Dwarf vs Rhun

[caralampio]

The dwarves are a very cool faction, and they eat orcs for dinner, but I'm stumped on how to use them against Rhun. The Easterlings come to you with droves of skirmishers and horsemen, which dwarven "static" infantry is very poorly prepared to fight. When I played Dale the solution was to swamp them in arrows but dwarves are very poor in the missile dept. and crossbowmen don't seem to cut it.

The most "creative" solution I have found so far is to wait for them in my cities, in a siege they lose all their advantages and all those Balchoth javelins and horses get creamed at the gates. But there must be something else, I won't win a war defending my cities!

[Jean=A=Luc]

Heh, and PB has just turned Rhun pikemen into AP halberd phalanxes to help them out against dwarves in rc/rr. If you read this PB I'm not saying you're wrong to do it, I'm just pointing out the irony.

The only thing I can think off except of the usual "get x-bows and cav mercs" is to try and ignore the armies in the field and go straight for Rhun's cities so they're forced into either siege battles or sallies which should make things easier for you (especially sieges).

[Kauppaneuvos]

One good tactic is to put shielduser-dorfs in line and insert pikemens/halberdiers top of shield-dorfs. In that way pikemens gets some protection against skirmishers.
Im not 100% sure but it seems that dorfs in shieldwall take less damage from missiles (harder to hit or just some bonus?) but in my games skirmishers run out of missiles before they kill my infantry and after that my infantry beats skirmishers in melee.

[Kawee]

I understand your pain, sometimes it feels like I can only wait until they've run out of arrows and javelins, and then the fight begins. And even then, those cavalry, especially the BG is pretty darn tough.

[Point Blank]

Best tactic is like for fighting a Renaissance army:
Line of crossbowmen, backed by pikes, backed by halberds and heavy axes that move forward once the enemy cavalry have been stopped by the pikes and the crossbowmen have moved back.

[k/t]

Try getting their bowmen and missile cavalry to stop shooting by charging them with the Dale Cavalry. You just need to hold them in place for 20 seconds while your infantry arrives.

[sebsebseb1234]

Easy hold your towns against against Rhun and kill the silvan eleves and then the orcs and then rush into eriador it is very easy if they have no high skilled archers(Eldar/Heavy silvan Archers)

[Tropical Bob]

The best way to win against anything as Dwarves is definitely to force all battles into sieges. Though I personally haven't faced Rhun with the Dwarves as of yet.

[trueblaze]

Yes I'm currently playing the dwarves and have had many a run in with Rhun that ended in mass casulties for myside, mainly do to there calvary.

I find placing two or three units of crossbow in a semi U or V shape at the begining and deploying stakes makes it hard for there calvary to do much damage by charging in, as even when they try to go around the stakes they still manage to it them with the edges of the units. Behind the crossbow I'll place my heavy and light foot units. If there foot units get too close, engage them inside the stakes, this dissorganizes their line and prevents their calvary from charging in. Other than that, just engage the infintry with yours and let the crossbow's long range and high power cut down the calvary as they run back and forth trying to get around the spikes.

As well it's usually a good idea to disable the crossbow's skermish mode. That way they won't run back while your infintry are fighing their's in the spikes and instead continue to let loose with bults. Even if the do engage in H2H, they're typically strong enough to hold their own so long as you have other infintry move in right away. Also if they do run back, they'll typically run back far enough that the calvary will ususally make mince meat out of them.

[Earl of Memory]

And when using RR/RC I've found out the best tactics are just as Point Blank said: with a row of pikes, crossbows firing, and heavy axes (plentiful for the dwarves).

Particularly dwarven halberds eat Rhun's cavalry for breakfast! Recently I've had a battle where I had a fullstack with about 4 halberds and 2 pikes (rest were other infantry), against two fullstacks with about 1/3 cavalry each, most of them kataphracts, and they made a magnificent job stopping and killing them, while the rest of my infantry fought their own infantry (rhunnic halberds dealt heavy damage on my heavily armored dwarves by the way...so watch out for them).

The halberds saved the day, if they would not have been there, my fullstack would have been trampled by their cavalry...

[Kawee]

There aren't too many cities that an produce pikes and xbows though. The main contents of any dwarven armies remain the axes, and those guys get slaughtered against Rhun.

[k/t]

So build up the cities and the facilities needed to recruit pike- and crossbow-dwarves.

I don't like halberds because they're really crappy at stopping cavalry charges. Better than axes, but much inferior to pikes.

[Seleukos_I.]

With Azanulimbar-Dum (spelling?) and Erebor you've got two big recruitment centers directly near Rhun.

[Point Blank]

The simple fact is, that unfortunately the Dwarves are just out-teched by Rhun late in the game, and their -2 vs cavalry penalty doesn't help. Rhun has all the offensive options and can dictate the pace of the battle. In fact Dale does better late-game vs Rhun. As has been said, the Dwarves need to avoid open-field battles and try to limit battles to sieges.

[Kawee]

The simple fact is, that unfortunately the Dwarves are just out-teched by Rhun late in the game, and their -2 vs cavalry penalty doesn't help. Rhun has all the offensive options and can dictate the pace of the battle. In fact Dale does better late-game vs Rhun. As has been said, the Dwarves need to avoid open-field battles and try to limit battles to sieges.

Exactly. Rhun, late-game, is one of the best faction. They have a very powerful all-round army. No weakness in there.

Dwarves still own everyone in sieges though.

[Graviak]

Evil rumors are spreading , that another AP unit is added to the Rhunic-Rooster!

...goes for his PB-Puppet!

Graviak

[Point Blank]

Evil rumors are spreading , that another AP unit is added to the Rhunic-Rooster!

...goes for his PB-Puppet!

Graviak

Its no rumor, Rhunnic Pikemen are now AP phalanx halberd, though base numbers have been reduced from 60 to 48. The anim fits very well. But their lock-morale makes them bloody as hell to finish off. They more or less just steamroller units like Dol Amroth Pikemen now.

[Vaz]

Exactly. Rhun, late-game, is one of the best faction. They have a very powerful all-round army. No weakness in there.

Dwarves still own everyone in sieges though.

Eh, just wait until we see some Variag sub mods.