The Armies of the Hobbit, Part III: Dwarves

Good morning gamers,

In our last two posts, we saw the Orc-based armies and the "other" Evil armies. Today, we turn our attention to the Dwarves. I'll say from the start that the bearded fellows are near-and-dear to my heart, not only because I started playing the game with the LOTR Dwarf army options, but also because I converted some Dwarf Rangers when the Hobbit movies came out so I could have Thorin's Company in the game (I've since acquired Thorin's Company, so those Dwarves are going through the renaming/repainting process).

1) The New Lists: Thorin's Company, Army of Thror, The Iron Hills, Erebor Reclaimed
We're tackling four lists today and they all do different things: the lists provide options to run an all-hero list (Thorin's Company), a mixture of power heroes and some basic warriors (Erebor Reclaimed), a handful of named heroes with tough melee infantry and no long-range shooting options (Army of Thror), and an army with a handful of hero choices and a large mix of warrior choices (The Iron Hills). All told, by investing in at least one Dwarf army from the Armies of the Hobbit book, you get access to MANY different playing styles. Ergo, picking one can be difficult (hence this post).

2) The Army Bonuses: Who's Your Da...Leader?

Like the Orc-based armies we viewed before, the army bonuses for these four factions all revolve around your army leader (and hence, I think there are auto-includes for Historical/Mono armies): Thorin's Company and Erebor Reclaimed both provide Thorin with a bubble benefit, so you should include Thorin. The Army of Thror gets a bubble benefit around Thror, so you should include him. The Iron Hills gives Dain Master of Battle (4+) which is a great way to get free Might points in a game, so you should include Dain.

While all of these bonuses incentivize taking a certain hero, the rest of the list is wide-open. Unlike lists like Azog's Hunters or the Serpent Horde which might encourage you to take a lot of archers, these lists have auto-includes for 110-150 points and then you're free to do whatever you want with the rest of it. Of course, if you lose said hero, you don't get any extra bonuses, but it's nice to have some flexibility for what you want to include. Without further ado, let's look at some of those options for our first list, The Iron Hills.

3) The Lists: The Iron Hills

You won't find a more elite conventional army (aka not an all-hero army) than the Iron Hills - your models have above average Fight (F4), above average Strength (S4), above average Defense (D6-8), and a flexible warrior model array (good warriors, good cavalry, good chariots, good siege engines). What you DON'T get is a flexible array of heroes (you have Dain - who is awesome - and Murin and Drar - who are awesome - and captains - who are awesome - but that's it). Like Isengard (who also lives in this world, but doesn't have quite the defense boost that the Iron Hills have), your models are very expensive. As such, by running Iron Hills, we are agreeing to run at a lower model count than they are in exchange for more powerful models. Frankly, I think it's okay - let's look at a list or two, shall we?

List #1: You Like That?
Dain Ironfoot on War Boar
Iron Hills Captain
6 Iron Hills Warriors
8 Iron Hills Warriors with spears
9 Iron Hills Warriors with crossbows
1 Iron Hills Ballista

The Iron Hills army bonus is very good - no matter what kind of game you're playing, Dain gets Master of Battle (4+) which gives you a non-zero chance of getting free Might points when calling Heroic Actions (which is great). Your army bonus also allows you to (more often than not) deploy how you want, allowing you to maximize the synergy of your army. This is good, since we're running siege engines that normally have to be placed first in maelstrom fights and THEN we place our other models. This army has three simple formations: a ballista on its own, an anvil for the Iron Hills Captain, and crossbows with some spear supporters for Dain. 

Between the ballista and the crossbows, your opponent will have to come fight you. The Captain's anvil can be used to protect the ballista OR go make trouble elsewhere, assuming the ballista is protected by the crossbows. With a starting D7 on your warriors (that promotes to D8 with shield wall) and a starting D8 on your captain (that promotes to D9 with shield wall), this is kind of like running a team of Vault Wardens, except that your defense all-around is higher AND no one runs the risk of suffering a penalty to win the fight if they're not spear-supported). Now Rythbryt will probably critique me for not putting spears on everyone - sue me, I wanted another crossbow out of the deal, ;). Keeping your firing lines between the crossbows and the ballista clear (so the ballista doesn't cut off your own archery) is key, but you'll get the hang of it. 

Dain is incredibly good, but I won't delve into the glories of him in this list - to see that, you'll want to see the next list...

List #2: Thunderous Charge
Dain Ironfoot on War Boar
7 Iron Hills Goat Riders

CONVENIENT ALLY: Rivendell

Elrond, Master of Rivendell on horse with heavy armor

5 Rivendell Knights with shields

Do you remember back when we reviewed the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and we had a knights list with Dol Amroth and Rivendell? Well, this is the Hobbit version. :) Rivendell is conveniently re-printed in the Armies of the Hobbit, allowing you to run this list with only the Armies of the Hobbit book, so there's that for starters. Second, Elrond allows you just by taking him (not by keeping your army bonus) to include as many bow-armed Rivendell Knights as you like (up to 18, of course) in whatever allied contingent you want. While the Rivendell Knights are fantastic models (lances, shields with Expert Rider, Elf Bows), the Goat Riders are really where the power is at.

Goat Riders have War Spears, which count as lances when mounted and spears when on the ground. While your Rivendell Knights will be powerful on the charge, when they dismount they get remarkably less powerful both on defense (down to D5 because you're still carrying the bow so no bonus from the shield) and on offense (no lance, just your Elven-made-hand-and-a-half-sword...which is still decent, to be sure). Goat Riders, once dismounted, retain their D6 nature (no shields on these bokes, sad), can spear-support one another, and are F4 S4 (vs. F5 S3). But the BEST thing about these guys is that when you complete the charge, you get to roll a D6 to see if the target is knocked over - this guarantees that you won't be killed EVEN if you lose the fight. If you win, you've got double wounding dice for 2 Attacks at Strength 4 with +1 to Wound - that's devastating! Coming in at the same points as a Knight of Dol Amroth on horse with lance, I think these guys are a bargain.

Leading the charge is Dain, who (from experience fighting him) hits like a stack of bricks when on his boar. Since the boar itself has 2 Wounds at Defense 6, you've got an incredibly resilient mount (albeit an expensive one). On the charge, Dain gets 4 Attack dice with a Burly S5 two-handed hammer - perfect for crushing anyone he fights (you wound D6-7 models on 4s with no penalty to win the fight, mate)!

4) The Lists: Thorin's Company

Let's begin by saying this: I don't think any of the Historical Allies for Thorin's Company are worth taking. Before the errata, I thought that taking a Captain of Lake-town (maybe with a contingent of bow-carrying and spear-carrying warriors) might be worth it for the Heroic March options (since none of the Thorin's Company Dwarves have Heroic March and 5" movement gets boosted a lot with Heroic March). With the errata giving everyone Heroic March, I don't think you need Lake-town anymore (your numbers don't grow dramatically and the Fight/Strength/Defense of Lake-town's warriors and captains are not very good). 

Thorin's Company's only other Historical ally is the Misty Mountains, which will require a good bit of your points just fielding Gwaihir and one Eagle ally. While there's definitely utility in allying between the Eagles and the Dwarves, we covered that already in our post on the Misty Mountains list in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings review. So, no historical allies for us today - just straight-up Dwarves for our first list:

List #1: We Must Away 'Ere Break Of Day
Thorin Oakenshield with Orcrist
Dwalin the Dwarf
Gloin the Dwarf
Kili the Dwarf
Fili the Dwarf
Ori the Dwarf
Gandalf the Grey

I'll be honest, I can't decide between keeping Gandalf and Ori or adding in Nori, Dori, Oin, and Bombur (along with the Oakenshield on Thorin and a Pony on someone - probably Gloin). The addition of these four Dwarves would be good on a number of levels - Nori is a mini-Dwalin, Dori has 3 Attacks at Fight 5, Oin can spend a Will point each turn to provide someone with a banner bonus and can heal people that he starts adjacent to, and Bombur can give Will points back to people (not to mention has 3 Wounds - virtually not present in Thorin's Company). Gandalf and Ori provide more benefits than these guys in my opinion, but again, I was tempted.

For the Dwarves we did take, three of them are auto-includes for me: Thorin, Dwalin, and Gloin. Not only are these guys the highest Defense characters in the list (and buying all three of them base only costs you 280 points), but you'll be hard-pressed on offense to do better than them. I'll note that Gloin is the one character who can actually migrate away from the Thorin bubble since his Warrior Born special rule gives him the equivalent of the army bonus already - hence why giving him a Pony to go rushing ahead towards a different pocket of enemies might work (and you'll get +3" movement to make your throwing axes that much more potent). Dwalin is a monster, with access to Bash, Piercing Strike, and Feint/Stab (not that you need it if you're next to Thorin), as well as rules that keep him from ever counting as unarmed and removing the penalty of wielding a two-handed weapon. With 3 Attacks that can all have +1 To Wound and rerolling 1s (if near Thorin), Dwalin is a force to be reckoned with. Thorin wraps up the trio with Orcrist (nothing like Terror and D3 wounds against Orcs/Goblins/Uruks on an Elven-made hand-and-a-half sword), and a very impressive Fight 6, Strength 4, Attacks 3, Might 3 hero - very powerful. With Defense 7, Wounds 3, and Fate 3, Thorin is (for 100 points) a very good hero.

Fili and Kili are often auto-includes for me - for 100 points, you get two Bodyguard characters who give you some presence in the Shoot phase - besides Gloin's throwing axes, none of the aforementioned characters (including the substitute characters for Gandalf and Ori) can participate in the Shoot phase. With Fili also providing throwing weapons, you have a flexible mix of shooting options (though Kili's Dwarf Bow is nothing to sniff at). I do wonder sometimes, though, if they're better than Nori and Oin (higher focus on the melee phase with Nori, Oin makes one person better at fighting), but I've chosen to go with the sister-sons of Thorin because of Bodyguard.

Ori and Gandalf wrap up the team - Gandalf's protection from archery (and potentially protection against magic/special rules thanks to Protection of the Valar) is invaluable to keeping your team alive as you slog across the field. Gandalf's other options are good too:

• Decent melee fighter with an A1 F5 S5 Elven-made hand-and-a-half sword; 
• Good control with Immobilize/Command spells;
• Difficult to cast but powerful damage spells with Sorcerous Blast/Collapse Rocks; and 
• The ability to add extra Will Points (even on himself now!) to your team with Strengthen Will. 

Ori is also good, but in a very different way: on paper, he's dreadful (hence why he's one of the cheapest models on the team), but if he ever hits on a 6 when shooting (and he gets to shoot twice if he doesn't move), he automatically Wounds the target. It's important to note that while Ori can't actually wound D9/D10 models with his slingshot, there is no rule that says that D9/D10 models can't be targets for his attacks (just that he can't roll to wound them). Ergo, it's possible for Ori to wound these targets if he rolls a 6 to hit - which in many ways is a great reason to include him. For those who doubt me, check out the following words:

• Page 35 (Picking a Target): "A model must have a target to shoot at. For an enemy model to be a viable target, they must be in Line of Sight and in range. It is likely that there will be multiple enemy models that are eligible targets. When this is the case, simply choose one of them to shoot at."
• Page 40 (Rolling To Wound): "First, compare the Strength of the weapon to the Defense of your target on the To Wound chart shown above. The result indicates the minimum dice roll required to inflict one Wound on your enemy. A score of 6/4, 6/5, or 6/6 means that you must roll a single dice and score a 6, followed by a further dice that must score either 4+, 5+ or another 6, respectively. A '-' means that model cannot wound the target, they are just too tough to be harmed. If your dice roll is not high enough,no Wound is inflicted (the target just ignores the blow)."

Our next list looks at a convenient alliance you can use with these doughty Dwarves...

List #2: What Do The Dwarves of the Iron Hills Say?
Thorin Oakenshield with Orcrist and the Oakenshield
Dwalin the Dwarf
Kili the Dwarf
Fili the Dwarf

CONVENIENT ALLY: The Iron Hills

Murin & Drar
5 Iron Hills Warriors with spears
2 Iron Hills Warriors with crossbows
2 Iron Hills Warriors with crossbows and spears
2 Iron Hills Goat Riders

I'll be honest - I REALLY thought about taking Gloin (and the list might be better with him, I don't know). Instead, we've opted for a higher shoot-phase presence, including both Kili and Fili as well as Drar from the Iron Hills list. I'll say this about Murin and Drar for starters: they're basically Kili and Fili from the Erebor Reclaimed list (which we'll look at later), except that they cost 10-20 points less, Drar doesn't hit as well (but shoots more), and they have fewer heroic actions. I couldn't resist pairing Murin (wielidng Kalazal, which gets +1 to Wound against Orcs/Goblins/Uruks) with Thorin wielding Orcrist (which does D3 Wounds and causes Terror against Orcs/Goblins/Uruks). Backed by Dwalin (mega-killing-machine that he is), these heroes can carve through foes without difficulty (and all of them have access to Heroic Strike, so if you're facing F6-7 heroes, you have a good shot at burning through their Might or besting them in a fight).

Shooting in this list comes from Drar (two shots hitting on 4s with a Dwarf bow), Kili (one shot hitting on 3s with a Dwarf bow), Fili (one shot hitting on 3s with throwing axes), and 4 Iron Hills Warriors (four shots hitting on 4s with crossbows). This amount of archery won't be as high as a conventional list, but it'll still do a good bit of damage. Using the maxim of odd-strength-odd-defense/even-strength-even-defense, your heroes should target D3/D5/D7 targets if possible, while your crossbows should target D4/D6/D8 targets. I've chosen to equip two of the crossbows with spears just in case they hang back with Drar and get charged - it's nice to be able to support the front-liners.

Finally, we protect the heroes and archers with a five-man-shieldwall and two cavalry. The Goat Riders are great for claiming objectives if nothing else, but as we've already seen, they're decently resilient and can be powerful on the charge. The five-man shieldwall I don't like - shieldwalls are better with seven men when you're advancing down the field because you need to kill at least two people in order to deny the shieldwall bonus to at least one person. With five people, a single loss can alienate at least one model from the bonus, reducing your team's effectiveness. While I've given all of these guys spears, I'll note that you're unlikely to be doing much spear supporting with them due to your small model count. Still, you never know what you'll need (and if you can spear-support, these guys are fantastic).

5) The Lists: The Army of Thror

While Thorin's Company is very hero-oriented, the Army of Thror is less so. You do have access to three great named heroes (Thror, Thrain, and Thorin) and two decent named heroes (Young Dwalin and Young Balin). Personally, I think you only run this list with Thror/Thrain/Thorin, as shown below:

List #1: Reclaiming Moria
Thror
Young Thorin Oakenshield with the Oakenshield
4 Warriors of Erebor with shields
16 Warriors of Erebor with shields and spears
1 Warrior  of Erebor with shield, spear, and banner
12 Guardians of the King

So this list is simple - Thror counts as a banner, so you surround him with 12 Guardians of the King and 6 Warriors of Erebor with shields and spears (very tough group). Thorin (who doesn't count as a banner) gets the banner-bearer and the remaining Warriors of Erebor. All of the models in this list are at least D7 and 12 of them have throwing axes (which is as close to shooting as you can get in this list). While we could swap Thorin for Thrain, I think the tactical benefits of running Thorin is better.

Our next list shows you what might be the toughest list in our reviews so far:

List #2: Allies of Old
Thror
6 Warriors of Erebor with shields
5 Warriors of Erebor with shields and spears
4 Guardians of the King

HISTORICAL ALLY: The Iron Hills (AGAIN!)

Dain
4 Iron Hills Warriors
6 Iron Hills Warriors with spears
6 Iron Hills Warriors with crossbows

The Iron Hills are very strong! Here we not only have one bubble hero, we have TWO! Thror's banner bubble makes his group quite strong, while Dain's bubble is Courage-oriented. You've got lots of spears, lots of F4/S4/D7, and two very powerful heroes. With 33 models, you've got a small army but a very resilient, strong army. This list also gives you some real range presence (and who's going to argue with 6 crossbows in their army?).

6) The Lists: Erebor Reclaimed

Our final list is Erebor Reclaimed, which is a lot like a blend of Thorin's Company and Iron Hills (with more expensive heroes from Thorin's Company and fewer warrior choices for Iron Hills). There's a balance to be had between having lots of heroes (for Might-spam) or lots of warriors (for unit-spam), so we'll look at both today:

List #1: To The King!
Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain with Orcrist
Dwalin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
7 Iron Hills Warriors
8 Iron Hills Warriors with spears
5 Iron Hills Warriors with mattocks
11 Iron Hills Warriors with crossbows

Here we're doing unit spam - we've got the two most killy heroes from the list and they're supported by a 15-man shieldwall, 11 crossbows, and 5 mattock-wielding warriors for extra killing power. Thorin is similar to his Thorin's Company version (with a free Heroic Combat each turn if he wants) and Dwalin is easily the most powerful hero in the list (3 Attacks with F6 S5 no-penalty-2H OR 4 Attacks with F6 S5 axes). It might be better to run fewer crossbows/mattocks and run Gloin as well (3 Attacks with F6 S4 no-penalty-2H rerolling 1s To Wound). Our next list, though, explores what happens when you include more models:

List #2: I Hate Orcs More
Dwalin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
Nori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
Dori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
2 Iron Hills Goat Riders

CONVENIENT ALLY: Radagast's Alliance

Beorn

Without the army bonus, we don't need Thorin. While Thorin is good (free Heroic Combats are always nice), we can use the same points and get nearly two other Champions of Erebor. In our list we have Dwalin again (one-man-killing-machine), Gloin (3 Attacks with F6 S4 no-penalty-2H rerolling 1s To Wound), Nori (2 Attacks with F5 S4 never-unarmed reroll To Hit/To Wound dice), and Dori (3 Attacks with F5 S4 no-penalty-2H), supported by 2 Iron Hills Goat Riders (for claiming objectives and knocking guys over so your heroes can SMASH them). As great as the heroes are in the Erebor Reclaimed list is, there aren't many heroes who can match Beorn - in his bear form, he's RIDICULOUSLY strong. With stats similar to Treebeard (and a point cost to match), Beorn is a bargain and very, VERY good at killing heroes/monsters as well as swathes of warriors. 

That's it for the Dwarves - next up, we turn our faces to the forces of Men. The armies of Men in the Hobbit are not as cool as the Dwarves (hence why I put them in the middle), but the armies will get much, MUCH larger. So if that's more up your alley, then maybe the armies from the next post are for you. Until then, happy hobbying!