Chapter 3: The Warfare of the Dwarf-Things
"We fight to protect our kinfolk, we fight to defend our clans, but more importantly we fight to uphold our honour. Never forget the torment we have suffered and for each and every wrong our enemies heaped upon our ancestors, they shall repay the debt in blood. For we are sons of Grungni; alone we are rocks, united we stand with the strength of a mountain."
Dwarf King Alrik at the defence of Karak Hirn.
- Warhammer Wiki,
Dwarf
The warfare of the dwarf-things is impressive, yes-yes? It’s hard to convince rats from the slave warrens to charge into a line of sturdy dwarf miners. Skavenslaves know that their rusty blades are a poor match for pick-axes that can break rock and stone. The dwarfs wear well-made armour and have strong will to stand and endure whatever their enemies throw against them. Fighting dwarfs is like attacking a wall of stone.
A daunting prospect, yes-yes? Even so, as the dwarfs demonstrate with their deep-down delving, a wall of stone can be fractured and broken. As our infantry came within the range of the dwarf-things with crossbows, the stamping of our feet on the hard-frozen ground was accompanied by the sickening thud of their quarrels slamming into Skaven flesh.
Our wolf rats ran around a low hill, behind the dwarf-things, and charged towards the unprotected rear of the enemy’s line. But Kazran Truthteller, the dwarf commander, was a quick thinker. He anticipated our surprise attack and turned his personal guard to protect the rear of their crossbow-dwarfs. Many of our wolf rats sprinted around the flank of Truthteller’s bodyguard, but some were caught.
The wolf rats charge
The fighting spirit of Skavenslaves – and even clan-rats - hangs by a single hair, but fortunately our flesh laboratory had done its work well. As the jaws of our wolf rats struck at the rear of the enemy crossbow-dwarfs, our rat ogres ran ahead of our line. Our rat ogres would crack-split the wall of dwarf miners, and our Skavenslaves and clan-rats with swords would pour into the cracks in their line. The battle at Khazad Bordkarag was a good opportunity to see the latest product of our flesh lab in action: a mutant rat ogre, even larger than the usual kind and with a blade-arm that can strike fear even into the stoniest of dwarf-hearts.
The mutant rat ogre reaches the dwarf-things