Chaos Dwarfs (Warhammer) - Development History

Development History

The background and rules for Chaos Dwarfs appeared in early editions of WFB and they were given several entries in Warhammer Armies and Slaves to Darkness for the 3rd edition as part of the Chaos army. For the 4th edition they became a full army in their own right, gaining a detailed background and full range of miniatures. However, unlike the other armies they were not given a proper Warhammer Armies book but instead had material that had already been published over several issues of White Dwarf issued as a single publication: White Dwarf Presents: Chaos Dwarfs. This included all of the standard army book contents but the material was not edited to work as a single book.

In the 1990s, the Chaos Dwarfs were a fully supported army but by the end of the decade the models were no longer stocked in Games Workshop stores due to lack of popularity with players. It was thought they would be removed from the game entirely, like the Squats in Warhammer 40,000. This turned out to be unfounded when Games Workshop published an army list for them in the supplement Ravening Hordes when 6th edition Warhammer was released. Despite this, there was next to no material about them in any Games Workshop publication for the following few years.

The Chaos Dwarfs are no longer directly supported as a full army like most in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle table top game. Their only "army book" is now out of date since the Ravening Hordes rules and Chaos Dwarf FAQ were removed from the Games Workshop website. There isn't a range of miniatures in the shops, but some of the miniatures were available from the Games Workshop Online Store for a time after the range was removed from the stores. However, around the end of 6th edition in 2005, the Chaos Dwarf miniature range was discontinued and made completely unavailable from Games Workshop.

In the most recent edition of Warhammer, the Game of Fantasy Battles, there have been references to the Chaos Dwarfs in the rulebook and several of the newer army books for other armies. No new miniatures or army lists have been officially released. The list in Ravening Hordes is, at present, the army list that should be used by Warhammer players.

Rumours of the Chaos Dwarfs' return spread amongst players. This due to the army being mentioned regularly in written Games Workshop material, and the Hellcannon crew being actual Chaos Dwarfs. A recent phenomenon among fans is converting Chaos Dwarfs using Dwarfs from the Battle of Skull Pass boxed set and parts such as arms and helmets from the Marauder and Warriors boxed set.

During September 2010 Warhammer Forge was publicly announced as a Fantasy equivalent to Forge World, and included in the many display models were numerous Chaos Dwarf models, including the Chaos Dwarf Engineer, many large steam powered war machines and several crew models.

Note that although the Chaos Dwarf army was not available in shops at the time, they were featured as an army in the Storm of Chaos worldwide campaign and they can be seen in the "Faction Rankings" section of the official website. They were an allowed army in the Games Workshop US 'Ard Boyz tournament of 2009. As of 7th edition, the Chaos Dwarfs still did not have an army book but the rules given on the GW website and the Ravening Hordes list were still legal at official events and most players allowed their use in pick up games. With the arrival of 8th edition the rules given on the GW website and in the Ravening Hordes list became unofficial, preventing their use at official GW tournaments. This changed with the release of Warhammer Forge's first book Tarmurkhan: The Throne of Chaos, which contained an army list for the Chaos Dwarfs which the book itself says to treat as official. This coincided with a new range of Forgeworld models which updated the look of the Chaos Dwarfs to match the 6th edition style and included brand new units.