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As I titled the thread, I'm new. I've inheritated 50 dwarf warriors from a friend who is trying to get me into fantasy from 40k. What are some essential units for any dwarf army and why? Thanks.

What are these warriors equipped with? Hand Weapon/Shield or Great Weapons?

Cannons and organ guns. Dwarves have the best shooting in the game so you need to be sure to make the most of it. I've also seen quite a few people run the, Ahem.... ANIVL OF DOOM!!!!!

Anyway, lost of shooting and lots of war machines. You will also need a solid block of low cost melee fighters to guard the war machines but other than that its a pretty simple army.

Horde of GW warriors, couple of war machines to taste, some quareelers/thunders depending on what points you're willing to pay and hammerers backed up by a master engineer, power die stealing runesmith, BSB and tough as nails lord is the most common dwarf build I have seen, it is very succesful too. Those humble warriors can really take a beating and remain standing (Ld10 with a reroll from BSB irrc) and then proceed to dismantle even the most heavily armoured troops (Mark of Tzeentch hand weapon and shield warriors suffered and badly from them on several occasions )

Gunpowder units for sure. and some units with good magic resistance because the Dwarfs have a few.

is there any reason i would take organ guns over regular cannons?

Cannons:

Good against large units, units in buildings, big monsters, other warmachines.

Weak against: Skirmishers, units behind walls, thin lines, nearby targets.


Organ Guns:

Good against: Skirmishers, small infantry units, infantry in general.

Bad against: High toughness, multi-wound models.


Other considerations:

Cannons have better range.

Organ guns are easier to aim.

Great Weapon Warriors, Longbeards and Hammerers are the basic infantry units in most Dwarf armies. Sngle Dragon Slayers or small Ironbreaker units are quite common as chaff. If you like BS shooting, most go for Quarrellers with GW's, although Thunderers are becoming popular in a meta full of high armour stuff like Demigryphs where AP is getting more relavent.

I met the nastiest combination with grude throwers the other day that you may want to look into especially considering the number of hordes being played.

1 W/3 of the runes that increase strength
1 W/2 of the runes that increase strength
1 W/2 of the runes that increase strength and 1 other rune

Essentially it breakes down into an extremely powerful blast template that kills most hordes below t-5

Hey thanks for all the advice guys, its realy helping me along seriously. So im thinking 2 units of warriors w/ shields, 1 ironbreakers, 2 thunderers, 1 grudgethrower, 1 cannon, one organ gun. Thoughts?

Where are your great weapons?

well i was planning to stock up on hammerers fo that purpose

I2 dwarfs might as well have great weapons. My T3 state troops or T4 beastmen will be hitting you first anyway better to be wounding them on 2+ or 3+ and not 4+ or 5+. What are the 50 you inherited equipped with? See my 2nd post in this thread.

The 50 i have are all shield and hand weapons. 2 sets with full command.

Ok cool, yeah I would grab a box of warriors give them great weapons and stick them in the front rank and use the shield guys behind them. Most fantasy opponents will be cool with it as we are more laid back. Those that aren't you don't really want to play with anyway.

Roger that, thx for the advice!

Any additional warriors you get you could convert to hammers, that way they can be used as either great weapon warriors or hammerers see this guide here: http://www.bugmansbrewery.com/topic/20562-a-converters-guide-to-plastic-hammerers/

one more question... do hammerers get the armor bonus from shields (same thing goes for GW warriors) or is it a waste of points?

They would get the +1 armor save vs shooting, in combat they would have to use their great weapons.

As everybody is pointing, lots of cannons, lots of organ cannons and grudgethrowers so you can anihilate lots of goblins or rats. crossbowers are also a great option. I've used Hammerers but they're too expensive and die as any other dwarf, so one or two big units of warriors would do the same and are cheaper. The option of GW or weapon and shield depends on what do you want to use them for, you should test them both.

thanks again guys!

If your more thinking of your heroes and Lords, I normally roll with a Runesmith with Rune of Gromril or something like that so it makes them harder to kill, then have a Slayer unit lead by a Daemon Slayer or Dragon Slayer with Rune of Snorri (I think, its the one that does D3 instead of 1 wound per successful wound) or he has Rune of Alaric the Mad. I also run with a Thane for my 50 warriors with H/S and usually upgrade him with a BSB. Then have Bolt Throwers, 1 cannon and an Organ Gun, and sometimes a Flame Cannon.
My advice, SLAYERS AND OTHER SMALL UNITS WIN MATCHES!!!!
My small unit of 15 Giant slayers with Full Command and a Daemon Slayer have done far more than anything else in my army (my Lord aside) in games VS most other armies. I usually have one or two hoards (Warriors, Thunderers etc.) and have them backed up by a gun line so that the enemy focuses more on the hoardes, and then have a few small elite outflanker unit like Miners (works quite well), Slayers, Iron Breakers, Hammerers etc. or even Heroes like Dwarf Lords or Bugman work well.

A unit of Rangers Upgraded to Longbeards and equipped with Throwing Axes is a nasty suprise when deployed as scouts and backed up by Miners and a Gyrocopter. This is a nice game changer when a frequent opponent begins to adapt to your usual gunline.