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.