Dark Dwarf Buildings

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Dark Dwarf Buildings

Furnace
The Furnace is a large building that offers armor and damage upgrades to the Dark Dwarven race, along side the usual keep related stuff. This unique trait also comes with an unique problem - these upgrades are really valuable and some of them take a long time to research. This means you will severely hinder tier progression while trying to obtain these upgrades. Unfortunately, it's not simple to just go and build another Furnace, one to just do the researching, because of the sheer size of the building which will take up your precious building room, that you will later regret when you are struggling to place down Siege Workshops in such a way that wont get your siege weapons stuck in your base. Well I suppose you could always choose to destroy it afterwards, but despite the tiring backlog researching these upgrades can causes, it is probably for the best to just stick with the initial one and choose carefully when to obtain those skills.

Tower (Dark Dwarf)
Dark Dwarves have very good towers, boasting great power, high hit points and a quick build time which is further improved by their great builders. Although they cost a considerable amount, their builders can repair them instantly and for free once the Earthpower skill has been researched from the Ancestral Hall (available at tier 3). This can make their towers difficult to take down and in the long run be more cost effective than other race's towers (except for normal Dwarves). The Dark Dwarves do lack any form of missile unit that can garrison their towers, though, which means they are stuck with their typical piercing arrow projectile. But the Dark Dwarves do get access to a second defensive structure in the form of the Mortar (available at tier 3) that can help their base defense bypass common arrow resists as well as offering a second attack type.

Guild
The Guild is dedicated towards Siege Weapon upgrades and, more importantly, the production of the only non-Hero Dark Dwarves in the entire army - Engineers. The building is average in size, quick to build, but costs a lot of stone which causes problems for the Dark Dwarves early game, where Stone Golems, Engineers and buildings all demand the resource. Even though Engineers count as two men when placed in a mine and thus producing half the usual amount, typically you would want to build two of these early on for rapid mine filling or / and researching in one while the other maintains mine filling.

Hall of Golems
The Golems are the biggest basic infantry in the game, yet the building that produces them is surprisingly small. The Hall of Golems is also one of the Dark Dwarves two main production buildings, so it's very fortunate that they are smaller than the average building - especially as Dark Dwarves tend to run out of room fast when Siege Workshops start popping up (due to both size and "free space" needed around the Dark Dwarves base in general to accommodate for the large size of the Siege Weapons). As Stone Golems, the basic Dark Dwarven infantry, are very powerful for such a basic infantry, it does mean you wont need many at once to keep up with your enemy. Because of this you wont actually need many Hall of Golems very early on and can get away with as little as just two. However, later on you will find yourself building as many of these as you would with any other race's main production building.

Trader
The Trader is an incredibly useful building and should be built as soon as you hit tier 2. The skills obtained from the building effectively speeds up the Dark Dwarven economy with faster production of all their core units and an increased resource income. It also offers the coveted Trade skill which the Dark Dwarven player can abuse early on by exchanging their un-needed crystal early game for something far more useful. You will only ever need one of these buildings at any one time, but will always want to have one present for the Trade ability. So it it gets destroyed, then you'll want to rebuild it.

Siege Workshop
Siege Workshops are the Dark Dwarves second core production building, and thus, will be one of two buildings that you'll be building plenty of. Unfortunately, the building is somewhat large and has a strange building grid which can cause path finding problems for your Siege Weapons. Considering that all Siege Weapons (accept Firebombs) have a foot print size of 2x2, you'll want to space these buildings out to prevent obstructions. This, plus the building's natural size, can really hinder the construction of your base and force you to waste precious building room. Regardless, you'll be needing to build many of them.

Eyrie level 1
The Dark Dwarves have access to some great fliers which can make their Eyrie worth building even at tier 2. Although not necessary to make the Dark Dwarves perform well, their basic and advanced fliers can be used effectively along side your main attack force to really displease your opponent through clever strategical actions. With Firebats able to target and burn down important enemy buildings, the Wyvern's ability to quickly aid the Dark Dwarven Siege Weapons, or generally cause panic with two solid Dragon choices, you can always find use for the units the Dark Dwarven Eyrie can produce.

Supply Depot
Supply Depots are small buildings designed specifically to increase your army limit. By being small and increasing the army limit by three points, as apposed to just two, Supply Depots can be useful to Dark Dwarves in maintaining enough army limit to support their large, pop-cap eating units. With buildings of this nature, you would typically want to just build them all next to each other, or directly next to something that's out of the way to use up as little space as possible, but the Supply Depot has an awkward building grid which can lead to your builders getting stuck when building in close proximity. So if you plan on keeping your builder around after building these, then you'll need to ensure there's a gap around the building to prevent the unit getting stuck. But this, of course, further digs into the Dark Dwarves precious room within their base.

In my opinion, the Supply Depot could really do with increasing the army limit by +4 to help out with the Dark Dwarves limited space problems.

Mortar
Mortars are a defensive structure that can help the Dark Dwarven base defend itself against units that would otherwise resist the attacks of their main towers. The added splash damage can make short work of groups of light infantry and with its long range it can be positioned behind the more-durable standard Dark Dwarven towers, keeping its frail self away from harm. However, Mortars can only strike grounded targets, so they should never be used as a form of main defense.

Note: With the exception of a few mods (such as The Protectors), the AI cannot actually build Mortars.

Ancestral Hall
The Dark Dwarves don't usually make much use of their crystal, but the Ancestral Hall changes that. Not only can it produce Wraiths and Shadows normally, but it can also summon them instantly - although at a much more hefty cost of crystal. Because of this, you wont really need any more than just a couple of these buildings if you do plan on using Shadows. The building can also research skills that can buff Wraiths and Shadows more than the Undead can, despite Wraiths and Shadows being an Undead unit. Like Wyverns, Shadows (especially after upgrades) can help Dark Dwarves out with the helpful speed that the core of their army lacks. That doesn't mean that Shadows are a compulsory unit needed to make the race function, and could even be skipped altogether.

Whether you choose to use Shadows or not, you'll find yourself building this building anyway for a more important reason - Earthpower. This skill, once researched, allows Engineers to cast the spell with the same name - instantly and completely repairing all buildings nearby for no cost other than regenerative mana! Quite an impressive feat for just a builder, eh?

Eyrie level 2
The Eyrie level 2 bring to the Dark Dwrven army a great advanced flier and a research to increase its speed. The Wyvern is arguably the best advanced flier in the game and can be used to circumvent the speed issues caused by the generally poor speed of nearly all the Dark Dwarven units. With the ability to dart between the enemy and your vulnerable siege weapons, or bundled together with Firebats and a Dragon for a devastating aerial siege, Wyverns can prove to be useful enough to be considered for regular production and thus you may want to obtain a couple of level 2 Eyries. If you also plan on using Firebats along side them for added destruction, then you could also opt for even more Eyries.

Eyrie level 3
The stone cost to reach a level 3 Eyrie for the Dark Dwarves can be somewhat challenging, clashing with the production of Stone Golems, some Siege Weapons and building their expensive towers. But once met, the Dark Dwarves can unleash two Dragons on the opposite spectrum to each other - the Fire Dragon and Frost Dragon. Both of which can be incredibly game changing in one way or the other. Although Dark Dwarves aren't short of answers for tackling bases, a Fire Dragon with a bunch of Firebats allows them to siege bases even from the skies. Frost Dragons on the other hand can make a mess of enemy infantry planning to rush your slow troops.

As the Dark Dwarves don't need to sacrifice much in order to produce a Dragon, they can field one somewhat easily. However, due to the sheer cost in gold and crystal, it may be difficult to have Wyverns produced along side them. As such, you may not want to build anymore Eyires than what you would normally have at this point, or at least no more than an additional one. Three to four Eyries for the production of all three flier classes is probably enough in most cases. And if you don't plan on using Firebats and Wyverns (much), then you could even just stick to a couple for the Dragons.