[WMR] Chaos Dwarves - suggested amendment

[empireaddict]

@Aldhick, based on playing experience at Bonescon, I have a suggested amendment for Chaos Dwarves. It will need playtesting, but I think some reform is needed to make the army more competitive.

After initial friendlies against Janners and Paul Winter on the Friday, I decided to use Orcs for the tournament. Glad I did because later friendly play showed further problems with CDs.

The army isn't as tough as Chaos, has expensive-to-overpriced cavalry in comparison to Orcs, and although recent reforms gave them decent 3-4-4+ Dwarves, they lack the command of conventional Dwarves.

My suggested solutions are off-the-shelf ones, in terms of stats/points:

(1) Cmd 10 general with same blunder rules and price as Dark Elves.
Evil version of Elves has Cmd 10 general but evil version of Dwarves doesn't?! Would give the army more of a "Dwarf feel" and execution of subordinates seems in keeping with the fluff.

(2) Bull Centaurs same stats/price as Orc Boar Riders.
They are currently the same profile but with an extra hit. For that you pay a whopping 40 points. With only 5+ armour, my frequent experience was that the extra hit did not last very long.

I would ask, please, that this idea is given some consideration and playtest by the community.

[andys]

It's always puzzled me why the Chaos Dwarf list doesn't include for Hobgoblin Heroes, say 1 per 1000 points, same stats as an Orc hero. They could be limited to commanding Hobgoblin units only and would be prime candidates for (automatic?) execution if they blundered.

I'm not convinced that Chaos Dwarves would execute their brethren. Presumably the relatives of the executed would bear a grudge, which I guess they'd be VERY good at! 

I agree that the Bull Centaurs are overpriced. They are, effectively, the "knights" of the Chaos Dwarf army.

[Janners]

I back Jim on his comments. I was looking at the list and scratching my head. It just felt...too small and not tough enough...

So yes, command 10 absolutely and reduce the centaur costs.

Alex

[empireaddict]

@andys, fair point. I'm not a deep fluff expert so defer to you on that issue. I would be equally happy with Cmd 10 and HE stats/price. Would need to be that one rather than ordinary Dwarf general due to the list having cavalry.

[Aldhick]

I see.. justified point cost of units is a valid reason to touch the existing list. Shame no one noticed it when we were working on the army lists. On the other hand,  substantial changes in the structure of the list (such is the General's Ld ).. well, this is something that we dared to do only in the case of the WE list. No other list was changed in this way..
  In summary, we should be open to discuss reasonable changes in point costs  and possibly special rules, but not  the structure of the list itself.
That said, if there will be well argumented proposals for well tested changes, I'm definitely considering them in furture updates. 

[empireaddict]

@Aldhick, Thanks for your thoughts. I'll playtest Bull Centaurs at 4|3|5+ and 110 points. On Cmd 10, yes, it would be a major change. Alternate option: increase cost of general by 25 points and give him +1 when ordering unit/brigades consisting only of Chaos Dwarves (including Blunderbusses, Bull Centaurs, Cannon/Rocket). That would fit with the "segregated" nature of the army and would reflect the inherent trustworthiness of the Chaos Dwarves to the regime?