# dwarf army help?



## greenee22 (May 12, 2011)

hey guys, wanted some help.

I don't play games that often, but I wanted to create a good dwarf army just in case...

what I have: (the models)

1 thane/lord
around 30 warriors, half great weapons other half hand weap+shield
12 thunderers
15 quarrellers
5 slayers
5 ironbreakers
8 miners
a cannon
an organ gun
a flame cannon

and I wonder if anyone could give advice on what to add to/ take away from this list,

and the tactic I should mainly use with it.

I lack the souplesse, and am really unlucky (orc shaman-five miscasts in a row ...)


I hope anyone can help, 
greenee


----------



## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Grab more thunderers and war machines- bolt throwers, grudge throwers, cannons or mebbe a second organ gun (leave the flame cannon alone, its pretty rubbish). 
I would grab more warriors with great weapons and mebbe some ironbreakers but I'm not a great fan of dwarf combat.


----------



## greenee22 (May 12, 2011)

ok so the main strategy would be attack from far and not too much combat?


----------



## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

That's what most dwarves do. You need just enough combat to beat units that have been weakened by shooting, while you need to find the right balance with your shooting to force opponents to attack you but with enough of the short range/high damage units to help destroy the enemy before they get to you... 

Getting the balance wrong can totally ruin your army. For example I used my HE against an army that had lots of organ guns and thunderers but only 1 cannon (and far too much combat). At ranges higher then 24" I had a massive advantage in firepower... so I just sat back and fired my longbows and RBTs at the dwarfs (starting with the cannon), forcing the dwarf player to advance on me. It took all game for the dwarves to close the gap, by which time I had killed their thunderers and had maneuvered to surround the combat units... the dwarves didn't stand a chance.
Meanwhile if they had brought a couple more cannon and a grudge thrower or 2 then standing back would have seen me lose my RBTs pretty quick and significant casualties from my own blocks.. so I would have had to advance, putting me in range of the organ guns and thunderers who would have done enormous damage, meaning that by the time I reached the dwarf line I would likely have lost most of my army (dwarves love fighting HE, its almost their perfect enemy- expensive but fragile combat units that die as quickly as goblins but have no where near the numbers).


----------



## greenee22 (May 12, 2011)

should I use longbeards or rangers? 
my longbeards once got beat in one turn while my normal warriors beat several units....

and should I throw out the ironbreakers or miners?

I am currently planning to use the flame cannon for a conversion rather than as a unit.


----------



## olderplayer (Dec 11, 2009)

You might go on the Bugman web site and look at some of the battle reports by Aaron Chapman (not sure what he is called there) and others. Aaron has gone 5-0 at two Indy GT's this year and 3-2 at the other. 

His ideas are really simple but one needs to know what are good and bad matchups and what threats to deal with to play the dwarf army correctly. At 2500, run two cannons, one cannon with flaming rune (rune of burning) for stuff with regen (hydras and hellpit aboms) and both cannons with the rune that allows one to re-roll misfires (rune of forging). Run one grudge thrower with boost to strength (two runes of penetrating to increase to S5 seems optimal to max trade off between increasing probability of unsaved wounds relative to ). Run one organ gun to shoot up units going after the war machines. He does not run thunderers but I've seen some use thunderers very effectively in countering units coming after the war machines in combination with the organ gun. He runs one ver large unit of warriors with great weapons as rangers (to counter scouts and vanguard moves and accelerate the combat threat when appropriate), one very large unit of warriors with great weapons, and one very large unit of hammerers (GW plus stubborn). He often uses the Grungi banner on one unit (5+ ward save to shooting). He runs min leadership with a Thane BSB with max protection (re-roll armour, ward save, immune to killing blow) and a Rune lord (rune of balance and one or two runes of spellbreaking) as the general with max protection. He puts engineers on the war machines to increase their wounds as points are available. 

Longbeards are good but not always worth the extra points relative to the benefits to adding extra models for more ranks and longer steadfast units. If you can afford it, paying for one unit to have +1 WS and +1 S and to be immune to panic and discourage panic in a nearby warrior unit is worthwhile considering. 

Miners too often come on to the board too late. They can be a nasty surprise to less experienced players but are too often anticipated and defeated too easily by experienced players. One unit can be useful sometimes in either countering an enemy unit threatening a war machine or in going after enemy war machines but can also sometimes be ineffective, so it should usually be a modest sized unit (say 10 models in two ranks with a musician). 

Dwarves have gone from being a weak army in 7th edition to having very favorable match-ups in 8th edition as a result of the step up rule and ability to remain steadfast for its infantry and the new rules favoring war machines (no guessing or range with all ranges premeasured). At first, dwarves appear to be a fairly simple army to play but they are not. To be competitive, one should consider and learn how to carefully deploy (including whether to begin ten models wide for the benefits of being a horde and getting the extra rank of attacks and extra attacks with the greater width or deploy narrower to max ranks for remaining steadfast and ability to step up for more sustained combat) and pick battles; and how to prioritize targetting with the war machines and how to use the re-rolls on the cannons and given by the engineers and other runes to max effect. 

Warriors and cannons can often be purchased cheap online due to the old Battle of Skull Pass models. Models can be converted as needed with a little effort.

The flame cannon was nerfed by the recent FAQ's but can be converted into something else quite easily.


----------

