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A dwarf army is like a hand-made chain mail: warriors are rings of steel, held together by duty, honor and loyalty. And like the mail armor, no hits will hit as long as the rings remain sturdy.
– Proverbio nanesco
Nani
The Dwarves are a race of humanoid beings shorter than a man, but decidedly more massive and resistant, as well as much more long-lived. By far the faction with the most advanced technologies and metallurgical capabilities in the world of Warhammer, the Dwarves are however a race that is slowly dying, never having recovered from the bloody war fought against the Elves in ancient times and the catastrophic series of earthquakes which subsequently damaged or destroyed most of their Karak in the World's Edge Mountains.
Dwarves are characterized by reduced mobility and total inability to use Magic, which they compensate with good shooting power, high Discipline, and excellent overall stamina.
Strategy in the campaign
Campaign Special Rules:
- Great Book of Grudges:
The Great Book of Grudges is a special system for generating Missions in response to what happens in real time in the campaign. Unlike a normal Mission, each Grudge in the Book produces a certain Gravity, increasing the longer it is written there. Depending on the total Gravity reached by all Grudges, the Book produces bonuses or penalties for the entire faction in terms of Discipline, Public Order, and Diplomatic Relations with other Dwarf factions.
Army Mode:
- Marcia
- Ambush
- Assault
- Camp
- Underground way:
The Army can only adopt this mode if it has not yet taken any action in the current turn, and by doing so it can perform a single move completely ignoring penalties, terrain and obstacles along its path. Additionally, an army in Underway Mode completely ignores all forms of Attrition.
If an Army moves using the Underground Path in the vicinity of an enemy army, there is a chance that the Army will be intercepted and engaged in an underground battle, from which it cannot escape and that if it loses it will automatically be annihilated (such as if he had fallen victim to an Ambush).
Recruitment Mode:
- Local
- Global (when in a Settlement or Camp Mode)
- Regiments of Renown (DLC)
Settlement conquest mode:
- Occupies (Regions habitable by Dwarves and Greenskins only)
- Occupy and Loot (Regions habitable by Dwarves and Greenskins only)
- Raid
- Raze to the ground
Home
The Dwarves start in the border areas between the Badlands, the Border Princes and Sylvania, and in the early stages of the game you'll find yourself fighting mainly Greenskins. Your potential for expansion is immediately remarkable, as the entire expanse of land to the south is employable, but you don't need to be in too much of a hurry. Consolidate the provinces immediately next to yours, and if you have the strength, aim to destroy or damage the main faction of the Orcs and Goblins soon, whose capital (Black Rock) is in the mountains just to the south.
A fundamental step in the early stages of the campaign is to try to maintain excellent diplomatic relations with every other faction of the Dwarves you meet. You don't need to sign up to military Alliances (Defensive Alliances are a safer choice), and there's no rush to confederate with small factions, but as AI-controlled Dwarves will tend to pretty much stick around. all friends, being on good terms with neighboring factions will preventively improve the attitude towards you of the initially more distant factions. If one of the other tribes were to create a kingdom of at least 3-4 provinces, it is worth confederating with it as soon as its thrust of expansion seems to fade.
With all the factions that you cannot Occupy, it makes no sense to seek war, even if you could end up in skirmishes with the Vampire Counts or, more rarely, with the Border Princes. Try to put an end to any conflicts that arise as soon as possible, because your ideal goal is to concentrate all your forces to expand south and north-east, in order to wipe out the Orcs from the region, incorporate all the other Dwarves and unify the entire southeastern block of the map.
Storm of Chaos
Depending on how far north you have gone, you will experience more or less of the effects of the descent of Archaon on your skin. The Chaos Warriors tend not to come looking for you immediately and en masse, but a couple of smaller armies will likely spawn on ships in the Black Gulf and attack you.
As in any other non-chaotic faction campaign, the best tactic to adopt against the Storm of Chaos is to let someone else absorb the bulk of the impact, reinforce and finally intervene to clean up what remains of the Archaon hordes. With the Dwarves, given their geographic location, it shouldn't be too difficult.
Age of Peace
Chaos is likely to leave behind a few ruins that you can recolonize, so just ignore the remnants of the Human factions and continue your work of unifying the Badlands and all the mountain ranges of the Old World. These final stages of the game will require some work, especially if the Vampire Counts are still alive and perched on some expanse where they can continue to flee and re-colonize, but once you've cleared the large Greenskin blocks and past the Chaos you shouldn't. encounter big obstacles in your path.
Battle tactics
Strengths:
- Very high strength and armor
- Excellent Discipline
- Good shot
- Magic Resistance for all units
Weaknesses:
- Reduced mobility
- Total absence of Cavalry, Chariots and Monstrous units
- Total absence of Magic
Use the Dwarves
The greatest pillar of the Dwarves is the durability of each of their units, including cheaper or missile ones. Thanks to above average Health, Armor and Discipline, even a basic infantry of the Dwarves can hold its own against anything that is not its direct counter, completely engulfing the enemy in a melee from which it will hardly come out victorious with great ease. .
The second most obvious feature of a dwarf execution is good shooting power, thanks to a mix of economical and versatile units and some more specialized elite choices. Apart from the history, perhaps the three flying vehicles of the army make up, namely the Gyrocoptera and the Girobombardiere, which act as a replacement for the light cavalry shooting and are valid the first to go and take siege engines and armored units. , and the seconds to thin out and cause panic in the great masses of enemies (the attacks of all of them, however, count as Artillery hits, and cause the relative special penalties to the Discipline).
Finally, the Dwarves are totally devoid of Wizards, but all have a minimum Magic Resistance of 25% (a percentage reduction of all damage from Spells). However, the Moonforged possess a small roster of Skills similar to a Lore of Magic, and are capable of producing some buffs and damage similar to a normal Mage.
Confronting the Dwarves
The greatest defect of the Dwarves, immediately identifiable, lies in their very poor mobility. This means that an army of Dwarves can be easily managed, as far as close combat is concerned. Their high firing strength makes it unlikely to be able to cause damage to them slowly with light and fast units, so make the best possible use of heavy and relatively fast units, capable of engaging from favorable angles and then winning the fight for prolonged or short time. Discipline or for damages.
Since breaking the lines of the Dwarves and producing engages from multiple sides (or hitting the protected lines of shooters) is often the only way to get the better of a prolonged fight against them, all that is monstrous and suitable for close combat. (especially if equipped with high penetration) it is quite effective, much more than large masses of medium or mediocre infantry.
Finally, the absence of Wizards in the Dwarves can be exploited to the advantage of the opponent, especially through Enhancements and Curses, against which the Resistance to Magic can not do anything and which the Dwarf player will hardly be able to counterbalance with many equally effective Skills.
Better units
- Crossbowmen with Great Weapons
Dwarf Crossbowmen are a great ranged unit, and the Great Weapon variant sacrifices some melee Defense for a substantial piercing amount of weapon damage. The high Armor in any case makes Crossbowmen very resistant against almost all light cavalry, so the loss of (a mediocre) Defense doesn't really put them in a generally worse situation; the ability to cause piercing damage in close combat, on the other hand, coupled with high Discipline, can hurt some heavy infantry or cavalry, making these shooters not as easy prey as they might initially seem.
- Miners with explosive charges
Miners are mediocre infantry, but the variant with explosives can cause terrifying damage to a tight front of enemies, however defended or armored. Their ability to be deployed in the Vanguard makes them more suitable, if necessary, even to set up an ambush, once the enemy has already engaged in hand-to-hand combat against the main army.
- Longbeard
Intermediate tier warriors, Longbeards enjoy incredible endurance and durability for their cost. While a specialized unit with piercing damage will be able to tear them apart in the long run, a Longbeard front is arguably the most tenacious and cost-effective line of infantry in the game.
- Iron Breaker
The most resistant infantry in the game, capable of withstanding the impact of anything and that will flee only after being slowly and painfully decimated, taking most of the opponents to the grave; if you need to keep a point in your lineup, Iron Breakers are the solution. Oh, and they're also equipped with Explosive Charges, just so they don't miss anything.
- Organ cannon
Organ Cannons have a very low arc of fire but still not straight, which is why they are able to fire on the enemy while approaching even from behind friendly lines. Either way, their damage is both very high and penetrating, and the amount of shots they can fire in a minute makes them terrifying on both armored regiments and monsters, making them a decent wildcard that can easily decimate some otherwise hard-to-handle units.
- Forgiarune
In the total absence of Wizards, the Moonforged offer a modest price to support the rest of the army that can sometimes prove invaluable. Having one with you, in essence, never really hurts.
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