Searching for the Slayers | Warhammer Fantasy Dwarfs

Dwarfs of the Warhammer Old World have long been known as proud, brave, ale-drinking, oath-swearing warriors, but there’s also always been a small population of wild, orange-haired, maniacs, seeking doom in every glorious battle! The slayers feel like one of the most iconic and long-lasting aspects of Warhammer lore, and yet they weren’t there from the start. So where did they come from?

I try to trace the earliest appearances of dwarf berserkers and their evolution in the slayers that we know and love. Starting with Warhammer Fantasy Battle, passing through Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and of course pausing to hang out with Gotrek and Felix, the journey from Tolkienesque stoic Dwarfs to Age of Sigmar’s entire race of slayers has been an interesting one!

#Warhammer #Oldhammer #GamesWorkshop #CitadelMiniatures #Dwarfs #Dwarves #TrollSlayers #GiantSlayers #DragonSlayers #DemonSlayers #DwarfSlayers

_____________________________

Links & Sources:

_____________________________

Art, Music, and Copyright:

Images used belong to their respective copyright owners
Jordan Sorcery Theme by Joylin Music
Jordan Sorcery Heraldry by Becka Moor
Jordan Sorcery Heraldry and Theme copyright @jordansorcery

[TheGreenSquander]

Another great dive in Warhammer history! Please sir, I want some more!

[ciaranmorris]

Great video on a great topic - have to commend you on your pacing and delivery as a narrator and storyteller, you have an effortless and natural style for it. Keep up the great work and look forward to more!

[MrLinindoll]

Amazing video as always. Love the topic as well. I’m currently playing a Slayer in my WHQ95 campaign. I loved seeing the WHQ mini mentioned, and of course Gotrek was there too!

I was surprised however that 1991 White Dwarf #134’s Kili Thekkrsson the Trollslayer’s profiles for HeroQuest and Advanced HeroQuest weren’t mentioned. The AHQ scenario in that issue is even called “The Trollslayer’s Oath”.

[warpjediAK]

I fondly remember seeing a grab bag of mixed old metal dwarves for £7.50 in my local modelshop, which I bought painted and enjoyed only to find out much later that amongst them was these Lords of legend. 😊

[thierryturnover]

Awesome video, thanks Jordan for delving into these great minis. Could you please one day make a video about the amazing gotrek and Felix.

[stevekearns]

Glorious! We had a slayer in our Warhammer RPG group, good times and good times working up those slayer levels with them.

[brenthartman]

As someone who has a Warhammer Slayer army - amongst all my other dwarves of decades ... this was very enjoyable. Cheers 😆👍

[Ethnarches]

Really great video! Hopefully you’ll do more in this format of other more or less iconic units.
I've recently started collecting older dwarfs and I have around 20 slayers so far ranging from a `87 Dwarf Berserker to the most recent `05 metal slayers and of course various slayer characters. I've loved them since starting the hobby in `98, so great to finally own some myself among other iconic dwarf units.

[andrewbusch]

I loved hearing the words "Absolute Unit" followed by classical music. Great stuff.

[johnclarke]

Great vid again, love the slayers, one of the first sets I collected was the magnificent sven painted a few years ago just need to paint the 100 or so slann for this and the krelmo game, have nearly all the forces for the senerio box sets, shame they don't produce anything like that now as they were always exciting comeing out each year and still love the card buildings and use to this day.

[ClydeMillerWynant]

Just stumbled across this - could have done with doing so when it came out as in the meantime I did pretty much the same research and came up with the same answers! Beserkers, WFRP etc. Great video - I've subscribed now.
I'd been going through my old 1980s Dwarfs with a view to sorting them out into some sort of playable army for The Old World (or 6th/8th Editions WFB) and was disappointed that out of a considerable number (40-odd) of Norse Dwarfs I only had one beserker (well two, but the same model - the 'Total Loony' as he's known in old catalogues). A model I had always wanted was the original Juggo (Perry Twins according to Lost Minis btw) as the first game of WFB I ever played was The Magnificent Sven - with the card and paper cutout figures that came with it. I knew there was a Juggo in McDeath which we also played back then, but as you show in the video the card counter for him looked like a human even though he was supposed to be a dwarf - I never discovered until recently that they used one of the best beserker figures for him if you bought the minis. Anyway I've got both of them now and am very happy with them!
I really don't like the vast majority of proper Slayer figures - weapons too big, a bit OTT in general - and much prefer the beserkers even though I'll have to field them as Slayers. Got most of them now. I'm going to claim Kimril Giant Slayer as a beserker though despite his name. He also appeared as the representative figure of the beserker unit (The Enforcers) on the flyer for the 'sample armies' that you could buy by mail order and came with the original Ravening Hordes. One of the other 'Dwarf Lords of Legend' (Throbin Death Eye) also featured in that as a hero that commanded the beserker unit - he had a different name though. Lost my original copy of the flyer, but found it online.
Thanks again for the video, really enjoyed it.

[biteme]

more of these unit histories, please. great dive

[vzgg]

Fantastic- Huge nostalgia and learn something new every time

[bigwheelercenisfeeler]

It's a great Saturday when I get a notification for a fresh Jordan Sorcery video. Keep up the great work man 👍😊

[philwadey]

Along with the Goblin-Hewer the Storm Of Chaos book had another great if rather silly Slayer unit for it's Slayers Army List, the Slayer Doomseekers, a Slayer wielding two axe heads on long chains that spin into battle

[darnokx]

Another great one, well done. Only point of criticism: less table space on the left, more catto on the right!

[malmo]

Enjoyable as always. I have all the mentioned earliest slayer models so was a real nostalgia blast.

[HighlandCowboy]

There was some lore for the Lords of Legend when I got them with the skulls promotion back in the 90s. It said Kimril was the first of the slayers and that he bested the twin giants, Thunderguts and Stormbelly.

[TheJankmaster]

Playing a Necromatic team in blood bowl, I killed a slayer and raised him from the dead. Thus a slayer zombie.

Tortured soul…and hilarity at its finest.

[fredericetile]

Another great video! Thanks for making those