If you are starting out, this is the thread to read. I am hereby asking all seasoned Dwarf players to come forth with their thoughts on starting a Dwarf army.

The purpose of this topic is to preven a swarm of "hi, im new to Dwarves. Got any starter tips?" and "What units should I get?" type posts, and gather all such stuff riiiight in here.

So, new aspireing Dwarf generals, feel free to ask questions about starting a Dwarf army in this topic, and all Dwarf generals who knows their army well, feel free to share your ideas on starting such a force with the new kids.

All other posts that i feel should belong in this topic, will be deleted.

(Ps, You can find the dwarf tactica pinned here too, this will help)

Thanks for the idea and layout Slai ;) :D

It is my own belief that you should build up your own army slowly so you get a consistant theme ,I did this and I do not often lose. Also you should have a theme about your force like scouting or shooting. Mine is a force that is themed arounde dealing with new threats early, so has some very hard unit as truly befits the lord of the throng. My peronal preference is to stick to dwarfs and never take allies unless deperate, quite a lot of new dwarf players take the new allied list, with the cavalary dwarfs can use I think this is stupid as when will any decent dwarf have horses everywhere. Finally I think rune item allowance should alays be used up as otherwise you will die quickly as you canot hold against powerful chaos lords.

I would tend to argue some of the points of the previous post by Prince Caledorian. By all means get your force slowly and learn with them but it shouldn't take you long to get a force ready as dwarves are quite expensive, points wise. I would always pick models that I like the look of to start an army, be honest how many of us have started an army, bought a few models and then consigned them to a box nearby for the next shiny thing. I know I have but to counter this I buy things that look good so I will enjoy painting them and we all know that painted models perform better than bare metal, maybe its because you dont want to put all that effort back into your case! So start off with a centrepiece to your army, be it a character or unit. Concentrate on your army selection as well, it is all well and good buying all those lovely warmachines and special units but you cant play with them until you have a battle legal force which means core units. Dwarves are blessed with a real choice in this department with arguably the best basic warrior in the game points wise. In your early games I would get your head around using as many different troops as you can to get some basic tactics sense rather than go rune heavy as you may find that as you evolve as a general you will be limited as a tactician if you go rune heavy straight away. Dont forget that this is supposed to be the edition of the foot troop rather than the hero hammer of the 5ed.
If you want more advice then just ask as I tend to go off at tangents all the time, feel free to argue the points and discuss the above. I will add more from personal experience if someone finds the above to be useful in any way.

So you’ve chosen to do dwarfs, good choice my friend. Well first off you’ll need the army book, once you have that I suggest you have a good read through of it. Learn your army, see what you like about it, which units you’ll prefer to have in your army, and don’t be afraid to experiment with the army, you’re just starting so it’s one of the best ways to learn your army. Now lets give you a basic idea to a 1000pt army.

First off you’ll need core, for a 1k army you need two core choices. To get these is very simple; three boxes of Dwarven warriors will do. This now gives you 48 dwarfs. Out of this you can make two warriors units (sized 20 and 16) and a crossbowman unit (sized 12), right first the warriors.

The first unit of warriors I suggest making is the 20 one; give these hand weapons, heavy armour and a shield. These will be more than capable of holding their own in combat with a 3+ save. The second unit would be a good choice to have great weapons, heavy armour and shields for the extra protection against shooting. This unit is more than capable of cracking open a few tins (or suits of armour ;) ), both units should be given full command. The veteran will help with the extra attack, the standard will help in combat and the musician will help to break combat deadlocks and rallying tests. I would leave command out of the crossbowmen command groups usually aren’t that good in missile units (well except maybe musicians). Now onto your hero.

In 1000pts you won’t encounter much magic resistance (unless facing Tzeentch or High Elves), so a Runesmith isn’t necessary as four dispel dice should be enough. A dragon slayer would be a waste in such a small game and the engineer isn’t the best of leaders, so this leaves us with the thane. He is an average fighter and leader, armed with gromril armour and a shield he will gain a 2+ save in combat. Now the arming of the thane will depend upon you, but here’s a few thought to consider. You can either whack a great weapon him his hands and rune up on armour runes for protection or make him more a fighter and give him weapon runes (my personal favourite) or you can decide to give him no runes. I will give you a couple of ideas for the first two options, ok first the thane armed for protection.

Combo1

Great weapon, Gromril Armour, Rune of Stone, Rune of Resistance (or just Rune of Stone for a nice cheap hero)

Combo2

Gromril/light armour, great weapon, Master rune of Gromril, Rune Of Resistance

Combo3

Gromril Armour, Rune Of Stone, Master Rune Of Spite

Now the Combat Thane:

Combo1 (widely known as “Thane Of Pain”)

Gromril Armour, Shield, Master Rune Of Swiftness, Rune Of Cleaving, Rune Of Stone

Combo2

Gromril Armour, Shield, Rune Of Fury, Rune Of Cleaving, Rune Of Stone

Combo3

Gromril Armour, Shield, Rune of Cleaving, Rune Of Stone, Rune Of Resistance

Well there are just a few combos, but there are literally dozens of combos that can be used. So by all means try your own.

Now for the special choices, first off the special infantry is the very best the Dwarven army has too offer. Here you’re spoilt for choice, you can either go for defensive or attacking. Defensive infantry; here’s where the Ironbreakers come in. They are cheap, have WS5, S4 and a very good save of 2+ in combat. These are a good unit to absorb the charge of heavy hitters i.e. cavalry etc and still have a good enough chance of making a save. Longbeards are there for power, with a might S6 most things they hit won’t be standing back up. For one point more than the Ironbreakers you gain a great weapon and become Immune to panic, but your save will drop to 5+ (3+ if you don’t use the great weapon). Now Hammerers are the same as Longbeards but a bit better, for the same pts cost as a Longbeard your loose immune to panic and the shield but gain the Stubborn ability. They get the option of a shield which will bump their costs up by one pt, I would suggest doing this as the extra save vs shooting and the versatility it gives you is worth one pt. Any of these units will add that bit extra to your army and will most likely become an anchor. In a 1k army the best size for them is 15 and arranged 4x4 (with thane and full command), this will give you +4 CR (+3 for rank, +1 for standard).

For war machines I would keep it cheap, so for this Bolt Throwers are ideal. Now out of the 1k you should have around about 80 or so pts left (depending upon which infantry you chose), for this I suggest you spend it on a Bolt Thrower and a few accompanying runes. A definite for a bolt thrower is the Rune of Penetrating; this turns it into a chariot killer. Now what to give your bolt thrower will depend upon which infantry you chose, so here:

Ironbreakers: 1 Bolt Thrower – Rune of Penetrating or 2 Bolt throwers and one with Rune Of Burning

Longbeards: 1 Bolt Thrower – Rune Of Penetrating, Rune Of Burning

Hammerers: 1 Bolt Thrower – Rune Of Penetrating (if you remove the shield from the thane) or 1 Bolt Thrower with Rune Of Burning.

So here’s an example 1k list:

Thane 115pts
Hand weapon. Gromril Armour, Shield
Master Rune Of Swiftness, Rune Of Cleaving, Rune Of stone

20 Warriors 205pts
Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield
Contains full command

16 Warriors 201pts
Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield
Contains full command

12 Crossbowmen 156pts
Crossbow, Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Shield

15 Ironbreakers 225pts
Hand weapon, Gromril Armour, Shield
Contains full command

2 Bolt Throwers 95pts
3 crew each
One has Rune Of Burning

Total = 997pts

Or

Longbeards + BT = 992pts
Hammerers + BT – Thane’s Shield = 1000pts

So ok this is a basic dwarf army, after you choose what suits you (I suggest you try various combos) and have a bit of experience under your belt you can then expand. Choose stuff that you believe your army is missing, and then try almost any unit. So this concludes this tutorial, now get out there and fight for your hold.

May your beard grow long and curly.

what would be good to start out with ive only got abot $100 to start on dwarfes because i collect nids andlotr elves as well and im still on pocket money