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"Just as Sigmar was called "Dwarf-friend" in the World-That-Was, so too in this new world shall the Sons of Gurgni fight alongside Mankind in the struggle against Chaos. Grugni, the Forgemaster of the Duardin race, helped Sigmar shape the Sigmarite and it was by his hammer and anvil that the Great Gates of Azyheim were forged. The StormCast Eternals have been unleashed, the Age of Sigmar is at hand, and the Duardin Shieldhosts shall march forth and settle the Great Grudge once and for all."

I've played Dwarfs/Duardin since 2012 and look forward to doing so in AoS. I've been on deployment for the last several months, so I've missed all the GHB themed games, but I did buy an electronic copy from Black Library. All of my AoS gaming experience is from the original release date to April 2016. I have really enjoyed AoS though as it feels far less clunky than 7th and 8th ed were and more importantly, EVERY army is viable unlike in Oldhammer where there was an obvious tier system.

I’ve noticed that there are not many threads about Duardin and the few that exist are mainly for Fyreslayers, so I’ve decided to make this may thread for all Duardin tactics, my lists and provide links to my battle reports as they happen.

Please, feel free to post any questions, comments or concerns. I know I always liked finding good tactic threads on forums when I first started and I hope that this can grow to be of use to the community.

The Duardin Factions:
-Dwarfs
-Dispossessed
-Fyreslayers*
-Ironweld Arsenal

(*On Fyreslayers, I do not have their book so I’ll skip talking about them for now until I am home again in a few weeks and buy a copy. However, if any of you have Fyreslayer experience go ahead and post)

Overall Observations:
-Duardin seems to possess decent leadership and lots of ways to heavily mitigate or outright ignore Battle Shock.
-Above average armor saves for most infantry units/
-Outstanding shooting infantry and artillery, with access to Rending buffs via Runelords/
-Seems to lack having units that dish out high number of attacks besides Hammerers and Slayer units BUT their attacks overall seem to hit with a punch due to wounding buffs and Rending help making those hits stick.
-As an infantry based faction, they are a bit slow to maneuver, but that can be mitigated through use of Miners and Bugman’s Rangers for backfield shenanigans

I’ve only played 6 games with them before I deployed, 4 against Chaos (Slaves to Darkness and Blood Bound) and 2 against Sylvaneth. The GW I go to has apparently exploded in my absence and now has almost every army to fight against, though Chaos is still the most popular. In general I try to hold the center, take the tempo away from the opponent and grind them down while my firepower and/or miners clear the flanks. I noticed that Duardin are a late game win kind of force, with them taking hits a lot early game but grinding their way to victory by T4/T5.

Lists:
In the past, since this was pre-GHB, we just talked over what we would want to play and made lists that way. The only rule being, “don’t be a dick” and it worked out pretty well. For this thread I will assume that most people I will fight will probably want points due to the GHB being out now. I know there are lots of different ways to determine points, but for my lists I will only be using the GHB.

List 1: 1,000 points – “All Takers”
Josef Bugman - 100 (Leader, Warlord), Great Axe, Bugman's Rangers*
10x Miners - 100, Picks, Blasting Charges
20x Quarrellers - 240, Shields, Clan Banner, Bugman's Ranger*
10x Thunderers - 120, Shields, Clan Banner
20x Warriors - 200 (Battleline), Great Axe, Shields, Clan Banner
1x Cannon - 180 (Artillery)
5x Slayers - 60
TOTAL 1000

500 point add on to the 1k:
Grimm Burloksson - 100 (Leader)
Runelord - 80 (Leader)
10x Thunderers - 120, reinforcing the original Thunderer squad for a new total of 20.
10x Longbeards - 140 (Battleline), Great Axe, Shields, Clan Banner
5x Slayers - 60

The Plan at 1k:
Set up a strong center with the cannon, warriors and thunderers. Slayers will either babysit cannon or suicide charge into monsters as required. Meanwhile, Bugman will lead his Rangers along with the miners to cause havoc in the enemy’s backfield. Weakness – no army standard bearer or dispel buffs and no super fighty hero.

The Plan at 1500:
Same as before, but now I have Grimm and the Runelord to power up my thunderer and cannon shooting. The Longbeards will reinforce the line with the warriors and I will have another unit of slayers for monster slaying and flank guarding.

Suggestions going forward:
-Fighty Lord on shieldbearers
-Grudge Thrower for indirect fire
-buff thunderers and warriors up to 30x strong
-hammerers?

More to come.

Some quick notes:
Miners are actually 120
I find that 5 slayers end up being underwhelming (mathmatecially against a 4+ save they will only do 2-3 wounds)
The cannon with no engineer may feel like wasted points

I would probably lean toward 30 quarrellers instead of 20 and 10 miners (that protects the double shot bonus against the enemy sending a token ranged attack or spell to pull off 1 wound)

Since the list ends up being 1020, I would also consider replacing the cannon with either 10 Ironbreakers for a strong anvil or 2 runelords for -3 rend on thunderers

Alternatively, you could replace the cannon AND slayers with 10 more thunderers and Grimm Burlockson, which would fix the 20pt difference from miners being 120 and give the 20 thunderers 22".

All that being said, it looks like a well rounded list, and if you are looking to have fun rather than min-max, it would definitely succeed at that! (To the point where I am now considering trying it out in my next 1K game)

your warriors need to be split into 2 units of 10 as you need 2 battle lines.

Miners are 120 points

5 slayers would be a waste and as state cannon with no rune smith aint that good.

Drop the slayers and cannon. If you want to keep the army the same take a OG gaining you 120 points as you drop the slayers also and take grim and the 20 points go towards your miners.