Don’t Stare Into the Abyss!
February 6, 2011 by dracs
The war gaming community has long mourned the loss of the Chaos Dwarves, since Games Workshop discontinued them. Many have feared that they would end up sharing the fate of their 40K brethren, the Squats and I know I'm not the only one who welcomed their return in the Warhammer Forge display case last games day. But now there is good news for all us fans of things small and evil (enter appropriate jokes about my height here if you wish). Mantic Games have picked up the torch, with the Abyssal Dwarves due for release towards the end of this month.
Soon after the release of their Dwarf army for Kings of War, the announcement that the next army to be released would be their evil cousins generated a lot of excitement amongst wargamers. We were then drip fed concept art, sculpts and rules until our anticipation rose to fever pitch, but now our waiting has paid off. Gorgoth's Legion of Terror, as well as individual units of Black Souls, Decimators, and the Katsuchan Rocket Launcher now up for pre-order, and with a full release set for the 25th February.
The models are pretty good themselves. There is a good level of detail, but without being too daunting for someone new to modelling to paint. Mantic also seem to be taking a road which is rather reminiscent of the "big hats" of the old GW Chaos Dwarfs. Big hats is a risky move, get it wrong and your sadistic dwarves could end up just looking silly, but somehow Mantic has pulled it off. Probably because the hats themselves look so menacing. The one real problem I have with them is the same one I have with their main Dwarf range, they just look so top heavy. Is it just me or do they kind of have the same build as Joe from Family Guy?
Pride of place in the miniature range must go to the Katsuchan Rocket Launcher. This fantastic looking piece of kit has a really nice daemonic look to it, and I don't think it would look out of place fielded alongside the GW Hell canons. It is hard to tell if the rocket itself is sorcerous or technological in its design, and I think the model in general, successfully captures the sense of them mixing the two.
Although the final rules aren't out yet, the Beta is still available, and has been a point of some debate among those keeping an eye on the range, the main point being that they are too strong. I have to say that I think I agree with this. The Abyssal Dwarves seem to have been given everything, from fast cavalry in the form of its centaurs, to good magic. Even the ability to heal their war machines. This has left the normal Dwarves flagging behind. One rule I do like though is the Yellow Bellied rule, which is given to the Ork Slaves. This basically means that when they are given an order to charge you must take a roll. If failed the slaves have "misheard" you and halt instead of charging.
All in all I think this army is definitely looking promising. Its about time that there were some more evil dwarves around again. What are your views? Are the models good? Are there any changes that you'd like to see? Or do you think they are perfect the way they are and should be mounted on a small plinth to be marvelled at by future generations? Let us know your thoughts.
BoW Sam
If you want to have a look at the beta test rules... here they are...
If you want to preorder yourself a few nasty Dwarves then Wayland Games is offering a smashing discount... check these out!
Abyssal Dwarf Dark Souls... £17.99
Abyssal Dwarf Decimators... £13.49
Abyssal Dwarf Immortal Guard... £16.19
Katsuchan Missile Launcher... £12.49
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My only problem with this is that it’s plastic and metal together. If you don’t pin such joints then they just never stick. A good example of this was the limited edition zombie command, where you are glueing metal,top heavy, small arm joints onto light plastic bodies. Your models either just don’t stick together or they end up falling over unless you put them in less ideal poses.
You might be right.
The Dwarves are all a bit top heavy to start with, adding metal to that might make things worse.
However, I’m going to reserve judgement until I acutally see the models. When we get hold of some, I’ll do a proper review of them and see what they’re like.
BoW Andy
Dwarves are tricksey to do imho The problem is that the squat stature tends to lead towards requiring long arms to model them with equipment, I reckon if my Skull Pass Dwarves stood in a relaxed pose their knuckles would scrape the floor. lol The Mantic Dwarves Have proportionally long thick arms but no where near as bad. Ironically, I have been a bit uncertain of the Mantic Dwarves upto now, but looking at the pics here, Sam, the penny dropped and I get it. Hard to explain but they seem right to me. Having been given a few of… Read more »
PS missed that about metal and plastic.
Also not a fan of the idea. Even with CA my experience of modelling the two together is not a happy one.
Will be good to see a What’s in the Box with some built up figures please.
Don’t worry, I’ll be building them.
BoW Andy
Hmm My trick to stop top heavy models falling over is normally to stick a penny or bits of metal sprue to the cavity in the base IIRC with Mantic’s stuff the base is solid with a plug on the feet to glue/slot in. Maybe drill the plugs out for magnets and use a sheet metal unit tray to hold the evil stunties down?
loctite super glue. the red one gives you a little time to get the piece in place. the blue one is instant and stuck forever.
or you can buy glue for model airplanes. those guys take glue seriously.
I decidedly do not like those guys… I liked the babylonian feel of the GW ones. In my opinion, those Mantic ones just look like ridiculous gremlins with smaller ridiculous gremlins on their heads. Sorry, just my opinion.
I must admit that one or two of the headgear just remind me of the hobbes in fable. you know hoe you might see one withh a boot or something on their head? The rest aren’t bad, its just one or two that really should not have seen the light of day.
BoW Sam
Never been a Chaos Dwarf fan, some nice looking models which fill a niche, but not a niche I need filling.
I honestly can’t wait to get my hands on these guys. They have grown on me(as most of the mantix range has) and I must I like the look. I like these guys more then the last batch GW made. Will be posting pics as soon as I get some.
I do not like the sculpts on these. The quality and crispness of the detail just seems very low for production models.
Scroll up to that row of four, now look at the first guy’s visor, the second one’s demon hat thing, the third’s totem, the fourth one’s ‘mouth’… they all look rather poorly sculpted to me. Sadly, this sort of consistently poor detail really steals the thunder from some pretty cool concepts.
I do not hold Mantic up to GW plastics standards but i do at least expect Reaper metals standards from them.
The guy with the open mouth now that my attention is drawn to it really needs to be on an Eldar swooping hawk…
I ordered Gorgoth’s Legion of Terror a few days ago, the only thing I wish I could have seen before I bought it was the Bull Centaurs. Other than that I’m very happy with what I’ve seen, and the only change I plan to make is to lengthen the beards “Xander style”.
I’ve already got some Dwarves painted up and won’t be getting the Abyssals but their command looks awesome. I’m more excited about the slave orcs and the future of a full orc range from Mantic >:D
I tell you guys, I’ve always been a Dwarf fan, and was intrigued by the concept of evil dwarfs, but GW made them look stupid, so I never really got interested in it.
But recently with the Abyssal Dwarfs from Mantic (which i think are looking amazing) and the Volgar from Warcanto, I’m really getting into an evil dwarf mood lately. Just itching for their release dates!
These guys are making me look at buying up an entire Abyssal Dwarf army. They are fantastic, I really liked the Chaos Dwarfs. And this is so much cheaper than Warhammer.