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Dwarf Strategy

Summary

Dwarves are very reliable and powerful at what they are good at: blocking and staying on the pitch. However, they are also extremely limited. If forced to play outside their comfort zone, Dwarves can be made to look very foolish. On the other hand, if they can force their opponent to play their game, Dwarves can appear unstoppable.

Strengths

All players start with Block (except Runners). All players (except Runners) have access to Strength skills (including the very powerful Guard and almost-as-powerful Mighty Blow and Pilling On). Most players have AV 9. All players have Thick Skull. Team Re-rolls are cheap. Skills like Frenzy, Dauntless and Tackle which are useful for dealing with certain tricky opponents are available on the starting roster.

The net result of this is that Dwarves can two dice (and occasionally one die) block very reliably. They also don't need to worry too much about getting blocked themselves occasionally since high Av and Thick Skull tend to keep them on the pitch.

Weaknesses

Very slow. Dwarf offences are rarely quick affairs. If your opponent gets a 2-0 lead you've probably had it. In addition, Dwarves can often be easily stalled on if they've been drawn out of position.

Poor agility on all except four players. If these players (or just some of them) are eliminated, things look quite bad and options are considerably reduced. When the ball goes loose, often it just won't be accessible to one of these players (who are still relatively slow and unagile).

Only average base St. Dwarves are only strong as a unit. They don't have individuals like Mummies, or Black Orcs who can sometimes be dominant even without much support. Dwarves can find themselves outweighed in the long run by teams (Orcs, Chaos) who, like them, have lots of Strength skills but have high base ST too (and often higher Ag and Ma too).

In game tactics

Good player positioning is crucial for Dwarven teams, especially when defending. Once a Dwarf team gets slightly out of position, they often see the opponents ball carrier running for the end zone, with a screen of players in the way and no way to stop it. When defending, try to keep players mobile rather than throwing them into the fray. Try to tie up several opponents, especially powerful ones with your Blockers. Keep your faster (and mostly softer) players spread out behind your Blocker wall and quite deep as well. Try to keep them central so they can respond to threats down both wings. Don't attempt to go after the ball unless your opponent makes a big mistake. In offense, keep a core of compact players caging and blocking and blitzing up the centre of the field, advancing slowly towards the end zone. At the same time, try to manoeuvre some players along the wings or through any cracks that appear deep into your opponents half of the pitch. The idea is that you can link with these players to make big territory gains for your cage when the right moment presents itself.