Hey all,
For the past 1-2 years, I’ve been working on building a Chaos Dwarf army. Obviously theyre not in AoS (yet…), but i love their aesthetic and the lore behind them. So my main issue was how do i play them? Which models do i use? How do I justify it and cause the least amount of issues with my opponents while proxying? I believe my madness and obsession has provided me a fun and functioning way to play them and i would like to share that with everyone and perhaps get some feedback.
So step 1 was finding out which army would best express the themes and tactics that a Chaos Dwarf army would employ in AoS. First thought was to try and force Blades of Khorne to work, but in all honesty, i think they move too quickly and lack the firepower many Chorf armies would employ. Thought about Fireslayers, but they lacked the unit variety to make fun and thematic lists. Finally, i landed on Cities of Sigmar, which shouldve been an obvious first choice that i completely overlooked. They had the unit diversity and tactics that made the most sense.
Step 2 was figuring out what units i could use and how i would proxy them. I came up with this little equation in my head that basically determined what i could and couldnt use. Dwarves are Dwarfs, Orks are Humans, and Goblins are Elves. As long as i followed this rule i figured that i wouldnt have any issues, which was mostly true.
Step 3 was finding the models i could use to represent what i wanted:
Chaos Dwarfs were first since it was the whole point of me doing this in the first place. They were pretty tricky at first since i didnt feel that GW dwarves felt right for the aesthetic. However, Mantic’s Abyssal Dwarves were easy to get, cheap to obtain a massive amount of, and fit the look i was going for. Snagged a few boxes of their Blacksouls kit and was able to make them into Ironbreakers without any real conversion needed. Made a few units of Irondrakes as well with what was left and bits from my bits box. My Warden King was heavily kitbashed into being a big, menacing threat. Abyssal Dwarf bits, Kruleboyz bits, and The Doom Lords Bloodbowl team bits all gave the original model a much scarier and chaos fueled look. Mantic also had some Dwarf Sorcerers that i picked up and will be using as Runelords without any real conversion or kitbashing. The easiest, by far, proxy i used was for Gotrek. Iron Golem chaos dwarf model carries twin axes and can easily be used as a stand-in for the legendary slayer.
Moving onto the human portion of CoS, GW’s new Kruleboyz line inspired me to use Flagellents in my future armies. The Hobgrot Slittas were an easy kit to fill in that role and gave me several bits to use for other units. Heroes were trickier to think about though. I kitbashed one of the gladiators from the Iron Golems Warcy team into an ork for a Freeguild Marshall with Relic Envoy (relic envoy is a 3d printed brazier that scuttles around the battlefield). Pontifex Zenestra felt like a necessity since i had plans of using Flagellents, so more Slittas and a 3d print of a Winged Bull statue that they carry into battle made the most sense to me. I found a box of the Horns of Hashut kit and am thinking about doing a bit of kitbashing and using them as Steel Helms, but may change my mind on that. May do some more intensive conversion work and turn them into Battlemages or Alchemite Warforgers. Lastly for my humans, i grabbed a 3d print of a chaos dwarf themed missile battery manned by two scrawny orks that resembled the hobgrots and will be using that as the Ironweld Canon.
Finally, we have the Elves. In truth, ive spent the least amount of time on these units in terms of building, painting, and thought. The elf units in CoS never really grabbed my attention like the dwarf and human models did. The only unit i wanted to use was the Dark Riders and this wasnt because i wanted their warscroll in my army, but becasue I wanted to use the newer Snarlfang riders as something and the Dark Riders were the only thing i could justify in my mind. Then, as if the gods above heard my despair, the Gitmob box is revealed and now i have reasons to include more “elves” in my army. My heart soared and i immediately picked up the box and a few kits over the past few months to not only start a new army, but to increase the options for my Chorfs. So the Sunsteala Wheelas will be used as Elf Chariots, Snarlpack Cavalry will be used as Drakespawn Knights, and I’m not sure what I’ll use Droggz as, but he’s too cool not to use as something. I also grabbed the ambush starter set for Goblins from Mantic since you get 40 goblins and some warmachines for fairly cheap. Probably use them as darkshards and dreadspears/bleakswords?
Anyway, thanks for listening to my ramblings about my madness and obsession. If you have recommendations on what more i could use or questions on choices made, id be happy to listen and answer accordingly.
Thanks!