Hammer Time (for Dispossessed)

[ninjaDance]

While I've typically been making lists with two or three majour faction components for CoS (usually Dispossessed, Freeguild, and maybe a pack or two of self-support aelves) up until now, I'm an old-hat dwarf played from WHFB. After breaking out Grudgelore this weekend and shedding a beardy tear into my beer, I've decided to work on true throng-centric lists.  

There's a nice thread on here about ranking Freeguild units, and while I'm not terribly concerned about ranking, I would love to hear some thoughts about the various Dispossessed units, which City you like to use in a classic duardin-centric list, and which of our non-duardin allies provide the best support in such a list.

In a nutshell, if you want to make an army of 70%+ Dispossessed, which City would you use and which umgi and elgi make for good helpers?

(Bonus points for how you would use 60 Hammerers... I really want to try this.)

Edited February 10, 2020 by ninjaDance

[willange]

Hammerhal won't be a bad choice.  You have lots of banners and so could get a lot of CP.  That said, one of the things Hammerhal does well is BS ignore in your territory.  While that's helpful for hordes of infantry, I find that Dispossessed are already decently good in this area and might not need that as much.  On the other hand, the CA to attack again is great on durable hordes like hammerers!

Tempest's Eye has a lot of potential for 2 reasons.  1, you get Kharadron which make up for some of the weaknesses of dispossessed (speed and shooting with balloons boys and ships) and they fit nicely with them too.  2, you get to move faster, which dispossessed sorely need.

Living City also has potential.  The ability to bring dwarves in on the edge means you get irondrakes popping in next to enemies (and they don't count as having moved) and hammerers with the potential for a turn 1 charge, but at least turn 2.  Basically this city helps get around how slow you are.  Sylvaneth allies aren't super thematic, but they can be useful.

Those are my top 3.  Granted, there are uses for others.  Hallowheart if you want duardin backed up by powerful magic.  Greywater if you were going to focus on adding artillery with them.  It's harder to find uses for Anvilgard or Phoenicium with dispossessed as the main force though.

[ninjaDance]

3 hours ago, willange said:

...

Those are pretty similar to my thoughts. Living City was really interesting initially because I ran the US Season of War campaign here and had a good time making up extra LC missions and playing GA: Order lists when the first GHB dropped. I'm still leaning this way a bit, but I know if I do, I'll be tempted to start acquiring Sylvaneth, hahah. I did originally call my Dispossessed the 'Oakhearts', so maybe this is their home.

Anvilgard got a lot of thought, too. I was tempted to get some real mileage out of Ironbreakers with an unreliable-but-hard-to-kill 'secretive warlock' Warden King shooting acid among them. Kind of a one-trick pony, however, and I feel like the biggest strengths of Disp (high rend capability and reasonably easy battleshock immunity) are kind of overlapping with Anvilgard's tricks.

Phoenicium is cool. I struggle to make a list with it that doesn't use up a million points in Phoenixes and PG, but... it's a nice idea? I'm tempted to use some old slayer models as duardin assassins one day for some fun, but definitely not a mainstay choice.

Greywater, Tempest's Eye, Hallowheart, and Hammerhal all give interesting options. I've never been a gunline fan, but Greywater has an appealing colour scheme (I loved Averland, and have so much Empire, dwarfs, and halflings that it's tempting to do an homage) and frankly one of the most interesting lore backgrounds. If I choose to actually model off of a city, this would be a pretty interesting choice.

Tempest's Eye honestly mostly appeals to be for the horse-centric Freeguild usage and for feeling like a good *moderately* strong pick that will still be fun for other people to play against. KO (which I have an army of already) and Freeguild cavalry would both be excellent helpers, I think. It does feel a little like it treads familiar territory with the KO playstyle, but I've played slow dwarfs for years, so maybe a little extra speed would be a nice change of pace regardless.

Hallowheart and Hammerhal both fall into the category of being mechanically interesting and thematically a tad boring. I actually really loved the idea of Hallowheart from the intial blurb in Firestorm and, since Fyreslayers were my core army and my Empire is painted mainly in blue, planned to build up an army around the two. After HH got rid of the Fyreslayers and became the de facto 'tournament' option in the new book, however, it's lost a bit of its appeal. Hammerhal has pretty interesting rules, but I really cannot get into the city lore after reading a few of the short stories and the like. It might make a good contender if I give in and make up my own city.

I might be getting stuck in analysis paralysis.

[willange]

Yeah I would just try one and see if you like it, then go from there.

[Doko]

Hallowheart with 2 battlemages and one hurricanun for many buffs to yours hammerers and mortal wounds output also a good ignore spells with 5+ 

 

Or hallowhearth. With two hammerers bombs(30 hamerers,1 king,1runelord each bomb) this is VERY deadly,30 hammerers with the extra rend of runelord,with +1 attack of the king and double attack from hallowhearth comand ability.

 

I only have 20 hammerers(proxy of warriors tho) so i couldnt test it,but with only 20 they allready delete all they touch.

 

I prefer the magic version with hurricanum giving them the +1 hit but its very easy loose the hurricanum in one turn

[zilberfrid]

Another option would be Barak Thryng, with longbeards and hammerers to round out Kharadron shooting and moving. You can use spare Kharadron arms on Disposessed bodies to blend them a bit more.

[Double Misfire]

Good thread. 🍻

After a unit of 20 Dwarf Warriors (I was running a mixed Order list to not confuse people with counts as stuff) with Warden King, Runelord and Longbeard buffs shredded 20 Ardboyz in a game at this weekend's Throne of Skulls, I've been considering running more aggressive Disposessed-focused lists. In everyone's experience would you say they need movement enhancing endless spells to get the most out of, or can they make it across the battlefield ok with just musicians and a lot of command points (easily farmed in a Greywater Fastness list)?

[ninjaDance]

5 hours ago, zilberfrid said:

Another option would be Barak Thryng, with longbeards and hammerers to round out Kharadron shooting and moving. You can use spare Kharadron arms on Disposessed bodies to blend them a bit more.

Already with you there! I love my Barak Thryng, although I've been toying with Fyreslayer accompaniment a little more than Dispossessed or Ironweld, but I might try to get them in at some point.

30 minutes ago, Double Misfire said:

Good thread. 🍻

After a unit of 20 Dwarf Warriors (I was running a mixed Order list to not confuse people with counts as stuff) with Warden King, Runelord and Longbeard buffs shredded 20 Ardboyz in a game at this weekend's Throne of Skulls, I've been considering running more aggressive Disposessed-focused lists. In everyone's experience would you say they need movement enhancing endless spells to get the most out of, or can they make it across the battlefield ok with just musicians and a lot of command points (easily farmed in a Greywater Fastness list)?

That's good to hear! Go get some grudges settled on the urk! I'm curious about the movement, too. I've had a hard time not castling with Dispossessed lists ever since they took away miners and rangers. It's nice to have the Soulscream Bridge option available to us now, as well as some of the city abilities to help out. I wonder if there's a good way to convert a 'Spirit of Bugman' bridge... There's always Chronomantic Cogs and the  Wildform, too. It'd be hard to leave the hold without a mage in a Cities list for me.

9 hours ago, Doko said:

Or hallowhearth. With two hammerers bombs(30 hamerers,1 king,1runelord each bomb) this is VERY deadly,30 hammerers with the extra rend of runelord,with +1 attack of the king and double attack from hallowhearth comand ability.

I only have 20 hammerers(proxy of warriors tho) so i couldnt test it,but with only 20 they allready delete all they touch.

You meant Hammerhal here, right? I've been really tempted by just that path, actually. It would be really command point intensive, but that's one of the two best cities for command points, so... Might work out really well. I might stick to just one Warden King (they're expensive as all) and take a battlemage with Bridge to fling units of Hammerers at the enemy from afar. True duardin artillery...

[Gwendar]

Personally, I've looked previously at TE with 90% Dwarves but since dropped it.. and then picked it up again and have been remaking a comp list after I do some tweaking:
 

Spoiler

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
- City: Tempest's Eye

Leaders
Runelord (90)
- General
- Command Trait: Hawk-eyed
- Artefact: Seerstone Amulet
Runelord (90)
- City Role: General's Adjutant
Celestial Hurricanum With Celestial Battlemage (280)
- Lore of Eagles: Aura of Glory
Battlemage (90)
- Lore of Eagles: Aura of Glory
- Mortal Realm: Ghur

Battleline
10 x Longbeards (110)
- Ancestral Weapons & Shields
- City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)
10 x Longbeards (110)
- Ancestral Weapons & Shields
20 x Hammerers (280)
20 x Irondrakes (300)
20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)

Units
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (150)
- Main Gun: Sky Cannon
6 x Endrinriggers (200)

Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs
Soulscream Bridge (80)

Total: 1980 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 128
 

Solid shooting threats (it's mostly the 20 Irondrakes), a CC threat with the Hammerers and a mobile threat in both shooting\CC with the Endrins + Gunhauler that can hop around the board and harass wherever they're needed. Optional tweak I've considered is dropping the Handgunners in favor of 2x10 Shadow Warriors for some null drops, but the Handgunners + Longbeards provide a nice screen with Stand & Shoot.

[Chunk]

I could use some advice actually, I really appreciate you making this thread.

 

I recently acquired the following:

- 30 hammerers

- 30 ironbreakers 

- 20 longbeards

- Warden King

- Runelord

- gyrobomber

 

Can you suggest any lists that would work well with this as a core? I was thinking maybe a Living City one with the ironbreakers protecting some shooting units that start on the board, then the rest turn up on the sides and charge.

 

Thank ye kindly!

[readercolin]

I think the clear winners for cities are going to be tempest eye and hallowheart.  Why?

Tempest eye is great for a dwarf heavy force for a few reasons.  Firstly, the extra 3" of movement on turn 1 is enough to get their stubby little legs to go 7" without running, which means that you can actually get your forces moving towards your opponent.  The +1 armor also means that ironbreakers and longbeards are rocking a 2+ save for that first turn as well, which helps to mitigate the inevitability of your opponent being able to choose who goes first.  Secondly, Hawk Eyed gives your inevitable block of irondrakes a 3+/2+ profile, and having some longbeards screening them also gives them a re-roll to their wound rolls.  Add a hurricanum and a command point and that can be 2+rr1/2+rr1, with anywhere between -1 and -3 rend.  If you are wondering, this means that you are rocking a 94.5% accuracy rating with those irondrakes, so basically if you have a block of 10 that didn't move or a block of 20 that did, only 1 shot from that block will miss on average.  Next, when you are looking to deal damage, you can rock the spell Aura of Glory to give +1 to attack for all units within 12" of the caster, which means that you could theoretically get a block of hammerers to be attacking 4 times each.  Basically, every single part of your gameplan gets a bonus when you run tempest eye.

Hallowheart makes number 2 on the list because of the sheer power of the wizards.  Why does this matter?  Dwarfs are slow, and getting near guaranteed soulscream bridges off to get your stubby legs up and into combat is important.  Ignite Weapons from your hurricanum can do the work of hawk eyed as well to get your irondrakes to that sweet 2+/2+ profile too.  Warding Brand can also be useful to punish people trying to attack your hammerers before your hammerers get to smash whatever they are engaged with.  Lastly, you have the power of your enhanced spells to help snipe out key support pieces that would be causing issues for the rest of your army to deal with.

Moving on from the top 2 choices, Hammerhall and the Living City both have arguments that can be made for being decent dwarf strongholds.

Hammerhall gets you extra CP from all your banners, and you ignore battleshock in your territory, which is important because your stubby little legs are going to leave you there for much of the game.  However, should you get into your opponents territory, being able to pile in and attack twice in a turn can be devastating.  However, there isn't anything to really buff your wound rolls, you don't have any movement assistance, and you don't have any magic assistance, and those 3 things are all things that Tempest Eye and Hallowheart can give you.  I just don't see that hammerhall gives dwarfs much over the other two cities to make it worth taking though.

Next up, the living city provides exactly one thing for the dwarfs - the ability to ambush in from the board edge.  This is an extremely powerful ability, and if you are wanting to get the most out of irondrakes without relying on the bridge to help you, this is what you want to bring.  However, there are literally no other features of the living city that benefit your forces.  There is no extra movement, no extra defense, no extra offense.  It is only the board edge ambushing.  Now, if you want to go heavy on the irondrakes, with 2-3 blocks of 20 of them, this can be really good (though you don't get to buff them with extra rend by doing this).  If you are wanting to try to make hammerers work though... you are going to be better with one of the other cities.

Finally, there are the last 3 cities.

Greywater fastness buffs your gyrocopters range.  Beyond that, it buffs artillery (which is all human now - but could be easily converted), or allows you to run and shoot.  Its... nice?  I guess?  But unless you want to run an artillery heavy force, this isn't providing you with any notable buffs, unlike the cities above.

Next up, Anvilguard.  Here you can take an illicit dealing and get an extra artefact, and maybe some extra command points.  You can also sacrifice a dwarf to make everything within 18" immune to battleshock, which is kinda nice.  The only other thing of note is the spell Vitrioc Spray, which eliminates the need for rend... which doesn't really matter to you because it is so easy to give good rend to units that need it with the runelords.  Once again, this isn't really providing you with anything special.

For the last city, the Phoenicium.  There are 2 relevant things the Phoenicium can give you.  The first is +1/+1 if a unit dies, which rewards MSU playstyle.  Note, MSU can work ok with dwarfs, because the warden king's command ability affects opposing units, not your own.  On the other hand, Runelords help your own units, which benefits larger blocks.  This makes things a bit of a wash.  However, the bigger thing is that for a command point, you can give your units the ability to fight after death, which is really helpful if you are trying to get in with some melee infantry, because it guarantees that the damage is going to come out, even if your opponent elects to remove that unit first.  This alone makes the Phoenicium better than Anvilguard and Greywater fastness... but it still doesn't really compare to the living city or hammerhall, much less hallowheart or tempest eye.

Lastly, if I wanted to make an army running 60 hammerers, this is what I would do:

Hallowheart:

Warden King (general, Warden of the Flame)
Runelord (adjutant)
Runelord
Celestial Hurricanum (whitefire tome)
Battlemage (Ghur)
Battlemage (Hysh)
30 Hammerers
30 Hammerers
10 Longbeards
20 Irondrakes
Soulscream Bridge
40 more points of endless spells of your choice

This gives you the the bridge, the hurricanum to use Arcane Channeling with, and you can teleport forward the irondrakes with the longbeards to screen for them, and then possibly also a unit of hammerers.  Additionally, you have 6 spell casts per turn, 5 dispels per turn (runelords get a +2 to that too), and 6 attempts to dispell endless spells too (1 from each wizard, 1 from each runelord, and 1 from longbeards grumbling).  You will be uncontested in the magic phase, your irondrakes will be able to trivially put an average of 40 damage with rend -3 downrange, and if anyone is dumb enough to get close, the hammerers will be able to demonstrate why they are literally the killiest infantry in the game.  That being said, this setup is basically one big deathstar, and aside from hopping around with the bridge, mobility is kind of poor.  On the other hand, you knew that going in when you said you wanted to run 60 hammerers...

[ninjaDance]

15 hours ago, readercolin said:

...

Tempest's Eye is something I keep coming back to, but my hobby side hasn't gotten on board with the mechanical, hahah. I might paint a test mini and see if I can get a colour scheme I like out of it that's at least fairly similar. I may go in a different direction, but I'm trying to use this as an opportunity to actually use one of the canon cities rather than making up my own. AoS has such a flighty feel that I think having my army be 'grounded' in an existing city will help keep me interested. I need to try them, get a feel for it on the table and see how fun it is. It certainly would be useful for all my favourite units (I even have about 30-40 Shadow Warriors hanging around somewhere that could work their way in eventually).

That's a really good summary of the cities and a few things I hadn't thought of. I also absolutely love that Hallowheart list. They Hallowheart list I've been playing (which is about half and half Dispossessed and Freeguild troops) is more endless spell heavy and reliant on the mages. This looks like it would distribute the love more evenly from a subfaction perspective and not having to take 'Veteran of the Blazing Crusade' because you have an oathstone and hammerer core will be great to get the additional command points. I'd be a little worried about only having one 'battery' for the Hallowheart command ability, but the list won't exactly fall apart if they manage blow up the Hurricanum with or without help from me, lol. It'll be great while it lasts.

I'm definitely going to have to try that Hallowheart list. Thanks!

Edited February 12, 2020 by ninjaDance
Realized 'HH' is ambiguous in Cities discussions, changed it to Hallowheart.

[danimo]

I've recently started playing  duardin-focused Cities and I'm having bit of fun with this first go at a Tempest's Eye list at the moment:

- City: Tempest's Eye
Runelord (90) (general)
Warden King (110)
Battlemage (90) (ghur)
Knight-Incantor (140)
Gotrek Gurnisson (520)
30 x Irondrakes (450)
10 x Longbeards (110)
10 x Ironbreakers (130)
20 x Hammerers (280)
Soulscream Bridge (80)

The main goals at the onset were 1)play mostly duardin, 2)play Gotrek to see what that's like, and 3)play at least one of each Dispossessed unit.  The knight-incantor is there to cast the bridge so that the mage can focus on speeding up Gotrek or casting Aura of Glory for the hammerers. The army feels well-rounded, and even the Ironbreakers have been decent.  The 20-block of Hammerers aren't a powerhouse but its enough for your opponent to have to peel something off of Gotrek and the Irondrakes to deal with them.

In the future I'll probably drop Gotrek for more dispossessed, or perhaps some KO. I think the ghur battlemage is very good in a dwarfy list of any city, 

 

[Double Misfire]

If anybody's still interested in writing Dispossessed focused lists, I've just written a new blog article analysing their role in Cities of Sigmar armies in detail. Feedback welcome.  

https://www.doublemisfire.com/2020/02/the-lonely-realmsphere-guide.html

[ninjaDance]

On 2/25/2020 at 9:21 AM, Double Misfire said:

If anybody's still interested in writing Dispossessed focused lists, I've just written a new blog article analysing their role in Cities of Sigmar armies in detail. Feedback welcome.  

https://www.doublemisfire.com/2020/02/the-lonely-realmsphere-guide.html

You're doing the ancestors' work, longbeard! Love the guide and your commentary. The only correction I'd like to make is that (sadly) Armour of Thorns, the Sisters of the Thorns' signature spell, doesn't work on Dispossessed, assuming that's what you were implying. It's wutelgi only.

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by ninjaDance

[Double Misfire]

25 minutes ago, ninjaDance said:

You're doing the ancestors' work, longbeard! Love the guide and your commentary. The only correction I'd like to make is that (sadly) Armour of Thorns, the Sisters of the Thorns' signature spell, doesn't work on Dispossessed, assuming that's what you were implying. It's wutelgi only.

 

WHOOOOOOOOOPPS 😳

Editing that out now! Shows how much attention I pay to Wood Elves  

[Joseph Mackay]

Personally, I kinda think the Dispossessed Allegiance Abilities from the Generals Handbook are the best option for a pure Dispossessed army

[ninjaDance]

On 2/29/2020 at 7:56 PM, Joseph Mackay said:

Personally, I kinda think the Dispossessed Allegiance Abilities from the Generals Handbook are the best option for a pure Dispossessed army

You may be right, but I wasn't necessarily looking for or advocating a 'pure' Dispossessed army, personally; just one focused on them. I think a Cities army with a Dispossessed core can be fun to play and hold its own, although they like the other city forces to lend some support. It makes for a more varied and interesting playstyle than the pure Dispossessed allegiance, I think (which, if I'm honest, I've never been that crazy about to begin with). Especially now that we've been robbed of Warriors, Quarrelers, Thunderers, etc 

[Double Misfire]

On 3/1/2020 at 1:56 AM, Joseph Mackay said:

Personally, I kinda think the Dispossessed Allegiance Abilities from the Generals Handbook are the best option for a pure Dispossessed army

Really?! 🤨

The Dispossessed artefacts are terrible, and AoS is all about movement and objective grabbing. I'd take the Tempest's Eye or the Living City to boost mobility and farm command points with for pure Dispossessed.

[Dejnar]

Guys. 

Im slowly building a duardin heavy list with great joy. I am a bit perplex though about ironbreakers vs longbeards. 

Which ones do I use? Or a both staple in a 2k list? 

I can see the difference on paper ofc but not sure who performs best. 

Happy for all help! 

[zilberfrid]

1 hour ago, Dejnar said:

Guys. 

Im slowly building a duardin heavy list with great joy. I am a bit perplex though about ironbreakers vs longbeards. 

Which ones do I use? Or a both staple in a 2k list? 

I can see the difference on paper ofc but not sure who performs best. 

Happy for all help! 

I think in most cases Longbeards, their extra utility and cheaper cost offsets the lower output. This does require your damage to be from Irondrakes though. If you want damage from infantry, Hammerers are better.

[Double Misfire]

On 3/7/2020 at 8:17 PM, zilberfrid said:

I think in most cases Longbeards, their extra utility and cheaper cost offsets the lower output. This does require your damage to be from Irondrakes though. If you want damage from infantry, Hammerers are better.

This, though I'd argue that for the points Longbeards with great axes and Warden King support aren't a terrible alternative to Hammerers, I've had a unit of 20 do 25+ odd wounds before.

[zilberfrid]

1 hour ago, Double Misfire said:

This, though I'd argue that for the points Longbeards with great axes and Warden King support aren't a terrible alternative to Hammerers, I've had a unit of 20 do 25+ odd wounds before.

Especially if you get your hands on Aura of Glory.

[Double Misfire]

55 minutes ago, zilberfrid said:

Especially if you get your hands on Aura of Glory.

GREYWATER FASTNESS 4 LYFE

I love my 11" Gyrocopters and don't even know what that is

[readercolin]

On 3/7/2020 at 11:59 AM, Dejnar said:

Guys. 

Im slowly building a duardin heavy list with great joy. I am a bit perplex though about ironbreakers vs longbeards. 

Which ones do I use? Or a both staple in a 2k list? 

I can see the difference on paper ofc but not sure who performs best. 

Happy for all help! 

Ask yourself what the purpose for the unit is.

Longbeards are useful to bring out in a 10 man unit to get the re-roll 1's to wound bubble, and to have as a cheap unit for battleline.  It is really hard to justify bringing them in larger units or for another purpose though, because if you want bodies on an objective that are tough to move, then for 30 points less you can run freeguild guard.  For 220 points you could have 20 longbeards, or for 240 you could have 30 guard.  Additionally, the extra firepower that comes from running ironbreakers or hammerers for only a few more points makes the longbeards look even worse.  However, again, the re-roll 1's to wound aura is something that you can't get anywhere else, so a small unit or two can definitely make it into a force.

Ironbreakers cost 20 points more than longbeards, and in exchange get double the attacks.  Worried about lack of rend?  Grab a runelord and buff them (you should be running 2+ runelords anyways in a dwarf heavy force), and if it is super important, remember that you can double up on these buffs.  Remember, they can fight in 2 ranks, so it is really easy to get 20 of them into combat.

Hammerers cost 30 more points than longbeards.  However, when you run the numbers you will find that hammerers are actually one of the killiest units in the entire game.  While they have a base 3+/3+/-1/1 attack profile, it is really easy to give them extra attacks, extra to-hit, extra to-wound, re-roll 1's to hit, and re-roll 1's to wound.  An unsupported unit of hammerers isn't really worth the points compared to a unit of ironbreakers/longbeards.  However, if you are giving them the support they can easily hit well above their weight points wise.  For reference, the base damage of a unit of 10 hammerers is ~12.8 damage.  Fully buffed in tempest eye, that can get buffed up to ~39 damage.

Lastly, we have irondrakes.  Irondrakes exist for the purpose of having an extremely killy unit with good range.  An unbuffed unit of irondrakes is going to be putting out ~9.8 damage if they stand still.  Fully buffed, that can go up to 20.8 damage.  However, they don't have to get into melee to do this, so it is easier to keep all these buffs going for them.

So how does this all come together?

If you are running irondrakes, I would run a block of 20 drakes with a block of 10 longbeards screening them.  To get them fully buffed, park a hurricanum right behind them, and either have hawk eyed (if tempest eye) or give them ignite weapons (if hallowheart).

If you are looking for a large, hard to move block that is going to sit on an objective or to act as a front line that is hard to break, then ironbreakers is what you want to run.  That being said, you do need to make the decision that you want to be running dwarfs for this, because you can have 30 ironbreakers for 330 points, or 40 freeguild guard for 280 points.  Or for 320 points, you can have a block of 40 dreadspears, or 330 points for a 30 block of eternal guard.  None of these choices is going to be all that great for pushing out damage, though ironbreakers are probably the killiest of these options.  However, they all serve the same purpose, which is to be a tough unit that is hard to move.

Lastly, if you want a killy infantry unit, then you want to bring out hammerers.  However, they do have 1 major issue, which is mobility.  4" move is just... slow, which makes it hard for them to get into position to do damage.  Once they do though, if they have support they can delete whatever they run into.  However, they are really competing against irondrakes as being the killy unit that you bring out, and irondrakes tend to be able to apply their damage better.

Alltogether, I would highly recommend running a unit (or two) of irondrakes with a screen of longbeards supporting them and screening them.  However, both of the other units need a long hard look before you decide to run them, simply because of how much overlap they have with other units in the cities.  If you know you really want to take dwarfs, then look at taking the ironbreakers as your anvil, and then a mix (of your choice) of irondrakes and hammerers as your hammer.  But make sure you look at the other options before you decide to dedicate yourself to the dwarfs.