Ive been thinking about what to use in my first army list. Mainly Ive been wondering which characters to use, and how many.

I cant lose the feeling that dwarves are not only not dependant on characters. Dwarven characters dont seem to fulfil any of the roles that characters do for other armies. Considering their rather high point cost, Im wondering if they are worth it at all, except for a general, a runesmith and a BSB, even in bigger battles (3.000+), where many more characters would be allowed.


Generally, characters have many purposes.

1) They provide LD, essential for empire or O&G. With a base LD of 9, dwarves are not in need of LD boosting. The only one who can raise the LD to 10 is the lord choice, anyway. Thains wont help the LD of the units they lead.

2) They provide extra fighting power. Dwarves are excellent fighters, probably the best in the game. So the use of characters for this reason is not that important either. They are so tough when they get charged, and even if they lose by a point, the break test shouldnt be a big problem, especially if the general and BSB are near.

3) Dwarves lack cavalry. On a charge with heavy cav, it is very important that the cav breaks the enemy unit right away. To make this more likely, a charater is often included.

4) Other armies need mages, even if only used defensively (e.g. a scroll caddy or two). Dwarves dont have magic offense, and with base 4 DD they have a good magic defense as it is. Moreover, with LD9 they are safe against LD-based spells, with T4 and good armour magic missiles wont be doing much harm.

5) In Elven armies, characters have access to a variety of many weird and miscellaneous items. E.g. High Elves and Wood Elves can use magic bows, take rings with bound spells or have things like the Radiant Gem of Hoeth. They can also ride on eagles, griffons and dragons. Dwarven characters cant (and dont need to) do these things. So they dont have to be taken to do so.

6) Undead armies need characters to support their magic they are dependant on and to get some punch in the army, which skeletons and zombies lack. Obviously, this point doesnt apply for dwarven characters either.



My first army list will be 3.000-3.999 points. Normally I use 5 or 6 characters in battles that size (even with Elves at least 4), and 2 of them are definitely lord choices. With my dwarven list I dont see a reason to take more than a King, a BSB and a runesmith.
The little bit of extra combat power Id get by including another thain or dragon slayer doesnt seem big enough. A second runesmith doesnt seem necessary, as one "rune caddy" combined with the dwarven resilance against spells mentioned above seems to be enough magic defense. An engineer might be an option, though like in empire armies I dont think he is worth his points.
Not even speaking of a second lord choice. A second king would not only be unfluffy, but also unnecessary. A runelord... I dont see a reason to take him at all actually, unless the anvil is included, because a runesmith can do things just as well. And instead of a deamon slayer I could get 12 Slayers for the same price.


Now Ive never played with dwarves. So maybe my impression is totally wrong and I neglected crucial advantages of taking characters.

So what do you think? Are dwarves really that undependant of characters? And is it therefore usually smarter to spend the points on units, especially because they are not the cheapest?

I do not play dwarfs however I think you got some very good points there.

I ussually do not think the dwarf characters earns there points home again.

Their Ld is ussually not required and because dwarf characters are very slow the enemy tend to avoid fighting them directly unless he really think he can win the combat which he then possible too does.

I would consider fielding some more runesmiths for magical protection being almost panicking when facing skaven magic. But otherwise add more units instead.

i play dwarfs and characters are a must have, for only 50 something points you get a ws s4 t4 a 3 character who can have a 2+ save or alot of runes, characters are needed to add that extra punch to your units as all the core choice units are only s3 so unless they have great weps they dont have much hitting power, and then they dont have a good armour save.