Hey, I’ve been writing (and re-writing) 3 CD lists in anticipation of the Battle for Skull Pass box I ordered last week. Now that i’m more familiar with the current CD list I have several questions that only the Chaos Dwarf vets in our community can answer. So here goes:
1. I’m set on including a unit from the Ogre Kingdoms army book in my Chaos Dwarf army, but when confronted with so many choices im unsure of what unit I should include. A unit of Leadbelchers is very fluffy, and I love the models, but they seem very unreliable ruleswise. What Ogre units have you Chaos Dwarf generals had the most success incorporating into your armies?
2. I like the blunderbuss Warriors, but I also feel the need to include some Great Axe warriors as well. What is generally accepted as the best size for a unit of great-axe wielding warrios? Are Great Axes considered great weapons as the rulebook is concerned? Would warriors be a good place to stick an unmounted Chaos Dwarf Lord?
3. The fluff for the CD is what pushed me to start collecting the army, but it seems that alot of the fluff online seems to contradict itself, and it’s hard for me to tell which fluff is GW canon and which isn’t. I know someone will just say ‘check wiki’, but I have and the fact that there are several different pages on wiki for the Chaos Dwarfs confuses me especially because much of the fluff there contradicts itself). So where can I find the best representation of the Canon GW CD fluff?
4. There was a creation story about the CD where they went underground to avoid the depredations of Chaos when it was unleashed upon the world. Dwarf faught Dwarf and it was a time of turmoil and strife. Where can I find this story and does anyone know who it was written by?
Sorry for the long post, but i’m a stickler for details, and when I talk about CD on these forums and at my gaming group i’de like to be able to know that i’m not just spewing bullshit (for lack of a better term).
[[Chaos Dwarf History and Fluff]] is the best place to start. It is based on the 4th edition fluff and beyond. This overrides the 3rd edition (purely chaos) fluff in many way, which may explain the contradictions you have found. There is little unofficial fluff on the wiki, but there is some fanfiction.
For the Ogres, I’d go either Ironguts or Leadbelchers. Irongut for the combat ability and Leadbelchers because they can shred things that the Blunderbussmen can’t (anything but infantry or cav).
On the Great Weapons, small units of ten would be good. Use them to flank stuff after the enemy slams into a big block of Warriors with Shield.
2. I like the blunderbuss Warriors, but I also feel the need to include some Great Axe warriors as well. What is generally accepted as the best size for a unit of great-axe wielding warrios? Are Great Axes considered great weapons as the rulebook is concerned? Would warriors be a good place to stick an unmounted Chaos Dwarf Lord?
Shankenstein
I have read that with Dwarfs (The Good Ones) that having warrior unit sizes of 20+ is usually best. This is beause each model has a unit strength of 1, so in a small unit of 12, as in Battle For Skull Pass, the Dwarfs will not last long in a fight before they are fleeing. Therefore, if they have a unit strength of 20, they tend to last out longer in a fight.
Remeber that great weapons will give your Dwarf Warriors a strength advantage in combat, but that GW always strike last against regular weapons. So with this in mind, a larger unit number will help when you run into "Fast Use Weapons" armies (Skaven Plague Rats with 2 knives for example) that can take out a large percentage of your warriors before they can swing their Great Weapons.
As for Blunderbuss Crew, having 20+ in the unit will give you their maximum handgun power for their rank bonuses, resolving the hits at S3 + 1 per extra rank up to S5. Ranks count if at least 4 wide. Therefore, having 16 BB's in colums of 4 will give you 4 ranks, giving you the S5 BB combo. You could also rearrange this formation so that you have a 5 wide colum and 3 rank deep which will also give you the S5 BB combo with a wider face.
Adding in a Dwarf Lord with a unit is also a great help as the unit gets to use the Lord's Leadership and the Lord's attack as well as the Champion's extra 1 attack. Therefore, in a regular rank that's five models wide, you would get 6 attacks, 4 for the troops and 2 for the champion. Now, if you add in a Hero to that front rank, you would widen it to 6 models and you would get an additional 3 attacks, bringing up the attack number to 9. Exchange the Hero for a Lord and you get 10 total attacks. Not too bad, is it?