| “ | The skilled Gyrocopter pilot unleashes jets of steam upon unprepared battle lines. | „ |
Gyrocopters are a 
Dwarfs war machine unit introduced in Total War: Warhammer.
Recruitment[]
Dwarfs
- Unlocked with: Tinker's Den
- Masters of Innovation
- Unlocked with: Tinker's Den or Engineering Workbench
Summon[]
- Gyrocopter Launch
Description[]
Gyrocopters are flying machines whose rotor blades are propelled by an ingenious lightweight steam engine. They can take off and land vertically, as well as hover in position over a spot. Although originally used to fly over difficult mountain terrain and drop supplies and messages to beleaguered settlements besieged by foes, the Gyrocopter was soon tested over battlefields with great success. The main armament of a Gyrocopter is a steam gun. When the valve is released, this unleashes a super-hot steam from the engine that blasts out of the barrel with a hissing scream. Although its reach is short-ranged, a skilled pilot can bob and spin into perfect position to unleash this cloud of scalding death across the foe's ranks. Over the years, the Gyrocopter's firepower has been augmented with bombs, with varying degrees of success. Originally, the pilot was responsible for lighting the fuse and throwing the bomb overboard while trying to fly and dodge enemy arrows. More recently, the Gyrocopter's small payload of bombs has been fitted into the craft's stabilisers.
Attributes[]
- Flying War Machine
- ▲ Armoured: Armoured units can block damage from any source apart from Armour-Piercing damage.
- ▲ Anti-Infantry: Anti-infantry units have an advantage against targets that are smaller than a horse. This advantage can be a damage bonus against small targets, superior weight used to smash through lighter enemies, or an explosive attack from range that effects a large area.
- ▲ Death from Above: While airborne, this unit can use a special attack to damage enemies below.
- ▼ Poor Accuracy: This unit's attacks are prone to go stray.
Unit Abilities[]
Active Abilities[]
Strategy[]
The Gyrocopter is a niche weapon, but one that the Dwarfs have few other options to get--not only a flier, but a unit that can actually move fast. With a speed of over twice that of Slayers and nearly four times that of Ironbreakers, Gyrocopters open up a whole realm of new opportunities for any Dwarfen army.
Gyrocopters are relatively cheap compared to most of their contemporary units, and every Dwarf player should be able to recruit them in singleplayer, as they unlock with the same tier of building that provides the Irondrakes and the exceptional Organ Guns. At only three 'copters to a unit (four on ultra scale), and with little health and nearly no defense (though they are armored, and quite well), they are extremely fragile and should never be allowed to be caught in a fight. They are, fortunately, very good at running away--in a straight line they outpace the vast majority of fliers, with only Bretonnian Pegasus Knights and Wood Elf Hawk Riders being able to reliably keep up
(Update) This unit is now armor piercing with more entites and accuracy, but no bonus versus infantry. They are a lot more tanky than previous entries suggest, but only with the proper micro. They are really only vulnerable to high speed armor-piercing projectiles as they can dodge most arrows and bolts, and they can outpace almost any flier.
That said, they are very good at chasing down routing enemies, harassing high tier armored infantry, just make sure to shoot them in the back to avoid those pesky shields, bombing high entity clumps, and neutralizing enemy artillery, while you may be able to win the artillery duel these guys make it much easier.
I recommend them as a replacement for basic slayers, not doomseekers or giant slayers, as they are just as good as dealing damage and chasing down routing units, while being much more tanky.
The other thing that makes them invaluable for dwarven armies is their ability to force the enemy to advance, the greatest weakness of the dwarves is their offense, and a single unit of gyrocopters makes the enemy come to you.
On the down side, they still have lower ammunition and are quite bad in melee so either support them with restock or harass the enemy back line once you run out of ammo.
Also, a fun gyrocopter doomstack is about 6 basic gyrocopters, 5 brimstone gun gyrocopters, 2 gyrocopters (troll hammer torpedos), and 2 gyrobombers supported by 3 to 5 master engineers with the increase in ammunition, missle strength, and speed buffs from their skill tree. They should be wearing prospectors armor (forgeable for just 200 oathgold) to prevent them from being found and killed. This is surprisingly effective and cheap. It can also be made pretty early and even stronger when playing as Thorgrim Grudgebearer so long as you build the airhanger landmark in his capital and grab his ability which increases master engineers capacity and recruit rank (can be found in the first chain of abilities or second row down from the top).
Gallery[]
