Some help playing the dwarves!
Hey everyone,
So I'm enjoying the @#% out of this mod right now...the only big problem I'm having with it is that I seem to SUCK with the Dwarves! When I play one of the other factions (dark elves, one of the humans, chaos, and weirdly: chaos dwarves) I seem to do just fine but...for some reason my favorite stunties just get slaughtered again and again...
So any tips/tricks you have for playing as the Dwarves would be appreciative! Thanks in advance!
Laetus
Re: Some help playing the dwarves!
Dwarves are really powerful if played well. If you want, there's a guide: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...6#post10136136 (unless you've already read it). The thing is, they're a really defensive race. For example, in sieges, you'll have to defend a one-way entrance, such as a gate (for example in Karaz-a-Karak or Karak-Eight-Peaks, defend the citadel) and your best bet is to build as many shield units as possible with a mortar, and a squad of miners (they're REALLY good against morale, and against weak units such as night goblins they'll just slaughter them). With that, you should be able to hold against the turn 7-8 goblin invasion, and later on, the orcs'.
Same goes for land battles. Try to fight on mountainous areas, and get the advantage of terrain. With a few thunderers, quarellers and/or rangers, and even a piece of artillery. You'll see why dwarves are powerful, unless you were already doing that, then I don't know.
Re: Some help playing the dwarves!
I actually hadn't read that before thanks! I know that in vanilla medieval the "shield wall" has always seemed somewhat useless to me. But also I've seen it really work in the wrath of the norsemen mod...I hadn't really tried it out here extensively but I guess I should because of the high praises it gets in the guide!
I remember I did it once against the night goblin horde that appears but then all my shield guys just got destroyed in like five seconds by their cheater-wizard guy...and I was sad :-(
Laetus
Re: Some help playing the dwarves!
Yeah, shamans and any other "artillery" units are a pain in the arse for dwarves, since they don't have any cavalry and their units are rather slow. The only thing you can hope for is that, if you have any artillery yourself, it hits the enemy's.
Re: Some help playing the dwarves!
Hi there! I had huge troubles playing dwarfs too and kept restarting my campaign. Through many playthroughs I found out a few helpful field and siege strategies that really did wonders for me and allowed me to survive the scripted Storm of Chaos army hordes. If you have read Kurgis's guide, here are a few additional tips to help you guys out.Originally Posted by leerm02
1) RUSH BUILDING MINERS! I can't stress how important this unit is. Always have at least 1 or even 2 units in every army you field. Place the miners in a line DIRECTLY ON (overlapping) your war machines or line troops. If your line or warmachine gets charged, the miners usually can break the charging unit with a single bombing run. If you noticed, dwarf infantry have excellent holding prowess, but lack units to break the enemy when in close combat. Miners bombing run will instantly break most close combat units that your lines are in combat with and save you lots of casualties that will help in an extended war campaign.
2) Always compose your armies out of AT LEAST 1/4 warmachines. Build lots of MORTARS, CANNONS, GRUDGE THROWERS in that order of importance. Warmachines allow you to force the enemy towards your line, where your solid dwarf infantry can hold them in melee while your MINER chucks bombs into their fighting ranks. At the start, building war machines is a hugely expensive affair, so focus on the mortar as much as possible. Two mortars for every army is a good start to aim for. Always remember, hide a unit of miners in either your warmachine ranks or fighting ranks so that they can get to work as the close quarter combat begins. As solid as your infantry is, they will need miner bombing support to rout or kill the enemy. Cannons are REALLY important for offensive dwarf stacks as they allow you to punch down walls in several shots. As a general rule of thumb, cannons for walls, mortar and grudge thrower for infantry.
3) You know those pesky trolls that orc armies always field? Notice how hard it is to kill them? Shooting doesnt do much to harm them either and you will be wasting your precious ammo if you focused fire. One thing i discovered is that they may have some sort of damage resistance. Also with several skirmish testing, I discovered that infantry units with ATTACK of 11 and above are more likely to kill them in close combat. Here is where SLAYERS come in. With an ATTACK of 16, they seem to overcome trolls damage resistance and seem always just manage to do the trick. Field at least 1 or 2 slayers in every army. Place them to guard your flanks. Use them as SHOCK troops if no trolls are present as they are the fastest moving troops a dwarf army has. ALWAYS set them to LOOSE formation as they die like flies to missile fire. Once you spot trolls, charge them into combat and watch them hack those trolls to pieces... or at least hold them off till your other troops can come to support.
4) QUARRELER QUARRELER WARRIOR QUARRELER AXEWARRIOR. Use this general rule of thumb for infantry composition if you have any doubts as to what to recruit. Although Thunderers are good for knocking down enemy moral, quarrelers have better range and can perform arcs of fire across your troops to devastating effect. Comb through thick enemy ranks to thin them down to even your odds before fighting in close combat. Quarrelers are also slightly lower down the tech tree so are way easier to recruit. It is also a good idea to place miners to overlap quarrelers. Set the miners slightly behind the quarrelers front rank. Once close combat is inevitable, choose to charge quarrelers in. They will whip out handweapons and shields to fight. Although they may not be as survivable as warriors, your miners should be able to bomb the enemy to rout before your quarrelers sustain too much damage.
5) AVOID leaving your axewarriors in close combat. Charge them in, bring them out, and charge them in again. Only shield warriors should get stuck in. Axewarriors have a decent charge bonus that could potentially swing the battle in your favor if it comes down to line fighting. This is the closest you can get to a cavalry charge while playing dwarfs.
6) While sieging AI armies, always attempt to attack on the first round and dont bother with building siege machines. That is what your WARMACHINES are for. You will probably suffer larger casualties if they come out of the castle in force. Instead, exhaust all your warmachine ammunition before even attempting to enter the castles for close combat. Usually your warmachines can knock out half of their armies before your infantry sally forth. On a good day, your warmachines could probably take out the entire besieged army on their own, giving you a fresh and zero casualty army to continue your conquest.
7) As a priority, always attempt to shoot out those fast cavalry and skirmishers with concentrated firepower. Fast cav are DEVASTATING to your warmachines. If you lose your warmachines, you may as well quit the battle and start over. As stunty dwarfs cant get across most battlefields to save their lives, always remember, warmachines are your friend. PROTECT AT ALL COSTS. FAST CAVALRY are from the devil. Boon of stunties. Send them back to pits with superior firepower. If ever in doubt as to what units to shoot, always pick FAST CAVALRY and SKIRMISHERS.
8) KILL BORDER PRINCES ASAP. As most dwarf cities are fortresses, generating income is gonna be a huge pain in the butt. March one offensive stack from eight peaks and another from karak hirn. take border princes settlements and use them as farms and economic generators ASAP. As you will need to eventually support multiple army stacks to face waves of enemies, every little bit counts. DOn't be squeamish. KILL THOSE BORDER PRINCES! Also remember to spend your money on Bodyguard Hammerers as you will need administrators in each border prince town to maintain peace.
9) Always attempt to return EMPIRE towns and fortresses to EMPIRE factions. DOn't be greedy! Once you successfully conquer or siege a town, use a diplomat to gift those towns and fortresses back for a small sum of gold! A strong empire presence will help you LOADS when Storm of Chaos hits. Holding most empire towns and fortresses doesnt benefit you much in the long term. The extra generated income is always tempting, but by the time you successfuly convert the populace and built the infrastructure to support troop recruitment, you would have spent far more than the income those towns generate. And finding garrisons for all those towns are near impossible before storm of chaos hits. Dont be greedy but instead look to solidifying and upgrading your own dwarven KARAKS. If in doubt, give towns back to Reikland as they seem to be the only faction safe from being turned into chaos supporter thanks to Karl Franz scripting.
10) Focus starting resource on KARAK HIRN and citadel ZHUFBAR as this is an excellent staging point for early dwarven offensive armies. Also pump gold into building full stacks for Karak Kadrin so that you can retake the north eastern holds back from goblins and chaos dwarfs asap. DOnt panic if Karak Norn gets taken by beastmen in the early stages as it is quite easy to retake it with a strong enough army stack from Karak Hirn.
Of course there are still tons of other strategies and insights I would love to share. I am sure most CoW gamers have their own approach but this is just what works best for me. Remember, survive and build your armies in the first 45 turns. For a dwarf army the early and mid game prep is way more important than the actual Storm of Chaos incursion maneuvering. Save often and in different slots so that you can choose alternate approaches if something goes awry. Have fun smashing those orc+chaos hordes and save those foolish manlings while enjoying a swig of BUGMANS BREW!
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