As i've just recently traded in my tomb kings for some dwarf action (i just can't get into the tomb kings, love the whole Egyptian thing but can't get into the models and play style) I've been throwing around some ideas for a list, this wont be a tourney list just something fun to play with mates...i am competitive though possibly too much so.

Anyway this is what i was thinking of taking.


Lords
Dwarf Lord Shieldbearers Rune of Cleaving x1 Rune of Fury x1 Rune of Preservation Rune of Stone

Heroes
Thane
BSB Rune of Fire Master Rune of Gromril; Rune of Iron x2

Core
Dwarf Warriors x 29 full comd, great weapon, shield

Longbeards 19 full comd, great weapon, shield (thane goes here)

Thunderers x20 Veteran, Shield

Thunderers x20 Veteran, Shield

Miners x 15 full comd, shield

Special
Hammerers x 19 Great Weapon Shield full comd (lord goes here)

Cannon, Rune of Reloading Engineer Handgun

Cannon, Rune of Fortune Engineer Handgun

Grudge Thrower Rune of Burning Rune of Reloading Engineer Handgun

The idea being that i let the enemy move to me, while enduring being shot at by cannon and grudge thrower, then the thunderers and then if there is anything left my warriors and Hammerers deal with them, the miners are off hopefully taking out any of the enemies war machines or if not going after any wizards that happen to be around.

Comments critiques suggestions all welcome.

Here you're better off running a GW instead of the Ro cleaving/fury, and spending those points giving him a Ro Resistance. Str 6 instead of 5, re-rollable 1+ armour. Pretty much all you'll generally need.



You'll find few things that will make you need that 5+ ward, ever. Giving him the Mro Gromril with Ro Resist/preserv turns him into something almost completely unkillable. You want this guy immune to killing blow, he's going with your lord into the big hurty units that will occasionally have that to snipe him (daemons, dark elves, vampires and tomb kings spring to mind)
Give him a Ro Furnace too, so you can happily throw him into challenges with things that you know will have something flaming, let your lord pummel the raf.



Going gunline, really shields are not so necessary. Thunderers you might even be better off with 3 smaller units of 14 with a vet with pistols. Gives you short range rolls on your stand and shoot reactions (recently got that informed and will be doing that myself now )



Boss unit, ditch the shields. They should never be in a position to need them. Give the champ a steam drill, very useful.



Shields again, you love your shields! Try the Mro Grungni banner on these guys instead of shields on all your units. 5+/5+ 6" bubble is much better than 4+/- any day, especially against higher strength things where your shield is basically useless.



Ditch the Ro Fortune, reloading and engineers on the cannons. Ro Forging turn them into laser sighted missiles and they allow the reroll of the arty dice on a misfire. Way better than engineer. Giving that to both and a Ro Burning on one (instead of the grudgy) means you can hunt out the regen things easy as pie.
Grudgy engineer is good, though get a Ro Accuracy on that thing. Again this turns it into a laser guided catapult, reroll the scatter to try for another direct hit. Ro Penetrating on that thing makes it bloody scary for your opponent, too, when that small template becomes Str 5 (str10 under hole) .. just evaporates blocks of infantry.
@ kingcon Autumn, my grudgy in one shot popped 19 out of 50 skaven stormvermin on first turn. Str 5 just shreds things!

A big thing your list lacks is ANY kind of magic defence. Look heavily into getting a runelord or a couple runesmiths in there with some anti-magic gear, otherwise you're just a sitting duck for their magic phase.

Thanks for the reply really am a bit of a noob when it comes to dwarves and fantasy as a whole, will incoporate those ideas and try to find room for runelord.

Yes i do like sheilds so few points for +1 to armour save seems a bit of a given...happy to be proven wrong though.

You've spent 122 pts on shields in the list. Banner is only 50 pts. That's 72 more points you can throw around elsewhere in the list for gear on war machines etc is all I'm meaning

I see what your saying and i'll take it on board thanks

ok used your suggestions and have also dropped the units of thunderers down to 15 gave me points for a runemaster with rune of spell binding and gave the lord rune of perseverance, resistance and stone.

Good Choice! Dwarfs are easily the coolest race in the Warhammer world.

i think the 3 most important things to remember about dwarfs in 8th edition are:
1) Anti Magic is mandatory
2) Big Units with Great Weapons are king
3) Artillery can and will win games for us.


Adding a Runesmith to the original list will help it ALOT, some other things I would suggest to make it a strong would be...


Make your 29 warriors into a horde of 40, hordes of dwarfs are the business, and 40 seems to be the magic number... also its _only_ 400pts.

The longbeard and hammerer units are too small, the hammerers should be 25+ so you can deploy them 6 or 7 wide with at least 4 ranks when you want to kill stuff... or 5 wide if you want to hold all game
Longbeards should either have Handweapon,Shield and a runic banner (to act as an anvil), or have great weapons and be rangers, otherwise a bigger unit of GW Warriors is almost always a better choice.

Cannons NEED rune of forging (basically immune to misfire)
GTs NEED Rune of accuracy AND Rune of Penetrating (accurate killing machines)


Good Luck

Ok a few changes to the list and here is what i have now.

Lords
Dwarf lord, Shield Bearers GW Shield RoStone RoPreservation RoResistance MRoSpite

RuneLord, GW Shield MRoBalance

Heroes
Thane, BSB MRoGromril RoFire RoPreservation RoResistance

Core
40 x Dwarf Warriors full comd, GW Shield (Lord and Thane inside)
15 x Quarellers
15 x Quarellers
25 x LongBeards GW, Shield MRoGrungi

Special
15 x Miners Full comd, Steam Drill
Cannon RoForging
Cannon RoForging, RoBurning
GT RoAccuracy 2 x RoPenetration

I've been tossing up between making the long beards Rangers instead as i've managed to snag what has been described as the old school bugmans rangers as well but not sure if regular rangers would fit in to fill out the ranks.

Is this at least a decent start at a list i've taken the suggestions here and added a few of my own that seemed to be a good idea.

The list is a perfectly good start, as long as you have magic defense, artillery and plenty of great weapons you'll do fine.


Regarding your updated list...

Shields on units with great weapons are really a waste, in 8th you can't chose to use the shield, you have to use the GW, so the only time it helps you is against shooting, and for that you have the Grugni banner, so you can save 65 points their straight away.

I dont think I would ever take 2x 15 Quarrellers, I would prefer either 2x 10-12 thunderers with shields, or 1x 20 Quarrellers with great weapons, I think either options would be better for you. The thunderers would be better shooters, and the GW Quarrellers will do better if they end up in combat.

when using great weapons, Hammerers would be a better option than Longbeard since they are stubborn, and if you put your characters with them they basically wont run away until every hammerer is dead.

regarding your artillery, its personal preference, but I would take Cannon, GT, Organ Gun as my three... organ guns are just so good against skirmishers and cav. even if you go with dual cannons for a start, i'd suggest you try an organ gun in the near future.

good luck!

The 15 miners won't be as good as you think. When I first starting playing with dwarfs, I persisted with the same unit for a very long time. They had their moments where they shined, but overall they didn't always make their points back. If you want miners go with small units of 5-6, it's keeps them nice and cheap and you can use them to hunt warmachines, clean up units etc.

Few changes, didn't realise the sheilds didn't work with GW...pitty that 4+ save looked nice dropped them dropped 1 15 man unit of quarellers and made the other 20, dropped the long beards for hammerers threw the lord in with them and the runelord with the warriors, with the left over points added a dragon slayer and a unit of 10 slayers so it now looks like this.


Lords
Dwarf lord, Shield Bearers GW Shield RoStone RoPreservation RoResistance MRoSpite

RuneLord, GW Shield MRoBalance

Heroes
Thane, BSB MRoGromril RoFire RoPreservation RoResistance
Dragon Slayer

Core
40 x Dwarf Warriors full comd, GW Shield (Lord and Thane inside)
15 x Quarellers
15 x Quarellers
25 x LongBeards GW, Shield MRoGrungi

Special
15 x Miners Full comd, Steam Drill
Cannon RoForging
Cannon RoForging, RoBurning
GT RoAccuracy 2 x RoPenetration
10 x Slayers musician STD bearer