The Bare Necessities, Part XXXIX: The Garrison of Dale

 Good morning gamers,

Today we will be delving into the Garrison of Dale, the army that, until recently, had the fewest profiles of any army to date (except the Black Riders LL). With a new warrior profile and the option of 1-2 named heroes, this army might not have the depth that most competitive armies do, but you do get access to most of the common wargear options in the game (making your units fairly flexible, despite having only a few options). But this begs the question: what can you do to make this list a balanced list? Let's take a look at what is rapidly becoming my favorite army of Men from the Armies of the Hobbit book!

The Garrison of Dale: How Important is Your Army Bonus (and What's Coming Our Way)?

At the time of this writing, the models for Brand, Bard II, and the Knights of Dale were announced (and their working rules available), but with a Legion including them and the Erebor Dwarves imminent, who knows how the new profiles will be run. For our purposes today, we'll be viewing the Hobbit era Dale list and we'll come back and view these new profiles (probably in the context of whatever comes from War in the North) at a later date.

With three profiles to view, you'd expect this army to struggle at almost every points level. And yet, it doesn't. Why? Because the models that this army has, the equipment options available to these models, and the ally options this army has, give them a way to play that makes the army work at any points level.

The big question, though, is how important your army bonus is. On its face, if you compare the Garrison of Dale to Numenor (who is also profile-restricted), you have very similar profiles. Warriors of Numenor are F4/4+ (as are Warriors of Dale), S4 (+1S over Warriors of Dale), D4-5 depending on whether you have a shield or not (same as Warriors of Dale), and C4 with their army bonus (+1 over Warriors of Dale, same Courage base) for +1 point/model. This means that if you're considering allying the Garrison of Dale with Rivendell, you get either +1S or +1C for free by allying with Numenor instead of Dale.

Except that Warriors of Numenor (and Captains of Numenor) have "normal bows" and a 4+ shoot value, while the Warriors of Dale have Esgaroth bows (aka longbows or Elf bows) and have a 3+ shoot value (if they keep their army bonus). While this makes Warriors of Dale with spears and Esgaroth bows the same cost as Warriors of Numenor with spears and bows, their archery is more reliable at hitting their targets (and wounding odd-Defense targets). If you need to break a D8 army with shooting, those Dale guys are going to do it better (as they will against D7, D5, and D3 armies).

When you compare Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears (10 pts/model) to High Elf Warriors with Elf bows and spears (12 pts/model), you have -1FV, -1D, and -2C (and no rerolls to Hit if you didn't move should you keep the Rivendell army bonus), but these stat changes mean that a) you might tie the opponent in FV instead of just beating him, b) you might be wounded more easily but could also be wounded on the same thing, and c) will probably fail more Courage checks than the Elves will, but that's to be expected. The 2pts/model savings, however, is huge - it means that you can field more bows than an Elf army at the same points level and have the SAME range threat as they do (just more of it). Add into this that Captains of Dale with Esgaroth bows (55pts) are cheaper than any Elf hero (15pts cheaper than some of the cheapest named heroes and 45pts cheaper than a High Elf Captain with all the toys) and Girion is cheaper than your main Elf heroes (80-100pts cheaper than most of THOSE guys), means that the savings you get on your warriors and heroes can translate into either MORE troops or more elite troops that you ally into your list.

Perhaps the closest comparison model for Warriors of Dale (and perhaps the only one that outshines them and "does what they do") are Citadel Guard with longbows - both are F4/S3 in melee, both are C3 (though the Citadel Guard have Bodyguard and might be C4), the Citadel Guard are D5, and they cost +1 point over Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows. Where the Warriors of Dale shine, however, is that 3+ Shoot value (over the Citadel Guard's 4+ Shoot value) and the ability to take spears for the same cost as a Citadel Guard with Longbow (which means the Citadel Guard needs to be a front-line model). The cost savings are fewer here and the Defense boost for the Citadel Guard can be quite helpful, but on the whole, the Dale warriors are just a mite bit better because there will be more of them. The cost savings may not be felt on the warriors if the Minas Tirith army spams Warriors of Minas Tirith, but if they're spamming Guards of the Fountain Court (who are higher Defense than Warriors of Dale but aren't any better at fighting/killing innately) and big heroes (like Boromir, Aragorn, or Gandalf), you've probably got the numbers advantage on them.

So if your army bonus makes your archers good (especially for their cost), when would you give up the army bonus? I can think of only two armies that would make giving up the bonus worth it (both of which we'll address later in the post). If you're not interested in having a 3+ shoot value on your troops, I think you're better off with Minas Tirith or Lake-town (both of which get good models that don't get Elf-level shooting, but can come pretty close). Today's list assumes that you want to keep that army bonus and as a result, you're okay with being slower than you could be (relying on March instead of actual fast troops) in trade for superb archery and high Defense allies. Let's take a look at the list!

The List

• Girion, Lord of Dale with Greatbow
• 6 Knights of Dale
• 3 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
• 3 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears
• 1 Warrior of Dale with shield, spear, and banner
  
• Captain of Dale with Esgaroth Bow
• 3 Knights of Dale
• 3 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
• 2 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
  
• 3 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears
  
• HISTORICAL ALLY - The Army of Thror: Thror [ARMY LEADER]
• 15 Guardians of the King

42 models, 10 Esgaroth bows hitting on a 3+ AND 1 Greatbow hitting on a 3+ AND 15 throwing axes hitting on a 4+, 17 D6+ models, no mounted models, 8 Might points

The purchases required to get these units are as follows:

• You need to get Girion, Lord of Dale;
• You need to get 1 box of Warriors of Dale (we need 16 Warrior of Dale models, one of which will need to be converted/painted to be a captain and another converted into a Captain);
• You need 3 blisters of Knights of Dale;
• You need Thror and Thrain, both of which are great heroes; and
• You need one box of Grim Hammers.
  

This list comes in at ~$250 (and the cost of some spare spears, unless you have them already in a bin box), which is more expensive than you'd think, but you're using almost all of your Dwarf models (it's really that second box of Dale models that you're "wasting"). You could fix this easily by bringing Thrain, but then the list becomes an Army of Thror list instead of a Garrison of Dale list. While none of these heroes hit hard, your Army Leader is unlikely to take much damage and you've got plenty of bows (11-13 shots each turn) to drive your opponent to come to you. Let’s look at each warband and see what they’re intended to do.

Warband #1: The Mighty Shooting Hero

Dale's biggest draw is its shooting - having a 3+ shoot value with S3 bows is a big deal (which we've already talked about a lot here). This warband has 5-7 shots coming out of it (Girion's 1-3 shots are resolved at S4 instead of S3), which is a threat to anyone (even if it deploys away from the rest of the group). Girion isn't a great hero, but anyone with F5 and 3-Might-and-Strike is going to do okay (especially if his 2 Attacks are augmented by a spear-supporting model and a banner nearby). This warband happens to have a banner and all of the warriors in it have spears - you'll have the support you need in most cases. Some of those spearmen are Knights of Dale, who can get a free +1 To Wound if you're charged, which is great if you don't have someone to support and don't have the opportunity to charge someone.

Warband #2: The Lesser Shooting Hero

This "other Dale warband" has 6 shots coming out of it (roughly the same as Girion's warband) and will pack a punch against anyone who attempts to charge it. With 24 total warriors, I've included the maximum possible 8 bows in the Dale side of the list and split that as evenly as possible between the two groups so we have a credible threat of archery if we're split up. This warband also has plenty of spears in it (9/12 models), so if caught on their own, you can try to concentrate your melee power into a few fights where you can get 2 models at F4 to fight your opponent.

Warband #3: The Lord of Erebor

Why did we include so many spears? Because we wanted F4/S4/D7 troops in the front line of course! Thror is a great hero to include with Dale, since he counts as a 6" banner for all of his warriors and can take LOTS of damage from most everything (especially if you're willing to call Heroic Defense instead of Heroic Strike. With the ability to get his single Fate point back if he rolls a 4+ on his Fate roll, Thror has the potential to stay for a long time (though we all know your first roll will be a 2, right?). The 15 Guardians of the King that he leads are tough as nails and all of them have throwing axes, which means this is a shooting-heavy, high Defense army at short range (which is absolutely terrifying). Add in the Dale archery and your opponent will not be too anxious to charge your ranks.

Scenario Overview

Let’s take a look at each of the available scenarios and see some thoughts/considerations for using this list:

• Domination: Well, you have a lot of bows and you can station models like Girion and your archers without spears on objectives (taking advantage of whatever cover you can). Your captain should be Marching Thror and his bodyguards (and spear-supports - so many spear-supports) across the field to force your opponent to fight on objectives. If he tries to avoid you, you have quite a few bows in your army (some of which can be embedded into your Dwarf battle-line) to force him to engage you instead of skirmishing.
  
• Capture and Control: The center objective will be flooded with your Dwarves (obviously) and I recommend you place the spear supports behind them so your opponent knows you mean business. Drift a few Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows to the rear objective, but push for the side objectives only after you've secured the middle. Chances are good your opponent will try to move around you, so pursue him and drop Warriors of Dale off at objectives that you pass. Leaving Girion in the center of the map (with some protectors) will mean you can threaten your opponent's rear objective pretty well.
  
• Hold Ground: Maelstrom . . . yaye. Ideally, your Captain arrives near your other two warbands and has Might left to March them, but if you have to arrive separately, make sure your archers are protected and screened by your melee troops. Thror and his boys should advance straight for the center, backed by Dale spears if they can. Get your troops to the middle as quickly as possible (shooting one enemy warband to pieces on the approach if you have good firing lanes) - you have 32 melee models in the list, so that's plenty of models to assault the center if you want.
  
• Seize the Prize: Like most of the shooting-heavy lists we've looked at, you can array your bowmen with a dead shot towards the center objective to make a pretty good kill-zone if your opponent tries to race in on the first turn to secure the Prize. Thror and his Dwarves (assisted by the Captain for March) should advance towards the objective on the first turn in a way that doesn't interfere with your firing lanes. Even if your opponent digs up the Prize, you have a large corp of troops advancing towards the center, who can corral the enemy model holding it towards his own side of the board or your archers. Always plan two turns ahead with your shooting (even if it means a few archers move full and pass on a turn of shooting so that they can be in a good position to shoot on the following turn). If the enemy retreats from Thror, focus on breaking the enemy - their model could run away from the fight if that happens.
  
• To The Death: Well, the goal is to break the enemy without being broken . . . so stay back and shoot (bludgeoning your opponent with 44 models - less a few that might get killed by archery - when he arrives). Keep the banner alive and shoot everyone to death. Pretty simple.
  
• Lords of Battle: Well, deploy 12" back and shoot at your opponent. Whoever gets within 6" of your line gets hit by throwing axes before you charge. With D7 front-line troops and a D9 leader, I'm not seeing you coughing up a lot of points in this scenario if you can screen for your Dale troops.
  
• Contest of Champions: Well, if we wanted a melee killing hero, Thror is probably the best option we have (well, okay, Thrain would have been better). Thror has the advantage in this scenario of being hard to beat in combat, hard to wound (D9 with the option of Heroic Defense), and has a 3+ Fate save (that isn't spent on a 4+). Save 1-2 Might to promote those saves (like Sauron's Ring save), based on how much flack you're taking and focus on smashing a few troops early if you can. Your Guardians of the King are the key in this scenario, as they'll be battling alongside their king, sniping models with their throwing axes and tagging big threats. Back up your front line with all of your spears, using your bowmen as swordsmen and getting locked in fast (your Dale troops might be squishy, but they're still F4 troops). Girion should probably work his way to the flanks to get some shooting in on supporting models or auric supports (like banners), though in a pinch he can be a decent fighter. Your Knights of Dale make good flank-protectors, as your opponent doesn't really want to charge into them if he can help it.
  
• Reconnoitre: Well, we all know this one is going to be hard. Your Captain is the key piece: March can get you up the field faster, so use that to get your units up (but as we've said in previous posts in this series, WHEN you March is critical). Your archers can defend your board edge, but you want to do so from near the middle of the board to slow your opponent down.
  
• Storm the Camp: Well, you've got tons of bows to protect your base and a solid line of 16 Dwarves to advance up the field (backed by loads of warriors with spears). Moving Thror up the middle with his Dwarves gives you the flexibility to break out into smaller groups if you need to pursue models running around your flanks (though with as many bow shots as you have, I wouldn't be too worried). If your Captain can March Thror and his mates closer to the middle of the map faster, you could meet your opponent well on his side of the board, denying them the opportunity to take your camp. Break him without being broken and hold your camp and everything will be fine.
  
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: Maelstrom, as we've said before, isn't your favorite, but Thror's warband is the only one in any trouble (no spears). I'm not sure how many people want to take on a F6/3A hero who is D9 backed by 15 F4/S4 warriors who are D7 and probably within range of a banner (and have throwing axes if you walk on within 6" of them). I'd deploy Thror first, then deploy the Captain (placing him if possible near Thror so you can March the Dwarves up), then deploy Girion (appearing near the Captain if possible). If you must appear in multiple places, Thror's boys are more likely to survive on their own, while the Dale warbands should try their best to arrive together. I'd back onto the board only 3" with your bowmen if you can so anyone who arrives near you gets shot up. By moving on close to the board edge, war beasts and chariots will find it hard to walk on you (since they need to be fully on the board before they can trample anyone). If you can get your hands on the Heirloom, great (anyone is great having it) - if your opponent gets it, shoot him (and rush with your Dwarves).
  
• Fog of War: Well, you can't choose to keep Thror alive, so you'll need to decide if Girion or your Captain is a safer model to keep hidden away. Both have ranged weapons, so you don't have to put them in any danger. The hero you want to kill should be someone you can kill with archery - chewing through front lines if required (or even using Thror to assassinate the hero).
  
• Clash By Moonlight: For an army that is shooting-heavy, you'd expect them to hate this scenario - but they don't. Yes, your shooting is limited to 12" away, but you actually want to push quickly towards your opponent in order to get within throwing weapon range as swiftly as possible so that your throwing axes (which get +1 To Wound) and your high strength bows (which get +1 To Wound) can tear through your opponent's army. He won't be able to shoot at you until he's within 12" and with a D7/9 front wall, you should resist most incoming damage.
  

Modifications

While I’ve already addressed some of this, let’s just recap on the modifications I wouldn’t be surprised to see:

• Run The New Garrison of Dale with Minas Tirith – With new profiles in hand, we're going to explore what we can do with a War of the Ring era list. Allying with Erebor Reclaimed would be good if we wanted to keep our 3+ shoot values, but we're going to ally in some cheap cavalry by allying with Minas Tirith! Yes, we lose our army bonus, but who cares. We've chosen a cheap Dale contingent to be one anvil and support it with another anvil for board control. I've gone with Gandalf the White, but you could swap him with Aragorn, King Elessar if you wanted or save some cash with Boromir (you may need to promote Anborn to someone with more warrior slots OR give Bard a few more guys).
  
• Bard II
• 5 Knights of Dale
• 1 Warrior of Dale with shield
• 1 Warrior of Dale with shield and spear
• 1 Warrior of Dale with spear, shield, and banner
• 5 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• 6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield and spear
• 5 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• 3 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields
• Anborn, Ranger of Gondor
• 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 1 Ranger of Gondor with spear
• Ally with the White Council – If there are three things that you don't get in Dale innately, it's fast troops, a good combat hero, and protection from enemy magic/archery. Any of these things can ruin your day based on your scenario or match-up. So what would happen if we were to give up our army bonus in order to get access to a few models that helped cover these weaknesses? Our first stop might be the White Council, where we can get Galadriel, Lady of Light to protect us from archery/magic and a good beater hero in Glorfindel. Together we're spending 300 points on these two heroes, both of whom are good-to-very-good combat heroes (and are certainly better than we had before). With a hit-on-6s anti-archery bubble that doesn't need to be cast by Galadriel, Girion and his bowmen (who are not quite as reliable at hitting their targets, but are still decent) can shoot against enemy archery-heavy armies for much longer than they could before. Once the enemy gets close, they have Glorfindel to deal with (and Galadriel, of course). This army also happens to have 31 models, so like the pure Dale list we had above, we've checked all the boxes except having 4+ fast troops from our Bare Necessities checklist:
  
• Girion, Lord of Dale with Great Bow
• 6 Warriors of Dale with shields
• 5 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
• 1 Warrior of Dale with shield, spear, and banner
• 1 Warrior of Dale with Esgaroth bow
• 2 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears
• Captain of Dale with Esgaroth bow
• 3 Warriors of Dale with shields
• 3 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
• 2 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
• 4 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears
• CONVENIENT ALLY - The White Council: Glorfindel, Lord of the West on Asfaloth with the Armor of Gondolin
• Galadriel, Lady of Light
  
• Ally with the Misty Mountains - Do you know what the great thing is about having average-cost troops (for the most part) and pretty cheap heroes? You can afford to splurge on some big, expensive allies. While the White Council is certainly one way to do that, you can also tap into the Misty Mountains (either for just Gwaihir OR for Gwaihir and a few wingmen) to tear through enemy troops with large flying birds before they can engage those pesky archers of yours. You lose your army bonus, but the list below sports 27 models (8 of whom have Esgaroth bows hitting on a 4+ in addition to Girion with his Great Bow), so you've got a good bit of shooting still to supplement THREE Eagles in this list:
  
• Girion, Lord of Dale with Great Bow
• 9 Warriors of Dale with shields
  
• 1 Warrior of Dale with shield, spear, and banner
• 4 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears
  
• Captain of Dale with Esgaroth Bow
• 6 Warriors of Dale with shields
  
• 3 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears
  
• CONVENIENT ALLY - The Misty Mountains: Gwaihir [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Great Eagles
• Bonus List: What About The Windlance? - While I've shown a few different ways you can take Dale on its own or with its short list of allies, there's a "model" that I've omitted: the Windlance. My opinion of the Windlance wasn't very great when we talked about Big Honkin' Things on our podcast - and I hold to that. I think most of the time, you'll get more use out of the Great Bow (1-3 shots) than you will with the Windlance - especially because you have no Black Arrow (like Bard does). Still, I couldn't help but ask myself the question of what kind of army would WANT the support of a Windlance over a S4 bow that shoots 1-3 times. And the answer was simple: an army that doesn't have a lot of models and can move around very quickly. Something like . . . Radagast's Alliance. Or Fangorn. OR BOTH! This list is a tribute to a list that was brought to our 2021 TMAT Grand Tournament and did pretty well there, since breaking this army means your opponent HAS to deal with Treebeard and at least one of the following models: Beorn, Gwaihir, or Girion. Girion is clearly the "weakest link," but he provides a longer range threat than Treebeard or Gwaihir and can force even the stoutest of enemy armies to come at your monsters (something he'll be loathe to do, I think):
  
• Girion, Lord of Dale with Windlance
• CONVENIENT ALLY - Radagast's Alliance: Beorn
  
• CONVENIENT ALLY - Radagast's Alliance: Gwaihir
• CONVENIENT ALLY - Fangorn: Treebeard with Merry and Pippin
  

In our next post, we'll be diving into the Army of Lake-town - an army that is also strapped in its unit choices (only one warrior choice paired with a few good hero choices) and is commonly held to be one of the most competitive lists in the game (it did pretty well at Ardacon this year). We've seen this list appear recently in our gaming group and I've got a few thoughts on them. See you next time - until then, happy hobbying!