How to play the Dwarfs in Total War: Warhammer 2 | Roster & Battle Strategy 

Gotta love how the Dwarfs are willing to pack on an extra 20 pounds of plate armor just to protect the beard.

4:14 "And once they do fall, they get off one last attack" **Slayer gets picked up by Troll, punches troll in the face before death**

I disagree with a few things here. Firstly the role of most dwarven infantry is to hold the lines and allow your artillery and missile units to do the actual killing. So other than maybe 1 or 2 great weapon/hammerer units the rest should be shielded units to hold the line as long as possible with thier extra defence and missile resistance. Slayers should never be front line units for this reason, their lack of armour means they just melt. Have 1 or two in reserve with the missile units to punish any cav units that try to disrupt them. Irondrakes and trollpeados are great, but very specialised missile units. They are also micro intensive. 1 or 2 of them total is enough, and the rest should be thunderers, quarelers or rangers which are much more versatile and can damage both cav and infantry without the same micro. Also quarelers should nearly always have their shields as they should never really get into melee and their shields will block incoming missile fire from the enemy allowing them to win missile skirmishes. Gyrocopters are also micro intensive, though can be useful in certain circumstances. Apart from killing enemy artillery and chasing enemy units off the map there are other dwarven units that do a better job. Finally you only had 6 melee units in your example army, 2 of which were slayers. As a result your army was flanked and surrounded, which made an easy battle much more chaotic and difficult. I use at least 8 defensive units to hold the line and then use other units to do the killing.

Hammers are exactly how you "pierce" armour. If you move to stab a steel shell with a steel blade , you wont do anything other than damage or break the blade. But hammers are a sure way to dish out some internal bleeding and burger meat organ syndrome.

4:54 ‘They also inflict AP damage, but I’m sure how because hammers don’t seem to pierce armour’ Warhammers historically were used as anti-armour weapons, the small head of historical warhammers concentrated the force of the swing on a small area of armour to either break through or dent the armour sufficiently and with enough force to make contact with the body and break bones within. Most warhammers also had a spike or beak on the opposite side which was even better at piercing armour and stabbing the wearer underneath. In the case of hammerers, their hammers are so massive that, assuming the dwarfs could actually use the bloody things, the force crashing down on the enemy would break bones. It would be like hitting a sheet of steel with a sledgehammer, the steel with be dented and the force with transfer through the steel to anything underneath, so it’s not necessarily piercing the armour as it is negating it.

Hammers work wonders against armor, since it doesn’t actually have to pierce the armor but rather inflicts massive blunt-force damage that bypasses the plate/chains/leather etc since the kinetic force from the impact will transfer into the body due to the action/reaction law.

What Dwarfs should do: Endure the line, blow people up with their amazing artillery. What Damneders does with them: Choose the damage frontline even if they lose defense. This kinda tells you how good the game can be when you do the literal opposite of a faction's role and still do quite well.

04:56. Blunt weapons are perfect for heavily Armored targets. At the end of the day we are talking about a 8KG hammer going to your chest very fast. No armor, muscle or bones can save you of having a bad time. Also if the plate armor is bad designed or it is in bad condition it can actually break and split off and technically PIERCE the armor

5:00 - Blunt damage more or less ignores armor completely. Obviously the weapon doesn't pierce but I think it was desgined this way by CA just because it'd be a bitch to code otherwise

I know it's a fantisy game but historically a blunt heavy weapon like a hammer or mace was better at fighting armored oponants because the weapons would ten to cave the armor in on the wearer, so maybe that is why the hammerers have AP

Hammers might not pierce armor but are definitely one of the best weapons against an armored foe because the blunt force doesn’t need to get through the armor to break bones and shatter skulls

I would never recuit any great weapon units, because they not only lose their shield, but most importantly, have lower melee defence, which is the most important stat for melee infantry. Their job is to hold enemies as long as possible so your missle units can do the damage, rather than doing damage themselves. In that sense hammerers are terrible for their price, because they can't hold the line for long. In fact the best unit to tank enemies are your lords and hero, because you can craft extremely powerful equipment as dwarf. A proper leveled up thane with well-crafted equipment can easily reach 100+ melee defence and regen skill, make them almost invinsible. Besides they don't block the line of sight of your guns and flamethrowers.

Warhammers don't need to penetrate the armor they transmission their impact through it and cause concussions, similar to modern HEAT shells on tanks, which are notorious for their anti-armor effect.

Fast (for a dwarf) XD

That is pretty good, though I personally prefer focusing more on defensive aspects of dwarf army. From my experience - with Irondrakes - it is best not to stretch their formation into a long line. It is better to keep them clumped into a cube-like formation - this way they can still fire, but they don't have to reposition that much if you change targets, it saves time. Trollhammers are also surprisingly good against heavy flying units - they massacre dragons, for that matter. Slayers - I found they work better as support - they die too quickly on the front line of left to simply duke it out - they last far longer and do more damage if you mix them with units who are already fighting. If you feel a bit cheesy - you may simply replace all your melee units with Ironbreakers - they are very defensive and don't do that much damage in melee, BUT their blasting charges will soft up elite units enough, so ironbreakers should be able to chew threw them without much of a problem. The only issue here is micro, as you may need to funnel enemy elite melee units unto them, so they won't waste throwables on chaff. Another little thing - additional use for organ guns that is worth mentioning - they shred cavalry units, and dwarfs lack potent defence against cav other than pure heavy armour.

Two ironbreakers in the end game? How about a whole frontline of them? :p

Not a bad composition, however there are some improvements you can make: 1) get a Runelord instead of a regular lord. They have similar melee stats, but have master runes which are more powerful than regular runes. Rune of Wrath and Ruin will apply a huge slowing debuff to enemies in an AoE, making enemy cav charge like molasses in January, becoming prime targets for Slayers. 2) Slayers should be kept in reserve next to your artillery to protect them from cav charges and enemy fliers. They have no armor and low melee defense, meaning they’ll get shredded very quickly in melee. Keep them in reserve and pounce on any cav or fliers after hitting them with Wrath and Ruin. 3) Since you have such a focus on anti infantry artillery pieces, you should remove your regular irondrakes and replace them with Ironbreakers instead. Ironbreakers have incredible defensive stats and will often fight to the last man, allowing them to hold the front line almost indefinitely. Trollhammers can stay since they’re a good dedicated anti-large, but using brimstone guns works too. 4) find a spot in your army for an engineer or two. They give a passive buff to reload speed in an AoE, turning slow-firing trollhammers into belt-fed machine guns. Other than that, you have the concept of the Dawi nailed to a T. Nice job.

Hammerers do AP damage because the hammers are so heavy they do damage through armor.

I am legitimately surprised you only have 2k subs, you'll be big for Warhammer 3 I think lol

If you deploy Thunderers/Handgunner or Zombie Pirate Deckhand Mobs with Handguns into shorter and solid block formations like b behind and between gaps in an infantry line you get some more shoots of for your bucks. Without having to move them back or having to rely on hills for elevated firing positions.

Hammerers have armor-piercing damage because of the blunt force it inflicts

"Hammers dont pierce armor". well that's the thing. You dont pierce armor to do damage to it. You can't. That's why people used maces and hammers against armored enemies irl. Only way to put down a fully armored knight is to bludgeon him to death.

In short for those wondering, you have a bit heavy frontline to hold the enemy down, artillery and explosives to rip them apart and you want to play defensively

Good unit run down on the dwarf, but that army composition isn't great. Too many artillery and specialized unit, your army need more meat shield and mass range unit. This is what i run with on my hard/very hard campaign. 1 (Thane/Runemaster/Egineer) - support 7 (shield infantry) - hold your line 2 (2-hand infantry) - to watch your flank / attack enemy 2 (artillery) - make AI come to you 4 (ranged unit) - a mix of quareller and thunderer 1 (slayer) - for anti-large/ flanking engaged enemy unit 2 (specialized unit) - gyrocopter/iron drake or w/e

5:00 They have armour piercing because of great Trauma damage that ignores armour and can do even damage than just piercing through armour. Trust me, even in full plate armour, ye wouldn't want to be smacked by 'em. Yer bones wouldn't like it hahaha

AP is probably a bad way to describe maces, but historically swords were slicing weapons and used on lightly armored opponents in lethal combat, weapons like halberds and warhammers were used to kill opponents in plate armor because the halberd could pierce plate and the warhammer could break bones under the plate because of the high kinetic energy from their blows. So, hammers are anti-armor.

IRL blunt weapons were used against armored knights. That's why maces are a thing.

you just got yourself a new sub and a new like on as many videos i can remember to like when i watch

Hi, I hope you will see this question. Let's say an enemy infantry is engaged with your dwarf warriors. Let's say your quarellers are close behind your warriors. Can the quarrallers safely shoot over warriors head?

4:54 I would say that the hammerers would mostly ignore armor since hammers are going to straight up crush helmets and armor because of their blunt strikes and massive weight. You hit metal with a massive sledgehammer, that metal is going to bend or even bend so hard it breaks. Though i would say a spear or a great axe would definetly fit the category of actually "piercing" the armor so you do have a point there.

Hammer damage is more armor ignoring than armor piercing. Armor can stop the damage from a sword in a way it simply can't absorb the damage from a hammer. Hammers and maces came about as weapons as a response to armor. Consider too swinging a hammer at someone who's not weighed down by any armor... They won't have too difficult of a time dodging it

Hammers are armor piercing because blunt weapons are designed to counter heavy armor.

4:55-4:56 Well, certain hammers which are tough/strong enough can hit through armor and hit directly into the skin. Ie. Those hammers in medieval movies that are so strong they can hit a person directly who is in armor and even knock them back. So that's probably how.

miners are good as expendable slow down units and forward artillery spotters so that artillery can have more time to shoot enemies

I’m going through this before III comes out - just one nit - the blasting charge miners are a great and cheap way to defend against a cavalry charge in the rear. They may get one rush but if your ammo holds out they basically decimate the entire unit, then I use them to flank (they are speedy remember) engaged units. While they don’t cause physical damage they surprise the units and help demoralize them. Cheap, fast (for dwarves) and lethal if used correctly to protect the flanks and rear in the early game.

This, a clear understanding of the units and their application. Depending on army/enemy I've slightly mixed my numbers from some of your examples but this is how I play them too. Love Iron breakers and Hammerers, the artillery is strong, their heroes are and Gyrocopters are basically their cavalry. Long live the White Dwarf, long live Grombrindle✊

Nice video for presenting the units ! My army comps are quite differents and work pretty good as well. Thank you for taking time to explain everything.

Nice video... try ask totallegend, his channel "exploded" with some crazy formular ;) he had helped other youtubers, and he love total war. But keep up the good work

The hammers? Well it's not important what you do to the armor, but what happens beneath of it because of impact

Honestly go for anything with shields over great weapons. Anything that helps with holding the line you wanna prioritise

LoL its not Goblin "Mongrel", but Goblin "Mangonel". Grreat video btw!

Imo dwarfs are one of the most solid campaign faction, the defensive play style makes the game pretty easy

Sure getting the irondrakes up onto the enemies walls is a good strategy. The only problem with that is that by the time u safetly got them up on the walls and in position to fire down there would be no enemy to fire at. There range is to short and once they are up there odds are your main army is up there to, aswell as having the gate broken down and dwarf units flooding in that way.

I totally think longbeards make Slayers very unapealling. Those Slayers are very very squishy

I want these videos for war hammer 3 so fucking good

Just an FYI, armor isn't pierced historically, it's broken by hammers and blunt force. Swords and axes didn't do anything to armor which is why most knights used heavy blunt weapons.

What's your favourite Dwarven unit?

ya hammer don't pierce armor they bash and crush armor that's how they doing AP they break armor with a giant hammer

Yes, hammers do "armor-piercing" damage. It's called *blunt force trauma*

Hammers pierce armor not by actually piercing it, but by breaking the bones under it with the shock of the hit, worked in IRL medieval times.

God ur a good RU-vidr it just sucks nobody knows about you lol

Been addicted to this series by you, absolutely brilliant!! Really appreciate all the hard work you put into these videos! It would be sick if you do Norsca next :)

Orc: "WAAAAGGH!!!" Dwarf: *Laughs in explosive canon fire*

But trollhammer torpedos are kinda crap to the point that miners with blasting charges would be a better pick then those fellas. The reason being their absolutely horrendous rate of fire and the fact that they are only useful against large foes as they do next to nothing against regular infantry. That fight would have been over even faster if you ditched the bombers, slayers and *especially the trollhammers* and instead of them got 2x ironbreakers and either 4x quarrelers or bugman rangers or 2x alternatively bugman rangers or quarrelers and 2x thunderers. Heck even switching one flame cannon for a goblobber/grudge thrower or a regular cannon might be a good idea due to the massive range advantage over a flame cannon. Also Hammerers having ap is not odd at all, do you have any idea how hard it is to actually penetrate a hardened armor plate with any sort of melee weapon? It's *VERY* hard and basicly requires you to have your target knocked down flat on their back or belly and swing away with your full might using something like a pickaxe or polearm. However you dont really need to actually penetrate the armor itself if you can damage the relatively squishy wearer with sheer force alone, and hammers are really good for that purpose. I guarantee that you are not gonna have a good day if someone swings at you with a sledgehammer even if you are wearing a full plate armor, it's gonna leave a mark :D

Melee is actually pronounced May-Lay, not Me- Lee. Great video so far other than that. Like button smashed :P

Other races - guys, monsters, bigger monsters Dwarves - guns, cannons, MACHINE GUN CANNONS

dwarf square says - we need not move mon

Don't think that dwarf units are expensive though. miners and warrior are cheap and quite some armor

hammers do damage armors more but not gonna pierce it. blunt is good on plate.

I can imagine Legend seeing that army you used at the end and disbanding most of it because its too dependant on micro.

I've had a lot of success with dynamite throwing miners just behind the front line

Really? Slayers at the front line? Even with Ungrim they are of no use in endgame beyond Normal difficult. Your armys are micro nightmare and completly impractical. Here is an actual good dwarf army for late game: Lord + Runesmith + Master Engenieer + 5 Organ Guns + 6 Thunderers + 6 Ironbreakers (one of them the RoR if posible), that's it, literally ANYTHING the game will toss at you can even hope to make much of scrath to that army. And, if you want to get really cheesy, Lord + Runesmith + 6 Master Engenieers and the rest Irondrakes (Trollhammer torpedos) and bring WW1 carnage to the battlefiled and teach the Skaven how it done.

Great video! Although the most important thing to note about Norgrimling's Ironbreakers is that they have 30 more models than regular Ironbreakers, so they have nearly 12k HP on ultra settings. They also throw more bombs per volley, since there are more of them.

A good guide mate. Keep this up.

Hammers do do a lot of anti armour damage mate...

Although not a great army, all irondrakes with some artillery in a siege? 😳 if you can take the wall and get them all up there facing inward they will delete anything that tries to retake the wall

Hammers were the original iron breakers back in medieval times. Look at a pole axe, designed to smash enemy armor.

As Belegar rangers can be unlocked early making them viable early game.

Great video! Subscribed!

i dont know why but that army comp feels weird. gyrocopters and bombers arent bad but in my opinion they are really inefficient at what they do. the army comp i usually use is: -normal melee lord -runesmith -thane -5 ironbreakers as mainline -5 quarrelers or bugmans rangers -2 giant slayers, 1 in each flank to protect arty and quarrelers from cav or if they are not needed there go for enemy giants -2 hammerers near the giant slayers but not in the flanks so they could help either the slayers or the mainline -2 grudgethrowers -1cannon i havent had anything that i couldnt beat with this comp and sometimes i like to switch some few units just for fun

If anything, hammers should be the only thing that pierces armor...

They may be short, but good affort along with elf's and man.

You do great videos, I wish I could speak as fast as you do....or perhaps not lol The following video you mention 'Lords and Heroes' does NOT cover the Dwarf Hero characters, and I cannot find a guide to them, either in an army or out and about individually

I love the accent and the voice more than the vedio

TL;DR my opinion and personal compisition- Lord/Hero 8 front-line (6 infantry/2 AP infantry early, 8 Ironbreakers late with changes depending on enemy army) 6 Ranged (usually 4 crossbows and 2 guns, with changes depending on enemy army) 4 Arty (2 cannons or catapults, always 2 organ guns) My strategy abandons anything that isn't worthwhile. Hammerers are out, as the Ironbreakers are just way better at holding and will last much longer with fewer casualties, and the blasting charges to stop cavalry charges means that the Giant Slayers are out as well. This also means my entire front-line is a single unit which makes allocating lord level points easier. I take 8 of them. Along with a lord and a hero (thane/runesmith or thane/engineer) makes the ten units I have in every army. Early game swap that for 6 DW early and 6 LB later with 2 of the AP variant to back them up. A small caveat, it I'm fighting Britonnia or the Beastmen I will bring 4 Giant Slayers, and if I'm fighting Chaos I will bring 4 Hammerers instead of four of the Ironbreakers. Gotta tweak your army for what you're fighting. I than focus on the Dwarfs strengths: artillery and ranged. 4 artillery units, changing between Grudge Thrower and Cannons depending on what I'm facing, sometimes even Flame Cannons, but I always have atleast 2 Organ Guns once I unlock them. Than it's 4 Quarrelers/Rangers, because shooting over walls and over the crenelations guarding siege defenders is useful, and 2 Thunderers because AP ranged is useful. The point of this army is to wreak absolute havoc with the arty and ranged, and once they get into melee, most of the enemy is half health, especially after charging through all those blasting charges. Half health units vs Ironbreakers means Ironbreakers gonna win. Than the Rangers get onto flanking routes to shoot the enemy in the back, because they're decently fast, and Thunderers take down any major threats like Dragons or Giants. The Rangers chase units away after they break using their spiky sticks, and so does the artillery. Swap out two of the crossbow units for Gyrocopters if I expect a lot of enemy arty, and if I expect a whole lot of dangerous enemy large units (Necrofex Colossus/Mammoth) I will swap out all those ranged units for Trollhammer Torpedoes. Those spam armies are still hard to fight, and I'll usually just send Ungrim to deal with them with loads of Trollhammers and Giant Slayers along with 2 Cannons. I don't usually use Slayers at all, as I find they die way too fast, and Thunderers make for better cavalry and large unit stoppers. I don't usually use the flamethrower bois because they hurt your own units too much if you forget to turn off 'fire at will' after your line clashes and you pull them back. Most Gyrocopters don't do enough damage but a couple of bombers can disrupt the hell out of artillery, even after they run out of bombs. Miners are complete garbage. Early game when the Orcs have no armor, and neither do the Skaven, they're useless, late game they're highly outclassed. Bolt Throwers are usable, but every other artillery piece is better, so just use that. Not saying that your comp is wrong, but it won't work on higher difficulties without major breaks for replenishment. it relies too much on being able to hold in melee, and the enemy gets bonuses so that even basic infantry is elite and will wipe your units that have the tag {Decent Melee Combatant}. And with your composition, you either have to spend a fortune in the red section of the lord skill tree, or just not have it affect much of your army, missing out on major bonuses you could have applied to your entire army. You have a fun little composition for normal and below, though. Also, next time take an actual army into a campaign battle, and not a skirmish battle. The Orc army that you're up against is something you'd never see in campaign. Note that when I'm talking about these alternate compositions where I swap out units, I usually make a new army specifically to fight the faction. Swapping out units for every war is dumb, because than you'll never have level 9 troops. Those tooled-up armies just go in first, and will get backup from the general army I already described. This is also JUST for campaign. Obviously this army is too expensive to bring into multiplayer.

Hammers can pierce armor if that armor dents into the enemy.

My best strategy is to corner camp so all my flanks are protected I usually have 4 hammerers and 5 longbeards sheilds or Great weapons 2 iron breakers three quaralers 2 flame cannons and one cannon that is what usually helps me win battles I’m outnumbered

The only race you need.

So I just bought total warhammer 1 and total warhammer 2 when steam had on their winter sale. So I’m very new to the game. The dwarfs were the first faction I played on mortal empires, however I watch a lot of these videos and I seem to be missing ALOT of these units in my army. Is it because I don’t have all the DLC?

This helped a lot for my current angrund campaign, thank you! shame about the upkeep but what can you do

Personally I detest variety in my army unless it's effective. If we are talking late game I always go with 1 dwarf lord 1 Thane 1 master engineer/Rubesmith 6-7 ironbreakers 7-8 thunderers And the remaining ALWAYS Organ Gun. As much I would want slayers to work they are in my eyes completely useless. 1 quarler can do more damage on anyone than a slayer. They are especially weaker in the higher difficulties.

My favorite race. For the Ancestors!

Another sick vid well done matey

Dwarfs WH2 best strat: start a battle and go do something productive, less manouvers more stonks

excellent videos. turned off adblocker and binge watching these

Hammers dont penetrate armor....... bwahahahahahahahahaha child If you were wearing full plate armor id only fight you with a hammer or mace. The force from the blows goes through the armor onto your bones .a sword may not cleave chainmail but a hammer can sever spines through it. Crack skulls break arms break legs. Hammers/maces are the only good way to fight an armoured opponent. You dont need to pierce the armor with a hammer. Lol the more you know

15:07 it says 440 range foe both canons and grudge throwers though.

What mod is he using to have units torn apart like that when hit by a missile??

you don't get how a heavy hammer pierces armor? duh

Thank you!

What's the background music you are using?

Hammers don’t need to pierce armor they crush armor they were designed to counter full plate or at least maces and ear hammers in real life were

Isn't the Gob-lobber from an old White Dwarf book?

Good work , keep it up 😁

While it fine to go heavy into missile units for dwarves I personally prefer to have 8 to 10 melee units 2 artillery 5 to 7 missile and the rest heros/lords

Dwarf roster 1x lord 3x heros 6 ironbreakers ,5 gunners, 4 organ gun, 1 grudge thrower. If you take too many different your points on your lord wont last

Hammers don’t “pierce” it they crush it and cause massive internal damage

When needs magic when you have BIG FUCKING G U N S

“How to play dwarves?” - very slowly.

Yee another dwarf video