A roadmap for building your Dwarf army towards 2000 pts
When starting to collect your Dwarf army it can help to have some idea of what units you will end up using in your final army or you may end up with lots of models that you don't use. A 1000 point army is a good size to learn with and provides fun games, but most games of Warhammer are played at 1500 points, 2000 points or 2250 points.
Dwarfs have both a variety of tough warriors and access to lots of war machines and shooting units. For details of these units you'll want the Dwarf Army Book from Games Workshop. This book has the army lists, unit costs, special rules for both the Dwarf army and individual units, as well as background material and colour photos of the models.
Dwarfs can be played in a number of ways. A common way to play Dwarfs is to aim to beat the opponent in hand to hand combat, but to have enough shooting that you are forcing the opponent to get into combat with you rather than just standing off or running away.
For armies of less than 2000 points, the rules require that you have a general and at least two core units. You can have a maximum of 3 heroes, 3 special units and 1 rare unit.
A typical Dwarf list for under 2000 points that was aiming to defeat the enemy in hand to hand combat might contain the following units
Heroes (1-3)
Runesmith as the General
Thane as the BSB
Core (2+)
20 - 25 Warriors with shields, full command
20 Longbeards with shields, full command
10 Thunderers
10 Quarrellers
Special (0-3)
8 - 10 Miners
15 - 20 Hammerers with shields, full command
Cannon or 2 Bolt Throwers
Rare (0-1)
Organ Gun
The above list will come to between 1450 and 1700 points depending on what size units you have, what upgrades you use and what runic (ie magic) items you might use. It gives you 3 strong combat units, a couple of shooting units, 2 or 3 war machines, and the Miners can either be used to attack from behind enemy lines or to bolster the combat units.
The above list is only an example of the elements that many Dwarf players use. Some players will use smaller Warrior and/or Longbeard units, or might use more Warrior units. Others might prefer Slayers or Iron Breakers to Miners or Hammerers. Other players will try to maximise the number of thunders and quarrellers to create a Shooting Army of Death (S.A.D.), although these armies tend to be less fun to play (you tend to always win against some types of armies and always lose against other types of armies).
Work out what you think interests you and then ask for feedback from either the other players in your group or on one of the online forums such as WargamerAU or Bugman's Brewery. Having a plan on what you want to use in your army will help you get there sooner and minimise wasted models.
Collecting more than 2000 points
In Australia at least, the most common points limit for tournaments is 2250 points. Once you start playing games at 2000 points or more you get access to Lord level characters as well as the option of taking up to 4 characters, 4 special units and 2 rare units.
With options like the Runelord and the Anvil of Doom, Dwarf armies of 2000 points or more can play very differently than armies at under 2000 points. In particular, the Anvil of Doom can be used to increase the movement of your units or to hinder the movement of your opponents units.
Alternatively the Dwarf Lord lets you have a unit of Longbeards without requiring a unit of Warriors. You can thus build an army concentrating on elite close combat units.