Allright! I just recently bought this game last week and man, this brings back sweet memories of sitting in my basement with my cousin playing WARLORDS and Master Of Magic! Obviously theres alot of differences but the feel of the game is somewhat equal to that of WARLORDS, Master Of Magic and other old school strategy cRPGs - and I love it! Nostalgia, sweet old graphics and a deep sand-box I can play around in! Fresh out of the box in 2012. Thats awesome right there...

But STOP! ITS HAMMER TIME! (Tecnically these dwarves dont seem to wield any hammers, unfortunately. Mod anyone?)

Lets get down to this little guide on the Dwarves, shall we?

The biggest difference between the dwarves and the other races of Elysium is that they rely heavily on time, and timing. The Dvala Queen (you always start out with one in your Dwarven City) is the giver of life within the Dwarven society. She produces 1 Dwarven Worker each turn. That means raising an army can take quite some time. You can eventually upgrade her into a Daughter of Dvalin, which costs 150 diamonds and makes her give birth to 3 dwarves each turn (<--- this is a massive improvement and essential if your want to keep up with the other forces!). The Dwarves also use alot of Iron. When I say alot, I mean ALOT! Each batch of 5 soldiers cost 20 or 30 or 40 Iron. Finally, Dwarves have a natural love of Gold! And you need quite a bit of gold aswell. So keep that in mind as you plan out your Conquest of Elysium.



Basic rules for playing as the Dwarves.

- Rule 1: Keep your Dvala Queen safe! If you loose her before having another one you are royaly screwed. GG No re. Youre done. Always make sure to keep an army with or around her. As she cant move, she is very vulnerable. Especially early game, before you have control of your area. You just cannot afford to loose cities.

- Rule 2: Your queen can create a special Commander called Rune Smith. This guy is essential to growing your kingdom. With the Rune Smith you can convert any Mine or Stream on a mountain tile into a Dwarven Colony for 250 Gold. That places a Dvala there to birth more of our awesome hairy little mountain friends. Do this as soon as possible!


- Rule 3: Trust in the physique of the sturdy dwarves. They are more resiliant than most other units because they have +1 Armor (upgraded units have 2 in armor). Basic Dwarves have the small shield perk which means 20% change to negate 4 damage when they're hit, and the Dwarven Guard has large shield perk (30% chance to negate 4 damage).

- Rule 4: Upgrade wisely! Your Rune Smith can create a stronger version of the troops you trained in the city. This can be done anywhere on the map, as long as the Rune Smith has Action Points availible to use. The upgrading is done by spending rubies, sapphires or emeralds. For 20 sapphires you get 5 upgraded Cold immune troops. 20 rubies makes your soldiers fire immune, and 20 emeralds adds the perk Pierce Damage Resistance (50% damage reduction from Pierce attacks). Fighting the right opponent with the right upgrade is key to your survivial.


- Rule 5: Ranged units are expensive and take time to produce. The Dwarves have 3 ranged units. Arabalest troops (5 for 30 Iron) are the least good ranged unit for the dwarves I think. They can attack every 3rd turn which makes them pretty crappy for their cost in the long run (and close to worthless in long fights). Ive never understood the use of Ballistas. They're really expensive and I dont think they're worth the cost or place in the army really... they just dont deal the damage they need to do to be worth it. Since they're last row troops they might be worth it if you find yourself with an excess of a couple of thousand Iron. ^^ They might actually be worse than the Arabalest as I think about it. The real deal is the Outdoors Dwarf! He has 1 armor, deals ranged damage of 1-8, has the small shield perk (again 20% to negate 4 points of damage) and he can fire his crossbow every other round. If things get really nasty and he finds himself in the front lines he can take care of himself with his 1-5 damage axe, his small shield perk and +1 armor. Seriously, this guy is a bazooka! The only problem with him is that you train them individually. So put your patience cap on and get to work, because this, my humble readers, is the bees-knees, the shiznits and the real frakkin' deal!

- Rule 6: Dont use Dwarf Workers as frontal assault troops. They need to be upgraded in order to do anything useful. Sure, they can deal damage to low-level troops without armor, defend towns against wondering monsters in small groups, but they take full damage from every kind of attack that hits.
[/list]
This is a weak sauce army... a massive weak sauce army!

Save up for the 5 Dwarves. I prefer them compared to the Warriors because of their shields. Conquer easy hamlets and Coal Mines. Scout for a suitable Gold or Silver Mine/Stream to conquer. Work your way up to 50 diamonds and purchase your first Rune Smith ASAP. The Arabalest Dwarves are actually a good option early in the game because they're relatively cheap and you can get 5 of them at once. They will help to clear out your first and second real Mine.

Occationally Human Mercinaries will offer their services to you for 120 Gold. Once you get the chance I say buy them! Buying mercinaries is the one gold sink you have as a Dwarf, other than founding colonies of course.

The Dvala can use 5 diamonds to search for a mine somewhere semi-close to you. Its seems to be a random mine, and not always the closest one. This is a great ability if you can afford it. The ability reveals 8 hexes around the mine aswell so you get some more information that just the mine. It can prove very useful.

Obviously, this is the stage where you are as weakest. Before you set up your dwarven kingdom, with plenty of mines to genereate workers for you you, you are absolutely the weakest of all races. Luckily your thick dwarves are stronger than the averate other race, so I guess its balanced that way.

Try to get the right distribution of front line heavies (Guards, or preferable upgraded Guards) and Outdoor Dwarves. Ive noticed a huge drop of effectiveness in armies above 450. Keeping around 200/250 Outdoor Dwarves and the rest upgraded Guards (preferably the emerald "Armors of Dvalin" upgrade) is VERY effecient.


Hundreds of Crossbow Bolts and a few moments later...

Yupp! I only lost 18 Armor of Dvalin Guards that fight :D Opponent: >381

Late game:
Create many smaller task forces like this. Even if you loose an army here and there because of the sheer size of the other players armies (1000+) you will still wreck havoc with your Super Effective Killer Dwarven Task Force of DOOM! Its so very efficient! And its extremely satisfying to see the crossbow fire cause a drop in the other player's troop numbers like a kill count out of a Rambo movie or something! Honestly, the more Outdoor Dwarves there are the better... as long as you keep enough rows of meat shields before them you will be very effective, at least against any kind of Piercing/Fire or Cold attacks.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, but even more so I hope that you give the Dwarves a fair shot at proving they freaking rock Elysium!
so, STOP! ITS HAMMER TIME! ^^