War in the North: Understanding the Erebor Reclaimed Revamp

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Pinterest

We've received a lot of information about the upcoming sourcebook for the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, both in the form of articles hinting at capabilities and new "working" profiles for Dain, Thorin III, Easterling Dragon Acolytes, and most recently the profiles for Bard II, King Brand of Dale, and Knights of Dale. In today's article, we're looking at what we think we know about the models that have been announced (they are subject to change - though historically very little if any changes have been made from the "working" rules and the final published rules), how you can use these models now, and what kinds of Legions we want to see in the new release.

Profile Review - Dain

Courtesy: ForgeWorld Downloads

Dain has gotten a review already from a variety of people (I recommend you check out the Durin Show and Ali King's exhaustive review on the GBHL website), but I'm going to make a few observations about this guy that might shock the internet world: I actually think he's a pretty good hero. Not compared to other Dwarf heroes (half of which are underpriced at the least) - as Ali King covers in his article, most big Dwarf heroes outclass this version of Dain for equal/less cost. However, if you compare this particular hero (F6/3A with 3 Might/Strike and +1 To Wound without penalties; D8/3H with 1 Fate), most armies would LOVE to get a hero like that! Not only do some armies like Arnor, Dale (more on them in a bit), and the Survivors of Lake-town have no models anywhere near the caliber of this hero, but they have the points space to pay an extra 50 points to replace one of the heroes they have with a guy like this! Even Numenor wouldn't mind having Dain in place of Isildur if Elendil is also in the army - and that tells me that this guy has a good profile.

Unfortunately, he exists in one of the few army lists in the game that has SO many hitting pieces at/below 100points that he's unlikely to see daylight. As specified in their rules, you can run this version of Dain in an Erebor Reclaimed army, but don't have access to the six Dwarves that are dead already (Thorin, Kili, Fili, Balin, Oin, Ori) or Bombur (who is too fat to walk on his own at this point in the story). The remaining six members of Thorin's Company are some of the best heroes you have anyway:

• Dwalin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor is 115pts with no goat, but is S5 and either has the free +1 To Wound OR has 4 Attacks with no +1 To Wound. For 15pts less and +1 Fate (in exchange for -3 warrior slots, -1 Will, and -1 Wound), he seems like the most likely candidate for a "direct swap" but fitting both of them into an army is going to be hard unless you're going REALLY hero-heavy (almost 250pts in two heroes).
• Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor was evaluated by Ali King to be one of the most points-effective Dwarf heroes in the game and for 90 points (40 points less than Dain), he gets the same combat profile in every respect (weapon master instead of Master Forged) and gets to reroll 1s To Wound at the cost of -2 Will, -1 Wound, -1 Courage, and Fearless (I'm treating the Stand Fast boost and the Venerable penalty as a wash). That wound (and the +6 warrior slots) needs to make up for 20pts of value - and maybe it does - but I think I'd jump for Gloin first.
• Dori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor doesn't have Strike and he's only F5, but other than that, his offensive stats are more or less the same. Coming in at only 75pts, though, he's nearly half the cost of Dain and against F4 troops (or below), he's going to be just as dominant. Dori's cheap and if paired with Gloin, the two of them cost only marginally more than Dain and will kill far more things.
• Nori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor wraps up the trifecta of cheap heroes. At only 80pts, he's got effectively 4 Attacks (7 dice if shielding) to win the fight and gets effectively 4 dice to wound (7 dice if he traps someone). He's also F5 but has Strike and can dual-role as a troop killer and a hero staller (potentially killer, though S4 will hold him back). Considering that you can get Nori, Dori, and Gloin for about the same cost as Dwalin and Dain, I'm not sure that you'd pick Dain and Dwalin over these three (maybe you would, maybe not).
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor gives you free Heroic Moves after he gets the axe head out of his skull and at 65 points is one of the cheapest Strike heroes in the game. If he's fueling your charges and clobbering warriors, I'd say he's worth it (though F4 isn't great).
• Bofur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor is another cheap Strike hero (again at F4) and provides some interesting head-hunting synergies for magic casters. He's powerful and dangerous and he and Bifur together cost the same as Dain.

As Ali noted in his write-up, Dain doesn't have March anymore - and none of these other Dwarf heroes have March either, so there's also the draw of an Iron Hills Captain for speed (and potentially free Heroic Moves/Combats/Strikes/Defenses with Master of Battle (5+)), so you gotta factor that into your calculations as well. I do think Dain is worth taking, though, but he's got to be part of this larger group of people - NOT the main point of the army (like Dain in his younger days tends to be). We'll talk about my army building ideas later, but for now, let's move onto Thorin III Stonehelm.

Profile Review - Thorin III Stonehelm

Courtesy: ForgeWorld Downloads

Like Old Dain, if you compare Thorin III Stonehelm to infantry brawler heroes in non-Dwarf lists, he's a great bargain. Shagrat is commonly held to be a good infantry hero and for 5pts more than a maxed-out Shagrat, you get +3 warrior slots, +1 FV, -1S, +1D, -1H, +2C, Heroic Strength/Defense instead of Challenge, and the potential to not have to spend Might to call Heroic actions instead of Blood and Glory (which can get you Might back if you can kill things). Like I said, not bad.

But once again, this isn't a great list for him (costed as he is) - he's 5pts more than Dwalin who has him beat/tied in most departments and 30pts more than Gloin (who is really only down 4 heroic stats and +3 warrior slots). Without rehashing everything we just talked about, I think including him is much harder than including the other heroes (including Dain).

But he does give you an interesting thing: an underpowered Legendary Hero (4+ roll to see if the first Might point you spend each round is free) or an inverted Master of Battle (5+), in that his Cool-Headed rule targets Heroic actions you call instead of Heroic actions an enemy hero calls within 6" of the hero. Paired with 1-2 Iron Hills Captains, Thorin could be incredibly dangerous since you can get a LOT of mileage out of 5+ tests for free Heroic actions (called by you or your opponent). Of course, you're probably trying to spam models to deal with enemy power pieces unless you get another power hero (Gloin or Dwalin would be good), but it's an option.

Profile Preview - Brand

Courtesy: ForgeWorld Downloads

This model went on pre-order last weekend and it's a beauty! We knew ahead of time from the Warhammer Community article that he would be a Hero of Legend with a 12" Stand Fast (both of which are improvements over Girion . . . interesting). We also knew that he would be slated to be F5/3A (and could have guessed S4), which is on-par with other great heroes of men from this era (like Eomer and Theodred) and Dale/Lake-town generally (Bard is F5/3A, everyone else is F5/2A or worse). Given his appearance, we could infer that he'd have a shield, sword, and armor (turns out it was heavy armor). He is also 3M/3W/1F (with Strike, situationally he could call Heroic Resolve if you want to resist magic and are okay with being charged - more on that in a minute - and situationally could choose Heroic Strength if he needs to crack through something big). The 1 Fate isn't a surprise since that tends to be the lot in life for guys who die and are supposed to be amazing - see Old Dain, Theoden, Gil-Galad, Elendil, and Suladan for reference.

We also knew that he would have a special rule called "Stoic Fighter" which is very well written in my opinion. Before you fight with him, you check to see if he's Trapped - and if he is, he gets the equivalent of Lord of the West (which we all know is a really great rule, especially since you can charge him into two models, make a three-point trap with one of your own models, place a second "supporting" model behind the spear, in order to purposefully trap yourself to get the rerolls you want). At 110pts, I think it's more of a toss-up whether you take him or Girion in a pure Garrison of Dale list (unlike Dain/Thorin).

Profile Preview - Bard II

Courtesy: ForgeWorld Downloads

From the Warhammer Community article, we knew that Bard II will have a similar combat profile to his dad (F5/3A - guessed at S4) and has access to both Strike and Defense (Resolve is a happy though situational surprise). We were told that he would have a spear, shield, and some kind of armor that makes him D7 (so heavy armor) and would have 2 Fate (he ends up with either a better profile than Faramir or a worse profile than Eomer, depending on your perspective). As a Hero of Valor and only 100 points, I think he's a better bargain than his dad and again a competitive option in place of Girion. Compared to certain other heroes (Eomer costs a little more and is a little better, Theodred costs the same fully maxed and I think is a cut above as well), he might be a little on the pricey side, but compared to what Dale had, I think he's great. 

We also know from the article that Bard II is the leader of the Knights of Dale (who we'll view in a minute), and unsurprisingly he has their special rule. Let's see what that is, shall we?

Profile Preview - Knights of Dale

Courtesy: ForgeWorld Downloads

If you like Rohan Royal Guards, you're going to love these guys. While they don't have Bodyguard, they are C4 and get their Wall of Blades special rule, which gives them +1 To Wound against models that charge them that turn. This means that if you run spears in the front rank, they actually do something (fancy that - though it does come at the cost of Feinting, which would be helpful against F4 and below troops since their spear-supports are going to be F4 as well). Of course, you can Feint if you charge and not Feint if you don't, so it's not like they're losing much either way.

If you have 33% bows in your force (you should) and your opponent is thinking about charging you, having some of these Knights of Dale backed by Warriors of Dale with spears and Esgaroth bows will make your opponent think twice about whether it's better to weather the storm of arrows or charge into your battle line and risk getting free two-handed weapon bonuses. Tricksy that. For 11pts/model, they're more expensive than Warriors of Dale, but at only 2 points more than a Warrior of Dale with spear and shield, you get +1 Defense, +1 Courage, and a bonus to wounding if you get charged. That's useful.

Army Composition Reviews

The shift in the Erebor Reclaimed army from the Hobbit era to the War of the Ring era is stark - as we've already mentioned, they lose seven of the members of Thorin's Company, swap Dain profiles, and add Thorin III to their ranks (oh, and Dwalin can't ride a goat anymore . . . someone must have got his goat . . . couldn't resist). :) What DOES change in their favor is their alliance matrix: the Erebor Reclaimed list was probably looking at allying with the Halls of Thranduil (for higher Fight Value and cheaper cavalry), the Survivors of Lake-town (for cheaper units, leading to increased numbers), or the White Council (for Lady of Light - comes at the cost of their army bonus, but frankly you can live without it pretty easily).

With the new alliance matrix, Erebor Reclaimed has access to (basically) all the factions from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement, some of which can easily live without their army bonuses (Minas Tirith, Fangorn, the Fellowship, Lothlorien, The Misty Mountains, Rivendell, and the Shire). If you plan on running the Halls of Thranduil, I'd recommend you just run the normal Erebor Reclaimed - especially if Thranduil is present. If you want to run Legolas instead of Thranduil, you could use either Erebor Reclaimed list (so long as you're not spamming out Mirkwood Rangers).

The Dale alliance matrix is similar to the Erebor Reclaimed one (unsurprisingly), though it's weird that both lists omit the White Council when armies from the War of the Ring era (including the Fellowship, which wasn't formed until long AFTER the new profiles for Erebor Reclaimed/Dale are around) can ally conveniently with the White Council. Maybe this will be corrected before the release, but I don't know. Having Galadriel would be helpful (so might some wizards/Elven lords), just sayin'.

How do you use the new Erebor Reclaimed?

If you're running this faction, don't be afraid of convenient alliances - you don't need your army bonus as it stands right now. Minas Tirith provides a tempting alliance, since you can get either Aragorn, King Elessar (March, Banner, killing machine) or Gandalf the White (anti-archery, anti-magic, hero-negater, lesser killing machine) and a host of Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shieldwall to slot in with the Dwarves you're bringing. Knights of Minas Tirith are much cheaper than Iron Hills Goat Riders and while they do suffer in their stats, they perform much the same function as their Iron Hills comrades (with +2" of movement). What's more, Rangers of Gondor with spears backing up Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows makes for a formidable (and affordable) gunline - there are a LOT of options here.

This kind of list would require bare-bones heroes for Erebor (Dain/Dwalin as your Hero of Legend/Valor, Iron Hills Captain if you didn't take Aragorn so you have March/Gloin if you took Gandalf), but if you wanted to tap into the wealth of heroes that the Iron Hills has, you could conveniently ally with the Fellowship to tap into options like Legolas or Boromir (if you're going to take Aragorn, it's probably better to take Elessar from Minas Tirith) to supplement your killing power. Or you could run Gimli with Gloin and Dain for some really thematic game play (and the only way you can run father and son without an Impossible alliance).

As I've already said, it's interesting to me that the White Council isn't listed in the alliance matrix - this could be because Saruman has already broken ties and the council has kind of been disbanded, but it's weird that the other armies from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings would be convenient allies with the White Council during the same time period. Given how vulnerable your Dwarf heroes are to magic, not having access to Galadriel, Lady of Light makes me think that Gandalf the White would be the best addition (but that may be my bias for Gandalf coming through). :)

How do you use the new Garrison of Dale?

If you bring Brand and Bard II, you can include up to 33 Warriors of Dale or Knights of Dale. I would take 30 of them, running a 3/1/2 alignment where you get 3 Knights of Dale for every 1 Warrior of Dale with shield and spear (one of whom has a banner) and 2 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears. This means you can get 15 Knights of Dale, 5 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears (one has a banner), and 10 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears. 

With 210pts spent on Brand and Bard, we could easily field 30 Warriors, getting 15 Knights of Dale (165pts), 4 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears (36pts), 1 Warrior of Dale with shield, spear, and banner (34pts), and 10 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears (100pts), for a grand total of 32 models and 545pts.

But like the normal Garrison of Dale, eventually you're just getting Captains and more guys - and maybe that's fine when you have two named heroes who can actually fight - but you may be looking for allies. If your army bonus is still a boosted Shoot Value, then I think you could take just Bard II and 13 guys (6 Knights of Dale, 1 Warrior of Dale with spear, shield, and banner, 1 Warrior of Dale with spear and shield, 5 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears) to ally into whatever you want (the entire group will have spears and half of them will be able to get +1 To Wound if charged).

Good allies would include factions that can't get spears easily but do get cavalry (like Rohan) OR Elf armies (since you get similar archery for cheaper - and you can benefit from their higher Fight Value and cavalry options). If you're looking at allying with Erebor Reclaimed, you're probably running whatever Legion they come up with.

What Legions Will We See?

Obviously, the heroes that have been announced indicate that we are likely to have a "Dale United" list, with Erebor Reclaimed and Garrison of Dale units. Like the Ugluk's Scouts, Cirith Ungol, and Men of the West Legendary Legions, I expect Dale heroes to lead Dale warriors and Erebor heroes to lead Erebor warriors. Dain will probably get a buff (probably a banner buff) and there will probably be a protect-the-body rule between Dain and Brand similar to what is present for Eowyn and Theoden.

It's unclear who the required heroes will be for the Legion - I suspect there will be the choice of taking either Dain and Brand or Thorin and Bard (so you could do pre-death of the kings or post-death of the kings). I fully expect that all four won't be required (would be incredibly pricey).

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some other rule that encourages your Dale and Erebor units to work together - something like Animosity in other Legions, but could be more like the Men of the West/Last Alliance battle companies (though getting +1 to dueling rolls would be too powerful across the entire army). It would be great if Dale models could get Shieldwall while adjacent to an Erebor model with Shieldwall or for Iron Hills Dwarves with spears to get the +1 To Wound if charged while adjacent to Dale troops (maybe specifically Knights of Dale). I also think it could take the route of Erebor models count as being in range of a banner when near Dale heroes and Dale models count as being in range of a banner near Erebor heroes.

Finally, I hope we're going to see modifications to the Champions of Erebor that are available to us - things like Bifur already has his axe head out, transferring Sworn Protector to Dain, or certain ones getting access to Heroic March. I don't want to see these guys nerfed, but rather want to see changes to make them appropriate for the era.

There are other Legions we will probably get - the Easterlings will have one (no Khamul, though I'm curious if we'll see them allied with Mordor Orcs, allied with Khand, or run pure with a new big hero/Uber generic hero), Lothlorien will probably get one (hopefully with a shape-shifting Galadriel profile - no Haldir, obviously), The Halls of Thranduil will probably get one (no Legolas or Tauriel, I expect), and we'll probably see a War of the Ring era Dol Goldur list with Khamul leading Orcs/Wargs of various kinds (no Necromancer, Keeper, of Nazgul of Dol Goldur). I'm not sure what that will look like, but it will probably be the most unusual of the Legions.

If you have thoughts on what's coming down the pike (or on the models that have been released), drop a note below in the comments - until next time, happy hobbying!