helsmiths of hashut review
in general i like this release. i might buy some of it here and there when i can. i've always loved chaos dwarfs and i'm glad to see it back. i saw a lot of grognard types grumbling online about how the hats werent big enough and how they didn't like the studio color scheme and etc. but i like them for the most part.
i will also note they probably have the least annoying aos-type name they could have possibly been given.
the generic foot hero for the army is decent. he's not flashy but i think that's good, especially for chaos dwarfs, especially for their aos incarnation (aos is sometimes a little too overblown for my tastes). strong, simple pose, big hat, cool horns, it's good. i'm personally a little iffy on the glaive's shape, but it's not a huge deal.
as nice as the bejeweled beard is, though, i think i personally prefer the female overlord/tyrant/taskmaster/whatever you get from the underworlds warband.
the basic battleline is similarly conservative in presentation, and i appreciate that. there's a lot of repeated design elements across the range i like, such as the studded grips and the scale mail and the inset gems.
another thing i like, love, really, is the mask-wearing gong ringer. his design is so simple, yet there's a real sense of cultishness about him, to the point that i can just imagine him smelling of incense and oils. i almost feel he's wasted as just a musician, and that geedubs could have taken his design and extended it to an entire unit, something akin to berserker zealots that could be a dark mirror to the old world's dwarf slayers. but alas. i wonder if i can get him standalone off ebay.
then there's this artillery piece. i like the little daemon reservoir with all its little eyes, and the masked crewman. solid, if a little simple.
one of my favorite models from the new range, the big bull-engine is nice and intimidating. i love the billows of smoke from the cannons, and the fire pouring from its back and stomach. i can't see it too well, but i believe it actually has a tail, and i wonder what the entirety of that looks like.
this sorcerer might be one of my favorites in the army, with his stone-tablet pulpit (the clawed feet on it just conjure the image of it scuttling around with its master). his prosthetic hand is excellent too - the whole "dwarfs using magic turning to stone" thing from the old world being nodded to is fun. all in all excellent.
and then there's his mid brother, ripe to be cannibalized for conversions. thankfully, they come in the same kit, making it easy to do so. the big standout of this is the half-stone head, but he looks so... naked, without his hat.
the bull centaurs are absolutely my favorite kit in the range, especially these masked, bare-chested ones, who strike all the same notes as that gong ringer i mentioned above. this may genuinely be one of the few kits in this army i fully splurge on rather than try to buy in singles, as they are ripe for blood bowl - assuming i can cram them on a smaller base. all in all, perfect. chef's kiss.
like the melee battleline, the gunners look very conservative, and good for it. i like the orbs and vents on their guns, perfect for playing with source lighting, as well as the grumpy little face etched into the flamers. i also like the headdress of the leader in this second picture, with the hanging jewels and the neck guard.
even besides my peeve with long-nosed goblins, i'm a little averse to the hobgoblins in the army. i'm not sure what it is, but their poses seem more obviously repeated, which looks fine in a blocky battleline such as the dwarfs but is more notable in the goblins' lanky, hunched postures (as well as the fact they belong to the more dynamic aos than the regimented old world, where uniformity is easier to get away with or indeed looks quite good). overall, they look simple to the point of being boring and nearly generic.
maybe they would look better to me with a headswap, though. ghoul heads might look interesting on them.
out of the way first, my biggest gripe with the big centerpiece is that frankly ugly magic effect on the narrative hero, which looks a little like something you'd yank out of a shower drain, and isn't helped by the green-and-gray blotches on the studio color scheme. the rest of the model is quite good, however (i like the hand option that's poised to lob a fireball) though i can't help but feel a slight pang at seeing it be simply a winged bull, and not a man-faced lamassu or similar such creature. i wonder how long it will take for someone to convert such a thing.
i do appreciate that desolate isengard-type base, however.
overall, i like the army. it's a very cautious reimagining, and i appreciate it not trying to reinvent the wheel too much - not with chaos dwarfs, at least.
as for myself, i had an idea right off the bat to paint such miniatures in the same palette as spelunky 2's neo-babylon, which seems fitting seeing as chorfs are a relatively high-tech faction by the setting's standards. of course, my intent with them extends largely to snatching up bull centaurs and drafting them into football teams, but it's nice to imagine.
