Baraz Gorechain:
Hello!
As mentioned in my introduction, I use the regular cannon dwarf list, and have simply been converting my miniatures. This has the benefit of ease, for though I don’t game often I can just whip up a quick list without worrying about people calling foul on my sources. However, it does have a few problems and I was hoping you creative folk might be able to help me.
-Magic! The Dawi Zharr are very much about Magic, in my mind. It’s one of the things that set them apart from their brethren in the Old World. My problem is that Runesmiths are no wizards. So far I only have two ideas: The Anvil of Doom, for as seen here the idea of a shrine or sacrificial ritual would be a find stand-in and the effects act sort of like magic spells, in theory. The other option is, using the rules for the Gyrocopter, model a flying mage of some sort who spits/shoots fire. Not as good, because at least the AoD would look fairly similar. Your thoughts?
-Slaves! The Dwarf army is made of good solid infantry. Their worst isn’t at all bad. These don’t really say ‘slaves’ to me. So far I’ve been making my warmachine crew consist of one dwarf(helcannon crew) and some hobgoblins, which does a bit but I’d like to do more. Someone suggested Slayers, but I don’t know. Your thoughts?
-Miners! I’ve been considering them. It’ll be a while till I get to work on the possibility, but I like to have a plan. Could these be my slaves? Perhaps, since it would suit a CD to have someone else do his labour. Still, their not bad infantry and I have a problem with the idea of arming my slaves. That’s why I’m using this list, instead of Ravening Hordes. Besides not liking the blunderbuss rules, I don’t like the idea of relying on armed and armoured Orcs. For labour, sure, but for fighting? Especially against other greenskins? Oh heavens no. Your thoughts?
-Ironbreakers! I’ve got a unit of them, and I’m quite a fan of the models but the beards are certainly not matching my army. Is there a way to get around them creatively? Is there a good way to cut them off? I was also considering modeling them like smoke/fire, as if they were wee inferno golems, or dwarfs that were ritually bound within their armour for life, and painting them accordingly. This idea is growing on me. Your thoughts?
Bull Centaurs! Yeah, no idea. Using them as Dragon Ogre Dogs of War? I’ve got one made, considering using him as a Lord on Shieldbearers (his arse end would be a unit filler counting as two dwarfs because he’s on a Kroxigor size base). This is a tough one, and I think they’re important. Maybe as the two bodyguard for the possible anvil of doom? I think I’ve seen that here, looked sharp. Your thoughts?
Ideas welcome!
Hashut’s Blessing:
Most of these are best solved with allies, but having a wizard in a Dwarf army negates the Dwarf +2 Dispel. You could have them be defensive wizards or use runes to represent their magic or runes being called daemon-bindings. Have them be daemon-binders or use the flying hammer rune on them etc.
Slaves: You could avoid having battle-slaves altogether or only allow Chaos Dwarf slaves (such as indebted ones and such like) to form a berserker clan, represented by slayer rules.
Miners: Some Chaos Dwarfs do mine, so no problems there, but big hats would be a no.
Ironbreakers: Use them as heavy Chaos Dwarf infantry - Hellguard, Infernal Guard, Granite Guard (what I came up with for Rykarth’s personal unit of Immortals), Immortals, Ironeaters, Ironbreakers or whatever. I quite like the idea of a lava-souled suit of armour, so that could be a unique way of going about it. With the beards, paint them as smoke if you go that route or scrape off what you can and then use the tutorials on the website to sculpt a new beard.
Bull Centaurs - allied Empire Knights? Or sparingly as unit fillers as you’ve said, and guards for the AoD and as Lords with Shieldbearers.
Thommy H:
You may just have to accept that you’re not going to be able to represent everything from the Chaos Dwarf army using the Dwarf list. If they could field similar units, they wouldn’t be different armies. The best thing to do is probably to work backwards, and think of how the rules each of the Dwarf units could be made to fit into the Chaos Dwarf background - like the berserker slaves for Slayers that HB suggested.
Baggronor:
-Magic! The Dawi Zharr are very much about Magic, in my mind. It's one of the things that set them apart from their brethren in the Old World. My problem is that Runesmiths are no wizards. So far I only have two ideas: The Anvil of Doom, for as seen here the idea of a shrine or sacrificial ritual would be a find stand-in and the effects act sort of like magic spells, in theory. The other option is, using the rules for the Gyrocopter, model a flying mage of some sort who spits/shoots fire. Not as good, because at least the AoD would look fairly similar. Your thoughts?
I use the Anvil of Doom. Its not far from magic, it generates dispelling power, suits me fine. For the Gyrocopter, you could do it as CD sorcerer on a floating throne of obsidian or some such, or maybe a young Taurus or a Sheddu/Lammasu? Or just a CD gunship :cheers
-Slaves! The Dwarf army is made of good solid infantry. Their worst isn't at all bad. These don't really say 'slaves' to me. So far I've been making my warmachine crew consist of one dwarf(helcannon crew) and some hobgoblins, which does a bit but I'd like to do more. Someone suggested Slayers, but I don't know. Your thoughts?
Slayers could work as slaves, either Dwarf slaves or chained (to explain the M3) Orcs/Black Orcs. I used possessed CDs as my Slayers, plastic Dwarfs with the 40k possessed sprues. Or maybe cyborgs, CDs in mechanical suits like Astragoth?
-Miners! I've been considering them. It'll be a while till I get to work on the possibility, but I like to have a plan. Could these be my slaves? Perhaps, since it would suit a CD to have someone else do his labour. Still, their not bad infantry and I have a problem with the idea of arming my slaves. That's why I'm using this list, instead of Ravening Hordes. Besides not liking the blunderbuss rules, I don't like the idea of relying on armed and armoured Orcs. For labour, sure, but for fighting? Especially against other greenskins? Oh heavens no. Your thoughts?
I see no reason why CDs wouldn't mine. Sure, they get the slaves to do it when digging for materials, but there's no way a bunch of slaves could dig fast enough to get into position for an ambush during a battle. It takes Dwarf constitution to do that :)
-Ironbreakers! I've got a unit of them, and I'm quite a fan of the models but the beards are certainly not matching my army. Is there a way to get around them creatively? Is there a good way to cut them off? I was also considering modeling them like smoke/fire, as if they were wee inferno golems, or dwarfs that were ritually bound within their armour for life, and painting them accordingly. This idea is growing on me. Your thoughts?
Immortals with hand weapon and shield. That should be obvious. You could buy the WF ones, or convert some GW Dwarfs or even buy another company's figures. Like mine ;) Hacking the beards off Ironbreakers, I wouldn't recommend. It would takes ages and probably be pretty difficult; to top it off, most people probably wouldn't even notice unless they took a close look.
Bull Centaurs - allied Empire Knights? Or sparingly as unit fillers as you've said, and guards for the AoD and as Lords with Shieldbearers.
Allies/DoW. No other real way to do it, unless you just have one or two of them as unit fillers in your infantry.
As Thommy says, don't just think about the CD troop list, think about what the Dwarf book lends to CDs. Cannons and Organ Guns are fun to Chaos-ify. A Master Engineer would make a fantastic representation for a Daemonsmith/Hellsmith. Flame Cannons are also very CD-ish imo.
Thommy H:
Hacking the beards off Ironbreakers, I wouldn't recommend. It would takes ages and probably be pretty difficult; to top it off, most people probably wouldn't even notice unless they took a close look.
Yeah, I find they work absolutely fine with no conversion whatsoever - just paint them in dark colours, and maybe give them some new shields.
Hashut’s Blessing:
I disagree that beard removal is difficult. A pair of clippers worked fine when I did it for my first use of greenstuff (as seen in my avatar).