AGPO:
What are people’s thoughts on using mercenaries in a chaos dwarf army. I’m not the greatest fan of Bull Centaurs and want another option to earthshakers so my tactics don’t become too predictable. At the moment I’m looking at different types of ogres (obviously), some duelists (using the classic sneaky gits models) to give me a skirmishing option, birdmen as a flying unit or maybe a giant. Any suggestions welcome.
Xander:
The world’s your oyster with DOW units:
- A fluffy choice are Ogre Leadbelchers who are earning their equipment.
- A Berzerker style unit using the Bearmen or Norse Marauder rules would be cool.
- Norse Marauders as slaves or allied Marauders ala [[Grudge Bearer]].
- Oglah Khan’s Wolfboyz, self explanatory.
- Cursed Company… undead slaves?
Hope that helps.
Uzkul Werit:
Birdmen can only be hired by the Empire or Dogs of War. In my view, 3 Ironguts are your best bet. Use them instead of your Bull Centaurs and they well do a much better of job of killing the foe. However, they need support. They can’t take on a full,ranked up unit by themselves.
qwe50:
i have tryed alot of DOW and ROR in my CD armyes and alot of them work
you can converd a model and take a DOW cannon
Voland’s venators are good at 219 points but they are more or less the same as BC’s 8 S6 ws 5/4 2+save. But BC’s and Voland’s venators works well because it give 2 good attack units
Vesperos vendetta are a god, but pricy unit because they are a special choice and skirmish
and cause fear they are good at taking out small units who run around in/behind you lines warhounds, fast cav, flyers, …
Mengil Manhide’s Manflayers are serios pricy but they are also very good because they are mobile and BS5 (they are good at shooting fell bats i know) just dont let anything charge you
Iron Guts have tryed 4 ig’s but i find voland better
Giant i havent tryed a giant but i think it could be a good idere - giants are very mobile and mabye the earthshaker can prevent i from being shoot to much
i see no reson for taking crossbows, pikes or blocks like bearmen because CD have ““light shooting” and big blocks” enough
Xander:
Giants, however, are not explicitly allowed in Chaos Dwarf armies… 
Uzkul Werit:
Worse bloody misprint in all of White Dwarf. No Giants for CD. Grumbles
AGPO:
I’ve already thought of cannons as I am going to buy the new plastic dwarf army deal (which contains two) and already have a death rocket underway with another to be added from the skull pass boxed set. The reason for taking crossbows is that it is very difficult for blunderbusses to wipe out entire small units as they only have a 50% chance of hitting each individual model
Uzkul Werit:
Crossbows will normally hit on a 4+ or worse. The reason why a Blunderbuss can’t take out small units well is because it’ll only hit each model once. Crossbows on the other hand, get many more shots and have a far better range.
AGPO:
That was the point I was getting at but you’ve worded it far more clearly than I did :cheers. My current list - I always collect to army lists and then build from there as it means you can start playing quickly and don’t buy anything pointless - includes 2 units of20 blunderbussers and unit of 20 hobbos with bows. A big unit of crossbows means I can thin out any flanking units, gives me some long range fire to thin out nasty units earlier or cause some early panic tests. From the shooty point of view a block of four or five leadbelchers gives me some serious firepower and can pack a punch in CC. As for the Manflayers, I’d just feel wrong using elves in any Dwarf army. I may use their rules to represent something else if I can think of a decent themed conversion though. Ruglud’s orcs are also an option and even mention CDs in their background!
On the close combat front I’ve been thinking of modeling some ‘Black Orc Boar Boyz’ as a slave unit, using the heavy cavalry rules to represent them. I may even make a Big Boss on an Ironback Boar to lead them (this would fit in with the background of this item - check out Orc and Goblin magic items for the CD reference!:0) If I do I could use the Venator rules to represent them (Voland being represented by the big boss) These guys have the same hitting power as BCs but have much better armour and would make a cool centre piece.
Xander:
That Heavy Cavalry unit sounds pretty cool actually. My friend actually just ordered 10 New Boars from BW Bits, and is making a plastic Boar Boyz unit from it. It’s gonna look dead 'ard. Using that new plastic boar for your conversions might help make them distinct from regular boar boyz. 
AGPO:
Nice idea! :cheers I’m in the UK and don’t particullarly want to pay all the import duties from BW bitz. Does anyone know if theres a similar site in Europe? As far as making the boars different, I want to mix in the new plastic boar and a few metal heads (Morglum, the mounted shamen and tuskgors donating the parts) I’m using the plastic character kit for my standard, and the awesome Gorbad Ironclaw model for my Unit leader, but with the boar remodelled to look more ‘mechanical.’ I also want to give him an even bigger axe than he has ATM. The idea is to create a really imposing unit to attract fire away from my war machines. In my O&G army (see ‘Enslaved Greenskin Horde’ thread’) This is going to represent my client warboss and his bodyguard.
thepaintingmonkey:
I use Dogs of war as a second army and I wholey recommend Volands Venators Heavy Cav. A hero for extra attacks would be worthwhile. To be honest I’d be tempted to use the light cav. I know we have wolfboys, but 10 minimum to a unit!? For the sake of tactical flexibility I think that a small unit of 5 for baiting would be worth at least thinking about.