Army of Infamy Energy: Dwarfs, but It’s All Gyrocopters
When an army list makes us stop and stare
Every now and then we run into a list that immediately makes us go: wait, is this even legal?
This time it was a Dwarf Expeditionary Force example list from a tournament, shared by Stas, and it absolutely has that beautiful “Army of Infamy” energy — meaning not just a normal army with a few tweaks, but a fundamentally different way of putting the force together.
Stas dropped this example into chat:
Poland - Sebastian Portka (ChaosBringer)
85 - Burlok Damminson, General
78 - Dwarf Engineer Sappers, Handgun
72 - Runesmith, Heavy Armour, Shield, Rune of Passage
348 - Thane, Battle Standard Bearer, Master Rune of Grungni, Rune of Courage, Rune of Battle, Handgun, Shield, Shieldbearers, Rune of Speed, Master Rune of Bursting Flame, Rune of Rapid Fire, Rune of Accuracy
337 - 20 Rangers, Shield, Great Weapon, Crossbow, Throwing Axe, Ol Deadeye, Standard Bearer, Rune of Battle
120 - 2 Scout Gyrocopters
120 - 2 Scout Gyrocopters
280 - 4 Gyrocopters, Clattergun
280 - 4 Gyrocopters, Clattergun
280 - 4 Gyrocopters, Clattergun
And honestly, this is the kind of list that instantly tells a story.
No regular infantry, just rotor blades and bad intentions
Our first reaction was basically: there is zero normal infantry here, and instead there is a full-on swarm of copters.
End3r summed it up perfectly: it feels a bit like those extreme skew lists we all know from other armies — the kind of build where someone just says, “what if we took 20 of the same annoying thing and made that the whole plan?”
And that really is the charm of it. This is not trying to be a classic, balanced Dwarf force with blocks of warriors, artillery parked behind them, and a respectable battle line. This is something else entirely. It feels like a force built around one very specific question:
How many flying machines can we fit into a Dwarf army before it stops looking like Dwarfs and starts looking like a war film?
Apparently: quite a lot.
Gyrocopters as cavalry?
Stas made a very good observation in chat: in this setup, gyrocopters seem to function as the local equivalent of cavalry.
That comparison actually helps a lot when looking at the list. Dwarfs traditionally are not exactly famous for speed or battlefield maneuver. But here, instead of solving that weakness with a small support element, the whole army identity seems to pivot around it. The mobile elements are not support anymore — they are the army.
So instead of asking, “where are the fast pieces?”, the better question becomes:
what happens when the fast pieces are the main body?
That is where this kind of army-building gets really fun. It is not just about taking strong units. It is about reinterpreting what the faction is supposed to do on the table.
Apocalypse Now, but with beards
Stas also said the whole thing brought Apocalypse Now to mind, which is honestly impossible to unsee once that image lands.
A cloud of gyrocopters sweeping across the table, noise everywhere, pressure from odd angles, and the very un-Dwarfy sensation that the enemy is being outmaneuvered by something with propellers.
End3r immediately followed up with a fitting visual reference:
And yes — that is basically the mood.
Why lists like this are fun to talk about
Even before getting into whether a list like this is good, meta, or miserable to play against, we love that it exists because it highlights one of the best parts of army-building in Warhammer: The Old World:
some army compositions are not just optimized, they are themed in a way that completely changes the feel of the faction.
That is what makes formats like this interesting. You are not only choosing units — you are choosing a lens through which the whole army gets reimagined.
In this case, the lens is very clear:
- minimal conventional line troops,
- lots of mobility,
- lots of flying machines,
- and an army that probably feels more like a rapid strike force than a traditional Dwarf hold.
The list that starts a hobby conversation
We always enjoy lists like this because they immediately trigger hobby brain.
Not just “how does it play?” but also:
- how would it look on the table?
- how repetitive is too repetitive before it becomes glorious?
- does this feel clever, absurd, terrifying, or all three at once?
- and how much fun would it be to build and paint a whole airborne Dwarf force?
This is exactly the sort of army-building rabbit hole we like falling into. Sometimes a list is interesting because it is efficient. Sometimes it is interesting because it tells a story. And sometimes, like this one, it does both while sounding like the opening scene of a war movie.
If nothing else, it is a great reminder that “Dwarf army” does not always have to mean ranks of infantry and a gunline.
Sometimes it means rotors, scouts, clatterguns, and absolute nonsense in the best possible way.
Source shared in chat by Stas: the Expeditionary Force army composition page: