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Old World Almanack – How the Dwarfen Mountain Holds Fare in Battle

This week, the focus is back on Warhammer: The Old World, and we cast our eyes to the rocky fastnesses of the Dwarfen Mountain Holds as their first wave of units hit pre-orders this Saturday.

Accordingly, the Old World Almanack returns for a series of chats with Danny and JTY, two of the key designers behind the whole project. Today they’re talking about the rules: how do the Dwarfs play, and what’s different about their two Armies of Infamy – the Royal Clan and the Expeditionary Force?

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JTY: The Grand Army was designed to be very, very tanky – which fits the stubborn nature of Dwarfs to a tee. They stand in their deployment zone and blow the heck out of anything that comes near them, and they’re immovable when charged. Dwarfs are a foil to heavy cavalry armies, because they are capable of forming a Shield Wall which cavalry bounces off.

There are a couple of different dynamics here. The army is more manoeuvrable than it’s ever been, due to many units being Drilled and using Marching Columns, which Dwarf players have lacked in the past. They won’t be able to use these qualities as well as an Empire army might, but there are still tricks to be found.

I like the combination of Stubborn and Shield Wall – which feels really thematically Dwarfish, and it’s very strong. It cripples a First Charge, and cavalry’s ability to follow up with lances. Dwarfs won’t break if they lose combat, and they’ll only give ground, which causes any charge to lose all of its momentum.

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Danny: Quite often, Dwarf armies favour a strong core of units armed with handguns or crossbows, and a couple of anvil units. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the Armies of Infamy change how people approach building their armies. Are we going to see Expeditionary Forces with squadrons of Gyrocopters and Slayers rushing forwards, and are the Royal Clans going to let their Hammerers, Longbears and Royal Clan Warriors step across the table and say ‘come on, let’s ‘av it’?

JTY: Magic is a big factor in Warhammer: the Old World. Dwarfs have magic defence, and they have Anvils of Doom. For even more counter play, they have Runepriests who, whilst not being Wizards, are well versed in the arts of dispelling enemy magic They’re countermagic wizards! Combine them with innate Magic Resistance, and it’s very difficult to afflict Dwarfs with Hexes and Magic Missiles. Vortexes are more effective because they’re cast around Dwarfs – but most spells are very hard to get off. And if you need to shut a wizard down further, take the ‘Rune of No Magic for You, Thanks’.

Danny: The Master Rune of Calm…

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JTY: There’s the Rune of Hesitation as well – where a charging unit loses many of the benefits. That’s quite annoying. Runic Tattoos are something new in the Arcane Journal for Slayers and Doomseekers (who can also be taken as Mercenaries in Empire armies). 

Danny: Lots of players enjoy fielding dragons and other big monsters, which Dwarfs lack. But you know what’s really good at killing dragons? Dwarf Lords with runic weapons and cannon batteries.

Everything you need to make a good Dwarf army will be released over the next couple of months. 

JTY: Indeed, and as we saw with the release of the Orc and Goblin Tribes, once an army becomes available and people begin playing more games with it, people learn what it can do. It takes a couple of months for everyone to adjust – and every game feels fresh.

Danny: The meta is going to do this every time a new faction is released. Remember: we have nine core factions, of which only a third are available at present. We’re letting things unfold naturally, but once the last faction has been released, everyone will be playing games of Warhammer: the Old World on a far more even field, complete with their Grand Army, their Armies of Infamy, and more.

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JTY: The Expeditionary Force plays quite differently to a Dwarf army made using the Grand Army list. The Engineers are much more offensive than a normal Dwarf army, with some quicker-moving units and lots of war machines, black powder, and experimental Gyrocopters, tied together with new runes for ranged weapons. 

Danny: It allowed us to explore the idea of what an Engineers Guild army might look like. This is not your classic throng of Dwarfs defending a hold or heading out to slay a monster – this is the guild investing in a venture.  

Miners have a major role to play, and there are rules for carts – specifically the one you get in their box, plus the old Bugman’s Cart. 

They are particularly useful for the engineers. The Miners’ Cart is full of blasting charges, so any unit nearby can start hurling explosives at the enemy. Bugman’s Cart does what you imagine it would do – it raises the spirits of Dwarfs in the vicinity* and gets them moving faster.

It’s nice to give models like these a purpose, rather than using it as unit dressing. 

JTY: The Engineers also get Scout Gyrocopters, which have lighter weapons and no bombs. This is an option that can be assembled straight from the box, so no kitbashing is required.

Danny: It’s a fast-moving skirmisher with a tapping weapon; it’s not a gunship, but it can zip around the flanks and annoy enemy war machines.

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JTY: The other Army of Infamy is the Royal Clan. This is for the old grumblers and the longbeards, the traditionalists – the Dwarfiest of Dwarf armies. This is the King or Queen’s family and their household. They’re very wealthy and very set in their ways, so they don’t use black powder or new-fangled contraptions, but they do have a lot of money to spend on runes, and there are some very tasty options as a result. 

There are Royal Clan Warriors, which you build from the Hammerers kit using the hand weapons and shields found on the frame. As members of the Royal Clan, they’re just that little bit better than ordinary Dwarf Warriors. One of the big things we’re trying to do with every army is find different options that exist on the sprue, to give players more of an opportunity to kitbash.

Danny: We want something that existing collectors of armies can get excited about. These Armies of Infamy allow veteran players to get enthused about a different facet of their existing force, and to add new units to their existing collection. The Royal Clan is the kind of army that long-standing Dwarf players might see and think ‘That’s my kind of army’, whereas the Expeditionary Force is something other players might consider exciting. They’re the younger Dwarfs who are more interested in being a bit more experimental – it’s nice to have the contrast and appeal to very different players.

JTY: We haven’t done the Slayer army which people might have expected – in the same way that we didn’t do Night Goblins. It’s almost too obvious, so maybe we’re saving them for the future. You can build a Slayer-heavy army if you take Ungrim Ironfist as the general of a Royal Clan; he is the king of the Slayer Hold, after all.

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Danny: There are loads of awesome things we’d have loved to have done straight out of the gate, but some of those armies are so cool, thematic, and popular that they warrant taking the time to be done right.

JTY: There are only a finite number of pages in an Arcane Journal, and I’ve got a big list of themes we’ve not explored yet…

Danny: There’s a lot in the cupboard still.

JTY: In fact, most of the ideas the fans have had are almost certainly ideas we've also discussed. After all, we're Old World fans as well, and we get to talk about this stuff a lot!

Thanks guys! The Old World Almanack will return on Thursday with a discussion of the lore and what the Dwarfs are up to during this period.

* Dwarfs tend to be big fans of a shapely pony and a well-turned wheel.