Here it is. The 8th edition Dwarf Tactica Thread.

What This Thread Is

The purpose of this thread is to discuss the units, tactics, strengths, and weaknesses of the Dwarf army relative to 8th edition. How do we capitalize on strengths? How do we minimize the impact of our weaknesses? How do we build an effective all comers army, and what options are available for us in terms of play style? These questions, and others like it, I believe are good ones for us to ponder.

What This Thread is Not

This thread is not an opportunity to talk about the 8th edition book relative to our previous codex. The previous codex, it's strengths and weaknesses, are now gone. While some folks will play oldhammer with it, and many of dwarf players fondly remember days of yore when Organ Guns just hit and Goblins were scary, now is now, and this is what we have. Please keep comments and posts focused on the Dwarf army as it exists today.

Army lists can be posted here, but this is not a thread about specific army lists. The Barracks are a good place for that. This thread is intended to discuss the underpinnings that can inform our army building choices, our tactics on the table, etc.

So, I'm going to lay out a few basic notions, and let the longbeards here consider my words and see if they agree with my thinking. As consensus grows around certain topics, I can edit this initial post and maybe link to it army lists that are successful, and other more specific Tactica threads.

Montegue's General Thoughts

I'll break this first section down along the lines of each phase of the game. .

Movement Phase:

The Dwarf army can be competitive in the movement phase, though not as competitive as many armies capable of fielding cavalry, monsters, etc. However, we do have some options for movement. First and foremost is of course the presence of up to six Gyrocopters and up to two Gyrobombers. Half of your gyros can come to the board with Vanguard, making them an immediate nuissance in the enemy line. None of our fliers are as robust as the bigger monsters, though, so they are vulnerable to enemy ballsitic skill shooting, cannons, bolt throwers, and magic missiles. Gyrocopters, at least, are very cost effective for their capabilities.

Vanguard is available on any of our magic banners, and core Longbeards, special troops excluding miners, and Irondrakes can all take magic banners. The Rule of Pride will make it tough to field too many units with Strollaz (the Vanguard rule), but you can still have at least two chunky units with Vanguard out there wreaking havok.

We also gained some other cheap chaff units. Rare has Rangers that, while expensive, have scout and a lot of options for shooting and close combat. They can serve multiple roles, much like the Gyrocopters. Slayer units with Vanguard on their Banner can move out into the field and present a target to soak shooting or a way to muck up the enemy's movement. They can also get close to enemy war machine hunters, though rangers and gyrocopters are probably better for this.

We still move at a 3, and besides our fliers, nothing changes that for us. This, of course, will be one of our main flaws, as other armies will adapt to try and dance around our large blocks and set up favorable combats. It makes our charge distance easy to use against us. This flaw might be mitigated with use of Gyro copters. They charge at a great distance, and can be used to pin a unit in place for our larger blocks.

We now flee and pursue like a normal army. This is a huge relief in 8th edition, where wiping out a unit is the only way to get it's points. This also makes baiting a charge and then fleeing it a possibility, though you'll want to be very careful about when you do this and against what.

Magic Phase

Technically, with the Anvil of Doom, we have access to our own magic phase. We can cast two different buff spells, and a magic missile. The numbers and early experimentation show that this magic phase is very weak relative to other armies fielding a Level 4 wizard, because it requires that we roll boxcars to really get a spell through (unless we get lucky). It's difficult to come to the conclusion that the Anvil is worth it's large cost and the loss of MR(2) and Armor piercing that a Runelord might otherwise provide.

Our magic defense is present, and is generally stronger than most other armies. It's expensive, and requires fielding multiple heroes and perhaps the purchase of an expensive Master Rune of Valaya on a Hammerer unit's banner, or on the BSB.

The magic phase, in my estimation, is where Dwarfs are now most vulnerable, with the movement phase being a close rival. Our current task is to look into what the most efficient magical defense might be, and perhaps some out of the box thinking about how to deal with enemy wizards without investing overmuch in magical defense that is less reliable. Can we use target saturation? Can we find a way to pick our battles so that buffs and hexes have less impact on the outcome of a battle? Is a spell eater now mandatory for the chance to remove a Pit of Purple Sun? Let's hash that out.

Shooting Phase

I am relatively confident that this is our strongest phase. With strong core troops that shoot, access to a 12" stubborn banner, and incredibly reliable runic war machines, and now with access to legitimate chaff and some powerful new short range shooting, I think we can safely say that the Dwarf army is the single most powerful ranged army in the game.

There's a risk, though, to all this potential reliability and power in our war machines - the points add up very quickly. Some of our war machines got more expensive, and all of them earned a runic budget. However, if you're spending that full budget on a cannon on runes, you just made an extremely expensive 3 wound model that's easy to take off the map.

However, the increased usefulness of core shooters (crossbows and thunderers, each with heavy armor now, and options for melee that our army wide rules buff) means that a gunline got even more tempting as a list.

I do feel like the price increase on our cannons left a hole in our overall defense, however. Monsters and other big single target models are getting more and more common. Monstrous Cavalry, infantry, and chariots are also increasingly common. Cannons make short work of these units, punching big holes, but now those cannons are expensive. By contrast, our Grudge Thrower can be effective for a relatively low investment, and is a bit more versatile in it's targeting.

The Organ Gun is something I'm actually pretty confident about, but others may disagree (and this is a great place to do that). The Flame Cannon is good - it has range, and can tear holes in units, especially trolls and ogres.

The Gyrobomber and Gyrocopters are good, but I think the Copter outpaces the bomber in terms of points efficiency. It's hard to argue with a cheap unit that you can take a half dozen of that comes with a decent template and can bomb.

Close Combat

We are much stronger in close combat than we once were. Our army wide rules have made our infantry more versatile, and more dangerous. Easy access to Stubborn, Vanguard, and Armor Piercing make units of Shields a perfectly viable choice. Units of regular great weapons, as well (which are ultimately still only a single point more than shields, and provide a very heavy swing). Shieldwall may or may not provide good benefit, but it's hard to argue with that +1 to parry.

Our elite units are terribly expensive. I am of the opinion that Ironbreakers are solid if and only if you get them into combat with some of the low strength, high attack units out there like Wytch elves and the like. Hammerers, by contrast, are beastly against nearly all foes, but I personally believe they must still be taken in large numbers to do their job well. Swinging last against some foes is just not good enough when there's only 10 hammerers left when it's their turn to swing.

Our characters, in close combat, became more robust in terms of the number of wounds they have and their toughness. Their armor is less robust, though, as we have lost access to armor save rerolls and immunity to poison. Our immunity to Killing Blow and HKB can also fail 1 in 6 times. That being said, a simple great weapon combined with runic armor and some other options makes for an exciting combat character. We have some interesting options like breath weapons, multiple wounds, etc.

Slayers are useful, in my estimation. Death Blow means every slayer killed gets an attack, which means you can play with formations and still be confident that you're going to get a lot of attacks every turn against a powerful enemy. Why not go 5x8 with a horde of slayers, break steadfast with ranks and potentially with combat resolution? Vanguard makes them aggressive, getting them into combat and out of the hail of fire quickly.

In my estimation, the most powerful gift our close combat units got was easy access to Stubborn. Through this rule, and careful deployment and movement, we can set up nearly any enemy unit for a powerful, strength enhanced counter charge on the flank. Armor piercing from Rune-dudes is not to be underestimated.

I think one of the first close combat questions we need to ask ourselves, and really work on in terms of theoryhammer, is weather or not we still need big blocks. It seems like we don't, due to their expense and the buffs to the units, but the core reasons for taking big blocks in the first place has not changed for us. Our armor save is still only a 3+ at best, we still swing after almost everyone, and while we have two options for multi attack units, they go last almost universally. So, do we need big blocks or not? I'm leaning towards us still needing them if we want to have good close combat units.

So, these are my thoughts. What are yours? Any ideas percolating in your brain relating to the overall topic of what we can and can't do well, where we are weak, and how to patch it? Floor is yours. Pull a beer, and get your grumble on.