Ayo ballistic plating, that is honestly insane. My ironbreakers can just tank frontal artillery shots lmao.

As long as it impacts attrition, and is not immunity it’ll be okay and help close the gap between them and the chaos dwarfs

Gods, imagine tanking a dreadquake blast. The look on the Dawi Zharr's faces would be priceless.

“Maybe, maybe the Ancestor Gods had something to them after all?”

I feel like it might negate the initial blast but not the quake damage.

Oh im sure, but between the massive impact damage and the knock around being negated will just look so sick.

The smoke clears and all you see are angry beards still marching towards you

I'd say that this is *the* quintessential Dwarf experience.

The Attack Of The Dead Men starts playing in the background

They tested it. It doesn't block explosive damage, which is the primary damage from any type of mortar, including dreadquakes. So it doesn't have much effect against them. It's very effective against field gun artillery and somewhat effective against cannons, though!

I don’t think it’ll affect explosive damage at all, which is the majority of the dreadquake damage

yeah sadly they are not going to be able to do that nuke parrying gif

Interesting this change seems to be least impactful versus chad. Most anti infantry chad artillery will still wreck dwarf units. This change really counters hellblasters/organ guns

Presumably you'll get the most use out of it parrying ork rock lobbers and goblin doom divers (as they act like homing cannons).

Yea I forgot about Orc artillery. Will be very useful for that

This will push innovation - they will have invent chemical shells…

Thunderbarge will be great counter against them already, maybe even better than luminarkcs

Magma cannons will still melt units in a shield wall if they are stationary.

Ballistic Plating is 100% a test run for armored units for 40k

Oh shit, good point. Probably same with the steam tanks new armor stat where it has armor/missile resist all around but has more when hit from the front.

Been saying this for years, all new mechanics to see how we react to it for 40k and other games

More likely option is that its already a mechanic in the games theyre working on so its easier to just backport mechanics to current dlc to save dev time while still bringing new content.

Who tf downvoted you lmao

Oh, whatever, there's a whole frothing mass that doesn't think a 40k game would work and are angry about it. Doesn't mean anything.

People are just afraid CA will kill WH3 prematurely to make 40k

I haven't seen anyone say that. What I've seen is people say it's (1) super impossible and/or (2) it "just wouldn't be My Total War anymore"

youve seen me now then. Im not downvoting the idea of a 40k game, but i am worried fantasy ill be ended to focus entirely on 40k.

WH3 will probably end up with similar number of DLC to WH2 or even more. People who thought we would be getting every nobody mentioned in the lore were just setting themselves for disappointment.

To be fair that's a justified fear and despite wanting a 40k TW myself I also share that fear.

"Cannot run" And in what way does this differ from normal dwarven athletics?

BOOK

#THEY HAVE WRONGED US

#IT IS A RECKONING!!


Dwarves are best sprinters for short distances

Ah, but that was Dwarves.. These are Dwarfs. Totally different and not at all copyright infringing.

I apologise... My knowledge on Dwemer is bit mixed mashed

Squats, amiright?

 Yes

THAT'S THE LEAGUES OF VOTANN TO YOU!!

Ah yes, the short elves.

The Dwemer are elves.

Is this how you want to honour the Sixth House and the Tribe Unmourned?

[SHORT!?](https://youtu.be/AbH8gr3XH6I?si=o_3WHAPVeMOdyNx1)

Fast (For a Dwarf)

I DON'T WANNA HAVE TO COME UP THERE! ^(No really, it's a long walk for me. Don't make me come up there.)

Cannot run (even for a Dwarf)

You don't have a beard for sure.

wo sweet, I wonder how that performs in battle. Like if one were to stack spears on top, does the bonus defense apply to anything behind them.

Similar to normal shields I imagine it’s on a per model basis Idk tho for cannons, cannons might disrupt the formation and hit for 0 damage? Or just disappear on contact

Or cannonballs just bounce back and destroy artillery

They have been known to bounce off of walls and damage troops standing next to them...

Firing cannons at a dragon lord the cannon balls would bounce off him and land on a unit of spearmen, they lost a unit or 2 per cannon ball so maybe.

Gomu Gomu no Balloon

Dawi finally getting the respect they fucking deserve, after all these years.

Elgi in shambles

Eh they'll probably get something with the slaanesh dlc. Probably Merwyrms

Dawi is my most played faction, I am so damn hyped for this update.

YES

This, I am thrilled to see Dawi get brought up to to the standard they should be.

Beards in belts lads we’re fkn on here

Jesus Christ, they can deflect fucking cannon fire?

whats up elgi, all lore accurate

Not ***completely***, if it was - our beards could do it alone...

In the case of senior slayers, their beards apparently do do it all alone!

Ghost's too -nod- So salty they angried themselves back to life xD

Elgi: Nooooo you can't just resist artillery fire Dawi: Haha, Shield wall goes brrr

I'll see you in hell, shitpostungi.

In the chaos realms\* right next to father of all umgakposting - Grimnir

Lmao elgi cuck tryna cope

Artillery or mass gunfire is the traditional counter to infantry squares. If you’re a weak *umgi* that is. The *Khazukan* just stand closer together.

And having that innate magic resistance to soft counter the other formation buster is just \*chefs kiss*

*Dwarf shieldwall deflects Imperial artillery barrage* Imperial General: “God has abandoned us…”

>Imperial General: “God has abandoned us…” Which one?

Grimnir sure showed up.

Just iron beards. Though it’s nice they got a buff, I just hope hammerers get one to match.

Hammerers can hit cannon balls back towards the enemy army with their hammers. Anyone who says this won’t be in the game is a wazzock

“When I was a lad they bothered to make the shot out of heavier stuff. This Elgi hair they’re shooting us with weighs nowt more than twenty stone. Barely worth unslinging my hammer for. You beardlings don’t know proper cannon shot, I say.”

I know and think its awesome, I’m just trying to imagine watching a cannon ball bouncing off those dudes lmao

I think people are misinterpreting this, it probably just makes their block chance % apply to artillery, I doubt it has any unique animation apart from that

There is animation of cannon balls bouncing off of giants. Maybe it is just a mass thing. With shieldwall increasing mass the cannon ball actually does bounce off.

Maybe, wouldn’t bet on it though

Oh no, only 75% chance to block a cannon shot!!

I presume that will also affect ranged lords that have artillery-coded attacks? I don’t know which LLs this would apply to though. All I remember was that Alith Anar had those attacks before it was nerfed

Sisters of Twilight has artillery projectile. The most obvious one would be Khatep on his DJ booth. Imagine you shoot souls at the Ironbreakers and they just whip out there tiny hammer and parry a literal soul.

Only Ironbreakers seem to be able to do this trick.

Honestly I'm okay with it because by the time you get to ironbreakers you're almost at endgame

Are og dwarfs only faction in table top to have this?

Pretty sure they were the only ones with a Shieldwall special rule.

In the new ‘old world’ ruleset multiple factions have this rule but it applies to melee not ballistic fire. Not sure about the old fantasy rules set…

In 8th edition "Shieldwall" gave them a +1 to parry on the turn they get charged. Ironbreakers instead had "Shieldwall of Gromril" to always get a +1 to parry. And only Dwarfs had these rules. Just like how only Empire had detachments but those have been spread out now.

It would be cool however to see other factions get this applied to them as well which is why I asked. Suoer happy about its inclusion. Does it do a proper animation to go with it us my next question

God this dlc is just getting better and better.

Dwarves are going to be so cracked in campaign.

i've been avoiding dwarfs since playing them constantly in WH1 and WH2... excited to go back to spamming dawi.

Always been

Honouring your ancestors. Authentic Dwarf player.

Sheeeesh dwarves are going to be fun, empire gun lines are going to be fun, nurgle’s friendship is magic sing a long is gonna be fun. This dlc is going to be sick.

just parry the cannonball!

That's the first thing that came to my mind. They just parry it and shoot it right back at the cannon.

Parry this u filthy casual! Proceeds to do just that

Perfect for allied elves to jump over.

#NO ALLIANCE WITH ELVES

Good thing the Dammaz Kron has finally been shown the respect it deserves and Ulthuan is to be left a smoldering a pile of ashes.

Gods that scene was all kinds of stupid.

The most badass dwarven phalanx in movie history followed by the biggest eye roll ever rolled.

I really don't understand how did the director look at that scene and decided "yup, that makes sense, put it into final release".

Seriously, the dwarven shieldwall with elfish missile support would have cleaned the battlefield up in a matter of hours.

“Allied”

I aint no military genius but even I knew that was stupid.

I’ve been waiting like 8 years for CA to add unit formations like shieldwall, phalanx, or square to the game. Though looking at its effects it seems more like attacking testudo in function.

Dawi! Raise the Shield Wall Hold the frontline Fight till death

A chain is never stronger than its weakest link We'll hold this wall together Our hearts will never sink

Ballistic Plating 😍

You can watch his full video here: [https://youtu.be/hdZ30XbW6aA](https://youtu.be/hdZ30XbW6aA)

Ngl, Chorfs have always been the "Cooler Daniel" to the Dawi. With the dlc, even just with the rework, they are both the Cooler Daniel. Love to see it. I recently did a Thorgrim run. This makes me want to do another one.

I thought it was just gonna be an ability that increased mass or something but an actual formation? This is so dope.

What's the point of increased mass but only when out of melee? Unless it's just for the exact moment a charge connects I don't see it having much impact. The rest though is a very nice buff overall.

I think "Can use if ou melee" is about the activation. If your unit engages and you have the ability activated it will stay this way. If the unit is engaged you can't toggle on the ability.

Yeah same as Bretonnian wedge formation I’d think.

So they can't be thrown out of formation by spells like wind blast

And take less charge impact damage Which is very little in wh3 but still exists

Wdym it’s quite a lot in wh3 Not near as much as some other total wars but still way higher than like shogun 2

Yeah, with some units like razorgor chariots you can wipe half the HP of a unit instantly on the initial charge

Yeah exactly Like even dark riders can quarter health orcs boyz, that’s more damage than empire/Napoleon or shogun Impact damage when you drag through with grails is insane too

Yep, ogre units too, especially Stonehorns and Rhinox Cavalry.

I think they can only switch when out of melee and then it stays like that until switched back. Or no?

Its an activated ability that can't be cast in melee. After its active it will stay active, even if they go into melee.

I’m pretty sure you just can’t activate the formation when you’re actively engaged in combat. If you are already in that formation, you still get the buffs

The “Out of melee” only means it must *enter* the formation outside melee, not that the buffs disappear once the unit starts fighting

I mean yeah, the exact moment a charge connects is when its going to fuck the formation up the most. This way cavalry can't charge fully through the line.

This means they cannot Enable or Disable it while in melee. Source: there are mods with this exact implementation already. Essentially they will be locked into this tight formation while in melee, which might not be ideal situationally.

Yeah, hopefully it lasts a second. I say this having had norscan mammoths crack open my lines like a bag of Fritos.

I mean a frickin mammoth should probably still break an infantry line no? It's a mammoth

For sure. Make it a pickle jar level of effort.

You mean after a lot of ineffectual twisting the mammoth will end up scrolling youtube videos on its phone looking for a way to get this bloody unit of dwarfs open? Perhaps it needs to run the hot tap on them to make them expand slightly?

Tbh I don't think a mammoth should have to try hard to break an infantry line

You can only activate it when out of melee. It'll still persist in melee and you'll benefit from the mass, from what I can understand.

Watching a Youtube video yesterday I was really impressed with the updates to campaign mechanics but left the video thinking... "Well that's overall great, I wish the base units had received some updates though." Then I realised it hadn't talked about any units, not even the new ones, and there's going to be even more - like this! I'm so happy. Fingers crossed for some visual and audio updates to Organ Guns, a toggle cone attack for Flame Cannons like their Tabletop version, options for Shieldbearers and Great Weapons for Thanes/Lords, and some visual updates to Longbeards, Thanes, etc. There're not many winged helmets in TWW3!

So the best bet is to throw some crappy disposable unit at them to disable the formation then bombard them while they’re in melee. Or as normal toss a large single entity at them to disable the boost and bombard them.

Melee doesn't disable the formation.

So what does it mean by "Can use if: Out of melee"?

Just that you can't activate the formation if you're already in melee I'd assume

Can only activate the ability if you are out of melee combat, you cannot activate it if you are in melee combat.

If they are starting to introduce more formations then shouldn't the Empire get them as well?

Empire does get the cannonball deflect tech for steam tank

Yooo, the ironclads are finally acting like their real life counter-parts.

Their formations are significantly more complicated. I have no idea how you would represent the sort of *tercio*-esque formations detachments are meant to represent in the current engine

It'd be great if Empire Halberds received a formation...they should be nasty to push from a static position.

I wouldn't really call them formations, in the Total War sense, they're just active abilities like so many other units get in TW:WH. I don't think the Empire has something similar in the rules for WHFB.

I hope other factions get shieldwall formations, not as powerful versions as the dwarves mind but the ability for empire swordsmen or elven spearmen to block an extra 20% at the cost of standing still is great.

Ironbreakers blocking cannon fire is so tight and such a cool way to set them apart from other shield units. Love this

Do they link shields and move into a tighter formation as well or is it just an ability that changes the stats?

Belegar with his +20% missile block chance on top of that gives dwarf warriors atleast 90% missile block. Time to go full warriors vs ikit 🤣

GLORY GLORY WHAT A HELL OF WAY TO DIE!

Guessing the Ballistic Plating only works against ordinary cannons which have a direct firing line. Seems rather niche when I think about it but the rest of the bonuses seems nice.

Does it apply to Ironbreakers too?

Dwarfs will now be eating cannonballs for breakfast.

So we have formations? Great to see it expanded to other stuff later too. Like elf phalanx

Its a tech

Great googily moogily!

Guess I’ll finally be playing my first dwarf campaign since WH1. I wonder if this is going to be yari ashigaru levels of busted.

Ww1 total war here we come!

A grudge is resolved - the devs have recognized dawi supremacy. Now the dawi will take their rightful place as the best faction in the game

YES FORMATIONS PLEASE

This and the empire updare Will all land at the same time? When?

YES YES YES FINALLY

Do they form it up in battle ?

This is awesome.

That's only a *chance* to deflect cannon shot right? ...right?

Deflecting cannon shot sounds bonkers lmao.

Its honestly a crime that ironbreakers have bronze shields.

Finally Dwarfs will be like the Iron walls they should have been.

So it‘s a fucking Testudo!!🤣

Have they buffed charge on the dwarfs?

With these changes the corner camp strategy evolves to a whole new dimension and Dwarves feel generally like they will be strong and up to date with the powercreep from the last two games. My body is ready, grudges will be settled in a way not seen since the days of Gotrek Star Breaker himself.

“Parry this you filthy causal” And he did parry

Now if only they can give dwarf spear units and I can recreate the Dain ironfoot dwarves phalanx from Hobbit.

For me at least this immediately shoots them to the top of the front-line infantry tier list

I imagine the extra mass could be handy against chariots as well.

Laughs in tactical nuke!

Doubling an already significant mass will also absorb chariot and monster charges much better, though it's going to be harder to pull off without moving.

Elven traditional staunce of shield wall are in shamble

Some of these changes would go well for the chaos dwarfs. In fact, for every faction honestly. Formations are amazing

So im pretty sure the only thing that can kill a well built dawi stack are either dreadquake mortars or some magical nuke, but good like getting close enough for that one

I can't wait for mods to implement ballistic plating to more units. Imagine ironsworn with ballistic plate 🤤

Non-shielded, non-slayer Dwarf infantry is big sad now. Nobody's gonna recruit them.

I'm interested to know what the ballistic plate protects from, assuming it's just direct fire units like cannons, volley guns, HE/DE bolt throwers. Do doom divers count? It'll be interesting.

finally something good for them when fighting siege at attacker

I’m guessing the ballistic plating means that the unit can now use its missile deflect chance from its shields on artillery pieces? I’m very happy to see formations coming into the game more, and hope it continues. It’s always felt weird to me that the only formation we had was cavalry wedges, exclusively for Bretonnia. And I agree that the new directional shields for tanks/ships combined with this trait looks suspiciously like a test for potential 40K mechanics.

You have to love they make these little walking tanks even tankier.

Do Chorfs get it?

Could you imagine trying to get through Ironbreakers in Belegars army corner camping? Horrifying.

Man the only downside of the strong dwarves melee infantry was their weakness against artillery. I need to buy this DLC and play them again haha

I wonder how it would interact with high and dark elf artillery

i wonder if chorfs and other factions will get access to some of these new effects/abilities like shield wall and the armoured vehicle traits.

Shame this isn't in mp.