The creature lineup for the Fortress faction has been announced. See the official list here. What follows is my immediate reaction to them:

• Defender/Shieldguard: of course, you can't have a Dwarven faction without sturdy Dwarven warriors. Looks nice, will probably be a good solid core unit. No problem here. Next!
• Bear/Blackbear: Fair enough; a non-humanoid unit that makes sense appearing in a faction that belongs in a foresty/mountainy environment.
• Kobold scout/Kobold pathfinder: All right, at this point I'm assuming somebody at Limbic had been drinking tequila for half the day and suddenly discovered that they needed another core unit. After first going through suggestions like llamas, buffalos and flying condors, a voice cries out: "I know, guys... guys, you're gonna love this: hamsters. We need hamsters." Or is it a beaver? I can't tell. While the gameplay might work out fine, I do believe we have seen the replacement for the Kappa as the most ridiculous creature in the series.
• Dis/Valkyrie: Limbic are from Germany and they seem to love Germanic folklore and mythology. "Dís" is actually Old Norse for a form of female spirits or goddesses, the most well-known of whom was the Vanadís (dís of the Vanir, the gods of Vanaheim), also known as Freya. Valkyires are also creatures of Norse/Germanic (if you're confused, don't worry; the Norse and old Germanic cultures are closely related, hence the sharing of beliefs) lore; they were the "death wights", or a kind of "angels of death" if you will. They would pay attention to the warriors in battle at the behest of Odin (Wotan in Germanic), choosing who should fall and then carry them off to Valhalla. Names aside, such units fit well in with the Northern mood the developers are setting for this faction.
• Rune priest/Rune patriarch: Big guy, big hammer. What's not to like?
• Lava elemental/Magma elemental: Dwarves being natural miners and mountain-dwellers, I guess it makes a certain amount ot sense that one of the creatures is a wild boar/rhino made from molten rock. I just wonder what the reaction was when the first one appeared in front of the dwarf who dug it out of the ground. Can't have been pretty. The description hints at this creature having some form of charge ability, setting nearby creatures on fire as it passes. I wonder if it can burn down town gates?
• Fire giant/Einherjar: The first sounds like something out of Baldur's Gate 2, while the second is once again taken from mythology. "Einherjar" is the plural form of the Norse word "einheri", and that is what you call the man fallen in battle who is taken to Asgard by the valkyries.

So aside from the dwarves, there's a hamster, a bear, a searing rhino-thing and a couple of supernatural beings. Runes will probably be massively overpowered, and the lore runs the risk of turning everything into a feast for Marvel fans. Can anything salvage this faction?

• Red dragon/Ardent dragon. ... Yep. That'll do it.