[Vydar is the man]

Originally Posted by OrcElfArmyOne

Well, I don’t think MBS is that great when he’s not bonding. The reason he gets an A in my ratings is because he bonds with Romans and Death Chasers.

Further, Arkmer helps a lot in one of the toughest Dwarf matchups: Knights. 10th is bad too, but neither Arkmer nor MBS helps there. MBS really needs Raelin to compete with 10th at range. Arkmer also helps into Heavies, which is not irrelevant. I’m just not seeing a reason to take MBS over Arkmer with the current expected meta. I don’t think non-bonding MBS is generally better than Arkmer for the points anyways, and I think the upsides of Arkmer are even more important with Dwarves than with other armies.

I guess I'm undervaluing Arkmer's utility in those melee matchups. I assume you send him up to a choke point and Engagement Strike everything you can, while you develop? Is that worth the 2 OMs that it takes to get him there? Or is he ranged support? My assumption is the former, because I think MBS is better for a single range attack than Arkmer. My choice of MBS was for being able to kite pretty well in the endgame. I agree that he isn't great when not bonded but with 14 threat range, and Paralyzing Stare he is a pretty decent cleanup unit for 50 points, something that Arkmer can't achieve.

Funnily enough, I just listened to the Bonding Melee episode of Casters of Valhalla, and I feel like I'm still undervaluing those units, as if I'm still in the 2010 metagame. It doesn't help I only own 1 squad of knights.