Strengths:

Virtually impregnable capitol
Good tax base and resource production
Impressive military might and potential
Able to project power into any theater of war
Good artifacts

Weaknesses:

Limited characters
No back up capitol
Very spread out position
Dragons!

The Dwarves are on the front lines of nearly every theater of the war, yet are
hampered for that same reason, being all spread out. It's one of the most difficult
positions for the Dark Servants to eliminate, and it's their performance in the
beginning of the game can make or break it's weaker allies in the North.

Thankfully the doughty Dwarves are up to the task. They start with one of the most
impressive armies at game's start, a whopping 5000 HI equivalent...and they can
afford it. It can be crucial to the survival of your northern allies at games start,
so use it wisely.

You have important diplomatic duties as well. It's well-advised that you try to form
a cohesive team out of the Sinda, Northmen, Woodmen and Eothraim. All of these
nations will be under siege or hurting badly the first few turns of the game. Don't
sit aloof in your mountain fortresses, aid them immediately with military and
economic support. This isn't charity either, it's rational self interest. The longer
the Eothraim are fighting the good fight, the more damage to Mordor's armies and tax
base they're doing. If they need money to relocate their capitol, send it, at least
those agents haunting them aren't trying to steal your gold or artifacts....or
characters.

The Woodman may be in the most precarious position at game start, but that's where
some of the best agents are going to come from in the middle and end game. You can
help him best at start with good use of your armies and perhaps a little cash.

The Sinda make natural allies, as they are as spread out as you, and their pop
centers aren't protected by strong fortifications in the mountains like yours are.
But the Sinda can help you back using their impressive array of mages locate
artifacts for you, you'd like to see Bain with a 180 challenge rank on turn eight
wouldn't you?

The Northmen ability to manipulate the market along with well-timed sales of your
oodles of precious metals can net you a small fortune eventually, and perhaps also
knock a Dark Servant out of the game that's on the brink of bankruptcy as he's
maintaining that large cavalry force trying to take the Iron Hills.

However, three of these positions seem to drop more often than any of the other Free
Peoples, and you're in a position to help them out initially. Make use of it, or soon
those agents and armies will be looking for you, and you'll lose a lot more that way
than with some well-timed support of your allies they are all capable of paying back
with interest.

So from the very beginning of the game open communications with all four of these
players and make a dedicated effort to coordinate your activities and keep everyone
interested and informed on what's happening. Be sympathetic when the Northmen tell
you three of his characters were slaughtered in the capitol on turn 2, even better,
warn him the first turn it might happen. Remind him he didn't lose anyone he couldn't
replace, and let him know the Long Rider won't keep those poor unfortified towns
long. Also that he uniquely can build an entire new nation easier than anyone else in
places the Dark Servants will have difficulty finding or taking.

Three neutrals are also particularly important to court, the Easterlings, Rhudaur and
Dunland. Particularly the Easterlings, as they can make your game very difficult on
the Eastern plains with a early Dark Servant declaration. They are in a precarious
position, as if they go Free Peoples they are certain to pay more for it immediately
than if they go Dark Servant. Try to keep them neutral as long as you can, and by
maintaining a strong military presence in the east you can assure them of support if
they choose the right side, and unspoken fear of retribution if they don't. You also
have two artifacts that are virtually worthless to you, a +500 and +750 combat
artifacts that allow access to conjure mounts and conjuring ways that the Easterling
might find very useful. Be careful though, unfortunately both those artifacts have
neutral alignments so the Sinda might be a better place for them.

With Rhudaur, and to a lesser extent Dunland, you can deal from a position of greater
strength, as there is no way on Eru's green Middle Earth they can take your capitol,
and that's all they can get at, while their nations are completely exposed to you and
a two turn forced march. However, you'd like to recruit them both, particularly
Dunland for the exquisite agents they are capable of producing. Keep in touch, but
these nations are not as important to you as the Easterlings so let others take the
lead if they're willing.

 

Characters:

You start with a surfeit of commanders....and nothing else. Every one of your
characters is a competent commander, but chances are you won't even have the lowliest
apprentice mage. You have a few command-emissaries, and a couple of command-agents
that will come in useful eventually, but likely nothing over the strength of ten.
Your first priority is to get some full strength agents, name a thirty pointer for
ten thousand gold, and have him name another the next turn. Your next slot should be
a thirty strength emissary, and the following either another one or a commander or
perhaps a 10-10-10-0 C-A-E. Don't worry about your lack of mages, your other
teammates have plenty of them, and you have far higher priorities.

You need the agents, as too many of your pop centers may eventually be too close to
Mordor for comfort, and if all goes well you'll be contesting the Long Rider all game
long, most certainly earning his wrath. Also, you have to expect many visitors from
Dark Servants all game long, as many of your pop centers produce gold, and too many
of them are in the mountains, where dragons like to play...and ruin your loyalty. A
Dark Servant by turn ten or so might get a triple play from visiting a Dwarven town;
more gold than they could steal from the average town, a dragon to recruit, and a
place to emissary away as the loyalty has been killed either by dragons or high tax
rates. So build lots of agents and emissaries.

 

Economy:

Uncommonly good in many respects, but lacking in others. Seven towns, three villages
and a city give you a base of 21,000 gold, plus most of those will produce both gold
and the more valuable metals. You will pay a steep price for all your fortifications,
almost ten thousand a turn, but you have no navies, harbors etc to support and all
those fortifications mean you can raise the tax rate as high as you need to in an
emergency without anything degrading, outside your new camps.

However, you will be hurting badly in the production of cavalry gear and food. Even
the stolid dwarves march better with food in their bellies, you're going to want to
increase your production there for certain. A nice place to start is the abandoned
tower at 2013, as the spirits will give you gold if you defeat them, so give the
emissary a minor combat artifact and send them out. If the Noldo, Arthedain or
Cardolan are uninterested in the abandoned towers in Arthedain, scoop them up, it
keeps the Witch King from dividing and conquering them, and keeps your ability to
keep your tax rate anywhere you need it.

Don't put any more camps in the mountains! The Balrogs and dragons will be dancing
the Sauron Soul Boogie all over your thick Dwarven hide all game long! Don't make it
worse. You need food and timber, and perhaps enough mounts and leather to complement
your excellent infantry with some long range strike ability. There is a good
encounter near Moria at the Dimrill Dale to take advantage of too, but I forget just
which hex.

 

Military:

Here's where the Dwarves can really excel, but their primary weakness is that they're
all spread out so it's difficult to recruit enough troops to be a major factor, you
have to rectify that by close coordination with your allies and judicious
improvements, conquests and diplomacy.

There's really no way to give you a definitive plan on what to do the first few
turns, as they're are so many different factors involved from both your allies and
your enemies. A few guideline and priories though:

Knock out the Dragon Lord as soon as possible, or at least send him slithering back
to Mordor with his scaly tail between his legs. The sooner you do it, the less damage
he can do to the vulnerable Woodman, Sinda and poor Eothraim. On the first turn,
recruit 500 HI at Moria, and transfer all but 100 LI to that army and march on
Goblin's Gate. (2409) You won't have quite enough to take it, but you should have no
problem convincing either the Woodman, the Sinda or the Noldo to give you the few
extra HI you need.

Let the Noldo, Arthedain and Cardolan worry most about the Witch King. Those three
powers have enough among themselves to paste the WK fast enough they really don't
need your help. You can if you want hire an army at Zarak-Dum just for the perverse
pleasure of doing it and imagining the sinking feeling on Murazor's face as he sees
your cute little army icon in the middle of Angmar....but it doesn't do you much
good.

It hurts him quite a bit as he cannot afford to take the chance your army will just
sit there and get bigger, and bigger and bigger...until you can take more than one of
his villages on the plains. Particularly knowing that both Arthedain and Cardolan may
very well be on the march. As chances are he didn't move on it first turn, that army
will be at 900HI at the very minimum when he finally gets there, perhaps with metal
weapons/armor. (300HI when he sees you, 600 as he moves his forces next to the
mountain hex, 900 by the time he gets there.)

The reason he probably didn't anticipate it is because it's a losing move for the
Dwarven player, even though it looks devastating to him. It costs the Dwarves 5,000
to hire the army, plus it may lose all the gold revenue from taxes, possible gold
production, metal sells etc. You also will have to pay maintenance on those troops
while they build up to at least 900 needed to be relevant in the theater, that's
another 6200. If you figure that the Dwarves would have kept it ten turns at least
as the WK has far better things to do than round up 2800 HI and put them out of
commission for the equivalent of three turns they could have been headed to
Arthedain. He'll lose about a thousand, (if no army was created, 1200 if it was) at a
time he's both trying to convince Rhudaur he's a winning player while Arthedain and
Cardolan (who can out recruit him 2-1) might be marching on him the turn he finally
gets there.

He's far better waiting till turn ten or so when he has a chance to send a few
emissaries in there with Pectoral and hope high taxes or dragons have the loyalty low
enough to get it without a struggle. So ten turns at 40% tax rate on a town is
20,000. Figure the production lost would have paid for the fort all those turns, so
that's a wash, and you're at 31,200. That's the total cost to you, under pretty
conservative guidelines, as a 60% tax rate is probably a better guess, and you might
never have lost it if Arthedain and Cardolan kept him busy or knocked him out quick,
or he drops.

Now, for this potential expense of 30,000 or the equivalent of gold, what did you
achieve? You have an army capable of taking a village tower....once. You can increase
the cost, as that's not enough of a threat to him for worry about most likely he'll
ignore it as Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur are his primary concerns. Also, he'll
know exactly where you're going, as there's only one popcenter you can reach from
there you're capable of taking. (2005) He's better off to just move 1000HI there and
wait while recruiting.

So if you increase the costs, and maintain that army till it gets to 1500, which
might be enough to take a village tower and be just enough for all three of you to
take his capitol, you're still at 20k. (at this point we're assuming you won't lose
the town) You're not going to get possession of any conquests outside that village
tower, so there's no benefit to you outside that. 

I maintain you're better off putting that money to better use. If it's going to cost
you a minimum of 20k to help Arthedain, the Noldo, Cardolan and perhaps Rhudaur take
out the helpless WK, why wouldn't you instead send half of that to the Woodman or
Eothraim on turn one? If you just figure straight cost, would you send 5,000 to the
Noldo on turn one? And another 6,000 turn four? (to pay for maintenance) All you may
have to show for your folly is either a lost town or a camp/tower in arctic
conditions on the plains.

On the other hand, the WK might drop if he sees that, that's not entirely impossible
either. If Cardolan moves on him turn one, and Arthedain shows every sign of moving
the next turn, Rhudaur may have no desire to go dark. Your icon might have been the
straw that broke the camels back, and the WK might drop knowing he can't survive a
battle with Rhudaur, the Dwarves, Arthedain and Cardolan.

However, I maintain you're better off helping your allies that really need it. If
you're going to be generous, be generous with the ones that are on the ropes from the
very beginning. That's why your first priority should be getting the Dragon Lord out
of the game, to help the Woodman and Sinda, but your second should be helping the
poor Northmen fight off the hordes coming out the backside of Mordor, particularly
the Long Rider and perhaps the Blind Sorcerer. Also, you can try to help the Eothraim
if the Dog Lord and Dark Lieutenants break through. Unfortunately, there are so many
variations on what the DS might do, it's impossible to give specifics, but I'll try.

Recruit and recon for one turn at 3916. You have to find out what the Long Rider did
with his cavalry. Ask the Northmen, they'll probably know. It is possible they're at
poor Dilgul (4217) but you may catch them with your Recon as they might be right next
to you at 4017. The LR would love to catch the NM there and take out his navy if he
didn't move it. If they're there, be wery wery quiet that's 1800 cavalry capable of
making dwarfburgers out of you. You should be safe though, he has far better targets
available than stubborn Dwarf HI off the road.

Make sure you ask the Northmen if there's an army recruiting icon on his capitol at
Tol Buruth. (4215) if not, that means he moved his navy out of there. As he isn't
likely to start with two commanders in his capitol (having only four total to start)
there's no way he can hide that fact. Chances are his navy is at 4415, that being the
only thing that worthless force can take. He's probably in high heaven right now,
he'll either take or threaten a town and a major town, plus he might have nailed the
biggest obstacle to recruiting he has, the NM navy which can sink his pathetic fleet
with ease. However, so can the Sinda's, so try to get the Sinda to sail around the
eastern and southern parts of the Sea of Rhun to try and catch it next turn, though
it will probably go back to the capitol. Have them end their turn moving to 4415 if
they'll oblige you.

Your goal here is to turn the tide and take away the LR's gains and make sure he has
nowhere to recruit from. However, you have only a small army to do it with...and
perhaps shell-shocked allies. You will have to try to convince the Sinda to recruit a
few more HI and try to retake 4415. In the meantime, recruit 200 more HI and move to
4217. You'll have 1000HI and 300 AR, which is enough to take it even if he moved his
navy there to recruit (probably left his ships at 4415 if that's the case) which
means you'll get it if he didn't move it back to the capitol. Victory! He has nowhere
to recruit from except for what his cavalry will be taking this turn....his 1600+
cav, which you hope and pray that NG or the Eothraim will catch and at least whittle
down. It should be moving without food soon.

Now, you have another 2000 HI in the Iron Hills. This is a more difficult decision.
The smaller force can recruit and take out the DragonLord village at 3506...probably.
I have heard reports of it failing, but it never did for me. Some combine the entire
Iron Hills force there, but I think that's a mistake, as you need that big force
elsewhere and you don't want to waste a turn of food taking a miserable village/tower
despite it's fine production. (it usually has excellent production, so it's worth
doing even in winter) So at worst if you want to play it safe, add a combat artifact
or wait an extra turn of recruiting. (Move to the town to get the extra hundred)

You have to march that other, larger, force quite a ways to do anything useful. If
the Noldo or the Sinda have the capability to reveal pop in a couple of turns,(they
should, but they might not want to, try to convince them) you can move to take Sarn
Goriwing.(2809) However, that doesn't help much on the first turn as you can't know
if you'll even be able to get ahold of them for sure. You also don't really want that
force in Mirkwood, you need it out east. By turn 4 you'll be recruiting 800HI a turn
from Moria and Goblin's Gate which combined with the Sinda's recruiting (variable,
depending on if the Dragon Lord revealed and burned a city in Lothlorien) and Woodmen
(again variable depending on if the Woodman lost their capitol) and what the Eothraim
can get out of the Eoplex is plenty for that theater. 

Out East, however, the poor Northman may not dare go in their capitol (If they didn't
move it to Esgaroth first turn, which I would recommend.) and you have 2-300
(depending if Bain is commanding that army and if the LR had an army out there when
you took it) and the Sinda might be recruiting 400HI a turn from the "hard to get
anywhere useful" MT of Rhubar...and that's about it for the good guys. Oh, you have
3-500 in the Iron Hills, but the roads were designed by dwarf haters and you don't
have the food to feed them right now so it'll take them forever to get to the front.
Is it any surprise the Blind Sorcerer is tempted to go north instead of west?

And he might just be coming, with a force so large all you can do is tremble at the
thought of it. But he has one big weakness, and knowing this might just save your day
and make the Fire King hate him forever. He can't afford it, and if he doesn't get
rid of it soon taking something useful he might just go bankrupt or have to disband
it. It's also marching without food, so you can throw garbage armies made up of just
enough troops to make 1-5 against in front of it as soon as you find it. The
Easterling will know, keep after him...politely of course. If you can do this three
times or so he may just have to disband it or go bankrupt and Shrel-Kain (even if
you're afraid to visit) and Rhubar will be saved. Coordinate with the Northmen to
keep hitting him like this. If you succeed you'll be able to hear the FK gnashing his
teeth from here despairing how much good that army would have done him at the Morgul
pass...three or four turns ago.

If you succeed, the Dark Servants will have nowhere to recruit from on the Eastern
plains north of Mordor, you also might be able to convince the Easterling that going
Free isn't as hazardous as he thought, and he may notice the Dwarves and the Northmen
can recruit right next to four of his towns, and the Easterlings are notorious for
their poor fortifications...

In Mirkwood, as I said earlier, first take the Dragon Lord down, or leave him with
nothing but his lone MT in Mordor, that's not even enough to pay for his characters
so he'll probably drop...or weaken another Dark Servant that gives him another pop.
You, the Sinda, and the Woodmen can recruit him into the ground, even the keep at Dol
Guldur won't save him. Hope that the Eothraim keep the gate blocked up, aid them with
cash when necessary. All in all, if you're a team player, you should do very well out
the game as other nations will be doing the fighting on their turf, leaving you free
to improve your pops and characters outside the commanders and agents you have on
permanent war detail. This is one of the positions where team play is the best
individual play. But if the Sinda, Woodmen, Northman and Eothraim drop or get
eliminated, you're next...and you'll find with the loss of those countries, the Dark
Servants can show you that even Moria isn't invincible...just like they showed NG at
Minas Anor...