My view on the Dwarfs (update)

Since there has been some recent discussion on the local blogs about the current state of Dwarfs, I thought I would 'quickly' (kidding, this might be long) add a little to it.

First off, let me just say that I choose armies on their fluff, and what their models look at the time, I don't or will never play an army solely based on the current "meta" or how powerful/OP/broken it is. Since I was little and to the present, while playing videos games, cards or reading books, if it had anything to do with a fantasy world, I was always hoping it would Dwarfs, I was always interested in them, what they did, where they live and so on. The thought of this stalwart warrior/craftsmen hammer wielding great bearded race living in mountain homes with great furnaces within them, Thanes, Kings and Lords leading them with special rune crafted Armour and Weapons was always very appealing to me. Side Note - As some of you may not know, I'm an avid World of Warcraft player, been playing that game for 6 years and bout 90% of my characters are Dwarfs. So when it came to Warhammer Fantasy, well, the choice was pretty clear, and besides, most of the other armies didn't appeal to me, maybe cept for the Tomb Kings and Chaos Dwarfs (MORE DWARFS!).

An example of a potential Dwarf Hold? (Image is really the Dwarf capital 'Ironforge' from WoW

Now on to how the Dwarfs are actually seen within the 8th Ed. Warhammer World. Well, their pretty much seen as the spare tire, most people think their boring, unappealing and just not fun at all. Why are they boring you ask, well we have restricted movement, everything in the book is M-3 we have no cavarly and one flyer that is very expensive and at the most, sub-par. So Dwarf players tend to stay behind (usually in the corner of the table) and then move very little through out the game or not at all. However, we do have a good shooting phase (not strong an OVER POWERED as some might say), just good. We have 5 warmachines (not counting the Anvil or Gyro) to choose from at which three are the most used and the other two, well, are shite. And most Dwarf players will tend to carry between 3-5 of these in a competitive list along with some Quarrelers (crossbowmen) along side them. Now with this very low movement and good shooting phase, this is where the Dwarf players resorts to the tactic of 'castling' or in my words 'The Soul Destroyer!'. Because naturally, you don't want to move your warmachines, because that will hamper their shooting capabilities so we resort to buying troops to protect these warmachines from certain destruction (they usually die anyways due to the hordes of poison missile troops that everyone and their mother has (besides the DWARFS!). And a lot of people get frustrated when playing against that type of army with that type of tactic, they push their models down the board while getting them shot off while not being able to really do anything about, which is a perfectly reasonable. But if we Dwarf players don't apply that tactic then we pretty much are dropping are pants, bending over and turning to the opponent saying "alright bud, make sure to put a little lube on it before you start!". What I really mean is that we leave are selves open to being flanked very easily due to our slow movement and if we screw up in the movement phase, there is no going back.

BUT! Our army is no more frustrating then playing against others, what we bring to the table is over costed infantry, heroes and lords and we have to manage to beat off a unit of, oh, lets say 40 Savage Orc Big Un's with a 5+ Wards kitted out with heroes and what not inside of it... you've got to friggen kidding me, that is not going to happen... EVER! Even our elite Hammer units struggle to go toe to toe against an average unit of Chaos Warriors (and lets say they have the Mark of Khorne). How can you expect us to compete with most other armies that can bring cheap costed, multi purpose blocks against out slow moving always strikes last dudes? Now that, is frustrating.

This is why we play the way we do. And some may ask "But isn't that boring to play with as well?", yes... and no, it is boring not being able to participate in 2 phases of the game, and annoying not being able to compete in another (combat). People tend to think Dwarfs as an aggressive race, that can put out the hurt and take it as well, this is partially true, however, Dwarfs are in fact, a very defensive race, they'd rather being mining for gold, crafting cool things or generally going about their own business within their mountain homes (Hell, they live in mountians! How much more defensive can you get for a settlement/town!?!?), but when they are attacked, that's when the Dwarfs start to turn bloody. I always imagined the Dwarfs being more focused on defensive tactics. Setting up huge gunlines, and after the smoke and ash settle, all that is left of the enemy is a fine red mist. I for one, don't see the Dwarf game play as boring, I rather enjoy it and generally see it "As to their lore" so whats to complain about, an army that sticks true to its fluff and behaves like their fluff says (besides that fact that they should be 20x better in the combat phase then they are at the present... *grumble* *grumble* *grumble*)

NatCon Lists

So the NatCon lists have been emailed out. And all the lists look pretty standard as to what you'll see. Cept for the two Ogre lists without a Slaughter Master which is bold by all means, but I guess I can work, it it allows for the points to spent else like the Stornhorn or Tuskhorn or whatever which Aaron is bringing. My Cannons would love to face that puppy.

The main thing that caught my eye was Neil's "SURPRISE" Dwarf army or the "No Deployment". Two groups of Rangers and 2-3 Miner units + an Anvil made me a giggle as this (I Think) is the first time Neil is playing Dwarfs and this is not the type of list you would normally see from a first time Dwarf player... but hey, the brave and bold tactics always seem to pan out for the best right?!

Other then that, everything else is the same as usual... getting a bit boring really seeing the same armies, but I guess there were a few that are a bit different which is nice for a change.

NatCon and other tournaments

NatCon is getting ever closer and I'm really looking forward to it. Yes I'm bringing my Dwarfs, so everyone can look forward to that. I think my first round is a grudge against Sam and his CD's/O&C's/DE's or whatever he brings, all I know is that I'm going to hopefully... kick some ass. It will be a fun three days. Then I got O' Runefang to look forward to after that, then hopefully the tournament up in Napier... NiCon I think it is called?

be a jammed packed few months, but it will be fun indeed!

For NatCon and Runefang I'll be bringing my Dwarfs, hopefully I'll be able to finish my Chaos Dwarfs for NiCon, show them Napier boys how the Evil stunties do it!

Magic at NatCon

Hey guys, was wondering if any of you magic players that will also be attending NatCan are interested in a few games in between rounds and what not?

Waylandgames

I've been ordering from Wayland since I've gotten into wargaming, from all types of goods, cards, models, paints, etc and they've been quite good with the orders and shipping and what not. However, until recently (post Maelstrom liquidation) they've been, well.... shite. I've ordered several things from them recently, mainly books, and one of them have come in after 3 months of waiting after they said they had them in stock (15 to be precise), which was a total porky, because... I waited 3 months for it, I even paid 1 pound 50p extra for better shipping. And now with my Flames of War books (Market Garden), which I thought had arrived, I had to wait to pick it up from my local post office due to it being closed and I couldn't get into the post box. SO WHEN I DID, It was a slip of paper saying that my package/delivery was canceled and a refund would arrive and some other type of bullcrap. So, naturally I'm really really really pissed off about it and after this, I will probably never ever fething order from these liars (that's what they are, they say they items are in stock and then say they are not and are not sure when they will be). Since late December they've been just total pillocks and lie about everything.

Just thought I would post this to try and warn you guys if you ever think about ordering from these guys. I'm doing everything in my power now to try and stop people from ordering from them.

I'll just by my books and cards from local places now.

Recent Events

Hey guys, sorry for not posting in a while, just been busy with some things, trying to find some work, doing some training to find work. All that jazz. In wargaming news; haven't been doing heaps really. Built my Chaos Dwarf Warmachines, haven't managed to start painting them yet however. Finished my Dwarf Warriors unit filler which will be showcased at NatCon and the center of attention of my Dwarf army! My Market Garden Books came in from Wayland games (finally... I may add) took a damn while, but their here and they're really good quality, plenty of history in them which is good, as I love me some WWII, Favorited thing of all time to read and study about, other then warhammer of course. I've also been working on some Magic the Gathering stuff, bought my self the "Rally and Route" event deck and been adding some cards into and trying it 'oot', been really enjoying MTG, fun game.

So for NatCon, I'll probably be bringing my Dwarfs which ISN'T a bad thing which some may believe! So I'll save me Chaos Dwarfs for (hopefully) Horned Rat. I won't be bringing them to Runefang VI due to me having a grudge note written in because that was my very first 2400pt Tournement... which I came last in. And so, I must revenge my Dwarfs and kick some ass and hope to come first, as you do.

Simon!