I have finally been able to aquire a somewhat large flock of CD (bighats) and have my 2500 army nearly ready. However, prior to putting them into use for the first times, I have lots of tactical questions but I’d also like your help on rules and converting or building the army. :hat off
I know that there are different forums here but I wanted to put all my questions into one topic and since most questions regard tactical matters I put it here.
A. Questions concerning conversions and models
1. I have bought 10 Bull centaur renders (old big hats) at a very well known auction site. From the foto I could tell (almost all my stuff will arrive tomorrow) that the bases are still the old ones. Which bases must I use to make them playable?
2. I have now 33 CD models to my name. I’d like to take 8 of them to do some multi base fillers (2-4 models/CD = 16-32). How many unit fillers are acceptable in tournament play and how many fillers can be considered “too much” or even unacceptable? Don’t get me wrong, I think 30 CD should be fine for any 2.5k list, I’d just like to know. Also, U can do some nice stuff with unit fillers.
3. Are conversions or self-built models viable for tournament play?
B. Questions concerning rules
1. The Bulls are listed as monstrous beasts. Do they have any impact hits, stomp attacks and do I get to fight with all their attacks from the second rank?
2. Are you allowed to shoot fireballs or other damaging spells at your Bale/Great Taurus to heal him up?
3. Are you allowed to field Night goblins to proxy Hobgoblins or is this usually forbidden?
C. Tactical matters
Preface: I’m playing in a heavy competitive environment that usually uses tough restrictions (tougher than ETC or ETC) and punishes each weakness and mistake mercilessly. That has been my bane since I joined the local scene only 1 year ago with Dark elves, an army that is very difficult to master.
Combat 8.0 (in a nutshell): CD get 4 choices out of: Iron Demon, first S5-template, 2nd S5-template (counts for 2 choices), Taur’ruk, K’daai Destroyer (counts for 2 choices), Bale.
However, you can only field 3 template weapons in total!
Max. 80 shooters. hellcannon, Mortar and magma cannon count as 15 shooters.
NO CHALICE. Iron Demon, Destroyer and hellcannon are each 0-1 choices.
1. Is the gunline viable in a heavy competitive environment?
In combat 8.0, the restriction system that is used most around here, CD can field gunlines of 2 cannons + Iron Demon + shooters. If you do so, there’s no bale, no taur’ruk and no Destroyer.
2. Is the Bale worth the points increase from the Great Taurus?
The Great Taurus does not use any choice in combat 8.0. Is it worth saving the choice for a Taur’ruk and 2 cannons?
Thank you for now. If I have any further questions I will put them in here. Please also rate my army lists, which I have posted in the respective forum.
A2 My opinion is that it’s good for the unit filler to be representative of the amount of wounds the base represents. For example a 40mm base represents 4 wounds 40mm-80mm represent 8 wounds etc. I have found people have found it cheap to have 1-2 models on a huge base in the middle of the unit.
A good solution is Ogres! buy a box of ogres do some simple conversions to make them chaosey for example Chaos defiler heads work amazingly etc, Throw it on a 40-80mm base with 2 Infernal guard holding a chain tied to his neck.
For Example
A3 YES! go crazy. as long as it’s WYSIWYG ( What you see is what you get )
B1 you get stomp attacks and yes you can get full attacks by back ranks. Great weapons ftw
B2 Magical missiles can only be cast against enemy units ( Sorry )
B3 Yes ofc you can ive found many armies here that use Night Goblins, Ive seen them painted brown/orange/flesh with good effect.
C1 I would say no, Blunderbusses and fireglavies are to expensive to field in numbers but we do have the best/affordable artillery in the game. Competitive CD armies tend to have a big unit of infernal guard ( hand weapons ) with a prophet with +4 ward talisman and crown of command, A Castellan with bsb, 3-4 deathshrikers and magma cannons daemonsmith and a destroyer. Chaos Dwarf Stratergy is blast blast and then meeting them head on in the middle with big blocks and big monsters. Thats what we do best.
C2 Personally I don’t rate the Great or Bale Taurus though it doesn’t stop me fielding it
Hope that solves a few issues and my opinons expressed may not be the status quo here. But i hope ive shed a bit of light.
They should be on 50x75 mm bases, you could buy those, or make them from 3 cav bases but I say keep them on their original bases and make a few of these the normal bases wil fit those and its also a lot eazier in transport. I have also see people with old models just make a base as big as the unit and just fit the classic models on the big base, also better in transport and the cool thing is you can make the base a bit scenic so they wont look so small compared to the new models.
A2:
well 33 is a good unit. I tend to bring 28 to a game max. and yes I du use fillers. I say smaller units (20-30) will take 1 cool looking unit filler and 1 or 2 models on bigger bases (something along 2 models on those 20x40 mm bases). what also helps is putting cool stuff on 20mm bases (barrels, weapons, extra shields, flames or skulls) and put those in the unit. (have a look around in the Army Blogs section of this forum for inspiration)
A3:
Yes!!! the cooler the better but in general als long as its kinda WYSIWYG its all good (or even awesome. )
B1
no impact. yes stomp and yes max 3 attacks from the 2nd rank (its in the FAQ on the GW site).
B2
nope, magic missiles only at an un-engaged enemy unit in the forward arc of the mage.
B3
Hobgobs are hard to come by, many people use nightgobbos or other gobbos, there is even a very cool kit-bash (I think it was skaven bodies, gnobloar heads and dark elf arms) that some people here came up with that look very cool. (once again: have a look around in the Army Blogs section of this forum for inspiration)
C1
Gunlines are boring. forget the Destroyer, yes its very good against a unexperinced player but anyone on a horde or similar with a dragon helm or Bane gem can pin him down for a 3rd of his costs.
Take a hell cannon and a Magma cannon (with a level one sorcerer babysitter) that is all the shooting you will need (or maybe one extra Death Rocket just to get a bit more punch with out getting boring doubles)
I find that the Great Taurus is a viable option in the right environment. I just came back from a large tournament in which I used one and I’m very happy with my result. Don’t get me wrong, -1 to, -1 wound and no breath weapon is a big downgrade. But if it gets you thru the restrictions and all you really wanna do is fly and deliver those purple suns it does the job.
A good solution is Ogres! buy a box of ogres do some simple conversions to make them chaosey for example Chaos defiler heads work amazingly etc, Throw it on a 40-80mm base with 2 Infernal guard holding a chain tied to his neck.
