The military regiment my PCs are part of will soon be assulting a Dwarven (I refuse to call them Squats) Stronghold (mainly because one of my players wanted to see Dwarves in the game, so I figured what better way than in brutal warfare?) and I need some ideas how to present the Dwarven defense in a unique and interesting fashion - something different enough to make the experience memorably Dwarven. Mostly what I need is ideas for the military defense they will encounter on the field of battle ... what kind of weapons and strategies will the Dwarves use to make the humans go "OH!!", etc.

Thanks.

The Torpedo Launcher! Back in second ED of 40k there was a Land Torpedo Launcher. The Torps would get launched above ground, and they would dig with tremendos speed through the earth to their target, where they either exploded undergrund (making the ground under your troops collapse) or dig back out and explode just a metre above ground.

Other gimmicks they have: well, they have access to all weapons the Astartes and IG use, but only better. Since they don't make a religion out of technology they actually know how things work and therefore improve them without a decade of prayers beforehand. They have a dwarfen-sized armour comparable to tactical dreadnought armour (aka Terminator Armour), energy field projectors, and other high quality stuff. Warfare against them will be tough, especially since they have more and better tools at their disposal than the IG, and can even beat back Marines. Not to mention: their military bases will be so contructed that only they can walk upright, but a human would have to walk on his knees, slowing them down considerably and making them more vulnerable.

(They had been able to withstand Waaaghs!, Crusades and other nasty things, without losing a planet. The Squats were never officially stroken out of canon, GW just decided to never mention them again and keep them out of 'further' books till everybody has forgotten they created them 13 years ago.)

I will certainly be using those Torpedos.

As a PS. It is entirely permissable for this thread to do some reenvisioning of the Dwarven race for 40k ... as they could probably do with a bit of an overhaul.

Mole morters. That's what they are called. Plus Thud guns (mutliple launched light explosive cannons) are the light artillery of choice.

Yep there's no reason for squats to be in the sector (assuming you are setting it in the Calixis sector) but on any planets with a high gravity could have dwarf races.

So you could add the high gravity rules from the main rule book as an added problem. I don't know if it mentions it but some weapons should suffer range restrictions in high gravity. Las weapons won't, SP ranges suffer most.

If they are fighting like squats then expect entire squads of heavy weapon troops (traditionally everyman in a squad with a heavy bolter).

Power armour armour and even Exo armour Segara mentioned are used by characters. Most troops tend to use laz weapons with bolt pistols for more important guys and the graviton guns are speciality. They also have a lot of bikers traditionally.

So there's stuff there depending on how close you want to make them to the original.

As you say it's nto really related so remember that many were mining colonies. So lascutters, mining explosives and weapons, perhaps even some burrowing tanks like termites if your players are up to it.

Think 'dwarf'.

Tactics

Very low ceilings, narrow openings and small rooms - fine if you're 4' tall, not so fine for humans to fight in...

Defence in depth. Dwarfs are defensive in nature (in WFB) so have them use hidden block houses and tunnels. The PCs advance thinking the section's clear only to have dwarfs attack them from behind.

Ambush from plain sight - holofields make them invisible?

Communications, sensors and targetting. They know you are there before you spot them. They can vox you position precisely via unjammable and un-interceptable transmissions. When the artillery starts dropping, it'll be so accurate it's frightening...and they don't just drop bombs*

Technology

Mole mortars as mentioned. You don't see or hear it comin until the ground beneath you erupts....

Also tunnelling troop carriers.

Squats are supposed to be high-tech so have them use teleporters, graviton guns, neural disruptors, haywire shooters, displacer fields, refractor fields, reliable plasma weapons.

*Artillery bombs of course but what about floating decapitators, hard rain, acid canisters, time bombs (stasis?), quantum atomic destablisters, micro-nukes, quake bombs, Mutation bombs (causing rapid onset (a few minutes) cancers)...

Lots of adamantium defence bastions, trenches, firing mantlets, mines, hungry bio-wire.

Null fields - WFB Dwarfs use rune-tech rather than magic. Maybe squats have a lot of anti-psyker tech from pre-heresy days?

Squats were tied to the AdMech weren't they? So lots of cybernetics. Excellent battlefield medical facilities to keep them fighting longer.

Remote drones and auto-defences. Robots.

The characters arrive at the target to discover it abandoned. Tyranids have slaughtered everyone to the last Space Dwarf.

As ti should be.

Look, we are already clear that not everybody is a fan of dwarfs or 'dwarfs in space' we got that.

But throwing that decade old statement of a GW designer that was never taken into official canon is not what Jack of Tears asked for. Not to mention that fans/geeks can discuss for hours how stupid it is that a few inpenetrable rocks (aka Motherworlds) got wasted by 'nids but easier/munchier worlds did not because no one in GW came up with a better way of removing the Squats. Can we please keep that discussion away from this thread? Thank you ^^

Now, back to the topic:

I once saw a video reportage about one the Alps-fortresses the Swiss had built in case the Nazis every attacked them. They had built grenade ducts into the side of certain corridors. While enemy was busy a few soldiers in a room above could prime a few frag grenades and then just drop them down those ducts which lead to the floor beneath them right at their enemies feet. Since they were just big enough for the grenades to get through and small enough to be overseen by charging troopers the first load would detonate right at the enemies feet, and that in a rather small corridor too. I'm sure that the Squats/Dwarfens have thought of something similar. A few of those holes near the ground are real grenade ducts, others are fake ... now, just blocking them will take time and material, enough to set up a few nastier suprises.

For example at the front entrance. If the enemy breached through the main gate they would abandon the first room/few metres of corridor and lock the next door. Now, while the enemy was preparing to open the second door, a few Dwarfens in a room above them prime a few grenades (plasma, frag, Willie Pete, ..) and send them down through said ducts. And while the Guardsmen stare at the mess in the front room some of the small hills around the base start moving. They have been carved out and are in reality submersible (i hope thats the right word) gunturrets. Like in The Crimson Rivers 2

bogi_khaosa said:

Perhaps, but as I said, one of my players asked for Dwarves and on the list of requests a player might make, that one is pretty easily - not to mention painlessly - fulfilled.

Seriously, my distaste for Space Dwarves to one side, I would give the big, clunky, grimdark steampunk-*** Tim Burton robots. Not servitors -- robots with big hammers and pointy bits and giant rollers covered with spikes. I would use for example the stats for the Bronze Malefect from CA and Space Dwarfifize it.

A lot of this depends I guess on what flavor of Space Dwarf you want. Are these polished, high-tech anime Space Dwarves, or are these steampunky Space Dwarves? The latter would have a more Orkish tech flavor.

I'm not shooting for "orkish tech", but I do tend toward Steampunk rather than sci-fi when dealing with the 40k universe. (or maybe "steampunk sci-fi")

PS. Along that thought I found a great image one devaintart: http://gorogirongut.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-scientist-with-pet-106581653

Hey, I've got it. The old DnD staple the Earth Elemental. Chaos Space Dwarves animating hunks of rock to do their bidding.

Forget about doing the "in space" bit and send them up against a WFB style dwarf force, all regiments axes and thunderers. Then you get to blow holes in thier silly dwarfen blocks with grenades and flamers. I know I would love to be in that group. I may be predjudiced in this case, one of my friends plays WFB dwarfs, I almost never win. Stupid Dwarfs.

Kaihlik

Since technology has been talked about at length, I try the "scenes" approach

Mineur
If the imperial army lays siege to "dwarfen" stronghold (or in a similiar "Grabenkampf" (trench war) situation), have the "dwarves" dig tunnels to to get behind the enemy lines. However, do not use them to "burst out behind the lines", but to build chambers filled with explosives under the imperial lines.
This was a tactic used in WW I, as far as I know.
The pc can get involved if they are the one to notice "strange vibrations" (perhaps by watching a glas or puddle of water). If they don´t, let someone else find this out. First, the might suspect an incoming giant war machine, but time will proof there is none. Now, it is up to the pc to puzzle things out.
" Logic " or " Common Lore(War) " might be helpfull here (+0), as is Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperials)(+10) but Trade(Miner) will for sure (+30 or more). As soon as they find out, they have to spot the tell-tall "earth sinks" to find tunnels ( Perceipton or Trade(Miner) ), break them open (test of strength for digging) and go in to get to the explosive chamber and get sure that the bombs are disabled. Of course, automated guards are their. Thinks "Iron Golems". They do not have much time to put these down, otherwise everything will blow up.

segara82 said:

Actually, they were pretty much stricken from canon, since GW made sure to alter some mentionings of Squats in a few Black Library novels, as well as not printing older material that mention the Squats too frequently.

I'd say that pretty much sums it up as being stricken from canon. But this is Dark Heresy, a role playing game where the canon is governed by the gamemaster, and if the group fancies the idea of space dwarves then by all means there should be space dwarves!

Kaihlik said:

Say, that sounds an awful lot like my own fictional racism against elves, and everything elvish!

Of course, I find racism to be bad in real life, but I think I am permitted to be a class act bigot when it comes ti fictional races and species. And the pointy eared scum known as elves/elfs/eldar/whatever really grinds my gears. Just read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and you'll know what I am referring to.

It's just that simply EVERYTHING connected to elves, along with the elves themselves has to be so goddamned über, all the friggin time! Elves are always superior fighters (look at the stuns pulled by that p*ssy Legolas in the movies), their weapons are always magical and superior in some way, even their friggin clothes and ropes and other such mundane bull is always considered to be the finest in the world, and every other form of craftsmanship is inferior in someway to the elvish stuff. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that Elf armies in wargames always stoop to cowardly tactics (like ridiculous amounts of spellcasting and the like).

Now about the craftsmanship stuff, Dwarven craftsmanship is also frequeently considered to be superior in comparison to other craftsmanship. But Dwarves are by far a lot more likeable than Elves, because they tend to have a rather rough exteriour and an equally rough demeanour. They are a sort of diamond in the rough that way. While Elves always have to be the crownjewel of exactly everything. They always look good, they smell nice, they are smart and whatever lack of strength and toughness they might have they more than make up for it with inhuman nimbleness and dexterity. Oh and once again, everything produced by an elf is always considered to be superior to everything else.

Elves/Eldar simply make me want to put on my Red Redemption costume, light my flamer, rev up the eviscerator and then go to town in painting the walls with their alien blood. Thank the Emperor for Dark Heresy, where it is completely okay to be a bigot alien-hater!

One option is the squat replacement the Demiurg.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Demiurg

Some stuff I remember from my days as an Epic player:

1) Biker Guild - Squats had a huge Biker culture, everyone travels by Harley Davidson

2) Vtols - The only better way to travel than bike, is in one of their cool Gyrocopters

3) Super Heavy Vehicles - the Leviathon, Collosuss and Cyclops are all superheavy vehicles with voidshields that are capable of taking on small titans. These things would eat a baneblade for breakfast!

4) Each clan has a Chief and a Warlord, no Squat is allowed to go to war until he has raised a son to carry on this name.

Practically, I'm a big fan of the 'Demiurg'.

www.savefile.com/files/2164249

That's my ideas for 'em in Inquisitor, Epic and BFG. Lorewise, very interesting.

Stick with big robots and automata. Visually, describe 'em as 'steampunk'. Lots of brass and whirring contraptions. Effectively have them as dynamically sci-fi, gadgety tech, tricks and gimmicks abound. Resilient via forcefields, regenerative techniques, heavily armoured roboty things. The individual Demiurg...have 'em few and far between. Bring in some AI too. Plenty of stuff to play about with. Though I've got plenty of specific ideas, I like the ones folks are putting out here too. It's grand!

I'm looking at trying my hand at writing a campaign called Day of the Demiurg . Plenty of ideas, little worked out.

Varnias Tybalt said:

I half agree with you. I hate stupid dress wearing elves in WF (and all fantasy in general). With there no weakness and being better in all situations and forgetting old weakness (like not having as much armour or limited foot elites and heavy cavalry).

But I quite like Eldar. Strange how adding a bunch of murderers and a terriying evil god makes things better.

I truely belive that if Space dwarves had managed to depart enough from their fantasy inspiration but still hold the feeling of dwarfishness then they would be very sucessful army.

Emo FTW.