The Chaos Duardin Unbased Speculation Discussion

[Pizzaprez]

18 minutes ago, BarakUrbaz said:

That is literally a direct quote from the Tamurkhan book. It was from the section on generic Chaos Dwarf crewmen as opposed to the Infernal Guard (who infamously have faceless masks instead of ludicrously tall helmets), though.

Ah! Thank you for pointing that out! It's been about a year since I'd read Tamurkhan last and didn't recall that bit! Semi disappointed that it isn't a new hint at anything, but at the same time it's interesting that (despite still using the Tamurkhan list) they moved the description of Infernal Guard away from being "the Infernal Guard featured in Tamurkhan" and towards something a bit more "generic chaos dwarf" 

[BarakUrbaz]

2 minutes ago, Pizzaprez said:

Ah! Thank you for pointing that out! It's been about a year since I'd read Tamurkhan last and didn't recall that bit! Semi disappointed that it isn't a new hint at anything, but at the same time it's interesting that (despite still using the Tamurkhan list) they moved the description of Infernal Guard away from being "the Infernal Guard featured in Tamurkhan" and towards something a bit more "generic chaos dwarf" 

Yeah, they rewrote the section on the Infernal Ironsworn to refer to Zharr Naggrund instead of the Black Fortress and mentions them being the bodyguards of the Sorcerer Prophets that rule over Zhar Naggrund instead of the Sorcerer Prophets that rule over the Legion of Azgorh. 

[Pizzaprez]

40 minutes ago, BarakUrbaz said:

Yeah, they rewrote the section on the Infernal Ironsworn to refer to Zharr Naggrund instead of the Black Fortress and mentions them being the bodyguards of the Sorcerer Prophets that rule over Zhar Naggrund instead of the Sorcerer Prophets that rule over the Legion of Azgorh. 

That's why that description stood out to me; I couldn't figure out why it felt different bc I felt like it was the same description I recalled...

Cool to see them pulling back the lens a little to incorporate the whole of Chaos Dwarfs: as much as I loved the idea of Legion of Azgorh, I'm hoping we circle back to some sort of tall headgear eventually.

I don't have my copy of Tamurkhan in front of me, but I wonder if the description of bull centaurs being something "more pleasing" to Hashut isn't also straight out of that book: I felt like the detail of how Sorcerers needed to stitch them back together after being wounded was copy and pasted but some of the other stuff felt newish?

Maybe I just need to give Tamurkhan another read!

[Segersgia]

I feel the mention of Infernal Guard is a weird sort of placeholder to allow you to both use the Forgeworld Infernals, and the ancient normal Chorf warriors as the same unit, without needing to make seperate datasheets for two units who essentially work very similarly.

[DoctorPerils]

On 1/9/2024 at 4:23 AM, BarakUrbaz said:

Personal speculation about how I'd imagine a Chaos Dwarf release going, assuming about 9 kits (akin to the Lumineth release).

*Monster Kit that can be built as a Great Taurus or a Lamassu, with options for Sorcerer Prophet mount. 

*Daemonsmith hero.

*Chaos Dwarf melee hero.

*Generic Chaos Dwarf infantry.

*Chaos Dwarf gunners.

*Bull Centaurs.

*Hellcannon.

*K'daai Fireborn.

*Elite Chaos Dwarf infantry (Immortals, Infernal Guard, whatever).

So about 13 warscrolls, assuming that Horns of Hashut and Hobgrot Slittas will be able to be taken in this army. 

1. I agree some kind of gigantic bull based monster is necessary - if it could be a dual-build that would be even better, but I think the Lammasu would be the minimum weird-factor for AoS. In a comparison with Tahlia Vedra or Teclis, I think a great Taurus may be too tame.

2. Daemonsmith I think would work best with some kind of slave retinue - more of an engineer who directs his work in the midst of battle than one who does the hammering

3. Some kind of melee foot hero is probably a given. Whether a captain or berserker style remains to be seen.

4+5. I think the gunners with fireglaives/axe bayonets on blunder uses would be the basic infantry. Slow and steady, but well armoured and versatile (melee/shooting) would be a good contrast with the other duardin armies. This could perhaps be a dual-build with the big hat style and the Infernal Guard style?

6. I like Bull Centaurs conceptually, but I fear there'd be too much overlap with Kragnos, centigors + centaurian Marshal, potential Kurnothi, etc. Plus, if they're to lean into the slave/mercenary races (which they should imo), cavalry is the kind of role they could fill while setting them apart from the Duardin Zharr proper - so yeah, I actually hope for hob/grot cavalry of some kind

7. Some kind of daemon artillery seems a given, and fairly unique in the context of AoS. Prior to the CoS cannon I'd have liked it to be big enough to be a centrepiece in its own right, but now I'm not so sure?

8. K'daii, not sure they'd make the cut in their current form - perhaps if they were to become more mechanical, getting closer to the same aesthetics as the updated Hellcannon

9. For the elites, perhaps some kind of gunslingers?

[Twisted Firaun]

Anyone have any ideas for kitbashing a unit of Infernal Guard? Cause looking over the list I’m fairly certain I can kitbash just about everything else to have a decent army if I use modern destruction kits…..

[Mali]

15 hours ago, Twisted Firaun said:

Anyone have any ideas for kitbashing a unit of Infernal Guard? Cause looking over the list I’m fairly certain I can kitbash just about everything else to have a decent army if I use modern destruction kits…..

Longbeards/hammerers look the closest. They even have scalemail skirts like the infernal guard but they've smaller proportions.

[Pizzaprez]

16 hours ago, Twisted Firaun said:

Anyone have any ideas for kitbashing a unit of Infernal Guard? Cause looking over the list I’m fairly certain I can kitbash just about everything else to have a decent army if I use modern destruction kits…..

My vote would go to kitbashing Ironbreakers and Chaos Marauders

The marauder kit has twice as many shields than you'd need to convert up the box of 10 ironbreakers, and you would get all sorts of helmet-horns, banners, and weapons as well! THe marauder kit has not aged the most gracefully at a glance, but tbh everything outside of the extremely buff torsos and arms holds up today!

Just swap the shield, the weapon if you'd like, and (if you're inclined) use the horns and some greenstuff to play with their helms a bit: placing the horns over the eye holes would do a lot, as would smoothing out the eyeholes entirely and using a hobby drill to make some creepy perfectly-circular eye holes: I've seen that technique used to great effect over the years.

Changing up the ancestor helm would a lot of heavy lifting to make the figure immediately read as "chaos dwarf" instead of "dwarf with a chaos star shield" 

I feel like Longbeards would take substantially more work to look "Chaotic" instead of "fancy Order dwarf" when I compare the steps needed to something like Ironbreakers

[SunStorm]

17 hours ago, Twisted Firaun said:

Anyone have any ideas for kitbashing a unit of Infernal Guard? Cause looking over the list I’m fairly certain I can kitbash just about everything else to have a decent army if I use modern destruction kits…..

Ironbreakers are around the same height, but a little less chonky. The Hammerers\Longbeards would fit the scale mail look a little better, but I don't have any of those to compare. 

 

Can we please all pour one out for Shar'tor being punished for being AoS and not being included in the Chaos Dwarf ToW rules. 

I guess you could use him as a Bull Centaur Taur’ruk but he's quite a bit bigger and would struggle to fit on a 50x75mm base

Fingers crossed he'll get added back in with future AoS rules and get a re-release. 

 

 

[Pizzaprez]

15 minutes ago, SunStorm said:

Ironbreakers are around the same height, but a little less chonky. The Hammerers\Longbeards would fit the scale mail look a little better, but I don't have any of those to compare. 

 

Can we please all pour one out for Shar'tor being punished for being AoS and not being included in the Chaos Dwarf ToW rules. 

I guess you could use him as a Bull Centaur Taur’ruk but he's quite a bit bigger and would struggle to fit on a 50x75mm base

Fingers crossed he'll get added back in with future AoS rules and get a re-release. 

 

 

Gosh I hadn't even realized about Shar'tor: guess they really don't want to turn on the Warhammer Forge presses for Chaos Duardin. I've always liked him!

Unfortunately the Infernal Guard are the chonkiest dwarfs: I remember when they launched people had some unfavorable opinions about the size of their arms/hands. If you posed them wrong, they could easily look super weird. The closest GW dwarfs with similar shape/posture/scale were the Warhammer Forge dwarf command models iirc: everything else is going to read as a bit smaller. The Infernal Guard looked crazy next to the scale mail dwarfs of the time: they're huge!

I think the "Infernal Guard" profile in TOW is trying to straddle the older metal Chaos Dwarf Warriors who had a smaller stature and scale mail along with the heavily-plated Forgeworld Infernal Guard: since the rules are really only intended for the first edition of the game in a "get-you-by" sense, I'd personally count any "obviously chaos-worshipping dwarf" model with the right armaments as an "Infernal Guard"

You could also focus on Hobgoblins or Black Orcs for now: the Chaos Dwarfs are likely going to get Age of Sigmar plastics! As it stands now, you'd also need to find proxies for the whole train, centaurs, k'daii, and the tauruses

[wayfarer]

"8. K'daii, not sure they'd make the cut in their current form - perhaps if they were to become more mechanical, getting closer to the same aesthetics as the updated Hellcannon"

This could be the case if they went back to some ideas they tried out many years ago.

Before the Khemri first cam out Jervis J and Tuomas P attended an independent tournament and came with 2 trial armies as part of the development process. Khemri and Chaos Dwarves.

Khemri winning out. The only thing I remember about the Chaos Dwarves was a stem powered dreadnought. Which I assume morphed into the Destroyer. Update the kitbash and give it some form of daemonic possession and we are good to go. 

[Pizzaprez]

On 1/23/2024 at 12:53 PM, wayfarer said:

"8. K'daii, not sure they'd make the cut in their current form - perhaps if they were to become more mechanical, getting closer to the same aesthetics as the updated Hellcannon"

This could be the case if they went back to some ideas they tried out many years ago.

Before the Khemri first cam out Jervis J and Tuomas P attended an independent tournament and came with 2 trial armies as part of the development process. Khemri and Chaos Dwarves.

Khemri winning out. The only thing I remember about the Chaos Dwarves was a stem powered dreadnought. Which I assume morphed into the Destroyer. Update the kitbash and give it some form of daemonic possession and we are good to go. 

I'm really hoping to see "daemonic possession" as a staple of the faction, ngl. The Tamurkhan list/machines that weren't possessed by default but could be as an upgrade was just about the only thing from that book narratively that I actively disliked: steam technology is, in my head, a staple of the Empire! I didn't love that the chaos dwarfs, narratively, had a "better steam tank" as their main staple: if the main fuselage section looked like the Hellcannon and the cannons on it were demon-powered instead of having like funky cannonball buckets I would've bought it day one. Really hoping to see something unique tech-wise for them as "clean magic steampunk" is now an aesthetic firmly held by the Kharadron

[Ejecutor]

On 1/9/2024 at 9:45 PM, Asbestress said:

Is it even possible to have bigger hats than Lumineths? 😄

[Public Universal Duardin]

I don't think we'll see 1:1 any old units return, rather seeing a remixed version of them. And honestly, no matter the unit composition (although I hope they include a demon-possessed train as a centerpiece, for those trolley problems we all face) I'll be OK with it

However, if they lack big hats, I'll riot.

Edited January 25 by Public Universal Duardin

[Pizzaprez]

4 minutes ago, Public Universal Duardin said:

I don't think we'll see 1:1 any old units return, rather seeing a remixed version of them. And honestly, no matter the unit composition (although I hope they include a demon-possessed train as a centerpiece, for those trolley problems we all face) I'll be OK with it

However, if they lack big hats, I'll riot.

I'm really hoping they have the CD "archetypes" morphed into AoS equivalents: somewhere between Lumineth and Cities in the vein of "remix" Old World armies! Outside of Tauruses, Lammasus, sorcerers, and hats I'm pretty open to whatever new ideas they come up with! If they drop Bull Centaurs as a concept entirely I'll be crestfallen, though: they're a staple of the faction identity imo

I feel like Cities is looking good as a "not-empire" army and lumineth is shaping up nicely as "not-helves:" Chaos Duardin aren't competing against their Old World counterpart visually like some other factions, which leaves the door wide open for whatever they feel like doing! I'm already trying to set aside some money for a couple Hellcannons: looks like they may make a comeback! If it gets the same resin remaster treatment the bretonnia siege weapon got im way past in

[Public Universal Duardin]

1 minute ago, Pizzaprez said:

I'm really hoping they have the CD "archetypes" morphed into AoS equivalents: somewhere between Lumineth and Cities in the vein of "remix" Old World armies! Outside of Tauruses, Lammasus, sorcerers, and hats I'm pretty open to whatever new ideas they come up with! If they drop Bull Centaurs as a concept entirely I'll be crestfallen, though: they're a staple of the faction identity imo

I feel like Cities is looking good as a "not-empire" army and lumineth is shaping up nicely as "not-helves:" Chaos Duardin aren't competing against their Old World counterpart visually like some other factions, which leaves the door wide open for whatever they feel like doing! I'm already trying to set aside some money for a couple Hellcannons: looks like they may make a comeback! If it gets the same resin remaster treatment the bretonnia siege weapon got im way past in

At least lorewise, from what we know, they retain their 'industrialism gone too far' aspect. I know Nurgle already is the canonical foil to Sylvaneth, but I almost want Chaos Duardin to take that spot. Preservation of nature vs the total exploitation of nature, the proverbial Saruman tearing down Fangorn forest to get more fuel for the furnaces.

[Pizzaprez]

17 minutes ago, Public Universal Duardin said:

At least lorewise, from what we know, they retain their 'industrialism gone too far' aspect. I know Nurgle already is the canonical foil to Sylvaneth, but I almost want Chaos Duardin to take that spot. Preservation of nature vs the total exploitation of nature, the proverbial Saruman tearing down Fangorn forest to get more fuel for the furnaces.

I think the Mortal Realms are going to be really cool to explore that concept in! Literally every realm has crazy magic natural resources to exploit!

Based on their descriptions so far, I almost wonder if they aren't going to foil the Cities of Sigmar: the Cities are supposed to be diverse multicultural metropolises, with many diverse cultures/people/beliefs intermingling with one another. Sure, they all hate chaos, but its a bunch of races and factions coexisting as equals (in the best case scenario; AoS has lots of grey morality) 

The Horns of Hashut are the "people" of the Chaos Duardin cities: they're the ones who will give up their way of life in favor of the Hashut way of doing things. The "melting pot" metaphor instead of the "salad bowl," if you will. I think Chaos Duardin are going to be in a unique position in the Chaos roster: they're the Chaos faction that sets up roots. It's always been a unique part of them, even Tamurkhan mentioned how the chaos dwarfs were setting up bases and supply lines when the rest of the chaos horde wasn't bothering to

Slaves and Stormcast are direct foils: Slaves run around the realms wrecking stuff and the Stormcast run around the realms.... wrecking stuff for the good guys. The Chaos Warrior and Liberator profiles are almost identical to emphasize this, and I think it's an apt comparison

CD's also foil Order Duardin as part of their faction identity; using mounts and magic and having monstrous hybrids where Duardin tend to focus on runes and contraptions. They also reflect the Skaven, being (in Fantasy) few in number and much more skilled/proficient in their designs. Skaven focus on frankensteining stuff and weird contraptions, where Duardin work to bind daemons instead of abusing warpstone. Their daemon binding also puts them at odds with some chaos factions, since Duardin tend to abuse them.

You're also not wrong in that they would not get along with Sylvaneth: their reaping of the realms' natural resources puts them in direct opposition to the treeople as well! My wife plays Sylvaneth, and I've given my Duardin a "they like to bring in monsters to wreck the natural ecosystems they encounter, filling them with chaotic invasive species" slant

Im so stoked that the Chaos Duardin are getting into AoS instead of the Old World; they're problematic to almost every other faction in the entire game including themselves and it'll be fun to have them in a setting where they arent primarily chilling unmentioned in the Dark Lands

[BarakUrbaz]

39 minutes ago, Pizzaprez said:

Im so stoked that the Chaos Duardin are getting into AoS instead of the Old World; they're problematic to almost every other faction in the entire game including themselves and it'll be fun to have them in a setting where they arent primarily chilling unmentioned in the Dark Lands

That's the kind of thing that sucked about Chaos Dwarfs in Fantasy; they were cool, but their lore was pretty much designed to render them as irrelevant as possible. 

[Greyshadow]

I am so excited for this release. I’ve always loved the original big hat Chaos Dwarves. I wasn’t much of a fan of the Forgeworld Infernal dwarf aesthetic. I felt they didn’t have the character and charm that dwarves are known for. I really like the Iron Gholem dwarves though. I think the current creative team could do an amazing job of this faction.
 

 

[Lord Krungharr]

Since we're talkin' CHAOS Dwarves, I think Chaotic mutations would be a must have.  So the bull-centaur aspect is almost mandatory, as blessings from Hashut.  And perhaps a Possessed unit with bigger badder Chosen types would also be appropriate.  K'daai I could see much more as an Invocation....then they could have those instead of Endless Spells.

For sure gotta have the shooty troops, but standard combat troops most certainly would be there too.  I doubt we'd see hob-grots though BUT I could totall see the Horns of Hashut and Iron Golems as battleline (much as the Claws of Karanak are in Blades of Khorne, are the Cypher Lords/Jade Obelisk battleline in Tzeentch?).

I can't fathom a return of Chorfs wouldn't include at the very least a massive Cannon like the Hellcannon with maybe an alternate build as Missile Launcher of some sort.  Some other kinda warmachine, maybe even a transport?!  Winged monstrosity as a big hero for sure....and dare I say a supermonstrous K'daai Destroyer?!  Guess it really depends if they take the reins from Forgeworld and use them as a direct springboard or not.  They might as well too, FW did a great job with them, even in the army list and extra rules department for a while.

[Pizzaprez]

17 hours ago, BarakUrbaz said:

That's the kind of thing that sucked about Chaos Dwarfs in Fantasy; they were cool, but their lore was pretty much designed to render them as irrelevant as possible. 

That was one of the things I loved about them as a teen to a certain extent: they were one of the most important industrialized nations in the setting, interacting with most the other races and factions, and insulated from invasion by a semi-natural hellscape. The reality is their being so isolated and mercenary in their actions meant they never "needed" to actually show up! I remember discovering that the chaos dwarfs who ran the Hellcannon made it and come from a whole nation of similarly evil dudes. I was sold! Didn't realize they wouldn't get a plastic release until I was in my thirties, but honestly my middle school self wouldn't have believed it anyways

16 hours ago, Greyshadow said:

I am so excited for this release. I’ve always loved the original big hat Chaos Dwarves. I wasn’t much of a fan of the Forgeworld Infernal dwarf aesthetic. I felt they didn’t have the character and charm that dwarves are known for. I really like the Iron Gholem dwarves though. I think the current creative team could do an amazing job of this faction.
 

 

God me too; everything out of GW lately has been phenomenal on the fantasy end of things! I am anxiously awaiting the rumor engine that's just a big tall hat with "oh gosh what could this possibly be??"

13 hours ago, Lord Krungharr said:

Since we're talkin' CHAOS Dwarves, I think Chaotic mutations would be a must have.  So the bull-centaur aspect is almost mandatory, as blessings from Hashut.  And perhaps a Possessed unit with bigger badder Chosen types would also be appropriate.  K'daai I could see much more as an Invocation....then they could have those instead of Endless Spells.

For sure gotta have the shooty troops, but standard combat troops most certainly would be there too.  I doubt we'd see hob-grots though BUT I could totall see the Horns of Hashut and Iron Golems as battleline (much as the Claws of Karanak are in Blades of Khorne, are the Cypher Lords/Jade Obelisk battleline in Tzeentch?).

I can't fathom a return of Chorfs wouldn't include at the very least a massive Cannon like the Hellcannon with maybe an alternate build as Missile Launcher of some sort.  Some other kinda warmachine, maybe even a transport?!  Winged monstrosity as a big hero for sure....and dare I say a supermonstrous K'daai Destroyer?!  Guess it really depends if they take the reins from Forgeworld and use them as a direct springboard or not.  They might as well too, FW did a great job with them, even in the army list and extra rules department for a while.

I'm with you there; I sort of hope that, because the mortal realms are so full of magic, that Chaos Dwarf sorcerers can lose the "ah! I'm a rock now!" thing and they can mutate a bit more. Bull centaurs are one of the kits I want most, but I agree that CD mutants would be awesome! I also love the idea of a hellcannon/missile launcher dual kit: a cannon/missile dual kit and an AoS Earthshaker feel extremely possible

Regardless, I saw that The Old World has a profile for the Hellcannon so I am absolutely going to buy that and hope for the best rules-wise. I ruined the one I got growing up in a botched conversion attempt and I could never salvage it nor could I afford to get a few off eBay

Also love the idea of K'daii being an endless spell: the invocation the Fyerslayers have is very similar!!

[Public Universal Duardin]

3 hours ago, Pizzaprez said:

I'm with you there; I sort of hope that, because the mortal realms are so full of magic, that Chaos Dwarf sorcerers can lose the "ah! I'm a rock now!" thing and they can mutate a bit more.

I personally belong to the Turnastone school of thought, and the reason is twofold. Not only is it a great bit of lore showing how unnatural their dabbling with magic is to a dwarf, but it also makes them look way more unhinged (or, well, cool, but with chaos in general 'being unhinged' is tied to your coolness level). Like, these guys are so corrupted with lust of power that they are essentially killing themselves in the process. There's both a certain dark hilarity to it, and a quite somber undercurrent too. Makes me think of that viral comic about destroying the planet but making shareholders richer. That reminds me...

[Pizzaprez]

25 minutes ago, Public Universal Duardin said:

I personally belong to the Turnastone school of thought, and the reason is twofold. Not only is it a great bit of lore showing how unnatural their dabbling with magic is to a dwarf, but it also makes them look way more unhinged (or, well, cool, but with chaos in general 'being unhinged' is tied to your coolness level). Like, these guys are so corrupted with lust of power that they are essentially killing themselves in the process. There's both a certain dark hilarity to it, and a quite somber undercurrent too. Makes me think of that viral comic about destroying the planet but making shareholders richer. That reminds me...

Omg 10/10 meme, I think the stone bit will stay around tbh and you're right that it's unique/symbolic of the CD's/fun, but I think I actually dislike the notion that channeling magic is so unnatural for a dwarf/duardin that they calcify. I do like the idea that Chaos Duardin have consequences like spawndom, but I don't really like when fantasy games give strict parameters for what a race can and can't do: often times fantasy races are inspired by real life human cultures to some degree, and I'd be equally put off by the notion that Goblins or Orruks are simply incapable of building complex machinery.

I think I always interpreted the dwarfen use of runes as "channeling magic is for wimps (we're not good at it 😶) and it's way better/efficient/dwarflike to hammer power into runes." The Chaos Dwarf calcification could be anything else instead! I just am sort of against the idea that "X race simply can't do a thing" in a fantasy setting. Might be my own personal hangups, but I usually interpret "X can't do a thing" as "X traditionally doesn't excel at this thing by default, has decided it isnt for them." Leaves some grey area, and I always like the grey areas! I think I also disliked the "legend" that dwarfs were first carved from stone just being proven 100% true in the Chaos Dwarfs, and that dwarfs use runs because they cannot channel magic.

Duardin not casting spells in favor of runecrafting as a cultural preference is something I can totally get behind. Duardin could even still consider it "unnatural" because it isn't the "Duardin way" of doing things! I'd just rather it not be that their race simply can't do it, especially as the Mortal Realms are magical as hell. I don't think a slight retcon there is awful! Especially as we have the Root Kings who are Duardin primarily interested in plantshaping!

I also tend to love Chaos Dwarfs as a "capitalism is evil" faction: their lack of environmental care, their disregard for the lives of those working in their nation, their hyperfixation on weapons of horrific war (that are fueled by torture) their rampant selfish consumerism/consumption, their complete willingness to annihilate other cultures and enslave their people are all some of the worst things that nations in real life do, and it's one of the things I like most about them! They're literally mustache-twirling nightmare colonist/capitalists, and I think you're right that their way of life should have consequences for them! 

I'd hedge my bets on them still turning to stone or something, ngl! I wonder if the reasoning behind it will change at all, or if we're going to also get some lore about early-realms Duardin and how Grungi shaped them from stone! I just hope they don't circle back to "duardin literally can't/shouldn't cast spells bc they'll die:" I'd be fine if they just felt like the gift of runecrafting the ancestor gods taught them was better

[Public Universal Duardin]

22 minutes ago, Pizzaprez said:

Omg 10/10 meme, I think the stone bit will stay around tbh and you're right that it's unique/symbolic of the CD's/fun, but I think I actually dislike the notion that channeling magic is so unnatural for a dwarf/duardin that they calcify. I do like the idea that Chaos Duardin have consequences like spawndom, but I don't really like when fantasy games give strict parameters for what a race can and can't do: often times fantasy races are inspired by real life human cultures to some degree, and I'd be equally put off by the notion that Goblins or Orruks are simply incapable of building complex machinery.

I think I always interpreted the dwarfen use of runes as "channeling magic is for wimps (we're not good at it 😶) and it's way better/efficient/dwarflike to hammer power into runes." The Chaos Dwarf calcification could be anything else instead! I just am sort of against the idea that "X race simply can't do a thing" in a fantasy setting. Might be my own personal hangups, but I usually interpret "X can't do a thing" as "X traditionally doesn't excel at this thing by default, has decided it isnt for them." Leaves some grey area, and I always like the grey areas! I think I also disliked the "legend" that dwarfs were first carved from stone just being proven 100% true in the Chaos Dwarfs, and that dwarfs use runs because they cannot channel magic.

Duardin not casting spells in favor of runecrafting as a cultural preference is something I can totally get behind. Duardin could even still consider it "unnatural" because it isn't the "Duardin way" of doing things! I'd just rather it not be that their race simply can't do it, especially as the Mortal Realms are magical as hell. I don't think a slight retcon there is awful! Especially as we have the Root Kings who are Duardin primarily interested in plantshaping!

I also tend to love Chaos Dwarfs as a "capitalism is evil" faction: their lack of environmental care, their disregard for the lives of those working in their nation, their hyperfixation on weapons of horrific war (that are fueled by torture) their rampant selfish consumerism/consumption, their complete willingness to annihilate other cultures and enslave their people are all some of the worst things that nations in real life do, and it's one of the things I like most about them! They're literally mustache-twirling nightmare colonist/capitalists, and I think you're right that their way of life should have consequences for them! 

I'd hedge my bets on them still turning to stone or something, ngl! I wonder if the reasoning behind it will change at all, or if we're going to also get some lore about early-realms Duardin and how Grungi shaped them from stone! I just hope they don't circle back to "duardin literally can't/shouldn't cast spells bc they'll die:" I'd be fine if they just felt like the gift of runecrafting the ancestor gods taught them was better

I want to start by commending you for making a really good argument, it really was a lightbulb moment for me as I too tend to dislike notions that X are incapable of doing Y - when I GM'd RuneQuest I heavily modified the Broo, allowing players to play such as Good-aligned characters (fun fact: The Beastmen from Fantasy are the Broo with serial numbers filed off, GW made some miniatures for tabletop rpgs - including RuneQuest - before Warhammer) among other things.

We're pretty much on the same page in how we perceive the Chaos Dwarfs/Duardin, in this instance I was too set in wanting GW to keep the bit of lore as a shorthand for the self-destructive nature of Chorfs' hypercapitalism. But I wouldn't want it to exist in the expense of narrative freedom.

[Fracas]

My dream for this army would include keyword allies like Kruleboyz and Gitmob with Hobgrots being a unit in the book.

I’ve been assembling some snarlfangs, and their armor and weapons are rather refined for grots. It would make sense for the chorfs to make it for them.

Otherwise very excited for any new miniatures and hopeful that bull centaurs return. Kragnos has gotten a little confusing with regards to how many factions have adopted the man-horse identity.