Dwarf Strategies & Tactics

[Pielorinho]

On offense though, what do the dwarves do?

What do dwarves use for scouts? Skirmishers? Cavalry? Do they have any way to chase down routed foes?

In keeping with my last post, I think dwarves have great spells to prevent their enemies from making a coherent retreat. Between having xorns, earth elementals, et. al pop up from behind the enemies, and casting wall of stone behind enemies before they retreat, and casting transmute rock to mud on the escape route, and casting spike stones on the ground behind enemies, dwarves can effectively prevent a retreat from occurring. They might not be able to get their opponents to engage in a one-on-one fight, but once all the parties are there, they can make sure everyone stays for the fight.

Daniel

 

[Endur]

Dain and 500 Dwarves

Remember Dain and his 500 Dwarves from the Iron Hills.

They force-marched, carrying large amounts of supplies on their backs, to get to the lonely mountain on time.

A dwarven army might not require a long supply train behind it, as the warriors themselves might carry several months worth of supplies on their backs.

 

[Tonguez]

Dwarfs as miners have the advantage of being able to change the terrain to suit - thus I agree that Dwarfs are probably Trench and Tunnel fighters more than they open feild combatants. Thus dwarfs are most likely to use small units (10 max) made up of a frontline of heavy infrantry 'tanks', a middle line of sappers (with grenades/mines if allowed by the DM) and a backline of crossbows and/or fireball artilery.

Elite dwarf units will use stealth to sneak in under the frontline and blow up the enemy camps.

They don't have mobility to face an open field opponent so instead are going to take the defensive and use their engineering skills to build better fortifications and traps. When they do engage an enemy they will use tactics designed to cause max damage and reduce their opponents mobility

Actually with the lack of mobility and defensive bent dwarfs probably don't engage in that much warfare (ie the clan wars and battles with drow and drueger are probably more skirmishes than drawnout battles). However they would be in high demand by other races for their engineering talents

 

[mmadsen]

Re: Dain and 500 Dwarves

Remember Dain and his 500 Dwarves from the Iron Hills.
They force-marched, carrying large amounts of supplies on their backs, to get to the lonely mountain on time. A dwarven army might not require a long supply train behind it, as the warriors themselves might carry several months worth of supplies on their backs.

'
Interesting point. Not only do dwarves have the skill and temperament for logistics; they're physically built for it too.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Another important consideration is the likely locations for Dwarven battles.

I've never seen dwarves portrayed as empire-builders - rather they defend their lands from assault and fight the creatures that compete for the same resources, namely orcs and giants. This means that 90% of their battles will take place in mountainous or underground terrain. Battles in the open plains aren't going to go well for dwarves.

On the other hand, noone can really bring much cavalry to bear in the mountains, eliminating much of the dwarves mobility issues. This also means that dwarven armies will probably tend to be smaller, since there isn't room on a typical battlefield to array tens of thousands of fighters.

 

[R.T.]

Dwarves have another very big advantage (I haven't read all the post, so it may have been mentioned before): Berserkers. A maddened dwarf, chopping blindly at those around him, can do some serious damage. And, more importantly, not only are these dwarves much tougher to kill (more Constitution, and so on), they are also totally unafraid of dying. The traits that spring to mind when I think of berserkers are: tough as hell, completely unpredictable, strike fear into the hearts of the enemy, and capable of penetrating deep into enemy lines.

Think of two berserkers charging downhill, pulling large burning logs or trees behind them (I think I saw that in Spartacus). Or how about two groups of berserkers flanking the enemy from two sides. Fear and chaos are your friend here

 

[mmadsen]

Dwarves have another very big advantage: Berserkers.

Do they?

 

[R.T.]

Why not?

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Why not?

I'm not one to use the dwarven berserker archetype in my games, although I know lots of people do. It's not really something that comes from the core rules of any edition of D&D, it's more of a Warhammer thing... Which doesn't mean it's not a fine concept, just not standard dwarf.

 

[MarauderX]

Fortifications

There is, and has always been, an advantage for using fortifications, and dwarves would most likely be the best engineers for the job. Being prepared with traps and other seige devices would be the best for them, and they would probably want to turtle and let their enemies break themselves on the strong walls they have built.

For below ground I would design defensive tunnels that would mislead, have traps, or simply split up attackers to smaller groups to the dwarves' advantage. Such underground places would be worked out in 3D to give the dwarves height or distance advantages with easy ways to break off battle in order to retreat to the next position. There would be many ways to funnel the enemy to small openings that have reinforced doors immune to fire so that prepared oil and such can be used repeatedly on the outside.

Also, I would think that dwarves would be able to incorporate a fair amount of magic to help strengthen their walls, provide fire power and add to their strategy (just think 'dimension door' at dead end hallways).