Lance Harrop

 

Dragon	-	-	-	The Dragon 27
Painting Dwarves	-	Gaming Dwarves	-	Using the Chart

    When the Editor told me that he was, in his words, a dwarvophile,
it made me start thinking about how Dwarvish armies would
be organized, which resulted in this article.

Organization must begin with a background. While as fantasy
this can be anything, it is better to use a universally recognized one. I
can call to mind only four literary backgrounds for dwarves; Norse
Mythology, Brooks Sword of Shannara, C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of
Narnia, and the Tolkien Trilogy. Norse Mythology does not put
dwarves into a good light, nor is the dwarvish kingdom well organized
for a fantasy wargame. Terry Brooks dwarves do not even live
in caves anymore, having only hid there after a great destructive war.
They live in great forests in the east and fear to go underground.
Lewis’ dwarfs (the spelling is intentional) come in two varieties, red
haired and black haired, but they both have been subservient to the
powers struggling to rule Narnia and never were nations unto themselves.
Only Tolkien gives us a universally known and accepted
background. Tolkien is recognized as the authority in many cases of
fantasy interpretation, especially with dwarves, elves, orcs, and, of
course, hobbits.

There are seven kindreds of Dwarves, and seven High Kings, but
often there are more than one kingdom for each kindred. At one time
in Middle Earth the Line of Durin ruled the Lonely Mountain, the Iron
Hills, and the upper halls of Moria, each a separate kingdom at some
time. Using Larry Smith’s article on dwarves in the Dragon #3, there
would be seven Dwarf Kings (9th Levels) and many Dwarf Lords (8th
Levels) under them. Each, Lord and King would have a separate
army.

Also, in addition to the part of Mr. Smith’s article on Dwarf Clerics,
there is this: there is one religion for all dwarves and one supreme
Pontiff (8th Level) of the church. He usually resides in the foremost
kingdom of Durin’s Line and is one of Durin’s Folk, but in times of
trouble other Lines receive the Pontiff. There are seven Archbishops
(7th Levels), one for each Kindred, and there are a number of
Bishops (6th Levels), one for every major dwarf holding. These
Bishops and Archbishops would control small armies of 1st Level
Clerics, and the Pontiff would probably command a very large one,
with guard units, that could be as large as a small kingdom’s army.

So now that we know who has armies, how are they organized?
First of all, dwarves do not have large standing armies, though they
do have units that protect the gates and guard units. Dwarves mobilize
their populace in times of trouble, which they can do easily, since,
being mostly miners and masons, their work can be interrupted
without the results that farmers would suffer. The units are formed
almost on the spot where they work. For instance, everybody mining
a lode would be in a division made up of those miners; the more
skilled ones would also be better fighters and thus more heavily
armed. The foremen and supervisors would become the officers.
The reason for this is very simple. Dwarves fight two kinds of warfare,
that above ground and that below. When fighting below ground they
fight in small detachments rather than in one huge array. These
detachments have to be able to move through a section of caverns in
communication with each other, even though they are divided by
yards of rock. They do this by drum beat/rock hammered code which
they developed while mining a lode. Each lode has a different code
and there is no single army code for the enemy to break, though
there is a single code among the army for dispatches. This way,
small units can communicate with a divisional commander, who, in
turn, can control the taking of a section of caverns. The divisional
commander also knows the abilities of his subcommanders and thus
knows how they will react. The King or Lord would also know these
commanders well.

Masons, those dwarves who make the used up mines livable,
would be organized much like the miners, but would be less well
armed and armoured. Even with that, they would have more engineers
and be better at seige work.

Craftsmen are usually very well armed and armoured, and are
the heavy units of the army. The size of the units usually vary with the
importance of the particular craft. These units are led by the craftmasters
or their designers.

There are some craftsmen whose work is so fine that they work
outside of any particular craft and its rules. These dwarves are
usually exempt from the army mobilization. Dwarves have no Corps
of Engineers, but organize companies of engineers at the divisional
level.

The Dwarvish merchant class organizes into two types of units. If a
particular merchant is very rich he may raise a company on his own,
out of loose dwarves from the kingdom or mercenary types from the
other kingdoms of the same kindred; he would pay for arming and
armouring the unit and receive the honor for its conduct in battle.
These mercenary units would tend to be more loyal than most
mercenary types. The other merchants would organize into units of
what would be called guides, as these merchants have travelled
more than other dwarves, their services would be very useful. If a
dwarf is ever found in battle riding a pony, it would be one of these
guides, who occasionally learn to ride while on trading trips.

These units of Miners, masons, Craftsmen, Guides and Mercenary
merchants are grouped in Corps under the command of Cham-
pions (7th Levels) who are usually men taken from the King’s personal
guard whom the King or Lord knows and trusts. The standing
army units (the type that guard gates) are attached to these Corps as
elites or grouped with the King’s or Lord’s personal Guard in the
Army’s First Corps.

This First Corps is very important, for it is the vanguard of the
army and when a battle is fought above ground it is this unit that
drives toward the enemy’s supreme commander and tries to kill him,
as happened in the Battle of Azanulbizar and the Battle of Five
Armies. Units that perform exceptionally well in the war are allowed
into the First Corps; the mercenary bands raised by the rich merchants
try very hard to get in. The Divisions also like to send units to
the First Corps, so they put their very best men into one company, in
the hope that it will perform well and honor the division. Units that are
taken into the First Corps often remain as standing units after the
war, rather than disbanding.

There are two kinds of Clerical unit; one is composed of clerics
from religious fighting orders, which answer to a bishop, archbishop,
or the Pontiff. These units are usually well armed and armoured.
Then there are the guard units that are super elites, especially those
of the Pontiff.

If and how these units are used in the army depends on how the
church feels about the war; the church would send none if dwarf were
fighting dwarf.

Painting Dwarves
As I did for the orcs, I’d like to share with you some tips on painting
dwarves.

1. Elite units of dwarves should have white beards, while the
younger units would have brown, dark red or black beards.

2. Dwarvish armour would be shiny and of mixed types of metal, to
give it contrast. The best armour is made of Mithril, a silvery metal.

3. Dwarves don’t seem to have national colours, but rather use
colour to identify individuals, use of cloth colour seems unrestricted,
but I would suggest that guard and standing divisions, mercenary
companies, and divisions of miners, masons, and crafts each have
distinctive colours.

4. Whatever you do, don’t make your dwarves too gaudy.

Gaming Dwarves
I could write another whole article about dwarvish tactics, but
here are some simple points.

1 Dwarvish vanguards always drive toward the enemy commander

2 Dwarves simply hate orcs and goblins, and love to tear into them.

3 Dwarvish morale is very slow to break.

4 Dwarves have been known to leave the field if their leader is
killed, but they do not rout under these circumstances, they walk off
very slowly carrying the leader’s body and everybody has the good
sense to leave them alone.
 

Good Wargaming, and may your army of Durin’s Folk be larger
than everybody else’s, so you can claim to have the real one.

Using the Chart
This chart shows the organization of a major Dwarvish Army. The
First Corps is composed of the King's or Lord's Guard and many
Divisions of standing units, of which some companies have been
detached to other Corps. Each division has its own Engineer Company,
which does siege work. There are also mercenary companies
and divisional first companies attached.

The Second, and other, Corps have one or more Miner Divisions
and one or more Mason Divisions and some have Draft Divisions,
which can be composite units of more than one crafts forces. A
brigade of mercenary companies, a number of standing companies
and some guides are attached.

The Allied Corps is composed of Divisions sent by other Dwarvish
nations as a token of support and of free mercenary companies
grouped in a single brigade. Human allies could also be in this Corps.

The chart shows a rather hefty army to build, and most people
won't try making one this large; but it does suggest ratios of forces
that can be used, instead of making all your dwarves the King of
Dunn's Line's Personal Guard.

Dwarvish armies would generally tend to follow this organization,
but sometimes dwarves work for people other than their Kings or
Lords; then, almost any organization would be possible. Also, mercenary
companies don't always disband after a war, but pursue an
active military life.

Dwarvish kingdoms are usually economically allied with a kingdom
of men for their food, and in many cases can persuade these
allies to join them in a war, thus reducing the problems caused by a
lack of cavalry and archers.

With the large number of brands of dwarf figures, it is sensible to
use each line as a kindred or kingdom, thus making each easily
identifiable. I have five different makes in my fantasy army, and could
easily have seven with the lines available.