Has this edition neutered Chaos Dwarves?

[Baron_Bathory]

Hey all!

I've been wanting to revisit an old dream of doing a Chaos Dwarf army from Forgeworld's Tamurkhan book (AoS + General's Handbook rules obviously). The models are just too damn cool and I love the race's fluff. However, I've been looking over their rules and to be perfectly honest, I'm not insanely impressed. Does anyone else feel that their points to power ratio is a little underwhelming? I checked out the mega thread and there is a lot of great info there. I'm wondering if it's possible to make a competitive list from this army. If I were to spend the kind of money that this project would require, I certainly don't want to be losing every game.

I can see it has a few good things going for it. Hellcannon look great. At full health it has 2 shots, automatic wounding at D6 mortal wounds, possible to get the hit roll down to 2+ depending on if you're shooting a horde or not. Fireborn are a cool glass cannon to throw at things that need a beating. Keeping them alive certainly seems like a challenge though. Siege giant anyone? I've been thinking something along these lines:

Drazhoath - 380

10 Fireglaives - 100
10 Fireglaives - 100
10 Fireglaives - 100

3 Bull Centaur Renders - 160
3 K'Daai Fireborn - 100

Chaos Siege Giant - 220

Hellcannon - 300
Hellcannon - 300
Deathshrieker - 120
Deathshrieker - 120

2000
 

I'm thinking a gunline like this can be scary, but 1 turn of crappy rolling can mean death. What do you fine gents think?

[Iradekhorne]

I think you need more bodyes, the siege giant was good for his price, but maybye you need drop one hellcanon for more trops, to take objectivves etc.

[Andreas]

I have played against LOA but never with them but I am currently building a LOA army so I have spent some time theoryhammering over them.

First they are not a weak army (or a top tier army). For example Ben who runs this site have been successfull with them in the UK scen. So they can be really good in the right hands.

Regarding your list. On paper it look very weak against certain armies due to the double Hellcannon. Some armies just take the crew off turn one. Other armies that cant do that would probably newer want to play you again and that could be a problem also. ? IMO it is the weakest choice of warmachine due to the seperate crew. Take one if you like the model but leave the other one in the box.

Their strongest artillery is the magma cannon so have a look at that.

Other than that. Their battleline is good for their points. Take more you will need it.

You need more heroes. The daemonsmith is good and necessary for the warmachines. The castellant's command abillity is ok and seems ok on paper. The tauruk looks usefull (semi fast glass hammer) if you have the points.

Draz is probably to expensive but fill some gaps in the army, (Good movement and survivably hero), so maybe.

[Nico]

Just spam multiple large blocks of Fireglaives, a thin line of the Ironsworn, then get 4 actual Legion artillery (since they don't have crew as pointed out above), 2 Daemonsmiths and a Balewind Vortex - either to snipe artillery crew yourself with 36 inch arcane bolt or to rebuff arrerboyz or other pew Pew filth.

Drazhoath is wildly overcosted and awful for the iconic hero of the faction.

Maybe take Shar'Tor for his aoe ability.

[Maddok]

I agree with Nico here n Drazhoath's cost- maybe at 300 he would be worth it. That said, with 2 spells he can put out some decent mortal wounds and adds some much needed mobility.

The Bull Centaur Taruk's are great as glass hammers. They will kill any medium level hero, or even wipe out 10-15 wound units (including battleshock). Bull Centaur renders seem ok, and add a little combat punch to the army. If given some buffs they can help you push units out of your deployment zone or take on enemy objectives.

Fireglaives are excellent, but should always be in 20 man units. 

One thing this army is great at is nickel and diming an army to death with mortal wounds. Every unit champion can chuck d3 mortal wounds once per game. If a big beastie gets too close you can rain down those mortal wounds quite fast.

[Andreas]

15 minutes ago, Nico said:

....

Sorry if highjacking the thread.

Nico - What do you think of this list?

1    Infernal Guard Castellan    120
1    Bull Centaur Taur'uk    180
1    Daemonsmith    100
1    Daemonsmith    100
20    Infernal Guard Ironsworn    200
20    Infernal Guard Fireglaives    200
20    Infernal Guard Fireglaives    200
3    K'Daai Fireborn / Balewind Vortex    100
1    Dreadquake Mortar    200
1    Magma Cannon    140
1    Magma Cannon    140
1    Deathshrieker    120
1    Iron Daemon    200

Where the iron deamon and the dreadquake are fluff choices (love the models) that I might switch to more fireglaves at some future point if I feel it is necessary. But I can see uses for both so we will see if I leave one or both.

 

[Arkiham]

Watch the warlords stream, you can see how a good chaos dwarf army works in one of the games 

 

[Nico]

You want one block of 40 Fireglaives and maybe a Tauruk as general (or even the champion of the Fireglaives unit) - you'll be using Inspiring Presence on that block and Lord of War or Cunning Deceiver vs pew pew. Put General near an artillery piece turn one for Lord of War.

if you take 40 you gain more benefit from the +1 to hit buff and Inspiring Presence. Downside is lack of mobility, but pew pew so less of an issue.

If you take two 20s, then enemy just shoot the one that doesn't have mystic shield and Inspiring Presence.

Good idea re Kdaai as alternative to Balewind - you don't need to specify this in list - you could drop 10 Plaguebearers if you needed a rent-a-wall.

Castellan is garbage as range of command ability awful and not tough enough for a 2,000 point game general.

Iron Daemon is unmitigated junk.

Mix of artillery is good.

If you can afford it - get 2 units of 40 Fireglaives - use Crown of Conquest on the second one.

[Baron_Bathory]

Hey thanks a bunch for the replies

@Iradekhorne Good call. Looks like infantry are the way to go with this army. I'll re-work the list.

@Andreas Aww disappointing I love the Hellcannon model so much. Might have to take one like you said. So you can't snipe crew members on the other war machines?

@Nico Interesting stuff! So you would recommend 2 shriekers and 2 magmas? How about a mortar? Whats a balewind vortex? Isn't that a piece of terrain? How do I use that in battle?

@Maddok Yeah everyone seems to think Fireglaives are the army's trump card right now. Who would you suggest making the general?

@Arkiham Sounds great but I'm not familiar with the stream and who is hosting it. Can you post a link?

 

Thanks again guys!

[hobgoblinclub]

3 minutes ago, Baron_Bathory said:

@Arkiham Sounds great but I'm not familiar with the stream and who is hosting it. Can you post a link?

The Warlords coverage is now on YouTube. The chaos dwarf army is our glorious leader @Ben's. He's been doing pretty well this year with it I think. Can't remember if his game is on the Saturday or Sunday though (possibly Saturday, game two).

 

 

[Nico]

Balewind Vortex is a summonable piece of terrain - costs 100 points.

[Andreas]

This is a good read.

Ben's thoughts regarding the legion

[Baron_Bathory]

@hobgoblinclub Awesome thank you! That was a great watch!

@Nico Looks interesting! Are a lot of people using that in their list?

@Andreas Thank you that was a great write up! Looks like it was posted recently but the content itself seems a bit outdated. All of it still relevant though.

Thanks a lot guys

[Nico]

If you mean the Balewind Vortex - Ben used it on my suggestion at the Warlords.

[hobgoblinclub]

@Baron_Bathory Don't mention it. ?