Recently I got some emails in which people asked me how to collect Dwarf army. This made me write this article in which I will show you a simple way to put together your first Dwarf force. Many people who just start playing WFB make the mistake of buing many figures just because they look nice or seem to be powerfull. Later this becomes a problem, because an army composed from such randomly chosen models often proves to be inefficient, and the new player must spend more money to redesign his army, and put some figures away just because he will never have chance to use them. Therefore it's good to plan out your army before you buy the figures- it saves both money and time. Dwarf Army book has even a small section in which it presents some tips on colecting your army core. I based this article on this small section. Since 1000 points is considered a smallest fightable force in WFB (although I've seen 500p battles in which Heroes took over the roles of generals) and by some considered the best value for fast and exciting battles (the beauty of 1000p or less battles is that beardy powerplay is greately limmited by the point allowances) I will use it as a size for our fist army. Most of the people start choosing their troops from general since he is the only model that must be included in the army. I don't say that's wrong, but often people tend to spend so much points on a general that there's hardly anything left (remember, the cost of your general can be easily elevated to 500 points and that's a half of your army). That's why I tend to start buying my troops in groups depending on their function in the army. The first thing you need to think of is the core of your army - a solid unit of troops that will do most of the fighting. I think hat unit of warriors is a good choice for the beggining since they are not expensive (both in points and real money if you're satisfied with those boring plastic dwarfs) and preaty good in combat. I think that optimal size for warrior unit would be 20 giving you 4 or 5 ranks. However 15 is good enough if you'll include standard bearer (musician is not necessary). This will cost you 188 points. To improve units combat ability you should also think about a battle standard (102p if you give him heavy armour and shield which I recomend)  this will add you further +1 combat result and allow you to reroll failed breake tests. Only thing the unit lacks is a mighty leader, and here's where your general comes into play. For now let's just give him heavy armour and shield (164p) and move on, there will be time to think about magic items later. Now you need some stronger unit to support your core. Iron breakers are great, but very expensive. So are Hamerers and Longbeards, and we don't have much money to spend. Slayers are quite good choice since they are unaffected by psychology and always wound on 4+ or better and cost the same as clansmen. Their only flaw is that they wear no armour, but in exchange can have many champions and carry different weapons. I would take about12 slayers with two hand weapons each, standard bearer included for 143p. They would be leed by a Gigant Slayer, also with two hand weapons (or one if you would want him to carry magical weapon) which would cost you 64 points. Aternatively you could field 10 miners with a banner bearer for the same point cost switching the additional attacks and special rules for double handed weapons and heavy armour. They would also need a champion, but this one would cost 50 points with his double handed weapon. Either way we already spent 661 points which is more than a half of our army. I's time to think about some suppor units. War Machines are vital part of Dawrf army. I would recomend to take two Organ Guns which gives you a firepower of 10 cannons (but you may shoot every other turn so tehnically speaking you have only 5 shoots per turn). This would cost you 130 points. If you like template weapons and like to play with fire Flame Cannon is the weapon for you. Despite it's relatively short range, this weapon can be preaty destructive since it can affect many troops at once. It would be cheaper than 2 organ guns and cost only 119p but I think that 2 war machines are better than one. Having spent about 790 points you still have some 200 points left. Now you stand before difficult choice. You may buy yourself a support crosbowmen unit, or hard hitting elite unit. You can field about 16 crosbowmen (or Thunderers) for 210 points, and get up to 8 shots per turn. Since Dwarfs are not very good art aiming this will allow you to actualy hit one or two times per turn. You of course could give them double handed weapons but you would have to make their units smaller giving you less shots per turn. That's why I would go for an elite, since it's more likely to do some damage. Since elite unit's can take care of themselves they won't need chempion and this will save you some points. Longbeards are probably the best choice since they are cheapest ones. You may field 13 of them including standard bearer for 225 points. And now you have 1000 points army. It's not much, but should be enough to win some battles. Your next step toward building a 1200 or 1500 army would be increasing the size of your units (clansmen should be 20, and slayers could use additional rank as well as your longbeards). You could also buy some magic items for your characters and maybe another war machine or unit.
I hope this short article will help you design and collect a succesfull Dwarf Army, and win many battle with it.