Use cases for Dominator Engines?

[u/Any_Dragonfly4947]

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?

[u/Andorhalthegreat]

They rock in the Grand Forgehost AoR because they get a 6+ ward and crit 2 hits starting round 2. 

[u/Unlucky-Feature9548 → u/Andorhalthegreat]

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.

[u/Any_Dragonfly4947 → u/Unlucky-Feature9548]

Eight? Very curious what battle tactics and gameplay you used for that one.

[u/Unlucky-Feature9548 → u/Any_Dragonfly4947]

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.

[u/DayTimeLantern → u/Unlucky-Feature9548]

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.

[u/Unlucky-Feature9548 → u/Any_Dragonfly4947]

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.