Dwarves got pawned

[Ngugi]

To begin with; I'm an "archer general", I'll like to turn the enemy into hedgehog's and rather not loose one preciouse soldier of mine.
Well, I like cavalry too, first a bunch of arrows and then trample the lot of 'em in to pulp. Victory!
Infantry, ok, a few if I want to hold bridges, cities or to guard a catapult, if possible depending on the enemy.

Began play FrOME as dwarves or Ered Luin now - but had the same issue in vanilla so I wonder: how do you play the dwarves in battle?

In the beginning OoMM and OoG will fast swarm and I can count on a almost filled stack of mine is countered by a 1½ or 2 stacks of theirs.
* My early troops do not seem good enough to hold the line for long enough against such number's?
* They make MY troops into hedgehog's. I've got no (or no good) missile troops!
* I can't charge to catch the goblins, they are faster.
* I've got no cavalry, and if I do they counter me with a bunch of wargs or own cavalry...

[Hartassen]

Avoid open confrontation and aim to fight siege battles as often as you can. When you do siege, build your equipment and then attack instantly, don't starve them out. If you are attacked you will have to fight in an open field instead of on the walls and in the other confined areas of a city where dwarven infantry excels.

For when you do have to fight in the open use plenty of dale cavalry, iron crossbowmen and ballistas. If you have none of these you are in deep so try and set your infantry to loose formation and hunt down each snaga unit individually, eventually they will run out of javelins and you won't hopefully have too many casualties unless you keep using basic dwarven units. I tend to rush for iron crossbowmen early and buy as much dale cavalry as possible and limit my infantry to a few good elite units that you get at erebor at the drill square upgrade such as the dwarven axemen and axemen of erebor etc.

[Kawee]

Find an elevated area, get into loose formation, and just stand there. They'll run out of ammos eventually, and usually you'll still have enough men left to win the battle.

[kingtigertank]

Stick in shieldwall, wait for all their ammo to bounce off your armour, then smash them with your far superior melee capabilities. Dwarven heavy infantry owns everything. Early on, dwarven warriors are the key. If the ai doesnt come to you, which it usually does, you can use a few ballistas to provoke them.

[Lemoniser]

Just wondering, why did you decide to play as dwarves if you are an "archer" general. Did you just want to try them, didn't know that they are a mainly infantry faction (although the selections screen thing surely told you this) or did you only realise your affection for archers after starting the campaign?

[Moonflower]

Just wondering, why did you decide to play as dwarves if you are an "archer" general. Did you just want to try them, didn't know that they are a mainly infantry faction (although the selections screen thing surely told you this) or did you only realise your affection for archers after starting the campaign?

[Rexmundi]

I often put my dwarves on high ground, wait til the snaga's come and run into the firing snaga's, the snaga's are quite often too late in retreating and will then battle it out. The melee units of the enemy will then join the frey just to be defeated by your superior infantry. I wouldn't advice waiting till the snaga's run out of ammo.. those javelins hit quite hard..

If you do waanna/need to wait till their out of ammo, hide just behind the top of the hil, that way the Snaga's will have to throw up, and uite often will hit the top of the hill instead of your troops, reducing your losses. I often do that vs balista's, canons and catapults.

[ya13]

autoresolve

[Wyrmnax]

autoresolve

Autoresolve murders you against any kind of orcs.

[Ngugi]

Just wondering, why did you decide to play as dwarves if you are an "archer" general. Did you just want to try them, didn't know that they are a mainly infantry faction (although the selections screen thing surely told you this) or did you only realise your affection for archers after starting the campaign?

To answer that one: I knew. I just wanted to give my self a challenge. And boy it turned out to be! So I have to ask cause its not my dwarves fault their lord (aka me) brought them to their doom...

Thank you Hartassen so väldigt mycket, good strategic and tactical suggestions there!


Autoresolve is cheap, would just do it against petty bandits and anyway, you cant win a campaign that way, even if I guess the dwarves will turn into effective AR-tanks.

[Hartassen]

To answer that one: I knew. I just wanted to give my self a challenge. And boy it turned out to be! So I have to ask cause its not my dwarves fault their lord (aka me) brought them to their doom...

Thank you Hartassen so väldigt mycket, good strategic and tactical suggestions there!


Autoresolve is cheap, would just do it against petty bandits and anyway, you cant win a campaign that way, even if I guess the dwarves will turn into effective AR-tanks.

Inga problem, you're welcome.

[Rero]

yeah!

[Hartassen]

Autoresolve is a poor habit and also extremely unbalanced in tatw and unbalanced in general.

[ccllnply]

Autoresolve is a poor habit and also extremely unbalanced in tatw and unbalanced in general.

Very true, you won't get anywhere auto-resolving.

As for the OP, I'd go back to what Hartassen said. Unfortunately, the Medieval 2Total War engine is not good at fighting on moutains. No Total War game is but Medieval 2 is especially bad. And, once again unfortunately, this pretty much all the Dwarves do. The camera, unit fatigue etc. all get messed up when fighting on a mountain so it's best to keep clear of open combat.

As said, sieges are your best friend. The level out the terrain and since Dwarves are infantry powerhouses, they're great at them. Plus, sieges are a great way of getting rid of those big orc armies without your troops running around a battlefield after archers for ages. Dwarves don't have any cavalry and the orcs often spam archers so open combat can be a real pain

So to summarise, don't fight in the open, open fight in sieges. And don't auto-resolve if you don't want unwanted suprises

[Cambyses]

Dwarven Ballistas are better than those of other races. Use them... Also iron crossbows are extremely effective against the later orc units - and TROLLS. Although you shouldnt have much problem with trolls as a dwarf.

Anything dwarven with a shield can absorb an insane amount of missile fire, just put them in the front and wait for the enemy to come to you. Shield bonuses are doubled against missiles coming from the front. Chasing snagas around the battlefield is a mug's game, so dont attack in the open field just find a nice spot and defend, that way at least if the timer runs out you still win...

But yeah, that other guy up the thread gave the best advice. Just fight siege battles - it is beyond easy.

[Santeri]

Shield bonuses are doubled against missiles coming from the front

What? Any proofs for that?

[Revenga]

i thought shield bonuses just weren't applied when units are shot from behind/unshielded flank. Never heard of doubling bonuses.
It would actually be useful to know how all these things work ( armor piercing/armor vs arrows/ shield bonuses/defense bonuses etc).

[eugenioso]

i am baffled. you say youre an archer general, yet you seem to have never heard about 2 words which for me are a mandate for dwarves:

SIEGE!

WEAPONS!

use them instead. the dwarves get no archers whatsoever save the iron crossbowmen, and though they are good, they are few. i always take at least 2 and preferably more ballistas and/or catapults, but mostly ballistas to replace any losses that could be accomplished by archers. they take out trolls and other big creatures in one shot and usually panic or rout the rest.

[Ngugi]

. i always take at least 2 and preferably more ballistas and/or catapults, but mostly ballistas to replace any losses that could be accomplished by archers. they take out trolls and other big creatures in one shot and usually panic or rout the rest.

Catapults for sure but never favoured the ballistas. Time to reconsider then

[jrhindo]

Dwarves were so much better in Rome's Lotr mod!
They had better armors and so were better against the orcs and goblin factions that rely on spaming weaklings.