The Stuff of Legends: Defenders of Erebor

Good morning gamers,

We're back in the Defence of the North supplement to view a list that I had very mixed feelings about when I started playing with it - and even after playing a half-dozen games at various points levels, I feel like I still don't fully understand it. I can say that I've been pleasantly surprised with a few of the models in the list - and have some very surprising shenanigans that can be run with it. And more importantly, I can say that I love it - I love this Legion a LOT.

Let's dig into one of the hallmark lists of the new supplement and what it has to offer (fair warning: this article is LOOOOOOONG)!

UPDATE: Many thanks to the anonymous user who pointed out that Barazanthul is in fact Master-forged (as it always should have been). Some parts of this article have been updated accordingly.

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 165-240pts

The list requires at least one named Dale hero (either Brand or Bard II) and at least one named Erebor hero (Dain, Thorin III, or one of the living, mobile Champions of Erebor during the War of the Ring - Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Dori, Nori, or Gloin). With Brand/Bard costing 100-110pts and the Dwarves costing between 65 and 130pts, this Legion actually has a quite variable tax on it (as low as 165pts if you took Bard and either Bifur or Bofur - though probably Bifur - or as much as 240pts if you take Brand and Dain - which is quite likely at high points levels because of the Legion rules).

Usually in these posts, this is where I go into what you ACTUALLY need to take. This Legion . . . doesn't really have that. No, this Legion has so many different facets to it that I don't think I can boil the list down to "here's what you need to take." Instead, I found myself feeling a strange sense of DeJa'Vu when I was writing lists for this Legion - getting flashbacks to the start of the new edition of MESBG and over the past few years writing lists for one of the most thematic army lists in the game that HASN'T been turned into a Legendary Legion: the Last Alliance.

Last Thursday, I wrote an article on why list building for the Last Alliance is hard - read that article if you haven't already. Both lists require you to figure out how much emphasis you want to place on each faction and each brings something to the table (high Strength for Numenor, high Fight for Rivendell with the potential for higher Defense, though not always). You also have lots of heroes vying for a slot (and your big named heroes don't have March, so you need to balance whether you even focus on March at all with your mostly-infantry, probably-average-defense army). Oh, and you have far more big heroes than you're ever going to be able to field south of 1000 points (and even then, they're competing with the cheaper auric/March heroes in the list). 

Legion Special Rules

So what does any of that have to do with the Defenders of Erebor LL? Well, the comparisons are quite interesting, actually. Dale has more warrior options than Numenor (well, it has ONE more warrior option than Numenor), but otherwise you're still trying to decide whether to take Brand/Bard to lead your Dale contingent - but unlike the Last Alliance, you can't just have a Captain of Dale leading the Dale contingent. Either the King or Prince is going to war - and that's not a bad thing (but it is a more expensive thing).

While Dale doesn't have a lot of options for which hero it NEEDS to bring, Erebor does have a lot of options - you could choose to take Brand with Bifur as your cheap hero, giving you 30 warrior slots (18 Dale guys and 12 Erebor guys) while only spending 175pts on heroes. This honestly isn't a horrible plan for low points levels, but more on that in a minute. Alternatively, you could run "two big heroes" and take Brand with Dain at high points levels or Bard with Thorin III at mostly lower points levels (more on that in a minute too).

Unlike the Last Alliance historical alliance, however, there are reasons for choosing specific heroes to lead your groups in the Defenders of Erebor LL - specifically, only the four royal family members (Dain, Thorin III, Brand, and Bard II) count as banners for your troops, so having at least two of them makes a lot of sense because you're getting 50pts of banners for free (though they are not VP-generating banners). This makes those Champions of Erebor more of a side-show despite their amazing rules and killing potential (and since none of the named heroes in this Legion have March, those generic March Captains have a very interesting appeal, but actually including them in your list is going to be REALLY hard).

To further emphasize the hero choice constraints, the list can situationally grant free Heroic Combats to the four royal heroes, but only if their age-appropriate counterpart is in your army (Dain and Brand can trigger each other's Combats and Thorin and Bard can trigger each other's Combats). Free Heroic Combats when you're also granting yourself a banner bonus (models are friendly to themselves after all) is amazing and potentially quite devastating to the enemy - but only if you include the right pairing (Bard and Dain won't help each other in the slightest . . . for whatever reason).

The second point of comparison is how unattractive the generic heroes are in this army - March Captains would be great for a predominantly infantry army (especially one with lots of Dwarves), but the Captain of Dale is competing with Bifur (who costs 10pts more and can give you free Heroic Moves) while the Iron Hills Captain (90pts on a War Goat) is competing with all the Champions of Erebor (slightly cheaper than Dwalin, on-par or more expensive than the rest) - and while the Captain of Dale can shoot things from far away and the Iron Hills Captain is mounted (increased mobility, potentially better killing power), those Champs are some of the best-costed Dwarf hero killing machines in the game (certainly true of Gloin and Dwalin, who both showed up in our TMAT Top 50 Slayers rankings - and while Dwalin's score would have dropped in that assessment without his goat, he'd still have ranked pretty well).

Third, while Dale has D6 Knights of Dale as a warrior choice, the Dale warriors are going to have lower Defense than their comparable Dwarf counterparts, making them at least appear to be (if not actually be) low Defense models. In every game I've played with these guys, the Dale troops (especially the Knights of Dale) become archery magnets - drawing the attention of every ranged weapon and magical damage spell the enemy has to offer. And if you've chosen to run the bare-minimum of these guys needed to trigger one of the Legion bonuses, your archery magnets become even MORE tempting.

Finally, while the list has access to precisely two mounted units (Iron Hills Captains on War Goats and Iron Hills Goat Riders), cavalry in this list are expensive (20-90pts) and the rest of the army is also expensive (8-11pts/infantry warrior for Dale assuming you don't buy a banner/war horn; 11-13pts/infantry warrior for Erebor assuming you don't buy a banner/war horn) that the number of cavalry you bring will be restricted heavily by your points level and what kinds of units you want to bring (or what heroes you end up taking). Without a lot of cavalry and without a March hero . . . this army is moving slowly. As a long-time Kingdom of Moria player, I can tell you that March may not be essential to all armies, but it sure is useful for Dwarves. Despite that, I haven't made many army lists for this Legion that included a March Captain - and haven't gone over 4 Goat Riders at any points level - so maybe I should change that sometime, but coughing up the points for fast troops is really, REALLY hard in this Legion.

So, with all that background, I really can't say what you ACTUALLY need in your army except to say that you'll want a mix of Dale and Erebor models (what kind of mix we'll talk about in the strategies section), you'll want a pair of heroes that benefit from the free Heroic Combat rules (more on that in the strategies section too), take Bifur as your third hero (more on that in the strategy section), and I'd recommend a healthy amount of shooting or cavalry (at higher points levels you can get both, but at lower points levels, you probably need to make a choice). 

Okay, let's get out of this section and get into the comparison to the normal alliance option.

Part 2: Why Take This Legion Over "Normal" Allied Forces?

In my review of Defence of the North, I mentioned that one of the things I loved about the supplement was the modification of the Erebor Reclaimed army bonus to allow all of the models in the War of the Ring era Erebor Reclaimed list to treat Dain as a 6" banner. While Thorin Oakenshield would count as a banner only for his loyal band of followers (not Dain or the Iron Hills Dwarves in his service), Dain is a 6" banner for everyone - and that is HUGE. As historical allies with Dale (who keeps their 3+ shoot value improvement army bonus when allied with Erebor Reclaimed so long as Erebor Reclaimed as Dain/Thorin III and Dale has Brand/Bard), you have alliance benefits that are similar to what you get with Girion-led Dale with the Army of Thror (only with cavalry options and a bigger ensemble of heroes to take).

And that's the thing about this Legion - there are reasons to take it, but honestly, there are times when the historical alliance might just be better. Let's look at the trades you're making:

Weakness #1: Reduced Banner Range on Dain (and Worse Dale Archers)

In a Historical Alliance, Dain has a free 6" banner rule instead of a free 3" banner rule - and while that might not seem like that big of a difference, the total area covered increases dramatically as the inches increase (a 6" radius around a 1" model has a usable area of ~131 sq. inches, while a 3" radius around a 1" model has a usable area of ~37 sq. inches - that 3.5 times larger!). For infantry armies, a 6" radius can actually cover 7 models that are all base-to-base in each direction (since a 25mm base is slightly less than an inch and six-slightly-less-than-an-inch increments add up).

Similarly, the Warriors of Dale in the Legendary Legion don't get the 3+ shoot value improvement (neither does the Captain of Dale), which is . . . kind of what draws most players to the Dale side of the house in the first place. Warriors of Dale are perfectly good troops (as I discussed in my review of the Garrison of Dale in the Bare Necessities series, they're basically Warriors of Numenor with -1 Strength for -1pt/model), but not stellar archers without the 3+ shoot value - and certainly not as good as the Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows for +2pts/model. So . . . maybe you would want that in this Legion?

Strength #1: Free Banners!

Whenever you run expensive warriors (Elves, Iron Hills Dwarves, and Warriors of the Dead especially), you begin to wonder how you're going to fit in a banner into your army. While many armies can afford to take 1-2 banners if they're fielding 5-7pt troops, armies that pay 10+ pts/model often feel their low numbers (even if the models they have are more likely to win their fights because they're rolling that extra die from the banner). In this army, while Dain has a smaller banner than he'd normally have, we don't have to pay for banners - and 25pts in savings is a good 2 models (or upgrading 3 warriors into Goat Riders). Multiply that by 2 for taking Brand and Dain (or Bard and Thorin) and you've got at least 50pts in savings JUST by picking your heroes. Yes, we could have had a free 6" banner, but sometimes it's better to have banners in different places (and you can get the two banners in the Legion without having to pay for Dain). At low points levels, that's huge - at higher points levels, it still helps tremendously.

Weakness #2: Expensive Cavalry Options

Some factions have access to cheap cavalry - but not this one. Goat Riders are expensive (20pts/model) and have a hefty price tag for a D6 rider on a D5 mount (though not unheard of). Still, if a Knight of Minas Tirith can be bought for 14pts/model for a D6 rider on a D4 mount, you're paying +6pts/model to get +1 Defense on the mount, and +1 FV and +1 S on the rider. It may not be unheard of, but this usually means it's pretty expensive to field more than a few of these guys.

Strength #2: Increased Infantry Killing Power

Rerolling 1s To Wound doesn't seem like much, but as we covered in a recent post on special strikes, rerolling 1s can be really, really helpful. With S4 Iron Hills Dwarves wounding most things on 5s or 4s, it means you're looking at a decent chance of wounding whatever you're fighting with just the Dwarf. If he's backed up by another Dwarf with a Dale guy nearby, you have an even better chance of killing things - and I'll tell you what, if you get an even match-up against the enemy, these guys can cut through a line quickly.

But when you factor in that you can get the reroll of 1s To Wound on a Knight of Dale with +1 To Wound (allowing him to reliably wound on 5s or 4s as well), you've got some crazy damage on the Dale side of the house too. Backed by a Dwarf and having been charged, your opponent will be thinking three times about whether to engage a Knight of Dale when he's got the charge.

Finally, rerolling 1s is particularly good when you wound on 3s - and heroes like Dain, Thorin III, Dwalin, Gloin, and sometimes Dori can reliably be wounding on 3s when they two-hand. Dwalin/Gloin/Dori won't suffer the two-hander penalty thanks to Weapon Master on all of them (and Dain doesn't suffer the penalty thanks to his Master-forged axe) and Thorin can deal with the penalty if he's up against warriors pretty easily. That reroll of 1s can be pretty devastating indeed when you need to get "not a 2."

Weakness #3: Complicated Deployment Requirements (And Less Emphasis on Shieldwall)

This Legion gets great benefits when their Dale and Erebor models are fighting side-by-side - and if you have full control over your deployment, you can place Dale models amidst Erebor models. It will probably require you to bring spare bases so you can plan accordingly, but even if you bring bases with you, there may be some pretty serious railroading in your deployment strategies as well as your list building (and you'll be telegraphing to your opponent where your next warband is pretty quickly if you do that). This isn't necessarily a weakness, but it's not as good as being able to deploy Erebor and Dale models in the same warband (like you can do with Rohan and Elf models in the Defenders of Helm's Deep Legion).

What you usually lose by having Dale interspersed with your Erebor models, however, is Shieldwall: unless you have bases RIGHT next to each other, a Dale model will probably only help one guy to his right, left, front, or rear - spread out to much and your rerolling of 1s will disappear. By requiring the Dale models to be close to the Dwarves, your ability to keep Shieldwall intact is quite hard if not impossible. Iron Hills Dwarves are still D7 (and some of them may be D8) so the Erebor side of the house will still be quite strong, but it's worth noting that your formation may need to begin as a 4s formation as you cross the field if you're worried about enemy archery (and then later become a mixed formation).

Strength #3: Thematic Integration of Two Different Factions

This is a give-me credit, but I really like the thematic work that's been done on this Legion. Yes, I'm not thrilled with the choice between Dain/Brand and Bard/Thorin (and ne'er shall the two sets be crossed), but it does encourage you to play the list thematically instead of "just pick the best of the two" (which was my initial inclination). I am saddened that the Champs weren't made more appealing, but I'm glad there's a reason to run Thorin III over them (else I don't think I'd have found a place for him at all).

Strength #4: Epic, EPIC Heroes

We've danced around this a lot, but this army packs in a TON of good heroes (mostly of the beat-stick variety). We know that Dain, Brand, Bard, and Thorin count as banners and can get free Heroic Combats, but when you factor in that you have five additional Strike heroes in Dwalin (3-4A at F6/S5-6 possibly with +1 To Wound), Gloin (3A at F6/S4-5 with +1 To Wound), Nori (3A with a reroll on duel/wounding rolls at F5/S4), Bifur (2A at F4/S4-5 with potentially +1 To Wound), and Bofur (2A at F4/S4 with potentially +1 To Wound), that's pretty crazy. Add to that Dori who can't call Strike (but can call Heroic Defense) has 3A at F5/S4 with a free +1 To Wound, and you've got an army that can pummel enemy troop spams into the ground. Fielding all of these guys will really undercut your numbers, but if you have 4-5 of these guys charging into the enemy, calling Heroic Combats, and each killing 2 guys/round . . . yeah, your numbers differential won't last for long.

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

I've already mentioned in my review of Defence of the North what I'd like for this Legion - in particular, something to make the Champs "aged" for the War of the Ring era. As a summary of the article, that would include:

• Give each of them Venerable;
• Swap Sworn Protector (Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain) for Sworn Protector (Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain); and
• Give each Dwarf a special rule that makes them a bit better (not game-altering, but clearly gives each of them merit to be taken vs. always left at home):
• Bifur the Dwarf begins the game with the axe-blade from his Embedded Axe-Blade special rule removed;
• Gloin the Dwarf may reroll 1s and 2s To Wound for his A Warrior Born special rule;
• Dwalin the Dwarf may reroll a die during a dueling roll;
• Nori the Dwarf exchanges his mace for a hand-and-a-half mace;
• Dori the Dwarf has 3 Might instead of 2 Might; and
• All friendly models within 3" of Bofur the Dwarf gains the Resistant to Magic special rule.

The only other change I'd recommend has to do with the last Champion of Erebor who is alive during the War of the Ring but isn't in the list: Bombur. Bombur, at the time of the War of the Ring, is described in Book II, Chapter 1 (Many Meetings) of the Fellowship of the Ring as being "so fat that he could not move himself from his couch to his chair at table, and it took six young dwarves to lift him." As such, I'd allow you to take him in the list and replace his Lumbering special rule with the following rule:

Bombur Was Now So Fat That He Could Not Move Himself: After Bombur is deployed, he may not move on his own, but will be treated as a heavy object requiring 6 models to move him at full speed and 3 models to move him at half speed. While Bombur is alive and on the battlefield, all friendly models within 3" of him count as being in range of a banner. Additionally, Bombur may choose any friendly model within 6" of him with his Raising Spirits special rule (instead of a model in base contact).

This would give him a niche rule that would boost your Will and allow him to be ported around to be another banner if you wanted (and a very interesting counter-point to the Dragon Emperor, if you were playing a thematic match-up between the two Legions).

Part 4: Army Strategies

We need to begin by talking about Brand and Dain: by running these two Heroes of Legend together, you not only get 36 warrior slots, but you also get two pretty good killing heroes (for being infantry). Dain has a personal banner rule and 3 Attacks (4 dice to win the fight) at F6, which makes him pretty likely to win a fight with or without a spear-support. Brand has a personal banner rule, 3 Attacks, and an additional reroll if he's trapped - which gives him effectively 5 dice to win the fight at F5. With both heroes having Heroic Strike and 3 Might points, you could do far worse with 110-130pts by going with other factions.

Against warriors, Dain will always be two-handing with his axe (it's master-forged) and can even Piercing Strike when doing so. Brand can't two-hand, but gets a reroll on his wounding roll if trapped - and with both rerolling 1s if there's a Dale model near Dain and an Erebor model near Brand, these guys can really crack through warriors (which is good if they're calling free Heroic Combats).

Bard and Thorin are cheaper than their dads and despite not having that 3rd wound and having 3 fewer warriors they can lead, they're not far off the mark on offense. Bard doesn't get Lord of the West (effectively) when he's trapped, but he does get +1 To Wound when he's charged (which is awesome - especially if he's rerolling 1s). He also counts as a banner for himself, which makes him a formidable opponent against troops (having a staggering 80% chance of getting a 5-high).

But Thorin is the real surprise character for me. I didn't think he was all that great, to be honest, but after playing around with him and reading his rules and the Legion bonuses more closely, I think he may be the sleeper hero in this list. For starters, he's the only 3M/3W/3F hero in the list - period (champs included). With access to Heroic Strike and Heroic Defense, he's well-kitted out to deal with enemy heroes - and with free Heroic Combats, he's well-adapted to deal with enemy warriors. But what really sets him apart is his Cool-Headed special rule (which, I'll admit, I wasn't enthused about when the profile was released): when Thorin calls a heroic action, he rolls a D6 and doesn't spend the Might for it on a 5+ (which is like Eorl the Young's Legendary Hero rule, but on a 5+ instead of a 4+ . . . Valorous Hero, let's call it, :-) ).

This is good if you're calling Heroic Moves for free before Bifur gets going (which is awesome - better than Master of Battle if you have Might, not as good as Master of Battle if you don't have Might), and potentially useful if you're calling Heroic Strikes/Defenses. In a normal Erebor Reclaimed list, you'll want to try to get a free Heroic Strike/Defense from this rule, but in the Legion, it's actually the second half of Cool-Headed that's more valuable to him. In the Legion, as we've mentioned several times already, Thorin can call a free Heroic Combat if Bard is trapped. Cool-Headed allows Thorin to change the heroic action he calls after your opponent calls a Heroic action. This means that if you've got Thorin up against a big hero and Bard/one-of-the-champs against another big hero, you can begin by calling a Heroic Combat with Thorin (making your opponent raise an eyebrow, I'm sure), let him call a Heroic Strike against one of your other heroes (or pass - then you call a Strike with someone to prompt him to call something) and Thorin can then trigger his Cool-Headed rule to change his Heroic Combat into a Heroic Strike. 

Now if you're up against a hero who has Master of Battle (like Azog), he may be tempted to copy your Heroic Combat since he'll have F7 and you'll have F6 - and if you change your heroic action to a Strike, not only can Azog not copy your Strike with Master of Battle because he's already called a heroic action that round, but he may not be able to copy your Strike for free even if he passes on the Heroic Combat (and another enemy hero calls something) because Thorin doesn't actually "call" another heroic action - he "may choose to change the type of Heroic Action he has declared." Check with your tournament organizer to see what they say, but it doesn't say that he declares again (just that you change the one you already declared).

Now I hear you saying, "But isn't trapping your own heroes bad?" Usually, yes - but not here. These guys are rolling enough dice that they're likely to win any fight they want against grunts (and with a spear support, they're actually quite reliable - just don't two-hand with Thorin III). For those wondering HOW to make sure your heroes are trapped in a safe and managed way, tune in on Thursday as we look at a particularly useful formation for this Legion that you can use to trap your guys to trigger these rules.

Okay, so with the world's longest exposition on Thorin III out of the way, let's talk about the two basic configurations that I've tried running with this Legion: Erebor-heavy and an even-split. An Erebor-heavy army is basically looking for a 5:1 ratio of Erebor Dwarves to Dale men - just enough Dale guys to trigger the rerolling of 1s To Wound (since you need to be within 1" of the other race to get the reroll). At lower points levels, you're probably looking at Thorin and Bard not only because they save you 30pts and give you nearly the same hitting power, but also because you probably want a third hero to support them instead of "just spamming guys" - Dain and Brand are great, but they only have 6 Might (with potentially free Heroic Combats), which just isn't enough if you're calling Heroic Moves or Strikes. If you're running a 5:1 ratio, you'll probably need that extra Erebor hero just to field a reasonable amount of troops and I'd say start with Bifur.

Bifur's got it all - he's fairly inexpensive (65pts - only more expensive than a Captain of Dale and tied for least expensive Erebor hero with his brother Bofur) and gives you up to 27 Erebor Dwarf slots with Thorin (which means you can field 23 Erebor Warriors + 2 heroes and 4 Dale warriors + 1 hero if you want to be strict about the 5:1 ratio). This list will assume that you're running six-man blocks, including one Dale guy and 5 Erebor guys:

• Block 1
• Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• 1 Knight of Dale supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• Block 2
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• Brand, King of Dale supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• Block 3
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Warrior of Dale with spear and shield 
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear

As you can see from the blocks above, everyone in each block could be within 1" of a Dale model, which enables the formation to reroll 1s. Dale's contribution can take one of three forms: a hero leading a block of warriors (Block 2), a Knight of Dale on the front line (Block 1), or a Warrior of Dale with shield and spear in the back rank (Block 3 - this is a method which I think is preferable in this particular build because you're shielding your lower-Defense model from enemy archery and makes your overall warband a bit cheaper). Surrounding these Dale models are Iron Hills Dwarves or Dwarf heroes - all solid in battle (though as was mentioned above, they probably aren't getting much mileage out of Shieldwall - though your positioning of heroes can help with that some - and more on this in a future formations article).

For your shooting-oriented warbands (and I think you'll want some at any points level), you can run 5 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows with 1 Warrior of Dale with Esgaroth bow if you want (spears on the second rank crossbows optional) - intermixing your archers to be used as a sword block gives you some added flexibility if you start up-close to your opponent and don't want to worry about shooting OR if you want them to hold an important objective and expect them to have to fight it out over several rounds (in which case the rerolling of 1s will come in handy). I will note that your Esgaroth bows will hit on a 4+ if they don't move and a 5+ if they do move, so standing amidst crossbows not only protects them, but makes them passable archers (instead of pretty unreliable ones).

The other way to run your list is with an even-split approach, where you expect to run about as many Dale guys as Erebor guys. 

• Block 1
• Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain supported by 1 Warrior of Dale with spear and shield 
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Warrior of Dale with spear and shield
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Warrior of Dale with spear and shield 
• Block 2
• 1 Knight of Dale supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• Brand, King of Dale supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• 1 Knight of Dale supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• Block 3
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor supported by 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Warrior of Dale with spear and shield 
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf supported by 1 Warrior of Dale with spear and shield

As was hinted at above, you could run Knights of Dale backed by Iron Hills Dwarves with spears (23pts/file) or Iron Hills Dwarves backed by Warriors of Dale with spears and shields (20pts/file). The former is more expensive (3pts/2 models) and puts D6 units in front of D7-8 units, but gives you the +1 To Wound when charged and avoids having any D5 units in your battle line. Since Knights of Dale cost the same as vanilla Iron Hills Dwarves, the only savings you're really getting is on your spearmen - your choice as to what you want to do.

Embedded in your battle line will probably be 3+ heroes - Bard/Brand, Dain/Thorin, and a Champion of Erebor (I would still go with Bifur) but your need to have this third hero is really for their Might, not necessarily for their warrior slots (since you're running a nearly-even split). Might is an important resource and worth having in your army, so throwing in an additional hero (probably a Champ of Erebor - I would go with Bifur, but would also understand any of the other 3A heroes) would make a lot of sense - but there is a spammable approach where you could run with 2 heroes if the points level was low and focus on having 32-38 models depending on which of the named hero pairs you were to run.

If you're running an even-split approach, there are several ways you can run archers. If you like crossbows, having crossbowmen backed by Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears will only run you 22pts/file (not bad for an elite army), but you can also run skirmish triangles of just Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows since you'll probably have some Erebor cavalry larking about somewhere or extra Iron Hills Dwarves supporting your heroes. Or, you could run 6-man blocks like we had before with minimal Dale melee warriors in them and skirmish triangles of Dale archers if that's more your thing (it works pretty well - though again, little-to-no shieldwall for the melee units).  Crossbows have their merits, but since this is a predominantly infantry army that probably lacks Heroic March, I find that taking Esgaroth bows for your ranged units may be preferable to taking crossbows (though if you prefer crossbows, put them up-front and be ready to use them as swordsmen - they're plenty good and you'll want the numbers).

The last thing I wanted to talk about is the merit of the Champions of Erebor in the list. I've already talked a bit on Bifur, but in case it wasn't clear earlier, he's got Heroic Strike with 2 Might points and F4 as well as the ability to get free Heroic Moves (to complement those Heroic Combats you can call) and stock-standard Dwarf hero stats of 2 Attacks at Strength 4 with a hand-and-a-half axe, D8 with 2 Wounds/1 Fate, AND only costs you 65pts. For the same cost, his brother Bofur gives you an identical combat profile with the options for Strike and Resolve and can ignore magical powers that affect him (both those that target just him AND those that include him in their area of effect, thanks to p. 1 of the Armies of the Hobbit Errata). I personally find it hard to justify Bofur's existence in any list I write for this Legion (though that doesn't seem to be an uncommon critique for Erebor Reclaimed lists as well) due to the sheer quality of the other Champs, the four royal heroes, and the quality of the warrior options you have.

Gloin, Nori, and Dori used to be included in the same three-model blisters from ForgeWorld before all the Dwarves and Bilbo were lumped together into the Champions of Erebor pack that's available now - and these guys are some of the punchiest Dwarves you're going to meet. All of them have 3 Attacks and live in the 75-90pt range and are utter powerhouses on the board. Gloin can Strike from F6, Nori can Strike from F5, and Dori has Heroic Defense, which gives this set an incredible amount of flexibility for dealing with enemy models - and if you wanted to go hero-heavy with this Legion (something we haven't really talked about yet), I think these are the three guys who check all the boxes - affordable, reliable, punchy.

Finally, we have Dwalin. In a normal Erebor Reclaimed list, Dwalin is a go-to for most pure/Erebor-Reclaimed-heavy lists because he can take a mount, costs a max of 125pts, and can have 3A with +1 To Wound and charge bonuses when mounted and either 3A with +1 To Wound or 4A when on foot. With 2 Wounds/2 Fate, he's a cut more resilient than the rest of Thorin's gang and hits like a truck on offense. But in this list, he costs 25pts more than Gloin and doesn't give you much more than Gloin does (+1 Strength, +1 Will/Fate, choice of trading +1 To Wound for +1 Attack, Fearless, rerolling 1s only if near a Dale model). For 35pts more than Nori he gains some nice boosts (+1 FV, +1 Strength, +1 Courage/Fearless +1 Might/Will/Fate, +1 To Wound or +1 Attack instead of a reroll of a dueling dice/wounding dice - which is surprisingly similar to +1 Attack) and when compared to Dori he looks pretty good for "only" +40pts (+1 FV, Strength +1, +1 Courage/Fearless, +1 Might/Will/Fate, Strike instead of Defense, option to forego the +1 To Wound to get +1 Attack). But if there's one thing I've discovered about this army, it's that having 25-40pts to spare is just not going to happen until the points level is quite high. Yes, you can take Dwalin if you want to - and as a profile, I think he's the best hitter this team has - but for his cost, I think the other three and Dain are just better options (and Thorin might be better too because of his free heroics and banner rule).

Part 5: Army Showcase

I know this has already been a long post, but strap in, we have SIX lists to review. :) First off, when you're looking at a 500-point list, I'd highly recommend you take Bard II and Thorin III (potentially free Might at low points levels + potentially a free Heroic Combats from both and the option for Strike on Thorin is awesome). They also only cost 210pts which lets you get healthier numbers. The first list featuring these guys will field a 5:1 ratio of Erebor-to-Dale guys to showcase the bare-minimum Dale build (I've opted for 5 archers instead of 2 Goats and 2 Warriors of Dale to handle the objectives) - Bifur's warband has the Erebor units for Bard's warband:

• Bard II, Prince of Dale
• 2 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
• 1 Warrior of Dale with Esgaroth bow
  
• Thorin III Stonehelm [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 4 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 5 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows
  

Alternatively, you can lean harder into Dale (closer to a 1:1 ratio) and go for a spam list (which focuses on Esgaroth bows instead of crossbows) - Bifur and Thorin both need a Warrior of Dale with shield and spear from Bard's warband and Bard needs five guys from Bifur's warband (the Esgaroth bows are intended to play flex on the objectives and can be run as two skirmish triangles):

• Bard II, Prince of Dale
• 2 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
  
• 5 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
• 1 Warrior of Dale with Esgaroth bow and spear
  
• Thorin III Stonehelm [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
  

Final list for 500 points: you could choose to leave Bifur at home and go with a near-50:50 split of Erebor to Dale troops with just Bard and Thorin. You'd end up with a healthy 28 models at 500pts, LOADS of spears thanks to our wall of Knights of Dale backed by Iron Hills Dwarves with spears, and two epic heroes providing banners and free Heroic Combats. We can also form up the melee blocks as 2x5 bricks instead of 2x3 bricks because every rank has a mix of Erebor and Dale models:

• Bard II, Prince of Dale
• 8 Knights of Dale
• 4 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
• 1 Warrior of Dale with Esgaroth bow and spear
  
• Thorin III Stonehelm [ARMY LEADER]
• 10 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows
  

When you boost it up to 700pts, you COULD run Bard/Thorin (we'll talk about them later), or you could upgrade to Brand and Dain. Once again, you can go for a 5:1 ratio of Erebor-to-Dale that would look like this (with Brand and Dain, since we can afford to splurge an extra 30pts on a bit more survivability), with 34 models, 10 crossbows + 1 Esgaroth bow, 4 Goat Riders, and two heroes that are treated as banners with free Heroic Combats. Unlike the 500-point Erebor-heavy list, you want Dain and Brand to deploy together (2 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears will need to catch up with Bifur's warband eventually):

• Brand, King of Dale
• 3 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
  
• 1 Warrior of Dale with Esgaroth bow and spear
• Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 7 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows and spears
• 2 Iron Hills Goat Riders
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 4 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows and spears
  
• 2 Iron Hills Goat Riders
  

The list above can be run as 5 six-model blocks (three melee, two shooting) with the four Goat Riders as your flank-protectors or far-objective challengers. We could alternatively run a Knight of Dale-backed-by-Dwarves line with three skirmish triangles of Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and 4 Goat Riders that looks like this - this is my personal go-to at 700pts (flexible archery formations, token cavalry hit squad, four melee blocks):

• Brand, King of Dale
• 6 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
• 3 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows and spears
  
• 9 Knights of Dale
• Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain
• 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 2 Iron Hills Goat Riders
  
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 5 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 2 Iron Hills Goat Riders
  

Finally, it seems a shame that we haven't taken more than one of the Champions of Erebor since we have them, so you could run this very-elite, very-slow, but also very punchy list that focuses on having five four-man blocks of troops with 4 Goat Riders (instead of crossbows - though you could swap the 4 goats for 6 crossbows plus some spears if you wanted to). This list is "only" 27 models at 700pts (though it gets into the mid-30s at 800pts), but that's on-par for a Hobbit-era Erebor Reclaimed list at a similar points level that has gone hero-heavy to concentrate our combat mass in a few key heroes - and this time, we get free banners and free Heroic Combats on two of our guys:

• Bard II, Prince of Dale
• 7 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
  
• Thorin III Stonehelm [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
  
• 1 Iron Hills Goat Rider
  
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
  
• 1 Iron Hills Goat Rider
• Dori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf
  
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
  
• Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 1 Iron Hills Dwarf with spear
  
• 1 Iron Hills Goat Rider

The idea here is simple: we have 7 Warriors of Dale and 5 Iron Hills Dwarves who have spears to back up 7 Iron Hills Dwarves and 5 heroes. Bifur should be in the center with Bard on one side and Thorin on the other - which should spread your banner bonuses to cover everyone (maybe not your goats) and make sure that Bard and Thorin can't actually get to each other (which makes their Heroic Combats more effective). On the first turn you're able to get all of these guys locked in, four of the heroes (not Bifur) call Heroic Combats and chop through 2 guys each (ideally - if you were charged, it's probably only one guy) and then charge into 1-2 more guys each (depending on your opponent's formation) so they can bring the numbers a bit closer. Bifur, in the meantime, saves his Might to make sure that embedded axe successfully wounds and he can call free Heroic Moves each turn.

The warriors in this list are just intended to keep the heroes from being overwhelmed - you could use a gear tooth formation to really make this list shine (and increase the space they take up on the table) and pummel your opponent to the ground. If you have to leg it against a big archery army, though . . . you could be in some trouble. We have absolutely no archery of our own and no fast troops - though we do have D8 infantry with mostly D8 heroes, so at least there's that.

Army Summary

Well, that was quite the article, huh? Hopefully you learned a few things from this and I would encourage you to give the list a try (even if it's with proxies) - it's a lot of fun! Next time, we'll be digging into the Pits of Dol Guldur Legion and look at the Legion that we here at TMAT were the least excited about from Fall of the Necromancer . . . but a Legion that's surprised me having actually cracked it out. We hope to see you next time - until then, happy hobbying!