One of the core issues with Chaos Dwarfs RH in the modern age is the lack of options compared to later lists. How can I use my classics with their crossbows? What if I want an Iron Daemon? Why would a dwarf not use some form of polearm when they are at such a reach disadvantage?
It turns out our friends-for-gold have a surprising amount of utility that can be used to field equipment not envisaged when RH was originally published. Here’s some examples ripe for converting, but please add more if you have ideas!
And many thanks to Thom Thumb and @Ihsan997 for many of these great ideas!
Polearms:
While regular DoW pikemen can be taken as a Rare choice, each of the RoR pike units can be taken as a Special in non-DoW armies. The closest example to a CD would probably be Ricco’s Republican Guard with WS 4 and Heavy Armour. The obvious idiosyncrasies are M 4, no shields, T 3, and Ld 8, but it’s nothing a little creative writing couldn’t explain!
Crossbows:
Similar to the above you can take DoW Crossbows as a Rare, but they lack armour and… are a rare choice. However, Braganza’s Beseigers can be taken as a Special and come with heavy armour! It will require some work to create the pavises, though it could be modeled in front of the unit similar to the stakes that Bretonnian archers get. The Marksment of Mirgliano are a simpler option, though are equipped with light armour instead of heavy.
Remember also that Pizarro’s Lost Legion is a rare Mixed Formation, crossbows in front and pikes behind, covering both of the above!
Artillery:
The “Kathleen” Halftank, or Halfling Steam tank makes for a wonderful Iron Daemon. It’s essentially a fear causing chariot with a dwarf flame cannon on the front, but it’s also so much more.
Bronzino’s Galloper Guns gives you some light, mobile artillery.
Other:
“Lapping around sucks, Sneaky Gits aren’t really worth it.” Vespero’s Vendetta - fear causing skirmisher unit with throwing weapons, 2 attacks, and an armour save. All for the same Special slot!
“Hell yes, OSM has boar cavalry!” Hell yes, RoR has Voland’s Venators.
“K’daii are fire.” Yeah, this one doesn’t get much unfortunately. The closes would be Ogres, either Golfag’s or generic, both taking a Rare slot. Functional if not flavorful.
“Did you know that Oglah Khan no longer shoots his allies in the back in 6th?” Yeah but you already have hobgoblin wolf riders as core.
The other point to note is that RoRs come with a minor character. There is some excellent opportunities for new models and conversions there, however you do pay a premium for them in points. Additionally, RoR can’t be taken repeatedly so you are limited to a single unit of that weapon choice without branching into DoW or alternative RoR entries.
DoW/RoR info taken from the 2002 Warhammer Annual and wherever the hell the Kathleen Halftank came from .
I like this. Coming up with unique CD replacements for the RoR including characters sounds like a fun contest theme.
For crossbows: you could also take dwarfs and equip them with crossbows and heavy armour. You have to live with a hatred for orcs and goblins special rule though. Forgot that chaos dwarfs cannot enlist dwarfs.
Pikes would be indeed quite flavourful for more historically inspired CDs. Slingers could be proxied by duellists with throwing knives or pistols. I would also love to have chariots but that seems a bit tough, at least if you want to have chariot rules.
Another reason why I’m so excited for the @oldschoolminis Kickstarter.
Thanks for getting this started, man. I’ve thought of a number of thematic and flavorful answers…I’m not a person to ask about statistics, rules, or balance, but I quite enjoy the thematic side of things.
Foremost on my mind is T3 for many of the units. I got to thinking about possibilities for imagining the balance (and thematics are all about imagining):
A T3 model could have heavy armor, but the model appears in medium armor, so numbers balance out;
A T3 model could be a beardling in his first battle;
A T3 model could be descended from outside the Darklands/the Abyss/wherever, being either an outcast from other tribes, a serf who suffered some disgrace, or even an enslaved Dawi from the despised western cousins.
Do any of the above seem plausible purely in an aesthetics and lore sense?
I would just ignore the bit that says that CDs can’t take Dwarf units and get crossbows from there. Failing that, Ruglad’s Armoured Orcs are a bit more hefty than pesky human crossbowmen.
Apparently they need to be mixed even: according to the special rule ‘mixed formation’, the first row needs to be crossbowmen while from the second row on they are pikemen.
The way described above is way more flavourful. The rulebook version just makes you turn the regiment into yet another bunch of either pikes or bows in an army that has no shortage of either.
Beardlings is great as it also gives good reason for the equipment choices. Pikes and crossbows are safer and require less skill than a great axe or blunderbuss.
Toughness as armour could work, but if you are trying to say a model has a light armor appearance but counts as T 3 heavy armour, then you need to find a lightly armored Chaos Dwarf model, which seems pretty uncommon.
I like option 3 as well. A slave unit lead by a CD master, the RoR character, is very thematic, however then you’re looking at non-CD models for the rank and file.
One alternative is the corruption of our other stunted friends, the halflings! I’m not sure the fluff reasons for not seeing Chaos Halflings, but standard Halflings have M 4. The rest of the stats are a bit of a mess, but a Chaos Warrior has a minimum of 1 point higher than a human almost across the board. It seems reasonable that a Chaos Halflings would be similar, bringing them in line with a human’s stats!
I’m converting some warp talons for my Dread Squat army. In Ravening Hordes they wouldn’t look out of place as Birdmen of Catrazza. Chorfs with jetpacks isn’t so far fetched…
I could definitely see Long Drong’s Slayer Pirates making a heel turn and join forces with their chaotic brethren. Mostly because - pirates are always fun!
Glad to see this thread revived! Both great ideas. I hadn’t considered the Birdmen before, but jetpacks could definitely work if they mesh with the rest of the army’s theme.
Long Drong’s is such an obvious choice, can’t believe I didn’t think it it before There’s at least two nautically themed CD army’s here so it’s definitely an idea that could be easily used.
Well, officially they are not for hire in a CD army (dto. Bretonnia, WE, HE, O&G). But one could conveniently overlook that rule and just call them something else, e.g. Black Shard Beard’s Steam Filibustiers or some such.
@Hashoooot Ah true. Seems likely it’s for fluff reasons rather than balance though so I can’t imagine you’d have trouble with it in a friendly game. That would disqualify it for a tournament list though.
@rollforwounds That’s what they say, but as a member of the playtesting group I can confidently say it has not been widely playtested lol. After some initial feedback the guy running it (not Tuomas) let it languish for close to a year and now he’s saying it’s in the final stages while the CD Hero is still pointed ~50% higher than he should be. Imo you can do just as well by pointing out the Tuomas playtest for 6th ed yourself.
@harvestmouse Friendly games can certainly include fan lists but you’re likely still stuck with pure RH for a tournament. It definitely lacks the flavorful options of a full army book, though Sneaky Gits do exist and you generally can’t use special characters like Astrogath in a tournament anyway. RH CDs are very much still competitive though!
There wasn’t that much wrong with the RH list IMO. My main points of contention were the wolfriders (too big a unit for proper fast cavalry) and Bull Centaurs (not properly defined as cav or infantry). If I was to make bigger changes, I’d make Orcs and Goblins units as Core-not-really-core, make the Death Rocket more interesting, and maybe rewrite blunderbusses to not be template based. Don’t be too surprised if I come up with something in the next month.
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