[MadLarkin]

Finally building up my dwarf army, plan on running a unit of normal warriors and a unit of longbeards. The longbeards I figure are good enough with just shields and S4, but I don't know how I want to equip the normal warriors.

Should I give them just shields, just GW's (honestly my least favorite option) or shields and GW's?

My other units are

10x thunderers
15x quarreller rangers
20x iron breakers
12x slayers
1 cannon
1 organ gun

 

[The bearded one]

It depens a bit on what enemies you usually face.
The powercreep armies that kills 10 dwarfs on the charge?
Or the more normal ones, 1 attack each str 3 guys like elves, men, skaven, undead and goblins.

If there are a lot of chaos warriors, knight heavy empire, lame ass dark elves or daemons etc where you play, then giving them great weapons is a bad idea, because the first rank will be slaughtered before you have the chance to strike back. Usually shields are your best option to let keep the casualties to a bare minimum while your longbeards ( with thane? ) do the killing. 20 warriors with shields can usually hold their own and win with combat res. They have good weapon skill so are harder to hit, and hit enemies easier.

I use 20 warriors with hand weapons and shields myself.
And 15 longbeards with hand weapons and shields.
And at 1500 I add another 15 warriors with hand weapons and shields.

 

[Mereclar]

I mostly say NO.

Positive: Strenght 5! which is awesome
Negative: strikes last, armour save will be 5+ instead of 3+ with shields

I fyou want to use gw's i suggest to use units of 10 warriors as detachements of your warriors

 

[MaleOpener]

I always use GWs on the units which can buy them.

As for warriors, I use the shields for an improved save during the shooting phase, and use the GWs in close combat.

If need be, I always have the option of shield/1h weapon.

:beer:

 

[Mereclar]

I always use GWs on the units which can buy them.

As for warriors, I use the shields for an improved save during the shooting phase, and use the GWs in close combat.

If need be, I always have the option of shield/1h weapon.

:beer:

Yes that's treu but it will cost you a lot of extra points for weapons u don't use all the time. I do buy shields for my hammerers because there more expensive and stronger.