Tragically, your memory appears to have been failing you. The Nidan dwarfs fielded a musket and pike unit during the Second Age. Unless that counts as "new". So far, the _only_ dwarfs in Gloranthan known to have guns are the Nidan mountain group.
The Dwarf of Dwarf Run has cannons, but he is known to be a heretic, innovative, and highly dangerous. And he is the only dwarf in Glorantha known to have cannons.
Most dwarfs use other weapons, and use them well. Dwarf innovations are rarely along the line of brand new inventions, but rather improvements to old weapons. Thus, dwarf crossbows are self-repairing, repeating, and shatter when captured. Adapting whole new tactics, or types of weapons goes against their genes. The dwarfs are plotters, not innovators.
The major reason that firearms replaced crossbows on Earth does not apply to dwarfs -- handguns were easier for an untrained user, and cheaper to make. Since dwarfs have centuries of training, and cost is no object, handguns are only useful if they can do something that crossbows cannot. They have a shorter effective range, no better armor-piercing, and are less accurate. One great virtue of both handguns and crossbows is that they are often best-used as a big unaimed volley at a large target (like a whole enemy regiment). Dwarfs, with their inferior senses, like this kind of thing.
BUT ... the Dwarf of Dwarf Run uses gigantic bombards, launching 30-60 inch diameter stone balls that often are hollow and contain Bad Stuff inside (so far not gunpowder, but gnomes, acid, gas, gremlins, hot lava, etc. have been used) He is known to have created and fired a cannonball Jolanti on at least one occasion (no, it didn't unfold like a transformer -- instead, it was able to shift its weight to control its bouncing and then when it lost all velocity, it could still roll around like a huge bowling ball). Most dwarfs regard The Dwarf as not only eccentric but probably broken.
Also, most all dwarfs use disorder kegs (small barrels of gunpowder). They are known to sell these to _very_ good friends, along with instructions (To Use Disorder Keg: cast Ignite). If the friends are _very_, VERY good, they might even tell them how far away to stand when casting the Ignite :(
DWARF SENSES AND SURFACE COMBAT DRAWBACKS Dwarfs have the worst senses of any major Elder Race. Their eyes are inferior to Dark Trolls, and are comparable to modern Uzuz (ancient Uzuz, from centuries ago, many of whom are still alive, are often blind). At least they're not colorblind. They are seriously short-sighted, and I doubt most dwarfs can make out the silhouette of a cow against a bright skyline at over 200-300m.
Their sense of smell is keen enough, but restricted to certain scents. The stink of decay or fragrance of a rose are difficult for them to sense, but the metallic reek of copper or rust carries for kms to their nose.
Sense of taste may have been okay once, but has been dulled through centuries of bland, tasteless, spiritless food. Kind of like the English ;)
Sense of hearing is all right. Comparable to human. Earthsense is their primary sense. It is basically a senseof touch usable at a distance, but it declines rapidly over range. Close-up, a dwarf can sense his surroundings far better than any human or troll, but at any distance, he is terribly handicapped.
Of course, dwarf units always have leaders with Project Vision and Project Earthsense to peer around and permit the unit to maneuver in response to distant enemies, but reacting to such movements is a very different matter from closing with them.
Hence, dwarf armies alone on the surface are very vulnerable. Look at the history of the Elder Wars -- several times large dwarf forces were ambushed by trolls and completely wiped out, for all their iron armor, repeating crossbows, and disorder kegs.
Dwarfs make bad generals -- they like things to be well-organized and to fit into patterns. The randomness and fluid nature of warfare offends and disturbs them. When a dwarf battle plan goes well, then it is a triumph. But, when something goes awry, the dwarfs are all at sea. The closest comparison I can think of amongst humans is WWII at sea -- the Japanese admirals typically evolved enormously complicated plans to trap and destroy the American fleet. But when any part of the plan went wrong, the whole plan went down the tubes. In one important battle, the Americans came from the "wrong" direction -- a direction the Japanese had dismissed because that approach would lead to an American disaster. But the Americans were just lost -- they didn't know where the Japanese were. In the end, the "wrong" approach proved a battle winner -- the Japanese hadn't provided for it because no sane admiral would have used it, hence it was not disastrous for the Americans after all -- the Japanese hadn't even bothered to set search planes to spot for a US fleet down there. The Japanese were still far more flexible and adaptable in their plans than any Dwarf army would ever be.
IRON DWARFS
Iron Dwarfs are best-used as forces of immediate
retribution or quick strikes. They rush out of a dwarf tunnel, march
as quickly as possible to the target, hit hard, then rush back.
>I still belive Loskalm is a bit underrated though.
As a "2", you mean? Well to be fair -- given a reasonably long war, the Loskalm forces would _quickly_ improve -- their army is composed of courageous, innovative, and well-equipped forces. Their raw material is quite excellent, and would make class "4" soldiers if given proper training and leadership. This just hasn't been done so far.
MOB
>I'm inclined to think Dwarves possess the most advanced military
technology on >the lozenge and are by nature inquisitive, innovative
and creative
Well. I'll just paraphrase Trevor Dupuy -- a new weapon technology does not make a difference in itself until tactics and organization catch up with it. And I doubt their tactics and organization are any good. I'm also not so sure about their being creative. After 600 years of polishing the same bolt, I bet their right-hand brain gets a bit stunted.
Sandy P.
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