Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Dwarfs

Why Play Dwarfs

Because you like to piss people off by legally taking 25 war machines in 3,000 points matches. You also like high leadership and a standard toughness of 4. Also you have a thing for alcoholic midgets who carry axes as big as themselves... Even WOC can't boast that! Also, DEM BEARDS.

One thing to wacth out for is the model range, generally all the dwarf models are horrible but for most of the character models, ironbreakers, bolt throwers, grudge throwers, thorgrim, a few slayers and old 5 pack longbeards.

To make anything else look really good is easy though. Any detail you don't like just cover it with green stuff beard and any model will always look better with extra big bushy beard on top except for those otherwise stated. old longbeard models are a good reference for these conversions. Also braids on either side of the beard add a celtic feel to the models which is reminiscent of the previous incarnation of dwarf fluff when they were a little less vikingy. more beard seems to go along way especially because the plastic sculpts don't really compare to any of the newer models coming out. Before i forget bigger round shields do absolute wonders for dwarf models using thumbtacs or converted marauder shields make your models look amazing, thumbtacs especially as they make the shields look like the cover art of the current dwarf codex.

Unit Analysis

Note: A lot 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).

Army rules

Ancestral Grudge : Hatred Skaven/Greenskins; everyone else has a chart (1-2 : Your general hates the enemy independant characters / 3-4 : All your characters hate all enemy character / 5-6 : The entire army hates the enemy). This is an awesome ability and makes Dwarfs potentially one of the best armies in the game. Yes it is a table and massively randomizes your sucess rate. However if you look at it statistically, then you can easily predict what it will be usefull for. For example you can completely rely on all your models getting hatred against those enemy ics. This is immense. Not only does it make dwarfs, in base contact with lords and heroes better but also in challenges it also effects your characters. To my knowledge it affects dwarfs going up against heroes on monsters aswell, due to the fact the rule isn't removed. However I am not too sure.

Resolute : +1 Strength on the charge. Epic. Look at choppas and now see that on your better, more resolute dwarfs.

Relentless : No leadership for marching close to an enemy. Always nice but leadership really isn't too much of a problem. Only Gyrocopters will really use this rule fully.

Shieldwall : +1 parry when charged, but only on the turn they have been charged. Now you have a reason to use your shield dwarfs. Having a third of all damage blocked in combat is amazing. Ask Daemons. You rarely ever charge first as dwarfs, so you should see this as a bonus. Sadly Great Weapon wielding dwarfs still have better statlines than those using shields. Also that +1 to combat res is rather nice.

Dwarf Crafted : You don't take the -1 to hit penalty when doing a Stand and Shoot reaction. Every Dwarf ranged weapon has this, bar the war machines. Another reason to field the dwarf gunline and another reason to not field Thunderers.

Unit Analysis

Note: A lot 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: Although no longer true for more modern books, at the time the Dwarfs Army Book was released, named characters were almost always overpriced. In most cases, it's easy to emulate their abilities from scratch and save quite a few points. That's not to say they're worthless; named characters do have some unique abilities and combos, but make sure you're getting your points worth.

• Thorgrim Grudgebearer: At 650pts his is more usable than he was before, but you are still looking in the 3000+ game range. He adds +3 to the roll on the Ancestral Grudge table (if the total is 7 or more he also allows any unit he joins to re-roll all to hit rolls in ever round of CC) and when he dies all friendly Dwarf units get Frenzy if he dies. His Axe of Grimnir gives him the Always Strikes First rule and wounds anything on a 2+ (3+ if wearing magic armour) and has Multiple Wounds (D6) against any Giants. His Throne of Power and Throne Bearers remain the same, and his Armour gives him immunity to all forms of Killing Blow, Multiple Wounds and has a 4+ 2++ (2+ on The Throne of Power) He also has a Dwarf Version of the Crown of Command that grants Immune to Psychology too. On the downside, he cannot "Look out Sir" when he joins a unit.

• Thorek Ironbrow: 470 points!. You can play him in 2000pt games now.

• Josef Bugman: The epitome of a dwarf grudge holder and probably the only named character anyone would/should ever take in this army. At 165 points he sits between a cheap Lord or a wallet killing Thane with stats more toward the former. He allows his unit to drink from his tankard, giving you another d3 table to roll at the start of the game, heals a wound per turn like Isabella and still carries Ol' Trustworthy.

• Belegar Ironhammer: Seems kind-of confused as to what his role is. He probably won't trump anyone of his cost in close combat at 305 points and a 3+ 4++ save, but won't really make his points back if you send him in for horde killing. He seems mostly designed to take care of heavy infantry because of his effective Strength of 6 on the charge and his double attacks to go along with it, so 8 attacks will probably kill you 4 or 5 Black Orcs (and equivalent) on the charge. I guess with that Always Strikes First he could be pretty nasty against a few generals. I didn't write most of this article and, whilst not a noob, I don't match up to most of you elegan/t g/entlemen in terms of experience, so bear this in mind when berating me for idiocy due to my additions.

• Grimm Burloksonn: The Master Engineer to trump all others. He has a ranged weapon that fires Multiple Shots (2D3) at S4 Armour Piercing (although 18" range is pretty short, but at BS5 it should be okay.) he also has a Magic Weapon which, on a 5+ on a D6 destroys an enemy magic weapon. He is also the highest base Strength Dwarves Character at S6. Also, in a friendly shooting phase on a 2+ he can bestow one of three abilities to a single friendly unit (not himself):
  • Artillery Adjustment: Allows a friendly War Machines to his BS of 5 and the ability to re-roll an Artillery Dice which can be the bounce on a Cannon or a Flame Cannons scatter. Useful for all war machines, esp due to the changes to the Organ Gun, use it if you want to snipe that enemy wizard or kill squishy things with stones.
  • Increased Range: Does what it says on the tin. Increases the units Crossbow and Handgun ranges by 2D6, so your horde of 40+ Quarrels can now hit more things! Use it if that one enemy unit is just out of reach, on a unit of Quarrelers with a Runesmith/Lord it is hilarious.
  • Superior Volley: Models in the unit may re-roll any to hit roles. Again, useful for Bolt Throwers and Organ Guns (Organ Guns roll to hit now). Deadly on Quarrelers with a Rune Priest at close range, as a volley is sure to cut down infantry at -2 to their Armour Saves (nope, AP from runesmith works on close combat weapons only). Use this on Irondrakes for extra deadliness.

• Ungrim Ironfist Apart from being a the most badass ginger I've ever seen, he's a pretty nice hero or monster killer due to Slayer, Strength 6 and Killing Blow, he's also pretty tough, but, like Belegar, he's only got 3+ 4++ so he's a little bit of a glass-cannon but alright all in all. He seems to be pretty funny against Dragons because that 2+ Ward against Flaming is pretty funny and will be useful against them. Other than that he'll fuck up a few less combat-oriented Lords and he'll weather a lot of hits, also his Slayer King rule is useless because Slayers aren't very good at all. I wrote Belegar's entry too by the way, so once again please don't kill me.

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. Or even better put him up on Shieldbearers, +2 Wounds, +2 to his armour, 2 additional WS5 S4 I3 attacks plus he counts as infantry still so he gets his look out sirs. 40 points never tasted so good. Shame you can only use it on your general. Be advised, putting any kind of runes on his weapon negates whatever that weapon was before, so if you took a great weapon for your beardlord, putting a rune on it will drop the strength bonus and Always Strikes Last. The Master Rune of Kragg the Grimm no longer exists, so no more runed-up Great Weapons.

• Runelords/Runesmiths: Runesmiths are the true heroes of the new dwarf codex. Always take 1 with a dispel rune for 85pts. Though they have lost their free dispel dice, they now channel dispel and power like wizards (the only use I can see for the power dice is if you are using an anvil of doom), grant armour piercing as a generic rule (Note this does not buff ranged weapons) and grant magic resistance lv1. Sadly Runelords have taken a serious hit with the new codex. For 60 points more than a smith you gain one more level of magic resistance, +1 to Weapon Skill, Toughness and Wounds and access to an anvil of doom. Unless you want the anvil, do not bother taking the lords, as even with the stat increases he's not worth it alone.

Anvil of Doom: This has been completely redone. It grants an additional 2 wounds, a 5++, bodyguards, 1 power and 1 dispel dice and is a 170pts upgrade for a Runelord. Multiple Anvils do not stack and it is still a warmachine and can thus be entrenched. The runes are still cast as innate bound spells, but are slightly different. Each rune can be cast once per magic phase. The Rune of Hearth and Home when struck on a 3+, grants 1 dwarf unit within 24" immune to psychology. The Rune of Oath and Steel when struck on a 4+, gives any dwarf unit on the board +1 to their armour save. The Rune of Wrath and Ruin when struck on a 5+ is 24" magic missile that hits 2d6 times at str 4. Though the Anvil can no longer slow down your foes, it can hand out some pretty neat buffs for little to no magic. Still you are probably better off taking a Rune of Valaya Banner Bearer for anti magic.Alternate Opinion: It's now rather bad, don't take it. as said already, runelords dont really do much for the army anymore, and as the anvil is considerably worse than before, I'm sure you can see the dots connecting.

• Daemon Slayer: Same as before but forces successful ward saves to be re rolled. It's nice now that when kitted out properly, he can guaranteed kill a Daemon prince. With some weapon runes he comes out at a good price and is a worthy consideration. Be careful as he can get focused and destroyed quite easily, and at much greater impact being a lord choice unlike dragon slayers.

• 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. Comes in two builds, the 'Thane o' pain' and the 'Tank thane'. Basically, the names say it all. Tank thane concentrates on staying alive, and therefore uses armour runes. A MR of gromril and a rune of resistance, coupled with a rune of challenge is a good way to tie up an enemy character. Troll the sissy elf wizards with it, especially when they are hiding at the back, near the table edge. The Thane o' pain operates on the philosophy that if the enemy is dead, then it won't attack you back. Use a rune of Snorri Spangelheim, a rune of cleaving, and either a grudge rune if you have it in for one particular character, a rune of FUREH, or, when fighting tough enemies (orcs and ogres etc.), a rune of might for strength 9.

Ammendment: With the introduction of the new codex thanes have become even more useful having dropped to 5 points more than the Runesmiths mentioned below. The new banner runes have made the dwarf BSB more useful as a general army buffer than to be armed with magic items. Almost every master rune for banners give buffs to the army, and they are all good. There are many effective combinations of runes, however one rune of note is the banner rune of valaya. Always, always take this on your BSB, or at the very least include it in your list. Its cheaper than before, and way better providing a much needed buff to the army's nerfed anti magic.

• Master Engineers: Buffs your artillery, and can make one entrenched (counts as being behind heavy cover). Great if you are playing a shooty list. Also gives your cannons and grudge throwers free artillery die re-rolls which can save your ass many times over. NOTE THAT THE ANVIL STILL COUNTS AS A WAR MACHINE. If you take one, they work best with an organ gun, which takes most advantage of their BS 4 and an artillery reroll.

• Dragon Slayer: Better than before as he now has D3 wounds on each attack standard. When cheaply kitted out these guys can do some nice damage. Worth taking one and run him alongside the rest of your army as a threat to chariots etc if Cannon's aren't available.

Core Units

• Dwarf Warriors: These are your (beard) 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. Normally, as dwarfs tend to be expensive, this will be your biggest unit and thus a large fire magnet; as you're going to be striking last anyway, great weapons are a good choice. If not take shields for the extra survivability.

• Longbeards: Longbeards, an actual unit now, are 4 points more than a dwarf warrior. They are better at killing shit and not running away, being immune to psychology with ld 9. They also allow nearby units to re-roll failed panic tests when not fleeing, which is nice if you haven't taken a BSB (but you always should take a BSB with Rune of Valaya). If you play dwarfs without this unit you aren't playing real dwarfs, you need, I repeat, YOU NEED grumbling old santa dwarfs. Generally better with a hand weapon and shield at s4, but in terms of close combat, hammerers and ironbreakers are better for points in all regards. Longbeards though nice, fill a niche already cramped with options. Pay 4 points more to get some serious Warrior of Chaos equivalent elites.

• Quarrelers: Crossbow dwarfs. They are dwarfs with crossbows with Heavy Armour as standard. 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. Take these guys as your general core as crossbows will generally outrange all other armies at range 30 and great weapons will still allow them to hit any kind of anti archer unit and come out smiling. 40 man horde of these stubbies with great weapons is a scary prospect to charge against especially with new improved stand and shoot. Put a Rune Lord/Priest to give them Armour Piercing Shots, laugh as you now effectively have 30" range handguns. Also use Grimm Burloksson and his abilities, to potentially have 42" range handguns! (Actually, as he only gives the unit the Armour Piercing special rule and not their weapons, Quarrelers will only get Armour Piercing on their close combat attacks (pg. 67 BRB), so no 30" handguns I'm afraid.)

• Thunderers: Never take Thunderers if you can. The only benefit they have over Quarrellers is that they have armour piercing. Quarrellers are exactly the same price and have 6" extra range. They also can't get great weapons. Thunderers have been made mostly redundant.

Special Units

• Hammerers: Stubborn elite Dwarves with Great Weapons. For 14 points , you get a warrior of chaos stat line, less initiative and a 75-point runic banner allowance. Always. Take.

• Bolt Throwers: Always take in units of 2 (or just take another cannon), and field 4 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:At 150 points with a 25 point rune of forging and 5 point rune of burning, cannons are so, so. They are neccessary, but aren't worth taking more than twice. 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/Vampire counts/trolls/tomb kings/treemen 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 don't appear). A welcome new addition to that rule is that the miners count as being in light cover after turning up, until the next turn . They are very good against static armies that take war machines and the like. Don't spend too 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. You can buy them upgrades to help them with their warmachine hunting role if you want. The steam drill allows you to reroll your arrival dice, while the blasting charges remain str 4, quick to fire, flaming, armour piercing, one shot 4" missile weapons. Though the drill isn't bad, don't take charges. Your miners should do the charging. They shouldn't be charged.

• Ironbreakers: Elite Tarpit. For 14 points each you get WS5, T4, Ld10, a 5+ parry save even when charging 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 (though they can do pretty well with the new rules), 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 for 80 points. Can be buffed up with runes and engineers, the right combination can make this a very effective war machine. Take one. No take two. These can seriously troll T3 armies. Take a rune of accuracy and penetrating for 65 points to get str 4, re-rolling to hit, blasts, a bit more expensive now but probably still worth that Ironbreaker/Hammerer you paid for it. Alternatively you could take the level 2 version of the rune of penetrating for 50 points to get a str 4 blast with 1 re-roll to wound per game.

• Slayers: This unit has changed a bit, but perhaps not for the better. Slayers now wound on 4+ instead of raising their strength. This is after calculating str and to wound rolls. They have gained aswell, the deathblow rule, which allows each Slayer to strike before they die, in a blue-horror-esque style. This means if they get stomped on, they can still strike back but if they get skewered by impact hits, they can't. They still keep their ton of axes, but since they lost their bonus strength, great weapons will be come more common. After all, charging Slayers using great weapons will be Strength 6, regardless of whether they’re dying before they get to attack. Dragon Slayers do D3 wounds against Monsters, and Daemon Slayers also force enemies to re-roll ward saves as well.

• Gyrocopter: Gyrocopters have completely changed with the introduction of the new codex. They are now the dwarf equivalent of great eagles. For 30 points more than great eagles, you practically get a great eagle with a 4+ armour save, T5, either a str 3 armour piercing template, or a gun that fires d3 str 5, flaming, armour piercing shots. They also carry a one shot, str 3 armor piercing, artillery dice amount of hits, bomb which you can drop during your movement when you march. You can take vanguard for 20 more points, if you want first turn bombing/flaming from the rear or side arc. Considering you can take 6 in under 3000pts and 12 in 3000pts games and above, theoretically you can try to run a list around them, but they do lose out to some lists.

Rare Units

• Organ Guns: Your can do, rage machine against light armored troops(if you roll high) to heavily armored elites. (8th ed) Is now BS based, but rolls two artillery dice, rather than one. It can be given up to 50 points of Runes, and there's a +1 to hit Rune. Also, the range is now 30"; I seem to remember that it was 24" before. Stick a spare engineer on this to get BS 4, and then take a flaming rune to kill all VCs and Treekin/men.

• Flame Cannon: Underrated by far! Actually, against Gobbos, Monstrous infantry and Skaven, it can be used very effectively to cause panic tests on any large unit. Being able to throw down a str 5 flamer template is amazing in fantasy especially when it causes d3 wounds. The main problem is the short range (sort of, average rolling still hits 16/18"), but this is ok when you are facing a "run at you screaming" type army.

• Gyrobomber: Released. Same as the Gyrocopter except it costs 45 more points, has a str 3 armor piercing, bouncing large blast bomb that can send out a second small blast on a 4+, and has a slightly stronger machine gun that fires 4 str 4 armour piercing shots. This thing will get shot to death. Nobody will let you get away with a nasty large blast on a flimsy platform. It may have a place in a flight of the bearded valkryies list, however, otherwise, it is too flimsy to field against anything other than Vampire Counts.

• Rangers: Sadly the days of scouting hordes are over. Having been moved to the rare section, rangers have now the same role as chameleon skinks, shades and shadow warriors, except they do it worse. However if you have any Quarrelers with Great Weapons spare that aren't fufilling your core requirement, then you should swap them for Rangers, because they have throwing axes and scout for exactly the same price. Neat to improve a already decent unit, but still not good.

• Irondrake : They come with special Gromil armour standard which is 4+/6++ normally but grants a 2++ against fire and wield a drakegun for 1 more point than rangers. The Drakegun is an 18", strength five, flaming, quick to fire, armour piercing gun. Their champion can take some special weaponry as well .One of these is a Trollhammer torpedo, which is a flaming, non penetrating, slow to fire bolt thrower for all intents and purposes. The others are drakefire pistols and cinderblast charges. I am unsure about the usefullness of this unit. With Grimm Burlockson they may be very nasty, abusing the bonus range he can give them. They seem to be all rounded but others do specfic jobs better.

Building Your Army

Buying Your Army

Buy a battleline set or two to start, you can get one for £75 from totalwargamer.co.uk for the same price as a battalion from the official site. Do all of the warriors as the same type - believe me, 40 warriors in one unit is far more effective than two units of 20. The shooty dwarfs should be Quarrelers since Thunderers are redundant when you have a Runesmith or Lord, which you'll get two of in the packs. Thunderers and quarrelers should generally have shields. The 4 cannons are really good both ways.

Next, buy a dwarf lord with shieldbearers. Gyrocopters will never go amiss, but make sure that you can afford it if you made the cannon into an organ gun. Keep buying more dwarfs. I usually go for a ratio of 1 shooty dwarf to 1 or 2 close combat dwarfs. A Runelord is no longer a good choice due to barely being better than the Runesmith for 60 pts. more, but a BSB is still ever-useful.

If you feel you need to stretch your converter's wings and make something unique/different or aren't all that impressed by the dwarf miniature range, Learn first and foremost how to green stuff beards.

Army Composition

Repeat after me. War machines and lots of shit that refuses to die.

Runic and Magic Items Items

Dwarfs have actual magic items now. They still can't pick rule book magic items. But instead they have runes, which are 10 times better, because you can combine various runes to form your own unique Runic items.

Magic Items: None of these save one are worth taking and that is army specific. Skip this unless you really want to read them.

The Hammer of Karak Drazh: For 65 points you get a magic weapon that grants +3I and causes anyone you hit to drop down to I1. Good against dragons, stegadons and.... Wait no not even that. Take runes instead.

The Red Axe of Karak Eight Peaks: Wow all those Goblin and Skaven grudges have to count to something I guess. This axe, for 50pts, gives you rerolls to hit and to wound, as well as terror against O+G and Skaven only. Great if you are going up against those two armies... Otherwise you paid 50pts for making your attacks magic.

The Magnificent Armour of Borek Beetlebrow: For 60 points it gives you a 2+ armour save and a 3++ ward against str 6+ or higher. Leave this one at home guys. Take a rune of preservation and shield bearers instead for those extra 2 wounds and perma 4++.

Silver Horn of Vengeance: Even more grudge holding. Atleast this one works against other armies. And that is it's only perk. For 45 points it gives for 1 turn, all dwarfs within 6" devastating charge, and once used, causes fear in all elves. Dwarves very rarely charge so this is almost pointless. Hell, atleast the Red Axe is good, when it comes to specific army hating.

The Fiery Ring of Thori: For 35 Points you get a str 4 flaming, breath weapon. "If you really want to kill those Hydras take this!" would be what any optimistic author would say. Leave it and take those far better runes.

The Banner of the Lost Holds. Now dwarfs can reroll to hit and to wound against everything, if you roll right. For 100pts it does just that, giving it's unit rerolls to wound. Leave it and take the Rune of Valaya instead on your banner.

Runes: Runes come in many different flavours now: Weapon runes, Armour Runes, Talismans Runes, Banner Runes and Warmachine Runes. An important thing to note is that apart from Warmachine runes, all characters can use any kind of rune. However some specific runes only allow certain characters to use them (e.g Runefolk). Like before Runes come with rules. They boil down to, only 3 runes a weapon, no rune combination stacking, and runes reset weapon types (e.g Great Weapon into plain hand weapon) unless the rune says otherwise. Runes stack weirdly now. E.g It costs 25 points to get a basic dispel rune but then costs 45 to get 2. And then when you take 2 stacked dispel runes on one character they do not have the same effect as 2 separate dispel runes on 2 different characters. It's not that complicated really, but still might be a little difficult for some to grasp. They got rid of a few Runes too, no more Master Rune of Kragg the Grim, thankfully, but they've changed a few as well, and maybe not for the better.

Weapon Runes:

Master Rune of Skalf Blackhammer: You wound everything on 2+s and everything in magic armour on 3+. Kholek Suneater must be so pleased. It's better taking a great weapon and some other defensive runes.

Master Rune of Smiting: 60pts for d6 wounds per successful wound. Not sure about this one. Could be good but cannons do what it can do better.

Master Rune of Alaric the Mad: 50pts for ignoring armour. All races seem to have this magic weapon. Better off taking strength bonuses.

Master Rune of Breaking: 50pts for breaking magic weapons only on a 2+, when you hit. Not bad against Ghal Maraz say, but still not worth it. The question is: does it work on the fencer's blades? The answer is: yes, as it says in the entry that Paired Weapons count as one.

Master Rune of Dragon Slaying: Even more grudge holding. 50pts for wounding dragons on 2+ and having the multiple wounds 2 rule. Only take if you have serious dragon issues. Does not work against Dragon Ogres.

Master Rune of Flight: 30pts for a 12", 2+ to hit, throwing weapon, combat attack. Can be used in stand and shoot. It applies other runes as well. Neat I guess. Start sniping dragons from range or breaking magic weapons.

Master Rune of Snorri Spangelhelm: That was a mouthful. Try saying that 10 times quickly. 25pts for Always hitting on 2+s. Not too bad but not as good as...

Master Rune of Swiftness: 25pts for ASF on dwarfs. This is amazing. It allows you to strike at the same time as everyone else. Also gives you rerolls to hit against Lizardmen and big slow monsters. The only bad thing about it is that it is a master rune, so only one per army. Oh well.

Rune of Speed: Same as before. +1 intiative. Great way to get magic attacks.

Armour Runes:

Master Rune of Adamant: Gives the wearer T10 for 100pts. Not too bad I guess. It's up there with Ikea Flatpack (the FFF) with being extremely keyed to only certain armies. The problem is that everything still wounds you on 6s. Even gnoblars.

Master Rune of Gromil: Unmodifiable 1+ armour save for 30pts. In every army other than dwarfs, it would be epic. Sadly it is only good, since this is achievable through other methods, when you play dwarfs.

Rune of Fortitude: For 35/50/75pts you get +1T/ +1T and a 5++/ +1T, a 5++ and a 2+ to ignore multiple wounds, respectively.

Rune of Shielding: For 25pts you get a 2++ against shooting. Take it on an Runelord on an Anvil I guess.

Rune of Preservation: 25pts for a 2++ against Killing Blow. Take against Khorne and undead or perhaps on your combat leader, if you are afraid of having your head chopped off. It isn't that good.

Rune of Iron: For 20/45/70 you get +1W/ +1W and +1T/ +1W +1T and a 5+++ Regen.

Rune of Impact: 10pts for an impact hit. Just buy something else.

Rune of Stone: Same as before. +1 armour. Epic rune that ignores the rule of pride (e.g can take it on each of my thanes) but still doesn't stack.

Talisman Runes:

Master Rune of Balance: 50 points for a 4+ chance of stealing a power dice. Not as good as it once was, and now out-shone by the Rune of Valaya.

Master Rune of Spite: 25pts to deal a S5 hit to whoever gets a wound through your saves. Get some armour instead.

Rune of Warding: 15/30/45pts for a 6++/5++/4++ ward save respectively. Take the highest on your general if you can.

Dispel Rune: Dispel Scroll that can be taken on more than one Runefolk. Same price as a dispel scroll. For 20 more points you get the stack which is the same except, if you win a roll off, the enemy wizard loses a level and that spell with it. 1 is a must take, though 2 stacked not so much.

Rune of Luck: 15pts to reroll 1 to hit, to wound, armour, ward, or characteristic test per game. Jammy I guess. Depends highly on circumstances but is quite neat. Interestingly regen counts as a ward save and so are Leadership tests, due to it being a characteristic test.

Master Rune of Passage: 10pts for ignoring Dangerous Terrain for you and your unit. Always take this as a cheap upgrade for a General's unit, if you have the points spare. Allows you to shrug off 5 different hexes from 5 different lores, which can grind down your unit.

Rune of Furnace: 2++ ward against flaming attacks for 5pts. As ever, a neat trinket.

Banner Runes:

Master Rune of Groth One-Eye: 75 points for 12" stubborn. Normally Dwarfs have good enough leadership.

Master Rune of Stromni Redbeard: 75 points. +1 combat res to all dwarf units within 12". Good in larger games.

Master Rune of Valaya: 65 points. 35 point drop for a +2 to dispel and at the start of each magic phase, each RiP is dispelled on a 3+. I am sorry but if you are not taking this rune, then you deserve to have your foe's Purple Sun of Xerxes run you over every magic phase. What is even better is that, it reliably dispels Throne of Vines every turn, without wasting power dice.

Master Rune of Grugni: BSB only. For 60 points it gives the BSB a 4++ ward and his unit a 5++ ward against missiles. Still going strong and now even harder to snipe the carrier.

Rune of Battle: For 35/70/125pts you get +1 c res/ +2 c res/ +2 c res and the fight in extra ranks rule. I guess this could see use in higher points games, where you want indestructible bricks to throw at your foes. Otherwise don't bother.

Rune of Slowness: For 35/50/80pts you cause foes to reduce their charge distance by 1d6/2d6 and pick the highest dice/2d6 and pick the highest dice and to strike with ASL in the first turn of combat. Neat if you are going for the Dwarf charge horde.

Rune of Sanctuary: For 15/30/45pts you get MR level 1/2/3. Your choice. There are better banners out there.

Rune of Stoicism: 35 points for stubborn? No thank you.

Strollaz Rune: Vanguard for 35pts. Really nice on dwarfs, but without an oath stone, you will disrupt you battle line and leave yourself open to flank attacks. You should see it as 2 turns free movement without being shot at. You can build an army around this banner. Don't bother taking this on Rangers since they still have to remain 12" away from the foe and still can't charge first turn, if you go first.

Rune of Courage: 20pts for Immune to Psychology. Don't bother. Dwarves with a BSB are good enough when it comes to leadership checks.

Ancestor Rune: 20pts for a one use only break test on 1 dice. Neat but I would save up for some better runes.

Engineering Runes:

Master Rune of Immolation: The ultimate Greater Good Rune. For 30 points you can detonate your warmachine at will, after combat, to cause 2d6 str4 flaming hits to enemies. Not bad but you really shouldn't be letting your enemies get into combat in the first place. That and if your warmachine gets destroyed, it takes the crew with it, including any master engineers.

Master Rune of Disguise: CREEEEEEEEEED! No I joke. For 25pts you count as being in hard cover. Just pay the points for that master engineer instead of wasting points on runes.

Rune of Penetrating: For 40/50 points you get +1S/+2S and rerolling 1 wound, respectively. Better of taking the stack of runes for more damage. Wether you take this rune is up to you but consider that you can get str 7 organ guns, flame cannons and str 5 small blast catapults.

Stalwart Rune: For 15/30 you get +1 to combat res for your warmachine/ +1 combat res and unbreaking. Neat if you want a speed bump, but it does eat up your warmachine allowance.

Rune of Accuracy: For 25 points you get +1 BS or reroll the scatter dice if you use one. Neat and almost mandatory on Organ Guns and Grudge Throwers..

Rune of Forging: For 25 points you can reroll an artillery dice whenever a missfire occurs.. Once again neat and almost mandatory on Cannons and arguably Organ guns.

Flakksson's Rune of Seeking: For 15 points your bolt throwers get +1 to hit against flying foes. Good if you want to kill eagles and such. Limited though by the usefulness of the bolt thrower.

Rune of burning: For 5 points you get flaming attacks. This is arguably the best rune in the book. A it allows you to set up different warmachines with very similar runes, and not break the rule of pride. B it makes anything with regen or flammable wet themselves. You want to prioritise Cannons first, when choosing which units should have the rune, so they get 2xd6 wounds vs flammable units, then Organ Guns and then Grudge Throwers.

P.S: When faced with the difficult choice between a Furnace Rune, Rune of Stone and Rune of Burning for your last 5pts, make sure that your Cannon has flaming attacks first, then your most important heroes and lords have the rune of Stone second, then Organ guns third, then Grudgethrowers fourth and then finally try to squeeze your rune of furnace into an important hero. I hope this helps.

Combinations: Mini-Thor - Master Rune of Flight and some runes of cleaving or burning. While not really that good, could be used for a bit of extra range.

A kind-of nice change is that the Master Rune of Adamant gives you Toughness 10, and combined with a great Weapon, Shield-bearers, a Rune of Stone (+1 to your Armour Save) and a Rune of Iron (+1 Wound) you can get a Dwarf who'll be wounded at 6's most of the time, with a 1+ Armour Save and 6 wounds, and Killing Blow doesn't work (I think) due to you being Unit Strength 3. This'll cost you 316 pts. The only thing you've got to worry about is me being dead wrong and shit that ignores armour, but then you've got 6 wounds and Toughness 10 so...

Magic

Rule one of Playing Dwarfs. Dwarfs have no magic. Dwarfs have runes which can be cast from the Anvil of Doom, in the form of bound spells.

Dispelling Magic

• In 2000 point games and above,try to have a Runelord with the Master Rune of Balance and an Anvil of Doom, and park him behind some dwarven lines. The Anvil provides you with one Dispel Dice and some spells and in addition, the master rune's ability allows the Runelord to steal a power dice on a 4+, all for 305 points. Do not stack him with his Runesmith buddies, unless they are buffing units. Make sure you have at least one dispel rune in your army in case of a Pit of Shades. Yes, you should have more dispel dice, but this codex hasn't been kind to the Runefolk.

However what the codex has done is give you a cheaper, better Rune of Valaya that shuts down all RiP spells and still provides a bonus.

• Unless you're letting an allied wizard tag along you get +2 to dispel. NEVER EVER FORGET THIS.

Tactics

As the rulebook has set your army up to nearly never make the first move in anything from army placement to attack rolls, it is a good idea to theme your army around getting the enemy to come to you. try for at least 1 dwarven cannon just incase another git brings a cannon then you won't have to take 5 turns of cannonballs to the face (OUCH!).

Because dwarfs have such shit movement (M3), it's a good idea to just let your combat units wait for a bit while your opponent marches towards you, especially against armies like Beastmen, Skaven, OaG, WoC, Daemons and other armies with not much shooty shit. As they're coming towards you, start fucking them up with your war machines, thunderers and quarrelers. Once you've weakened them a bit, charge in for the kill with your combat units. Warning: this tactic will get you bum-fucked against elves, empire and armies with lots of missile fire/magic.

VS monsters of any kind CANNONS. MOAR CANNONS. Side note: Consider flaming Organ Guns, dwarfed by master engineers.

VS Skaven/Empire kill the war-machines with cannons and then whatever else happens to present itself. Also, Empire will RAGE when you shut down their Magic phase with the Anvil.

VS vampires/tomb-kings Kill those darn Wizards. Use Cannons, Catapults, Gyrobombs, everything. You cannot win in a war of attrition, if you are going combat, so go in for the challenge with the knowledge you will have hatred and they won't.

VS wood elves Artillery is the name of them game. Elves are everywhere, but don't worry, good armour will keep you safe. The trees on the other hand are devastating. Shoot the dryads with Quarrelers and hope. LOOK OUT! IT'S A TREEMAN! KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE! Same goes for treekin. Flaming cannonballs and organ guns are the name of the game.

Double Ranger/Miner List This specific build does not work as well as before. You can try build up a scouting horde, but the rare and special restrictions limit your success.

Hill Defence Stick a cannon and a grudge thrower on a hill. Array your units so that they are protecting the hill. Behind, and out of sight of the enemy, place your secret vengeance weapons- gyrocopter and anvil of doom. The plan is to use the artillery to whittle down the enemy with your war machines, then break the enemy in CC. At that point, the gyrocopter comes swooping over the hill and smashes into the fleeing units before they get a chance to rally. Beware of shooty armies and spells and template effects. This strategy requires ranks and outnumbering when you reach combat. If you can't break the enemy, the last ditch option is to use the gyrocopter to shred them into little tiny pieces using the bombs and gun.