First Impressions, Dwarves of the Hobbit, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Back in 2019, I wrote an article that compared the Dwarves of Thorin's Company and their Erebor Reclaimed "future selves", looking at which version of the two was better (hint: it was basically always the Champs). While there may have been slight changes to the Dwarves over time, the difference between the book-released profiles and their ending state was pretty negligible. This led to a common critique of Thorin's Company in particular (and to a lesser extent the all-Dwarf-hero Erebor Reclaimed list) when new all-hero Legendary Legions were being released and the lack of synergy between the Dwarves made Thorin's Company and Erebor Reclaimed look like a poor all-hero army choice.

Now we have a new edition and we'll be looking at nearly thirty profiles today as we consider how the profiles for all thirteen Dwarves of Thorin's Company (and their Hobbit companion Bilbo) have changed - and boy do we have some interesting changes today! Let's start off with the two that are not related to each other . . .

Thorin and Bilbo: How Have They "Changed?"

Thorin has always been a bargain deal for less than 150pts - and he was such a good deal, that I considered an Impossible Alliance with Thorin's Company Thorin and Balin, King of Moria for our GT last year and ended up taking Thorin King Under the Mountain with Balin, King of Moria instead. Dwarf heroes tend to pile in a lot of stats into a small points package and golly is that still true of Thorin in this new edition of the game. 

Thorin's Company Thorin is still 100pts base but he picked up Heroic March as a heroic action (which matters less in the Thorin's Company list since everyone gains March and can use Will to call it, but it matters a lot more in the Rangers of Mirkwood list where he is the only Dwarf hero that can declare a March). His stats remain the same as they ever were and the rerolling-1s element of the old Thorin's Company army bonus got rolled into his profile, which is really good for him and particularly good for his S4 buddies. Additionally, friendly models can benefit from Thorin's Stand Fast, which is good to have in the same way that it's good to have Stand Fasts in Elf lists.

Photo Credit: Giphy

King Thorin went up in price by 15pts (130pts base) and picked up F7, Fearless (which he never had), Hatred (Gundabad), and the old Du Bekar army bonus - though it applies to all Dwarf models now instead of just the Champions of Erebor, but also only has a radius of 3" instead of 6". Ancestral Fury was modified to only give him a free Heroic Combat on a turn in which he Charges, but it's still a free Heroic Combat, which makes Thorin an excellent choice for carving through troops.

He traded Heroic Resolve for Heroic March (which doesn't matter in Erebor Reclaimed since everyone has March in that list too, but matters a lot in the Ravenhill and Battle of Five Armies lists) and he lost access to the war goat - which hurts A LOT - but retained access to Orcrist and if you build your list in a particular way, this can make him very, very deadly. I do fear that he may fall into the "Durin problem" a bit in the Ravenhill/Battle of Five Armies lists since a 5" move hero isn't hard to stay away from, but in the Erebor Reclaimed list, he can declare a Heroic March and still charge after using the 8" movement from it - that's the same maneuverability of a goat on a straight-away, but might actually be better than the movement of a goat in a congested area.

Turning now to Bilbo, Bilbo got a 5pt-reduction in cost (55pts base) and still has Strike/Defense/Resolve like he did before (which is a good suite of options, especially on a Ringbearer/support piece). His profile didn't otherwise change - and honestly, with all the other changes that are happening (and the fact that the Ring doesn't half Fight Value if there's someone other than the Ringbearer in combat), I'm not sure how high Bilbo is on my to-take list anymore. Still, he was overpriced before, so I'm glad he got a slight points drop.

Burglar Baggins also got a points drop and is 75pts now (-15pts!). Despite this steep decline in cost, he got boosted to 2 Attacks, his Mithril Coat protects against Rend now and allows him to reroll Fate rolls of 1. Like his Thorin's Company version, he still has Strike/Defense/Resolve, which gives him some good options in a Lake-town list, but he seems kind of expensive for a Battle of Five Armies list (so expect to see him a lot more in Assault on Ravenhill and possibly Survivors of Lake-town lists).

Balin and Dwalin: How Have They "Changed?"

Balin is still 40pts - one of the cheapest of Thorin's Company - and at long last, he's S4 (as he always should have been). He still has both Heroic Defense and Heroic Resolve (though still just the 1 Might point) and his "Sword-mace" is now just a hand-and-a-half weapon . . . which is good, but not spectacular. Being a 1A hero still isn't great for damage, but at least he has the option to two-hand now.

Champion Balin is still 60pts and still has just the two-handed weapon (which is a lot more fine now than it was back in the previous edition, for reasons we'll see later). With both Resolve and Defense and the improvement to S4 in this profile as well, Balin is still mostly going to be used for getting priority with Longbeard, but he should be able to put out some damage now that he wasn't able to get before. If I get a 60pt Champ Balin to lead the Moria Expedition of Iron Hills Warriors, Iron Hills Captains, Champ Oin, and Champ Ori, I'll be very happy.

Thorin's Company Dwalin is still 95pts but his profile changed in a few key ways. Previously he was 3A with either his hand weapons or his two-handed hammer - now he has "the Gimli thing" going on where he can be 3 Attacks with his two axes (Grasper and Keeper) and gets Mighty Blow essentially when he rolls natural 6s To Wound OR he can two-hand with 2 Attacks (ignoring the penalty thanks to Burly). For slightly fewer points than Gimli, you can get a worse overall profile (S5 is better, D6/2 Might/2 Fate/no throwing weapons is not) and I'm struggling to see the reason to pay for this guy . . . especially now that there are birds in the list for roughly the same cost or 50pts more.

Champ Dwalin is singing a similar song, but he did get 5pts cheaper than he was, he has either 2 Attacks while two-handing or 3 Attacks while dual-wielding like his Thorin's Company version and his King's Axeman rule changed to allow him to use the old Piercing Strike rules. With a base Strength of 5, this allows him to get to S6 at the risk of falling to D5, D6, or D7 . . . which means this is totally the play against a monster that would love to Rend against you and MIGHT be fine if you're fighting against S3 warriors that don't have you trapped. He does have to be within 3" of Thorin, so it's possible that Thorin can clear out a space for you to back up if you both charged into stuff. This version of Dwalin is more comparable to Gimli, but still has -1 Fate and costs a bit more. It also hurts that he doesn't have a goat option anymore.

I will note here that in both the Thorin's Company army list and the Erebor Reclaimed army list, the Dwarves who have rhyming names can share stats with each other if they're within 3" of each other, so if you do happen to run both Dwalin and Balin together in either of these lists, keep them together (I see that happening more in Erebor Reclaimed than Thorin's Company, but even then I'm not sure). Keep this in mind, however, as we move through the next three family groups, as there are reasons to take members of each set as the points level gets higher.

Kili and Fili: How Have They "Changed?"

I'm going to talk about both Kili and Fili together because unless you have Tauriel in one particular list, they're exactly the same. They are both still 50pts base in their Thorin's Company forms and they picked up +1 Fate and got Light Armor in this edition (so they're D5 base but D6 against shooting attacks). Their Combat Synergy rule still works like it did before (allowing them to swap places if they're within 1" of each other without counting as moving), but it also gives them a dueling reroll (like a banner) if they use it at least once that turn - so make sure you keep these guys right next to each other and swap places at least once but maybe twice (especially since it doesn't say that you have to be unengaged).

Like in the last edition, both of these guys have Strike, but Kili has Accuracy and a Dwarf bow and Fili has Strength and throwing weapons. Both of the ranged options are good to have in a light/skirmish army and the 3+ Shoot Values that they have make this pretty reliable. There won't be a lot of games that you'll win if you get in a shoot-out with your opponent, but any tool that can even the numerical disparity a bit is good for Thorin's Company.

As we move to their Champ versions, they're both 5pts cheaper than they were before (70pts base) and like Thorin and Dwalin, their goat-riding days are behind them. They also can't take bows, which is fine - I usually didn't consider it (2 bows or an extra dude? Or a goat? Really . . .). Despite dropping in points and losing all of their wargear options, these guys got +1 Will point (which is . . . fine). Taken with a points cut, I think these guys make perfectly good champs, but they're also not near the top my list for units to take - and it's also not clear to me if they're better than taking 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with shield/spear or crossbow.

Kili swapped his Heroic Accuracy for Heroic Challenge, which is good for his combat-oriented nature, but means there is no Accuracy option for Iron Hills Warriors with crossbows in the Erebor Reclaimed list (there's plenty of options in the Battle of Five Armies, though). Fili still has both Strike and Strength - he doesn't need a change.

These guys have a lot of stats they can borrow in both Thorin's Company and Erebor Reclaimed - and since they have Strike in both forms, they could make pretty good heroes for burning Might points on bigger heroes (with 2 Wounds/2 Fate base, but the potential to have 4 Fate points in a pinch in their Thorin's Company forms or 2 Wounds/1 Fate with access to another if you crack through D8 as Champions). I don't know, they could be pretty good . . . but probably still hovering about the middle for me.

Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur: How Have They "Changed?"

We're going to start this section with Bofur, who I defended in the previous edition in his Thorin's Company form and was incredibly impressed with his performance in our Fantasy Fellowship campaign. Bofur is still 45pts and got the +1 Fate/light armor treatment that Kili and Fili got. His Mattock hasn't functionally changed, though you don't have to commit to Bashing until you've won the fight, which is nice (but you probably already know whether or not you're Bashing when you pick up your dueling dice). For heroic actions, he's still got Resolve, which is a lot less punishing this edition than in the previous one.

Where things get spicy is when we look at his Steadfast rule. Previously, Steadfast allowed Bofur to ignore the effects of a special rule or magical power that affected just himself on a 2+ - that included area of effect magical powers, but did nothing to keep his buddies fighting on if there was a direct damage/targeted magical power or certain special rules that would make them do stuff. In its current incarnation, Steadfast applies to all friendly Thorin's Company Heroes (or Erebor Heroes in his champ form) within 3" of Bofur, which is GOOD. It also works on a 3+ and isn't explicitly mightable anymore, so that's a bit less reliable - but still, it's impact on more models is clear and valuable.

Champ Bofur also didn't increase in cost and he got +1 Fight Value (F5!), +1 Fate, a two-handed weapon instead of a hand-and-a-half weapon (which could be fine depending on how you do your list building - and for him, there are multiple ways that could work out well), he picked up throwing weapons for FREE (EEEEEE!!!!!), and while he lost access to Heroic Strike, he did pick up a 100-point "stumpy Troll" mount (war beast, really) that he can ride . . . I mean, that's cool - and he should be able to shoot while on top of it as well? For not going up in price, I think Bofur came out alright in the end - but I also think he's probably the least good of this section of heroes still.

Bifur also didn't change in cost at all (45pts for Thorin's Company version, 65pts for the Champ) and he saw some bigger profile surgery. He lost a Might point, gained a Fate point and Light Armor, and traded Heroic Strike for Heroic Strength (in both of his profiles). Strike isn't as good as it once was - especially on a F4 Thorin's Company hero - and Strength is pretty sweet in a world where Piercing Strike isn't a thing.

He also had two changes to his special rules - one positive and one slightly negative (but probably necessary). His Throw Stones ability went up to a S2 hit instead of a S1 hit and he's still got a 3+ Shoot Value, which is good, but also requires him to be stationary. His Embedded Axe special rule was kind of busted in the previous edition (I got it off nearly every game I played with him) and now requires him to pass an Intelligence Test (7+) once he's got the axe-blade out in order to declare a free Heroic Move. While this is clearly a nerf, I feel like paying 45/65pts for an all-but-guaranteed slew of free Heroic Moves was a bit rubbish in the past edition, so I'm fine with this change. Not having 2 Might also makes it a bit trickier to get the axe-blade out in the first place (being able to wound on 4s or 5s with 2 Might to boost against most things made it pretty easy).

In his Champ form, Bifur now has F5, still loses 1 Might but gains 1 Will/Fate, trades his hand-and-a-half weapon for a two-handed weapon (again, this is probably just fine) and has all of the other changes from his Thorin's Company self (Heroic Strength, stronger stone-throwing, Intel test for the free heroics). For 65pts, this is still a profile that MANY factions would love to have - so I will not say that he's "bad", even though he's clearly worse than he was in the previous edition. Still, with more warriors making their way into the F4/5 realm, it's good that Bifur and Bofur have both kept up. But now for the big event of this family clan . . .

I. ‎LOVE. Bombur. I do. I really do. I think they hit the nail right on the head with the changes to this profile. For starters, he's still 45/60pts in both of his versions, so if you had him slotted into a list, you can keep that part the same. He got a little less courageous (effectively C4 instead of C5), he lost 1 Might point (1M now) but gained 2 Will/1 Fate in both forms, and though he only has 1 Might point, he's still got Heroic Defense and with 3 Wounds/2 Fate, he's still an excellent option for stalling out someone big if you can force them to wound on natural 6s.

He saw a TON of changes to his special rules. For starters, he picked up Dominant (2) with the rules rewrite, which is fantastic since he's said to "count for two" a LOT in the Hobbit (no shaming of bodies in that book, right?). His Lumbering rule forces a reroll to Leap tests instead of just Jump/Climb tests (functionally no different) and he can use his Raising Spirits special rule when he's within 3" of a Thorin's Company hero instead of just when he's in base contact with them. Additionally, since there isn't a specification that you need to choose "another friendly Thorin's Company Hero," he can even regrow his own Will store, which is super useful for calling Heroic Marches in the Thorin's Company list (which amazingly isn't on the banned-heroics list for Lumbering . . . I guess that scene where he steps on the gas to outrun Beorn is kicking in, eh?). I don't know about you, but this guy seems like an auto-include in any list that can take him to me.

Champ Bombur is more of the same - 1M/3W/2F with effectively C4, picked up similar changes to Raising Spirits (which is less powerful since Will can't be used to declare Heroic Marches in Erebor Reclaimed, but getting Will back on your heroes is great when there's an enemy caster around) and the addition of Dominant (2). Where things get really interesting is that Bombur's flail is now a hand-and-a-half weapon that gets all of the good aspects of the Whirl special strike from the last edition without the reduction to Fight Value 1 that it used to apply. If you two-hand with this guy (again, you'll probably be fine if you build your list right - see the next section for all the cryptic hinting about this) and then get 1 Attack against each guy that you're fighting . . . I mean, this dude is gonna roll through some guys. I like him and I think the changes here are phenomenal. He isn't quite an auto-include in Erebor Reclaimed lists for me, but he's very, very, VERY high on the list.

Who edges him out, you ask? Well, at least two guys from the next set, naturally . . .

Dri, Nori, and Ori: How Have They "Changed?"

I'm going to start off by saying that this set has my three favorite of the Champs in it - these guys "got gud" in this edition, though not all of the changes were positive for them. Nori in his Thorin's Company form is still 55pts but picked up the obligatory +1 Fate/Light Armor that nearly everyone in Thorin's Company did this edition. Thanks to the reworking of the Weapon Master special rule, he no longer ignores the penalty for two-handing with his mace, but he can choose to use his one-handed weapon or his two-handed weapon, so he's not quite in TC Bofur's spot. He picked up a new special rule that allows him to reroll failed To Wound rolls when holding an object, which currently doesn't matter but will matter more when the Matched Play guide drops later this year. He also can't hand objectives off . . . which also will matter more when the Matched Play guide drops.

I was shocked to find that his Champion of Erebor version got 5pts cheaper and picked up +1 Defense (so he's finally D9 with that shield and what has clearly always been Dwarf Heavy Armor), +1 Will, +1 Fate, and some throwing weapons (EEE!!!). His weapon master rule still keeps him from not being unarmed, but there's no heartburn anymore for him skipping the two-handed weapon penalty but not having a two-handed weapon. He still has 3 Attacks (awesome), he lost Heroic Strength and just has Heroic Strike (eh, that's fine), and also lost his basically-Lord-of-the-West special rule, which paired with the removal of him fighting without the two-handed weapon penalty makes him a much worse choice for your Aragorn slot in Fantasy Fellowships than he was before, but he's still very much a bargain deal for 75 points. I think this guy is a good bargain and might be the second best choice heavy-hitter Champs - he's a good 40pts cheaper than Dwalin and might hit about as hard!

Dori also didn't see any price changes and his profile changed both positively and negatively. He used to be 3 Attacks base and now he's 2 Attacks base with +1 Attack if he's within 3" of either Ori or Nori . . . which I think is a given in Erebor Reclaimed/Battle of Five Armies and could be a given in Thorin's Company (because 3 Attack heroes are nice to have, as are slingshots). His Good Sort special rule was adjusted to provide this +1 Attack boost, but also allows him to reroll 1s on his dueling roll - not his wounding roll, but on the duel. This pseudo-banner thing hasn't been used much, but it's really nice to have when your access to actual banners is not present. He also got +1 Will, +1 Fate, and light armor, all for the low-low cost of not necessarily being 3 Attacks. He also swapped Heroic Strength with Heroic Resolve which is fine. All in all, not a bad take if you were already taking Ori (or Nori, I guess).

Champ Dori saw much the same treatment - downgraded to 2 Attacks base, but becomes 3 Attacks while he's near Ori (and possibly Nori), +1 Will, +1 Fate, no Weapon Master special rule despite having a two-handed weapon (which is fine - seriously, it's fine!), and he traded Heroic Defense for Heroic Resolve (which admittedly does limit his options for being a stall-out hero). All in all, he's still a great hero, so long as Ori is around. Why Ori, you ask? Well, let's dig into the longest discussion of any of the Thorin's Company members we'll be having today . . .

The best character in all of Thorin's Company is probably still Thorin - but Ori is very close to the top as both a member of Thorin's Company and of the Champions of Erebor (he may even be THE most important Champion of Erebor). Ori is still 40pts in Thorin's Company and got more scared (-1 Courage), lost a Will point (2W instead of 3W), and gained a Fate point (like everyone else, basically). 

He had some changes to his special rules, however, that make up for these changes. He picked up Sharpshooter, which pairs nicely with his Deadeye ability that allows him to pass all in-the-ways/wounding rolls if he gets a natural 6 To Hit - if you want to hit the horse, you can pick the horse and kill it on a natural 6. Additionally, his Chronicler rule got changed so that if a friendly Thorin's Company Hero within 6" and line of sight of Ori kills a hero/monster and doesn't have any stats to regrow, you can instead choose another Thorin's Company hero within 6" of Ori and in line of sight to regain the stat instead. Previously, you not only couldn't choose someone to regain the stats who wasn't in the fight, but you also had to be within 3" of Ori . . . so those are two very good changes to his special rules and for 40pts, he might not be very survivable, but I wouldn't leave without him! Taken with Bombur and Thorin, you can get 3 good heroes for 200pts - which is good even in a Rangers of Mirkwood list if you want some extra support (but more on them in a later post).

Where things get REALLY crazy is with Champ Ori. Champ Ori's cost went DOWN by 5 points and he got more timid (-1 Courage), but also got +1 Might point, -1 Will point, and +1 Fate point - all in all, a pretty decent trade for someone who's going to be managing his fights very, very closely. His hand-and-a-half weapon got "downgraded" to a two-handed weapon, but he got throwing weapons added to his profile, which allows him to use that 3+ Shoot Value (though he doesn't have Deadeye on this profile).

He picked up a new rule, Protect the Young, which states that "Other friendly Erebor Hero models within 6" of Ori do not suffer the -1 penalty to their Duel Roll for fighting with a two-handed weapon." This means that the following units, who otherwise would have a two-handed weapon penalty, can fight as if they had master-forged weapons:

• Thorin (F6/S4/3A)
• Balin (F4/S4/2A)
• Bifur (F5/S4/2A)
• Bofur (F5/S4/2A)
• Bombur (F4/S4/2A)
• Dori (F5/S4/probably 3A)
• Gloin (more on him later, but F6/S4/probably 4A)

If you can afford all eight of these people, I guarantee you that you'll chop through your opponent's line - and with a 6" radius from Ori (and that same 6" radius granting them stat-regen if you kill anything big), you'll have a lot of guys two-handing at S4, which can carve through most things on at least 5s but more likely 4s - that's SWEET!!!

And did I mention that he got cheaper in this edition? Honestly, the only downside is that he doesn't bypass his own two-handed weapon penalty, but also . . . two-handing penalties aren't bad. Just sayin'.

Oin and Gloin: How Have They "Changed?"

We're wrapping up today with Oin and Gloin - and these guys saw some pretty interesting changes with the new edition. Thorin's Company Oin got more expensive by 5pts, which offsets the decreased cost of Bilbo. He picked up an extra Will point (which he can still use to provide banner-like rerolls, though he can use them multiple times during each Fight Phase now instead of just once, making more Will a very, VERY useful thing to have) and has his hearing trumpet now. This piece of gear allows him to copy an enemy Heroic Action within 6" of him on a 5+ (basically Master of Battle (5+)), but if he gets a 1 on the roll, he has to spend a Will point or give up his ability to move if he's out of Will. If you're going to run Oin, make sure you have Bombur around for a lot of reasons.

His Healing Herbs rule is now list-specific (Thorin's Company heroes or Erebor heroes, depending on the version of Oin that you're running - so no healing of Eagles or Elves or what-not) and he traded Heroic Resolve for Heroic Defense - with other Dwarves in Thorin's Company picking up Heroic Resolve (and Dori traded Defense for Resolve!), it's good that you can still take a pretty cheap Defense caddy besides Bombur to slow someone down (though like Bombur, Oin only has 1 Might point).

Champ Oin actually went down in cost by 5pts and picked up +1 Attack (2 Attacks with the option to defend by Shielding), +1 Will (like his Thorin's Company version - very useful), he also traded Resolve for Defense (so very useful, but also a lot less necessary on the D8 chassis than on the D4 Thorin's Company chassis), and got the same special rule/equipment adjustments. Overall, I think Oin came out with some pretty good increases and if you have 50-60pts to spare, he's a pretty decent add (though I think he's competing against a LOT of things in the Rangers of Mirkwood/Erebor Reclaimed/Battle of Five Armies lists).

Last but certainly not least, we have Gloin. His Thorin's Company variant is still 85pts and went from having 2M/1W/1F to having 2M/2W/2F, which is excellent. Since Thorin gives the rerolling of 1s To Wound, it's nice that he lost the Warrior Born special rule (which gave him rerolling 1s To Wound and was redundant with the old army bonus) and picked up the Axe Mastery special rule, which makes him a 4 Attack model if he's outnumbered. This synergizes really well with the Knife Fighters rule that you'll find in the Rangers of Mirkwood list, but is also just a nice boost for Thorin's Company who can always use another 3-4 Attack hero. I do feel like this is a bit of a slap in the face for Dwalin, who used to be the 3-4 Attack hero in his champ form (and was never a 4 Attack hero in Thorin's Company with his double-axes). For 85pts, I think taking this guy alongside Thorin, Bombur, and Ori is a very solid take (less than 300pts, lots of fire power and sustained effectiveness).

His Champ version got 10pts more expensive (100pts now) and this increase in cost makes the all-champs variant of Erebor Reclaimed 5pts cheaper than it used to be (hooray if you like that - plus it got a ton of profile-specific boosts and an army list special rule that allows them to reroll 1s To Wound with all those no-penalty two-handed weapons). His profile looks surprisingly similar to his son's profile with 3M/2W/3F and LOTS of good stats. He's still got Axe Mastery and a base Attack stat of 3, so he can actually get 4 Attacks with +1 To Wound (no penalty if he's near Ori, since he lost Weapon Master), which might make him better than his son. Even if Gimli is working with Legolas (3 Attacks with +1 To Wound while Legolas is out-killing Gimli), Gloin can still get 4 Attacks with +1 To Wound and if he's working with Legolas . . . yeah, I'm just thinking there's something not quite right here.

All told, Gloin is probably still one of the best Champs in the game, though his inclusion is going to be dependent on taking Ori more than it used to (unless you're counting on all those dice getting a natural 6 - which is not unreasonable if he's got a banner and he's outnumbered). Gloin is a great pick if you can afford him (and if you have any other budget combat champ, you should at least consider upgrading to Gloin and dropping 2 guys)!

Conclusion

Well, that was a long one - but as a recap, I think all of the Dwarves of Thorin's Company came into a better place than they were before. Some clearly felt the nerf bat a little, but they're still incredibly well costed and any one of them would be a first-round draft pick for some factions that are really feeling the pinch. I think playing all-Dwarf Thorin's Company and Champ-only Erebor Reclaimed are still thematic pics over the more strategic options of taking warriors/birds to help you out, but I think a subset of the Dwarves would certainly not be bad in the lists that you can take them in.

If you enjoy using the Dwarves or have experience fighting against them that wasn't covered here, let us know in the comments below! Until next time, happy hobbying!