Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Dwarfs

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Why Play Dwarfs

Because you like to piss people off by legally taking 10 war machines in 2,000 points matches. You also like high leadership and a standard toughness of 4. Also you have a thing for alcoholic midgets.

Unit Analysis

Note: Allot of the units in this army perform function that a cannon can do much better, and as dwarfs cannons are so cheap some units you should just drop in favor of another cannon, or in some cases another three (see slayers).

Lords & Heroes

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

• Dwarf Lord: Generic combat lord. Good combination of rune items can make him incredibly nasty in close combat. Oathstone is usually a good choice since you're unlikely to be moving around much.

• Runelord: A more expensive and better version of the Runesmith. Can take an Anvil of Doom, which you should do because the Anvil is amazing.

• Daemon Slayer: Completely useless. Take a cannon instead.

• Thanes: These guys take your BSB, and you must ALWAYS take a BSB. You really cant afford to have dwarves running away. Very solid Hero.

• Runesmiths: You want to keep these guys around for good dispel dice, the more the merrier. And field them with dispel runes or have them inside thunderer units or something not likely to blow up in your face to keep those sweet dispel dice coming in.

• Master Engineers: Buffs your artillery, and can make one entrenched (counts as being behind heavy cover). Great if you are playing a shooty list.

• Dragon Slayer: Maybe put one in your gunline, otherwise avoid like the plague.

Core Units

• Dwarf Warriors: These are your bread and butter. They have Toughness 4, Leadership 9 and Heavy Armour as standard. Give them shields if you don't want them to die or give them great weapons if you want them to kill shit. Always take them in big units of 30+ with full command, they may not be the most expensive units but they sure as hell aren't cheap so you need to make sure they are formed up as a horde to get the most attacks out of them.

• Longbeards: Warriors can be upgraded into Longbeards for +3 points each. They are better at killing shit and not running away, being immune to panic. They also allow nearby units to re-roll failed panic tests, which is nice if you haven't take a BSB (but you always should take a BSB).

• Quarrelers: Crossbow dwarfs. They are dwarfs with crossbows. That's about it. Take them if you want to be shooty. Also they can take shields and great weapons. Shields are good if you want to get into a shooting match with Wood Elves.

• Thunderers: Handgun dwarfs. Dwarf handguns have a +1 to hit modifier and have Armour Piercing. So they are better at shooting armoured foes and are more accurate than Quarrelers. However they have less range and are more expensive.

• Rangers: Dwarf Warriors, Quarrelers and Longbeards that are armed with great weapons can be upgraded to Rangers for +1 points per model allowing them to scout. Take them if you want a scouting horde of dwarfs. This can be pretty funny.

Special Units

• Hammerers: Stubborn elite Dwarves with Great Weapons. Good for flank charging, but for the points they cost they are to soft. Just take more GW warriors, steadfast is just as good as stubborn.

• Bolt Throwers: Always take in units of 2 (or just take another cannon), and field 6 of them if you want to troll your enemies. Give them an engineer if you want to burn points in higher games and make them flaming to fuck with dark elves.

• Cannons: These are amazing, you need moar of them. At 90 points they are a bargain. Of course the price goes up as you add runes and engineers, which you should do. Give a cannon the Rune of Burning for 5 points so you can ass rape Hydras from turn one. Give them engineers and you should be fine not watching it blow up, and if you still have the battle for skull pass model (which is a tiny as fuck cannon model), be sure to field those.

• Miners: Have a nifty special rule that lets them enter the game from any table edge after turn 2 (on a roll of 4+ on turn to with a +1 modifier being added every turn they dont appear.). Very good against static armies that take war machines and the like. Dont spend to many points on these guys as they are still Dwarves with M3 so they are prone to getting stuck on the wrong side of the board. Instead take in small groups of 10 or so and go war machine hunting with them.

• Ironbreakers: Elite Tarpit. For 13 points each you get WS5, T4, Ld9, a parry save and a 3+ armour save. Keep them near your BSB and you have a solid unit. Don't expect them to go toe to toe with the likes of Bloodletters or Chaos warriors though, but they will hold down your enemies horde of High Elf Spearmen or Gors. Alternatively give them the Master Rune of Grungi and march them towards a bowline.

• Grudge Thrower: Its a standard stone thrower. Can be buffed up with runes and engineers, the right combination can make this a very effective war machine. Take one.

• Slayers: They suck, horrendously. Sure the idea sounds great, and whats there not to like about Unbreakable? But the only thing they do well is kill monsters, and you have cannons so why would you spend 11 points a Slayer for movement 3 infantry who against a smart opponent wont even get to see combat. They are as durable as Gors, so will get shot to pieces, and are initiative 2, so will get hacked apart before they can bring their, at most, 2 attacks each to bear. And as a Dwarf player you really do not need an Unbreakable unit. Pity they have such great models. Drop them and take more cannons, they are cheaper and much much more effective at everything slayers are supposed to do. Especially seeing as to get anything out of slayers you will need to take at least 30, the points with which you could buy 3 fucking cannons. Which do you think will kill monsters faster?

Rare Units

• Organ Guns: Your can do, rage machine against light armored troops(if you roll high) to heavily armored elites, but be sure as hell to make sure an engineer is nearby. Using artillery dice, and automatic hits are pretty lulzworthy along with a -3 armor save and strength 5 hits can pretty much decimate enemy blocks of units if you take two, but costing 180 points with no runic upgrades can be tricky and is better to take in units of 2 or 1 with 2 cannons.

• Flame Cannon: It sucks, don't use it. Ever.

• Gyrocopter: Do you hate elves? Of course you do! Then you will like the Gyrocopter. Now that march blocking isnt a viable tactic the Gyrocopter is not nearly as useful as it used to be, but it flies and shoots a flame template of Strength 3, -1 Armour save modifying elf killing goodness. Great for blasting apart Swordmasters. Anyway its a fucking helicopter, what more do you want? Still not as good as Organ Guns though.

Building Your Army

Magic

The fuck is this magic you speak of? Get the fuck out of here, you goddamn sissy elf.

Dispelling Magic

• In 2,250 point games and above, always, always, always have a Runelord with the Master Rune of Balance and an Anvil of Doom, and park his stubby ass behind some dwarven lines. The Runelord gets two dispel dice, and the Anvil provides you with another one (with the errata stating the enemy loses a power die), in addition to the master rune's ability to steal power dice, all for 380 points. Stack him with his Runesmith buddies, who should have dispel runes, and you are looking at 6 bonus dispel dice and the enemy losing two power dice for about 600 points total. Yes, you could easily have more dispel dice than they have power dice. They can kiss their magic phase goodbye.

• Alternately if you decide for some bizarre reason that you want to play a game of Storm of Magick take a Truthsayer, give your BSB the Master Rune of Valaya and give a Runelord the Master Rune of Spellbinding. Said Truthsayer now has +7 to dispel. Now you can play a game of Storm of Magick without the magick. Hooray.

Tactics

• Castle, Castle, Castle.