The 9th Age/Tactics/Old/Infernal Dwarves

The fair use The 9th Age expy of the Chaos Dwarfs of Warhammer Fantasy.

Why play Infernal Dwarves

like dwarfs but don't think their hold cousins had enough slaves, demonic artillery, or fire.

Tactics

The tactics are current as of second edition.

Army Rules

Chosen of Ashuruk A model with this special rule gets a few effects:

• Auto passes all fear tests (still suffers -1 discipline from fear).
• Models with this rule treat all models without this rule as insignificant (R&F units with this rule cannot be joined by characters without it).
• Model parts without harnessed gain battle focus after the first round of combat.

This rule makes your dwarfs hard to budge and scary to be stuck in a grind with. Never forget about your battle focus, it can win you combats.

Daemonic Infusion Gains magical attacks and any discipline tests forced by 25% casualties caused by this model are taken at -1 discipline. Available on some of your warmachines and big grindy things, will help them crack units.

Opportunist When engaged with an enemy's flank or rear facing, models with this rule re-roll failed to-hit rolls.

Volcanic Embrace Models with this rule gain magical attacks, melee attacks (including special attacks) made by this model also gain flaming attacks. At initiative step 0, all enemy models in base contact with models with this rule take a single str 4 AP 0 hit with flaming attacks. The model also autofails any fortitude saves.

Armory

Infernal Armor It's Plate Armour with a built in Aegis 5+ vs flaming.

Infernal Weapon Hand weapon, +1 Str/AP and magical attacks. It cannot be enchanted with weapon enchantments unless noted otherwise.

Flintlock Axe Shoots like a handgun but only 18" range, but no unwieldy and does not suffer any penalties to-hit during a stand-and-shoot reaction. In melee, it's a 2 handed weapon that gives +1 str. So it's a shorter ranged handgun with more flexibility and a slightly worse halberd in melee. A good all-around weapon to give a unit the tools to do anything.

Blunderbuss Only 10" range, but quick to fire with march and shoot gives it a good threat range. Str 5 but no AP and no penalties to a stand and shoot reaction. For large units, successful hits can generate more hits. The short-range is the only balking point, but a strong weapon and no one will ever want to charge this unit.

Hereditary Spell

Haze of Magnesia A cheap spell (a wizard master can reasonably 1 die this). Gives the target flammable, permanent spell. At the end of the phase if the target suffered any hits from flaming attacks it takes d3+1 str 4 AP 0 hits and the spell then ends. An easy way to up your damage and slap more hits onto a unit.

Unit Analysis

Characters

Overlord The same stats as his King counterpart, but with better options for offense. Instead of grudges, the overlord grants hatred to himself and to all models in his unit. Getting through the first round of combat is crucial to your units so they can get their sweet battle focus and really smash later on. Don't bother with the blunderbuss, the range is too short and its strength is from big units of it. The flintlock axe is fine, but you would be better off with a meaty melee weapon.

Vizier Your cheapest dwarf character and a good BSB choice. He has 150 points for special equipment making him a great BSB option as his vanilla equipment is pretty great.

Chosen of Lugar One scary boy. No armor, but Aegis 4+ and a 2+ vs flaming. He is also unbreakable and has volcanic embrace, you want him into combat until something dies. He can BSB, but don't put it on him, gives him some scary artefacts or weapons, leave the BSB to your big bricks.

Prophet Comes in regular or engineer flavors. The flavor doesn't change the equipment options at all, the only change is it costs 10 points for an engineer and the engineer doesn't need to have wizard levels. Both can get wizard levels up to the master level with the same path selection. If you have siege engines, take one in engineer form, if not save the 10 points.

Taurukh Subjugator Your big bull centaur man. A 3+ standard (2+ on the charge) he barely even needs equipment. Give him paired weapons to slam out more attacks or a great weapon if you need a can opener. The infernal weapon is good, but expensive, buy a shield with it if you need a beefier tank option. He can be the BSB as well but he will often outpace your dwarf bricks.

Hobgoblin Chieftain If you have any hobgoblins, take one of these to babysit them with his better leadership. You can kit him up a bit, but you should really only consider dropping 40ish points into his upgrades. If you have a big hobgoblin block make him a backstabber boss, it will essentially give him +2-3 discipline.

Character Mounts

Wolf A dirty dog for your dirty hobgoblin. Will make him very fast and give him a little armor. Don't be fooled by the fact that its a wolf, human horses have the same stats or better. Take him to roll with other wolf riders or send him off as a missile to annoy and delay your enemy movements.

Bull of Shamut Will make your character fast, but won't boost their defenses at all besides +1 to HP and resilience. His offense is great though, 4 strong attacks and volcanic embrace makes him scary to be in combat with.

Great Bull of Shamut What we have instead of dragons. 6 HP and res, only 5+ armor but an Aegis 5+ as well. Has the same number attacks as the lil bull but is stronger and has a breath attack. A good choice, but be careful as you don't have a good means of sustaining your big monster.

Temple Lamassu A great mount for your prophet. This guy is a wizard too and gives you access to witchcraft, which has great buffs and debuffs and movement spells. It will cost you 300 points, but is usually cheaper than kitting out another wizard.

Core

All entries here count only to core, but if you take a ranged weapon on them they additionally apply to Hail of the Gods.

Infernal Warriors Your cheapest dwarf boys but don't let that fool you, you will be dumping more points into them. Shields are never not good, great weapons help them crack elite units, and blunderbusses are scary to be close to.

Citadel Guard Better stats than the warriors and better armor, give them shields if you just want a brick, give them the axes if you want a strong mobile threat.

Hobgoblins Your cheapest trashcan, chaff waiting on your Dwarfs' flanks, filling in the line, and pincoring anything that sticks to the shield wall. (120pts for 20 + 6pts.) With a shield, they could also block things intended to destroy your expensive Dwarfs. Bows let you shoot over your frontlines with mass fire but will eat into your Demongun allowance.

• Backstabbers: devoted to pure flanking, removes their armor but gives them poisoned paired weapons and bonuses to charge rolls against an enemy's flanks. Not as Survivable as normal Hobs, They are better at making their flanks hurt and eliminates things that conventional Strength bost can't solve.

Orc Slaves(110pts for 20 + 7pts) Initially cheaper then hobgoblins, you get +1 res and -1 agi. They can be stronger than the hobgoblins but are more situational in their application. They are something cheap to lob at an enemy and it is expected they will more likely to kill something. If they don't have any dwarfs nearby there is a 2/3 chance they'll dick around instead of doing anything useful and if they are the last ones on the field you lose. Hobgoblins are weaker but more consistent and can be better armored for cheaper, orcs are stronger in some situations but pitiful otherwise.

Special

Immortals Citadel guard with better off/def skill and bodyguard. They have great weapons standard and the Blessing of Nezibkesh will protect them from special attacks making it hard to grind through them. You can give them shields if you want to really brick them up.

Taurukh Half Dwarf, Half Bull, Your "cavalry" and they are great. Good armor (Getting least a +4 when they charge) and 2 attacks per base and plenty of weapon options to kit them out to deal with whatever you want. Watch out for agility 2.

Taurukh Anointed Take the above and make them large cavalry. Better Res, Str, 3 HP and attacks per base. It's up to you which one you take.

Hobgoblin Wolf Riders Your light avoidance cavalry. Take a few small units to cover the flanks of your main blocks, and do some flanking.

Barrage

Infernal Artillery Comes in rocket or flamethrower flavors.

• Rocket Battery: 2d6 shots at str 7 and AP 2. Incredibly strong and very unlikely to misfire. Tears at infantry it pointed at.
• Volcano Cannon: Same as most other flamethrowers in the game, but with a great range.

Titan Mortar A decent catapult style artillery weapon that further debuffs units hit by it. When a unit takes damage from this it treats all terrain as dangerous terrain and re-rolls 6 to-hit (shooting and melee) for one turn. Furthermore, a war machine hit by or within 8" of a hit unit cannot shoot for a turn.

Bound Daemon Not a unit on its own, but an upgrade to the infernal artillery or titan mortar. Makes the artillery much more survivable with a 4+/5++ and res 6. It also gains Daemonic infusion and a crazy number of attacks for a war machine "crew". The downside to all of this is that each turn it makes a discipline check, if failed it moves 3d6 towards the nearest enemy and tries to fight them in melee. With discipline 9 this is unlikely to happen, especially with a BSB or general nearby, but watch out for your war machine sometimes trying to punch those flame wardens instead of shooting them with its gun.

Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower Your cheapest war machine and is honestly pretty good. Sure Str 3[6] isn't too hot, but AP 10 and multiple wounds (d3) is. Sadly not spammable, but if you got the points to spare take one or two to cover flanks and scare monsters.

Gunnery Team Your baby war machine, shorter range than your other options but they have quick to fire and march and shoot, abuse it. Comes in 3 flavors:

• Gunnery Volley Gun: Handgun str and range, but can fire your choice of 1d6, 2d6, or 3d6 shots. Misfires are pretty unlikely, even on 3d6, so feel free to throw dice.
• Grenade Launcher: Str 6, but only 1d6+1 shots. If you need to soften up some monsters this will help. It still only has 2 AP so it can't open up elite infantry or heavy cavalry, just throw more dice at those with the volley gun.
• Flamethrower: Can either fire as a weak flamethrower or can choose to deal no damage to apply flammable to a unit for 1 turn. If you have a lot of fire related damage one or two of these will really help you out.

Bound and Binders

Disciples of Lugar No armor but a built-in Aegis save. Give them paired weapons and let your enemies get Volcanic Embraced, you want these to be able to mulch big blocks, you have better tools for taking on tanky stuff.

Kadim Incarnates Your fun lava demons. They have good attacks and 5+/5++, but watch out for supernal. If they whiff a combat they can kill themselves with combat resolution.

Kadim Titan Lava monster. 6 HP, Res, and attacks at str 7 AP 4. Sounds great, but be careful with it. It has the same 5+/5++ as above, and supernal makes it so it can lose health through bad combats. A canny opponent will abuse its frenzy rule to string it along by the nose, but every time it fails a frenzy test it gains +1 attack for the rest of the game, no limit, so if that opponent ever messes up they have a scarier monster to deal with.

Infernal Engine Choo choo. This train can tank. Res 7 and a 3+ save. It's a bit finicky to charge with, but it does some work. Can be given Steam Hammers, which ups its grind attacks from 1d3 to 3d3, or shrapnel guns, which gives it an 18" shooting attack with few shots but good strength and multiple wounds. Difficult to maneuver, but will trash whatever is straight ahead.

Armored Giant A giant with a 4+ armor save and Chosen of Ashuruk makes this a scary beast. Big Brother is +1 health for a bigger base, which can be good or bad. Take the whip for mulching infantry, mining pick for fighting other monsters.

Magic Items

Weapon Enchantments

Onyx Core Hand weapons only, +2 Str/AP is amazing on its own, also adds multiple wounds 1d3 but only against models with flammable. Given the tools your army has, that should be easy enough to pull off.

Burning Steel +1 attack and flammable attacks. The weapon has AP 10 but wounds based on the target's armor. Depends on who you are fighting, know your opponent before taking this.

Armor Enchantments

Steel Skin +3 armor and attacks with lethal strike and/or poisoned attacks lose those attributes when attacking this model. Is everything you need on defense and bumps your characters to 1+ on foot.

Secrets of Mithril Shield only, gains Aegis 4+ (vs AP 3+). Will cover all your bases, especially with the above armor.

Kadim Bindings Shield only, Aegis 5+, 2+ vs flaming, and volcanic embrace. Great defensive choice and will help the model grind through enemy units.

Banner Enchantments

Icon of the Inferno Whenever a friendly wizard within 12" casts a non-bound non-attribute spell the bearer casts blaze from pyromancy. Will pump your magic phases to insane levels as you essentially add 1d3 hits to a unit every time you cast a spell.

Banner of Shamut +1 offensive skill to the unit and +1 to combat score. Situational, but can help you break units.

Artefacts

Ring of Desiccation Units in base contact gain flammable. Quick and easy, combos with most your army.

Tablet of Ashuruk Wizard only, during your opponent's magic phase steal one of their veil tokens. Can limit how many dice your opponent can throw and helps fuel your own magic phases.

Lugar's Dice The bearer rerolls to-hit and to-wound rolls of 1 and attacks against the bearer reroll to-hit and to-wound rolls of 6. A very powerful buff and can cripple your opponent's offense as well as upping your consistency.

Mask of the Furnace The bearer gains +1 armor and a breath attack (toxic attacks). Can pump armor on some of your squishy models and will help you open tanky units.

Bullhorn of Nezibkesh The model extends the range of its engineer ability to 12" and when a warmachine benefits from this model's engineer it additionally gains +1 AP. If you have the warmachine/engineer combo, take it.

Heat Haze The bearer gains Aegis 4+ vs shooting and the bearer's unit gains hard target (1). This effect lasts until the unit takes any unsaved wounds. Against shooty armies this can keep your deathstar up and running.

Besheluk's Mechanism Wizard only, gives them a bound spell to raise wounds on disciples of Lugar or Kadims. It is a basic bound spell, and easy to dispell, but can give you the sustain you need.

Gauntlets of Madzhab +1 str/AP but melee to-hit rolls of 1 hit his own unit. Your units are pretty tanky anyways and can probably take the hit, a quick and easy pump to your damage output.