Chaos Dwarf Factory Ship

Abaza bowed low before the brass throne of the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer Lord Faruk.

“The chittering horde is closing in, my lord. We captured some of their foragers and
scouts. They are currently being tortured for information on the Skaven plans.”

The Sorcerer Lord cut him off, “No. Have them immediately put to work on finishing the
bulkheads. Feed them warpstone. We get twelve parts in a hundred more work from
them that way. Before they expire.” The Sorcerer Lord smiled even as the Chaos Dwarf
warrior before him frowned.

“My lord, they may have knowledge critical to save the city. Of what use are the
bulkheads when they are almost entirely underground? The surface wall is so low the
Skaven will simply hop over them.” The warrior’s frustration and fear edged into a
voice usually kept carefully neutral when addressing his master.

Faruk chuckled. “One does not question the will of Hashut, Abaza, nor his favorite
servants. Every slave is to work without rest, without food. Every warrior is to lay aside
his arms and work to finish the bulkheads.”

“Sire, the Skaven will be upon us before we finish regardless.”

“Send out the Bull-centaurs to delay them.”

“Without support they will be wiped out by the Skaven horde,” Abaza protested.

Faruk shrugged, “We won’t need them soon anyway. They need only delay the Skaven
for a time, then they may die. The Bulkheads! Those are what matter. Hashut has shown
it to me in a dream.”

Abaza left the Sorcerer Lord’s tower and wondered. Could Hashut desire such suicide
from the city? Had he forsaken the Chaos Dwarves in favor of the Skaven?

The smell of so many burning Bull-centaurs reached the city in advance of the Skaven
horde. Faruk could see the first waves of scouts running quickly over the hills just
outside the city. The main force would be within the city inside the hour.

“My lord,” Abaza said wearily. The last day had aged the stout Dwarf terribly. “The
bulkheads are complete and we’ve weakened the supporting braces as you asked. What
are your orders now,” he asked in a voice tinged with resignation.
“Send a hobgoblin team to activate the Bore controls on the Hashut’s Wall Dam. Open
the gates fully.”

“I see my lord. You mean to draw the Skaven army into the city and then drown it by
causing the Waste River to flood. Then the weakened city supports will collapse. We will
deny the Skaven our works and kill a great many of them, but was there really no hope of
holding the city if we had fought?”

Faruk laughed cruelly. “Your ignorance amuses me, Abaza. That must be why I have
not yet had you flayed for your heresy and doubt. Go! We will see Hashut’s will done,
and that before the Skaven breach our city. Waste no more of my time.”

The Waste River, which had been a mere trickle out of the dam used to draw off the
industrial wastes of the city, surged through the fully open gates. It ran under the city
through the channels cut for its passage. It battered the weakened city supports. With
terrible sounds of tortured metal they gave way, but the city did not collapse. Faruk and
his apprentices chanted from the top of their tower in the center of the city. They prayed
to Hashut. They chanted the words that twisted the Winds of Chaos. Several died from
their exertions, but they were not alone in this. A thousand slaves were sacrificed upon
the lower levels of the temple. As the water rose the bulkheads held. Free from the
supports the city floated upon the now raging Waste River. The outermost sections of the
city collapsed, but they were mainly used for housing the slaves as well as the Bull-
centaurs. The industrial sector of the city, and the Sorcerer’s tower survived, that was all
that mattered to Faruk.

As the city floated away from the Skaven it lashed out with blunderbusses fired from a
score of windows. The Skaven numbers were hardly diminished and yet the message was
clear.

Hashut’s Horn, a Chaos Dwarf Factory Ship

This unique vessel is a literal floating city. Its surface aspect is larger even than a Dark
Elf Black Arc, although it lacks the subterranean depths of the Dark Elf ship and so is
smaller in total. The Factory Ship maintains its former productivity in industrial goods.
It also boasts a population far larger than any other vessel on the oceans. At the same
time the ship lacks any large scale weaponry. The Chaos Sorcerer master will not risk his
testament to Hashut’s power on the inspired but often suicidal weapons of the engineers.
Because of these attributes the Factory Ship makes an ideal fleet tender. Hashut’s Horn is
nearly always found surrounded by lesser vessels that are either in the employ of the city
ship or have come to trade slaves and materials in return for the goods the Factory Ship
can provide. Small boats race back and forth between the Factory Ship and Thunderfire
and Great Leveler battle barges bringing supplies.

In combat the battle barges surround the Factory Ship, partly to protect it but mostly to
benefit from the never ceasing stream of slaves that row small boats laden with fresh
crew and supplies to the combat vessels.

Hashut’s Horn by itself is little threat to any but the smallest vessel or individual flyer. It
mounts no heavy weapons. Individual Chaos Dwarf Warriors can fire their blunderbusses
at nearby enemies. En masse these can cause some slight damage. The city-ship itself is
however extremely durable. Sturdy dwarven engineering coupled with massive sorceries
to hold it together in the worst weather have made it a daunting target to destroy, and pity
the poor fool who tries to board her. The Factory Ship’s huge population of warriors and
even slaves will fight through the labyrinthine factory works, firing blunderbusses,
pouring liquid steel from the metal works, dropping heavy weights from overhead cranes,
and so on.

Although the Horn of Hashut comes with many sorcerers in the Tower, they are entirely
focused on the task of keeping the spells in place that allow the city to float and move.
They do not have any affect on the magic phase of the game. A separate sorcerer can be
bought (at the usual points cost) to fulfill
the role of fleet wizard.

Stats for the Factory Ship

Chaos Dwarf Man O’ War, if used it must be the flagship of the fleet
200 pts
Crew 10
High locations
4-6: Horn of Hashut (Sorcerer’s tower). Save of 4+. Three damage locations. Each hit
reduces the speed of the Factory ship by 2”.

Low locations
3: Slave quarter. Save of 4+. Two damage locations. Each hit reduces crew by 1.
4: Factory quarter 1. Save of 4+. Two damage locations. If destroyed (both locations
damaged) then no more repairs can be made.
5: Factory quarter 2. Save of 4+. Two damage locations. If destroyed (both locations
damaged) then no more misfire table re-rolls can be made.
6: Chaos Dwarf quarter. Save of 4+. Two damage locations. Each hit reduces crew by 1.

Below the waterline: 6 hits, save of 4+

Move- magic 6”

Weapons- can fire blunderbusses at up to two targets within short range only. It has two
total dice which may be directed at one target or split between two. Against fliers resolve
these as normal. Against ships or monsters for each roll of a 6 the target loses one crew
or takes one wound.

Special abilities-
During its action in the battle phase, Factory Ship can shuttle crew over to any friendly
ship within 3”. These crew are removed from the Factory ship and placed on the friendly
ship. Normal maximum crew allowances must be observed.

Any Chaos Dwarf ship within 3” of the Factory ship that rolls a misfire may re-roll once
on the misfire *table* if they choose. This is not a re-roll of the artillery die. It does not
prevent the misfire but it may lessen the consequences. The second result must be
accepted even if worse.

The Factory ship can attempt to repair itself as per the rules for dwarven engineers (in the
end phase choose one damaged location other than below the waterline, roll a die on a 5-
6 the location is repaired). Alternately the Factory Ship can attempt to repair one friendly
vessel that is directly touching the Factory Ship during the end phase. It cannot do both.

During boarding actions the Factory Ship can count a maximum of 6 crew counters for
the fight (meaning a maximum roll of 1d6+6 barring outside factors). The city is simply
too big for a fully crewed Factory Ship to get everyone in the fight at once. If the crew of
the Factory ship is reduced below 6 boarding actions are handled as normal.

Meta-design

So I really like the Chaos Dwarves. Little evil industrialists; what’s not to love? But the
fleet has a problem. In Warhammer the Chaos Dwarves have big engines of destruction
that are prone to blowing up. That’s fine. But in Warhammer they don’t put all their
important people right on top of these misfire prone beasties. In Man O’ War they do.
Both Chaos Dwarf Man O’ Wars have about a 10% chance of destroying themselves on
each and every turn that they fire. Considering that one of these ships will have your
admiral and sorcerer on it those are not odds I’d want to play. So I wanted to make a CD
Man O’ War that wasn’t a death trap. Given their industrial nature the idea of a fleet
tender was appealing.

And I have to admit to a certain amount of Arc-envy regarding the Dark Elves. So I
decided to design a CD floating city to rival a Black Arc. It would seem to be
uncharacteristic for the race to have big guns on the ship that weren’t capable of blowing
up. Hence the only relatively unarmed Man’ O War. The Factory Ship is practically
useless on its own.

To compensate it is very tough and has a few very useful powers in terms of supporting a
fleet.

Deciding on a points cost was hard. I’m tempted to make it cost more given just how
tough it is, and yet a Black Arc is 250 points and comparing the two I’m pretty sure the
black arc is better (just about as tough when you consider the difficulty of even shooting
at the black arc, plus a useful ability to hold monsters, plus a bonus against boarders, plus
some very good weaponry).

I want the Factory Ship to pose the classic tactical challenge- do I leave it alone and focus
on the things that are actually shooting, or do I put the time and energy into sinking it so
as to weaken the shooters? If the Factory Ship is too fragile this question is easy too
answer. It has to be hard enough that it really is a question which you can sink quickest-
several Thunderfires/Great Levelers or the ship that is supporting them.

N.b. the weapon attacks are intentionally modeled after the blunderbus attack of the
taurus rider.

I have a plan of how to model one. If it works out I’ll take a picture and post it to the
group.

As always feedback is appreciated.