Hello. I've not been active in the Chaos Dwarf online community of late, principally because I temporarily dropped out of warhammer, and also because my chaos dwarf army had stopped growing. However, now I would like to leech off the collective genius of the CD community, if I may.
My current CD army is being retired. Its a (rather large), completely orthodox bighat CD army painstaking accumulated over ebay. It contains very few conversions and, tactically, won most of its games but in a dull manner. Positioning overwhelmingly superior artillery behind ranks of CD warriors and blunderbuss gets old.
However, I'm setting off for uni after the summer and it seemed an ideal time to collect a new army. I wanted something that offered more modelling opportunities (I'm new to greenstuff) and would be slower to collect so I didn't fall behind on painting. Not wanting to move away from my beloved chaos dwarfs, I've come up with the following theme.
On an old map of the CD Empire (showing an awful lot more cities than we will probably possess when returned) the CDs have two settlements on the Dragon Isles, far to the south. Consulting my brother's Lizardmen army book, I found these to be the home of degenerated and primitive lizardmen. So, a chaos dwarf colonial army sounded fun. And I would welcome any ideas people have for units.
The army has to be tactically different to the regular CD army. Heavy artillery is impossible to move around the jungle, so the Earthshaker and Hellcannon are out. I'm also pretty sure wolves don't thrive in jungles, so hobgoblins will need some alternative means of transportation (I'm currently thinking of Horned Ones). The army is going to be themed around the Hellcannon crewmen, as they're more practially dressed for jungle warfare.
So, does anyone have any ideas? I'm interested both in 'counts as' alternations and conversions, and new units people might have.
Salutations!
My ood Lord, TheVoice! Welcome! It's been a long time since I last spoke. It's good to have you here.
Okay, weaker bolt thowers, similar to large crossbows (held by two people) would be good as light war machines. Easy to transport and quick to set up. Or even Scorpion-like bolt throwers (bolt thrower used by Romans).
Light armour across the army. Maybe cloaks instead (using the 6+ armour save in combat rule used by Vespero's Vendettas...) or as well....
Mounts, I use cold ones for mine (even though it's in the Dark Lnads), so horned ones could work
Sorcerers would need floaty palanquins, reminiscent of the Slann...
This would also be fairly easy to convert and to proxy, I should think. (Apparently, the palanquin has magic resistance... I guess it'd be a lammasu.) Right this second, I can't think of anything else.
Have them wearing pith helmets.
Have native Skink baggage handlers hauling their suitcases.
Have your sorceror lord carried in a sedan chair drinking a pink gin.
Have loads of skinks to use as Goblin or Hobgoblin slaves.
Instead of wolf riders get some of the older (Tichi huichi style) cold ones for them to ride on.
Get some plastic aquarium plants and convert your bases to make them look more "Jungly". Like this:
The older cold ones are now HornedOnes, so yes that works.
I was thinking of putting a warmachine in a Stegadon howdah, anyone know if one will fit? The lizards get a bolt-thrower in there.
The only bare-armed CDs I know are Hellcannon crew, and I'm not skilled enough to sculpt faces on.
I reckon I'm alright with Bolt Throwers, they come with a tow-ring and don't look that heavy. Know where I could get scale models of scorpions?
The Stegadon Howdah is roughly 1.5 inches square.
If you remove the side off it (or simply make the platform bigger) you would be able to fit an earth shaker or one of the old Imperial Dwarf bolt throwers onto it without any trouble.
If you're going to use bolt throwers it may look nice have the rope part painted green, so it looks like you're using Jungle vines.
Alright. Any thoughts on a colour scheme? MY bighat one was dark reds, bronze/gold and bleached bone, but this one will be less formal. Might put the Sneaky Gits in camoflage.
Good idea, I've got a load of old Forest Goblins anyway, although I might use them as themic greenskins, I prefer the taller, more competent look for hobgoblins.
My current Sneaky Gits are in red, I was trying to go for a different colour scheme. A nondescript brown could work.
Anybody know how to convert a portable death rocket (bazooka) for someone with little prior experience of conversion?
I could use Kroxigor slaves with a slavemaster to proxy for ogre kingdoms, and saurus for orcs.
You could either use a Space Marine bazooka armset and pen/bazooka or try to buy one of the older bazooka models and cannibalise it. As for colours, have parts of their armour repaired or replaced with skinkleather or saurusleather...
I really like the idea of a jungle warfare CD army. Stuck for decades behind enemy lines, with few supplies getting through.
I know its not what you're used to, but I would strongly suggest using the Dwarfs list for this theme. There is a lot more to play around with, and it has a lot more tactical options. You might still sneak in some DOW light cavalry (hobgobbos), and your rangers could be CD commandoes!
You could convert a portable death rocket out of the tripod drill from the plastic miners kit.
You might be able to use orcs/ hobgobbos as counts as slayers.
Hmm, the problem with using a dwarf list is simple: too many dwarfs. Chaos Dwarfs are meant to exist in relatively small numbers, and I can't see huge amounts being spared for the colonial efforts in the farthest reaches of the empire. The lack of artillery would ideally provide a list that rewards the creative use of limited resources and auxiliaries e.g. the Germans in Africa in WWI under Lettow-Forbeck. So whilst the dwarfs would be much more suitable in many ways, they don't accurately reflect the forces available in Tashbaan and Kattashan.
Browns and greens are good for cloth, what about armour?
Paint it as lizard scales/lizard-leather scale armour...
I don't know if they do or not, but it seems fitting. Why use cows/bulls (which aren;t abundent in a jungle), when you can use your enemies?
I should think you can get them, but it's about £2 a sprue, which is uber expensive, in my opinion. Even by the standards of GW. I think if you take chips out of their spines, use dulled colours for their skin to show emaciation, do weapon swaps, carve brands into them (whether they were burnt in or carved) and paint tattoos on. Maybe some of them, especially big ones (kroxigor, maybe saurus) have their bracelets chained together.
Someone here made some exactly like those out of scraps of balsa and orc spears. Can't remember who. Grom maybe? The one who uses glass chunks on the bases.
I mentioned the smaller ballista. These should be easily made from sprues and spears (for curved bow parts, use the the curves of the sprues), which will save you some money. But, the smaller scale BTs is exactly what I meant. Easier to get through jungles if need be.
I think that machine would be great, but it may require SOME fuel and so I'd say it is more for deforestation to allow the building of a fortification.
Wood isn't the best fuel and I did think of that, but as to the souls, they would want to catch a spawning pool, methinks. Otherwise, it is likely to run out a little too quickly and they may wish to use slaves for other tasks... Maybe once the slave is past its sell-by date...
You have to burn the wood to make charcoal or you can mine coal from the ground...
That's true, but oil isn't often abundant in jungles...
You could have them standing on ruined temple pieces...
Some in bogs...
Some wading through critters and bugs etc..