Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs

This is the tactics page for the Total War: Warhammer version of The Dwarfs.

Why play Dwarfs?

• Because you want to sit and watch as you're enemies are blasted away while coming towards you.
• Cause you're under 5'5 and want vengeance for all the short jokes.
• You don't want to do too much micro, so an army without much in the way of mobility and cavalry doesn't bother you as much.
• You enjoy having infantry that won't die after being slapped by a wet noodle.
• Slay everything without a beard!!
• SATISFY THE GRUDGE!!!!

Pros

• Durability: You are a tank faction. Most of your units are categorized with high armour, melee defense and leadership. Even your tier one and chaff are very tanky compared to counterparts from other factions. your units will hold out forever.
• Range: Guns, guns and more guns! Dwarfs have some of the best blackpowder units in the entire game. Thunderers and Cannons can lay a whooping on anything they are firing on, and their other artillery aren't anything to sneer at. Even their non AP range units are very good for their price, and it's not hard for them to earn their points back as long as they are defended.
• Airforce: Gyrocopters with their anti large can get you control over the air, and their ability to kite monsters into oblivion is a good skill to have. Even Gyrobombers have a niche for their blob killing capabilities after recent buffs.
• Runes: Runes supply good buffs and debuffs that can help your army out, making them a great way to make sure your infantry stays in the fight a bit longer.
• Anti large: You laugh when the enemy brings big mosnters. With all your AP missiles, Anti Large artillery and slayers, you have the one of the easiest times killing monsters out of any faction in the game.

Cons

• Lack of Mobility: With no Cav, monsters and slow infantry, Dwarfs are the least mobile faction in the game. You will spend the majority of the game standing still.
• Lack of Magic: The only race in the game that straight up doesn't have magic. Runes try to make up, but they do not have the same affect.
• Chariots: Chariots are the bane of a Dwarf players existance. They don't have any real way to lock them down and, as you'd expect, AP anti infantry can really kill what the Dwarfs want to do on the battlefield. Due to the rework to how bracing and knock down works, this isn’t as bad as before, but chariots can still be a problem
• Predictability: Most veteran players know what's going to happen when Dwarfs are picked. They are going to go for a cheap, numerous and sturdy front line and a lot of guns and artillery. This means that Dwarfs are easy to plan for as they only have one real viable tactic. Building an army around fighting Dwarfs is something players from all races know how to do.
• Crap Lords: Do you like the Runelord? No? Well you better start because in multiplayer he's your only viable option. Grombrindal is an ok duelist but honestly Dwarf lords in general kind of suck. With no mounts and no way to stick to their targets it's hard for them to get anything done.
• DLC: Does pretty much every faction have this problem? Yes! Is it still worth mentioning? Absolutely! Rangers and Runelords form a big part of your roster and they cost extra.

Legendary Lords and Subfactions

• Thorgrim Grudgebearer: The high king himself, Thorgrim surprisingly doesn't count as a large unit, despite being carried on a massive throne sled carried by some burly dwarfs, Thorgrim isn't huge on offence, better than say mid-tier combat lords, but he's mostly just a hard to kill brick of leadership. Dwarfs in range of him just become slightly harder to break, which isn't saying much given their default morale, and he's not easily sniped. This results in him being kind of underwhelming, you know he's not going to die like a bitch, but you also know that he's not exactly going to recoup even a quarter of his cost. Is kind of safe in campaign play for beginners. - Pass.
• Ungrim Ironfist: The Slayer King, bane of anything taller than six feet, Ungrim is the opposite of Thorgrim; all offence, with low defence. Ungrim is actually pretty good in terms of being a hero-killer and monster-hunter, he's not going to solo Tyrion or Kroq-Gar, and don't even think of monster lords like Kholek or monstrous mounts such as a Tomb King on a war sphinx, without a unit to bog them down. The problem with Ungrim is that while he can throw hands and live up to his title, he eats a lot of damage for a dwarf, or just in general for a combat lord, he's easy to snipe with massed missiles if caught in the open, and while he can butcher most things sent his way, he'll only be able to do this once or twice in a battle before he's at serious risk of dying. Don't let that 120 armour & unbreakable make you think he's a tank, Ungrim's Melee Defence is quite low for a combat lord, and that low dwarf speed means he can by kited to death. Thorgrim lacks the damage to recoup his cost, Ungrim lacks the defence to recoup his costs. If playing with an ally that has access to Lore of Life he can be kept alive, but you're asking a lot of resources to support the Slayer King. - Pass.
• Grombrindal: THE WHITE DWARF, Grombrindal doesn't bring anything really special to the table, he's a decent duelist, although lacking the balls-to-the-wall offence of Ungrim Ironfist, Grombrinal is nowhere near as risky for a combat lord. The flashbomb ability can lockdown mobile heroes and give the white dwarf a few easy hits. Doesn't quite bring much for the rest of the army, but is the best legendary lord for cost-benefit tradeoffs. He can fight, he can survive, and he can make the entire army Unbreakable with a reusable map-wide buff. - Niche but competitive in that niche.
• Belegar Ironhammer:(DLC) Belegar is really just a wall, he's harder to kill than Thorgrim as they have comparable stats, but he has a silver shield for 55% missile resistance. That's all. Just an insanely hard to kill lord, sure his offence isn't terrible, being better than Thorgrim's on base stats and a nice buff can be popped to go higher. But honestly you're paying a lot for a lord that won't die, and generally speaking Dwarfs in Total War: Warhammer aren't a faction that is centred around their generals or heroes. No real wizards to throw high-impact spell effects, no mobile heroes that can exploit small gaps to flank units or hunt down supporting pieces like buffers, wizards or artillery crews. The only upshot to taking Belegar's subfaction in multiplayer is getting access the ancestor heroes who are damned hard to kill, but are also the only dwarf units that are scared of magic damage, which can sort of be a mind-games thing because the default assumption to seeing Clan Angrund picked is that ancestor heroes are on the field, so grab some magic damage to delete them, but then seeing that there are no ghost dwarfs means that the magic damage is actually a big waste considering all dwarfs have 25% Magic Resistance. - Pass.

Units

Generic Lords

• Dwarf Lord: No, just no, he suffers from the same issue that the legendary lords suffer from, being too slow. But wait there's more, the generic lord is easier to kill in combat, provides less army support, and does less damage. He's not even the cheapest option to help save costs. I mean he has a shield, but its only bronze. Unless you've got some kind of bet riding on a battle and there's a specific stipulation that you cannot use any other lord, screw the money because he's too crap. That said compared to generic foot lords in other factions he's quite difficult to kill, which is more advice for fighting Dwarf Lords in campaign really. PASS
• Runelord:(DLC) Yes, yes yes. The one competitive General in multiplayer, the Runelord is just a walking bubble of passive buffs that make your low tier units good, and your good infantry units even better. Has good active abilities, like Master Rune of Oath & Steel which gives +60 armour to all dwarfs in range, or Master Rune of Wrath & Ruin, that cuts move speed and charge speed of enemies in its area by 72%. This is the lord pick that supports the dwarf army, and don't think he's some kind of wizard that dies when someone looks at him funny, while the melee defence is low at 40, the Runelord has the same 120 armour as the other lords, plus up to 35% missile resistance, sharing 20% of that with nearby allies. Slapping him on an anvil of doom gives a map-wide buff of +15% magic resist to all friendlies. TL;DR fucks magic, gets buffs. - Best Multiplayer lord pick.

Heros

• Master Engineer:
• Runesmith:
• Thane:

Infantry

• Miners: The closest thing to cannon fodder in the Dwarf Roster, miners are cheap AP units.
• Dwarf Warriors
  • Warriors of Dragonfire Pass(ROR)
• Dwarf Warriors (Great Weapons)
• Longbeards
• Longbeards (Great Weapons)
  • The Grumbling Guard(ROR)
• Slayers: Slayers are kind of weird. They're unbreakable, quick, hit hard, and do a lot of damage with no consideration to survivability. This means that they can seriously fuck up higher-tier units but on the same time are vulnerable to cannon fodder. It does not matter if you're a crappy goblin with a crappy spear, it's getting through a Slayer's hide as much as a Chosen's Daemonforged Axe.
  • Dragonback Slayers(ROR)
• Giant Slayers
• Hammerers
  • Peak Gate Guard(ROR)

Ranged Infantry

• Thunderers
• Irondrakes
  • The Skolder Guard(ROR)
• Irondrakes (Trollhammer Torpedo)

Combined Infantry

• Quarrellers
• Quarrellers (Great Weapons)
• Miners (Blasting Charges)
  • Ekrund Miners(ROR)
• Ironbreakers
  • Norgrimlings Ironbreakers(ROR)
• Rangers
  • Bugman's Rangers
• Rangers (Great Weapons)
  • Ulthar's Raiders(ROR)

Cavalry

Does not exist. See Slayers, Rangers and Air Units if you want something fast, you beardling.

Artillery

• Cannon
• Bolt Thrower
• Flame Cannon
• Grudge Thrower
  • Gob-Lobber (Grudge Thrower)(ROR):
• Organ Gun

Air Units

• Gyrobomber
  • Skyhammer(ROR)
• Gyrocopter
• Gyrocopter (Brimstone Gun)