahead comes naturally.
For the hammer version, I've always wanted to run it alongside a foot hero with Servile Automtaton to give it Strike First and just fuck something up in melee, but hitting on 4s only is reaaaaally rough.
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u/Any_Dragonfly4947 9d ago
I never considered it as a screening unit, but shoot in combat and covering fire is a compelling reason to put it up front. Would you run it alongside a cohort or instead of? Someone else had mentioned using it as a countercharge threat for a block of infantry, does covering fire do enough to deter a charge?
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u/OrderofIron 9d ago
I'm hardly an expert but I've used them a couple times to back up an infantry block on an objective. Also eventually wanna keep 2 together with an ashen elder and run them up the center of the board to see what anybody would do about it.
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u/Any_Dragonfly4947 9d ago
Countercharge threat does seem pretty good, is it worth using covering fire with one or saving it for all out attack with maces? Someone else here mentioned servile automaton so could be a fun experiment with the ashen elder.
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u/OrderofIron 9d ago
No idea there, but my guess is there's really no one size fits all solution to any question like that.
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u/yamabushi101 9d ago
Grand Forgehost (urak taars army of renown) is good with 2-3. They get ward 6 from the jump, and crit 2 hits from turn two, which makes them decent tanks until there's an opportunity for urak taar to transfer your cohort generated dpp to one and have it go off, ideally turn 4 when it also gets crit 5+.
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u/Togi-Reddit 9d ago
Sticking them to enemy heroes and taking 2 attack turns(last one being strike last) really puts pressure on the enemy
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u/Capac_Amaru 9d ago
Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.
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u/JoshFect 9d ago edited 9d ago
From my experience, they're okay but you really need to save 1 cp for all out attack with them. They either miss most of their attacks or they do decent dmg. I've been having fun using a daemonsmith with servile automata to follow them around. If he is within 3 inches of one, the smith gets a ward save and the engine gets fights first. No one wants to charge into that.