posted 05-09-06 10:39 AM EDT (US)
This guide should help anyone become a top-20 Dwarven player. At least until everyone uses it and you end up fighting nothing but Dwarves.
I decided I'd seen enough dwarven rushes that I could probably do them pretty well. So I made a new account, "Zimbeard". It's 10/0 so far, including fights against top 100 people. First time playing dwarves since patch 1.02 came out and I'm wracking up wins every 5 minutes. (If you look at my match history, the games that appeared to take longer were actually me logging out and back in, so it would re-rate me and give me higher rated opponets.)
Simple guardian rush:
1) Send your FIRST builder towards the enemy base. Immediately.
2) Have your SECOND builder make a 100 percent mine at your home base
3) Have your SECOND builder make a barracks.
4) Have your FIRST builder make a mine near the enemy -- your mine should be out of sight, in a direction the enemy is not likely to wander in. If you're not sure how close is too close, just play it safe. It's better to walk a little further than have your mine discovered. Mine percentage doesn't really matter -- go for a 100 percent mine if it's handy, otherwise take whatever looks like a secure spot.
5) Build 3 guardians. (You should end up with 2 mines, 1 barracks and 3 guardians)
6) Pop guardians into the mine at your base
7) Pop guardians out at the mine near the enemy base
8) Switch guardians to Defensive Stance
9) Move guardians towards enemy base
10) Rally Call Guardians when they near the enemy base
11) Switch Guardians to Aggressive when attacking buildings / Switch Guardians back to Defensive when not attacking buildings
Your main focus is to destroy enemy buildings while ignoring his troops as much as possible. If he attacks with with 3 batallions, have 1 Guardian batallion attack them in Defensive stance while your other 2 move on. Worse comes to worse, engage enemy troops with 2 batallions and have the 3rd hit his buildings.
You should be able to at LEAST destroy all of his production buildings (barracks, etc). You will quite possibly be able to destroy everything he has around his fortress, including his army.
If the enemy has built far away, just attack his fortress. 3 guardians will flatten a fortress in no time.
While this is happening, you have 2 choices:
* Have your Hall of Warriors on a hotkey and keep ordering new Guardians while you fight. Pop them out 2 or 3 at a time to join the battle.
or
* Do not buy anything, focus entirely on the attack. As your Guardian attack begins to lose steam, you'll notice you have about 800 resources saved up. Buy a Forge. Hotkey it. Concentrate on the battle some more. When the Forge is done, make a battlewagon and more Guardians.
In all 10 fights, I never even got my BW into the fight before it was over.
3 Guardian Batallions with Rally Call can destroy just about anything they want before any early-game enemy force can stop them. Guardians have a boatload of hitpoints, so with Rally Call and Defensive Stance they can't be stopped. With Rally Call and Aggressive Stance, they will kill buildings in just a couple of seconds, once close in.
Remember to use Charge when your guardians make level 2, which will happen quickly as they kill buildings.
Thus, step 12...
12) Win.
I also have Zimwood (Elves), Zimdor (Mordor) and Zimgard (Isengard). This Dwarven strategy is far easier, far faster and far more reliable than any single strat from any of those teams. I actually feel bad doing it, because it's just so retardedly simple to execute but very difficult to counter.
The "best" counter is to find the mine before it's built or before the Guardians are ready. This is nearly impossible, if the Dwarf plays his cards right. He doesn't have to build it THAT close, which means it's not hard to avoid the most predictable spots.
Once the Guardians are on their way, it's really too late. They're tough enough in Defensive stance that they'll be destroying buildings before any possible force can stop them.
Suggested ways to fix the Dwarves. Pick one or more of the following:
* Reduce guardian hit points. They really have no business being that tough for only 250 resources.
* Increase Hall of Warriors build time, as was done to the Elves in v1.03.
* Increase Guardian Build time, perhaps necessitating 2 Halls of Warriors for decent Guardian output, similar to Mordor's Orc Pits.
* Move Rally Call to a 10 point power for Dwarves. Replace it with Farsight as a 5 point power. (If you choose this option, there's probably no need to do anything else.)
I have some other ideas but I think those are the best.
There's also an "Axe Thrower Rush" but I honostly haven't had as big of a problem with it. Axe Throwers already take longer than Guardians to get going and they aren't as tough.
I plan to try an Axe Thrower Rush when I play a Dwarven mirror but for every other team, the 3-Guardian rush is pretty well a guarenteed win.
[This message has been edited by Bendak (edited 06-01-2006 @ 02:49 PM).]
! You explained it perfectly.
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