Hi I'm new to the boards, and I was just just wondering what tatics the Elder Dwarven Lords could give to an beardling. It doesn't have to be army specific and can be general, also fav rune combos would be welcomed. Thanks

King Ulrik Flamebeard of Karak Varn

Where do you want me to start, the joys of being a new general, especially with a potent battle force such as the dwarves takes me back a few years. Anyway with arguably the best core troops in the warhammer world you are going to have to get used to a certain problem ie which unit to take. The basic dwarf consists of good weapon skill, excellent toughness, good options for armour and weapons, excellent ldrship but with the downfalls of poor movement allowance and initiative. There are ways around these problems but we'll leave those for the masterclass.
The best basic tactic that I can offer is to have no unit unsupported, do not leave that unit of thunderers all alone on that hilltop, dont just go marching off with your hammerers into the sunset, high manoeuvrability forces (especially elves) will have you for toast. If one unit gets engaged by the enemy always be in a position to countercharge with another unit in the flank, use the high toughness and good armour choices of your dwarves to survive charges and then hit back, HARD. If you read the previous threads in this particular forum you will see methods of surviving even a charge of a bloodthirster.
If you decide to go for a combat orientated force then you can have an army to outfight chaos, if you go for a shooty force then you can outshoot the empire, the options are there to tailor any force that you want. If there are any specific tactics that you desire ie what to do with a certain unit or how do I beat so and so then just post something up and I'll only be to happy to help :)

Lordloverocket is right no matter what try to keep your unit together. also try not to block your own shooting and chargers while doing it though, i like a checker board style for attacking.

I know to support your units, as relentless allows me to march and then charge for flank bonus. For my army I always try to have a balance of missile and combat troops, and I love crossbowmen, for the extra 6" range but I also like Thunderes for the extra armour mod. I try to get at lest one warmachine in usually a bolt thrower or cannon, but I've never really found any use for the rare warmachines. Any tips?

NEVER underestimate the power of the gyrocopter. Imagine the scenario, you are a dwarf warrior looking out onto the battlefield with all those nice highly manouvreable troops in the enemys army, you start to worry as your lovely artillery only have a couple of rounds of shooting at them before they are on you. And then a jet propelled dwarf goes zooming overhead to prevent all enemy marching, flaming warmachine crew and sniping at lone enemy characters. Lovely. It is nice to launch something that can move 20 inches at the enemy when you are used to 3inches. Its good at hitting those annoying skirmishers in cover as the weapon is template based as hits automatically if the models base is covered. It is good at taking out low level characters especially wizards as they dont tend to have high levels of armour and only 1 or 2 wounds. The only concern with a gyrocopter is that dwarf players tend to go a bit mad and zoom them all over the place and subsequently they place them in poor positions where they can easily shot down, whilst quite sturdy they are no match for a concerted effoert to get rid of them so be careful with deployment and placement. Also pursues 3d6, very useful.
Organ guns dont really cut it for me, we are supposed to be the masters of blackpowder weapons when the empire get a much better version.
Flame cannons are nice. Really useful range, max 12 inches guess doesn't sound too hot but then you add the artillery dice roll, max 10, and then you have the flamer template range as well. Template weapon again so models with bases covered are auto hit. Models struck at st5 with d3 wounds and any caualties in a unit will force an immediate panic test. Good for hiding, skirmishing scouts, horde armies, characters skulking about besides units, this is just as useful as the gyro as higher st and mult wound capacity can be quite a character killer. These are just some of the tactics available for the rare choices, 2 are highly effective and the third isn't that bad could that might just be me. Hope this helps. Practice those stone thrower guesses at every chance, even make up a minigame to guess distances of pieces of terrain or units or whatever and you'll find that the humble stonethower becomes an awesome artillery piece even before runes are added. ;)

Thanks I'll consider the gyrocopter, I have a Organ Gun but it's no way near as powerful as it use to be. But it does have it's uses, like stick it on a flank and not many troops would like to advane into the range of it. But what do you think of rangers? Do you use them or not? I'm not to sure on them I mean it's not "natural" that a dwarf wants to run around above ground when he could be 200 feet under it. :D

Rangers are quite expensive for what they are so I only use them in bigger games where they can be tooled up to make them effective. The deployment options are useful, as is the option to stay in rank but that means that you have a small frontage limiting your shooting options. The ability to move unhindered through woods is good for unexpected flank charges, drawing frenzied units into poor battlefield positions and drawing out fanatics etc. The only problem with deploying them as scouts is that they tend to be unsupported when they are so far from their own troops so you have to be careful with them and no gung-ho behaviour

I like using them and miners in case i have to [play the breakout scenario where you have to get units off the table, I could never win this scenario untill i started taking thoses units.
I still lose it sometimes because instead of moving the miners straight off the field i charge to help my other units.

I'm just finishing off a unit of 20 Miners, I'm thinking of giving them a place in my army, but it depends on how they perform in battle. But what about artillery, what's the best to use and what runes would be best for which? As for rangers I have some but I'm still unsure about using them, but I might. Thanks for the advice so far, please keep it coming, what about core, special, lords heros? your thoughts.

The dwarves have arguably the best core in the game but the one that I have the most success with is the thunderer unit. When in a big unit of 20 deployed on a hill you can have 2 ranks of 10 firing at bs 3, str 4, -2as at 24inch range. When in short range then +1 to hit. And you can move and shoot. When receiving the charge you can stand and shoot with all those nice guns. If you reform, I would, then you have 3 ranks of ws 4, tgh4, ldrshp 9 dwarves that can have a 4+ save as well as cmd group. If you have the BSB in the unit then it is even harder, you could have the rune of slowness, he charges, you declare stand and shoot reaction and then keep a straight face as the survivors subtract d6inches off their charge range. All this for only 14 pts a model (15 with shd) :D