The Khazad are economic powerhouses... but only if you keep their current Gold high. In the early game, your objective should be to always have at least 100 gold per city, and attempting to get more. By the mid (and in the late game) you should almost never sink below 500 gold per city.
Dwarven Vaults
A basic chart of Dwarven vaults. All modifications are per city, and are updated at the beginning of the turn:
- < 50 gold per city : Empty (-2 happiness)
- < 100 gold/city: Low (-1 happiness)
- < 150 gold/city: (no change)
- < 200 gold/city: Stocked (+1 Happiness)
- < 300 gold/city: Abundant(+2 Happiness, +10% production)
- < 500 gold/city: Full(+2 Happiness, +25% production)
- >= 500 gold/city: Overflowing(+3 Happiness, +40% production, +25% great people)
Religion
Like all non-atheists, religion is important for the Khazad. Considering that they are best played with fewer, stronger cities, a religion is more important than some other civilizations. While there are arguments for a number of religions for the Khazad, the easiest one to start with is the Runes of Kilmorph. The gold production from this religion and its temples (and ideally its shrine, should you conquer it or get the technology first) is very nice, given the amount of gold you'll want to just keep your vaults overflowing.
Technology
Your technology choices are dependent on your strategy (of course), but something to try is the following. Note that unlike most other civilizations, maxing out research is generally a bad idea until you're at 500+ gold/city (remember to include any settlers you plan to build in that number):
1) Focus on research enough to speed up your early research. Education and/or Ancient Chants are key.
2) Go for Runes of Kilmorph.
3) consider each of the following branches:
3.1) Melee (this is probably the easiest, as the Dwarven Forge givens production bonuses based on metals obtainable from this line, and Maros is along this line).
3.2) Economic (this is probably the second easiest)
3.3) Siege/gunpowder (the catapult replacement is wonderful)
3.4) Mounted
3.5) Arete (The iron bonus from the wonder alone here is very nice)
Most importantly, ignore the Archery and Recon lines, unless you're pretty certain of what you're doing. Always ignore the Arcane line.
Strategy
There are two main easy Dwarven strategies I'm aware of: Economic powerhouse (where you concentrate on your economy and mostly use mercenaries (via Currency/Guild of the Nine) as your military force), and a more traditional conquest-type strategy. In either case, consider going for Trebuchets when you want to take out cities or large stacks - they are some of the best siege weapons in the game, combining the high withdrawal with good strength, bombardment (25%), and collateral (100/70/6). Note that they will need to be backed up by other units, as they cannot kill units by themselves (a unit they defeat will be at 25% HP).
The other units of note are:
- Dwarven Shadow (causes collateral damage)
- Dwarven Cannon (stronger than a normal cannon - note, however, that their withdrawal is not as high as a Trebuchet's.
- Dwarven Druid (Earth magic instead of Nature magic makes for a better combat support caster, but no vitalization).
- Dwarven Horngaurd (stronger, slower Knight)
- Dwarven Slinger (an Archer with worse upgrade capabilities)
- Myconid (a Beastmaster, with disadvantages but also with the powerful Spores spell).
- Maros (the national Hero, fairly good at offense, but wonderful at defense).
Note that the vast majority of your units will likely be Dwarven. This doubles movement in hills, given 25% poison resistance, and increases work rates by 25%.
Let me know if you'd like alterations. As a side-note, should this be in the Strategy forum?
As another side-note, I'd suggest adding the Grigori are Atheists. Considering how major religion is for many strategies, this is a pretty important fact.