Miners

Miners is a Dwarfs melee infantry unit in Total War: Warhammer. The pickaxe is not the mightiest Dwarfen weapon, but it serves with relative success in melee.

Description
When Dwarfs march to war, many mining Clans form regiments to join the battle. As a point of pride, they do not bear axes, but instead wield the same heavy two-handed mining picks and mattocks they use to laboriously carve out tunnels. As it turns out, these well-balanced and sturdily-made tools work equally well whether digging in to bedrock or hacking apart Goblins. Because tunnelling in the deeps is dangerous work, Miners constantly wear heavy armour and helms. Down the ages, this mail has served to protect them against rockfall and cave-ins as well as turning aside such attacks as Elf arrows or rusty Skaven blades. The longer and more established a Dwarf mine is, the more likely it is to be augmented with mechanical contrivances. Great steam engines draw in fresh air or haul chains to tow wagonloads of rock out of the depths. Some Miners even take to war with a few of their 'gadgets', such as blasting charges or a steam drill to aid in tunnelling under the enemy battle lines quickly. While the most conservative Dwarfs still grumble about these newer generations, stoutly wielding a pick to carve through a foe and winning the battle go a long way to aiding acceptance.

Strategy
Miners are the cheapest units that the Dwarfs can field. Use them to fill in gaps in your army, or keep one or two in reserve to guard your flanks, or send around the flanks of enemies held in place by your front line. Their low melee attack and melee defense make them poor front liners, but their armor piercing weapon damage makes them ideal for flanking high value targets, such as Black Orcs or Greatswords. If kept in reserve to guard artillery or range units, keep in mind that they do not have the extra charge defense that dwarf warriors do, so their main purpose is only to muck up enemy cavalry. Use Slayers or your ranged units to deal the real damage while they keep your vulnerable units safe.

Also, two things to remember about miners with blasting charges: 1) if you use miners with blasting charges, NEVER leave them in fire at will--they will always throw that dynamite at the first available target, and it is almost never going to have its full effect (always assuming it doesn't blow up your own lines); and 2) remember that if you interrupt the volley, not all the dwarfs will throw their charges--you can effectively get two or even three volleys out of a unit with good micro skills, and each volley will be very nearly as effective as a full volley.