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Hello all I'm putting my Dwarf army together and can't decide if I want my Long Beards to have hand weapon or great weapon. And experienced beards out there to help me out?

Not a dwarf player, but i've played against them enough, and i've had similar internal debates with myself over my mournfang (gw or ironfist).


Depends on what role you want the l-beards to play. HW+S = 4 up armor save, and a parry save which is pretty nice on T4 models. That can take a while to chew through for standard str 3 infantry.

That said, STR 6, 7 on a charge, is pretty nice, and the "always strikes last" pretty much doesn't matter b/c you're dwarfs. You're striking last anyhow 90% of the time. Not a dwarf expert by any means, is there a way of granting the unit a 5 up or better ward reliably ? If so i'd run with great weapons myself, but i'm sure i'll be in the minority.

Tough call. I faced the same thing with my Mournfang in my ogres. Conventional wisdom said to run HW+IF, but ya know... every now and then its fun to rock the great weapons (and the models with great weapons are infinitely more intimidating looking).


For dwarves, assuming there's no native inborn way to get them a ward save reliably, i'd probably slightly lean more towards hand weapon and shield if they are going to be forming a big block of your core, only because the more that survive = the more can strike back. GW makes it harder for them to live.

Then again, if you like GW's, go for it.



BTW i love the new dwarf kit models. I intend on getting some longbeards and firedrakes and converting them up to join my chaos dwarf ranks.

Its been about a decade since I played Dwarves, but in the older editions, great weapons were the weapon of choice for me. At such a low initiative, they were going to hit last on pretty much anything anyway, so might as well do it with some punch. But it also may depend on what you want them to do, a tarpit would probably want head weapon and shield, but for killing, I'd go with great weapons.

But like I said, its been awhile, like 5th or 6th Edition. I'm sure some more current players can weigh in.

Arrr! Ninja'd!

 nels1031 wrote:
Its been about a decade since I played Dwarves, but in the older editions, great weapons were the weapon of choice for me. At such a low initiative, they were going to hit last on pretty much anything anyway, so might as well do it with some punch. But it also may depend on what you want them to do, a tarpit would probably want head weapon and shield, but for killing, I'd go with great weapons.

But like I said, its been awhile, like 5th or 6th Edition. I'm sure some more current players can weigh in.

Arrr! Ninja'd!

THis is where "role" comes into play. If you're running the l-beards in a smaller formation with the intention of going monster / big'un hunting, or flank charging, yeah GW all day long. If you're arming them as your anvil core unit, HW+S.

I didn't play back in the days of 5th and 6th, so hard to comment there. I would say its pretty much whether or not you want the unit to be a tarpit or a not-quite-glass-but-almost hammer.

 Haight wrote:
Not a dwarf player, but i've played against them enough, and i've had similar internal debates with myself over my mournfang (gw or ironfist).


Depends on what role you want the l-beards to play. HW+S = 4 up armor save, and a parry save which is pretty nice on T4 models. That can take a while to chew through for standard str 3 infantry.

That said, STR 6, 7 on a charge, is pretty nice, and the "always strikes last" pretty much doesn't matter b/c you're dwarfs. You're striking last anyhow 90% of the time. Not a dwarf expert by any means, is there a way of granting the unit a 5 up or better ward reliably ? If so i'd run with great weapons myself, but i'm sure i'll be in the minority.

It's called having a shield and getting charged.

Dwarfs have a special rule called "Shieldwall" where they get a +1 bonus to their Parry Save when any of their units with shield/hand weapons are charged.

My standard warriors are going hand weapon and shield and I want them next to the long beards to benefit From the old grumbler rule. Tes shield wall is great best for the ironbreakers but that extra punch is nice too. Sorry been away from fantasy for a while and am torn between the great weapon and shield for the guys standing next to my 30 strong warriors. And most likely they are going to be 30 strong as well.

Depends what you are running next to them, the most competitive way would be to equip your normal warriors with GW and have shields on your longbeards. In saying that though if you have ironbreakers then put GW's on your longbeards. You need something with a bit of punch.

A good tactic is to generally have one unit as the anvil and one as the hammer. Personally all my warriors have HW + shields and my longbeards have GW but i'm not the most competitive and they were modelled a few editions ago.

That's exactly what I was thinking about doing was long beards with GW and warriors with hand weapon and shield. But I do plan on running hammerers but that might be a while. But I do love the idea of the ironbreakers with their 5+parry save.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Haight wrote:
Not a dwarf player, but i've played against them enough, and i've had similar internal debates with myself over my mournfang (gw or ironfist).


Depends on what role you want the l-beards to play. HW+S = 4 up armor save, and a parry save which is pretty nice on T4 models. That can take a while to chew through for standard str 3 infantry.

That said, STR 6, 7 on a charge, is pretty nice, and the "always strikes last" pretty much doesn't matter b/c you're dwarfs. You're striking last anyhow 90% of the time. Not a dwarf expert by any means, is there a way of granting the unit a 5 up or better ward reliably ? If so i'd run with great weapons myself, but i'm sure i'll be in the minority.

It's called having a shield and getting charged.

Dwarfs have a special rule called "Shieldwall" where they get a +1 bonus to their Parry Save when any of their units with shield/hand weapons are charged.

I know that silly! I meant more of a global ward. Shieldwall does feth all against magic and shooting.

 Haight wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Haight wrote:
Not a dwarf player, but i've played against them enough, and i've had similar internal debates with myself over my mournfang (gw or ironfist).


Depends on what role you want the l-beards to play. HW+S = 4 up armor save, and a parry save which is pretty nice on T4 models. That can take a while to chew through for standard str 3 infantry.

That said, STR 6, 7 on a charge, is pretty nice, and the "always strikes last" pretty much doesn't matter b/c you're dwarfs. You're striking last anyhow 90% of the time. Not a dwarf expert by any means, is there a way of granting the unit a 5 up or better ward reliably ? If so i'd run with great weapons myself, but i'm sure i'll be in the minority.

It's called having a shield and getting charged.

Dwarfs have a special rule called "Shieldwall" where they get a +1 bonus to their Parry Save when any of their units with shield/hand weapons are charged.

I know that silly! I meant more of a global ward. Shieldwall does feth all against magic and shooting.

Banner rune which gives the bearer a 4+ ward and every unit within 12" a 5+ ward.

 thedarkavenger wrote:

 Haight wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Haight wrote:
Not a dwarf player, but i've played against them enough, and i've had similar internal debates with myself over my mournfang (gw or ironfist).


Depends on what role you want the l-beards to play. HW+S = 4 up armor save, and a parry save which is pretty nice on T4 models. That can take a while to chew through for standard str 3 infantry.

That said, STR 6, 7 on a charge, is pretty nice, and the "always strikes last" pretty much doesn't matter b/c you're dwarfs. You're striking last anyhow 90% of the time. Not a dwarf expert by any means, is there a way of granting the unit a 5 up or better ward reliably ? If so i'd run with great weapons myself, but i'm sure i'll be in the minority.

It's called having a shield and getting charged.

Dwarfs have a special rule called "Shieldwall" where they get a +1 bonus to their Parry Save when any of their units with shield/hand weapons are charged.

I know that silly! I meant more of a global ward. Shieldwall does feth all against magic and shooting.

Banner rune which gives the bearer a 4+ ward and every unit within 12" a 5+ ward.

Then i'd do GW's all the way, assuming the longbeards can take that banner rune.


Tha's a hell of a nice banner !

It's a 4+ ward to the bearer, and a 5+ against shooting only for anyone within 12", still very very very good and almost auto-include for your BSB since we all want to put a 4+ ward on him anyways.

I'm always tossing between GW and HW+Shield for Long Beards. The S7 on the charge is really nice, but S5 is a solid trade off for having 4+ 6++/5++ in close combat.

I would strongly consider hammerers for a unit with more teeth though, not much more expensive than GW Long Beads and 2 attacks base is very hard hitting.

 Haight wrote:

 thedarkavenger wrote:

 Haight wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Haight wrote:
Not a dwarf player, but i've played against them enough, and i've had similar internal debates with myself over my mournfang (gw or ironfist).


Depends on what role you want the l-beards to play. HW+S = 4 up armor save, and a parry save which is pretty nice on T4 models. That can take a while to chew through for standard str 3 infantry.

That said, STR 6, 7 on a charge, is pretty nice, and the "always strikes last" pretty much doesn't matter b/c you're dwarfs. You're striking last anyhow 90% of the time. Not a dwarf expert by any means, is there a way of granting the unit a 5 up or better ward reliably ? If so i'd run with great weapons myself, but i'm sure i'll be in the minority.

It's called having a shield and getting charged.

Dwarfs have a special rule called "Shieldwall" where they get a +1 bonus to their Parry Save when any of their units with shield/hand weapons are charged.

I know that silly! I meant more of a global ward. Shieldwall does feth all against magic and shooting.

Banner rune which gives the bearer a 4+ ward and every unit within 12" a 5+ ward.

Then i'd do GW's all the way, assuming the longbeards can take that banner rune.


Tha's a hell of a nice banner !

I think it only applies to shooting and magic. I dunno though. I only care for real armies.