I am an Anvil... part 4: For Hashut!!!!!

I blame Dreadfleet...

They have the Black Kraken in it, a vessel I`m painting currently, the first of the ships of the boxed set.

I blame Forge World...

The upcomming Throne of Tamasomeone has the Chaos Dwarfs in it, and apparently for the first time since Ravening Hordes, the Dawi Zharr get a valid, legal army list.


Yes, it is true, I`m back again to my first love in wargame armies, the Chaos Dwarves. Remember that box I unearthed over a year ago with all the old school Wood Elves in it? Well, some remnants of my old, glorious force where also in there, a fraction of the sizeable force I once fielded, but a decent basis to start rebuilding the one army I truly enjoyed fielding in no matter what game system I played ever since.



I just loved the look of the Babylonian high hats of those fellas.

I discovered the Dawi Zharr when I bought my very first issue of White Dwarf, which featured a battle report between them (as the finale of their White Dwarf only feature series, introducing the race to the 4th edition of Warhammer) against the Wood Elves. The Earthshaker and his back then ridiculous size was my first love.

The army got slowly build up over time, and even trundled onwards into the tournament scene, where in the Ravening Hordes era they where already an oddity. Many victories where won by my opponents just not knowing, let alone facing, a force of Chaos Dwarves before, having no idea what they where about and what they could do. Area of effect Blunderbuss volley anyone?

And from there stemmed my often used online alter ego, Lord Aldades. I joined an MSN group all about the Dawi Zharr, the Council of Sorcerers. Headed up by Hashut`s Chosen, Aleeha Travis, they had the intention of keeping the legacy of the Chaos Dwarves alive, to prevent them by having an active memberbase and supporting fans to go down the road of the Squats.

I never met Aleeha in person (she being in North Carolina back then), but I can sincerly say she had a great influence in my `being` as a wargamer. I got steadily introduced into the joy and fun of belonging to an online `family`, though the CoS (and later the Hand of Hashut forum, these days we have Chaos Dwarfs Online where I lurk for ages now, I really should register someday). The Council teached me the path of building fluff for your forces, of not min / max`ing armies but to play and stay in character towards the spirit of an army.



It was a good time, and even though with the years I dwindled away from the GW system, I always kept defending the little blokes in stores and such, appealing for a come back more anticipated then Michael Jordan or Michael Schumacher.

Hence, due to inforum storylines that where developed at that time for the use of some or other unofficial army book for 5th edition, my Lord on Great Taurus with Black Hammer evolved into

Lord Aldades
Priest Lord of Clan Vongalazthag
Ruler of he Fortress of Despair
Supreme Commander of the armies of the East

which sounded way more cooler me thinks!

And now the fire and the flame pulls at my very being again. The Father of Darkness, hashut, beckons me back. I`m stripping the old models and starting up a painting line for them. I`m converting all kinds of stuff to make excentric looking variants of Earthshakers and Death Rockets, and comming soon a steam powered Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower. My skills at scractchbuilding and converting are still below average, but at least compared to back then I can more or less bring my ideas to life.

I saw this alternative Death Rocket once, by someone called `tjub` on CDO, and I just loved the look, and ever since I pondered to do something like it. I`m building one now, just not exactly like that.



Plastic Dwarven warriors WILL be converted to transform into their dark cousins, and even though I cannot say i`ll ever take to the field of battle in the near future, I also grown as a wargamer to have a force in a cabinet that I truly enjoyed painting and working on... which is the essence of the whole hobby in the end, is it not?

And all that thanks to one lady half a world away, behind a keyboard. As this small serial of articles has now reached it`s conclusion and the point I wanted to be made has been spoken, I want to dedicate it to her.

To Aleeha, for making me a wargamer instead of a diceroller.

Thanks