Okay, question time. I’ve been jotting down some rough idea’s for a homebrew Chaos Dwarf army book, and it’s come to my attention that for both fluff and points costing, it could be uite important to know whether there are more CD’s than normal Dwarfs, or vice versa?
We all know that there are relatively few Dawi of either kind reminding (thats why we use hobgoblins ;P!), but as stated it could be useful for balance issues to determine which side would feasibly have more access to ‘regular’ Dwarves.
Normal Dwarfs outnumber Chaos Dwarfs 50:1 at least.
The reason one can be quite certain of this is that the Chaos Dwarfs, presuming the normal fluff remains true, were a relatively small clan of Dwarfs to begin with-- and the process that led them towards aligning with Chaos under Hashut was a very horrifying and soul-shattering series of events that wiped out nearly all the Dwarfs of the clan that became Chaos Dwarfs.
Meanwhile the normal Dwarfs haven’t suffered any major catastrophes, most of the stuff that set back Dwarfs as a race in general happened well before the Chaos Dwarfs existed.
However, I am excluding here the number of Dwarfs that might have been corrupted and become chaotic since the servants of Hashut became chaotic. I am sure there are a fair number of those, perhaps even as many as there are servants of Hashut.
It is also important to note that the Chaos Dwarfs have immeasurable advantages against normal Dwarfs despite being outnumbered in such a way. First, there is obviously the Chaos Dwarf ability to use magic rather than insisting on canceling it out. While this comes with many drawbacks, it is still an advantage. However, far more importantly perhaps there is the issue that Chaos Dwarfs have found a way to live in realitive harmony with many of the deadliest, most destructive forces within the WarHammer world.
While the Dwarfs find it necessary to fight every greenskin, the entirity of the Chaos forces, every Troll, every Ogre, every Giant and so forth to the death, the Chaos Dwarfs instead lord over many of them as masters and those they cannot subdue they are quick to buy out by offering mechanical gifts which in the very least convinces that particular warboss or general to turn their attention elsewhere if not makes them an all-out ally.
So while normal Dwarfs outnumber Chaos Dwarfs so greatly that it seems silly to even make a comparison in terms of numbers, the Chaos Dwarfs generally live without anywhere near the conflict, turmoil and dispair Dwarfs do amongst outside forces. However, they more than make up for it with the kind of cruelty they subject each other to ensuring their numbers will never grow very much.
I have to agree with hobgoblyn. But also if you want your rules to be balanced you should not allocate points by how rare they are in the warhammer world.
If they happened to be unusually strong etc (for dwarf like creatures) then you could take that into account.
Fluff states dwarfs ar way more than Chaos Dwarfs. I found on the battle field that “regular” dwarfs outnumber my chaos dwarfs… but my slaves outnumber everything else!
