Do Chaos Dwarf Heroes Matter? A Quick Army-Building Chat
Do Chaos Dwarf Heroes Matter? A Quick Army-Building Chat
Sometimes the best army-building discussions start with one simple question: do we actually need a hero here, or are we just paying points because it feels right?
This time we ended up talking about Chaos Dwarfs and whether adding a hero is really that important when the rank-and-file troops already look brutally solid.
Stas pointed out that a hero is still useful for the Leadership boost. That is always the classic argument, and honestly, it makes sense. Even if a character is not a blender on their own, better Ld can keep the army functioning when things get messy.
Michał was not fully convinced though. His take was simple: Chaos Dwarfs do not really need a hero to hit hard. And once we looked at the unit profiles, it was easy to see why.
The reaction was immediate. A regular infantry model with stats like that definitely gets attention. Stas summed it up in the most straightforward way possible: Strength 4, Toughness 4 — basically like a Black Orc.
That comparison led us directly into the points discussion, because that is where army-building gets painful in the best possible way. Michał asked the obvious question: if they are that sturdy, how much are we actually paying compared to a Black Orc?
And the answer is: a lot.
Base Chaos Dwarf infantry came up at 11 points per model, and with fireglaive plus shield the price jumps to 16 points each. That is a serious investment for a core infantry block. Stas then noted that Black Orcs sit at 12 points base, which makes the comparison even more interesting.
So where did we land?
More or less here:
- a hero still has value, especially for Leadership
- but Chaos Dwarf infantry already looks strong enough that the army does not depend on a character to do the heavy lifting
- the real tension in list building is probably points efficiency
- once we start adding premium equipment like fireglaives, those units get expensive very quickly
That is the kind of tradeoff we really enjoy in army-building. On paper, the unit looks fantastic. In practice, every extra point spent on elite infantry is a point not spent somewhere else in the list.
So at least for this stage of the discussion, our feeling is that the hero is useful, but not automatically essential just because the army needs someone to carry combat. Chaos Dwarfs seem perfectly capable of doing that themselves. The bigger question is whether we want to pay premium points for troops that already start expensive before upgrades.
And honestly, that is exactly the sort of problem we like having.