How to counter chariots as a dwarf?

Solution 1:

Short Answer

Chariots are large, and Slayers do get a bonus against them.

However, I believe negating the charge bonus is more important, and have only had success with Ironbreakers or Longbeards with Great Weapons. Unfortunately, they are not a "hard" counter, and take time to eliminate chariots, suffering losses in the process.

Long Answer

Going to provide evidence for the above, using the Database Visual Editor (DAVE), in the Total War: Warhammer Assembly Kit (Available under Tools on Steam), to ensure everything is up to date.

Are Chariots (and Cavalry) Large?

Table: land_units
We want to look at the field ground_stat_effect_group, in particular it should have the value large, or large_bst (large beast).
Sorting the column class, value chariot:
All chariots are large or large_bst (for the Razorgor Chariot) for ground_stat_effect_group

Sorting the column category, value cavalry:
Almost all cavalry are large or large_bst

Notable Exceptions:
Hexwraiths and The Green Knight are instead, ethereal
All variants of Goblin Spider Riders have a blank field (so they are not large)

What gets a bonus against Large?

Table: melee_weapons
Filtering key column to contain dwf (to find dwarf weapons). Looking at columns bonus_v_cavalry and bonus_v_large. No weapons have bonus damage vs cavalry.

Only two weapons have bonus vs large units. ungrim_axe_great, which is only used by Ungrim Ironfist, and slayer_axe_dual. Slayer axes are only used by Slayers and Dragonback Slayers. Unfortunately the axes have limited armor piercing damage, and Slayers themselves lack armor.

From table projectiles, searching for key for dwf, no dwarf ranged weapons have a natural bonus against cavalry or large.

What Counters Chariots?

In my experience, the main issue is that chariots will repeatedly charge into your units. We need to negate that charge bonus.

Under attribute_group, we want wh_chargeReflector or wh_chargeReflectorVsL.
Dwarf Warriors, Longbeards (including with Great Weapons), and Ironbreakers all negate the charge bonus of chariots.

Of these, only Longbeards with Great Weapons have significant Armor Piercing, which is useful as Chaos Chariots have significant armor. Ironbreakers are more defensive, and have the best Melee Defence, Armor, Morale and Health. Test battles of these units against chariots has shown they can survive a mass of chariots of equal value.

Solution 2:

While I do like the details of the accepted answer, I just thought of sharing some tactics I tried and succeeded.

Iron Breakers and Cannons

This works if both side have large amount of Units - one Iron breaker and one Cannon versus 2 Chariots will not work but 6-8 Iron breakers plus 4-2 Cannon versus 10 Chariots will. Replacing some Iron Breakers with more units of Miner(with Blast caps) or Dwarven Warriors will be more effective against lower tier Chariots - lesser chance of them charging through/ flanking your ranks.

Have cannon hit their chariot since units as fast can be dealt with by other anti cavalry units. Position the Iron Breakers in position to get hit by the Chariot(This might require some practise and attention). The Iron Breakers might be able to throw one volley of their bombs further reducing the number of Chariots. Form the Iron Breakers thicker than Wider to ensure the Chariots will get 'caught' in the rank and unable to pull out. In that scenario, the Chariots won't be able to win. But expect some casualties on the Iron Breakers.

Gyrobombers

This will not work against the faster Chariots that Orcs have but against Chaos ones it will. Much simpler to execute too.

Fly along and bomb with active skill, halt right before they hit into your ranks and shoot with range attack to damage them more before leaving it to the infantry to finish the fight, they will be too weak to do much harm. Just make sure to form up thicker and ensure the Chariots do not break your rank in the initial charge and they should be harmless.

Thicker ranks

If you did notice, both methods ultimately rely on thicker ranks to reduce damage done. So if you are the large infantry kind of guy, just make your formation thicker than wide. It will reduce the charge impact done by the Chariots. If your unit tier is too low, stacking another unit behind the first will actually help, in fact many times I did that and they manage to trap the Chariot in between the two units- even though the first suffered much casualties.

If you worry about the shorter line being wrapped by the opposing infantry you can tilt the units on the side to intentionally let them wrap around you, reducing the angle of which their Chariots(if any are still alive by this phase of battle) can charge from. Due to the reduction in effectiveness charging from behind their own infantry(and also the risk of getting caught) they will probably try to charge from behind your units in which your second row can turn around and face their charge instead.

This will not work however if they have powerful artillery, but if your opponent have both large amount of Chariots and artillery, their infantry should be nothing to worry about. Instead form you units into blocks, spread out and charge. You will be able to instead flank their infantry and attack their artillery w/o their Chariots being able to do much.