Aiming Low: Tactics Against Dwarfs

How to beat those cowardly High Elves?

Moderators: Layne, The Dread Knights

Post Reply
User avatar
Eyes and ears
Slave (off the Altar)
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:03 pm
Location: California

Aiming Low: Tactics Against Dwarfs

Post by Eyes and ears »

Greetings My Lords,

Very soon, I will be doing battle with the stunted, bearded creatures of the mountains and fully intend to bring them to their knees. These battles will be small at first, at the 500, 750, and 1000 point levels. Regrettably, I have never had the pleasure of cutting a Dwarf limb from limb, or even witnessing them on the battlefield for that matter, but that is why I am here. My lords I beg of you, grant me the knowledge to destroy my enemies, knowledge that you, my lords have acquired through your own campaigns against the Dwarfs. I wish to return to Naggaroth with sturdy slaves to toil in my mines. What should I field as far as Ranged Combat units, Close Combat units? What lore of magic will I find most effective? And what dirty tricks should I have up my sleeves? Thank you all in advance for any and all assistance in this endeavor, your help is most appreciated.

Eternally,
Eyes and Ears
User avatar
Tyrannus deathbringer
Noble
Posts: 497
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 7:28 pm
Location: The Black Ark Nemesis

May you reap many bearded heads!

Post by Tyrannus deathbringer »

Dwarf strengths: good toughness, good armour, reasonable to good weapon skill, ability to hit hard in CC, S4 shooting, warmachines, magic resistance, Runed-up characters

Dwarf weaknesses: Mobility (though watch out for the miners!), Low initiative

    A lot of Dwarf units have great weapons...so our great weapon wielding troops will hit them first without the addition of a Hag with a magic banner :twisted:

    Dwarves are often quite warmachine dependent so screeners/hunters like Harpies, and "Commando" Shade units are a good choice. Shades may need a Manbane RS Assassin to do sufficient damage though. Alternatively a flying Pegasus character equipped for the role.

    Banner of Murder and Razor Standard on (non-Exec) combat blocks. Black guard (S4) and Witches (poison) good choices though very vulnerable to their small arms fire. COK charges can help turn a combat but dont expect them to be able to take on a Dwarf unit on their own. Druchii characters with strong, anti-armour attacks useful (i.e. S6 halberd, whip of agony).

    "No cost" magic cant be dispelled => Cauldron Buffs.
"All who surrender will be enslaved; whoever does not surrender but opposes with struggle and dissension, shall be annihilated."
User avatar
Dyvim tvar
Lord of the Dragon Caves
Lord of the Dragon Caves
Posts: 8372
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 6:34 pm
Location: The Dragon Caves of the Underway (Indianapolis IN)
Contact:

Post by Dyvim tvar »

Good advice above. I also find that a lot of Dwarf players field units with Great Weapons, which makes Executioners a good choice even without the Death Hag+ASF banner. Give the Execs a 5+ ward with the cauldron until they get into combat, then switch to +1 attack and you'll cut through the Dwarfs like hot knife through butter. You'll take kills in return but will deal about twice as many deaths as you take.
Truly These are the End Times ...
User avatar
Mindrazored
Shade
Posts: 104
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:18 am

Post by Mindrazored »

Purple Sun, Pit of Shades >:D Sure, they wont be on there knees begging for mercy, they'll just be dead. Peggy Sorceress with Death Magic and Pendant for those nasty cannons.
My Druchii: 5/0/6

Im A Proud Member of the League of Extrordinary Druchii Gentleman
Cold73
Highborn
Posts: 603
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:06 pm
Location: the Netherlands

Post by Cold73 »

Dwarfs....why would you want to take these stubborn bearded beasts of burden for slaves? They will just refuse to work anyway. Then again our priestess seem to delight in sacrificing them so they might be of some use anyway.

As for tactics. Personally I prefer to leave my crossbowmen at home since they do very little against these canned in bricks. Plenty of melee works wonders, but since the dwarves are very fond of using those nasty siege weapons of theirs, I’d advice you on using numerous smaller units instead of several larger ones. Our Hydra’s and chariots can do a lot of damage if they can get into combat with these dwarfs as can our cavalry, but beware of his cannons.
As for magic. As you will no doubt know dwarfs are very resistant to the magical arts. I have noticed that overwhelming their defenses seems to be the best solution. In the smaller skirmishes you describe it will be hard to get any spells through, so I’d advice taking Dark Magic. The spells are easy to cast and deadly enough to have him draw out his runes of dispelling. Only in larger battles would I use the Lore of Shadow, complimented with the lore of Dark Magic.

I hope this helps you.
User avatar
Dyvim tvar
Lord of the Dragon Caves
Lord of the Dragon Caves
Posts: 8372
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 6:34 pm
Location: The Dragon Caves of the Underway (Indianapolis IN)
Contact:

Post by Dyvim tvar »

Cold73 wrote:Personally I prefer to leave my crossbowmen at home since they do very little against these canned in bricks.


Crossbows can actually be good against Dwarfs. Unless helped out by Withering from lore of Shadow, it's usually not worth shooting at big blocks (if you do get off Withering though, you can decimate a big unit with focused fire). But our missile troops will normally come out on top if used to shoot at Dwarf Thunderers and Crossbows. It's a good way to reduce the Dwarf firepower from range and without the need to devote combat troops for the job.
Truly These are the End Times ...
Wylieboy89
Slave (off the Altar)
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:42 am
Location: Australia

Re: May you reap many bearded heads!

Post by Wylieboy89 »

Tyrannus Deathbringer wrote:A lot of Dwarf units have great weapons...so our great weapon wielding troops will hit them first without the addition of a Hag with a magic banner :twisted:


Hang on, won't we be striking at the same time, rather than hitting them first?
New to DE but liking what I see
User avatar
Dyvim tvar
Lord of the Dragon Caves
Lord of the Dragon Caves
Posts: 8372
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 6:34 pm
Location: The Dragon Caves of the Underway (Indianapolis IN)
Contact:

Post by Dyvim tvar »

It is simultaneous as far as I know -- initiative as a tie-breaker was 7th Ed.
Truly These are the End Times ...
User avatar
Saintofm
Malekith's Best Friend
Posts: 1755
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:28 am
Location: California

Post by Saintofm »

If he takes a hag with the Standard of Hag Greif, then they get Always strikes first which cancles out Always Strikes Last, thus going at initiative order.
Who needs sanity? I have a Hydra
Ace073
Corsair
Posts: 93
Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:18 am

Post by Ace073 »

Executioners are great if you can actually deliver them into combat moderately intact. GLHF with that, though. If you spend the points to give them ASF hag, thats a huge chunk of your army, and he can entirely justify setting all war machines on it. It will not survive above ten or so models.

ALso magicwise you either need a huge trickle phase, (casting many many spells and forcing him to choose what to dispel, sac dagger helps with this but you need a lower cost lore,) or you throw all your dice at that clinch mindrazor of purple sun. There isnt much middle ground with dwarves, its so easy for them to get many bonus power dice and three dispel scroll runes.

They arent much frightened of our big hydra, cannons can have flaming. I like the idea of multiple chariots, simply because he cant focus on a huge chunk of your points per turn. Havent tried it yet, (plan to tomorrow,) il let you know how it goes.
If all else fails, throw Hydras at it. When the dust clears, they'l be curled up snoozing peacefully on a mountain of corpses.
Ursielhauke
Slave on the Altar
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:52 am
Location: United States

Post by Ursielhauke »

Don't know how many war machines your opponent will be running, but I would suggest some shades and/or harpies to deal with cannons and the like.
Post Reply