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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Personalizing your collection: Dwarf Army (Nearly) Completed

Readership, I'm not dead. :)
Thanks to Glenstorm for keeping the blog alive the last few weeks - I've been painting a Blood Bowl army on commission for a friend of mine and have finally gotten back to the summer project of finishing terrain pieces for my underground table (in prep for the next tournament) and finishing the details on the Dwarf and Goblin armies. Today, I'd like to give you a glimpse (though not a close look) at some terrain work I've been doing and focus today's discussion on the army of Dwarves that are now (almost) completed. You can see the army here (51 models) and also can see that the walls of the Dwarf Hold have received their grey base coat (more on these pieces in the coming weeks).

The first division is led by Gimli and it sports my Dwarf Warriors with shields, Dwarf Warrior with banner, and Khazad Guards. I play Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and decided a long time ago that I'd eventually give all of my Dwarves names. After I made my own Thorin's Company in anticipation of the Unexpected Journey movie, I actually put into action the collection of names. In the lore of this army, all of the Dwarves in this army live in Thorin's Halls in Ered Luin, north of the Shire. The Dwarves you see here are trainers of great warriors (champions, guardians, and wardens) or they are craftsmen (weaponsmiths and armorers).
The Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows are led by this (kind of washed out) shield-bearer. Though LOTRO doesn't have many archers, there are hunter trainers, bards, and other random characters. In this army, those who don't directly use hand weapons for training are going to be assumed to use bows.
Here is my famous (as in, awarded a prize for best conversion at the last grand tournament and currently the most popular post on this blog) Thorin's Company - 13 Dwarves that can be fielded for 200 points. Though not as powerful as the units in the new Hobbit release (except for my Balin, who costs about twice what the new Balin does), the fact that I can get 13 units for the cost of 2-4 of the other members is enough to convince me. I'm thinking about putting an oakenshield on Thorin's model (somewhere), but I'm not sure I want to do that quite yet. The new model, though, has piqued my interest, though I'd probably go for a closer representation to what is wielded in the movie (vice a device that looks more like a shield).

Finally, I have "The King's Rangers," led by a shield-bearer. These rangers are trained in woodlore as all rangers should be, but their specialty is found in roaming the tunnels of the mountain and ensuring that they are neither seen nor heard as they scout for Goblins and other fell creatures. These models have finally been glossed and were the last large project for my army...at least for the time being.
I'm hoping to get the rest of the terrain pieces done soon and will be dedicating the rest of the month to those terrain projects. August will be almost exclusively Goblin-focused, while September will turn to cover newly-acquired models (birthday money is coming) and my Wood Elves - who are scheduled to be brought to the next Grand Tournament and have been woefully neglected as of late in their hobbying needs.

9 comments:

  1. looking good T. So what is the running point total for your drawf army these days?

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    1. Without paying for an Elven cloak for Gimli (I never do), it's 765 points. Room enough for a few more heroes, hopefully to be coming soon. :)

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  2. Sweet army; really loving the paint job on the rangers. Are you considering using Iron Guard in your force, or are you more set on more warriors/new heroes to round out the firepower aspect of the list? As a new dwarf player, understanding the strategy is key for me, :)

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    1. My playing style for Dwarves is different from other Dwarf players I've seen - see the Simmuskhan's Blog in the side bar for a different point of view. I am a firm believer that most kills generated by a Dwarf army will be done by their heroes - most have/can have a two-handed weapon rule, they all have high Fight values, and many have throwing weapons - shocker that the conversation went to throwing weapons, I know.

      As such, I've invested in a lot of heroes and don't see the need for more warriors - I don't use all of the 46 that I have now. I'm planning on adding Durin and a Dwarf King to my ranks: Durin because he's a war horn-carrying, combat brawler who can be supported easily by two Shield-Bearers and still field an army of 36 Dwarves. The Dwarf King isn't as good as Gimli or Balin, but still better than your average captain (more on that break-down in a future post).

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  3. Hey guys, great to see rings is still kicking beyond our small group.

    I know zorro follows me over on chefofwar.blogspot.com, but I was wondering where you guys are based as you talk about local tournaments?

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    1. Hey Jeremy,

      First off, welcome to TMAT! I follow you (and have included you in our "friendly blogs" list on the side bar - great content coming out from your site and some of the other GitD blogs. We're based in Northern Virginia.

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  4. In the past we have had some VA guys come to our tournaments here in IL. You guys ever attend any of the old Gamesworkshop events in Baltimore?

    Keep up the updates!

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    1. No, we haven't been out to any official GW events. If you poke around at some of our tourney posts or our "House Rules" page, you'll note we don't strictly roll with GW canon rules. But we try to rally some members of our extended gaming group and stuff dice in their hands for 1-2 small tournaments each year. In the next couple months we should start seeing some murmorings on the blog about The Hunters Red October '13

      That said, I'll confess that whenever I read your coverage of the Chicago tourneys I try to concoct a plan to attend one someday. I had just put "attend GitD" as a travel goal when I heard that tourney was ending. So maybe we'll make the trek sometime.

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  5. That was what I was getting at! Bilbo's birthday bash is and has been one of the single largest Rings events in the country. november 9th and 10th if you wanted to check it out.

    http://bilbosbirthdaybash.wordpress.com/

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