Greetings. We were recently deluged with a huge fountain of information about the new book. Go check out the Third Wave thread, read the answers of our resident fortune teller, and come back to the thread when you've digested it.

So, we lost -

A lot of our anti magic.

Cheaper Cannons

Rerolls on armor saves for characters

Low cost Special Troops (hammerers and IBs are both roughly the same price as elite elves)

Autohits on the Organ Gun

The Anvil's Old Tricks

Free Dispel Dice from Runelords/Smiths

We Gained -

2A on hammerers

Ironbreakers with a huge budget for banner runes. More on this later.

Very Solid core (longbeards) with magic banner access.

3 bound Spells on the Anvil of Doom (not great, not terrible)

A lot of ways to augment units with runes, items, characters, and banners.

A lot of Vanguard, if we want it.

Lots of flying redirectors/shooters/bombers

One of the best shooting units in the game (Iron Dragons...seriously. they're amazing)

Removal of unit cap on Slayers. Magic banner on slayers (which means we get vanguarding hordes of slayers if we want them).

Better Slayer heroes.

Stackable Runes for major effects.

A better flame cannon

Organ Guns that have a 30" range, can be runed up, can gain rerolls from Master Engineers.

There's more.

We gained more than we lost in absolute turns, but we lost somehting very important without gaining something in return that could balance it out - we now lose badly in the magic phase. Now, one of the main problems with having no active magic was that we couldn't buff our troops. That's no longer a reasonable argument. Our troops are buffed through banners, magic items, characters, and special rules. Our "hexes" still come in the form of our shooting, reducing enemy units before we engage.

Here's my fast and dirty, poorly informed analysis.

Core -

Warriors - solid for the points. New special rules make shield warriors perfectly reasonable for their cost, especially if they're augmented by a character, manage to score hatred, or get buffed with a +1 armor save from the Anvil of Doom. Great Weapons are still great weapons. With a Runelord, S5 Armor piercing is a thing. on the charge, S6 armor piercing. Makes them a solid core flanking unit or just a hard to kill brick, as always.

Thunderers - We don't know exactly what Dwarf Crafted does, but it looks like it screws Thunderers over. However, they are cheaper, and have heavy armor, which makes them Shield Warriors with Guns. Quarrelers still get Great Weapons. So they are GW Warriors with crossbows. Again, not so bad for core.

Longbeards - Expensive, solid troops, with access to a magic banner and all the special rules. Old grumblers is the same (and as such, kinda useless). They only get a 4+ armor save with a shield. Their magic banner can make them stubborn, which means Dwarfs have a few ways to have stubborn core. But, they are bloody expensive. A horde of Great Weapons with a magic banner may take up the entire core allotment. Depending on your build, that could be a good thing.

Special -

Cannons - More expensive. Can still be runed. Still a key means to kill big beasties, but not as needed as before, given the number things we have that hit hard enough to kill a big gribbly.

Grudge Throwers - The S5 Grudge Thrower with accuracy is still a thing.

Gyros - These will, I think, eventually become a stable in most dwarf armies. With vanguard and a S3 AP template, they are cheap multi-purpose models that will help us compete in a phase we have never been able to control without an Anvil of Doom. They can redirect, block, run enemies down, steam low toughness hordes, drop a bomb - super versatile.

Hammerers - easily the very best unit we have. 2A, Stubborn, and apparently each and every hammerer can individuall accept a challenge for your lord if he's there. The raw number of augmentations our passive rules give means a deathstar of hammerers can be in combat, charging, but turn 2 or 3, dishing out an obscene number of S7 Armor Piercing attacks on the charge (there's a horn that gives devastating charge). Combined with a lord built to kill - this unit will be absolute murder.

Ironbreakers - on the surface, not as good as hammerers. However, with the increased rune budget, this unit can be very versatile. 5+ parry is good against a lot of things. Stick an oath stone in, and they have no flanks. It's easy to make them stubborn and give them vanguard, so they can play anvil to the Hammerers. And, if they choose not to engage the Ironbreakers, you can charge in with S5 ws5 attacks. a Cheap runelord gives them Armor piercing.

Slayers - In my opinion, they will be the sleeper hit of the book. no, they have no armor. And no, they have no defense against shooting without spending a lot of points on the MR of Grugni in a unit of IBs or on a BSB. however, there is no unit cap, they're the cheapest special option, they hit back when they die, they have slayer axes and strength, and they can hide very strong offensive characters in their ranks. You can give them vanguard from their banner, and possibly a bonus to combat resolution. They can be in an enemy's face, deployed as wide as you please, threatening monsters, chariots, and other high toughness models with their multitude of attacks. Small units with banners can spend a few points on vanguard, and suddenly you have a few small units of chaff in the mid field that can pose a very real threat to a lot of key models in enemy armies - dying valiantly at a relatively low cost to set up ideal charges for your real heavy hitters.

Rare -

Rangers. Groups of 5 with Throwing Axes, Great Weapons, Heavy Armor, and Crossbows. Super versatile, even though they're expensive. Good war machine hunters, a real threat on the flank of an army when you place them. They can fire their crossbows at short range against small groups of swift cav, for example, and bring some down. Ignoring them opens you up to a S6 dwarf charge. Getting close opens you up to throwing axes.

Iron Dragons - Insanely good. I don't see dwarf armies competing well withou a unit or two of these.

Organ Guns - these will be amazing. Simply amazing. 30" range, runes, ME can give it BS 5 and you can stick a +1 to hit on it...simply amazing. They will be much more reliable. Potentially 20 shots, potentially with BS5 and a +1 to hit means it will be hititng a lot. Or, up it's strength, and give it flaming. Bye, bye, trolls and other regenerators. All around, the Organ Gun just got meaner. Just tell your opponents it was nerfed into having to roll to hit...

Gyrobombers - Look great. My jury is out. The double template hit will be great against low T units (wytch elves, Elves with BOTWD, etc). Might be a little too spendy to risk out in the open or as a redirector. However, they can provide needed chaos in the back field, can hunt weak war machine crews, and can do a lot of harm if left alone. Still, the Organ Gun is amazing, competes for the same price, and can do a very similar amount of harm to units within 30 inches. And that's nearly everyone if you deploy those badboys forward.

Flame Cannons (I think these are rare...) - these bad boys just stepped back up. For a bit of investment, you get a 12" starting line for the template, and a reroll on the artillery die if you want to. S5, multiple wounds - a great troll or Ogre killer. Also solid against Monstrous cavalry.

Final Analysis -

Gunlines will be very strong, but will be very vulnerable to magic. Core shooting troops are just as good in close combat as our core melee troops are today, at a nominal fee for their shooting weapon.

Aggresive builds will be vulnerable to magic, but less so if they get into combat quickly. Still vulnerable to hexes, though, which make our buffs a lot less useful.

We need to get better at picking our battles in the magic phase, and I think you're going to want as many Rune-dwarfs as you can afford. Not only for the chance to channel, but for dispel runes. If you can manage to get three, get them. You'll need them. You can't rely on channels for dispel dice.

Anvil of Doom is a pile of total crap, unless our info leak was missing something. Seriously, it's crap. Leave it on the shelf. Don't buy it.

You probably don't need many of the new models, since the Armor save of a Longbeard is no different than a HW and Shield guy. So save your cash, and buy Iron Dragons. one or two boxes should be enough. Use your old converted hammerers, since no one can complain about WYSIWYG with their armor, as well. Unless you want to blow the cash.

My current fear is that there's just not enough points in a 2500 list to really utilize the things in the book to their full extent. You're going to have to make tough choices and really streamline your list to do what you want it to do. Those magic banners and runic weapons and heroes and what not will add up. Those war machines are more expensive, and they will add up as well. Our cheapest troops are not cheap. Those will add up, as well.