Core to the army are the foot troops: the heavy and veteran bases being backed up by line units and the young dwarves. There isn't much that is going to stop the heavies once they get going: a brutal combination of good armour and two-handed weapons making taking them on the equivalent of jumping into a food mixer!

Missile power comes from three bases of crossbow-armed dwarves and a cannon: very effective when fire is concentrated on one element of an enemy army.

The war machines are always a bit of a gamble. To be honest, their strength is in their looks: often an enemy commander will be so worried about what they look as if they can do, as opposed to what they actually can do, that he will detrimentally alter his tactics to combat their perceived threat, leaving him open elsewhere for the rest of the army to exploit.

A controversial element of the army is the cavalry brigade: units of ram and boar mounted dwarves that some of their colleagues find just plain wrong. Walking on the ground is what dwarves are made for, they say, and all this newfangled riding around smacks of a lack of tradition. They also object to the fact that the animal pens have to be in the sunlight, and that in consequence the entrance to the mine has become more like a farm than a proper enterprise!

My dwarves are a mix of various figure manufacturers. The core of the army I bought, and actually have no idea what figures they are. Those are the ones in the painting style of the line troops. The heavies, artillery, walker and flyer are Demonworld figures, with Pendraken and Peter Pig providing the Veterans and Young Dwarves. My cavalry are all Ral Partha, and probably more like 25mm than 15mm: more controversy!

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