The New Age Is Begun: The Erebor and Dale Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're looking at an army list that it's a bit of the dumps right now. This hasn't stopped us here at TMAT from looking for good things to like about them, but after playing a few games with this army list . . . it could use a face-lift when the next set of erratas drop. The list is Erebor and Dale - while the Garrison of Dale is seeing a lot of time in the sun and the Army of Thror is awaiting the updated Matched Play guide to make their army bonuses useful, this list . . . is basically at its zenith already and is STILL not valued very highly. Let's see how this list has changed and what's to like about the list!

Erebor & Dale: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The profile selection hasn't changed much - we have almost all of the same units we always had (no windlances or Knights of Dale - the windlances would have a place in this list, I think, but I'm not sure about the Knights given that we have D7 Erebor Dwarves for the same cost). What has changed, however, is our ability to use the army rules that were available in the Army of Thror and the Garrison of Dale factions:

• The army bonuses that used to be active with a historical alliance were useful - getting a 3+ shoot on all of your Dale models was good, as was a 6" banner for Thror (even though it didn't count as an "actual banner"). So long as you had 33% of your Dale guys with Esgaroth bows and 67% of your Dale guys with shields and spears (and possibly spears on those bowmen), you could get 10 (or 15) spears in your list to back up Guardians of the King who were protecting Thror's flanks (getting a banner reroll and an extra die - two-handing, anyone?).
• There used to be no limit on how many Grim Hammers or Guardians of the King in the old edition - that means you could have 33% of your Dale contingent with bows (5 guys and Girion if you just take and fill Girion's warband) and all of your Dwarf warriors could be Grim Hammers or Guardians of the King. I don't know if you've fought against a D7 throwing weapon army before, but it's scary - it's really scary! And then you throw in the power heroes of Thror, Thrain, and a Captain of Erebor (or Grim Hammer Captain) for March? Yikes!

In trade for these two things (army bonuses and minimal limits on our shooting options), we got some new rules. We'll look at those now, since they're the primary changes that have happened for the army list.

Army List Bonuses

Let's begin with the biggest gotcha in the room: your bow limit and throwing weapon limit is likely to be lower in this list than in other lists. Wait a minute, you say, I thought this was supposed to be higher? Yeah, me too at first blush. The numbers you see are "50% bows" and "50% throwing weapons", but these are actually limited to "50% of Dale Warriors can have bows" and "50% of Erebor Warriors can have throwing weapons." Since both factions can have one or the other (bows/no throwing weapons for Dale, no bows/throwing weapons for Erebor), we get a sliding scale that might or might not be better in one (but not the other) than if we ran an allied list previously.

Let's look at an example of what I mean: because you round up with bow limit, you can take 6 Esgaroth bows if you have 11 Warriors of Dale in your list. Additionally, you can have 6 Grim Hammer Warriors if you have 11 total warriors in your Erebor contingent. This gives you 22 models, 6 of which have bows and 6 of which have throwing weapons . . . or less than 33% bows (27%) and less than 33% throwing weapons. Yes, half of our army can shoot - but a standard army list that smashes multiple army lists together with normal list building constraints (like the Men of the West, Legions of Mordor, or Defenders of the Pelennor) can get to two-thirds shooting capacity if they want to.

You can skew these percentages in an easy way: lean hard into one side of the army list over the other. If you were to take Girion and a Captain of Dale (30 warrior slots) alongside Thrain (a good budget beater hero), you could take 46 models at 700pts:

In this list, we have 43 warriors, but only 14 Esgaroth bows (just under 33%) and 8 Grim Hammer Warriors (just under 19%). This gives us roughly half of our army as shooting capable again, but still missing both the 33% bow and throwing weapon limits that normal armies get.

What if we say "let's focus on Dwarves" and take minimal Dale guys - at 650, we can swap the Captain of Dale for an Erebor Dwarf Captain and fill both of the Dwarf warbands (27 total warriors) and take 5 Dale guys with Girion (if you don't want 9 of the spears on your Dwarves, you can add another Dale guy with spear):

Obviously, we're far from the 33% bow limit that we could have (only 3 bows, 9%), but when you look at our throwing weapon ratio, it's still not very good (just under 44%). This is still a half-shooting list, but no matter which way you lean, you're not going to make up for having effectively a 25% limit on bows and throwing weapons (with one borrowing from the other).

There are other army list bonuses that might be good - both Dale and Erebor models get to reroll 1s when making Strikes if there's a friendly model with the other keyword Engaged in the same fight (so they have to be in base-contact). When you can proc this rule, it might help - but it would be far more useful if it triggered when you supported a fight, like the equivalent Last Alliance army list special rule does. Unlike the old historical alliance, both Girion and Thror are treated as banners by their own kind (3" range instead of just Thror providing Dwarves with a 6" range). This will be better if you lean harder into Dale, but in general, it'll be worse if you previously had the Dale guys providing spear support to the Dwarf front line. 

Finally, whenever a hero spends a Might point, you roll a D6 and on a natural 6, the Might point is free and isn't reduced from the hero's store. This is the most universally useful rule, but having played with the list a few times, you're only likely to get 2-3 Might points back during the course of the game if you lean hard into heroes - and you might only get 1 Might point back if you lean harder into warriors. As a result, this is a special rule that will be nice when it works . . . kind of like the other army list special rules.

Let's see what changed in the profiles, shall we?

Profile Adjustments

As was said above, there were only small changes to the profiles in this list - this has probably added to the "meh" appearance of this list by most players:

• Thror now has Ancient Enemies (Orc), which gives him a reroll of 1s when making Strikes against them. This means that if you're fighting an Orc army, you don't need to try to get a Dale guy in his fight, unless you also want to reroll 1s on the Dale guy's dice. Beyond that, Thror went up by 10 points to 130pts and is the same resilient dude he's always been (but with a shorter banner radius in this list).
• Thrain remains the heavy-hitter of the Army of Thror, but doesn't count as a banner in this list like his dad does. Still, I've been opting to take him because that allows Girion to be your general (safely in the back - though why does he not have the option for a windlance in this list?) and Thror can get stuck in and deal carnage and death to whoever's on the other side. With 3s in all the right places, Thrain is a powerhouse for 130pts (10pts higher than the last edition) and adds Hatred (Gundabad) to his damage profile (so if you're facing units with the Gundabad keyword, you'll get +2 To Wound against them). Since he gets the Ring of Durin for free if Thror is not in your list, I'd take this guy every time.
• Thorin is still kinda meh in the damage category, though a 3" Strength +1 bubble is really nice now that the Dwarves in this list can't lean into Piercing Strike. He's also got 3s in all the right places and is tough to crack through (with Heroic Defense, Strike, Strength, and Challenge) and brings 15 models for only 110pts (+5pts over his previous cost). I've run him and he's reliable and survivable, but he's not really dangerous. I think he's a fine fourth pick after you have a March Captain, Girion, and Thrain.
• Balin is 5pts more expensive than he was before (60pts now) and is your cheapest option for a Unique Dwarf hero. At low points levels where you can't take Thrain, you might take Balin as your first Dwarf - and getting priority more reliably if you're focusing on the throwing weapon game is quite useful. He's gotten marginally better in combat, but only just - he's F5 instead of F4, D6 instead of D5, and has 2 Might instead of 1 Might - and for 5pts, this is a really good trade for him. However, he's still primarily supporting a list as a Heroic Defense caddy (now with 2 Might points) and to spend his Will to reroll your priority roll. You can field him (a Hero of Valour now!), a March Captain of your liking, and Girion for around 200pts, which is good at basically any points level north of 450pts.
• Dwalin is in a bad spot - like Thorin and Balin, he's also a Hero of Valour and he's still the cheapest 3 Attack hero, but he's 90pts and isn't bringing nearly the stats that Thorin is for only 20pts less (-1 Attack, Wound, Might, Will, Fate - and -2 Defense in trade for +1 Strength). As has always been the case, what he's bringing to the table just isn't enough - even if he rerolls all failed To Wound rolls on a 5+. He's F6 now though, so that's good. That's about it though. At best, he's probably your fifth or sixth hero - and you have to be leaning HARD into heroes to get six of them in a list!
• As we turn to Dale, we have to take Girion - and without the Windlance, we don't have a lot of options for this guy. In this list, he does count as a banner with a 3" range and Dale models reroll 1s when making Strike within 3" of him (so you don't need them doubling-up with Dwarves if you don't want to). He's got a larger than normal Stand Fast (which is not as good as Thrain's, but does affect Dwarves as well as Dale guys) and he's got 3 Attacks now with Defense 6, but he's still a bit squishy with 2 Wounds/1 Fate and unless you're taking Thror, he's probably your general (and has no bow or windlance that you can use while you're hiding him away - have I mentioned that he can't take the windlance?).
• Captains of Erebor (now Erebor Dwarf Captains) and Warriors of Erebor have changed slightly - the Captains don't have shields now, so they're D7 but also have 3 Attacks. They gained Mountain Dweller and went up by 10pts. Honestly, that's not a bad trade - and they're also 15pts cheaper than Dwalin (not as good as him in combat, thank goodness - they're -1 Fight Value, -1 Strength, +1 Defense, -1 Will/Fate, not Fearless) but also bring Heroic March to the table for +20pts over a Captain of Dale (more on him shortly) and 5pts less than a Grim Hammer Captain. The Warriors of Erebor lost the option for a banner (BOO!) and a war horn (boo?!?!?) and went up by 1pt/model - which is basically to make up for the free Defense point they had previously. They still get +1 Courage and Mountain Dwellers for free, which makes them ALMOST as good a bargain as Elves. A lot of people are griping about their price increase (and that of most of their heroes), but as someone who's played Dwarves from basically the very beginning of his SBG journey, they were always undercosted and we all knew it.
• Grim Hammer Captains and Grim Hammer Warriors/Guardians of the King are still dangerous threats -they're throwing weapons aren't very reliable with a 4+ shoot value and no way to ignore the scoot-and-shoot penalty, but when they hit, they can be devastating (and they're likely to survive return fire from another throwing-weapon horde). With some of their competitors also getting their throwing weapon counts throttled, a Dwarf-heavy Erebor & Dale list might have a throwing weapon advantage over another list (either in sheer numbers or in sustained numbers). I still stand by the Grim Hammer Captain as a good Captain choice, though he's going to want to call 1 Heroic March and save the other Might point for winning a close fight. Still, if he can benefit from a banner, he can chop through a lot - as can all his buddies, who really want the help of Erebor Dwarves or Warriors of Dale with spears and shields!
• Captains of Dale and Warriors of Dale have changed very little as well -they got Hatred (Dragon) for free, but it's less useful in this list than in the Garrison of Dale list that applies the Hatred (Dragon) to their bows (and to other monsters!) and not just their swords. Additionally, the Warriors have a 4+ shoot value instead of the 3+ shoot value that they have in the Garrison of Dale list, so they're less reliable as archers (and are probably being fielded in small numbers, unless you REALLY like the Dale side of the house). The Captains haven't changed in price, but also have to take the shield instead of the Esgaroth Bow that they could take before. It's . . . sad, really.

Okay, let's put aside our prejudices against the changes to the profiles for a second and look at what the strengths and weaknesses are of this list.

Erebor & Dale: Strengths and Weaknesses

The primary question of "strengths" begins with how hard you're leaning into the shooting game (and whether that's bows or throwing weapons). Trying to do both will end up with you having no threat at long range or short range - and if you lean into the Dale side of the house, you can get a banner/spears to support your Grim Hammer Warriors in equal measure as your archers (see one of the lists above), while focusing on throwing weapons will see you fielding a lot of slightly-more-expensive-but-a-lot-more-resilient melee Dwarves who might or might not have throwing weapons. As much as possible, I'd try to get X+1 shooting weapons for each faction (or put differently, one more shooting unit than non-shooting-unit). This will take you just above 50% shooting overall, which is the best this list can do.

While you certainly can run a hero-heavy list, I wouldn't try to exploit the Legendary Hero (6+) special rule that you get in the army list - it's just not reliable and you have to commit to spending the Might before you know if it's free. This is the same gamble that Gamling's banner now uses, but you test for it restoring Might that you've already decided was worth it in one part of the battlefield - not Might you're going to spend. This distinction is actually quite huge - if you know you might need a Might point to boost a roll, you're going to play far more conservatively with the army list rule in this list than in any list with Gamling.

I'd also ask you to consider how important those mini-banner rules are for Girion and Thror - my lists don't feature Thror because he's providing me a resilient leader and a small banner at the expense of a dedicated damage dealer who won't be my general. But is it worth it to have another set of rerolls if you know you're going to be having a lot of Dwarves and probably just enough Dale guys to bring a banner and some token archery? I don't know - and honestly, I can't see my Thror lists being any better than my Thrain lists even WITH the extra banner reroll thrown in.

Another key "strength" of this list is that while your front line can all be D7, your second line (whatever spears you take) doesn't have to be D7 - Warriors of Dale with spears and shields are perfectly serviceable units at 9pts/model - and if you have Erebor Dwarf Warriors shielding in front of Warriors of Dale with bows and Grim Hammer Warriors supported by Warriors of Dale with shields and spears, you're going to end up with 1-2 more models than you'd have if you "just had Dwarves" in your battle line.

Similarly, you'll want to consider how necessary Heroic March is in your list. I generally don't leave home without a speed option, but with the six scenarios we currently have (though there are eighteen on the way that probably change this equation), you only need speed in a few of them - and one of those is a maelstrom mission, so it's unclear whether or not your army will even be in March range on Turn 2. I'd run a Dwarf Captain of some kind, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

Ok, let's talk strategies now!

Erebor & Dale: Strategies for the Tabletop

We'll start with this: the Dwarves are the key to this list working. For 10pts each, you can get a F4/D7 warrior who can defend by shielding on your flank OR for 11pts, you can get a Grim Hammer Warrior who has throwing weapons and is also F4/D7. Backing up the Grim Hammers with a banner and possibly spear supports (you're unlikely to have both in these lists) can make their forced-two-handing more reliable, but also means that you can smash your way through an enemy position while taking minimal casualties in return. 

While Dwarves with spears are cool and great (and possibly necessary for the Army of Thror), I think Erebor Dwarf Warriors in this list are best equipped with just a shield. As you'll see in my lists below, I'm a Khazad-Dum player through and through - and one of the strongest assets a Dwarf list has is the ability to force spearmen to engage (either by pulling them out of fights by trapping them or forcing them to charge out of a shieldwall and fight you directly) - and with D7 and the option to shield if they come out of the shieldwall, you can blunt the advance of most enemy formations and have a SUPER long battle line to engage. F4 isn't what it used to be, but it's still plenty functional - especially if you can get things down to one-on-one fights.

While Dwarves are important in this list, you want at least a few Dale guys. First off, Warriors of Dale give you access to two important pieces of war gear: Esgaroth bows and banners. Your bow tally is unlikely to be very high if you think Dwarves are the way to go with this list, but having 2-3 bows gives you the option to try to remove someone from a distant objective (or racing for your board edge) - something Dwarves will always struggle with. While Grim Hammers give you an extra 6" of threat range with their throwing weapons, it's not hard to work around them - so if you can funnel the enemy with your Grim Hammers into firing lanes for your bows, you can stand and shoot, hitting on 4s and wounding most things on 5s or 6s. That's not very reliable if you only get one round of shooting off, but over time, it can be just what you need.

Warriors of Erebor (now Erebor Dwarf Warriors) also lost access to banners in this edition, which means one of your softer Dale guys will have to carry it. This gives the list a bit of an edge over the Army of Thror army list, but also means that someone vulnerable will need to be near the front lines (and probably near a hero or three). Your goal, then, is to have at least 3 Warriors of Dale (2 bows, 1 banner), but having 7 (4 bows, 1 banner, 2 spears/shields) or even 9 (5 bows, 1 banner, 3 spears/shields) can be very helpful. With Girion's warband maxed out, you can get 9 bows, 1 banner, and 8 spears/shields - this can go a long way towards making your Grim Hammers more effective, but also leans much harder into the D4-5 part of the army.

Finally, exercise some critical judgment when picking your Dwarf heroes. There's not a hero in the list that isn't cool - but Thorin and Dwalin are going to be a points sink and they're not really bringing enough firepower or tactical help to make your army better. A similar argument can be made for leaving Thror at home - but players who want to have a nigh-unkillable general might want to take him. Personally, I think the raw killing power of Thrain, the cheap Heroic March access on a resilient chassis from the Erebor Dwarf Captain, and the tactical options on a cheap unit in Balin make them the best choices - but if you want to level up the damage output of the Captain by taking a different hero because you don't need Heroic March, do that.

Okay, let's look at some lists!

Sample Lists

Our first list starts at 450pts, which allows us to get Girion, Young Balin, and an Erebor Dwarf Captain - and 20 warriors, most of whom are Dwarves:

• Girion, Lord of Dale [GENERAL]
• 2 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
• 1 Warrior of Dale with banner
• Young Balin the Dwarf
• 5 Erebor Dwarf Warriors with shields and spears
• 5 Grim Hammer Warriors
• Erebor Dwarf Captain
• 2 Erebor Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 1 Erebor Dwarf Warrior with shield and spear
• 4 Grim Hammer Warriors

450pts, 23 models, 20 D6+ model, no fast models but 2 Might for Heroic March, 7+ Might points

This list has a D7 shieldwall that can sport the Erebor Dwarf Captain backed by his spearman, 4 Grim Hammers (two on either side), and 2 shield guys to cap off the battle line - ideally with the Dale banner guy standing behind/touching the shield/spear Dwarf - while Balin's warband advances elsewhere with a five-file, two-rank shieldwall that can break out into a ten-file D7 shieldwall with the spear-Dwarves using their shields to boost the number of attacks they're packing and the Grim Hammers focus on cracking through the enemy. Girion has two bowmen to sit on back objectives and he can engage when he feels like it. Balin should be used strategically to slow down a big enemy hero (using Heroic Defense) and to make sure you get priority (either so you can use your throwing weapons to deadly effect OR so you can burn through Might on your opponent so he can stop your throwing weapon salvos).

Our next list is a 650-point list and it leans roughly evenly into Men and Dwarves and relies on the cheaper spear-supports of the Dale contingent to field a healthy number of models and a really big hero:

• Girion, Lord of Dale [LEADER]
• 9 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
• 1 Warrior of Dale with banner
• 8 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
• Thrain, Son of Thror with the Ring of Durin
• 5 Erebor Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 5 Grim Hammer Warriors
• Erebor Dwarf Captain
• 2 Erebor Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 1 Erebor Dwarf Warrior with shield and spear
• 4 Grim Hammer Warriors

650pts, 38 models, 20 D6+ models, no fast models but 2 Might for Heroic March, 8+ Might points

This list only has 9 bows/9 throwing weapons, but it packs in Thrain to bludgeon through the enemy and has 8 Dale spears/1 Erebor spear to back up the 9 Grim Hammers. The three heroes could also benefit from support if it's available, but with 3 Attacks each, they're already pretty reliable into managed fights. There are also 7 Dwarves with shields to artificially extend your battle line and three skirmish triangles of archers to float around rear objectives or harass enemy battle lines.

Our final list gets to 800pts and leans less into the men so it can add a third contingent of Dwarves to the fight:

• Girion, Lord of Dale [LEADER]
• 7 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
• 1 Warrior of Dale with banner
• 5 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
• Thrain, Son of Thror with the Ring of Durin
• 5 Erebor Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 5 Grim Hammer Warriors
• Erebor Dwarf Captain
• 5 Erebor Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 5 Grim Hammer Warriors
• Young Balin the Dwarf
• 5 Erebor Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 5 Grim Hammer Warriors

800pts, 47 models, 34 D6 models, no fast models but 2 Might for Heroic March, 10+ Might points

You will see that even at this points level, we only have 10 Might points because we're not leaning into our heroes - as a result, we should only expect to get 1-2 Might points "for free" during the course of the game (managed expectations is key in these kinds of dice-based games). The Dale contingent contracted a little (-4 warriors) and provides us with our only spears. You could run D6 Erebor Dwarf Warriors with spears if you wanted to, but my Khazad-Dum roots run deep and I think having more D7 guys to wrap-and-trap your opponent and force them to spread out their battle lines is valuable - especially on an army that can't get F5 warriors. D6 Dwarves might still be wounded on 6s, but D7 Dwarves WILL be wounded on 6s by pretty much everything, which gives our 47-model list incredible sticking power.

Our hero corps is the same four heroes that have shown up in all of our lists so far - Giron (required), Thrain (why-not), Erebor Dwarf Captain (March/3 Attacks), and Balin (reroll of priority/hero-sandbagging). There's actually more room for warriors, so even at 1000pts, you might only add 1 more hero (your choice of Thror, Thorin, Dwalin, or another March Captain) - but I'd be very tempted to take +12 Dwarves and +4 Dale guys first (possibly also getting a war horn if I had some points left over - Dominant (2) and sky-high Courage is great). The heroes we have are solid and the numbers we get are solid too. We have 7 bows/15 throwing weapons, which won't win a long-range shooting war, but will certainly cause problems once we close on the enemy - and we can run our Grim Hammer Warriors behind our Dwarves with shields if we want to keep them safe from a long-range archery threat list.

Conclusion

I don't think this list is as good as the Garrison of Dale list, but I think it is better than the Army of Thror list at the moment and might be stronger now that there's a new Matched Play Guide. While I haven't played many any games with this list (oh, and I HATE stupid Ugluk's Scouts spam lists when using this list!), I think this list in a warrior-heavy, Dwarf-heavy focus is certainly workable and will last on the table longer than a lot of other lists. I also don't think it's better than Erebor Reclaimed, but that's a discussion for another day.

Hopefully you enjoyed this post - if you've run this list and have thoughts on how to make it work, let us know in the comments below! Until next time, happy hobbying!