Dwarves

[ViciousPanzer]

I've had limited success with the Dwarf's period. But I do have a few good lists that atleast surprise the pants clear off my opponents. . which is usually not an image easily forgotten.

 

My favorite unit to fling about with teleport would be a Burrowed Stone Spirit. Being burrowed, DR/2, and with an MD of 15 it's a safe bet he'll survive until his activation. At that point, anything within 9" of him is getting squashed something fierce. Many a giblet pie has resulted as an aftermath to this behemoth as he wades through the enemy lines. Seriously, I can't think of a better unit to magic into the heart of your enemies forces. . . 'cept maybe the Broodmaster, but that's a different story and faction.

 

Which brings me to the successful piercer army. It's totally possible, but you have to be creative with troop numbers and size. You can have a very successful just Piercer for your soldiers build, but you will want to take earth elementals and other large gribbly's to smash anything a crossbow bolt won't stick to. Magic and distance between your soldiers will also be key. The only reason I bunch up my O'lord Xbow's is because they get lock shields +1DV and +1MD. FOr piercers, I start them apart and only enlarge the distance. This forces your opponent to also split their forces or waste large portions of points trying to kill 1 or 2 piercers at a time. Here come the large gribbly's. An earth elemental is easily the match of any soldier out there on it's own. DR/2, Burrow, and most importantly the ability to be summoned by a caster means that if you hold your caster back (why wouldn't you) you can summon an earth elemntal when something gets too close to the Piercers.

 

Your biggest fear with this list is actually less melee and magic and more other ranged units. If something bases a Piercer well that's ok. Shooting into melee isn't a bad thing for Piercers since they fold like tissue in hand to hand anyhow. Plus, you did bring Herryk Aesir right? So that means you get to reroll any failed Dis checks and can usually disengage then take a pop shot at the guy who based you. Ranged is your enemy because most ranged units shoot farther than Xbows. Other than that, remember to focus and let fly your bolty doom upon your foes!

 

Joshua

[jdripley]

Joshua, thanks! Great advice there. It's such a foreign way of constructing an army for me, I was having trouble visualizing how it would work. But with those tips I think I could pull it off!

 

Often my Piercers get tacked on to the lists as I have extra space. I'm more likely to use Kara or Snorri, or lead a troop with Tohil, to get the ranged ability there. And if I want serious ranged power, I take Margara and leave it at that. So I think incorporating some of your ideas will help me to make better armies that have a more balanced ranged component.

[Don Rodolfo Graziani]

My favorite Dwarven build so far is the burrow army:

 

Logrim

Magara

Piercers X 4

 

Abjorn

Miners X 6

 

Abjorn

Miners X 6

 

Earth Elemental

 

Earth Elemental

 

Stone Spirit

 

toss is a luck stone to round out at 998 points. With ranger moves for the miners and all but Logrim's unit burrowed, you can get most of your army into contact with the enemy on turn 2 or 3, depending on how timidly your opponent is moving. That and Magara casting stone walls to hide the command unit behind until they reach range and then switching to fireballs. It doesn't always win by any stretch of the imagination but it sure messes with your opponent's plans.

 

DRG

[jdripley]

That army looks pretty good to me! Logrim is a disgusting fighter, especially once he gets stuck in and can use Mire to deny his opponent defensive strikes.

 

I'd be pretty aggressive with the burrowing troops to save the top-side dwarves' bacon. If Logrim, Margara and Piercers can survive until mid-late game, their ranged punch and Logrim's nastiness in melee ought to be quite powerful.

 

I'm finding that an important consideration in Warlord 2 is to keep one or two really awesome pieces held back as reserves. Late in the game when SP are low and there isn't a high volume of soldiers left to focus fire on something difficult to kill, something that's really powerful can be a huge asset. Fortunately us Dwarves have pretty much nothing but completely awesome leaders, elites and solos. I think in the list above I'd keep the Stone Spirit held in reserve. It will be essentially invulnerable to the enemy, and with DR/2 and Bludgeon, it will be pretty much unstoppable late game.

 

Other good options for "reserve models" - Griffon (fly it way back in your DZ or a corner or something, use its speed mid-late game to get it where you need it to exploit an enemy weakness), Thorgram Grimsteel, Annasha Tomebreaker (she's extra awesome because she can hang back from the front line and provide anti-magic support early so she's not just doing nothing), Durgam Deepmug (DV 12 is solid, as is 4 attacks).

[wildbill]

You can also use Margara to summon in the Stone Spirit (or the Earth Elementals). However, I would keep the Elementals on the board and rush them across along with the Miner brigade. The only catch is you have to keep Margara safe or else you lose the Stone Spirit!!

 

Wild Bill

[jdripley]

I dunno, I'm not sure I see the point in summoning either type of elemental. Why not keep the elemental on the table, but burrowed near the caster? That way if the caster eats it you're not also out your elemental.

[Don Rodolfo Graziani]

I'd hold the stone spirit back as well but I'm just too aggressive a player and like to try to overwhelm my opponents with tough targets in close on turn three

that and hiding the command group so they can finish off any targets left over after the miners buy the farm

of course that may also be why I lose so many games too

 

DRG

[wildbill]

I dunno, I'm not sure I see the point in summoning either type of elemental. Why not keep the elemental on the table, but burrowed near the caster? That way if the caster eats it you're not also out your elemental.

 

If you play with lots of terrain on the board, then it is fairly easy to keep your spellcaster(s) alive by running them behind things, or else using a screen of some sort (which I guess almost always works ). You could try changing out Margara for Gilam and have him run with a Miner unit. With him being burrowed, you can just save his SPs to help counterspell any attempt to Exhume him. Then, pop his butt up in their back ranks and summon the Spirit. Voila! Insto-panic!

 

Wild Bill

[ViciousPanzer]

I dunno, I'm not sure I see the point in summoning either type of elemental. Why not keep the elemental on the table, but burrowed near the caster? That way if the caster eats it you're not also out your elemental.

 

Well the main advantage is that if you hold all 3 elementals in reserve to be summone that's 3 less initiative cards in your deck. That enhances the chance that your opponent will have to move first on round one so that you can get the drop on him in round 2. It also messes with your opponents' ability to deploy their troops in response to how you deploy your big bashum's.You can always summon the elementals in round one if you want to with the casters' first activation (remember you can summon 3 models per specialty action). Plus, an unsummoned model can't be targeted and destroye dbefore it gets to do something. Summoning burrowed models next to the caster protects them from Exhume or earthquakes since it's likely the caster is hit too and they can dispell. (On a side note, dispelling is awesome)

 

Those are a few of the advantages summoning brings. It's worth trying out to see if it feels good for your tactics and play style, especially if you currently lose often.

 

Joshua

[jdripley]

Good thoughts, I wasn't really thinking along the lines of initiative cards and so forth. I think I'd feel most comfortable using Gilam as the caster to summon the elementals, as you've noted he is the easiest to keep alive.

[ViciousPanzer]

Dwarves have some stout casters. Heryk and Logrim are both fairly resilient, but for sheer hidey-ness, Gilam wins

 

Joshua

[Don Rodolfo Graziani]

Keeping casters alive is easy enough, especially with the Logrim/Magara tag-team. You can cast a wall to hide behind or wall of air to mess with those pesky archers with indirect shot.

 

DRG

[Shakandara]

Generally, if I summoning, it is in Turn 1, so you don't have to worry about protecting the caster for long (at least, not for that reason) to bring your undeployed models to the board. Even 1 less deployment/initiative card can be a big deal at the beginning of the game.

 

~v

[GreyHorde]

Any suggested list for a n00B at 500 points? Just looking for a fairly balanced group as a starting point for friendly games. Once we get accustomed to the game, we will move up to 1000 points and beyond.

[jdripley]

Here's a few ideas for you:

 

Army 1:

Dwarves - 500 points

Troop 1

Logrim Battlefury

Armor of Courage

Margara Firetongue

Warrior x 4

Halberdier x 3

Piercer x 3

Troop 2

Dire Bear

 

Army 2:

Dwarves - 499 points

Troop 1

King Thorgram Grimsteel

Ivar Silverfist

Durgam Deepmug

Shieldmaiden x 4

Luck Stone

 

Both of these lists look pretty good to me. Army 2 is an "eggs in one basket" type of army though, as you have only melee attack options available and all of your models are fairly expensive. Ivar of course is a healer so he can help to mitigate your opponent's hits. Thorgram and Durgam are going to be very tough nuts to crack, and of course Shieldmaidens are not to be sneezed at either.

 

Army 1 looks way better to me though. You've got more models which right away gives you more options during the game. You've got two troops. The Dire Bear has Roar which can cause Shaken on your enemies, making it far easier to capitalize upon the Dwarves' already solid stats. Logrim is a terror in melee (tip: use Mire on his target before attacking it to deny it defensive strikes, and use Armor of Courage for a free Inspire to increase the chances of a Cleave), Margara can leave the counterspelling to Logrim and will be free to burn the life out of some opponents. You've got a good number of Piercers to keep the enemy from getting too confident on the approach, and a solid line of 4 warriors backed by 3 Halberdiers is a defensive line that any player could be proud of.

 

So I guess you know which one I favor :P I made up army 2 just as an example of another route you could go. Kindof a "Royal Guard" type of thing where every model is completely awesome. You WILL be outnumbered and you WILL feel the hurt each time you take a hit with Army 2 though. If it were me, I'd use army 2 from time to time but it wouldn't be my main list. But I'm nuts.

 

Actually, now that I think of it, by combining both you get 1,000 points (oh really jim???) and when you look at both lists together, they make a fairly solid 1,000 point force. 3 troops with a Tactician and 2 Spies, one rock solid troop and one generalist troop, a utility solo that isn't afraid to mix it up in melee... plenty of magic...

 

I'd imagine that it's just about time for Wildbill to hop on and show you a list with loads of Berserkers though, so if the rock solid defense approach isn't your thing, you'll see another approach soon!