Strategy Guide: The Dwarves

The sturdy folk’s with axes


Note: This isn’t written to the experts, but to the newbies

Initial Comments:

The dwarves is the good ones answer to both the orcs, and the goblins. They have sturdy units that doesn’t fall easily, and have the nicest wallbeaters in the game; Giant and Bombardier. Their Lvl1 units are a bit average and at lvl4 they suck, but at vl2 and 3 is everything else than average, they rock!

Diplomacy:

The Dwarves, as the halfling’s, doesnt have the diplomacy bonus neutrality gives, but they have nice relationships with the good races, which can give the Dwarves a nice advantage in the beginning(So you dont need to migrate towns etc to be friends with any of the good races).

Units:

The Dwarves have sturdy units, the Berseker, Giant and Bombardier are darn so good for their levels(The bombardier beats up catapult big-time). However, their lvl4 unit isnt that good, but it’s hell nice against Red dragons.


Lvl1 Units


Dwarf Archer

The dwarf archer is an average archer, but because its Dwarven, it has nice resistance, poison protection, cave crawling and mountaineering. That makes them fast in caves and nice to use near mountains; They can just flee up in them, where noone can touch them.

Dwarf Axeman

The Dwarf axeman is the average lvl1 infantry unit, as with the Dwarf archer, it has nice resistance, poison protection, cave crawling and mountaineering. That makes them fast in caves and nice to use near mountains; They can just flee up in them, where noone can touch them.

Dwarf Berserker

This is a real nice infantrykiller, read more about it at: “The Lvl1 infantrykillers”; The Berserker, Halfling Pony, Orc Swordsman.


Lvl2 Units


Dwarf Cleric

This is the average cleric, but with all the Dwarven stats, it goes out real nice. Mix them with Berserkers and archers and they make up a nice strike team.

Dwarf Boar-Rider

Mostly the average cavalry unit, they make up nice “strike n’ hide” stacks, as they flee into the mountains at the first sign of trouble. It has all the Dwarven stats except cave crawling, so this unit is mostly for surface missions.

Bombardier

The best Lvl2 wallbeater there is, fire cannon rocks! It has 5 att 8 dmg, compared to the catapults 3 att 7 dmg, that makes them useful for killing units, not just beating walls. When the wall is breached, you can use it as an ballista, killing units from long range with ease.


Lvl3 Units


This is where the Dwarves really shine, all their lvl3 units are really useful.

Giant

The giant is with no doubt the best wallbeater in the game, it has lots of hp, heavy melee damage, 32 Mp, and mountaineering. It has the power to beat up the other burly units. As it uses hurl boulder instead of wall crushing, it never needs to worry about ballistas hiding behind walls. Have some of these in your army, they wont slow down your army as much as catapults, or bombardiers.

Baloon

This is probably one of the better Lvl3 flyers in the game. Though it doesnt have any attack, it can transport 5 units fast across the map, put ballistas in baloons so they wont slow down your army, its much, much more effective than you think.

Dwarf Mole

This is a nice unit much like the goblin big beetle, but the beetle is slightly better, they have almost the same stats but the beetle has poison strike and 8 more Mp. But the mole is still very nice, and useful.


Lvl4 Unit


The Dwarf First born

The first born is an average Lvl4 unit, nice attack, dmg and hp makes out a nice unit. It’s a bit slow, 24 Mp isnt fast for a Lvl4 unit, but it has poison and fire immunity, and magic protection. That keeps it from being almost useless. Its a good Red Dragon killer, and it can kill hordes of enemys most other lvl4 units cant, but dont put your money on this unit, put them on more Giants!


Strategies:


The Dwarf rush

Though they only have 24 Mp, the Dwarves are incredibly fast in caves. This strategy almost only works in caves, as Dwarves are too slow on the surface. Install berserkers and produce in 50% of your towns, in the other towns, produce archers and regular axemen. Then just rush, use your archers and the regular swordsmen to beat up the archers, and let the berserkers beat up the swordsmen.

The Baloon tactic

This isn’t really a strategy or a tactic, it’s more of a tip.

Use Baloons to carry your slower units, natural barriers like water and wildfires are no longer safe barriers. Baloons are perfect for transporting slow units like ballistas, making your attack swift and powerful. Ballista has 20 Mp, baloon gives it 32, so every 2 turns you’ve gained 1 turn of movement, this is very useful for every unit that has <26 Mp.


Conclusion:

The Dwarves are a real powerful race, they host some of the powerfullest units in the game, and not to forget, they have a great tactical advantage in the baloon, that lets them traverse all terrain.

They’re a good race(both in alignment and strength), they host sturdy units, and some with great power.


This article was written by Silver_Dragon, with the help of the gamers at the AoWHeaven forum.