Classichammer

We successfully played two test battles with Chaos Dwarfs with our new Army Book that has been under constant construction.

CURRENT VERSION: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YMgwnf ... sp=sharing

We have been making tweak after tweak due to great insightful feedback from here, reddit, facebook, etc as well as now with some experience testing them on the table. We are actually really happy with how Hobgoblins are interacting with the army and how Black Orc leadership can impact them. We have made it so a Black Orc Hero occupies 2 Hero slots (exactly how Greenskins handles it), and a Black Orc Champion in a Hobgoblin Slave unit occupies a Hero slot (so you can't just spam LD 8 slave units with Quelled Animosity and some S5 attacks in the front). What we HAVENT been able to figure out a satisfying solution to is the issue of running a Champion on a 25x25mm base in a unit of 20x20mm models. Slann Lords and Chaos Characters embedded in units appear to just be exactly double the area of their subordinates, so they rank up properly. However, with the Black Orc and his unit, this is not the case. Do any of you guys have any suggestions or knowledge of how this can be resolved without simply throwing the champ on a smaller base, or making all hobgoblins 25x25, or ignoring the issue? My gut feeling is that maybe hobgoblins wouldnt be so out of place on 25x25 bases, a further distinguishing feature from goblins, but maybe that wouldn't be appropriate if humans and elves are still on 20x20s? A Black Orc on a 20x20 just feels wrong, and playing it as is and ignoring it made it extremely difficult to rank up my slave unit nicely last weekend.

Easiest solution is to not have the Black Orc in there in the first place. Maybe a pricier Champion type model that has the same effect? Sort of like the Hill Goblins from that Goblin Ecology article/rules article.

You can also do a vignette on a 40X40mm base as well. I knew a guy who did that for his black ork bigboss in 50X50mm. Problem was that it was confusing as hell when you finally wore down the unit that it was on, so you have to be very clear with your opponents that this represents one character and three rank and file. You can also make it so that you can add a standard bearer as well, and if you are crafty enough, magnetize it so that you can put on the STD and take it off as you loose combat. Once again either magenetize it or be very clear with you opponent that you lost the standard. This is also the reason why you should have standard tokens availabe for your opponent.

It's always annoyed me that the game allows this in the first place. It looks rubbish to have one base knocking all the ranks out of line or sitting awkwardly on a corner being visibly off, and it creates clunk in the rules... but none of this is helping you, is it?

I'd advise against the Hobgoblins on 25mm bases approach as it's just Chaos Marauders all over again - a model slightly too small for the space it's supposed to occupy. I'd be tempted to yeet the Black Orc champion option entirely because it creates fuss in the rules - kill your darlings, sort of thing - and just have the heroes hang out near units, protected by the normal rules for targeting characters.

Also, I'd suggest thinking hard about the "two Hero slots" part. In the Orc and Goblin book this serves a clear purpose, per Rick and Jake's design notes (UKWD #251) - there needed to be an opportunity cost to taking Black Orc characters, else nobody would take normal Orc heroes ever. There isn't really a similar option for them to crowd out in this army, and if they're made extra vulnerable by not being able to join most units they have an inherent risk factor that counterbalances their effects on Animosity. Sure, you can bunker a Black Orc character in a Black Orc unit, but then you're losing coverage from Quell Animosity. Seems like a tradeoff to me.