The White Council: What Build Should I Make?

So last year at THRO 2013, I took a five-man Ringwraith force. We lost two of our games outright and nearly tied our third. Why did I take this army? Because I could and because they're fun. My foes agreed that playing against an army of terror-causing, magic-blasting units was different than the traditional fight, but my "all-hero" lists came under some critique on their competitiveness.

This year, I'm bringing a White Council list, which I think will not only be very competitive, but also will be very, VERY fun to use. The list is as follows:

Dwarf Tactica: Archery is Everything

EDIT: If you found this page, you should know we've posted an update for the new MESBG rules (2018)! You can find the updated page here.

At TMAT GT 2014, I took my beloved Dwarf army. Since starting the hobby, I knew I wanted Dwarves - I always loved the Dwarves. I still think my Wood Elves are the most sophisticated army that I own, but the Dwarves are my hardiest group (and are not lacking in strategy). They are also very, very fun. Coming into this tournament, though, I knew there was one critique that all Dwarf players must face: how do you fight armies of spears/pikes with no spears of your own.

I must note here that I believe (and will endeavor to show) that the Durin's Folk Dwarf list is better than the Army of Erebor Dwarf list. Though the army from the Hobbit SBG can get spears (D7 spearmen to boot), they cannot get any ranged weapons. Having D7 across the entire army is great, but I hope that at the end of this post, the merits of having archery options instead of spear options is at least as competitive for a Dwarf list as a high defense, spear-toting army.

I must also caveat that more than half the units I brought in my army had ranged weapons: 10 Dwarf bows, 2 Dwarf longbows (normal bows), and 9 throwing weapons in a 39-unit army means that you should have some archery at all times (not to mention the lowest Defense of these units is D5, what is considered to be a good Defense value for archers in the game). This build for a Dwarf army could be viewed as anomalous, but I find it to be the most practical build for a Durin's Folk list.