Old Grognard’s delima - Square or Round?

Chaos Dwarf Discussion
1

Old Grognard’s delima
-Or-
Why can’t Erik be happy with his little toy soldiers?

I’ve decided that I want to start doing something with all the Chaos Dwarf models that I’ve been collecting for the last decade or so. Sadly, I frequently paint at a glacial pace, but as getting new miniatures simply requires a fool with money, I’ve been joined by many of my little 28mm friends (minus the r).

So, what to do with them all? “Paint them!” is the obvious answer, but that also includes getting them based up, and I think that is the crux of what I can’t figure out.

You see, I’ve been doing this Warhammer Fantasy Battles thing a long time. A LONG TIME. I was only a fool back in the ‘90’s so I never got much in the way of Chaos Dwarfs back when I was busy selling them (I sold a lot of them). And one of the reasons I passed them over back then was I didn’t really like the way they based up. Too many angled models on too small bases to line up and make nice looking units (like all my lizardmen did (and most of my beastmen)). Why must all dwarfs be tied to 20mm bases? Sometimes a 25mm is better! So I passed, but I always liked the look of the models themselves.

Now, there was this book that came out before “The End Times”, Tamurkahn, and it is one of the finest books ever done for WFB, if not the finest. Made me say f-it, and start buying lots of very expensive resin models. But ForgeWorld being the fickle master that it is, never really did everything needed for the army (but did a lot, and boy is it nice). They did make me realize that I could re-live the mis-spent days of my youff and start collecting what Chaos Dwarfs I could.
End Times came however, and while they are also some of the best books for WFB, they leave me feeling like a mis-carriage happened in the third trimester. There’s some great stuff there, but it was only “in play” for a few months before Sage of Igmar happened. I think it was a great bookmark for WFB to go out on, but for me it stops there. Round bases are for 40K and Blood Bowl.

Now however, that the itch of Hashut has gotten back under my skin, I’m coming back around to them. But what to do about the bases? My first thought was just to base them up on slightly larger bases (25mm square) to solve the ranking and 45 degree model syndrome, but it doesn’t seem like the elegant solution. However, looking for inspiration a lot of people out there have been taking these old minis and basing them up for the Sage of Igmar, and you know, they don’t look so bad. It seems to me that almost all of the old models basing issues just vanish when on rounds. And, as I’m only interested in WFB, I can still use them just fine by using the War of the Ring unit bases for tabletop games to maintain my silly preconceived notions about how units must look.

What’s a old grognard to do?
Bronzemeister

1 Like
2

I would base them on rounds, as you said you can use the WotR based for both WFB, KoW or whatever you might prefer in the future. Plus beeing on rounds looks alot better IMO. :slight_smile:

3

The first question is, do you want to play WHF? If so, should the CDs also be played as CDs, or as Chaos Warriors? Or do you want to play something completely different, like SAGA or Kings of War by Mantic (I think the diorama bases are cool!)?

Per se I think the movement trays with the cutouts (like LoR) are not optimal for playing WHF or 9th Age - ad hoc I’m not sure how the measurements fit.

I myself use (except for the models I use for SAGA) only the regular 20 mm bases. If you combine the units with enough fancy unit fillers such a unit looks nice!

4

If you plan to play the next edition of wahammer fantasy due in a year or so id be putting them on 20mm square bases. You could always create regiment bases to put slightly less in ( feels like cheating to me). I hate the round bases and hate everything age of sigmar is. It ruinned the game ive been playing for over 25yrs so im totally biased.
The thing im getting to is that the 20mm squares could fit into most other base sizes so it keeps your options open. As zanko says, use fillers to make it work if you have to.

1 Like
5

I feel your pain. I’ve been hemming and hawing between 20 and 25mm bases. I’d like the option to do some oldhammer, but it’s a TIGHT base, and ranking up can be a serious PITA.

1 Like
6

To me square bases are the answer. A Dwarf shield wall doesn’t look right if the shields aren’t practically touching, and you can’t do that with round bases. Heavy cavalry can’t ride bootstrap to bootstrap on oval bases, it just won’t look right. You also cannot rank up regiments for movement trays with round bases, they won’t have the old school look which I appreciate and love. Now, 20mm bases make for a really tight fit on some models, and I’ve found I’ve had to use 25mm bases on some of GW’s newer models, because even dwarves have gotten larger over the years (give me the old Bob Olly sculpts any day of the week, thank you), and Kharadron Overlords just don’t look right next to my beloved old metal dwarfs. When I gamed at my FLGS (pre-COVID), I used to get a bit of ribbing for not having switched to round and oval bases, but I know that eventually squares will be in vogue once more.

4 Likes