[Archive] The Twin Anvils- 2500

Archive [Archive] Army Lists
1

Blackspine:

Ahoy all.

Been a while.

I’ve been having a hard time balancing the Legions of Azghor (spl.) with MY enjoyment and the opponents enjoyment. I suppose this could be called ‘comp’.

I tried the dual Magma, K’daai and Great Taurus, and people thought I was the filthiest douchemonger in the room (well, not as bad as the guy who had 4 warmachines…but pretty much same level). Truth be told, I won a lot, but didn’t enjoy it. The victories felt as hollow as winning with MINDRAAAZOR. Up until recently, I was having more fun losing with beastmen than winning with Chaos Dwarfs.

Until this list:

The Twin Anvils

Lord: 425

Sorcerer Prophet:

Lore of METAL \m/

Enchanted Shield

*scroll of Shielding

Crown of command

Talisman of Preservation

pistol

Heroes: (heavy) 556

BSB/ Castellan:

Mask of Furnace

great Weapon

pistol

Bull Centaur Ta’ruk:

Blackshard Armor

Great Weapon

Dawnstone

Dragon Helm

Other Tricksters Shard

Hobgoblin Khan:

Wolf.

Spear

Shield

light armor

Hobgoblin Khan:

Wolf.

Spear

Shield

light armor

CORE: 1003 pts

Infernal Guard x 28

Great Weapons

Full command

Banner of swiftness

Infernal Guard x28

Blunderbuss

Full command

Special: 375

Bull Centaurs: x3

Shields.

Full command

Standard of Discipline



DeathShrieker

DeathShrieker

Rare:

Hobgoblin wolf Riders x 5

spears

musician



Hobgoblin wolf Riders x 5

spears

musician
That’s it.

Two SOLID stubborn blocks. Immovable. Only the most brutal onslaughts will push them. (or a purple sun, but in that case you’re just hosed anyway) Castellan and Lord make both blocks stubborn

Hobgoblins and Khans do a lot of work here. Redirecting, pursuing, and late game diverting.

Bull Centaurs are MSU blockers. If a unit of Knights/ less than 10 attacks runs into them, you can hold them well. The BCT makes them a beast.

BCT is a monster on his own. he can just beat down the biggest and baddest. He’s disposable in most cases.  I’ve found that I save him to charge into chariots (woc) and demolish them. He’s amazing at coming in late game and challenging out someone who could kill my lord

Lore of METAL has been great. High cost, yes, but glittering robes, enchanted or even searing doom has been great. Esp vs Monstrous Skullcrushers…I mean cav. I rarely cast w more than 2 dice till combat or before. Don’t want to risk the miscast.

This list has low (for chaos dwarfs) shooting. It is amazing at shooting and demolishing 2 things.

High armor small units: Chaos knights or Demi-Skull.

Mass of T3…oh I don’t know, witch elves?

Blunderbusses and two DS wail on a unit/units that you CANT handle in combat. You can weather a storm, but Skullcrushers will hurt. Bad. W/ lore of metal and 2 shots at d6 S8 and then crap tons of blunderbusses, you’re going to whittle them down…fast.

With LARGE templates of S3, you can just wipe out hordes of witch elves. I’ve done it 3 times and haven’t seen them since from those players.

Shades, dark riders are hard to deal with, but bull centaurs and the Taruk can hurt them. Don’t forget lore of metal vs AS 4 Dark riders, it now does some damage. toss 2 dice and watch the opponent throw 3+ to save 1 unit. Lore of metal has short range and high casts, but Dark riders are in yoru face turn 1.

There it is.

No K’daai.

No Magma

No Hashut

No Chalice.



A LOT of combat, movement (well, for dwarves) and some solid answers.

You’ll laugh as you wipe out a demon prince (smaller base, so harder to hit) or dragon in 1 round of shooting. People will charge your blunderbusses early just to get into combat. and 3+ /6++ troops don’t move easy…then a glittering robe on Stubborn 10 means there’s a grind.

and that’s what we do best.

grind out the storm. Like the Volcano on the horizon, we are the ash and lava…nothing shall stand in our way.

I ditched the K’daai and never looked back. Too much a liability around GOOD players and inexperienced ones comp you to S**t and back.

Anyway. Hope it helps. I’ve been enjoying this list a lot and my opponents have had to think.

2

Grimbold Blackhammer:

This.  Is.  A.  Great.  Post!

I hear of two complaints about Chaos Dwarfs.  First - the K’daii.  No one enjoys facing it.  If you aren’t ready for it, it does suck because it will eat your army.  If your opponent is ready for it, it sucks for you.  Second - people say they’d like to face a Chaos Dwarf army that actually has Dwarfs in it.  I hear less complaints (but still some) about how broken the lore of Hashut is, the Chalice (when people do things with it we all know they shouldn’t be doing), and Magma Cannons (which will stop the moment regular Dwarf’s Flame Cannon gets changed to be like ours).  This list has none of that and looks actually fun to play!  Bonus - it has Blunderbusses which I love and an excuse to field my Bull Centaurs.  Plus it uses Hobgoblin Wolf Riders; a rarely seen unit.

It looks like you’ve created a list that looks pretty competitive, isn’t going to irritate opponents, and looks fun to play.  I LOVE IT!!

I’ll try and get a good bat rep done with it soon!

3

Blackspine:

hey man!

Glad you digg it.

Took a while to come up with something that had punch, staying power and wasn’t over the top. Most my iterations crumpled like a wet paper bag.

(stupid hobgoblins…)

My one advice is to save your HG wolf widers for late game. I used the Khans as early diverters and got out there. Animosity had lesseffect and some semblance of a save.

Lore of Death is great too, but people REALLY get mad when you snipe things with Stubborn 10. Plus a misfire on Purple sun will wipe your army…doing the work for them.

I keep wanting to ditch one IG-GW for points and toss stuff on the Khans. Maybe soon.

Good luck man. Let me know how it goes!

4

Bloodbeard:

Greatweapon wielding dwarfs are awesome - keep them around. I’ve made a large unit of handweapon/shield dwarfs - but bigass axes are way cooler. So I’ll have to make models for that.

I really like your list. Infantry all over the place! That’s what makes a great warhammer army. Large blocks of foot soldiers.

5

KramDratta:

@ Blackspine: Would you consider swapping the 2 Wolf rider units for a 2nd Bull Centaur unit & upgrade both with shields? That way you eliminate the Animosity issue and add more “protection” against MSUs. Also, no Daemonsmith for re-rolls, perhaps with Dispel Scroll?

6

Xx9millxX:

@ Blackspine: Would you consider swapping the 2 Wolf rider units for a 2nd Bull Centaur unit & upgrade both with shields? That way you eliminate the Animosity issue and add more "protection" against MSUs. Also, no Daemonsmith for re-rolls, perhaps with Dispel Scroll?

KramDratta
you can only have 3 special choices under 3000 pts right? So I don't believe that would work unless he did 1 unit of 6 bull centaurs..

Anyways awesome list.. Im going to start playing CDs and I want to use a list like this so even though I'm a beginner I don't use all kinds of crazy overpowered stuff .. Just something strong,simple and to the point
7

Dînadan:

@ Blackspine: Would you consider swapping the 2 Wolf rider units for a 2nd Bull Centaur unit & upgrade both with shields? That way you eliminate the Animosity issue and add more "protection" against MSUs. Also, no Daemonsmith for re-rolls, perhaps with Dispel Scroll?

KramDratta
you can only have 3 special choices under 3000 pts right? So I don't believe that would work unless he did 1 unit of 6 bull centaurs..

Anyways awesome list.. Im going to start playing CDs and I want to use a list like this so even though I'm a beginner I don't use all kinds of crazy overpowered stuff .. Just something strong,simple and to the point


Xx9millxX
You can have up to 3 of each Special choice, not 3 Special choices total; so if you had the points to afford it, you could have 3 units off Bulls, 3 magma cannons and 3 deathshriekers in the same army for example.
8

Yodrin:

Looks like a fun list, have to try it soon;)

9

Xx9millxX:

Ohh… So I could have 2 units of 5 wolf riders and a hell cannon for my rare? And 3 bull centaurs, a deathshrieker,a magma cannon, and a unit of infernal ironsworn for special If I wanted to in like a 2000 pt army?

10

Blackspine:

@ Blackspine: Would you consider swapping the 2 Wolf rider units for a 2nd Bull Centaur unit & upgrade both with shields? That way you eliminate the Animosity issue and add more "protection" against MSUs. Also, no Daemonsmith for re-rolls, perhaps with Dispel Scroll?

KramDratta
You know, I actually wouldn't.
I've tried more BC, and while they're Good/ok at holding up things, they don't have the flexibility that HGWR's do. Fast cav means that they can shoot between your lines and through hard to fit spaces (what she said...) and get to where they're needed. Their small footprint combined with SPEED (M9 v M7 is huge) and mobility makes them excellent for late game diverters, chasers. More than once, they've chased someone off the board w a HUGE charge range (21 inches v the BC 19).

They're good for drops on deployment and really they comp VERY well.
No one expects Chaos Dwarfs to have things ZOOMING around the battle field, redirecting and setting up charges. Well, unless it's the K'daai.

*** Hobgoblin wolf riders are fantastic. The better I've gotten at using them, the harder fought my games are. Don't throw them away too early. **


People see Chaos Dwarfs as the boogie man. They don't know what half our stuff does so go only on rumors and interwebz tales.

Lore of Hashut isn't that nasty in an all comers. Shut down Ashstorm and it's a meh lore. Good vs low Initiative, but not every army is.
(just voicing opinion, HIGH Magic is easily the roughest lore out there now...)

Just a note on the General:

He's meant to survive. You can equip him how you want, but Stubborn crown is almost mandatory. I love the T5 2+/4++.

Let me know how ya'lls battles turn out. I'm prepping this list for RTT. Not sure I want to go 5 games with it yet.
11

Dînadan:

Ohh.. So I could have 2 units of 5 wolf riders and a hell cannon for my rare? And 3 bull centaurs, a deathshrieker,a magma cannon, and a unit of infernal ironsworn for special If I wanted to in like a 2000 pt army?

Xx9millxX
Yep, provided you don't go over the percentage limits.
12

Xx9millxX:

Ohh.. So I could have 2 units of 5 wolf riders and a hell cannon for my rare? And 3 bull centaurs, a deathshrieker,a magma cannon, and a unit of infernal ironsworn for special If I wanted to in like a 2000 pt army?

Xx9millxX
Yep, provided you don't go over the percentage limits.


Dînadan
Interesting .. Thank you for telling me that .. Just made making my list a lot easier.. I don't have enough models to do above list .. But it is somewhat similar
13

Time of Madness:

Biggest problem with this list is the lack of “hammers”. You have 2 strudy anvils that will take a while to whittle down, but nothing other then 3 centaurs and a Ta’ruk to strike the flanks once the anvils are engaged.

I’ve actually field a very similar list at the 2500pt level, however the big difference is I have one large anvil supported by 2 units of 4 centaurs with great weapons/shields on the flanks.

My list also featured 2 units of 5 wolf riders and 2 death rockets among other things.

Once your opponent takes care of your chaff units (khans/wolf riders) you will find your 2 anvils overwhlemed.

Time of Madness

14

Blackspine:

Biggest problem with this list is the lack of "hammers". You have 2 strudy anvils that will take a while to whittle down, but nothing other then 3 centaurs and a Ta'ruk to strike the flanks once the anvils are engaged.

I've actually field a very similar list at the 2500pt level, however the big difference is I have one large anvil supported by 2 units of 4 centaurs with great weapons/shields on the flanks.

My list also featured 2 units of 5 wolf riders and 2 death rockets among other things.

Once your opponent takes care of your chaff units (khans/wolf riders) you will find your 2 anvils overwhlemed.

Time of Madness

Time of Madness
I think that 2 DS , GW BCT maniac and a horde of S6 dwarves is pretty fighty. My beastmen operate with far less and do ok.

No, it's not the ultimate build, but I'm testing it out (stress tests...) No Kdaai has meant some very enjoyable games for me an opponents. Most have had little clue of what to do vs 2 stubborn blocks.

I agree with you on the chaff, but truth be told, that's more chaff than most CD armies bring. Plus, the BC's are almost throw aways (unless Banner scenarios) They can hold up things for 1-2 turns easily.

Taking this to an RTT this weekend. We'll see!
15

Blackspine:

Quick batt Rep on how Saturday’s RTT went

first off: I had zero idea special chars were allowed.

It was a no comp enviroment; my list was designed with comp in mind. Boo-hoo, right?

Game 1:

Tomb Kings

He had Archon the Black (lvl 5 death hierophant)

2 catapults

casket

40 Tomb Guard

Heirotitan (+d3 to casting)

other stuff

He castled in a corner. I moved out to fight, but was so damn slow.

Turn 1, I shot the titan down w death shriekers.

Having not used them before, I started working on the TG, but should have been pounding the back skele bunkers.

He shot my chaff to shit with 60 shots hitting on 5s each turn

T2, he sniped my BCTaruk w spirt leech. I let it go and rolled a one as he rolled a 6. Ouch.



He had purple sun and with his wizard level as the distance multiplier, used it to threaten me all game. he got it off and it went nowhere.



Game went from a draw to a loss as I got sucked into the warp using 2 dice on glittering robes to protect blunderbusses from Catapults.

-F***-

My biggest mistake was NOT taking final transmutation. Derp.

Game 2:

Khalida Tomb Kings.

Basically a list designed to sit and shoot with 75 poisoned archers hitting on 4.

F that.

Khalida unit had this in it

1 lvl 2 light mage

1 lvl 2 light mage

Tomb King

Khalida

heirophant

I sat out of his range and my max range for Death Shriekers and Final Transmutation (took it this time!!)

Turn one, I wiped 30+ archers off the board. Both light mages were transmuted.

Turn two I killed a Sphinx with Blunderbuss (the one thing on my side of board) and then wiped out more archers.

He called it there.

I wasn’t going to let him come in range with his archers. his only spell I stopped (that could affect the game) was the movement one. No way.

I did feel kind of bad, but that list is pure filth. It’s designed to shoot and sit as an enemy trudges across the field. I wasn’t playing that. Bummed the game was called, you gotta tough it out or at least attempt to learn.

Death Shriekers were amazing

Game 3: Vs High Elves

Long story short, he danced away from me casting pit of shades repeatedly.

I was able to OUT maneuver him and had enough chaff to prevent the 3+ ward PG (with 4 characters) from getting into my army. I final transmo-ed them 2 times and took out 3 characters. Awesome.

BC Taruk took out flaming phoenix in combat rez.

A massacre went to a minor victory when I got sucked into the warp…AGAIN. Wow. good times. (side note: i hate making general a caster, but we don’t have many real options)

His whole magic phases was throwing out pit of shades. Pretty much the only spell he got off

He did a late game charge when his back was against the board edge and 6 Diced MIIIINDWAAAZEERRR on spear elves. God I hate that spell.

The GW dwarves held vs that w 1 champion and BSB (stubborn).

This whole game I couldn’t roll to hit in close combat. A HG Khan took 4 turns to kill 1 eagle. Yikes. Still those Khans were money.

Both DS rockets misfired turn 1. Rolled a 1 and 2. Both gone.

There you have it. a batt rep.

Summary: i have no idea how this army will actually perform. Most people castled and threw Pit at me w 6 dice or purple sun (too far)

More testing to be done. Might need to spend a turn castled shooting to force them to me (w final transmo) and then jump out.

16

Bloodbeard:

Glad you played the Khalida list with their own game - it’s such a boring army to play. So topnotch they got blasted to dust like a Taur’ruk stomping a sandcastle!

And everytime a single dude pulls that fried chicken from the sky and plucks his wings is great!

Thanks for the quick up date. Nice reading. A single photo of deployment from each game would be nice - the text would be much easier to follow.

17

Yodrin:

I have playtested 2x30 IG myself, and it has worked out ok. 3x10 IG with GW and stubborn BSB is awesome, but without a Castellan their not. I will try to add one more castellan and go 5x30 with HW & S on that second unit. Btw, my prophet is on a BT atm:)

18

Glimpse the Void:

I was really interested in your post because I’ve had the same feelings since the Tamurkhan book first dropped. Back when the Kdaii was the Colossus it was one of the things that originally attracted me to chaos dwarves but I wouldn’t play it, the chalice, or the lore of Hashut for the reasons you’ve mentioned.

What I have been struggling with is a list very similar to yours except that I rock a Skullcracker instead of renders and do Mortars over the Rockets. Reading this really makes me want to try running two rocket launchers instead. Have you had many games with them? Do you feel pretty satisfied with them? I really wouldn’t mind using those points for more re-directors. One of my biggest problems has been when stuff gets through my lines and gets to charge me from the side or take out my artillery to soon. I also want to try the Khan. Do you run them with the wolf riders or by themselves? I really am not quite sure how to begin getting my head around how you make them dance that dance.

19

whitespyre:

What formation were you running the blocks?

20

Blackspine:

I’ve been running the IG in two horde formations.

I’ve been very happy with the DS rockets…well except the game they both misfired and blew up turn 1. Some luck, eh?

They are kinda-cannons (sounds close to K’daai cannons) on high T things and large bases. They work VERy well.

with the growing influx of Dark elves, their monsters and Dragon lords/ lesser extent manticores and High elves the DSR has a new place. T3 suffers horribly under these. All you need is one to destroy a horde of witches.

I’ve found that with 2 stubborn blocks that you can get charged up the wazzoo and as long as you’re stubborn, lore of metal and stubborn will help you grind through.

I’m trying out now DROPPING the GW’s and pick up the razor banner. More durability, less damage to higher T but -2 to armor and oddly cheaper. This is just theory.

the list lacks hard hammers, but lore of metal and 2 rockets whittle down most.