[TOW] My 2000pt Chaos Dwarf Army, new to the game, requesting feedback

ToveriPunainen · 9 June 2025 21:07

Hello, I’ve been lurking here for a while and my army project has reached a point of which I think I require some outside help. This is not my first miniature army but first fantasy one and I have poured a lot of hours and money into it already. I’m not looking anything competitive, just something functional and fun to play against/with. So here is my current best draft so far, some feedback would be quite welcome

Sorcerer-Prophet, Level 4 Wizard, General, Lammasu [Mace tail + Sorcerous Exhalation], Mantle of Stone, Talisman of Protection, Daemonology - 405

Hobgoblin Khan, Light armour, Shield, Shortbow (replaces throwing weapons), Giant Wolf - 62

12 Infernal Guard, Shield, Musician - 150

10 Infernal Guard, Fireglaives, Drilled, Standard bearer [Ashen Banner] - 196

5 Infernal Guard, Hailshot blunderbuss, Detachment - 80

30 Hobgoblin Cutthroats, Boss (champion), Musician - 102

6 Bull Centaur Renders, Shield, Standard bearer, Musician - 366

18 Infernal Ironsworn, Halberds, Standard bearer [The Lammasu’s Beard], Musician - 439

Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower - 45
Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower - 45

8 Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, Shortbow, Musician - 110

Idea is to have both flanks advance fast, with bullcentaurs and wolf riders rushing on other side while warriors with axes and fireglaives march on other. Ironsworn should hold the middle with hobgob archers and ballistas giving supporting fire. Sorcerer-prophets main function is to harass warmachines and dispel, unless it rolls good spells to spam buffs for allies.

What do you think? I’d like to think I finally got it before I start buying more models, bases and movement trays. I’ll be using mostly fabelzels amazing digital sculpts.

Thanks!

Valkuk · 9 June 2025 21:25

Well met and welcome to Zharr Naggrund!

For casual play anything works just fine in chaos dwarfs.

My two cents, though would be to consolidate some of the infernal guard units.
A 5 man detachment for example won’t really contribute much since the foe can just charge the detachment instead of the regiment and then wipe them all in one go and overrun past your frontline.

So I would maybe do either a big unit of sword and board guard or one with fireglaives and then maybe a 10 detachment to go along with them. If you give them shields they will always get to do a give ground as long as one model survives thanks to the stubborn + shieldwall combo, which allows the regiment to go into their flank, potentially.

Also maybe split the bull centaurs up into two 3-man units instead? My experience is that points spent for expensive dudes in the back who never get to swing or give impact hits are just points wasted.
And that way you could have one unit to threaten each flank.

ToveriPunainen · 9 June 2025 21:42

Oh wow, that was fast reply, nice, thanks!

Ah, I see your point about 5 man detachment. My initial idea for them was to hold flank and give stand and shoot charge reaction for support to my Ironsworns. Do they really buckle that easily if charged? I think I read somewhere that detachment cannot be more than half the size of the regimental unit its attached to.

My bullcentaurs are placed in single rank, is that foolish? I really like them, only models I have painted for this army already Wolf riders are there to charge the enemy rank if needed.

Oh, my most likely opponents will be regular dwarves and khemri, is that going to be a problem?

ToveriPunainen · 11 June 2025 16:52

I gave your comment a lot of thought and decided to completely drop the warrior squad and go for the blunderbusses. Sadly now I cannot fit detachment for my Ironsworn. How does this look now?

++ Characters [460 pts] ++
Sorcerer-Prophet [415 pts]
(Darkforged weapon, Heavy armour, Level 4 Wizard, General, Lammasu [Mace tail + Sorcerous Exhalation], Mantle of Stone, Talisman of Protection, Daemonology)

Hobgoblin Khan [45 pts]
(Hand weapon, Throwing weapons, On foot)

++ Core Units [528 pts] ++
10 Infernal Guard [196 pts]
(Fireglaives, Heavy armour, Drilled, Standard bearer [Ashen Banner])

12 Infernal Guard [240 pts]
(Hailshot blunderbuss, Heavy armour, Drilled, Standard bearer [Ashen Banner])

29 Hobgoblin Cutthroats [92 pts]
(Hand weapons, Shortbows, Musician)

++ Special Units [902 pts] ++
6 Bull Centaur Renders [366 pts]
(Hand weapons, Shield, Light armour, Standard bearer, Musician)

18 Infernal Ironsworn [446 pts]
(Halberds, Full plate armour, Overseer (champion), Standard bearer [The Lammasu’s Beard], Musician)

Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower [45 pts]
(Bolt thrower, Hand weapons, Light armour)

++ Rare Units [110 pts] ++
8 Hobgoblin Wolf Riders [110 pts]
(Hand weapons, Cavalry spears, Light armour, Shields, Shortbow, Musician)

Valkuk · 11 June 2025 22:05

Yes, 5 man units, especially without shields will die to a stiff breeze. The main problem you as a general need to solve with detachments is that there needs to be a reason for the opponent to not just mow through the detachment and avoid the regiment. Maybe something scary behind it, like an iron daemon for example. Which obviously also can shoot over it.

Ah, fair enough. I think I would still split them up into 3-man units though. They won’t get impact hits unless they are in base contact with an enemy model and their regular output is absolute trash with 2 s4 attacks. Besides, terrain will be a bitch to navigate if you are super wide.

3 dudes will always get their impact hits, unless you charge like a single tiny guy, in which case it probably won’t matter.
And yes, I agree on bull centaur being the absolute coolest unit. I do think they are a bit janky to use sometimes though. I feel they should have gotten counter charge or furious charge or something to just ensure they actually mess up whatever they decide to go after.

I’ve actually never faced either of those opponents. I do have an old dwarf army, don’t really play it that much.

Tomb kings have a very scary poison shooting list which can mess up some of our high T stuff, watch out for that.

Dwarfs shouldn’t be a problem imo. Chaos dwarfs can more or less do anything they can do + cast spells and have an actual mobile element too. Just don’t go into any deathstars willy nilly and you should be fine.

That list already looks more optimized.
Again, unless you aren’t playing at a tournament it really will be fine either way

ToveriPunainen · 11 June 2025 22:21

Oh, Impact Hits, right, those are real haymakers huh. Oh man, I’ve already painted Musician and Bannerbearer, should I scrap those and just go with two regular 3 man squads? I kinda estimated 6 bullcentaurs to overrun pretty much anything I need to, with wolves getting backstabs from flank.

Main reason for me sweating over the list is that I’m using lavabases I bought from ebay seller. They need to be arranged in proper order to look good on their movement trays. And my opponents will be very tough players, who know the game and absolutely will throw some hard stuff at me, even if its a casual game.

Wait, Iron Daemon can shoot over units? Well then

ToveriPunainen · 19 June 2025 10:19

Well then, after a lot of pondering this is what I’ve settled for:

Chaos Dwarfs [1999 pts]

Sorcerer-Prophet, Darkforged weapon, Level 4 Wizard, General, Lammasu [Mace tail + Sorcerous Exhalation], Mantle of Stone, Talisman of Protection, Daemonology - 415

Hobgoblin Khan, Light armour, Shortbow (replaces throwing weapons) - 50

10 Infernal Guard, Fireglaives, Drilled, Standard bearer [Ashen Banner] - 196

12 Infernal Guard, Hailshot blunderbuss, Drilled, Standard bearer [Ashen Banner] - 240

29 Hobgoblin Cutthroats, Shortbows, Musician - 92

3 Bull Centaur Renders, Shield - 177
3 Bull Centaur Renders, Shield - 177

18 Infernal Ironsworn, Halberds, Standard bearer [The Lammasu’s Beard], Musician - 439

Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower - 45
Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower - 45

9 Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, Shortbow, Musician - 123

My ultimate goal is to make 2500 points army, with one more Infernal Guard unit with just hand weapons and shields, two death shrieker rocket launchers and some minor equipment upgrades. What do you think? I’ll post pictures when I get them painted, this turned out to be quite a hobby project but I’m glad I took this route even if it takes a lot of effort (and money)

ToveriPunainen · 28 June 2025 20:29

I messed up real bad. I have based my bullcentaurs on wrong sized bases. I noticed it after contemplating about the comment about the impact hits and wondered why its such a big issue.

So, yeah.

I already ordered new bullcentaurs and bases since I couldn’t bring myself to strip and rebase my already painted bullcentaurs.

I took this as a new opportunity to revise my list and after reading some threads here I took another look at Sneaky Gits which I decided to include to my list. So this is what I’ve come up now, if you have some kind of insight to give, please, be welcome to comment. I really enjoy this community and the wealth of information it has.

Edit: I just can’t seem to be able to help myself, I noticed yet another mistake regarding sizes of detachments. After watching couple videos where some very profilic chaos dwarf player showed his army and list I aped some very good points from him like the meteoric armour. This is very frustrating, going back to the drawing board constantly but its better this way instead of making the same mistake with all these units like I did with my bullcentaurs. Hopefully someone here learns from my mistakes.

Edit 2: Well then, finally, I fixed the flaws and errors and I really like this now! I’m confident enough now to start assembling models and painting bases and movement trays. I still need to buy bases and trays for my new bullcentaurs but everything else I got ready to build and paint.

Forgot to mention that I plan to get Sneaky Gits and Deathshrieker which swap for one unit of Bullcentaurs if needed.

++ Characters [487 pts] ++
Sorcerer-Prophet [425 pts]
(Hand weapon, Level 4 Wizard, General, Lammasu [Mace tail + Sorcerous Exhalation], Mantle of Stone, Talisman of Protection, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Daemonology)

Hobgoblin Khan [62 pts]
(Hand weapon, Throwing weapons, Light armour, Shield, Shortbow (replaces throwing weapons), Giant Wolf)

++ Core Units [502 pts] ++
8 Infernal Guard [136 pts]
(Fireglaives, Heavy armour, Shield, Drilled, Detachment)

12 Infernal Guard [252 pts]
(Hailshot blunderbuss, Heavy armour, Shield, Drilled, Standard bearer [Ashen Banner])

15 Hobgoblin Cutthroats [57 pts]
(Hand weapons, Shortbows, Boss (champion), Musician)

++ Special Units [907 pts] ++
3 Bull Centaur Renders [180 pts]
(Hand weapons, Great weapons, Light armour)

3 Bull Centaur Renders [180 pts]
(Hand weapons, Great weapons, Light armour)

18 Infernal Ironsworn [457 pts]
(Halberds, Full plate armour, Shield, Standard bearer [The Lammasu’s Beard], Musician)

Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower [45 pts]

++ Rare Units [104 pts] ++
8 Hobgoblin Wolf Riders [104 pts]
(Hand weapons, Light armour, Shields, Shortbow)

ToveriPunainen · 8 July 2025 16:05

Here’s a little WIP pic of what I’m working at, this shows three different stages the bases are at currently. Off course they need a LOT of work beyond whats shown here but I do not have any ready yet. Quite a workload but I like them

ToveriPunainen · 10 July 2025 16:41

It’s really rewarding when projects like this hit that sweet spot where everything stops looking like goblins ass and cheerleader effect kicks in. I’m still far away from completion but uniformity makes everything look so much better. Of course this isn’t nearly all bases but I’m slowly grinding towards there.

Yeah and after these I still got all the models to paint

ToveriPunainen · 16 July 2025 09:55

I churned out bases for my hobgoblins last night, they still need washes and tufts, along with some cleaning up but these turned out quite nice. I posted these to my gaming group and one guy asked have I been baking, they kinda do look like some kind of cookies

Jackswift · 16 July 2025 20:09

Good start. The bases look great so far!

ToveriPunainen · 19 July 2025 08:14

Yeah, I should’ve know this but I noticed yet another mistake, again with the detachments. I’m so fed up with them that I just scrapped the idea since I just can’t seem to be able to make it work. This time it was about the distance models can move within unit and with Move 3 that rounds to 2 inches. Fireglaives just cannot form fast line without using two redresses. But silverlining here is that I can just go all in with blunderbusses which I like so much more.

++ Characters [487 pts] ++
Sorcerer-Prophet [425 pts]
(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Level 4 Wizard, General, Lammasu [Mace tail + Sorcerous Exhalation], Mantle of Stone, Talisman of Protection, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Daemonology)