Games Workshop is going to release new plastic models for the Warhammer Chaos Dwarfs for the first time in thirty years. The firm revealed a whole team of Dawi-Zharr figures for the fantasy football game Blood Bowl, set in a (lightly comedic) parallel version of the Warhammer fantasy universe.
Revealed during the Nova Open preview on Wednesday, the Zharr-Nagrund Ziggurats Blood Bowl team comes with four Chaos Dwarf blockers, two Chaos Dwarf flamesmiths, six Hobgoblin linesmen, and two Hobgoblin Sneaky Stabbas. A pack of two resin Bull Centaurs will be available from Forge World.
Chaos Dwarfs are one of the most conspicuous omissions from both the Warhammer: The Old World and Age of Sigmar lines. Chaos worshipping Dwarfs have been part of Warhammer lore since its first days, and they received a small army of miniatures with a mixture of Babylonian iconography and enormous hats in the early 90s, including some single piece plastic troops.
Redesigned Dwarfs manning a daemonic Hellcannon were added to the Chaos Warriors list in 2004 as part of the Storm of Chaos campaign. Forge World expanded on their aesthetic with the resin Legion of Azgorh range, released in 2011. They had playable ‘Legends’ rules in previous editions of Age of Sigmar, and made their way into the Chaos Dwarfs Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC, but they’re not on sale from Games Workshop any longer.
Chaos Dwarfs are a playable Warhammer: The Old World faction, but – with the exception of the soon-to-be re-released Hellcannon model – you will need to make conversions or use proxies if you want to field a force. We can see a lot of kitbashing in the future of the Zharr-Nagrund Ziggurats.
A good source of parts for arming the models could be Mantic Games’ Abyssal Dwarf range, which – while not as detailed as these new minis – could be plundered for suitably spiky weapons. If you want to learn more about the quality of Mantic’s minis, check out Wargamer’s behind the scenes tour with the firm.