Heroes of Middle Earth SBG: Dain Ironfoot, Lord of the Iron Hills (Profile and Basic Tactics)

No discussion of the Iron Hills and Erebor Reclaimed army lists would be complete without Dain Ironfoot, the Lord of the Iron Hills himself. He made a name for himself (in the books, anyway) by slaying Azog at the gates of Moria in the Drimrill Dale, and in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, he’s on any short-list of top-tier dwarf heroes. He is the undisputed commander of some of the slickest-looking dwarves in Middle Earth, and has some incredibly thematic rules to pair with an exceptional profile (plus an iconic mount). So if you want to indulge your reckless side, or just want an excuse to tell Sauron’s messenger to shove it or call an elven lord “princess,” Dain’s your man (er, dwarf).

(Oh. And his maths are pretty good, too…)

Basic Profile and Duel Stats

Let’s start with the obvious: Dain has monstrously good combat stats. Fight 6 with three attacks is a very good sweet-spot for combat, as you have an excellent chance to win every duel you’re in, as long as you have the higher fight value (which you will against all but a handful of elite troops, like Kingsguard and Guards of the Galahdrim Court).

Dain pairs those Fight and Attack characteristics with Strength 5 and a two-handed Hammer, which he can use without penalty thanks to his Burly special rule. This means he’s wounding your basic Defense 6 (or Defense 7) troops (or monsters, like trolls) on a 5+ base, which becomes a 4+ with Burly. Defense 5 troops will be wounded on a 3+ with Burly, and even Defense 8-10 heroes and monsters can be wounded on 5s (or a 5/3+, both of which are very good against models with those kinds of Defense stats).

On the defensive side of things, Dain has the proverbial “3s in all the right places”: three wounds with three Fate (plus three Might, Will, and Attacks, to complete the set), which means you have to deal seven wounds to him before you can guarantee a kill. That won’t be easy, because at Defense 8, most troops (Strength 3), heroes (Strength 4), and especially archers will need 6s to wound him, or worse. And even heroes supplemented by lances or other two-handed weapons will need 5s to score a wound.

The combination of these profile stats make him incredibly durable in combat, with the highest kill ratios we’ve seen to-date. Here’s how Dain performs on foot, in combat against generic S3/D6 infantry models who have one attack and a lower Fight Value (Fight 2, 3, 4, or 5):

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, on-foot, charged) vs. X Infantry Warriors (F2-5, S3, D6)
	vs. 1 Infantry	vs. 2 Infantry	vs. 4 Infantry	vs. 6 Infantry	vs. 8 Infantry
Duel Win %	82.64%	71.93%	59.72%	53.23%	49.40%
Kill %	72.31%	62.94%	52.26%	46.58%	43.23%
Avg wounds	1.24	1.08	0.90	0.80	0.74
Death %	1.45%	4.48%	11.84%	19.02%	25.37%
Avg wounds	0.01	0.05	0.13	0.23	0.34
Kill Ratio	49.98	14.04	4.41	2.45	1.70

For more on how to read these tables, click here.

The star of the show is that absurdly-high kill ratio (nearly fifty times more likely to wound than to be wounded!), but there’s a lot of good stuff here. First off, while our basic Iron Hills dwarves (and especially our Goat Riders) tend to lose their combat effectiveness once they’re in combat with two or more enemy models, Dain is comfortably winning fights with minimal risk to himself with up to four infantry models (nearly 60% chance of winning the duel, with a 4.41 kill ratio).

It takes eight lower-Fight enemy infantry to wrest control of the duel away from Dain, and even then, he has just under an even chance to win the fight (49.4%) and a favorable kill ratio (1.70). This is harder than it sounds, especially if Dain is on foot. The “simplest” way is to get four infantry in base-contact with Dain, who are then supported by four models with spears (or their equivalent—pikes, Chittering Hordes, etc.). Assuming there’s sufficient space to maneuver these eight models around Dain (which is hard to do unless he’s out in the open all by himself), you then have to protect those eight models so none of them are peeled off by other combats (which means, in reality, unless your opponent is super careless/reckless with Dain, you’ll need more than eight models to pull it off). And if Dain has already charged that round, the attempts may be further complicated by his Fearsome Charge special rule, which requires enemy models to take Terror tests before they can charge Dain. Depending on the courage of your models (and the presence or absence of Bodyguard units), this may prove incredibly daunting. 

But wait—it gets worse. (Of course it does.) Because if Dain’s smartly brought a banner along, he’ll comfortably win a fight even against those eight opponents:

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, on-foot, charged) + Banner vs. X Infantry Warriors (F2-5, S3, D6)
	vs. 1 Infantry	vs. 2 Infantry	vs. 4 Infantry	vs. 6 Infantry	vs. 8 Infantry
Duel Win %	87.41%	78.93%	68.50%	62.58%	58.94%
Kill %	76.48%	69.07%	59.94%	54.75%	51.58%
Avg wounds	1.31	1.18	1.03	0.94	0.88
Death %	1.05%	3.36%	9.26%	15.22%	20.59%
Avg wounds	0.01	0.04	0.10	0.19	0.27
Kill Ratio	72.90	20.53	6.47	3.60	2.51

Yes, that’s nearly a 60% chance to win a fight against eight high elves (of the non-Kingsguard variety, of course), with a 2.51 kill ratio (two-and-a-half times likely to deal a wound than to take a wound). Against a much more realistic four High Elves, Dain’s odds climb to nearly 70% to win the duel, and a 6.5 kill ratio (against Defense 6 High Elves!).

But why stop there? If you want to get an idea of just how game-changing this banner effect is for Dain, consider this: if the enemy had an Easterling Pike Block made up of Black Dragons, and all of them charged Dain three-deep (we’re talking 18-20 Fight 4, Strength 3, Defense 6 pikemen against Dain, on foot, all by his lonesome), Dain would still have a better than 50% chance (52.52% vs. 20 lower-fight models) to win the fight if supported by a Banner (and a slightly favorable kill ratio of 1.17). In fact, you could throw an absurd number of lower-fight enemy models at Dain (Jeremy Hunthor’s combat calculator stops at 200, which his sufficiently absurd), and Dain would still have a better than 50% chance of winning the duel if supported by a Banner (with only a slightly unfavorable kill ratio of just under 1 (0.94))—again, that’s against two hundred enemy models:

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, on-foot, charged) + Banner vs. X Infantry Warriors (F2-5, S3, D6)
	vs. 1 Infantry	vs. 2 Infantry	vs. 4 Infantry	vs. 6 Infantry	vs. 8 Infantry	vs. 12 Infantry	vs. 20 Infantry	vs. 200 Infantry
Duel Win %	87.41%	78.93%	68.50%	62.58%	58.94%	55.07%	52.52%	51.77%
Kill %	76.48%	69.07%	59.94%	54.75%	51.58%	48.19%	45.96%	45.30%
Avg wounds	1.31	1.18	1.03	0.94	0.88	0.83	0.79	0.78
Death %	1.05%	3.36%	9.26%	15.22%	20.59%	29.11%	39.15%	48.23%
Avg wounds	0.01	0.04	0.10	0.19	0.27	0.45	0.79	8.04
Kill Ratio	72.90	20.53	6.47	3.60	2.51	1.66	1.17	0.94

Lest you think Dain is alone in this, he’s not: while his kill ratio is higher than most (he has above-average hero Strength combined with a Burly 2H weapon and Defense 8, after all), any three-attack model will have similar Duel Win % stats against similarly-absurd numbers of enemy troops as long as (1) they have higher fight than the models they’re fighting, (2) they have no duel penalties (from carrying banners, 2H weapons, etc.), and (3) they have a banner (or banner effect supporting them). So think very carefully before you charge your generic troops into Aragorn the King or Boromir with Banner: the odds are that you won’t beat them no matter how matter how many troops you throw at them (unless you can manage to knock them prone first).

Dain also has Courage 7, which is fantastic. It never comes into play for courage tests (because he’s Fearless), but against special rules like Blades of the Dead, it’s phenomenal. Strength 4 heroes with Blades of the Dead will still need a 6 to wound Dain, unless they have Harbinger of Evil nearby (in which case they need a 5+, unless you have a War Horn allied in an Army of Thror or Thranduil’s Halls contingent, in which case they’re back to 6s only). And your generic Army of the Dead warriors will need 6s to wound Dain, even with the King of the Dead’s Harbinger. Pretty good, right?

Last but not least, Dain is a Hero of Legend. This means he can take 18 models in his warband, which is very good in an army like Iron Hills (he's a Hero of Valor in an Erebor Reclaimed list), where both the heroes and the troops are expensive. It also means Dain gets an auto-pass Stand Fast the first turn after you break, which would be more awesome if Dain didn't have Fearless (which means he auto-passes his Stand Fast! every time), and in a pure Iron Hills force, it's probably overkill (because of his Lord of the Iron Hills special rule), although if you have an allied contingent with low courage in your list, they won't notice the difference. 

Heroic Stats and Actions

Dain’s beefy combat profile is backed up by three Might, Will, and Fate, which is as much as any hero (who isn’t Boromir, Aragorn, a Wizard, a Sorcerer, or a Dark Lord) has any right to expect. We’ve already discussed the Fate, but having multiple Fate is always good, especially if you’re facing any auto-kill models like dragons, Nazgul/castellans with Morgul Blades, or the King of the Dead.

Dain’s Will pool is also very good. He doesn’t cast any spells, which means you can use his three Will solely to resist spells (he doesn’t like Shatter, Immobilize, or Compel in particular). His spell resistance also got a boost from the new rules (per Rules p. 95, you regain any Will from your store spent on a resist if you roll a natural 6), and you can supplement his pool with Heroic Resolve if you have to (which essentially converts a Might point into a Will point for Dain and any friendly models within 6” of him--a life saver if Dain is about to absorb three or more spells in a single round). A store of 3 Will eventually runs out, but hopefully not before you’ve managed to do some real damage. And, of course, you can always get a certain Wizard in a historical alliance (or Bombur in an Erebor Reclaimed army list) if you want to refresh your Will pool mid-game.

Which brings us to the three Might. There’s no shortage of things Dain can do with his Might, starting with his selection of Heroic Actions. In addition to the basic three (Move, Shoot, Combat), Dain has access to nearly all of the coveted specialty actions:

·       Heroic March (Move Phase): Iron Hills Captains have this, too, and are phenomenal in their own right. So do Lake-Town Militia Captains, Palace Guard Captains, Mirkwood Captains, Mirkwood Ranger Captains, Erebor Captains, and Grim Hammer Captains, all of whom can be taken in various historic alliances with Dain. If you have any of these supporting captains, it’s probably best to use their Might to March, and save Dain’s for doing… other Dain things (he has a lot of things). Where you typically don’t have access to March (and probably want it) is in a pure Erebor Reclaimed list, as none of the Champions of Erebor believe in marching (apparently). If you have to seize the prize, or hold ground, or capture an heirloom, that extra 3-5” movement on your dwarves, goat riders, and heroes can be massive. You can take Iron Hills Captains in Erebor Reclaimed, too, but realistically you’re probably not: why spend the points on an Iron Hills Captain when I can spend the same points (or a little more, or a little less) to get Nori, Gloin, or Dwalin on goat? Because Dain is such a boon for the warriors in an Erebor Reclaimed list, he becomes the only means of calling Marches.

·       Heroic Resolve (Move Phase): Generally you won’t spend Dain’s Might on this either, as Heroic Resolve is almost always a gamble: you have to spend Might on it at the start of the Move Phase, which means your opponent can always choose not to cast a spell in the ensuing Move Phase, thereby “wasting” your Might Point (although depending on the spell that isn’t cast, you may not feel the Might point was in fact wasted). But there are some times when it’s useful, or even necessary. Case in point: Elrond and Arwen are closing in, and you know double-Wraths of Bruinen are coming your way. Iron Hills dwarves hate Wrath of Bruinen, not so much because of the damage it does but because it knocks them prone (which means they can’t wound elves on a 5+ with their Strength 4 if they win the fight, and they won’t have Shieldwall up if they lose the fight). Your plan A would be for Dain to resist both spells, because he has three Will backed up by as much as three Might. But Dain can only be in one place at one time (Elrond and Arwen don’t have to worry about his Might and Will if they cast more than 6” from Dain), and even three Will backed up by Might is not much to resist two spells (which are almost certainly going to be cast with two or more dice each). A Heroic Resolve would give Dain two additional dice (one for each resist test) in addition to his store, and would give every friendly model within 6” of him one die to resist (making it that much harder for Elrond and Arwen to cast around Dain while maximizing the impact of their spell). Just to be sure to use different dice for your Heroic Resolve and Will dice when resisting--you want that Will point back if you roll that "6"!

·       Heroic Strike (Fight Phase): If you’ve followed my musings on Heroic Strike, you know that I’m generally skeptical of its value if we’re involved in strike-offs with other enemy heroes (especially if those heroes start off with higher fight). That said, the option to Strike is still a good option to have, especially on defense. While I’d probably avoid charging Dain into Gil-Galad or Glorfindel willingly (more on that below), if my opponent charges Gil-Galad or Glorfindel into Dain (or charges Dain with a Fight 5 hero, who usually wouldn’t pose much of a threat—more on that below, too--and that Fight 5 hero calls a Heroic Strike), I’m going to be glad I have the option to call Heroic Strike. Strike is also very useful for monster hunting (particularly Fight 6 or Fight 7 trolls), which Dain gets to do from time to time (he loves it, by the way). Since most monsters don’t have Might, a Strike against a cave troll is going to result in Dain automatically having the higher Fight, and even against a Fight 7 Mordor or Gundabad Troll, Dain is going to have the higher Fight Value unless he fluffs the Strike roll on a “1”. Since he wounds Mordor Trolls on a 4+ (Strength 5, 2H hammer with Burly), he’s got a very good chance of killing them, especially if he’s supported by neighboring Iron Hills dwarves (and a banner, of course).

·       Heroic Strength (Fight Phase): I’ve written separately about this heroic action as well, and am much bigger on it than most, especially for Strength 5 heroes like Dain. Even the jump from Strength 5 to Strength 6 (which Dain is guaranteed to get) is massive if you win or lose the fight: if you lose, you can’t be knocked prone by cavalry models, you can’t be hurled by monsters who are Strength 6 or less (which is many of them), and you wound Defense 8 models/heroes on a 4+ if you win (and Defense 6 models/heroes on a 3+). You also have a 67% chance of getting to Strength 7 (you can’t be hurled by anything except Ents and mega-monsters like Sauron and Smaug), most monsters need 4s or 5s to rend you, you wound Defense 7 models/heroes (which includes most elites and heroes) on a 3+, and you have a pretty good crack at Defense 9 or 10 models. Strength 8 (33% chance) will wound Defense 7 or 8 on a 3+ and Defense 6 or below on a 2+ (let that sink in for a minute), and not even Sauron can hurl you if you lose (and he’ll only Rend you on 4s). And if Dain is mounted (more on that below—we’re almost there, sorry!), his odds of getting multiple bonus wounds out of Heroic Strength are phenomenally good. Pair it with another hero in the same fight calling a Heroic Combat (Thorin in an Erebor Reclaimed list can do this indefinitely), and you can get double-effectiveness out of it.

·       Heroic Challenge (Fight Phase): This is another one that doesn’t get called much, and I haven’t played around it with nearly enough to opine on the strategy behind when you’d call it and when you wouldn’t. All I’ll say is that Dain (unlike other heroes, like Theoden, who can call this) actually has the sorts of combat stats (Fight 6, 3 Attacks, Strength 5, Defense 8, 3 Wounds, 3 M/W/F), war gear (2H hammer, two-wound mount), special rules (Burly, Fearless), and heroic actions (Heroic Strike, Heroic Strength) you’d want to pull off a successful challenge (though bear in mind you can't call a Heroic Strike or Strength on the same turn you declare a Heroic Challenge, since the Challenge counts as your single Heroic Action for that Fight Phase--but if you are Challenged, you can Strike up (sneaky, sneaky)). He may not be the favorite against Elrond, King Aragorn, Elendil, Gil-Galad, or Sauron, but he’ll have a good go at them, especially if they have to start burning Might to Strike or modify dice at a faster rate than Dain. Which leads us to…

Iron Hills Army Bonus: Master of Battle (4+)

So this isn’t a heroic action, but it is a special rule conferred on Dain in a pure Iron Hills list or historic alliance (along with their +1/-1 to maelstrom/deployment/reinforcement rolls, which is good in its own right). Whenever an enemy hero declares a Heroic Action within 6” of Dain, Dain may call the same Heroic Action without spending Might on the roll of a 4+, even if Dain doesn’t usually have access to that Heroic Action (Rules p. 105). 

Let’s start with that last part first. Dain has so many of the good heroic actions that he can live without most of them he doesn’t have (Heroic Accuracy, Heroic Channel). The big one he is missing is Heroic Defense, which means Dain can only be wounded on the roll of a natural 6 (or a natural “6” followed by a natural “4+,” if the enemy is Strength 3). Most models will be wounding on 6s anyway (you have to get to Strength 6 before you wound D8 on a 5+), but it’s very good against Strength 4 troops using two-handed weapons (a 5+ becomes 6) and against Strength 4 heroes with lances, two-handed weapons, and Might (as none of those modifiers will result in wounds). What this means in practice is that your Defense 8, three wound, three Fate dwarf lord—who is already tough to kill—is even tougher to kill than usual (although Dain’s War Boar doesn’t get the defense boost; see Rules p. 72). 

Then there’s this: Heroic Defense is one of the few things that can drastically reduce Dain’s effectiveness in combat. A Strength 5, Burly hero with a 2H weapon will wound most heroes (Defense 6 or 7) on a 4+, so wounding on natural 6s (instead of a 4+) is a massive penalty for Dain. But if Dain’s in combat with another model, and that model calls Heroic Defense (to try to stave off the inevitable), they run the risk that Dain will be able to copy that Heroic Defense through Master of Battle for free, without expending Might. If you’re fighting Dain on your last wound, with your last Might point, you probably still call Heroic Defense and chance whether he'll be able to copy you. But if you’re at full-stats and no wounds, I don’t know that you decide to spend the Might on Heroic Defense… which is exactly what Dain wants.

Lastly, remember that while copying Heroic Actions Dain doesn’t have is very cool, he can copy Heroic Actions he has, too (like Heroic Strike, Heroic Combat, or even Heroic Move). This makes things like Heroic Move-offs (if you won priority) very dicey for your opponent. If your opponent calls a Heroic Move and you counter, your opponent only has a 50-50 chance of winning anyway (and thus a 50-50 chance of “wasting” one of their precious Might points). If you also have a chance (another 50-50 chance) of calling your Heroic Move for free thanks to Master of Battle (4+), the mathematical odds of the opponent “wasting” that Might point is no higher than it was before (50-50), but the psychological odds of your opponent “wasting” their Might seems higher somehow (I have to spend might, but if I do, my opponent may get to challenge me for free!?! And I may still lose!I can’t risk that!). So your opponent hems and haws (internally, probably) about whether to call that Heroic Move in the first place, even in situations when calling the Heroic Move should be a no-brainer (like when you have no more Might left on the board). Meanwhile, you sit calmly and serenely, waiting to see if they make a mistake you can exploit.

Special Rules

We’ve already touched on Burly and Fearless in passing, but they’re both very good: Fearless ensures Dain can charge anything he has to charge, and Burly gives him the tools he needs to wound almost anything. Couple these with Fearsome Charge, and enemy models who want to charge Dain (after he’s charged something else) will have to take courage tests to trap and surround him. In games against swarm opponents (like Moria, Goblin Town, or even the Shire), this special ability can be a lifesaver. It's also sneaky good against Trolls, who generally aren't Fearless, covered by Fury, or have Will points to spend on courage tests. (Not that Dain couldn't take on a Troll on its own, but he prefers to fight it when and where he wants to fight, not when and where the troll wants to fight.)

Then we have Lord of the Iron Hills. I discussed this quite a bit in our discussion of Iron Hills Dwarves, but the tl;dnr version is that it makes your basic troops extremely dependable. They can charge trolls, they can ignore spectres, they can contest and hold far-flung objectives, they can charge Elrond so he can’t cast Wrath of Bruinen, and they care not for breaking (if you can break them). Dain has many special rules, but over the course of a points-match game, this is often the most important one. Even if Dain is transfixed the entire game (which would suck), this special rule continues to improve your army's performance, and contributes to its success. It is not to be underestimated.

Finally, we have two combat-oriented special rules: Headbutt and Fiery Temper. Headbutt is largely a fluffy rule that I originally thought only applied if Dain fails to kill any opponents (which doesn't happen much, because Dain is so good at wounding anything he touches, especially when mounted). But subsequent discussions over on the Great British Hobbit League Facebook page seem to suggest that at least some players allow Dain to Headbutt as long as at least one model he’s fought (or maybe attempted to strike—there’s not total agreement on the finer details) remains alive at the end of the fight, which would make it proc far more often. Either way, if you win a duel and then fail to wound, you can knock a single man-sized model (who was in the fight, so no spear supports) prone on a roll of a 5+. It doesn’t have as many tactical applications as the War Goat’s Devastating Charge (because it happens at the end of the Fight Phase, instead of during the Move Phase), but it’s a nice little rejoinder to that annoying hero who called Heroic Defense against you (Oh yeah? Take that, you bugger!). Banner Boromir, beware…

Fiery Temper is the closest Dain has to a weakness: “As soon as Dain Ironfoot, Lord of the Iron Hills, kills an enemy model, for the rest of the game, if Dain is in range to Charge, he must do so if he is able to” (Armies of the Hobbit p. 27). Forced charges are rare but not unfamiliar. Elrohir and Elladan have had Unbreakable Bond for a long time, and Faramir and Theodred gained forced-charge rules of their own in the new edition (Theodred all the time, Faramir sometimes). Dain’s rule can still get him into trouble (especially if a skilled opponent sets-up models to force charges), but there are a few ways to mitigate it:

·       First, the special ability only triggers after Dain “kills an enemy model.” This sets him apart from a model like Theodred or Faramir, who have to charge as soon as they’re in range (which could be as early as turn one), and can lure them away from the rest of your force (especially if they’re mounted). Dain’s forced charge only comes into play after you’re in contact with the enemy. So if we don’t want Dain to be forced to charge all by his lonesome, we simply keep Dain with the rest of our army, and resist the urge to have him charge into the enemy before the rest of the army is ready to charge with him.

·       Second, Dain has a certain degree of control over when he kills something, because he has a two-handed hammer. This gives Dain an out if he wins a fight before you want him charging, because instead of striking (and probably wounding his opponent), you can opt to Bash (which, with a 2-handed, Strength 5 hammer, you have a pretty good chance of proccing successfully). Because this will knock the model Dain is fighting prone, it’s still possible you can kill it (if Dain is supported by an Iron Hills warrior or Goat Rider, which will get double-dice to-wound), while preventing Dain from going berserk before you want him to.

·       Once Dain has killed a model (and for his point cost, you will eventually want him to kill some models), you still have some options to keep him killing in the direction you want him to go, or even to shut-off his ability to charge completely. Bear in mind that Dain has to Charge if able, but he doesn’t have to charge the nearest enemy model (like some models must do). So if your opponent has moved a single model near Dain but out to a flank (clearly attempting to bait you away from the action) and you happen to notice he has other models that are further away (but within Dain’s charge range) closer to the action, don’t take the bait! Keep Dain where the fighting is thickest (or at least where you intend to fight thickly—if that makes any sense).

·       As long as Dain hasn’t called a Heroic Move at the start of the Move Phase, it’s also possible to “screen off” enemy models that you don’t want to charge, with a variation on the tried-and-true “Bodyguard” approach, like you’d use for Denethor’s Broken Mind, or to prevent a Spectre from making your banner retreat. I'm hoping to do a more detailed write-up of how you can position models to do this, but the general idea is that you surround Dain with some friendly troops (who move before Dain does), so that when his turn comes to move, he can’t physically move past them (and thus is not able to charge past them, which gets you around Fiery Temper since Dain is not able to Charge). It’s also quite a bit safer doing this to Dain than it is for someone like Denethor, since Dain’s Temper is not so great as to make him attack his friendly bodyguards. It’s also possible to take more of a “shepherding” approach with Dain: rather than surrounding him completely, you can sometimes screen off unfavorable models by placing models to one side of Dain (between him and the “bait”) that Dain will have to go around in order to Charge. If going around these models places the “bait” beyond Dain’s maximum movement, he is no longer able to charge (and thus, doesn’t have to Charge).

·       Finally there’s the cheeky approach: if you really don’t want Dain to charge on a particular turn, but can’t work out a bodyguard approach, have Dain call a Heroic March. Models who are marching are unable to charge… which means Dain doesn't have to Charge (because he can't Charge). Problem solved.

So that takes us to the end of Dain’s profile proper. But there’s still one important aspect of his profile that we should talk about…

War Gear Options: To Mount, or Not to Mount?

Let me save you some suspense:

Always.

Mount.

Dain.

As Kalhman Steels-Wright opined in Blackmist’s Fog of War series, there is no such thing as 140 point Dain—he does not walk. There are lots of reasons for this.

·       He gets an 8” move. An 8” move on any hero is fantastic. On dwarf heroes, it’s incredibly fantastic, especially if Dain is your only big hero and you’re facing an opponent with multiple big heroes (Gondor, Mirkwood elves, etc). You can’t be everywhere at once, so being able to be everywhere as quickly as possible is the next best thing.

·       It helps Dain buff your dwarves with Lord of the Iron Hills. A 12” range is great, but it’s limited. What helps extend those limits? Putting it on a larger base (for an extra half-inch of coverage) with greater movement so you can shift that Fearless bubble where you need it most (again, as quickly as possible).

·       Because the War Boar Buffs Dain’s damage significantly (more on that in a minute), opponents are highly incentivized to try to kill it (as they have to try to kill all hero mounts). But with Defense 6 and 2 wounds, the War Boar is incredibly survivable. This translates into increased survivability for Dain, because every strike put on the Boar (several of which are likely to fail to wound) is a strike that could be going at Dain, but isn’t. Dain is hard enough to beat in combat, and hard enough to wound on his own (Defense 8, 3 wounds, 3 Fate). If your opponent is wasting their few precious strike opportunities on the boar instead, it’s bought Dain time to do his thing.

But the real star here is the combat output. We’ve already seen just how beastly Dain is in combat on his own, and supported by a banner. Giving him an extra attack on the charge (4 attacks to win the duel) and two extra strikes against infantry models (8 attacks to-wound, all +1 to wound from Burly) turns him into a combat god, with a favorable kill ratio even against two hundred enemy models (as long as Dain has the higher Fight value):

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, mounted, charging) vs. X Infantry Warriors (F2-5, S3, D6)
	vs. 1 Infantry	vs. 2 Infantry	vs. 4 Infantry	vs. 6 Infantry	vs. 8 Infantry	vs. 12 Infantry	vs. 20 Infantry	vs. 200 Infantry
Duel Win %	87.41%	78.93%	68.50%	62.58%	58.94%	55.07%	52.52%	51.77%
Kill %	87.07%	78.62%	68.23%	62.33%	58.71%	54.86%	52.32%	51.57%
Avg wounds	3.50	3.16	2.74	2.50	2.36	2.20	2.10	2.07
Death %	1.05%	3.36%	9.26%	15.22%	20.59%	29.11%	39.15%	48.23%
Avg wounds	0.01	0.04	0.10	0.19	0.27	0.45	0.79	8.04
Kill Ratio	82.99	23.37	7.37	4.10	2.85	1.88	1.34	1.07

Add a banner supporting Dain, and it gets truly absurd: a kill ratio of over 100 (100 times more likely to wound than to be wounded) against a single infantry model (at Defense 6), and a favorable kill ratio of nearly 4 against eight enemy infantry models:

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, mounted, charging) +  Banner vs. X Infantry Warriors (F2-5, S3, D6)
	vs. 1 Infantry	vs. 2 Infantry	vs. 4 Infantry	vs. 6 Infantry	vs. 8 Infantry	vs. 12 Infantry	vs. 20 Infantry	vs. 200 Infantry
Duel Win %	90.52%	83.76%	75.00%	69.79%	66.50%	62.92%	60.52%	59.81%
Kill %	90.16%	83.44%	74.71%	69.51%	66.24%	62.67%	60.28%	59.58%
Avg wounds	3.62	3.35	3.00	2.79	2.66	2.52	2.42	2.39
Death %	0.79%	2.59%	7.35%	12.29%	16.80%	24.03%	32.55%	40.19%
Avg wounds	0.01	0.03	0.08	0.15	0.22	0.37	0.66	6.70
Kill Ratio	114.08	32.17	10.17	5.66	3.94	2.61	1.85	1.48

In other words, don’t try to take Dain on with only Fight 5 (or lower) infantry (or heroes on foot). If mounted Dain has a 60% chance of beating 200 enemy dice, charging him with 6 or 8 infantry isn’t likely to end well (unless you're trying to prevent him from getting off a Heroic Combat).

So yes. Mount Dain. Don’t make him walk. It will annoy him, and you’ll regret it.

Heroic Combats: Dain vs. Enemy Heroes

Lastly, let’s take a quick look at how Dain fares in combat against other heroes. There are way too many heroes to compare individually (if you want to do that, I'll again commend Jeremy Hunthor’s combatcalculator to you), so I drew eight of the more popular (and powerful) combat heroes from the game to give us a broad comparison. They broadly fall into three categories:

·       Fight 5 heroes: Faramir and the Witch-King. Faramir has a slightly reduced combat profile (Strength 4, 2 Attacks) but does have heavy armor and a shield for Defense 7 (which is pretty standard on Fight 5 combat heroes). The Witch-King (with the Crown of Morgul) gives us a more heavily armored version (Defense 8) with 3 Attacks. He’s not two-handed whirling in this example (for obvious reasons), and he’s also not transfixing Dain (though he probably should).

·       Next are Fight 6 heroes: Boromir (White Tower version, no Banner), Dwalin (Champion of Erebor version), and Aragorn (King version, with Anduril and a 6” banner effect). These are very beat-stick-y heroes, almost always the centerpiece of an army, and very dangerous to take head-on in combat (even if you have your own beefy combat beat-stick hero).

·       Finally is the high-fight tier: Glorfindel, Gil-Galad, and the Balrog. Glorfindel is your excellent Fight 7, Strength 4, Defense 7, and 3 Attacks (with Lord of the West for extra duel and wound rolls). Gil-Galad is the same, only Fight 9 (with a +1 to-wound from his spear). The Balrog is there because Fight 10 is Fight 10, and he’s a monster (so he can rend). All three are a good cut above the normal “beat-stick” heroes you’ll see: you generally need mega-heroes (Sauron, Treebeard, Beorn, etc.) to deal with them, and even then, they’ll have their hands full.

So how does Dain fair against each tier? We’ll start with everyone on-foot first:

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, on foot, charged) + Banner vs. Heroes on foot
	Faramir (F5, S4, D7, A2)	Witch-King (F5, S4, D8, A3)	Boromir (F6, S4, D7, A3)	Dwalin (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly)	Aragorn (F6, S4, D7, A3, Anduril, Reroll)	Glorfindel (F7, S4, D7, Lord of the West)	Gil-Galad (F9, S4, D8, A3, LotW, Aiglos)	Balrog (F10, S9, D9, A4, Rend)
Duel Win %	78.93%	72.92%	56.60%	56.60%	43.83%	31.50%	31.50%	31.50%
Kill %	69.07%	63.81%	49.53%	39.83%	38.35%	27.56%	27.56%	22.17%
Avg wounds	1.18	1.09	0.85	0.57	0.66	0.47	0.47	0.31
Death %	6.44%	18.01%	18.28%	30.54%	49.15%	35.47%	54.97%	67.65%
Avg wounds	0.07	0.27	0.22	0.43	0.84	0.46	0.91	1.83
Kill Ratio	10.73	3.54	2.71	1.30	0.78	0.78	0.50	0.33

First thing’s first: Dain (supported by banner, of course) absolutely tears through Fight 5, two-attack heroes with odd defense (or any defense less than 8). He’s almost eleven times more likely to deal a wound to Faramir than Faramir is to wound him (10.73 kill ratio), thanks in large part to Dain’s nearly 80% chance to win the duel. The Witch-King fares better thanks to his extra attack (3 to Dain’s 3) and his Defense 8, but Dain is still winning the duels at a very good clip (nearly 73% of the time) for a kill ratio of 3.54. I’m telling you: three attacks with a banner reroll is incredibly difficult to beat unless you have tied or equal fight value. And while Faramir and the Witch-King could try to Heroic Strike, there are several risks in doing so against Dain: first, Dain starts with +1 Fight, so he’ll only need a 4+ (50% chance) to get to Fight 10, while Faramir and the Witch-King need a 5+ (33% chance); second, if Faramir or the Witch-King call a Heroic Strike while in combat with Dain (or within 6” of him, if they anticipate a Heroic Combat), Dain’s Master of Battle (4+) gives Dain a 50-50 chance of copying that Strike for free (not only giving Dain a free chance of winning the Strike-Off, but allowing Dain to save his Might to boost his rolls, which dramatically increases his odds of winning the fight).

Dain has more trouble against Fight 6 heroes, because he’s now only winning 50% of those many cases when both sides have a “6” to win the duel, instead of the 100% he was winning against Fight 5 heroes. His kill ratio is still pretty good against Boromir (2.71), since Boromir has Defense 7 (Dain wounds him on a 4+). He’s stuck with 5s against Dwalin, who is also wounding Dain on 5s as well (since both are Burly with a Strength 5 two-handed weapon). Dain ends up with a slightly favorable kill ration of 1.3, which is entirely due to the banner supporting him (which gives him a slightly higher 57% chance to win the duel, to Dwalin’s 43%). If Dain didn’t have a banner (or if Dwalin did), they’d be matched at 50-50 odds, with a perfectly even kill ratio of 1.0. Lastly there’s Aragorn, who has several advantages against Dain. First, because Anduril is an elven-made sword, Aragorn is winning two-thirds of all drawn combats against Dain, which means Dain is now winning less than 50% of his fights for the first time (43.83%). And while Dain is still wounding Aragorn on a 5+ (Aragorn is Defense 7, after all), Aragorn is wounding Dain on a 4+ thanks to Anduril (again), giving Dain an unfavorable kill ratio of 0.78. It’s still close, but in Aragorn’s favor. It’d be even more in Aragorn’s favor if he decides to two-hand with Anduril (wounding Dain on a 3+). And unlike Faramir or the Witch-King (who may not want to Heroic Strike against Dain, for fear they’ll be out-Mighted by Dain’s Master of Battle (4+)), Aragorn’s Mighty Hero special rule means he can keep calling Strikes long after every other hero has expended all their Might, that Dain only has a 50% chance of matching. And even on turns when Dain does match it, Aragorn has that Elven-made weapon to give him an advantage even if Dain matches his jump to Fight 10.

Dain really struggles against heroes with higher Fight (assuming he doesn’t Heroic Strike against them). He keeps it close-ish against Glorfindel (0.78 kill ratio, identical with Aragorn if Aragorn is one-handing with Anduril), but only because he’s still wounding Glorfindel’s Defense 7 on a 4+. Gil-Galad (and his +1 to-wound) thoroughly out-classes Dain, and the Balrog (who is rending Dain on a 3+) poses a real challenge. Again, none of this is surprising—all these heroes are really tough for most heroes to deal with. Dain is a combat god against most enemy troops and many enemy heroes, but not against everything.

Now to spice things up, let’s look at how Dain fares (on foot) against enemy heroes if they’re mounted (and charge Dain): 

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, on foot, charged) + Banner vs. Heroes Mounted
	Faramir (F5, S4, D7/5, A2, Lance)	Witch-King on FB (F5, S6, D8/6, A3)	Boromir (F6, S4, D7/4, A3)	Dwalin (F6, S5, D8/5, A3, Burly)	Aragorn (F6, S4, D7/5, A3, Anduril)	Glorfindel (F7, S4, D7/4, Lord of the West)	Gil-Galad (F9, S4, D8/4, A3, LotW, Aiglos)	Shelob (F7, S7, D7, A2*, Venom)
Duel Win %	72.92%	68.50%	50.00%	50.00%	38.39%	25.00%	25.00%	52.57%
Kill %	63.81%	59.94%	48.15%	35.19%	36.96%	24.07%	24.07%	46.00%
Avg wounds	1.09	1.03	1.00	0.50	0.77	0.50	0.50	0.79
Death %	18.01%	30.27%	38.37%	48.05%	61.37%	62.89%	73.70%	45.58%
Avg wounds	0.27	0.84	0.67	1.33	2.46	1.25	2.50	1.05
Kill Ratio	3.54	1.98	1.25	0.73	0.60	0.38	0.33	1.01

Suddenly, those Fight 5 models are a lot more threatening. Faramir (who is now rolling 3 dice to win the duel, and 6 dice to wound with a +1 from a Lance) is still almost four times more likely to be wounded than to wound Dain, but that’s quite a bit better than the 10.73 kill ratio he had before. The Witch-King (now mounted on a Fell Beast) has cut his kill ratio down to just under 2.0. The Fight 6 heroes are now pulling ahead of Dain as well, with four duel dice (counteracting Dain’s banner bonus) and eight to-wound dice. Dwalin and Aragorn in particular have very favorable damage leads on Dain (and, of course, Dwalin has a 33% chance of knocking Dain prone in the Move Phase with his war goat’s Devastating Charge, which would be very good for Dwalin and disastrous for Dain). Mounted Glorfindel and mounted Gil-Galad are terrifying to behold (figuratively and literally), and Dain has little-to-no-chance of beating them in a straight-up fight. That leaves Shelob (since the Balrog can’t be mounted), who is also rending Dain with two dice on a 3+ (or wounding him on a 5+ with double-Strikes) and rerolling failed to-wound rolls thanks to her Venom. Dain actually has a fighting chance against her (since he is wounding her Defense 7 on a 4+), but the odds are a lot closer than you’d think they would be, given that he’s rolling twice her dice to win the duel (once you factor in his banner reroll).

So how do we recover Dain’s combat prowess? By mounting him:

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, mounted, charging) + Banner vs. Heroes Mounted
	Faramir (F5, S4, D7/5, A2, Lance)	Witch-King on FB (F5, S6, D8/6, A3)	Boromir (F6, S4, D7/4, A3)	Dwalin (F6, S5, D8/5, A3, Burly)	Aragorn (F6, S4, D7/5, A3, Anduril)	Glorfindel (F7, S4, D7/4, Lord of the West)	Gil-Galad (F9, S4, D8/4, A3, LotW, Aiglos)	Shelob (F7, S7, D7, A2*, Venom)
Duel Win %	72.92%	72.92%	56.60%	56.60%	43.83%	31.50%	31.50%	52.57%
Kill %	63.81%	51.32%	49.53%	39.83%	38.35%	27.56%	27.56%	46.00%
Avg wounds	1.09	0.73	0.85	0.57	0.66	0.47	0.47	0.79
Death %	8.27%	19.05%	18.28%	30.54%	49.15%	28.86%	48.20%	26.35%
Avg wounds	0.09	0.27	0.22	0.43	0.84	0.34	0.69	0.26
Kill Ratio	7.71	2.69	2.71	1.30	0.78	0.96	0.57	1.75

As I mentioned in our discussion of Goat Rider counter-charges, cavalry models lose basically all of their expensive advantages if they are fighting other cavalry models: they don't get an extra +1 attack on the charge, and they don't get double to-wound dice if they win the duel. In Dain's case, this restores his decided edge against Fight 5, 2 Attack heroes (like Faramir), and gives him a favorable chance against high-defense Fight 5 heroes as well as most Fight 6 heroes (we're assuming here that Dain charged, so no lance bonus for Faramir). Aragorn is still a problem (because Anduril is as potent as ever), but Dain can have a surprisingly good go at Glorfindel and Gil-Galad (they’re still more likely to win, but he’s got an outside chance) and is very good against Shelob (who now has only one attack, now that she’s not charging). And if Dain happens to catch a Fight 5 captain on foot while mounted, they’re in a heap of trouble (and even Glorfindel is sweating... a little):

Dain Ironfoot (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly, 2H Hammer, mounted, charging) + Banner vs. Heroes on Foot
	Faramir (F5, S4, D7, A2)	Witch-King (F5, S4, D8, A3)	Boromir (F6, S4, D7, A3)	Dwalin (F6, S5, D8, A3, Burly)	Aragorn (F6, S4, D7, A3, Anduril, Reroll)	Glorfindel (F7, S4, D7, Lord of the West)	Gil-Galad (F9, S4, D8, A3, LotW, Aiglos)	Balrog (F10, S9, D9, A4, Rend)
Duel Win %	83.76%	78.78%	61.38%	61.38%	48.23%	34.84%	34.84%	31.50%
Kill %	83.44%	75.70%	61.14%	58.98%	48.04%	34.71%	34.71%	22.17%
Avg wounds	3.35	2.10	2.46	1.64	1.93	1.39	1.39	0.31
Death %	4.96%	8.94%	16.27%	27.18%	45.30%	27.45%	45.85%	67.65%
Avg wounds	0.05	0.11	0.19	0.39	0.78	0.33	0.65	1.83
Kill Ratio	16.82	8.47	3.76	2.17	1.06	1.26	0.76	0.33

Concluding Thoughts

All in all, Dain Ironfoot is an incredible addition to an Iron Hills or Erebor Reclaimed army list (and if your force plans to include Iron Hills dwarves, War Goats, or Captains, he’s pretty much a must-take). He buffs your warriors, he can keep your army moving when the rest of your heroes run out of Might, and he’s a beast in combat, especially on his War Boar. Just make sure you’re not too reckless with him… unless you’re trying to keep it theme-y (in which case, carry on)!



If you've liked what you read and want to learn more about the heroes and warriors of the Iron Hills, check out our Iron Hills / Erebor Reclaimed Army Page for more from the TMAT team and other members of the Middle Earth SBG community, along with links to battle reports, podcasts, and more. And let us know what you think in the comments!