The New Age Is Begun: The Defenders of Erebor Army List

Good morning gamers,

Last edition, one of my favorite Legendary Legions that I never took to an event was the Defenders of Erebor - I played a LOT of practice games with them, but never actually locked in with them as my list for any of the events I attended. I plan to rectify this in the coming months (maybe a year) because I think there's a lot that you can do with this particular list. The heroes are great, the warriors are great, and the rules are tricky - let's see how this Dwarf-plus-Men list squares up in the new edition!

The Defenders of Erebor: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Our available profiles haven't changed since last edition - you can still get the four royals (Dain, Thorin III, Brand, and Bard II), the six mobile members of Thorin's Company who were still at Erebor during the War of the Ring (Dwalin, Dori, Nori, Bifur, Bofur, and Gloin when he got back from Rivendell - Bombur was too fat, still think there was a missed opportunity to put him in, though!), your stock-standard generic captains, and two warrior profiles for each side (Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors/Goat Riders and Warriors/Knights of Dale). 

All in all, this both is and isn't a deep bench - it's deep because it has twelve hero choices and four warrior choices and between them all, you get a nice spread of possibilities. However, you're unlikely to be able to afford more than four of them in any given game, not only because of the relative expense of the heroes we have (many are in the 70-100pt range), but also because the warriors we have (unless we REALLY focus on the Dale contingent) are pricey. All that being true, this list doesn't have a problem getting to a healthy model count and it will do it with solid Dale archery, the occasional Dale melee guy, and lots of doughty Dwarves.

There are some list constraints, but nothing that's weird for these kinds of lists. Your Dwarf Warrior models can only be led by Dwarf Heroes and your Man Warrior models can only be led by your Man Heroes. As a result, the more you want Dwarves, the more you'll need Dwarf Heroes in the mix. Additionally, any unit with the Iron Hills keyword (Iron Hills Captains/Dwarf Warriors/Goat Riders) pick up the Erebor keyword, which is really nice.

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are basically unchanged from last edition - you still get to reroll 1s on Dale models when they're within 1" of an Erebor model and you'll get to reroll 1s on Erebor models when they're within 1" of a Dale model. Functionally, this means your named Dale heroes (Brand and Bard) should have a Dwarf spear-support (shouldn't be hard to find) and you'll want to take one spearman per Dwarf hero that you have so they can have a Dale spear-support. If you get more supports than that, that's fine - but it's not THAT necessary.

The royals (Dain, Thorin III, Brand, and Bard II) are all treated by "friendly models" as a banner - which not only reaches across faction keywords, but also includes the models themselves. This is a nice rule, but don't think for a minute that this means you can leave your banner at home - you definitely want a real banner in your list for potential VPs and there will likely be some kind of hero (maybe your March hero?) who is lacking a banner to help him out.

Finally, there are two nearly-identical rules that allow Dain and Brand to call free Heroic Combats if the other is trapped. Additionally, Thorin and Bard can call free Heroic Combats as well if the other is trapped. These can't be called if the heroes are in the same fight and their movement has to be used to get to the other if possible. We'll talk about how to use this well in the Strategy section below, but just know that this is one of my favorite reasons to run this list - you get free Might points that might (see what I did there?) translate into additional kills for you.

Profile Adjustments

The profiles below are mostly unchanged from the last edition - but here's the break-down anyway:

• King Dain is 130pts and remains a powerhouse hero (albeit with 5" movement). This version of Dain is F6/3A with 3-Might-and-Strike and retains the combo of Fearless and a battlefield-wide, Erebor-Dwarf-Hero-inclusive Stand Fast, which basically means your guys aren't going anywhere if a) Dain isn't dead, and b) people can see him. His axe is master-forged and two-handed, so he's getting +1 To Wound without penalties and because "friendly models" treat him as a banner, he benefits from his own banner (slick). He is, however, a good 20pts more than his son, so you might choose to boost your numbers slightly, pass on daddy-o, and instead take . . .
• Thorin III is 110pts and still has the neat combo in this list of free-Heroic-Combat-if-trapped-becomes-free-Heroic-Strike/Defense like he had last edition. He is also treated as a banner (by others and himself) and with F6/3A and 2 Wounds/3 Fate, he's a pretty survivable guy. Like his dad, he really wants to be backed by a Dale spearman so he can reroll 1s, but unlike last edition, he can't two-hand to get extra damage. Still, he's a solid take and when you factor in the price reduction for his companion Dale hero, you can boost your army a little bit more by taking him over his dad. 
• Dwalin previously couldn't get his goat in the Defenders of Erebor Legendary Legion, so losing the goat isn't a big deal, relatively speaking. Dwalin is now at 110pts base with the option to either get 3 Attacks at F6/S5 OR 2 Attacks with +1 To Wound and no penalties. His King's Axeman rule allows him to do the old-school Piercing Strike special strike if he's within 3" of "Thorin", which you might want to use if you're against an even-Defense unit and using Grasper & Keeper with your 3 Attacks. The fact that the King's Axeman rule cites being near "Thorin" is interesting here, because it's not "Thorin Oakenshield" - it's just "Thorin". As a result, I _think_ this rule (and Sworn Protector) can proc off of Thorin III Stonehelm, which is pretty cool.
• Dori used to be the cheapest Weapon Master unit in this list and he used to have 3 Attacks base. Now he gets 3 Attacks and rerolling dueling rolls of 1 (sort of like a banner? sort of?) if he's within 3" of Nori . . . which is not as good as he used to be. For 75pts, he's got good stats to borrow with 2M/2W/2F and Heroic Resolve/Defense, so he's not a terrible pick, but you definitely need to ALSO take Nori . . . and I've never had points for both of these guys AND the required Bard/Brand AND a March Captain in my lists.
• Nori is also 75pts and he's finally D9 with F5/3A . . . oh, and he's got throwing weapons and the same stats as Dori. Yeah, there's a reason I don't think you run Dori - Nori is just so much better! Yes, 3 Attacks with +1 To Wound is better than 3 Attacks normal, but 6 dice while shielding with D9 is a great way to stall an enemy unit that doesn't have Rend, so I'd take Nori over Dori every time. That said, there are other really great heroes that are available to you for not that much more, like . . .
• Gloin is 100pts and he's the big winner in this list. He's got F6/3A with the opportunity to get 4 Attacks if he's outnumbered and while his two-handed weapon might suffer from the dueling penalty, it also might not if you can just roll 6s (natural 6 expected ~40% of the time with 4 Attacks - but you might have a spearman/rerolls that make any kind of 6 easier to get). With 3M/2W/3F (like his son), Gloin is probably the best deal of a killing hero you can get in the list (except for maybe Thorin III) - though he is a LOT more susceptible to magic in this list than he can be in Erebor Reclaimed. 
  
• Bifur has gone from being an auto-include to being a maybe-include now that his Embedded Axe isn't an automatic Heroic Move. With Intelligence 7+ and no way to boost it besides using Might (which he's only a 1-Might hero), he's still more likely than not to get a free Heroic Move off after he's gotten the axe head out. While he still needs to successfully wound with a single die and S4, I've never failed to get the wound to work . . . so he might still be worth including. That said, with only 1M/2W/2F, he's not helping you much in the Might department, so you're counting on an expected higher Might store by calling free Moves - and if he doesn't do that, he's definitely not worth taking over . . .
• Bofur got a HUGE glow-up from a recent FAQ where his Steadfast rule was basically ruled to cancel out anything your opponent is counting on that is an Active/Passive special rule. If you don't want Harbinger affecting you, get a 3+ on your Steadfast roll. If one of your Dwarf hero models is about to be bowled over by a Monstrous Charge or a Thrown Stones, get a 3+ on your Steadfast roll. Don't want Aunduril carving up your Dwarf heroes? Turn that off on a 3+ too. Like Bifur, Bofur can only fight two-handed - but he also has throwing weapons and now sports a 2M/1W/2F profile. He doesn't Strike anymore, but that's fine - F5 and Strike aren't the threat they used to be. For 65pts, I think Bofur is great (and as my favorite Dwarf companion from the films, this makes me very happy).
• King Brand is still 110pts and hasn't changed much. He still has a situational reroll on his dueling roll and wounding roll if he's Trapped at the start of his Combats, which is a nice bonus if you have a FV advantage and dangerous otherwise. With 3 Wounds/1 Fate, he's probably more resilient than his son, but I personally prefer the loadout of Bard instead. Still, if you like the guy, take him.
• Bard II is still 10pts cheaper and I still think he's the better pick of the two. He's got 2 Wounds/2 Fate, but otherwise is pretty comparable to his dad. He has the Wall of Blades special rule (as do the Knights of Dale that we'll see below), so if anyone charges him (even if Bard himself has charged this round), he can get +1 To Wound against them - this is an interesting catch-22 and it's good when it works, but I wouldn't count on it. Still, the option for either Heroic Strike or Heroic Defense - and a very low reason to actually go out and fight - makes him an amazing General choice in my book.
• Iron Hills Captains are still very good (Master of Battle (5+) with F5/S4/D8-9 is still good value for under 100pts), and while they weren't great in Erebor Reclaimed, they're FABULOUS in this list. This is a mostly-infantry army, so Heroic March is pretty important and our only March hero alternative is . . .
• Captains of Dale are good in this list in very, VERY limited situations. Their biggest claim to fame is that they are one of two heroes with access to Heroic March (besides the Iron Hills Captains) and they're 55pts instead of 80pts. If you're playing at a low points level, you probably need a March Captain on the cheap (since you have to spend at least 165pts on your required heroes) and if you also want decent numbers, you'll need a cheap Captain. That said, in general I'd go with an Iron Hills Captain - you want lots of Dwarves in your list and those Captains are much harder to kill and kill things a lot faster. Now that you can't take a bow on the Captain of Dale, I don't think he has a place in this list.
• Iron Hills Dwarves are fabulous for their cost - they're double-digits per guy for F4 units, but with S4/D7-8 if equipped with shields, they're incredibly hard to shift and they do well against most shieldwalls. Being F4 with no way to get F5 help in this list isn't that great, but since their primary job is to buy time for your heroes to do their thing, I think they're more than adequate - paying 60pts for a block of 5 guys to escort a hero means you can get slightly-low numbers with lots of Might and killing power for 110-200pts! I also think the mattock weapon option isn't a trap - while the crossbow, shield/spear, and shield/banner are clearly good options, taking a mattock if it helps you spend a few left-over points and eek an extra guy out of it isn't a bad thing (and since I was a fan of mattocks in the last edition when they didn't retain their 6s to win the duel, it should come as no surprise that I like them this edition too).
• Iron Hills Goat Riders are your only mounted models - and my general rule of "4 cavalry" still applies. If possible, spend 80pts to get 4 of these guys in any list that you write. You probably want an actual banner first and you probably want at least 6 archers and 12 melee infantry too for numbers - but you definitely want to look into a few of these guys!
• Warriors of Dale are still blissfully cheap (for being fairly elite) at 8-9pts/model (32 with a banner) and still give you access to longbows for 2pts cheaper than your crossbows. I will caution leaning too hard into these guys - Dwarf-heavy lists are exceedingly hard to break, especially if you find yourself up against an archery-heavy list. Having a shieldwall that is probably wounded on 6s (or 6/4+) and wounds enemy shieldwalls on 5s or 4s (occasionally 6s - usually only against other Dwarf lists or high-Defense heroes) is incredibly lethal and you really, really, REALLY want this list to maintain whatever advantage it can. That said, the occasional Dale spearman to support your Dwarf heroes and Dale bowmen are very, very useful.
• Knights of Dale are surprisingly not "Elite" units - I totally had them pegged for just being led by Brand and Bard, but apparently that's not right. At any rate, they're still 11pts/model which puts them at 1pt cheaper than Iron Hills Dwarves with shields and spears (who get +1 Defense before Shieldwall and +1 Strength instead of +1 To Wound against models that charge them). In my humble opinion . . . don't run these guys in this list - get Dwarves instead.

That's quite the list of guys - and in general, the profiles you have access to are pretty good (though good luck getting them all into a list)! Let's take a look at where this list really shines (and where it can let you down).

The Defenders of Erebor: Strengths and Weaknesses

The first stop for strengths in this list is its elite profiles. There are no F7 heroes, but there are plenty of F6/3A heroes with Strike (and a good number of F5/3A heroes who have Strike or Defense). Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors are incredibly good for their cost and when they can be supported by cheaper bowmen in the form of Warriors of Dale with longbows (who are more flexible and might deal the same damage as the Iron Hills Dwarf crossbowmen) and the occasional Warrior of Dale spearman, you can get an incredibly good army! The Dwarf heroes are all good in their own right (with Dori probably being the worst only because he's dependent on being included with and always being near Nori - but he's still a very good profile) and the Dale units (with the exception of Knights of Dale and usually the Captains of Dale) are great in this list.

With elite profiles comes elite cost - and this army has expensive units. While this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, in order to get the numbers you want, you'll probably have to ration on the heroes you want to include. At low points levels, this probably means you don't take a Heroic-Combat pair of royals in favor of getting some kind of March captain and one of the Champs (though if you're choosing Gloin or Dwalin, know that you COULD take Thorin III if the free Heroic Combats are worth it to you). The more you lean into those triple-digit-cost heroes, however, the lower your model count is going to be . . . unless you favor the Dale units more than the Dwarves, which just seems like a recipe for being broken to me.

The list is generally slow, but the list has decent speed options (for being Dwarves). Being "fast" (8-9" move) with your infantry does require you to take a third hero (since none of the named heroes have March) - and since I don't think you're going to spam goats in this list, I expect that getting somewhere fast with your infantry is probably worth doing. Speed is critical to victory in most scenarios, and while this list can probably get by with a few cavalry units for most of the scenarios, I don't think there's a replacement for March (but I know some players disagree with me on this, so take that for what you will).

Finally, the list has great rules that give you options should your opponent pull a trick on you. We'll get into this a bit more in the strategy section below, but the fact that your list might have two heroes who count as banners makes winning fights with those heroes and the bodyguards near them a lot more likely - and fights that you win can easily turn into dead men on the other side because of how much S4 (and possibly +1 To Wound) you can have. Being able to call free Heroic Combats is always good - and getting that from more than one hero for several turns is very, VERY rare in this game. The units you have these on can be a little expensive, but they're not terribly expensive.

The Defenders of Erebor: Strategies for the Tabletop

When you're deciding on your list, you'll need to decide straight away how much you want to focus on getting the free banner rules and potentially free Heroic Actions by sticking with a pair of characters. Thorin III is roughly the same cost as other big hitters (like Dwalin or Gloin), so is it better to always have a banner reroll or to be able to two-hand? I think Thorin III is way better than Dwalin, but Gloin is certainly a question mark (and if your points level is low, Nori or Bifur/Bofur might be in the discussion as well). The double-banner-radii is excellent, free heroics are excellent, but you might opt for a stronger fighting unit than what you "have to take" if you think about locking into a pair every time.

You'll also want to include some cavalry (I recommend 4 Goat Riders if you can afford them) in order to play objectives. Goat Riders are a bit pricey (both in points and money), but they hit hard and they're as fast as Marching Dwarf infantry. From experience, they're not as fast as one might like, but 8" movement and "nowhere to be" is certainly good for reaching far away objectives. Occasionally, your scenario won't require you to get to far-flung places - in those situations, you're probably in a killing scenario and having a warrior unit that can knock someone prone who's fighting one of your heroes is always a good thing.

This list, like a lot of other Dwarf lists we've looked at recently, is best when it leans into its warriors. Shieldwall gives you durability on your Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors (D8 for almost everyone, including your banners if you took shields on them) and durability for your March hero (D9!). Paired with Nori and your choice of Brand or Bard, you can have a D7 Dale hero and potentially two D9 Dwarf heroes for just over 250pts, which is pretty nice! However, the big draw of this is that you would have plenty of warrior slots available to you (15 Dale, 24 Erebor) and you'd have the rest of your points to work with in order to fill it! With 9pt Dale bowmen/spearmen and 12pt Iron Hills Dwarves, you can get 30 guys without banners for ~330pts, which is CRAZY! Your 600pt army is basically built and you have very solid numbers - and the units you're getting either have S3 longbows, are triggering rerolls on your Dwarves, or they're F4/S4/D6+ units, which is sick.

This brings us to a discussion on your Dale troops: don't take too many Dale units. Your banner-bearer might be a Dale guy, but also might not - the Iron Hills banner guys are pretty difficult to crack. Taking roughly 33% of your army as Dale bowmen isn't bad, but decide whether or not shooting is really what you want to do with this army. For me personally, I like having shooting options in my toolkit, but you may decide that you'd rather just "bum-rush" with your list instead and not bother. Most of your warriors should be Dwarves because they kill things more reliably and don't die as swiftly. Your Dale contingent should be composed of mostly archers, but it's also good to have 1 Warrior of Dale with shield and spear for each Dwarf hero that you have (as his spear support - those heroes won't mind if the spearman is S3 and they will definitely appreciate rerolling those definitely-didn't-work-1s into something that will work). Because I don't think you want that many Dale units, my lists below will basically just have one Dale hero (the required guy) and the rest are all Dwarves.

Finally, let's talk about trapping your own heroes. :) The only character of the four royals that stands to be in any danger from trapping themselves against most warriors is Bard II - and even he is looking alright. These heroes are all D7-8, they've got 3 Attacks each with F5-6, and if they're trapped by their own friends (two models standing in base contact behind, one supporting, one supporting a fight next door), they likely have a spear-support, sometimes a friend in the fight who ALSO has a spear support, and all of this will have a banner to help them out . . . from experience, you don't lose a lot of fights this way. As I recommended in the last edition, if you take a pair of named royals, you can reliably get free Heroic Combats for your heroes that have basically no restrictions on where you can go if you just make sure there's no way to get to the other - and unlike characters like Dwarf Shieldbearers and Deorwine, there's no distance limit to these, so if these guys are embedded in their battle lines, they can Heroic Combat from 1-2 enemy warriors into 1-2 enemy spearmen so they bend a little towards their friend's fight - perfect for clearing out 3-4 models a turn!

If you find that your heroes are fighting an enemy hero who poses a threat, I would only trap one of your own guys in a very, VERY niche situation: if Thorin III finds himself up against a big enemy hero (which might be by your own choosing - Thorin is great into many enemy heroes/monsters), you can trap Bard II to give Thorin III a free Heroic Combat. I know what you're thinking - "if I'm up against a big hero, do I really want to call a Heroic Combat instead of a Heroic Strike or Heroic Defense?" Well, yes, you'd rather call one of those, but the Heroic Combat is always free instead of having a 33% chance of being free. Most enemy heroes, however (whether it's the guy engaged with Thorin III or a different hero), want to be calling Heroic Actions during the Fight Phase too - and if any of them declare a Heroic Action, Thorin III can change his free Heroic Combat into whatever heroic he wants (in this case, Strike if you're feeling good and Defense if you're feeling bad). If you're facing a free-Heroic-Combat hero who starts with F7+ (like Santa Helm or the Balrog), you can almost guarantee that an excited opponent will say, "Great, Heroic Combat for free as well" . . . to which you say "Cool-Headed flip to Heroic Strike" if you're against Santa Helm or "Cool-Headed flip to Heroic Defense" if you're against the Balrog. Watch your opponent's face drop when that happens . . .

Sample Lists

As we usually do, our first stop is a 500-point list that doesn't try to get the free heroics to trigger. Since we need one named Dale and Erebor hero in the list, I've opted for Bard II and Gloin - both of whom are 100pt heroes who are good at fighting - and a Captain of Dale. With half of our points spent, I've punted on cavalry, but we've still managed to hit 24 models, half of which are Dwarves (I will note that if you went for Nori instead of Gloin, you could upgrade that Captain of Dale to an Iron Hills Captain . . . that might be better?):

At 650pts, we can get both Bard II and Thorin III for some free heroic shenanigans, an Iron Hills Captain for a durable March hero, and 31 total models (including 4 Goat Riders and 9 Esgaroth bows):

When we push up slightly to 700pts, we can run Dain, Brand, and an Iron Hills Captain and reach 31 models - this is the only list I'll be showing off that has Dain/Brand in it, mostly because this is the first points level where I could get the trifecta of March, 4 Goat Riders, and 30+ models with Dain and Brand in the same list (without getting a Captain of Dale and a lot more Dale guys):

Our last list is an 800-point list and this is really when I feel like the list comes into its own. I have Thorin III and Bard II (you could drop a few models to get the bigger heroes if you wanted to), Bofur for protection, and an Iron Hills Captain for March. The list sports 12 Esgaroth bows, 4 Goat Riders, and 40 total models - it's a really, REALLY hard-hitting group of guys:

Conclusion

This list, like Erebor Reclaimed, gives you a fun experience, and boy does it pack in the models (and they're all elite in at least a few ways)! The heroes aren't flashy and they don't have to be - and boy am I excited to give these guys a whirl this year. Next time, we're turning to a list that my son (and Rythbyrt) have given some practice: the Army of Erebor. This is yet-another-Gloin-list, but there are some very interesting rewards in this list for leaning into both heroes and warriors (especially those with spears). Find out what's so great about this Dwarf list next time - and until then, happy hobbying!