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Like the title says, I am playing 8th edition and can not beat my friends dwarfs army. I am still kind of new and a lot less experience then him, but it seems it is damn near impossible to even come close to him. Love the game, but I would love some imput. I did search for this, but nothing too specific

I'll bring any number of combinations of units. Lots of Chaos warriors and cavalry with some gorebeast chariots and marauders depending on the situation. Warriors are sometimes sometimes Khorne, but more often then not it is usually either Nurgle or Tzeentch with Tzeentch having the blasted standard if they are in it at all. The later being more Juggernauts then knights as juggernauts seem more point efficient except against cannons. For Heroes and Lords, I usually go decked up Lord on a disc or Valkia. Sorcerers have completly failed me and as the one time my spell that went through and wasn't dispelled hurt my own unit. I hate the idea of using Demon Princes because he likes to throw in several Slayer heroes or lords. On top of that, my regular lords and heroes are completely outmatched. Bit of a gripe with GW on this one, I thought we were the duelists while we get more general use stuff compared to dwarfs. If I use my characters at all, there is one or more of his characters that can do me in so I end up rarely ever using my characters at all. Again, sorcery doesn't work in all the times I have used it.

It SEEMS the only things that I have on his army, mobility and magic, don't work. The former is ridiculously tough for me with usually dividing up my army and my units getting picked off one by one and the later is gimmicky. Now my friend does have a lot more experience and we usually play attacker/defender scenarios in the main rule book. He is the one that usually sets up the scenario and more importantly, the terrain, and a lot of the time I get a sneaking suspicion that the deck might be stacked against me because of that. Lots of dangerous terrain, impassable turrain on his flanks, etc. Again, he has a lot more experience and I don't want to sound butthurt, but that does cross my mind. I don't think he goes to this board, but if you are reading this by chance and know that it is you (insert name here) please don't be pissed. This is not for sure :p

I don't want to sound whiney, I do like the game. I have asked this on a different forum, and got tricks but very little strategy. IE: Sorcery level 4 Nurgle demon prince+familiar and hope you get the vortex spell, fly in the center out in the open first round and hope to god you get it off. As much as I would like to blame it on GW for imbalanced armies, I still think it is more me and not figuring out how to outflank without being torn to shreds

Why don't you try setting up the terrain some time? Or follow the rules in the book and take turns placing pieces. It sounds like that may not be up to snuff.

As a Dwarf player, a Dwarf army shouldn't be terribly hard to crack.

Could you post an example of a list they've used? or better yet, take notes during a game and post the battle report in this thread? Then we can figure out what sort of tactics they're using and you're using and try to uplift yours.

On the Terrain, yes, that is one of the reasons I think he might be fudging things a little. I have to fight to get him to try and share or role off, but there is a lot of, "trust me".


On giving a battle report, I don't want to be too specific. In the small chance he figures out it is him, he could get pissed

Hm, makes it tougher.

Well, Slayer heros/lords as chaff can easily be cleared up with marauder horsemen or really any fast moving unit, letting your Daemon Princes plow through unmolested. Unless they're taking a block of Slayers, in which case congratulations, they've basically handicapped themselves and you can throw a block of warriors at it with wild abandon while your Prince flies overhead.

Got any Hellcannons?

I think you're overvaluing the value of outflanking. It's nice, but unless you have units for it (marauder horsemen, hellstriders of slaanesh, chaos lords/champions on magic carpets) it's not going to work out in your favor. A big block of chaos warriors should be able to meet most dwarf blocks head on and win out, especially with hero support. A Chaos Lord is one of the scariest lords in the game, imho.

Dogs should take care of slayers or any tough unit.

Put them in pizza slice formation and zip them 1 inch in front of the unit at a funny angle which would lead them away from the fight.

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The dogs die, but should gain you advantage if done correctly.

Reinforcements inbound.

1. Consider chaos undivided. Marks give good bonuses but the costs add up quickly. Your army is naturally nasty, you do not necessarily need to spend extra to make them even nastier, just take more.

2. Warhounds shut down a gun line long enough for your melee troops to get into combat.

3. The more vhampions you take the more you need a warshrine, make sure you are packing a daemon prince, and spawn model, just in case.

4. Chariots need to break the opponent on the charge dwarfs don't break so they are of comparatively limited utility, besides dwarfs like great weapons a lot, which is bad for your chariots.

5. Trolls are your monsterous unit of choice.

Rihgu: On his heroes, Slayer varaints are out of a unit of them, but not necessarily on the front lines. He brings them out once things are cleared out enough with crossbows and warmachines. He likes at least a block of 20 crossbowmen next to one of his cannons at his sides. 2 blocks of 20 crossbowmen in case it is a big game and he is defending. Just recently started trying to use marauder horsemen, and though I doubt and will survive to use them on any character, I hope to give him some problems with them. I think On Hellcannons, I have another friend who played with us and he rarely did much damage. Only a small chance the shot doesn't move so it can do max damage, other wise it can only give one medium strength hit for 1 wound on a couple of models. The fighting capability is kinda meh as well, I would rather have more stable units for that price.

StygianBeach: Warhounds with vanguard? Certain situations that might work, but considering how squishy they are and their leadership aint all that great I can see them running or shot off the table before much can be done. Still a maybe. Might play around with it

Orlanth: Unmarked is definitely an idea, but IMO they are around the same level as hammerers and ironbreakers and they cost him less. Yes they are special units, but I think he likes to take a big block of one, depending on the scenario



Thanks to everyone for the comments. Just wanted to point out, I have made big mistakes in games and every game is a different scenario hard for me to figure out and predict what my friend is bringing all the while my list isn't going to change that much. My friend is VERY passionate about it, I don't think he is trying to cheat with terrain. Just maybe bias on what is or what is not fair.

For magic you need shadows wizards. Go shadows for all of them, you need not take a sorcerer lord.

Shadows have two dodge or die spells, these will draw out the dispels, especially Pit of Shades. Dwarfs fear initiative save spells with good reason.

However maxing out on shadows will also mean other indirect death spells. Strength debuffs kill offensive power very effectively. and the Withering will enable a damage spike.
Dwarfs cannot dispel them all.
Steed of Shadows will get a character away from a slayer gank squad and the lord attribute can better position your own characters for the kill.

A power stone can turn a remaining one or two dice into a serious manace after the dwarfs have used up all their defences for a turn. This could be a good means to sneak in Pit of Shades or The Wirthering. Both are a death sentence.

Don't give up on your sorcerers, use the correct magic. Shadows is the tool for the job.

marauderbob wrote:

StygianBeach: Warhounds with vanguard? Certain situations that might work, but considering how squishy they are and their leadership aint all that great I can see them running or shot off the table before much can be done. Still a maybe. Might play around with it

Exactly! That is the point.

You take small units of 5 (without Vanguard) which will cost 30 points. If he shoots them with a his big shooters you are winning.

If you think Vanguard would help, then you will be dropping 40 points per unit. But you don't need to charge with them, just sit them 1 inch in front of the unit so he has to deal with them before he can actually take points from you. Every turn he shoots at your dogs is a turn wasted from his point of view.