cornixt:
Not sure who their source is, supposedly someone in the studio. The rumour is that a Chaos Dwarf unit will be available as a special choice in the Mortal army. It will have an upgrade for ranged attacks. Check out the Podhammer podcast.
Since it came out around April 1st, the Warhammer/40k crossover was obviously a joke (discuss on another thread if you disagree).
So, how to deal with turning your CD army into a Chaos army with a single unit like that? Obviously, the CD warriors and blunderbusses are taken care of by the normal unit. Bull Centaurs suddenly become rock-hard as Chaos Knights. Hobgoblins have to be rebased as Marauders, or dumped in favour of Marauders or Chaos Warriors (doesn’t look like there will be any new core units). A Taurus makes a decent dragon. There might be a Hellcannon available, but you’re stuck with DoW for any other normal war machines. Tzeentch daemons (if available) would be the only other option for them since they have magical shooting. For weird stuff, you could use the chariot rules for crazy Chaos Dwarf machines (or Tenderisers and Whirlwinds) plus the giant could be your Kollosus.
So the main consequences? No war machines (at least not as a normal BT, DR or ES), and the very cheap HG units will be gone. Other greenskins are completely out. Big upsides in a fully legitimate army list that doesn’t have some opponents questioning officiality, and new models. It would still be a relatively rare army, although as a theme for Chaos rather than on its own. The success of the models could spur a proper full Chaos Dwarf army. Lots of options for slaves like Ogres and giants, plus you could use Minotaurs.
I’ve got mixed feelings, obviously I’d prefer a proper CD list, but this single unit opens up so much in the way of being a proper army, possibly in advance of a full Chaos Dwarf army.
Pyro Stick:
I agree that it is probably just a unit far in advance of a full chaos dwarf army. GW are probably just wondering how well a single unit would sell to see if it is worth making the full army. It should be interesting to see how the unit will be incorporated into a chaos army. Do you think there will be a max of 1 unit or something?
Hammerhand:
Very encouraging. I wonder how they will handle the ranged attacks? Also, I wonder if they will be exempt from the ‘marks of chaos’ rule. If they can have a mark of chaos it would change everything, or they may have the mark of Hashut wich would shed a little light on that too. Hmm, interesting…
Willmark:
Sounds like April Fools to me… Doubtful that GW is prepared to do anything CD related just yet…
Just listened to it (its from 21:38 to 20:08) on Podhammer cast. Pros and cons to what they are saying. Assuming this would be a trial as mentioned, fine. If this is all they are going to do then not so good. One unit? Great I can stop my army now :S if they are using this as a trial all of us run out and buy whatever box set they release! Even if it is big hats!
Canix:
Especially if its Big hats Willmark !
Xander:
The idea of new Chaos Dwarf models would be tantalizing. It would be interesting to see if we had any influence on GW. 
But when it comes to Chaos Dwarfs, I’ll believe it when I see it. April fools is a little close to this rumour for my tastes.
Willmark:
The question is when daemons get released, obviously there will have to be a get you by list for Mortals very soon thereafter. As such indications there will tell the tale. I for one don’t buy “if were not in HoC its over”.
If we don’t get a book before 8th THEN its over.
Interesting to hear that Dark Elves are getting pushed back… Slaves as a point of contention? Sound like anyone else’s army…
Bottom line is this GW is going to do whatever makes financial sense, all else is secondary.
Kera foehunter:
more rumour. I wish these people where more like Joe Friday (just the facts!!)
Grimstonefire:
When are DE being pushed back to?
I thought they were Aug/ Sept 2008. At least that’s what I was told.
Pushing them back might mean the HoC are brought forward?
In my honest opinion, I seriously doubt GW will include chaos dwarfs in HoC ‘just to see if they sell’. They will include them because they know they will sell, or they will not include them at all.
Whether they will sell ‘well’ depends on what criteria are set. Whatever it is, if its a special choice it will not be CD warriors, and will probably be in our list in the same form.
A single unit would probably not spell the end of WA: CD.
As people have said though, that this comes out on April 1st clouds the issue. Someone interested should contact the podhammer people to see if that was serious or not.
Willmark:
It was in the podcast regarding DE being pushed back.
Xander:
It was in the podcast regarding DE being pushed back.
Willmark
Does that mean it was on a date other than today?
Willmark:
Nope. They simply said being pushed back farther into 2009.
Don’t get me wrong. Until I see any of this officially take place I don’t believe any of it.
furrie:
mabey they swamp DE and CD (hope is on :P)
Pyro Stick:
There is always the AoW CD Hero to look forward to.
Xander:
I have listened to the casts, which was made before April 1st. They seem to think it is a legitimate rumour, not April 1st inspired. So that’s something. I guess we can watch and wait to see what happens.
metro_gnome:
well one unit (and the hellcannon) would be fine I suppose…
It would be nice if the there was a CD hero character… engineer of some kind…
that made this CD unit core for each one you took…
but I could run with my specials full of chaos dwarfs… if I have to…
BCs as Chaos knights sound nifty… better than DoW for dwarfs anyway…
this is workable if not ideal…
Willmark:
Grim pointed out in another thread that this could be good and bad. Good in the fact that we are getting something. Bad ad we won’t get out own book.
I’ve listened to the podcast a couple of time now and I disagree with their premise. There is no way that GW is going to do a trial run in HoC to see how they sell, unless its purely until the armybook for HoC comes out in the Fall.
As many are fond of pointing out GW is moving away from having information from one army book in another, let alone units. Each army book seems to be going forward as an entity in and of itself, witness the sundering of chaos into 3. So roll us into Chaos? Seems to go against everything that GW has done from a game design prespective. Which is the only way they really think these days (apparently). Fluff doesnt even enter into GWs thinking here.
Now back to my point of a “trial run”, if that is GWs plan then it would make sense. Go from May to Nov with a temporary list and see how CDs sell. One has to wonder if GW isnt sold on the idea of CDs, (makes sense), but aren’t writing them off entirely… By Gav’s own account there are members of the design team that want to do them do who knows.
Bottom line if this is true I suspect GW has ulterior motives know that there are going to be many CD fans that want there own book. I would imagine gauging that interest is something that GW would like to know. But then again we are talking about GW who knows as much about Marketing as my dog… And he’s 'pretty smart. GW? Not so much.
metro_gnome:
oh i’m pretty sure this is not a may to november thing…
CDs wont sell during that period… there are no models available…
this is a november till 8th ed HoC thing…
when models will be released with the rest of HoC…
and you’re right it has nothing whatsoever to do with testing any waters…
this is it… the whole shebang… tho I hope there is a character…
but at the end of the day its not much worse off than we are now…
the idea of a trial run has merit all the way around…
the original purpose of RH was to do that…
it allowed them to spot broken combos before they started the books…
and allows them to compensate… and over compensate in some instances…
But as long as they have a “no models, no rules” policy…
trial run rules will not be presented… which is exactly our situation in May…
It will be really good for the rest of the HoC book though…
Willmark:
This is of course all predicated on that this actually happening. I’ll actually believe it when I see it.
The “no models no rules” is a curious business stand point to take. As long as you have the parts to make chaos dwarfs you can make money selling them through multiple lines. Read chaos and dwarfs. Of course it can be argued as we have discussed before GW is never going to support an army whose primary place to buy is off of eBay… Of court that gets us back into a chicken and the egg situation…
Alienation of any customer is never a good thing and I imagine there will be a host of people annoyed either way.
GW seems to forget one of the cardinal rules of business: “The best customer is the one that you already have”. For that reason alone I wish there were a extremely strong competitor to GW, because a much as I like warhammer is as much (if not more) that I loathe GW. A strong competitor would force GW to, gheez listen to the customers that pay the bills? That in and of itself is interesting. How many people know of others who speak kindly of GW. Do a google search on QuarkXPress from Quark. Once the preeminent leader in DTP, arrogant, controlling, and despisted its customers. Adobe came along and kicked the crap out them. They have tried hard to become customer friendly, are a afterthought now…