Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Warscrolls Compendium/Dwarfs
For your Dwarfs, so you can play your midget-bearded-scotsmen
Rules are here [1]
Dwarfs Summary
You want fucking Dorfs? Here're your fucking Dorfs. Seriously though, Dwarfs play differently than any other army in the game, being very defensive minded, very slow and very tough. They also rely heavily on internal synergy, so don't expect to win by simply setting up the best units in the army and rolling some dice. Oh, and you have an unusually high number of joke rules.
Dwarfs Warscrolls
Forenote: The following section will be arranged with similar units and formations being grouped together for easier reading.
This is by no means a complete guide. Also due to the relatively recent release of Age of Sigmar most of this is based on theory. Take everything with a pinch of salt.
Named characters
High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer: Great melee damage (before saves, an average of 5.3 damage at rend 2, plus 1.5 damage with no rend) and survavility (8W, 4+ rerollable save). Lets you reroll all wound rolls against any enemy unit you choose, or three of them if you lost against his commander before. Combined with the Dwarf war machines, you can almost always kill the most troublesome enemy monster or hero before it even gets close, so it's pretty great. His Command Ability lets all Dispossesed units within 8" of the king make 1 more attack with their melee weapons. That can be awesome, but his big base size and his low Move (4" like every other Dwarf, but he doesn't get a Musician to always run 4") makes difficult to use its ability where it's most needed. Overall a good Hero, but a little underwhelming for someone who gets carried to combat in a throne lifted by four guys.
Thorek Ironbrow: When a runelord makes babies with piece of dorf artillary, the anvil of doom is born. Thoreks stats apply both to himself and all generic Anvils of doom now. Its basically a magical weapons platform similar to the empires lunermark. Thorek has suped upabilties of a regular runelord, able to unbind 2 spells as opposed to 1 (with a 2+ modifier to unbind rolls. Is able to strike 2 runes intead of 1 if he is within 4" of his favorite whipping boy Kraggi, who can also unbind a spell (Without the 2+ modifier mind you) and re roll if your (Joke rule incoming!) younger than your opponent. Thorek has three runes at his dispossal, Hearth and home: which means a selected unit does not take battleshock. Oath and steel (Exactly the same as Mystic shield) and Wrath and ruin(Exactly the same as Arcane bolt). on the face of it that might seem a little dissapointing but bear in mind that Thoreks runes all have a 24" casting range (4" more than the average archer) AND runes cannot be unbound like spells AND he and his guards arent all that bad in combat. So basically youve got yourself a spell blocking, self defending, Piece of artillary that can deal out D3 unblockable wounds with no more effort than two rolls of above 1. Not Bad. the only problem is the damn thing can only move 1" and cant charge. So make sure you have a good think about where you set it up.
Kraggi: Buffs Thorek & can unbind a spell. nuff said.
Belegar Ironhammer: Belegar has to be compared to a Dwarf Lord with a Rune Weapon and Shield; as their stat-lines are identical. Belegar halves all (mortal) wounds, can attack twice once per game, and can give a better bravery bonus to basic troops than a Dwarf Lord can. But the Command Abilities is where the real tie-breaker lies. Belegar lets every dwarf get an extra swing with all their melee weapons on a single unit, which is worse than the Dwarf Lord’s ability of increasing wound rolls by 1. This is because Belegar only affects melee weapons, where the Dwarf Lord affects melee and ranged weapons. Belegar is still a solid choice for a Combat Character; but other Dwarves make for better Generals.
Ungrim Ironfist the Slayer King: Say hello to the SUPER slayer. His offensive statline is almost the same as a Dragon Slayer with a great weapon (Has 1 extra attack with 2 damage as opposed to D3 damage). However he actually has some armor on him in the form of a 4+ save as well as the cloak of fyrskar which grants him a 6+ save after save to all wounds & M Wounds. While he unfortunatly doe not gain any buffs specifically for MONSTERS he does gain a +1 to wound rolls for opponents with more than 1 wound (AKA all heros and monsters). He also has a suped up version of the slayers deathblow ability that allows him on a roll of 4 to inflict D6 mortal wounds on the enemy regardless of whether that unit his a monster, hero or otherwise. Finally to round this guy up is his effect on your army. He has a pretty decent command ability which allows a +1 to hit AND wound rolls for a selected dorf unit in the combat phase(so no shooting unfortunately). Finally his presence buffs up all nearby Slayers and D Slayers allowing each model to make an extra attack, quite useful fora D Slayer but stick him with a honour guard of Slayers and they become killing machines!Honestly if you have Slayers in your army youd be a fool not to bring him along for the ride.
Josef Bugman: Still brewin' the best stuff. 5 wounds, 4+ save, 4 3+/3+/-1/1 attacks, 3+/4+ crossbow, so not bad but not great as a combat hero. Pretty useful, because he lets you place himself and up to 1 unit of Quarrellers (his famous Rangers) anywhere more than 9" from the enemy, spending their move, any turn after the first. Given that Quarrellers range is 20", take 30 of them (to lose some and still get double shooting) and fire 61 bolts to whatever you want. That's some 16 wounds before saves, so you can wipe out war machines and lightly armored units, or put the hurt on monsters and heroes. If you positioned the drunkards outside charge range, you'll force your opponent to change his plans to deal with them, or face rains of bolts each turn. He also heals D3 wounds to himself or a Dispossessed Hero within 4" each turn (not so good, he'll be far from them, and he's not that important after the ambush), and adds +1 to his Bravery and that of all Dispossessed units within 4" (but only if you are holding a drink, so he also gives you an excuse to booze).
Grimm Burloksson: Take everything you love about your average Dorf Engineer and make it better. Better save, better guns (his melee could be considered better or worse, but what are you gonna do?), better repair, better model. His special rule Experimental Weaponry lets you toss on an extra 6” to the range of a unit of Thunderers/Quarrelers; so a single unit can snipe more effectively in the safety of your gun line. Strategy-wise, keep him near your War Machines, shoot with him when possible, but try and keep him out of melee unless he’s desperately needed as his attacks can be good, or they can do nothing and you lose him.
Heroes
Dwarf Lord: Your rock. This guy hits hard, can take punishment like a champ, keeps your units from running and can make your Dorfs killier with his Command Ability. Never leave home without one of them. They have a choice between Rune Weapon and Shield, Rune Weapon and Pistol or Great Rune Weapon. The Great Weapon has a more consistent damage output of 3 versus the D3 of the normal one, but generally you're better off with the normal Rune Weapon, which has one more swing, albeit at worse Rend. So, the real choice comes down to Shield versus Gun. A quick tip about Pistols, viable throughout the whole army: Your pistols have 8" range. For a slow Dorf, that seems like a lot, for everyone else, it doesn't. And in the case of the Lord, for this meh ranged shot, he has to give up his awesome 3+ save. Stat-wise, your Dorf Lord is a Vampire Lord with a better save. Yes, that's awesome.
Runelord: Here's your... priest? Okay, so he can strike runes to grant effects to your dorfs, giving them either a 6+ save-after-the-save for even hardier units or better Rend on their weapons for even more murder. It should be noted that this latter ability applies to ALL weapons the unit carries, yes, even to your already awesome Drakeguns. Two more things to note about the Runelord: First, he "prays" better than any other Priest, succeeding on 2+ and never hurting himself, second, you can argue (if you're a dick) that he doesn't actually "pray", so things like the Rain of Sigmar, for which Priests have to forgo praying, can be done even after your Runelord struck a rune.
Dragon Slayer: Just as slow as any other Dorf, with only a 6+ save to keep him alive, no buff auras whatsoever and nobody wants him within 50 clicks of their Monsters. Yeah. If he manages to reach a monster, he'll hurt it something fierce, but any army with even a token ranged unit will focus fire him down.
Dwarf Engineer: Take one. Not much else to say. Dorfs love their War Machines, this guy makes them better and can repair them. Sure he's no powerhouse, but almost doubling a Flame Cannon's potential should be good enough.
Thane with Battle Standard: This guy's weird. Like any other BSB, he can plant his standard and grant effects to your guys. This one makes all Dorfs within 18" immune to Battleshock, which is pretty neat, and also lowers casting rolls for enemy Wizards by 2.
Infantry
Dwarf Warriors: Your basic infantry and overall not a bad one. They have a choice between weapon or great weapon, with the great weapon swapping To Hit and To Wound and having better Rend. You can give both a shield, so definitely go for the great weapons. The shields are amazing: You need to forgo charging and running, but for that you may reroll your saves in melee, going from 33% saved to 52% saved. They also gain bonuses during your opponent's melee phase, so yeah, shield wall the hell out of them and never charge and they're awesome. They also have a choice of banners. The Clan Banner halves the amount of models that flee, which with all your awesome Battleshock abilities is rather meh or a Runic Icon, which negates spells cast at them on 5+, which is rather awesome.
Miners: Miners are amazing, simply put. They can add a mining cart to the unit, which has its ups and downs. On the one hand, it's four wounds that can't really attack. On the other hand, it grants all other Miners a shooting weapon that while short-ranged is basically their melee profile but with better Rend on top of their melee weapons. If they have the cart, they can also shoot its harpoon if they did not move, but given their otherwise very lacking ranged ability, you will only ever use this harpoon when you're already stuck in melee. Aside from the cart, Miners are Dorf Warriors with great weapons who can suddenly appear on the field so long as they keep 9" from the enemy. Their champion can also take a different weapon which has D3 damage and a Rend of -3 aka the "fuck your Sigmarines" Rend.
Quarrelers: Dorfs with Crossbows. They have great range and their weapons are okay, though not stellar. Get 20 or more of them and they can each shoot twice, at which point Sigmarines with Crossbows start feeling insecure. Really though, you use them because they can reliably mow down very light infantry from far away. If you want to fell big game, look elsewhere. They can also take Bucklers to give them the same awesome shield wall ability as the normal Dorfs, but they're shooty, so that's not really their point. However, unlike other ranged units, Quarrelers are surprisingly not awful in melee, being only one point worse at Hitting and otherwise the same as Dorf Warriors.
Thunderers: Thunderers want to be the slower-shooting but more powerful Quarrelers, but they don't really succeed. Sure they Wound better and have better Rend, but that's where the good stuff ends. Get 20 of them together and they don't shoot twice but instead Hit better. Woo. They're also shorter ranged than Quarrelers and left their axes at home, so they Wound one worse in melee, too. Ultimately, their guns look sweet, but that's just about all that can be said for them. Alternate Opinion: They’re shorter range than Quarrelers, but with a unit of 20+ they both hit, wound, and rend better than the Quarrelers. A unit of 20 with Forgefire from a Runelord has taken a Bloodthirster down to half health. I say quality of shots over quantity of shots.
Slayers: Take all the bad about Dragon Slayers away and you get normal Slayers. Since you can have big units of them, they aren't all that fragile and they can distract the opponent very well. They can deal Mortal Wounds when they are killed in melee, they swing twice with a bonus to Wound when fighting something with more than 1 Wound and they don't need to take Battleshock if you can draw line of sight to an enemy monster (though their Bravery is 10 already). If you like them, run them at shit they like to hurt and the worst they'll do is force the opponent to waste shots to down them.
Longbeards: On first glance, Longbeards are simply Dorf Warriors + 1, with a better save and better Bravery, but without the ability to take a Runic Icon. On second glance, the wonky wording in their description allows them to take Great Weapon and Shield together. Then, on a third glance, there's their joke rule, which is awesome. If you start complaining about something, the Longbeards join in and loudly complain about something, too. What this means in game terms is an 8" buff aura that does one of three things, depending on what you picked. You can either give all Dorfs around them an extra 5+ save against fleeing, rerolls of 1s to Wound in melee or let Dorf Heroes use their Command Ability without them being your Warlord. You know what else can do that last one? Settra and Archaon. Yeah, Longbeards are fucking awesome. Unfortunately, this last one is rather limited because aside from named heroes, only the Dorf Lord has a Command Ability. Though letting 2 Dorf Lords pick Grudge targets would be rather sweet.
Hammerers: There is nothing subtle about Hammerers and you wouldn't want them any other way. They swing a big Hammer, which has two swings at 3+/3+/-1/1, a rather nice profile, they have a 4+ save and don't take Battleshock if there's a Dorf Hero within 16". Unfortunately, they are somewhat outclassed by Ironbreakers and Irondrakes. Though really, that's an unfair comparison, because most any infantry is outclassed by them.
Ironbreakers: The actual Dorf Warriors + 1. They get twice as many swings, their saves are one better and they have more Bravery. In addition, they can take a Runic Icon and ignore all Rend worse than -2. These are your anvil. So, they're reasonably save from magic, about 90% of weapons can't rend their saves and in melee, they get a rerollable 4+. Yikes. The only thing that can reliably bring them down are non-magic-inflicted Mortal Wounds, so keep them away from stuff like Paladins, because your Ironbreakers hate Starsoul Maces with a passion. Other than that, they never ever fucking die and can dish out surprising amounts of hurt. Wound-per-Wound, they leave most infantry in the dust.
Irondrakes: If Ironbreakers are anvil and tongs, Irondrakes are the hammers. Any unit held in place by Ironbreakers is already dead and only too stupid to realise it if you have Irondrakes nearby. Why? They get a pretty good missile weapon, being pretty much exactly a Judicator with Bow, only with 16" range. If they don't move and there's no enemy within 3", they shoot twice. So, wound per wound, they shoot four times as well as Judicators. Yikes. Their champion can take a Trollhammer Torpedo, which has better Rend and deals D3 damage (D6 if the target's a monster), but you can't fire that twice, so it's your call whether to use it.
War Machines
Gyrocopters: Well, the Gyrocopter is supposed to be a mobile gun platform and it is. It's mobile, it's pretty tough, only they sort of forgot to give it a good gun. It's Brimstone Gun pours out three Irondrake shots (woohoo). It's Steam Gun is potentially hilarious. You pick an enemy unit and get one shot for every model in range, though that range is 6", so you'll get at best one salvo before you get stuck in melee. However, three of them stuck in melee can erase entire units with their Steam Guns. They're also some of the most overpriced models GW has ever made, so have fun getting those three. Once per game, they can also drop their bombs, which will, on average, result in one mortal wound per Gyrocopter. Yeah. If you have 3 with Steam Guns, they're hilarious, resulting on average in one wound for every model in range, but otherwise, skip, dorfs have way better war machines than this.
Gyrobombers: A tougher Gyrocopter who forgot to put a good gun on it because it was too busy fitting bombs to its hull. Its gun is pretty much four Thunderer-shots. It can also drop bombs every turn and they're better than what the Copter has, dealing D3 mortal wounds instead of the two individual rolls. However, since they only hit on 4+, you'll need at least two to have any sort of reliability for your bombs. The biggest shortcoming of the Gyrobomber is its 12" movement, which while fast for Dwarfs, isn't too great, especially since you must be able to completely fly over the enemy unit and clear it by 3" to be allowed to move over it. Sure you could run, but what about your awesome gun? Also, the way the bomber works usually leaves it stranded way off from your main force, far away from any buff your dorfs rely on for survivability.
Dwarf Bolt Thrower: Great, especially if there's an Engineer around. On a Wound roll of 6+, the Bolt Thrower has Rend -3 and doubles its D3 damage. The Engineer grants a flat +1 To Wound, which means the former ability activates on 5+. Nice.
Dwarf Cannon: Also great. The cannon's biggest problem is hitting, which it does on 4+. So naturally, the Engineer grants it rerolls To Hit. If you shoot at a big unit, you can also reroll the D6 damage roll. So it's better against units than the Bolt Thrower, but worse against Heroes and monsters, though it's no slouch against them, either. Also remember, you can split its two shots between targets if you want two things dead.
Flame Cannon: The best Dorf gun, some say the best War Machine in the game. Gee, that can't have anything to do with being one of the most expensive War Machines in the GW range, can it? Either way, the cannon simply inflicts D3 mortal wounds. After that, you roll a D6 and on 4+ they take another D3. If an Engineer is next to it, you inflict D6 mortal wounds both times. So no hassle with hitting, wounding, saving. You pick a unit, they melt. Very nice.
Organ Gun: The gambling gun. Its profile is at first underwhelming, being D6 Irondrake shots, but the trick is that you can decide to shoot it up to 4 times. Then, you roll a D6 and if you roll under the number of times you fired it (so, 1-3 if you shoot four times), it jams and you don't fire at all. At peak efficiency, it fires 4D6 Iron Drake shots, up to 24 and still 14 on average, but that gives it a 50% chance of not firing at all. In an Engineer is closeby, you can reroll this jamming test, giving you a 75% chance of it working at peak efficiency and an 88% chance of working with 3 barrels. Yeah, Engineers are awesome.
Grudge Thrower: Also a nice choice. It can fire indirectly and Hits and Wounds on 3+, with good Rend and constant damage 3. If an Engineer is closeby, you can also fire it twice. The real meat however is its rule Settling a Grudge. Before the game starts, you pick one enemy unit and then your Grudge Thrower can reroll Hit and Wound rolls against it, ensuring that the one unit you need dead will die.
Battalions
Dispossessed Clan Throng: You combine a Dwarf Lord with a unit of Hammerers, a unit Longbeards, 2 units of Quarrelers or Thunderers (wording doesn't really clarify whether both must be the same of if you can mix) and two units of Warriors. For this, you get rerolls of 1s To Hit in melee and shooting and on Battleshock results of 1-3, nobody runs. This last one is kind of "too little too late" though since something has already gone wrong if even on Battleshock tests of 1-3 Dorfs would have run, though the first is pretty powerful. Too bad the Battalion has no Ironbreakers and Irondrakes to really use it, but between this, the Longbeards and the Dorf Lord's Command Ability, you have some pretty murderous guys, especially the Hammerers are ridiculous with those buffs.
Dispossessed Artillery Battery: Not too shabby. You combine 1 Engineer and 3 of the stationary War Machines (so no Gyrowhatever). The Crew never have to take Battleshock, which is more fluff than useful and more importantly, until you move units from the battalion you can reroll saves for them. Only problem, your Engineer will probably be doing quite a bit of moving to switch between your guns as occasion demands.
Tactics
Getting to objectives
The Dwarf army has some incredible strengths and some equally glaring weaknesses. There are certain tasks that the average dwarf profile just isn't suited for and therefore specialist units need to be chosen. An obvious example would be any game where speed is key such as a capture the flag type scenario. Since every other race is either fast or has a good selection of cavalry options you'll often find that your opponent has run up pinched the flag and run back before your dwarfs are even half way there. A similar situation would be a mad dash for cover or some large piece of terrain in no mans land. If the enemy manages to fortify there position to the point where you have to come after then the dwarfs will find themselves seriously out matched. The solution?. Specialist units. Assuming your army isn't composed of them all in the first place. Use a mixture of good old Dorf artillery hampering the enemies efforts while sending in a small number of Gyrocopters straight into the enemies midst. anyone who has stared down the wrong end of a steam gun know that while not overly durable gyrocopters damage output in groups is hard to ignore. The combination of these two factors should give your warriors and such enough time to make it to your objective and either garrison the terrain or form a rear guard action while a unit spirits away your prize. While this often can work it should be noted that this is still the armies weak point and therefore can still be very difficult to achieve especially against naturally fast armies such as Aelfs.
Keep to what your good at
In any scenarios that require either the defense or offense the dwarfs can excel either way. During defense? simple set up your artillery and other ranged units in the best position possible buffed by your leaders and engineers and set up your sturdiest units in front perhaps while using units such as Slayers, Miners and gyrocopters for shock hit and run attacks. The enemies on the defensive? Well depending on the overall objective this can be equally simple. If your just having a straight slogging match with your opponent or your objective is a target for you to destroy thats in sight. Simply set your army up in a similar fashion using your artillery (Particularly a grudge thrower) and start the bombardment. Unless your against a different dwarf army you should be able to just sit there and out gun your opponent at which point they will have to think about advancing on you in an attempt to take out your war machines.
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