Dwarf Slayers are among the most iconic and ridiculous units in the Old World: from guys with impossible mohawks to heroes who die without giving away victory points.
In this edition, we have many types of slayers: big, small, useful, and useless. I think what they all have in common is Movement 3 and orange hair. Let’s see what we can do with these guys from a competitive perspective. Can they be worth it?
Slayers: Troll Slayers and Giant Slayers
I’m going to analyze them from the smallest to the biggest. So let’s start with the unit of Troll Slayers and Giant Slayers.
They’re Unbreakable, like all slayers, which makes them tempting as an anvil unit. But the truth is, at the end of the day, they’re very slow.
This is a general issue with infantry in the game (even Chaos Warriors suffer from it a lot), but this is the most extreme case (they can’t take a unit champion as such and therefore can’t include the rune of moving through terrain that I mention in the post about dwarf infantry).
This issue gets toned down in version 1.5, since you’re not the one who has to chase the enemy — it’s the enemy who has to push you off an objective… and that changes things.
On paper, it seems like a unit you’d want to send against a dragon. You can include any number of Giant Slayer unit champions and keep issuing challenges to the dragon, feeding it one model per combat phase with no chance of fleeing and being wiped out in a pursuit. But you really think a dragon’s going to charge them?
Its movement is much, much higher than yours. So it gets to choose which combat to engage in.
Let’s say you’re a brilliant strategist and manage to tie up the dragon with the slayers. After the first round of combat, you’ll give ground and become unengaged (Unbreakable works that way now). Then the dragon will turn around — it’s a Large Target and it flies — so it will charge somewhere else on its next turn. All you’ve done is lose one model.
After June 2025, there’s been a noticeable rise in infantry on the table, and Slayers are great at dealing with them — so they’re definitely becoming a unit worth paying attention to.
So what options do we have for a Dwarf Slayer unit in TOW? Either build a large unit or a small one.
- If you make it big, it’s just asking to get redirected. Before, it pretty much shouldn’t even see combat if your opponent played halfway decent. In version 1.5 though, it makes more sense — like I said, to hold down an objective.
- You could also go small (5 models). It’s not too expensive and could work as flank support for another anvil unit. But the problem is that five slayers still only give you five Wounds at Toughness 4 with no save whatsoever. So any light shooting or spells — like a Ruby Ring of Ruin — will take them out.
How to set up Slayers in version 1.5?
Since the second rank gets to swing with 1 attack when they’re not charging, that back row should definitely be filled with Troll Slayers wielding great weapons.
For me, that’s a must.
—Alright, so what about the front row? Give them additional hand weapons to make the most of the 4+ to wound rule, and then decide how many Giant Slayers you want to include. That part’s kind of up to personal taste — the real key is that second rank with great weapons.
Now, even though Slayers have improved a lot, so has the rest of the Dwarf infantry lineup. And let’s not forget, other units can also hold objectives just fine. So, they might still struggle to make it into lists, especially since they’re not core.
And with that, we move from a unit that’s gotten a solid boost… to one that probably was already the best — and still is in 1.5 — or at least one of the top Slayer options. And that is…
Doomseekers
You can’t add more than three per army as allies, unless you’re playing a Slayer King army, in which case you can include more.
They’re single models, operating solo. They have 2 Wounds and Toughness 4, which can be increased to 5 — but honestly, for what they’re meant to do, I wouldn’t raise their toughness.
They have a rule I absolutely love — I already talked about it in the post about the best dwarf rune combos (If you haven’t read it yet, scroll down for my breakdown of the best dwarf rune combos — there’s gold in there, literally). That rule is: if they die, they don’t give any points to the enemy. They only give points if they survive.
They’re a big nuisance. They’re infantry (360º line of sight) and enemies get -1 to hit them with shooting. They have Vanguard and charge an extra D3 inches, which is interesting even though they’re still dwarfs and therefore slow. But where you place one, it can really block enemy movement. Plus, it will mess with enemy shooting lines (it gives cover to any unit behind it, even if it barely covers anything), and secondly:
Note that even though they’re 50 points, you can add runes. One combo I really like is giving them three Initiative Runes, each for five points. So that’s 65 points for a model with Initiative 6. That way, even if they get charged — which is common, especially by light troops — and the enemy has Initiative 3 (very common among light units), you’ll strike simultaneously. So it’s likely they’ll kill each other. The enemy gets no points for the dwarf, and you eliminate or severely cripple a unit.
Also, you can deploy them one behind the other, so that when the enemy kills one and tries to overrun, it runs straight into the next one.
That wraps up my favorite Slayer picks. Let’s move on to the next one in the points scale…
Dragon Slayer
Dragonslayer is what used to be the hero choice. And honestly, I think it’s probably the worst option — even worse than the regular unit. It just falls short across the board. It’s not as cheap as Doomseekers, and it doesn’t hit as hard as the next one we’ll talk about because it doesn’t have access to enough runes and has weaker stats.
So it ends up feeling like a pointless filler. For the points it costs, pretty much any unit in the book will serve you better (Thunderers, Crossbowmen, Irondrakes, Gyrocopter…). The Dwarf book has so many strong options that this one just makes no sense.
Now for something serious:
Daemon Slayer
I love this guy. I already described my favorite rune combo in the previous post (linked below). Anyway, even if you prefer another setup, I’d always include the rune that makes him give no points if he dies. Because not only does he hit like a truck, but it also means you can throw him into anything with zero risk for you.
Pretty much everything I said about Doomseekers applies here too.
Ungrim Ironfist, The Slayer King
For the points he costs, he’s just another wannabe. He’s super fun if you want to build a Slayer army and play a casual list with friends, but not for competitive play.
1.5 update: Watch out — now that Slayers can be taken as core, they’ve become a unit you really need to keep an eye on. I think that even if Ungrim’s list still isn’t top-tier, it’s definitely playable now, especially with how much better it works with the new mission system.
Sure, he hits hard, but not hard enough. The Daemon Slayer I just described hits harder. And he doesn’t tank as well as a dwarf king either. So again, he ends up in this weird, underwhelming middle ground.
That said, the model is absolutely worth it. If I were going to play a Daemon Slayer, I’d 100% buy Ungrim Ironfist’s mini. Speaking of cool minis…
Malakai Makaisson’s Goblin-Hewer. Has it gotten better in 1.5?
Careful now — it’s not so bad anymore.
We’re starting to see ranked infantry again, even full-on hordes… and this thing can actually hurt them.
Does that mean it’s the best war machine in the game? Probably not.
But now there are definitely lists where it fits (finally — because let’s be honest, it’s cool as hell).
It’s kind of like an Organ Gun, but with longer range, less strength, and it deals more damage the more ranks the enemy unit has. In the old meta, it didn’t make much sense.
Now? It does.
Light troops have never really been what scares a Dwarf player, sure — but this thing can help whittle down Bestigors and other fairly expensive, hard-hitting units that aren’t super tanky. And if that enemy unit has to just sit on an objective instead of charging your Gobbo-Hewer?
Then yeah… you’re gonna have a good time lighting them up from a safe distance.
Anyway, if you want more details about this wild contraption, how it works and how to use it, check out the post below where I go in depth on all Dwarf War Machines.
🍺Warhammer Old World Dwarfs
🍺 DWARF INFANTRIES OLD WORLD BREAKDOWN
🍺 Dwarf War Machines Analysis in Warhammer The Old World
🍺 Best Dwarf Runes combos in The Old World
Core Cavalry in Old World 1.5 Is it worth?
Old World 1.5 Breakdown FAQs and Errata
Secondary Objectives Old World 1.5 Explained
If you think there’s an error in the post, feel free to reach out at theoldwarrior@theoldwarrior.com, and I’ll review it. Hope you enjoy ToW!