Dwarf campaign - help with army composition mid-late game

[Strategy_Game_Lover]

I am at around turn 65, with nothing but the Greenskins (5 southernmost settlements - they confederate like it is nothing) to the Southwest; and the Red fangs/eyes with 4 settlements to the North - BTW, they picked fights with too many and are having their core settlements razed without me doing anything

I am currently using the following army usually - 2 cannons, 2-3 thunderers, 4-5 quarrellers, 2-3 longbeards, rest dwarf-warriors. It has let me steamroll the greenskins, but as I gear up to face the Chaos, I think I will need better armies. Some suggestions would be very helpful.

Also one more thing - enemy artillery scares me, especially those damn hellcannons. As Empire, I just used my cavalry to take care of them, but what do I do as Dwarves? They are just so slow, and the Empire artillery was simply better!

[gachi is manly]

Gyrocopters make short work out of Hellcannons. The AI doesn't leave units back to defend them so it's simple to just fly a gyro over and mess them up.

If you're gearing up to fight Chaos you'll want an army almost the exact opposite in composition to one for fighting Greenskins. Tons of armor piercing (great wep Longbeards and Hammerers) and siege weapons, since Chaos is a slow army with tons of armored units. When Archeaon shows up he's bound to have some Chaos giants in the armies that spawn, so throwing a unit of slayers in; and/or bolthrowers and a master engineer are good pickups to pick apart giants. Brimstone gun Gyros are good too since Chaos lacks shooting to deal with them.

[Strategy_Game_Lover]

Originally posted by Lyle Ugleman:

Gyrocopters make short work out of Hellcannons. The AI doesn't leave units back to defend them so it's simple to just fly a gyro over and mess them up.

If you're gearing up to fight Chaos you'll want an army almost the exact opposite in composition to one for fighting Greenskins. Tons of armor piercing (great wep Longbeards and Hammerers) and siege weapons, since Chaos is a slow army with tons of armored units.

Wow, gyrocopters will be very usefull then.

As for army composition - damn, what do I do with my current armies (5 full stacks) which are pretty much dwarf warriors + quarrellers? Also, can you suggest an example army against the Chaos?

EDIT: Thanks, you put in some suggestions in the edit :)

[gachi is manly]

Dwarf warriors will do okay against regular Chaos Warriors but get ripped apart by great weapon warriors/chosen. You'll want to engage those guys with armor piercing troops of your own after you shoot the crap out of them with your ranged. Target the stuff with the nasiest armor piercing damage like Great wep chosen with your artillery. Trolls die easily to mass Quarreler fire. In my experiences you can route trolls before they even get into combat by shooting the crap out of them.

Thunderers would do better than Quarrelers against armor, but Quarrelers are just so solid you could get away with keeping them. Thunderers also require more micromanagement to get the most out of them, such as leaving gaps into your battle line for them to shoot.

If you have access to Regiments of Renown, Grumbling Guard longbeards are amazing. Their vigor buff is very nice. Runesmith and Runelord buffs stack, so that's also an easy way to crush anything the AI can come up with.

Example army to fight Chaos:

Runelord
Runesmith
Master Engineer
3 Ironbreakers
4 Hammerers
Grumbling Guard Longbeards
5 Thunderers/Quarrelers
2-3 Artillery
1-2 Brimstone Gyrocopter

Can also sub in slayers as Chaos doesn't have much shooting to ruin their day.

[Skarbrand]

Lots of good suggestions here, but one thing that hasn't been mentioned are Thunderers, their guns give them great AP damage which lets them tear Chaos units apart, and since Chaos units are slow, you'll have plenty of firing time before they impact your lines.

Leave just enough of a gap between your units in your front line for them to fire, and you'll kill hundreds of Chaos top tier units per battle with them.

And then Thunderers are mentioned as I post.

[gachi is manly]

Originally posted by KNIGHTOF #DRAMA:

Leave just enough of a gap between your units in your front line for them to fire, and you'll kill hundreds of Chaos top tier units per battle with them.

Yes, that's very good advice. If you plan it out well, you can trap the enemy when they try to get between those gaps and then they're stuck in melee while getting shot by the thunderers. Best way to use any "rifle" units IMO.

I also forgot to mention great weapon Rangers. They're also good picks against armored units.

[Strategy_Game_Lover]

A lot of thanks to both of you for taking the effort to offer help :)

One small question - do I just slowly disband and replace my current armies. Or send them on suicide missions against the Scraelings/Vargs - I have no other enemies. Or I could just use this pooprtunity to wipe out the Vampires. They are good friends of mine and keep asking me to go to war against the Empire lol

Originally posted by KNIGHTOF #DRAMA:

Lots of good suggestions here, but one thing that hasn't been mentioned are Thunderers, their guns give them great AP damage which lets them tear Chaos units apart, and since Chaos units are slow, you'll have plenty of firing time before they impact your lines.

Leave just enough of a gap between your units in your front line for them to fire, and you'll kill hundreds of Chaos top tier units per battle with them.

And then Thunderers are mentioned as I post.

Do you have a link to a pic or video where I can see this in action. Last time I tried it myself and it didn't work out so well

[Xhal]

Here's my typical setup :

Early game :

1 lord
5 quarellers
14 dwarf warriors

Later on replace warriors with longbears and whatever RoR you can get.

End game :

1 lord (If you can't get enough heroes recruit a runelord instead they are fine with no heroes.)
1 thane
1 runesmith
1 master engineer
2 brimstone gun gyrocopters
2 organ guns
4 thunderers
8 Ironbreakers.

For runelord armies with no heroes its the same but replace the 3 heroes with 3 hammerers and use them the same way to target ennemy lords and heroes.

Basic strat is to setup on an elevated position ideally corner of the map so you have the 2 edges of the map covering your flanks.

This still works without corners of the map but you need to watch your flanks closely with a couple of ironbreakers.

Group your master engineer in the middle of the 4 thunderers he should also be in range of organ guns.

Set your whole army to guard mode, you aren't gonna chase anyone, except maybe the gyros.

Setup the organ guns on the highest ground then thunderers slightly below them and ironbreakers the lowest you can get them.

Soon as the battle starts fly out with gyros and go destroy their artillery as soon as they leave it away from their army. Set melee mode if no other units are around you will kill faster than with guns and it saves ammo.

Focus fire with organ guns on big monsters like spiders/giants/trolls/terrogheist.
Else shoot their ranged infantry.

Also use thunderers to focus fire whatever large monster or range infantry you can.

Sent your lord/thane/runesmith at their lords and heroes or else in the thickest fighting and buff your troops.

If their lord is on a giant mount like a dragon or wyvern you will kill him so fast its not even funny.

If you're fighting on open field you might be able to get thunderers flanking them or behind them, while its a good move to do if done well its not mandatory, only try it if you have nothing else to shoot at.

Its rather easy with dwarfs to shoot large monster over the heads of your warriors so always target those first with your range.

[Strategy_Game_Lover]

Originally posted by Xhal:

Here's my typical setup :

Early game :

1 lord
5 quarellers
14 dwarf warriors

Later on replace warriors with longbears and whatever RoR you can get.

End game :

1 lord (If you can't get enough heroes recruit a runelord instead they are fine with no heroes.)
1 thane
1 runesmith
1 master engineer
2 brimstone gun gyrocopters
2 organ guns
4 thunderers
8 Ironbreakers.

For runelord armies with no heroes its the same but replace the 3 heroes with 3 hammerers and use them the same way to target ennemy lords and heroes.

Basic strat is to setup on an elevated position ideally corner of the map so you have the 2 edges of the map covering your flanks.

This still works without corners of the map but you need to watch your flanks closely with a couple of ironbreakers.

Group your master engineer in the middle of the 4 thunderers he should also be in range of organ guns.

Set your whole army to guard mode, you aren't gonna chase anyone, except maybe the gyros.

Setup the organ guns on the highest ground then thunderers slightly below them and ironbreakers the lowest you can get them.

Soon as the battle starts fly out with gyros and go destroy their artillery as soon as they leave it away from their army. Set melee mode if no other units are around you will kill faster than with guns and it saves ammo.

Focus fire with organ guns on big monsters like spiders/giants/trolls/terrogheist.
Else shoot their ranged infantry.

Also use thunderers to focus fire whatever large monster or range infantry you can.

Sent your lord/thane/runesmith at their lords and heroes or else in the thickest fighting and buff your troops.

If their lord is on a giant mount like a dragon or wyvern you will kill him so fast its not even funny.

If you're fighting on open field you might be able to get thunderers flanking them or behind them, while its a good move to do if done well its not mandatory, only try it if you have nothing else to shoot at.

Its rather easy with dwarfs to shoot large monster over the heads of your warriors so always target those first with your range.

Thank you for these detailed tips - these will be very helpful

[Strategy_Game_Lover]

The tip about leaving small gaps in your melee front line for your Thunderers to shoot through has turned out to be great. It also means I have a couple of infantry units extra to protect my flanks. I have used it against Greenskins only at the moment, but they do a ton of damage to mid-tier units. I suddenly see my Quarrelers as less important now. Perhaps 4 Thunderers + 2-3 Quarrellers + Master Engineer in an army will make it a killing machine!