10

You only get three dwarves for a base, whose special ability is an extra victory token for mine tiles, and that this ability is retained when in decline.

This seems like a rip off! There are other races (like humans) who get an extra VP for farms, and they get almost twice as many from memory. The fact that you get to keep them when in decline doesn't especially help, as they're much easier to kill in decline.

So is there a reason why dwarves are apparently treated as powerful? What strategy should one use to utilise them?

7
  • This seems like a rant. Is there an actual question you are asking here?
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 2:56
  • What is the rationale for there being only three dwarves? Am I missing some strategy for using the dwarves?
    – dwjohnston
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 3:27
  • I suggest that you put that in your question then. Right now it just reads like a complaint about game imbalance.
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 3:29
  • 1
    I don't know if you've missed something in the rules, but you can get as many as 8 dwarves depending on what their special power is. Since there are no special powers with a token modifier of 0, it's actually impossible to only get 3 dwarves to start.
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 8:21
  • @JonathanHobbs Yes i'm aware of the combo modifier, but I'm talking about the dwarf component of it.
    – dwjohnston
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 12:10

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
15

Because their power continues to work in decline, Dwarves are not intended to be played for very long. In most cases probably 2 turns with them is all you should be doing. Get 2 or 3 mine spots, and move on to your next race. This is why there are fewer Dwarves, because you aren't intended to use them for more than a couple turns or to conquer more than just a few spots.

3
  • This. The ability to work in decline is very powerful in early game, especially as most of the mines are in difficult to conquer areas.
    – deworde
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 12:52
  • @deworde I think calling the Dwarves "very powerful" is a bit of an overstatement. They are pretty universally considered the weakest race.
    – bwarner
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 18:38
  • 4
    @bwarner The effect is powerful. The handicap is too much.
    – deworde
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 19:08
2

I found Commando Dwarves a very successful race and power combo. You can conquer any region with 1 less race token than usual, which helps you easily extend early game. I found that aiming for 3 mines that are the closest together on the game board is a good strategy (so as to not over-extend yourself). And mines are often found in mountains so when in-decline, it's likely that other players will not want to use 4 tokens on that one region to conquer it.

-4

Fortified Dwarves = takes 3 mines, one on the mountain, get 9 coins from three regions, in decline

1
  • 3
    "Fortified" doesn;t retain coin bonus in decline, only defence bonus
    – Deo
    Commented Jan 4, 2017 at 14:41

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .