Dwarf Longbeards, Warhammer Unit Chronicles
A look into Dwarf Longbeards in all Warhammer Fantasy editions, the miniatures, the lore & the rules.
In my previous stories I mentioned that I would use this space to write “historical” articles on Warhammer, a subcategory of those articles will be these “Warhammer Unit Chronicles” where I select one unit and delve into the unit’s history in the game of Warhammer and also generally write about the unit. I will write about the various miniatures, rules and lore released for that unit along the years in various editions of the game and also try to analyze the influences that inspired it. These won’t be crunchy gaming articles, the focus will be more on the aesthetics, concepts and historical references that went into the units creation, but I will also discuss the rules as those reflect how all of those influences have been translated in to the game itself.
This article will focus on the Dwarf unit Longbeards, one of my all time favourites, as is evident from the name I’ve chosen to write under here. They really reflect some of my characteristics personally so I feel a sort of kinship with them, not to mention how utterly stunning the early 6th edition Colin Dixon Longbeard models are, so they are the obvious choice for my first article in the Warhammer Unit Chronicles series.
Warhammer 3rd Edition
The earliest rendition of Dwarf Longbeards as a distinct unit is in Warhammer 3rd Edition, which is the case for many units as 3rd edition was when Warhammer had coalesced in to a really distinct and coherent game and setting of it’s own even though for those of us who got in a bit later it still seems like a strange and foreign world. I checked the unit lists for 1st and 2nd editions and didn’t find anything quite the same, although there were elite dwarf warriors in those lists. However, the concept of a “longbeard” certainly wasn’t there before 3rd edition unless it was added in one of the White Dwarfs. I’m slowly going through old White Dwarfs, if I find a mention that’s before the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book, I’ll update this article as I always do when I find new information or notice a mistake (your feedback is always very helpful with this!).
This version of the Longbeards already has the general concept established of veteran dwarf warriors who are stronger and wiser due to their years of fighting experience. It already seems to be the case that dwarfs don’t lose their strength as they become older, instead they become even stronger or at the very least retain their strength. The concept of older dwarfs having a longer beard and that being a sign of prestige and respect is also established here. The longer the beard, the older the dwarf and thus more experienced and deserving of respect. There doesn’t seem to be any more lore specific to the Longbeards as a unit for 3rd edition, at least not in the Warhammer Armies book or the main rulebook. There might be something more written in some White Dwarf issue or more likely in one of the Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (WFRP) publications as they had a major influence on the setting right during the 3rd edition period. A lot of the lore was first fleshed out for WFRP as a roleplaying game of course necessarily required deeper lore on various aspects of the setting to facilitate a deep and engaging roleplaying campaign and there were lots of background articles published for WFRP in White Dwarf in the late 80s. I haven’t yet had the chance to properly go through all of the WFRP material, but when I do I will of course update the article if there’s more about Longbeards or older elite Dwarf warriors in general.
Rules wise the Longbeards in 3rd ed have a nearly identical stat line compared to basic Dwarf Clansmen, with only their initiative being slightly higher at 3 compared to 2. Longbeards are equipped with hand weapons, shields and heavy armour by default while Clansmen only have light armour although they can also be equipped with heavy armour for 1pts per model, both units can be upgraded with double-handed weapons at 2 points per model but only the Longbeards can take flails at 1 point per model. The Longbeards can also take a magical standard or instrument (for the musician) worth up to 25 points, the basic Dwarf Clansmen can only take the instrument upgrade but not the standard. The Longbeards are “+2 Shock Elite”, that means that their statline has been upgraded by 2 levels from the baseline Dwarf stats, there’s a system of levels for both units and characters in 3rd edition. That upgrade and it’s cost have already been taken into account in the unit entry, it’s there simply for reference to be able to quickly tell their approximate power level.
Overall in 3rd edition Longbeards are really just a slightly upgraded unit compared to the basic warrior type for Dwarfs with no extra rules. Both Imperial and Norse Dwarfs could take them (3rd edition had 3 Dwarf factions, Imperial Dwarfs, Norse Dwarfs and Chaos Dwarfs).
In 3rd edition Longbeards didn’t have miniatures dedicated strictly to that unit type, there was a quite large range of different Dwarf warrior miniatures armed with different weapons or command variants (champion, musician & standard bearer) as well as by this time in 1991 Games Workshop had also released 2 different plastic dwarf kits (Psychostyrene Dwarfs & Fantasy Regiments set). The hobbyist could choose from these models which to use for their Longbeards unit, this seems to have been a common approach to all factions in the game, although there certainly were also distinct miniatures for special units. There were metal dwarf warrior models for both Imperial Dwarfs and Norse Dwarfs, both of these factions had all the same units, but the Norse Dwarfs had special rules. The picture above is using the various metal dwarf warriors of the Imperial Dwarfs range available at that time. This being the case it’s a bit difficult to write much about the specific influences that went into sculpting the models as there aren’t dedicated miniatures and there’s 2 different versions of all the warrior models for the 2 factions. I might later on write an article about the general aesthetics and influences of the whole Dwarf faction, I’ll discuss the influences for the later specific Longbeard miniatures below.
Update: After writing this article I’ve learned that there were indeed 4 Longbeard miniature sculpts released during 3rd ed, right at the end of the edition in 1991 (4th ed was released in 1992). These were sculpted by Aly Morrison and they are 4 of the sculpts I mention as the 4th ed Longbeards in the next section. In 1992 during 4th ed more Longbeard sculpts were released, presumably sculpted by Colin Dixon, in this same style. See below for more on the 4th ed miniatures.
Warhammer 4th Edition
In 3rd edition Games Workshop managed come up with a large portion of concepts, like units, that would remain in the game and setting from then on. The concepts were still mostly quite shallow and the details would often be changed, even drastically, but the foundation was firmly established. Same goes for the Dwarfs as a faction and for the Longbeards as a unit, although they only got a short paragraph dedicated to them in the army book. The basic description of them being older and very experienced dwarf warriors remains the same, but now they are described as grumbling about everything, especially about how goblins used to be much tougher opponents and how dwarfs used to be better back in the olden days. They are also described as the toughest and most stubborn dwarfs. As a bit of a wargaming grognard and all around grump, I can’t help but feel a strong affinity to this unit as one might have picked up on already.
This time around the Longbeards finally got their own dedicated miniatures, lovingly hand sculpted by Aly Morrison and Colin Dixon and cast in white metal. Some of these were originally released at the tail end of 3rd ed in 1991 under Marauder Miniatures (check above) and expanded during 4th ed in 1992 with sculpts by Colin Dixon which were apparently released by Citadel Miniatures even though Marauder Miniatures would go on until 1993 when it was folded into Citadel. I will write a separate story on the whole Marauder Miniatures thing, as it would be too long to go into here. Aly Morrison still works at Games Workshop, he just had his 40 year anniversary there! The models are very much in the style of 4th edition Dwarfs, they have very whimsical proportions compared to previous and later sculpts and overall have a somewhat cutesy look. They have massive heads compared to their bodies and with their eponymous long beards their bodies are barely visible. They certainly have a charm of their own, but personally I much prefer the more realistic proportions of 5th and 6th ed Dwarf sculpts. As the other dwarfs of this era, they are quite clearly derived from the Imperial Dwarfs of 3rd edition with their equipment being mostly in line with the human factions, especially Empire. They are armed with various weapons, not mostly axes and warhammers like their later iterations and their armour is mostly of an somewhat generic medieval European type without the later Viking aesthetics.
Rules wise Longbeards are limited to only one unit per army as are all the other “special” units except for Slayers in 4th edition (unit categories for core, special and rare wasn’t a thing yet). For their stats they are nearly identical to what they were in 3rd edition without upgrades, but they have gained +1 strength and of course by 4th edition the extra psychological stats had all been condensed to just leadership. This statline would remain almost the same for the rest of the editions, the only exception being initiative which is still 3 here in the 4th ed army book, but would be 2 in all of the later army books. They are equipped with heavy armour, shields and hand weapons and cannot be equipped with anything else so no great weapons were available to them yet. Their only option is the possibility to carry a magical standard. They do not have any special rules apart from the general special rules for all Dwarfs. Their statline, equipment and points cost is identical to Hammerers, their only difference being that Hammerers can upgrade to “double-handed hammers” (assumedly great weapons) at +2 points per model. Neither of them have any special rules in the 4th ed army book to distinguish them, so really unfortunately the Longbeards serve no function other than being able to field another elite Dwarf infantry unit (Hammerers are a 0–1 choice as well), but I’m very glad that they were still a separate unit that got their own miniatures as well, as this likely paved the way for the next iteration of Longbeards in 6th ed, which are all around a superb unit.
Warhammer 6th Edition
The next update to Longbeards came with the release of the Dwarfs army book for WHFB 6th edition in early 2001. This iteration of the models was sculpted by Colin Dixon, arguably the best dwarf sculptor who ever worked at Games Workshop. He sculpted most of the stunning early 6th ed Dwarfs range and had also sculpted models for the 4th ed range, like the absolute classic Dwarf Miners. I will need to come back and write a dedicated story on him, he certainly deserves it and in my opinion he doesn’t get as much recognition for his amazing sculpts as he should.
In my opinion these are easily the best version of Longbeards and my personal all time favourite miniature unit of all time. I’m very pleased to recently finally have acquired 20 of them for my Dwarfs project and they look even better in real life, as they are filled with characterful details like each of them having all sorts of items hanging of their belts like knives, ale tankards, pouches and so on which reinforce their theme of being very experienced individuals. Their eponymous nearly comically long flowing beards are a clear marker of age and experience.
Yes! Just behold the glory of these 6th ed Longbeard miniatures, it doesn’t get much better than that in my humble opinion. These were sculpted by the masterful hands of Colin Dixon, who had already sculpted many previous Dwarf miniatures at Games Workshop starting already during the 3rd edition. He was the sculptor for most 6th edition Dwarf releases, having become the unofficial “dwarf master” of GW as he had sculpted so many of them already in 4th and 5th editions. The whole Dwarf miniature range of early 6th edition is simply stunning and in my opinion these Longbeards typify everything what makes it such a great range of miniatures. The Longbeard models simply ooze character, you don’t even need to know what a dwarf is to understand what these grizzly veterans are about with their relaxed and confident poses, overflowing massive beards and general swaggering menace. They are a masterpiece of storytelling in miniature form. In late 5th and early 6th editions the general aesthetics of the Dwarf army changed from the 4th edition where they had been inspired by the Imperial Dwarfs of 3rd edition to now being inspired more by the Norse Dwarfs of 3rd edition as the whole army gained a clear Viking influence. This is especially apparent in the Londbeards with their horned helmets and runic axes (yes yes, the real Vikings didn’t have horned helmets). I simply love these models, I have since I first saw them in White Dwarf when they were released and it’s very pleasing to finally have an unit of them.
This time around the Longbeards finally have some more interesting rules in their army book (2001), the statline now stabilizes to what it will be for the rest of WHFB with their initiative dropping to a 2 characteristic for dwarfs but this time they are equipped with heavy armour, shields, hand weapons and great weapons. This loadout makes them a very versatile unit, they can benefit from the shield against missile fire and then at the beginning of close combat they can choose to either fight with great weapons at strength 6 or with hand weapons benefitting from the increased save for hand weapons + shield combination with which they have a +3 save in close combat. They also now have a special rule to distinguish them from the other elite infantry units, being Immune to Panic. With their leadership value of 9 and being Immune to Panic, it’s very difficult to make them flee without causing a lot of wounds against them in close combat which is easier said than done.
In 6th edition we now have the unit categories of “Core”, “Special” and “Rare”. The Longbeards are a Special choice, which can be either seen as an issue for the army selection or as a good feature as I personally feel about it. This is because the 6th edition Dwarfs army book has many Special choices, well it has exceptionally many elite infantry units in the special choices and a few warmachines. Most armies have just one elite infantry unit type, with a few armies having two or three different ones, but the Dwarfs have 4 different elite infantry units in this edition! With these all being in the special choice, compared to other armies where they can be Core, Special or Rare and with there also being the Bolt Thrower and Stone Thrower in the Dwarf Special choices, you are foced to make difficult choices with which you select for your army. Personally I think that’s a good feature, as it forces the player into a decision and that choice really affects the theme of your army. For example, as I personally adore the Longbeards, I started my army build by selecting them and then selecting the other units around them. As they are such a conservative bucnh, I decided to theme my army around that, so that there is no blackpowder weapons in my army at all. This means that I need to select the Bolt Throwers and a Stone Thrower to remain effective, leaving me with just one other Special choice remaining in a 2000pts army, which I will fill with either a unit of Slayers of Ironbreakers. Based on my experience from 6h edition, this did unfortunately mean that the Longbeards seemed to be the least popular option of these elite infantry units due to their rules being slightly worse than the others or at least not as distinctive as the Slayers or Ironbreakers. They are very similar to the Hammerers ruleswise, with the Hammerers being Stubborn if the General is in the unit, but the Hammerers don’t have Hand Weapons so they are a bit less versatile. In the later editions, as covered below, this has been changed so that Longbeards are a Core choice, making them much easier to include in the army, but arguably this makes them feel less unique and more of just a generic unit of a bit more experienced Dwarf Warriors. That’s all a matter of different philosophies for army lists, with the other extreme being totally open ended lists and the other being very restricted themed lists and I personally prefer there to be limitations to keep the army feeling like “it should” feel based on the lore, the aesthetics of the miniatures and so on. Overall it would have been nice to maybe have some other special rule to distinguish them more from the Hammerers like they have in later editions, but when taking everything into consideration, I think this is the best iteration of the unit when considering the whole combination of rules, lore and the miniatures (the miniatures do heavily weigh in, just look at them!).
Warhammer 7th edition (“6.5 Army Book")
There were 2 army books released for Dwarfs during 6th edition, the later one was released right at the end of 6th edition in 2006 and this army book was in use through 7th edition until the last Dwarfs army book was released in 8th edition. That means it’s alright to use this army book and these Longbeard rules for 6th edition, but the first army book is widely regarded as the better balanced one and overall of better quality and I personally certainly agree with that even if there are some decent updates in the so-called 6.5 Dwarfs army book. When it comes to Longbeards in this army book for me it’s just a massive let down after what was such a superb unit in the previous army book, even if the changes are understandable from a business and perhaps even from a rules perspective. Well, the rules changes are alright in themselves, as they make it easier to field units of Longbeards, but the philosophy of the new rules meant that the Longbeard miniatures were discontinued and you were meant to just use the same models for the Longbeards as for Dwarf Warriors. That’s why those 6th ed metal models are somewhat rare today and are more expensive than other Dwarf miniatures of the same era as they were only sold for around 4 years.
So what was the change? In the “6.5 army book" the Longbeards became a unit upgrade to the Dwarf Warrior unit without specific models, similar to Orc Big 'Uns and Chaos Warriors Chosen in 6th ed (they got models and separate rules in 7th). Unlike Orc Big 'Uns, which in 7th you could only upgrade one Orc Boyz unit to, you could upgrade multiple Dwarf Warrior units to Longbeards as long as you took as many Dwarf Warrior units. This makes it easier to field Longbeards compared to 6th ed where they were a Special choice as Dwarfs have a lot of great units in the Special category. Their statline remains the same as before and they still have the “Immune to Panic" rule, but this time they also get the “Old Grumblers" rule, which is actually a great rule both from the gaming and lore perspective as it makes them act in-game as you’d expect based in how they are described. The rule allows any Dwarf unit within 6″ of the Longbeards to re-roll failed Panic Tests (unless the Longbeards are fleeing themselves), as they cannot handle the withering “told you so!” etc. comments from the Longbeards berating any weaklings about to run.
Other than that there isn’t much to write about, there isn’t any updates to their lore and there weren’t any models for them either. Overall the new plastic Dwarf Warrior kit that was meant to be used was in my view worse than the previous version due to how they look but especially due to the limitations in how they can be posed compared to the previous ones which were almost fully posable, but I’ll go deeper into that in the dedicated story for Dwarf Warriors which I’ll write ni the future.
Warhammer 8th edition
For the 8th and last edition of Warhammer the Dwarfs got many updated kits with a very different new aesthetic, the Longbeards being one of them. This is one of those modern GW plastic kits, where the same kit makes two different units, either Longbeards or Hammerers. Sometimes these types of kits mean that the units resemble each other too much, but in this case I think there’s enough variation in the parts to make them distinct enough. That and the fact that Longbeards again have their own miniatures are pretty much the only positive things I can force myself to write about these. I’ll restrain myself here so that this doesn’t become just vitriolic, but I have to say that I despise what they did to these Longbeards and the whole Dwarf range. For me these do not look like Warhammer miniatures at all, they lack that balance between believability and originality / fantasy about which I wrote about in my previous article. These are a total departure from what came before in all aspects, these are clearly digitally “sculpted” and not inspired by historical and mythical influences anymore. They are simply inspired by Warhammer itself, thus still having that slight link to reality from the previous iterations, but only a slight one. They are very fantastical and in line with what would become the design language for Age of Sigmar and just overall to me they don’t look good. I’m not saying they are absolutely objectively worse than previous versions, they are just very different to what I think makes Warhammer what it is, the essence of Warhammer as articulated in my previous story. I’m sure they go together very nicely and are high quality plastic miniatures, but they simply aren’t Warhammer Dwarfs for me. I’ll leave it at that.
In this iteration of the army book, the Longbeards have the longest bit of lore released for them. There are no changes to their overall concept, it’s just described in more detail and taken a bit further than before with descriptions about the Longbeards grumbling so incessantly and furiously, that other dwarfs sometimes find it unbearable. While that is a pretty evocative and funny image, I think it goes a bit too far to the direction of a caricature, making them a bit less believable so suffering a bit from the same thing as the miniatures themselves, but it’s not too bad. Overall the bit of lore is well written and establishes what they are even if this is the first army book one is reading. I still prefer the more narrative style of the 6th edition army book, but I would say the quality of the writing is on the same level.
This time the Longbeards are again a distinct unit entry in the army book, not just an upgrade like in the previous one, but they are a core choice. I think that’s a decent way of implementing them, as this ensures they are easier to include in armies compared to the 6th edition army book where the Dwarfs have 4 different elite infantry units in their Special choices. Then again, as I mentioned above, I kind of like it that you are forced to choose between them in the 6th edition army book. The statline still remains the same as before, this time the Longbeards are only equipped with hand weapons and heavy armour by default, but can take shields and or great weapons in addition. They still have the “Old Grumblers” rule from the last army book with the same effect, although written a bit more concisely this time but hey are also “Immune to Psychology”, not just Panic like previously. They also have a new special rule called “Shieldwall”, but this seems to be army wide for all the Dwarf infantry units. 8th edition is pretty much the least familiar edition for me, so I’m not sure if any other army has this rule as well but it’s a quite nice rule and certainly in theme with the dwarfs. It gives a +1 to Parry Save against enemy units that charged the Dwarf unit for the turn they were charged. This is quite useful as dwarfs are obviously very slow and thus usually on the receiving end of a charge, although I would imagine it’s a bit different for 8th edition with it’s random charge ranges compared to how it was before. All in all they seem like a good elite infantry unit in game terms and I would say a very good unit based on how the rules reflect their role.
Warhammer The Old World (2024)
I’m adding this section as when I originally wrote this article as my first in the series we didn’t yet even know when Warhammer The Old World would be released, a lot has changed since then for us Warhammer Fantasy enthusiasts and hopefully my writing has improved a bit too! It’s a peculiar feeling to be writing about current rules in this series as I’m used to normally needing to hunt down obscure references in various dusty tomes and archived clippings. On a general level I think the unit rules in Warhammer The Old World (TOW) are very well written in that they really bring out the character of the unit, most units in the game work like you’d imagine them to work if they were real units on a real battlefield. Well, as much as a tabletop wargame about fantastical creatures can ever feel real, but I’m sure you understand what I’m trying to say with that. Specifically the Longbeards unfortunately feel a bit left behind compared to the other elite Dwarf units, especially the Hammerers who got superb new rules that make the really unique and powerful, but the Longbeards do still certainly have their place in the list and personally I will field them pretty much always as my Dwarf army is themed around them. Longbeards remain a Special choice but up to 1 unit of them can be taken as a Core choice if your army is led by a Dwarf King, which is a nice addition that makes including them in your army easier since Dwarfs have so many great Special units. The unit retains it’s elite Dwarf statline, the same as it has been since 6th edition. The special rule Venerable that Longbeards get is similar to before, units within 6″ of them can re-roll any failed Panic tests and they are also Veteran which allows themselves to re-roll failed Panic tests, they are no longer “Immune to Psychology”. Other than that if using hand weapons they get a -1 AP from their Gromril Weapons like other elite Dwarf units and they also have Magic Resistance -1 like other Dwarf units. As I mention, all in all they feel a bit less special than Hammerers or Ironbreakers and I wish they had some other special rule like perhaps boosting the fighting capability of Dwarf warriors units around them or something along those lines but they are no means a bad unit — they remain mostly just a slightly upgraded Dwarf warrior unit which is what they’ve really always been.
That’s it for this entry of Warhammer Unit Chronicles, although we are living in exciting times for Warhammer enthusiasts as we are nearing the release of Warhammer The Old World. As of writing this, tomorrow there is a Warhammer Preview event where GW has promised us big news about The Old World, so let’s see what they have in store for us. We know for sure that there will be new rules for Dwarfs and Longbeards coming up, but likely no new miniatures for now, although that’s certainly possible in the future. I remain cautiously optimistic for that, as the new miniatures previewed for The Old World so far have been aesthetically more in line with 5th to 7th edition of Warhammer, so more to my taste and what I consider Warhammer. Let’s see what in store for us in the future with that. I will be writing many more of these types of stories about different units in Warhammer and also about wider topics like armies, editions etc., so please check back in with me later!
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