http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/8.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net I was expecting the dwarfs I ordered to be no different. It part this held out to be true, the special Christmas deal offered a dwarf hero for free with a purchase of the new Dwarf Berserkers, which you should read as Dwarf Slayers, or not-Slayers if you prefer. The dwarf hero was indeed metal, but the regiment was not resin.
When I cracked open the box I found that they were in fact plastic sprues, with a sculpt quality no less than I would expect from Citadel, twenty mohawk headed mad axe dwarfs ready to be unleashed upon whatever greenskin, troll or rat came their way, with accessories.

So good were they in fact that I decided to do this review....


The box art




You get six sprues in the box. Five of the sprue on the left, for a total of twenty dwarfs and one of the sprue on the right with the command group add ons.
Each dwarf if made of a waist and legs, naked chest body, head & beard, haircut, two handless arms and whatever you put in them.
Construction is straight forward and Avatars of War felt it unnecessary to include instructions. I mostly agree though some arm combos do not go together, and if you want the greataxe you need to choose dryfit and post the arms very carefully to fit. This can be very fiddly.

The High points.
1. There is a lot of fine detail, very subtle in places. For example each dwarf has a bare chest, none of the four variants of the chest section have any armour or adornment, but there are subtle variances in scarring. Modellers can ignore this or go to down in making characterful not-Slayers for their gaming.

2. The heads are awesome. Each dwarf is bald but with a magnificent dwarven beard, All four head options look great bald, but there are six hairpieces you can add to them, four different mohawks and two topknots. There is a seventh extra tall mohawk on the character sprue for the unit champion/hero if you like. As an extra bonus the command sprue includes a comb. An entirely logical inclusion and evidence of how much thought has gone into this set.

3. The finger. If you look carefully at the top left of the sprue you can see a dwarf hand with a rude gesture. The fingers are meaty/pudgy great for dwarfs but limiting the value of the item for general bitz, still entirely awesome. if gamer gold not gamer platinum. You get five left hands flipping someone off, thats nevertheless four worthy add ons to anyones bitz box, after the dwarfs get to use one. I am thinking about min: a Marauder champion and an orc boss are getting an angry upgrade soon. The rest I will keep or give away, even the very best bitz are best not overused.

4. Other bits. There is a trollhide cloak, separate cloaks for dwarf models are rare, they are rare enough for humans, this is the only generic plastic dwarf cloak part I know of. Itb is a pity the cloak is not on the massed sprue, I could do with more than one. There is a horned rodent skull, and an ale mug, enough said.

The lot so high points.

It is hard to find fault with this kit but there are some places which could have been improved on. So this list will sound a bit pickier than intended.


Great kit but points awarded for the most ridiculous standard.

1. That standard. The only fail in the entire set is that standard, though that is just my taste. You might love it. The standard is a stone dwarf torso with arms on top of a stick, so likely very heavy. Were that not enough to you add two stylised dragon heads to the figurehead. There are further bits to add to taste (or lack thereof) including an open tome and a giants head. The Dragon heads are great on their own, and would do very nicely as ship prows, the stone dwarf torso is also salvagable, without the dragon heads. On its own without the banner pole it could make a very good turret trap for gaming. A Yelling stone dwarf with puffed chest and arms thrown wide. I can see this rotating on a pedestal and spewing fire at intruders. The dwarf tome is just an open book, no special standard attachments, you cold use it for a quest item or for a wizard model
What the standard could use is that severed giant head. There is a groove at the back so the gore of the neck stump flows around the banner pole. The giant has a stupidity in death expression that is very neat, complete with lolling tongue. I will use that, less is more.
So in the end I really like the standard, you get so many bitz to use everywhere and if you want a simple standard you have it, if you want a really ornate one, the set has you covered too.

2. The weapons. Most dwarfs have twin axes, however none of the axes are alike, so no dwarf can have a pair of identical axes without conversion work. Also there is only one great weapon. So command group options excluded the loadout if set for you, three dual wield, one with great weapon. This doesnt effect the rules much for WHFB or T9A but a better diversity would be welcome.
I can convert though, and will need to for variety of great weapons. There is a special more ornate axe for the champion but no great axe or paired weapon for him, just one axe.

3. The two part fist. The main problem is that you need to assemble a hand from two parts around the haft of the greataxe to pose the right hand of the model. Its a new idea, and has its advantages, unlike the cupped hands to hold a hafted weapon the fingers are seen to go around the haft, you can also have other things clasped, a rope, ale jug, two hands on the standard etc.
The trouble is that you need to get the angle of the left arm, the left wrist and weapon, the right arm, the right hand in rotation and its position along the shaft all right all at the same time before you start gluing . Getting it right without glue smears is not as easy as it looks.

That is about all. The downsides are minor at most, the positives for this kit are overwhelming. The price is very competitive compared to Vulkite Berserkers. You are paying less about less for twenty Dwarf Berserkers than you pay for ten Vulkites even at manufacturers site retail.

Avatars of War Dwarf Berserkers were re-released for Christmas 2017, I learned they first launched in 2012 but were withdrawn and OOP for a long time, and are re-released as part of Avatar of War's current push to support The Ninth Age. They are retailed from Spain, but are manufactured by Renedra in the UK (as with a lot of the plastic fantasy boxsets we are seeing).

Here is a link to the sales site. There is a discount at time of writing, but as with a lot of stuff you might be better off buying from a third party e-retailer if this set takes your fancy.

http://www.avatars-of-war.com/eng/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&prodcode=pl01&prodname=Dwarf+Seekers&id=118&Itemid=53]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/749145/9795911.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/749145/9795911.page GMT