Hello again everyone and welcome to the third Issue of the Word of Hashut, the official webzine of Chaos Dwarfs Online. We hope you enjoy this issue and are as pleased as we are with the results. We are not stopping with this webzine and its as it should be: the Dawi-Zharr never surrender! So take a moment and download, look it over and tell us what you think.
First of all I want to say thanks, to you, the community for being patient. We missed the deadline by a few days and it was my intention to get the PDF posted last night, but alas as things often do, it got delayed a bit due to some technical issues. I dislike missing deadlines, so we will attempt to make sure that we hit it next time for Issue #4, (end of March)
Next up I want to thank the entire Staff of the Word of Hashut; behind the scenes this issue faced a number of seemingly insurmountable challenges. This is no joke, the amount of things that went wrong was like some sort of Greek tragedy. So congrats are in order to the entire group: Cornixt, Sojourn, Xander, Viskar, and Servius. Also congrats are especially in order for Servius and Viskar for earning their WoH medal. In short, thanks guys I couldn’t have done it without you.
Now onto the webzine itself. Its packed, as you’ll notice by the file size, like last time there are two you can download: the full file which is suitable for printing or the low-rez one for purely viewing online. Don’t attempt to print the low-rez one, it will look really bad… See the links below for the low-rez version.
Also if you like this one… you haven’t seen anything yet. Issue #4 is shaping up to be a monster of an issue as we are already getting content in, as is Issue #5. Both are in their early planning stages, so there is plenty of time to get an entry in, either contact Servius or myself. In other words, hold onto your hat, there is even more to come and its only getting better.
NOTE: For those with lower speed internet connections you can access a low res (its around 6.5 megs) version here (caution it will look terrible if you print it from this file) http://www.mediafire.com/file/kojkdhqtdgz/wohissue3lr.pdf
This issue is jam packed with stuff and was a great read, even from an editing standpoint. Good work to all those involved and of course our fearless leader, Willmark :cheers
as always, our standard of quality is increasing and the product we’re pumping out is impressive!
Great work, everyone. I especially like the cover - it’s cool that we have a few different art styles going on. Also, the illustration for Zhatan was incredibly awesome. I don’t know if it was done specially, but it fit everything I’d written about him perfectly. My one minor (very minor, I promise) quibble is that, in the battle report, I’m occasionally referred to as “Tommy H” - yes, the additional ‘h’ may be a pointless affectation, but it’s my pointless affectation, damnit
Overall, an even better issue than the last one. Nice to see all the members in their shirts too. For some reason I can’t quite put my finger on, I think Sojourn probably looks the best…
No worries Dude, there are a few minor things here and there so I’ll be sure to update them. It happened last time so we can easily recreate it and reload the new version with small edits, beauty of the web really.
Yeah, I think there’s a few formatting issues that replace punctuation with odd characters in the Zhatan rules too. Seriously though, I’m increasingly impressed with the quality of work that goes into this project. It’s pretty ridiculous that we have enough content to fill up a quarterly magazine of this size with an army that hasn’t had an update in nearly a decade.
With that in mind, I do think it’s a shame that the editorial tone is kind of…whiny… There’s a few articles which sort of bemoan the lack of support from GW or say stuff like “well, the rules suck but we’re doing what we can with them”. I think it does dampen what should be a pretty triumphant message. I don’t think we should be saying “oh, we’re succeeding despite GW not caring” but rather, “GW not giving us support has allowed us to forge our own path somewhat”. You see any other armies with webzines this good? I think our success is a direct result of being left to our own devices, and we should celebrate that, not mourn it.
Really you didn’t like that quote? I thought it was awesome especially the first time I saw it on Herdstone. I thought Wow, others realize just what we are going through… but at the same time others are saying keep soldiering on guys.
And what you mentioned, I am in agreement, I just chose to express it a different way. If you know me I don’t whine about anything, its soldier on and man up and that’s just what I feel we are doing!
Judging from the “What really annoys me about GW…” thread, I’d say the editorial was dead-on, and it was written weeks ago. I’d say we’re allowed to get whiney every now and then.
Great issue, the team is getting more organised each time (even if the second half of my last minute double checks were replaced by helping the mother-in-law move furniture), and the articles are getting better. The artwork and models are certainly a defining feature and they are all from forum members - without them it wouldn’t be as good.
Im glad to be a part of this project… This Issue was a Learning process for me especially…less so for the rest of the team (relating to the new Project Management Software.) Luckly I got my hard drive backup back from my friend in SoCal so I have 3 complete articles for issue 4.
No I like the quote - I just don't think the implication that we're some sort of charity case is valid. If Chaos Dwarfs did have full support from Games Workshop, we wouldn't be producing content of this quality - we wouldn't have to, because the professional quality content would already exist in the form of an Army Book and articles in White Dwarf, etc. It's because we've been left to our own devices that we're working so hard to promote our army. We wouldn't have a better webzine if there were Chaos Dwarfs in GW stores: we probably wouldn't have a webzine at all. It's "despite" vs. "because of".
A couple of the articles just read like they have an agenda, that's all. It's probably because I don't share the agenda that I even notice and, as Cornixt says, apparently the prevailing wisdom on the forum is "GW suck for not supporting Chaos Dwarfs". Since I prefer the sandbox we have to explore Chaos Dwarfs and create content like this, GW not supporting the army is not a big deal for me. I think we should be revelling in our freedom, not seeing this as some kind of jumping off point for a campaign or, worse, a way to rub GW's nose in their failure to see a market for a very niche army. This may just be a "British dignity" thing, too - I don't like anything that displays anything but a stiff upper lip :P
I don't want this to detract from what's been done here though. As I've said, this is professional quality work and I believe this to be an astonishing achievement for any community. The Word of Hashut, for me, is the crown jewel of CDO and effectively a distillation of what goes on on the forum as a whole. You see the best rules, the best fiction (if I do say so myself), the best artwork and the best models that CDO has to offer. The new issue coming out is always the highlight of my time here and I'm very proud to be a part of it. The paradox is simply that I don't think we'd have that if Chaos Dwarfs weren't the red-headed stepchild of Games Workshop. We need that obscurity to survive.
So let's be proud of what we've done, instead of bemoaning what we could be in some hypothetical world where Chaos Dwarfs have an Army Book!
Not that I wish to be too off topic here, but I disagree with Thommy H. I think if we did have an actual armybook and proper models to be working on the WoH would be 10x better.
Sure you wouldn’t have quite so much originality in concept, but the conversion potential from new stuff would be huge. That’s the benefit of where we are at the moment. If we disagree with what GW do with the CD we can always revert to our own models/ ideas and somehow work them in as count’s as. We have the benefit of being able to think outside the box without being boxed in creatively by what GW do.
I haven’t had time to read most of it yet, but I have to say I am truly honoured to have been able to contribute to this ezine. I have seen a few ezines and considering this is 100% about an army that has no support and does not ‘officially’ exist I think it’s the best one on the internet.
Let’s see some of the massive forums with existing books do better!
Not that I wish to be too off topic here, but I disagree with Thommy H. I think if we did have an actual armybook and proper models to be working on the WoH would be 10x better.
And yet no other Warhammer community has anything half as good...
Very cool rules btw
Thank you. Your picture was so cool that I had to kind of reassess my mental image of Zhatan. He's been the Avatars of War model for so long, but now I'd really like a version of your guy too.
wow !!! there is a lot of cool stuff !! Willmark and staff you out did your selves again!!
I offer you guys and sojourn some rum !!
but your probably are working on the new Issue now!!! so no rum for you!!!
Keep up the good work !! You guys and the goddess ARE THE BEST !!!!
Kera foehunter
well Kera... editing comes at the end... so in the meantime we can have some rum!
You all saw it here! Sojourn = goddess ;) thanks Kera.
Great work guys, another excellent issue, amazing artwork throughout and it’s good to hear from Felix too! Makes me want to start painting Chaos Dwarfs again, can’t wait!!
Click here to download The Word of Hashut No.3!