Strontium Dog Miniatures Game - Slabhead & Dervish Dogs

Slabhead
Image Copyright: Warlord Games

Concluding my infrequent strategy guides for the first wave of characters in the Strontium Dog Miniatures Game is the character of Slabhead and his crazed Dervish Dogs.

Slabhead

Coming in at 4 Notoriety, this mutant S/D agent is, somewhat unsurprisingly, unremarkable. He has poor stats all around. He has two skills:

Garrote: A nice thematic drawn from Slabhead's attempt to garrote Wulf in the strip. Getting in behind an enemy to perform the attack isn't easy, but nothing will beat the sheer joy of throttling your opponent when this skill is successful.

Pack Master: This allows Slabhead the ability to remove an action chip from his Dervish Dogs, effectively enabling them to activate twice each turn if the chips are drawn in the right order.

Dervish Dogs

Dervish Dog
Image Copyright: Warlord Games

I have to admit that I've never taken to these characters in the strip; they're just a bit too out there for my taste and seem to be insanely powerful when they engage enemies in close combat (destroying a tank without issue in the strip). To be honest, I've never really understood what they are meant to be and why they have such power. They're also the reason I never picked up the Rogue S/D Agents pack, the only set missing from my collection. That doesn't mean they aren't any use in the game though - quite the opposite!

The Dervish Dogs don't have any ranged weapons but they are fantastically powerful in close combat due to the fact that together they form a pack. This means that they roll a massive 8 combat dice when they engage in close combat together and will roll 9 combat dice for damage if they charged their opponent! To put things into context, Max Bubba's blazooka only deals out 5 combat dice! Even Wulf will struggle to hold his own with against these two! They also have a powerful Resist which - thematically appropriately as ever - makes them hard to stop! All that and they are cheap! Only 6 Notoriety for the pair, a bargain for these hard-to-stop killing machines!

Tactics

Dervish Dog
Image Copyright: Warlord Games

Very simple. ALWAYS use Slabhead's Pack Master skill if you can as it gives the Dervish Dogs the chance to activate twice in a single turn - potentially four Fight attacks which could end the game at the drop of a hat. Slabhead isn't much use himself but the Dogs, when both are still in the game, can tear apart pretty much any opposition - even vehicles! Sprint them until you get into range for close combat then use single Fight actions (note that two Fight attacks with 8 combat dice for power are far better than one Charge attack with 9 combat dice for damage) to unleash hell on your opponent! 

Overall

Slabhead on his own isn't much use, but his Dervish Dogs are incredibly powerful. He is worth including in your force if you are going to use the Dervish Dogs to enable that second activation.


You can find Slabhead and the Dervish Dogs in the Search/Destroy Agency Files 1 at the 2000AD online store.