Iron Guard

[Lothe]

whineandcry;dr - how to beat Iron Guard Hordes?

Ok, so these guys are tough as nails and their moral is impervious to damage, they are a fighting force which essentially requires you check its "Scared?" box.

Im playing Rhun, going alright I suppose, im very strong financially im thinking of raising a second army composed entirely of Loke units. Because the first one was put out of action for a while thanks to a 'decent' Dwarf Army (2 D Warriors, 6 Iron G, 1 Dragonslayers, 1 Iron Xbows, 1 D Nobles) which managed to kill more of my grand horde than they bought to the field (I killed all of it). I've found that Javelins hurt them alot, but, I honestly dont want to field armies which are half Balcloth Tribemen.

Ideas?

[Mithrandir]

Lôke-Gamp Rim, Lôke-Flag Rim, Lôke-Innas Rim. Lôke-Nar Rim aren't too effective against armor, use Clan Crossbowmen instead.

[the_mango55]

Crossbowmen, loads of them.

[gary0044187]

I haven't tried playing against Iron Guard but I would assume that because they are sword weilders they would be a bit easier to fight than say 6 units of Dragonslayers . My guess would be to try your heaviest cavalry against them, failing that and probably better to defer to the previous posters would be the allways useful Crossbows assuming they have ap.

Also I have found that dwarves tend to kill more of every body than they lose, I haven't fought Mumakils or elves yet though.

[neon1300]

Dwarf armies have heavy armour, but poor defensive skill

Arrange a huge army + 5~6 group of catapults
If you attack AI with huge army, they will hold their position until you come close to them
So it is good to bombard them with catapults first
Catapults in TATW are as powerful as cannons in MTW2
5 catapults will drop their army approximately to 60%~50%
(just think about it, you can never deal that much damage with 5 group of archers!)

Then order your Loke-Flag Rim to attack them
Loke-Flag Rim's atk has AP, and AP hurts since Dwarfs have poor defensive skills+heavy armor
And flank the dwarfs with your cavalry

Pretty much you dont need any archers to fight dwarfs!
Compare to the lethality of a catapult, I would say archers are pretty useless in a field battle
(except elf, 210 range archer owns)

[Lothe]

But my Army of Awesome failed (numerically, they still won though)! They took out a LOT of Loke Flag and Gamp before they went down. And my Bodyguard (I dont use Innas since they come free with Generals) dont do much at all on a charge they might kill a few, then drop like flies.

[neon1300]

But my Army of Awesome failed (numerically, they still won though)! They took out a LOT of Loke Flag and Gamp before they went down. And my Bodyguard (I dont use Innas since they come free with Generals) dont do much at all on a charge they might kill a few, then drop like flies.

Did you bombard them with catapults first?

[the_mango55]

But my Army of Awesome failed (numerically, they still won though)! They took out a LOT of Loke Flag and Gamp before they went down. And my Bodyguard (I dont use Innas since they come free with Generals) dont do much at all on a charge they might kill a few, then drop like flies.

I don't know how else to tell you this, but your army of awesome has nothing on a dwarven army of awesome in melee.

bring crossbows or be prepared to lose lots and lots of men to Iron Guard.

[Muffer Nl]

Or D slayers...
Skirmish works wonders too. Dwarves aren´t so very fast (In thinking AND moving)

[Khazaar]

I have to agree, skirmish...
I´m playing the High Elves on very hard and the stupid dwarves declared war on me. The elven infantry is a joke so only archers with skimish mode work. I spread out my archers to breakup their formation and fill em with arrows until they look like porcupines, when a dwarven unit is down to 30men or so I charge them in the rear with cavalry. It takes a long time and you have to fight your battles yourself, but it works like a charm...

[iron88]

Use cavalry for everything the dwarves have except Halberds and Wardens. Repeated charge and withdrawal with heavy cavalry should make Iron Guards a pushover. For Halberds and Wardens, you could possibly skirmish some archers to target them directly or wait until everyone else has been taken care of and make flank attacks on then. Or engage them with heavy infantry and flank attack. Your losses should be light.

[Kiljaden]

Hmmm... Lôke-Flag Rim should be quite effective against dwarves, seeing as they have AP weapons and pretty good armor themselves... Time to do some testing.

EDIT: Yeup, Flag HI blows against Erebor Axemen, IGs, and DSs. Gamp pikes do much better (and win against IG\DS) but still fail against EA. Also, Clan Xbows are as deadly as Nar archers.

[Mithrandir]

Don't forget that dwarves have ap weapons too.

[Snipe_]

then it really only one thing to do man,,,,, and that is to BE Dwarfs urself and kick som ass xD

[grumpygoat]

I'm fighting dwarves myself and they're incredibly though, especially those who don't rout. I'm playing as Mordor, and one thing that helps a lot are cavalry and trolls. You dont have trolls, but i would suggest spamming balcoth tribesmen. Seriously, i would gladly trade my heaviest infantry unit (not trolls ) for a unit of those guys, since my archers are useless against their armour.

[Kiljaden]

Yeah, I'm currently fighting the Dwarves in my Rhun campaign... about 40 turns in. My Clan Guard are doing really well, but everyone else gets slaughtered. I'm spending twice as many men to down their armies... kind of frustrating (esp. in siege defense where my missile units do next to nothing against them), but I'm not really complaining. I like a challenge

[CBCRonin]

Flag Rim have a faster animation and hold a tighter assault formation than dwarves, they can take down every Dwarven unit (1 on 1) other than: Iron guard, halberds (contolled by human player), crossbowman, and dragon slayers. Iron guard should take a serious beating though, whereas dragon slayers and halberds will chew your unit up. Don't challenge their crossbowmen head on, after losing forty men to bolts... you will find they have a fast attack animation (with AP).

As Rhun, you have one of the best rounded factions in the game (Isenguard and Rhun counter dwarven strength well); used correctly, you can hammer dwarven armies back to their mountains .