Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Dwarfs (section)

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

====Anvil of Doom====
The equivalent of Shieldbearers for your Runelord. For 170pts, an Anvil of Doom adds 2 wounds to the Runelord, a 5++ Ward Save, two Anvil Guards (which are exactly like the Shieldbearers), unbreakable and 1 power/dispel dice. Crucially, the Anvil of Doom changes the Runelord's unit type to war-machine, which has some positive effects but also means it can be instantly killed by Pit of Shades/Dwellers Below/Purple Sun (along with the Runelord).

The Anvil of Doom is the only way for Dwarfs to actively do something in the magic phase. As long as he is remaining stationary, the Runelord can cast up to three innate bound spells per magic phase: The Rune of Hearth and Home (power level 3) grants all friendly Dwarf units in 24" immune to psychology, which is fine but not that great because everyone is LD 9, the Rune of Oath and Steel (power level 4) gives one friendly Dwarf unit anywhere on the battlefield +1 to your armour save, by far the most useful ability especially when combined with Shieldwall, lastly the Rune of Wrath and Ruin (power level 5) is a 24" direct damage spell casing 2D6 S4 hits.

Overall the Anvil is not usually worth it and has this one major weakness; against more than half the armies you'll put it down, and then take it away a first or second turn (along with the Runelord) because a characteristic test spell was cast upon it. See [[Talk:Warhammer/Tactics/8th_Edition/Dwarfs#Anvil_of_Doom|discussion page]] for more on this.

====Dispelling Magic====
Arguably, Dwarfs are one of the best armies at countermagic, even without a single wizard on the table. Because of their ''natural resistance'', Dwarfs always receive a +2 to dispel attempts, as long as there are no wizards in an allied army. Together with the Master Rune of Valaya, Dwarfs dispel at +4 like a level 4 wizard. Better, even, because they also receive the +4 after a failed dispel attempt. Runesmiths/Runelords generate power/dispel dice like wizards, and no Dwarf in their right mind would ever leave their hold without at least one anyway. Because of the rune system, Dwarfs are also the only army which can have more than one dispel scroll (i.e. Rune of Spellbreaking) and even ones which can destroy a spell after dispelling it. Because Dwarfs don't have magic outside the Anvil of Doom, you can freely use the power dice in your own phase to dispel anything which may have remained in play, meaning you rarely suffer spells for longer than one turn. The Master Rune of Balance can further tip the scale in your favor, on a 4+ robbing your opponent of a power dice while giving it to you for dispelling. Should you go for an Anvil of Doom, you will receive an additional guaranteed power/dispel dice per turn, so a dedicated anti-magic Dwarf list with a Runelord + Anvil, 1/2 Runesmiths, MR of Balance, 2/3 Runes of Spellbreaking (potentially at level 2) and MR of Valaya (remember it can be taken by Hammerers!) can seriously shut down a magic phase. Watch your Vampire Counts opponent cry his eyes out.

====Battle Scrolls====
A practice rarely seen, due to most Battle-Scrolls being crappy, those that can give Dwarfs wizards appearing pretty late and many players and TOs having never heard of them (although technically they are perfectly legal). <i>Quick reminder - a Battle Scroll is like a formation from 40k, but in Fantasy. Battle Scrolls can be taken by any army, but rules for Allied Armies apply, so Dwarfs would have little use for, say, Vampire Counts Battle Scroll.</i> However, Empire is a long-standing ally of the Dwarfs, and Imperial wizards kinda fit in. There are two fitting Empire Battlescrolls Dwarfs can use. ''Defenders of Middenheim'' is a worse one, as it is large, expensive, makes your army feel less Dwarfy, can be seen as powergaming dickery, because in addition to Wizard you get Ghal'Maraz and cavalry, and the Wizard in question has Lore of Beasts, which isn't the best thing for Dwarfs. On the plus side (which can and will be attributed to powergaming dickery as well), taking this Battlescrolls lifts the requirement for spending 25% on Core. ''White Wizards of Templehof'' is much better. It is a small nice Battlescroll, containing a level 4 Light Wizard on foot, a Luminark (as if you didn't have enough warmachines) and 20-man unit of Free Company, which is crap, but hey, you can just send them to die somewhere. Lore of Light is pretty nice for Dwarfs, fixing their Initiative and Movement issues and being a quite nice lore all round. Getting ASF when fighting Elves as a Dwarf is also priceless.