🍺Warhammer Old World Dwarfs

The old strategy of sitting back, shooting, and waiting to pull out your great axe for a countercharge is over. Now you need to push forward, take control of quadrants and objectives across the center of the board and beyond.

With fewer enemy monsters around, you’ll probably need to spend less on cannons and war machines too.

On the flip side, Dwarfs have excellent infantry that’s incredibly hard to shift, so they’re perfect for holding objectives against just about anything thrown at them.

Will non-core infantry units find their place in this new meta?

Very few.

They have the Irondrakes, who weren’t in 6th Edition—an elite shooting unit with good armor. Aside from that, everything else remains pretty similar, aside from the changes introduced in version 1.5, which I explained in the previous section.

What would be the equivalent of the Dwarfs Codex in Warhammer 40k was the fourth Arcane Journal to be released, in August 2024 — after the Orcs and before Hordes of Chaos.

It introduced two Infamous Army options: the Expeditionary Force and the Royal Clan.

The Expeditionary Force focuses on gunpowder, machinery (like gyrocopters), scouts, and miners, while the Royal Clan has stronger melee potential and excludes gunpowder weapons (but still includes crossbows, bolt throwers, etc.).

Army customization comes mainly through rune combinations.

The classic rules remain—like not being able to forge two items with the same rune combination, or not stacking three identical runes on a piece of armor—but there are still tons of options. This gives Dwarfs a unique flavor compared to other armies.

They basically have no cavalry or monsters (and no magic, except for the Anvil of Doom).

Their armies are built around solid infantry, great durability, strong melee, and powerful shooting against all kinds of enemies.

They’re an elite army, so they don’t have access to cheap troops (no peasants, goblins, or anything like that), although they do have some low-cost units in terms of points, like Gyrocopters, Miners, or Clan Warriors.

In terms of miniatures, we have the classic 8th edition units, which have made a return. There weren’t many new releases with the launch of TOW, although they did release a new model for Ungrim the Slayer King — and it’s a really great one.
Keep in mind that you also have access to the Fireslayers and Kharadron Overlords ranges from Age of Sigmar, which can add a unique and personalized touch to certain units.

Dwarfs, like the other armies with an Arcane Journal, perform very well. Games Workshop has done a solid job with these books—though it’s nearly impossible to balance them perfectly in terms of power and variety while still keeping each unit and army’s unique identity intact.

With the 1.5 rules update, they’ll likely become even stronger—provided players adapt to the new, more active style of play instead of sitting back and waiting.