Tactical help with the Dwarves

[Inuk]

I have been lurking the forums and playing Empire for a while having relative success and I recently started a campaign with the Dwarves. I really enjoying them lorewise and have been doing ok with strategic map management but I have a really hard time with the battles.

For example, I assaulted the Night Goblin hold next to Zufbard and the lake (forgot the name) and I lost pretty much all my troops while they had almost 1,000 out of 3,000 left. I had taken a cannon along which was enough to take down the gate and one section of the wall. I also had a mortar which did not do anything really (I guess they are better in open field). After breaching the walls I was stuck street fighting with the usual masses of Night Goblins. Even my hammerers ended up being grinded down to nothing by their masses and a torrent rain of arrows.

Detailled army composition was 4 Warriors, 2 hammerers, 2 Axe hammerers, 2 Axemen, 1 slayer, 3 Crowsbows (which I left being the front line to fire), 1 Thunderer (which did not do much for fear of shooting my own troops), 1 cannon, 1 mortar and one general (3 stars, not a great one.)

Should I have just waited out for them to assault? I thought the dwarves of all armies would be perfect for close quarter street fighting but maybe I mismanaged them? Should I have gone for a different army composition? Anyways, any advice would be much appreciated.

Obvisouly this mod is amazing and I really enjoy it. Great work by the devs!

[Kahvipannu]

Here's some quides:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...6#post10136136

[Inuk]

Thank you kindly. I have read the guides but I was looking for other forum members to pitch in...

[Inuk]

I found this old thread by scouring the forums. Some good tips but would still like to hear more.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=416884

[Inuk]

Found some more:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=331900
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=353319

[GreatSword]

Inuk, one trick I have learned from fighting countless greenskin battles may help you out with dwarfs vs gobo's. After the initial charge, double click PAST the enemy unit, perhaps a couple times until both units are fully entwined. This will allow your superior dwarfs to get to grips with the enemy gobo's and slaughter them much faster. Otherwise, its just the frontline troops fighting. This will also help enemy arrows to slay their own troops, as yours are harder to kill. Try it on custom battles a few times til you get the hang of it.

I discovered this because the AI will do it to the human player on occasion. especially in sieges. You can also do a variation of this trick when a unit is on the walls backed up to a tower. Tell one of your units to attack them from the opposite side of the tower and they will pile in on top of them, causing causualties very quickly.

Hope this helps, good hunting!

[Ichon]

Gobo in siege can be tougher than expected. The keys I have found are to kill general and attack from multiple directions. When goblins flee to central square that is when the mortar and crossbows become useful. Crossbow is also very useful on top of walls shooting over down into the streets. Mortar should be held in reserve until goblins retreated to central square or if they are packed in a wide street away from walls so shells don't hit wall coming in at low angle.

In most siege battle each of those gets 200-300 kills which makes the numbers alot more reasonable. Most dwarves can beat goblins 1 v 1 no problem and even 2 v 1 but that does not hold true if goblins are on walls or higher streets shooting down into mass of packed attacking dwarves. So you have to spread out the goblins much as possible attacking multiple directions and also try to attack a rear where you can get the goblins lower morale to lead to rout even in a city. I play on VH and even goblins take some time to rout if the general is not dead but you can still do it so on lower settings it should be much easier.

[Inuk]

@GreatSword: Thank you kindly, that's a good tip. I had noticed that my back lines often just stayed there while only the front line was engaging. This helped. Thanks again.
@Ichon: What you describe is exactly what happened to me in this specific battle. I had to fight uphill and my troops were packed tight while their masses of archers were killing me from above and behind the buildings. It seems obvious now that I should have opened a second front on the other street. I suppose I had relied to much on the toughness of Dwarves... Thank you kindly for your great tips.
Since original post I have been fighting mainly defensive battle and have waited out offensive sieges for the enemy to attack me. It's going pretty well as I started to take back a few settlements in Wisseland (spelling) and am now moving against the Averland city next to the Border Princes which was taken by the greenskins.
In defensive sieges I have found those miners to be absolutely fantastic. I hold the line on a street or create a choke point close to the city square with a few elites (hammerers or longbeards) and my miners have a field day at blasting those green masses. They are fantastic! I am even thinking of bringing them along to offensive field battles so they can shoot the back of engaged enemy troops over the line.
Any other thoughts and tips would be greatly appreciated!

[Captain Zoran]

In those packed masses of goblins, shieldwall becomes perticullary effective. In the sort of situations that you mentioned, I try to send one unit to flank them, and keep them in place (hammerers are great for this), and then I have one shiedlwall'd unit act as a spearpoint. Turn off defensive stance if you have it on, and then tell that unit to attack a gobbo unit behind the one its currently enveloped in. The greater mass of the shieldwall will push through them and split their regiment, and although they will take heavy casualties, your units behind them will kill the goblins in no time.
Other than that Ichon hit the nail on the head for that one.

[Inuk]

Great addition. Thank you kindly Captain Zoran.