It’s been a long time coming, but the Chaos Dwarf team is finally here for Blood Bowl! Up for pre order today. In this full unboxing and review we’ll be checking out the new releases including the star players and pitch, and we’ll also be diving into the new Spike! Journal 18 to see just what they do in games of Blood Bowl!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us early review copies of all the Chaos Dwarf releases. If you would like to support the site then why not order your copies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing video which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So let’s hit the grid iron and see what the Chaos Dwarfs have to offer for Blood Bowl players!

Chaos Dwarf Kits

Before we jump into the Spike! Journal however, let’s check out the new kits for this release. We recently had an unexpected release with the Gnomes, but Chaos Dwarfs are a team people have been wishing for for ages!

The Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl Team box has most of the positionals for the team, including some new ones! The kit is absolutely gorgeous, and a love letter for fans of a certain age who have a soft spot for big hats. 14 models are included including 4 Blockers, 2 Flamesmiths, 6 Hobgoblin Linemen and 2 Sneaky Stabbas. As usual it also has coins, turn and reroll markers and some balls.

As you can see above, the finished models look great – with all the charm of the old range, but brought up to date. It’s been a long time since I’ve painted a Chaos Dwarf, and I’m already hoping we get them back in the Old World too!

The kits were nice and easy to build up too and ready for the pitch in no time!

Also up for pre order today are the Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs. These are another positional available for the team, and come in a blister of two. With you only being able to take two in a team, this gives you all the Centaurs you’d ever need.

Star Players

We’ve not just got the core team though, as there are a couple of Star Players up for preorder too!

Both of these kits are very cool! Zzhard Madeye wielding his blunderbuss, ready to take out enemy players and H’Thark the Unstoppable brings the beef!

Both come in Forge World resin and were pretty straight forward to build up! Sadly, I didn’t get enough time to paint them, but will be adding some photos once they are done!

Pitch

Also up for pre order alongside this wave is a new pitch. Like with previous sets this is duel sided and includes 2 dugouts for your games. The set includes some special rules for using it (and these are also included in Spike 18). Essentially this makes it more difficult for knocked out players to recover, and then the pitch erupts at half time. The Erruption side gives a -1 penalty to Rush, and also has lava areas which add a +1 modifier to armour rolls. Makes for a deadly pitch, but certainly one of the clearest to see the spaces on! Some older designs are a little busy to the point that you can’t actually see the grid, thankfully not the case here!

Spike! Journal 18 – Chaos Dwarf Team

Released alongside the Chaos Dwarf releases is Spike! Journal 18. If you’re new to Blood Bowl then this is essentially an “in universe” team fanzine that has team histories, interviews and other fun features about them. It does also contain all the rules, but it’s worth pointing out that all these are also available in the packaging of the miniatures too.

All of the “in-universe” stuff is great fun as ever. One of my favourite things about these Spike! Journals is that they really capture the essence and “feel” of a team. In the same way a Codex or Battletome gives you the flavour of an army, Spike! Journal does much the same for a Blood Bowl team.

But what about the gaming content? We’ll let’s take a look at what’s included, including the team rules themselves.

The Chaos Dwarf Team

The Chaos Dwarfs are unsurprisingly a pretty slow and bashy team. With armour 10 on all your Dwarfs and Thick Skull they will be able to tank some damage. Your Blockers also get an updated Iron hard Skin, which means that armour save rolls cannot be modified, and claws cannot be used. They are going to be really tough to take out. They are however going to be a pretty expensive team too, with a number of positionals clocking in at over 100,000 gold and a fairly small amount of dwarfs available.

However, the Chaos Dwarf team does have access to some cannon fodder in the shape of the Hobgoblin Linemen. These guys are quicker than your plodding dwarfs and can actually pass and catch. Their job is going to be to scarper up the pitch to score a 1 goal win after the rest of your team grinds everything down.

Star Player Rules

The Chaos Dwarf team gets access to quite a lot of Star Players, with 18 in total on offer. In the book we get rules for 3 of them (2 of which have new models out today)

Zzharg Madeye is a fun Secret Weapon user. Armed with a Blunderbuss he can use once per half, he just picks a standing player within 3 spaces and on a 3+ makes an armour roll! As is the case with Secret Weapons it can often go wrong. A roll of 2 means the opponent gets to pick who is hit (Friend of Foe) and a roll of 1 hits Madeye himself!

H’Thark The Unstoppable is an absolute beast clocking in at 300,000 gold. He has a whole host of skills including Block Break Tackle, Juggernaut, Sprint, Sure Feet and Defensive. But he also gets to re-roll a dice every time he does a Blitz action, making him really reliable with essentially a free reroll every turn.

The final new Star Player in the book is Rashnak Backstabber. A model isn’t out for him yet, but this guys has a nice rule that gives him a +1 modifier to injury rolls when he breaks armour with his stab rule.

Other Gaming Content

In it’s 40 pages, Spike! Journal 18 has quite a few bits of gaming content. Along with the main Chaos Dwarf rules, there’s also a really nice guide on how to play them and tips and tricks you should know when using the team. I really like sections like this in rule books as it lets the designers share the intent for the way teams are meant to be played, and frame what the expected play style is.

This section also has some suggesting starting rosters. This allows you to really quickly pick up a starting lineup and get some games in asap.

There’s also a new Chaos Dwarf team for Dungeon Bowl, adding the College of Fire which is exclusively made up of Chaos Dwarfs compared to some of the other teams.

Summary

So what do I think of the Chaos Dwarf team for Blood Bowl? This is a team I’ve been looking forward to seeing for a long time, and seeing them realised on the pitch tugs some massive nostalgia strings for me! The models are brilliant and really capture the feel of those old models, and I can’t wait to get some more painted. From a rules point of view people may find them a little too similar to a standard Dwarf approach. However, they do have some nice unique features and positionals that give them their own flavour.

I think there’s going to be a lot of people that lean into this team because of the old school pull of Chaos Dwarfs, and that’s not a bad thing. Games Workshop have been very good at releasing teams that appeal to nostalgia, and with a game like Blood Bowl that a lot of people played as their entry into the hobby then I think that really works.

I’m already eager to paint up the rest of the team and give them a run out on the gridiron!

The Chaos Dwarf releases are up for pre order today and are released on Saturday 12th October.

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with free copies for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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