Had a look at them recently. Some stuff made me kinda worried, once the Dorf players figure out combos.
Ancestral Grudge is worthless against us, kek.
Resolute means +1 Strength when they charge, it's on most of their units, just FYI. Joke is they're too slow to usually get the alpha strike (even on us, because we have Lore of Light and now Hand of Glory from High Magic to speed us up). Keep in mind though, it can swing combats.
Relentless means they can march even if we're nearby. Kinda irrelevant, we're more focused on just straight up murdering them into the ground.
Shieldwall is kinda huge. They get 5+ parry when charged. Seeing as most of them are taking great weapons though, this won't often come up. Like with Resolute though, just be aware of it. It's still only a 5+ though...
Natural Resistance means they get +2 to dispel rolls. Given our usual caster is a Level 4, this isn't especially relevant.
Lords:
Fighty General is nice, you can make him superkilly and supertough, but he's still slow as a glacier and Dwarves have no way to stop the usual RFP nukes we have access to (beyond standard dispel, and their dispel runes which replace the usual scroll in most armies). Same goes for the SC's, they specialise in being slow and hitting like freight trains. Dwellers, Pit and/or Death Magic all ruin them.
Runelords are basically like Ogre Slaughtermasters; no one takes the generic fighty General, because the magic (or in this case rune) guy fights just as hard and can still be a Level 4. Aside from the usual 'no fun allowed' rune selection (ie dispel/MR levels), the biggest thing this guy brings is Forgefire aka free Armour Piercing. On a unit of Hammerers, or Ironguard, or even on basic Warriors/Quarrelers, this is insane. They also generate dispel dice and give their unit MR2 by default. Our nukes go through MR though, and we still dominate the magic phase. You should probably assassinate him though, he's likely going to be the General. He's also got access to the Anvil. Amusingly, the Anvil now uses the bound spell rules, so you can dispel it. It does add one power die and one dispel die every turn though, so again assassination is preferred. The buffs are Immune to Psych (3+), +1 save(4+), and standard 2D6 S4 rubbish damage spell(5+).
Daemonslayers are, like all previous editions, joke unit included for completion's sake.
Heroes:
Pretty much unchanged.
Master Engineer can LoS! to friendly warmachines and gives them a re-roll, just like his Empire counterpart. He also has some neato gear which he can't use if he uses his warmachine buff. Most likely taken naked to sit with the cannons.
Runesmiths give Armour Piercing and MR1, and can channel dispel dice.
Core:
Warriors compare favourably to Saurus, however I think Saurus have a slight edge in that they have more attacks (especially if Predatory Fighter procs) and access to buffs like Wildform, Speed of Light or Hand of Glory. Mind you, Dwarves have guns, so it's likely you won't hit their lines at strength.
Quarrelers+Runesmith is brutal. -2 to armour saves, wounding on 4's against Saurus, range 30". Not to mention Quarrelers still wear heavy armour and have access to great weapons (so they're basically Warriors with crossbows).
Thunderers are outclassed by the Runesmith combo now, so I doubt you'll see them as often. They can't fight in melee at all (S3 lel), so be happy if you see them, you can tie them up with Skinks easily.
Longbeards can bring a runic standard, but my feeling is that you'll only see maybe one unit or two. Quarrelers+Runesmith are just so flexible and lethal by comparison.
Special:
Hammerers are most likely going to be the Runelord/BSB bunker. They trade favourably with our Temple Guard and they crush Saurus, so like usual, drop a nuke on the bunker.
Ironguard are a little outclassed by both Hammerers (as a melee bunker) and the new Irondrakes (who can shoot pretty well and have Flammable resistance built in). 5+ parry and a 3+ armour default are nice, but S4 is a limitation.
Miners and Slayers don't matter too much, we don't have warmachines and Slayers can be tied down by Skinks or Saurus if you need to protect any monsters you have.
Cannons are cannons. They bumped them up by 20pts, like with Empire. Doesn't mean jack, still likely to see 3-4 of these. Sigh. Runes are still largely the same, accuracy, flaming, re-roll misfires etc.
Grudge Thrower is around too. Flaming stone thrower hurts.
Gyrocopters can be spammed now, they're pretty cheap and you can field 6 below 3k, 12 at 3k+.
Rare:
Organ Gun, Flame Cannon are the same. Same runes as in Special.
Rangers...eh
Irondrakes will probably be taken, 18" S5 Armour Piercing is pretty brutal. They also get a S8 D3 wounds 24" torpedo on the Champ, will probably be used to wreck Scar-Vets on Cold Ones or any monsters you bring.
Gyrobomber isn't much more expensive than a regular Gyro and does a lot of anti-infantry work. Probs going to see it too.
Standard tactics from last edition work here. Use a Slann to nuke their General+BSB bunker, Terradons work at killing cannons and Grudge Throwers, use mounted Scar-Vets as suicide missiles. I'd put hexes on their infantry or at least buffs on ours before engaging in melee, they're not likely to flee and we're going to get torn up by great weapon spam. Try to avoid using spells that cause wounds, that way their MR never triggers. I'd avoid bringing monsters, cannons make short work of them, especially with runes.
