The New Age Is Begun: the Thorin's Company Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is our last post of all-Dwarves in "Dwarf month" and we're looking at what is mostly an all-hero list: Thorin's Company. I played this list some last edition (never in a tournament) and I've got to say, it's got a lot of rules to keep track of (even more now), but it's FUN to play! The models work together better now and I kinda feel like our recommendation to fix Thorin's Company was heard by GW - but let's see what this list has to offer and what you have to think about when bringing it to the table.

Thorin's Company: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has the fifteen members of Thorin's Company, as you'd expect. For about $60 (less on eBay), you can get that whole list of models - and now that they can't take ponies (sadness), that's a good 1000-points worth of this list for an insanely small amount of money (relative to what 1000pts requires in most other lists). These units are all infantry and carry the bulk of the rules - and if you choose to just play with these guys, you'll have a jolly time for sure.

That said, the list now includes Radagast the Brown (with access to his sleigh, but it isn't required) and Gwaihir (who can bring Great Eagles, but not Fledgling Eagles). Bringing Gwaihir requires you to also bring Gandalf, which makes the investment kind of hefty - but one could argue that Gwaihir is worth it. Interestingly enough, Radagast has the Thorin's Company faction keyword, so anything that's said below about "Thorin's Company" models can affect him too . . . we'll talk about that a bit in the strategy section below.

Army List Bonuses

This list has a few restrictions in it - but they're not hard to remember. You have to take Thorin and he has to be your General. If you want to take any of the Dwarves, Wizards, or Biblo, they have to be in Thorin's warband (which is great in maelstrom missions, but also gives up a lot of deployment advantages to your opponent in virtually all other scenarios). If you want to take Gwaihir in your list, you have to have Gandalf in your list (fair enough). If you want to take Great Eagles, you have to bring them with Gwaihir. Simple, right? Everyone who isn't a bird with Thorin, get birds by taking Gandalf.

Your army bonuses are all potentially valuable and will be useful most of the time. The least universal of them is We're Making a Long-Term Deposit, which allows you to mark an objective marker on the board (if any) and any of your Dwarf models near it gains Dominant (2). Keep in mind that Dominant X doesn't stack with other Dominant X rules, so Thorin and Bombur won't benefit from this rule - but it's still good to have. March to the Lonely Mountain will usually be valuable - if you skip on the Eagles, your Dwarves all gain Heroic March and can use their Will points to declare Marches instead of Might points. Since getting Will back is easy in this list (if you took Bombur and/or Gandalf) and since several Thorin's Company models have healthy Will stores, this is a great way to get the speed that you'll probably need from Heroic March . . . without spending those precious Might points of yours!

Finally, like the Erebor Reclaimed army list, this list has Family Ties, which allows Dwarves of the same family group to share resources while within 3" of each other. This is not only really cool, but might have some impact on your list building (taking a model with slightly worse special rules than another, but gives good resources that can be borrowed by someone else).

Profile Adjustments

The list of models today is slightly less than last time - but let's review how these heroes have changed this edition:

• Thorin has always been good value - and this version of Thorin is still 100pts base and hasn't changed in his profile much. He's still got all the solid stats of a big hero that you'd want (F6/3A with 3 Might/Will/Fate). His "Loyalty, Honour . . ." special rule gives the old army bonus (Thorin's Company models reroll 1s To Wound within 6" of him), which is good because in any all-Hero army, you want to turn anything that has no chance of becoming a wound into something that could become a wound. This rule won't turn a game necessarily, but it might help you here and there. Thorin's Stand Fast also affects the other Thorin's Company models, which is good, but if you ever get to the point where you need to use Thorin's Stand Fast, things have probably gone horribly wrong and you may not be able to keep everyone within 6" of Thorin in every game, so . . . nice to have as a rule, but not game-altering. He still has access to both Orcrist and the Oakenshield, both of which I would take every time. The final big thing about Thorin's new profile is that he has Heroic March innately - this is HUGE for making sure your army gets where it wants to go if you also brought Gwaihir.
• Balin has seen a few changes - he's S4 now (hooray!), but still only has 1 Attack. He's got "armor" instead of "light armor", so his D5 will stay D5 against enemy shooting, which is only relevant because most of the Dwarves in this list have light armor, and so will be D4 in melee and D5 against bows. He's still got 3 Will/Longbeard, so he can reroll your priority roll - handy to have, but also not something that I think you NEED to have in every list.
• Dwalin is still 95pts and boy has he lost some things. This is a recurring thing for this month's armies - Dwalin is a 2A hero now who can have 3 Attacks without +1 To Wound . . . as opposed to having 3 Attacks with his two-handed weapon OR his multiple hand weapons last edition. While I think his current version is the way it always should have been (he works just like Gimli), I think his changes should have come with an appropriate reduction in cost - on its face, he's pretty similar to Gimli (+1 Strength, -2 Defense, -1 Might/Fate, gains Fearless), but I think he's probably 5-10pts too high. This might be the best list for taking any version of Dwalin just because you're eventually going to be taking a bunch of F4/2A heroes who are very much on the squishy side, but you won't see Dwalin in any lists today because on the whole, I think those F4/2A heroes are only slightly less durable than Dwalin is (who, like Balin, has full armor instead of light armor, so he's D6 all the time) and are probably worth more as a pair than Dwalin does for a similar cost. Still, if you take him instead of two others, I don't think you're losing much . . . so take him if you want to. Dwalin and Balin have 3M/5W/4F for 135pts.
• Kili is still 50pts and has D5/light armor (so D6 against shooting attacks) and 2 Fate now. Besides that . . . he's basically what he used to be. Combat Synergy is better now, as any flip-flopping of position between Fili and Kili gives them a banner-like reroll AND they can be within 1" of each other instead of in base contact. All in all, a great profile (and one of your limited shooting options).
• Fili is similarly still 50pts and still has a nearly identical profile to Kili (Heroic Strength over Heroic Accuracy, throwing weapons instead of a Dwarf bow). He still has "hand weapons" of an unspecified number, so functionally he also has weapon master - which has been and still is cool but mostly irrelevant. If you're interested in taking one of these guys, you should probably take them both - and for 100pts, they're a good bargain. Kili and Fili have 4M/2W/4F for 100pts.
• Dori in this form, like his Champ form, suffers a bit from last edition in that he's only situationally F5/3A - though since you probably don't have competition from taking either Nori, Ori, or both, he'll probably still be a F5/3A hero (and doubly so because you'll want your heroes near each other to borrow resources). His A Good Sort no only allows him to become a 3A hero again, but it also gives him a banner-like reroll of 1s - something that could be taken away from him by the Mouth of Sauron, who we viewed a few months ago, but that will be very useful in other contexts since a dueling die result of 1 isn't going to win much. He swapped Heroic Strength for Heroic Resolve . . . which might be a net positive, but I think is mostly a net neutral. He's D5 with light armor like Kili and Fili, which makes him reasonably resilient to enemy archery - and with 2 Will/2 Fate this edition, he can tank enemy magic and chip-damage, especially if he's near . . .
• Nori is still 55pts and still has the choice between a hand weapon and a two-handed weapon. This option is a real decision-maker this edition, since Weapon Master now only makes Nori never count as being unarmed - but won't remove the dueling penalty for fighting two-handed. With D5/light armor, he's also decently resilient to enemy archery and he picked up a neat special rule that allows him to reroll all failed To Wound rolls if he's carrying an objective marker (though he can't play "hot potato" with it and hand it off to anyone). Nori's an interesting take and you might take him with Dori or Ori. I think of the three brothers, you're likely to take one of these two and . . .
• Ori has long been my favorite of the three "ri" guys - he's got a good shooting option (augmented this edition with Sharpshooter), helps you regain Might points if you happen to go gronking enemy heroes/monsters (great for Thorin, Dwalin, and Gloin), and he's cheap at 40pts (95 with one of his brothers). With 1 Might/2 Will/2 Fate, he's a decent resource battery to someone who's fighting, but with D4 and no armor at all, he's pretty squishy if he's left out in the open. Still, with 2 Fate base and the ability to borrow 2 Fate from either of his brothers, I think he's worth taking in a list (and I think he and your choice of Nori or Dori might be worth a trade over taking just Dwalin for the exact same cost). Oh, and Chronicler allows you to pick a hero who wasn't involved in slaying the target hero/monster if the guy who slew the brute is at full . . . which is kinda nice, though not often relevant. Dori, Nori, and Ori have 5M/5W/6F for 150pts.
• Oin is 50pts now (up 5 from last edition) and gained a Will point and a special rule. His Healing Herbs rule still requires you to be in base contact (though it's at any point in your move) - healing is rare in SBG, so while there were no changes to how this rule works, it's still a good rule to have. Additionally, Reading the Portents hasn't really changed much - Oin can spend his 5 Will points to provide a banner-like reroll and can do so as many times as he wants during a round, so long as he has the Will to spend. He also got a new rule (Hearing Trumpet), which gives him a pseudo-Master-of-Battle-(5+), but if he gets a natural 1, he has to spend a Will point or can't move for the turn . . . which is fine, I think. The biggest reason to take Oin, I think, is not so much for his rules (though the banner rule is nice), but the fact that he can lend 1 Might/5 Will/1 Fate points to . . .
• Gloin is, and has always been, my second pick in ANY pure Thorin's Company list since the last edition. Gloin is only 85pts (10pts less than Dwalin) and has a nearly identical profile to Dwalin wielding Grasper & Keeper (-1 Strength, +1 Defense), but he trades rules like Fearless and Weapon Master (and the situational bonuses you might get from Grasper & Keeper) for throwing weapons and the Axe Mastery special rule, which gives him 4 Attacks if he's outnumbered . . . so if he charges two models, he'll be F6/4A. This is SO GOOD and if you keep him near Thorin, you'll also reroll 1s To Wound. Take this guy all the time - he's good in his champ form and in this one. Oin and Gloin have 3M/7W/3F for 135pts.
• Bifur has changed a lot since the last edition - something we've talked about a lot this month. Bifur only has 1 Might base, but still gives you a free Heroic Move if you pass an Intelligence check AND get the Embedded Axe out of his head. I think he's definitely worth taking in this list - free Might in a usually-all-hero-list is definitely worth taking. He's D5/light armor with 2 Fate on defense, which is about what you expect in this group. He still has Throw STones, but it has Strength 2 now instead of S1 . . . yaye for skirmish builds? The Boar Spear can still be used as a spear or a two-handed weapon, which can give him some extra punch, but at F4, I think he's mostly fighting one-handed unless he's fighting a 1A model on the other side.
• Bofur got some sweet stock-increase when the ruling on how Steadfast "works" came out a few FAQs ago. For 45pts, he has a pretty average profile for this lot (2 Might/1 Will/2 Fate that can be borrowed by Bifur/Bombur is pretty nice for making sure they do what they want to do), and with D5/light armor, he's reaonably defensible for costing what he does. He's got a mattock (two-handed weapon with the old Bash special strike), but mostly you're bringing him so that you can turn off those nasty special rules and magical powers that target your Thorin's Company Rules . . . let me highlight that if he stays within 3" of Gandalf and/or Radagast, you can turn off magical powers that target them on a non-Mightable 3+ roll . . . yes, if you use this, you won't be able to take a Resist test, but stopping any spell on a 3+ seems like a reasonable thing to do? I'd always take this guy if you have a wizard in your list, but I'd also take this guy if you have more than five heroes in your list - turning off rules like Monstrous Charge, Terror, or Harbinger of Evil (to say nothing of any number of magical powers) is HUGE.
• Bombur is finally Dominant (2) this edition (throughout the book, he's described as "counting as two") and with the ability to restore Will points on your Thorin's Company models, he's a great way to make sure that Balin can still reroll priority rolls, Oin helps friends reroll dueling rolls, and Gandalf/Radagast still cast spells. Oh, and basically anyone can replenish lost stores from resisting spells. Bombur is D4 with no armor, but with 3 Wounds/2 Fate (and the ability to borrow 4 Fate from his cousins) and Heroic Defense with 1 Might (but the ability to borrow 3 Might from his cousins) he's incredibly durable and tanky. I like the guy - he can't declare a Heroic Move, but he can still use his 3 Will points for Heroic March if you skip on Gwaihir, which is pretty slick. I love this guy and have always taken him second (to back up Thorin or Balin) since the last edition. He's great, 'nuff said. Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur have 4M/5W/6F for 135pts.
• Bilbo is in an interesting place this edition. On the one hand, he still has It Has Not Yet Awoken, so he is the only Ringbearer who will be fully under his owner's control, so that makes him a really useful tactical piece. At the same time, he can't hop into a fight with Thorin/Gloin/notionally-Dwalin and automatically give his side the higher Fight Value (not only because halving Fight Values doesn't happen with most Ringbearers when there's a friend in their fight, but also because Heroic Strike happens after Fight Value modifications). Bilbo is only 55pts now (with Sting being probably optional - only necessary if you think the Elven-made keyword is important), but he can't borrow Dori's resources like he could last edition, so with 2 Might/3 Will/3 Fate and no Mithril, he's probably running around with the Ring on and finding one-off warriors he can pester. That said, if you don't have a compelling reason to take another Dwarf, I'd probably look into Bilbo.
• Gandalf is a pretty different beast this edition. With F5/2A, he's far more likely to get work out of his melee profile - but he'd be much better if he had his horse. Besides having 2 Attacks, his profile is remarkably unchanged from the way it was when I started playing the game back in 2010. When it comes to his spell suite, he's pretty different than he was last edition (more on that in the strategy section below), but suffice it to say that you should focus on a) channelling Sorcerous Blast for damage most of the time, and b) casting Transfix with your free Will point + one from your store. There may be situations where you cast other spells (again, more on that below), but keep these two in mind as your go-tos most of the time.
• Radagast counts as a member of Thorin's Company for the purposes of a bunch of special rules (more on that below too) and got an effective 10pt reduction in cost becuase he has Sebastian baked into his profile. This, paired with the increase to 2 Attacks base, means that he will roll 3 dice when dueling (one of which is not modifiable). His Master of Birds special rule is still as broken as ever (has light of sight to anywhere, grants Resistant to Magic to Gwaihir/Great Eagles) and has Stalk Unseen, Woodland Creature, and Mountain Dwellers for good manipulation of terrain. His spells also require some explanation (more on that below), but understand that unlike Gandalf, you probably do want to cast everything he has at some point in the game.
• Gwaihir is only available in the list if you've already bought Thorin (we'll say 115pts) and Gandalf (170pts). For 150pts, you get a F8/no-Strike model who is S6 (no S7 in this list) with 3 Attacks/Monstrous Charge, D8 with 3 Wounds/3 Fate, and Dominant (4) without being your General . . . I mean, I think there's a very strong case that you take him over 3 Dwarves if you're hitting points levels at 700+ (and maybe even at lower ones). The thing about this list is that if you take Gwaihir, your speed is gone . . . so Gwaihir has to do the get-there-first thing by himself (maybe escorted by Radagast). He's a strong piece that comes with a crippling penalty on the rest of your list (since now Thorin is your only March hero - and he'll have to use Might). Still, I think Gwaihir is probably worth it . . . probably . . .
• Great Eagles are not worth it - they're fast, true, and you can certainly make a speed-list that has Thorin, Gandalf, Gwaihir, and a few Eagles in it if you really, REALLY want to. But I wouldn't - I think any two of the Dwarves (or one of the beater heroes) is better than what these guys are offering.

That's a fun list of units - let's see what this list does well (and where it lags behind a little)!

Thorin's Company: Strengths and Weaknesses

Before tackling anything else, I think this needs to be said: like most all-hero lists, if you run this list, you're going to have tons of Might points. Of all the game mechanics in MESBG, the mechanic that makes me love this game more than any of the others (and I'm actively playing/collecting both Star Wars Legion and Bolt Action) is the existence of Might on your heroes. Might gives you the opportunity to get a do-over in certain situations - do you need to move first with your cavalry? If you don't win the random-roll for priority each turn, you might be able to move first anyway if you have a Might point available. Do you need your hero to kill more than just the one grunt who charged him? Hopefully there's a Might point for that. Need slightly better stats in the Fight Value/Strength department? A Might point might help (see what I did there?). Want to not die or not fail to cast a spell? Depending on your character, you might be able to if you managed your Might store well.

Might isn't everything in this game, but it certainly helps - and it also helps your heroes feel like they're better than all the other pieces you brought. Just like Force powers (or "techno-force-powers") in Star Wars Legion or having DV7+ in Bolt Action can make certain units shape the game, so also the existence of Might (as well as Will/Fate, especially in this list) can shape a game. This army won't have a lot of bodies in it, but it will have a lot of heroic resources - and while this does lead to intense resource tracking (have a method before you show up to the table!), it also means you have options, at least when the game begins.

There is a downside to this list, however: basically everyone has low/average Defense - and that means that 2 Wounds/1-2 Fate isn't going to keep these guys alive. Most of your models have D6 against shooting attacks - and paired with a 4+ Blinding Light, you could be pretty safe from enemy archer - but once you're in melee, almost everyone will be wounding you on 5s or better. With predominantly F4 on your "spammable Dwarves", there's a good chance that you run into an enemy who has an equal Fight Value as half of your units - and when that happens, you don't want to be losing fights!

This list does have potentially good mobility - it should be able to choose where and when it wants to fight. If you have Gwaihir in your list . . . well, you have Gwaihir and 3-Might-and-March on Thorin. This is more maneuverability than most Dwarf lists can sport but also isn't horribly off the expected mobility of most infantry-heavy lists. Gwaihir isn't just fast - as a F8 monster without Heroic Strike, he's likely to be calling a lot of Heroic Combats, which can further add to his incredible mobility. Bringing him means you also have Gandalf, who isn't fast and doesn't have Compel this edition, but he does have the ability to knock someone Prone (with two spells, actually), which could mean that someone who's trying to stay away from Gwaihir doesn't have the option to.

If you don't take Gwaihir, you can spend Will points on anyone to declare Heroic Marches - this includes Gandalf's free Will point from his Staff of Power if he's not close enough to cast against anyone and doesn't have anything better to do. Most armies will be lucky if they have 2-3 Might for Heroic Marches, while others might be able to cheat a bit with a war drum or Aragorn to have "free Marches" when they want them. This list can EASILY have 15 Will points for Heroic March - and if your opponent didn't bring magic, you may not have much else to use them on (besides the odd Courage test - though these guys are all pretty brave). I like that - all-hero lists need mobility to get the matchups they want and this list certainly can do that.

That said, while this list has a lot of really strong hero choices, all of their strong heroes are expensive. Thorin and Gloin (and to some extent, Dwalin) are well costed at less than 120pts each - for Dwarf heroes, that's very good. Gandalf, Radagast, and Gwaihir are all around 150pts each, so including all three of them and the required Thorin is going to push you close to 600pts. This . . . gets pricey real fast. As a result, you often have to choose who to include in your list and who you're leaving at home. The bench has some heavy hitters, but you'll very rarely be playing high enough that you can include them all. This isn't a critique that's unique to Thorin's Company - it's sort of true for the Fellowship, the Road to Rivendell, Fangorn, the Last Alliance, and any of the "big battle" summary lists that have a single special rule. The rules are good and the profiles are solid . . . and you're not going to get them all. Sorry.

One thing I really like about this list and that makes it strong is that the models in this list synergize with each other better and more. In the last edition, Bombur could give Will points back to Balin for rerolling priority or Oin for rerolling duel rolls or Gandalf for casting spells (and if you were really sneaky, Floi for turning off special rules by allying him with Balin/Thorin into a Kingdom of Khazad-Dum/Moria list). Other members of Thorin's Company could benefit from getting a Will back if they were resisting magical powers, but otherwise, that was it. Now, Bombur does everything he used to do AND can share any of his heroic stats with Bifur/Bofur and can even borrow their heroic resources, which could allow Bombur to tank a big hero longer (if borrowing Might for Heroic Defense from Bofur and possibly Bifur) or making Bifur more likely to get his embedded axe out (since Bifur can borrow Bombur/Bofur's Might to boost his wounding roll).

I really like the slight change that made Fili and Kili's Combat Synergy rule more . . . well, synergistic. Before, the rule was "cool" for allowing one of your models to pop-out and shoot and then pop-back and hide, but being in base contact and not doing anything besides moving 1" wasn't that big of a change. Now, it's more like a 2" move and it will trigger a dueling reroll for anyone who happens to be in combat - this is great AND if you've been charged in the Move Phase and want to keep your matchups the same, you can flip in the Shoot Phase, then flip AGAIN in the Fight Phase, which will still preserve the matchup while giving you a dueling reroll in each fight. So, so good!

There's lots of ways that the models can work together now - and I think it makes list building more interesting and the overall experience much better than it was. Also, since the models don't cost as much as their Champion of Erebor counterparts (and because you can't get Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors), you can pile in a bunch of Dwarf heroes that you'd otherwise have to pass on in an Erebor Reclaimed list, which is awesome.

There is one final downside to the list: rules bloat. Besides Fili and Kili, no one is basically a copy/paste of someone else. This is true of the Fellowship and a lot of other lists too: the more heroes you have, the more rules you'll have. This list piles on the rules with very little overlap, so you should assume that you have twice as many special rules as you have models on the board - and that's a very conservative estimate. This isn't a reason to avoid playing the list - but you do really need to know your dang list before you come to the table. This should be your default position for any list, but some lists (like Numenor and the Assault Upon Helm's Deep) will spare you the rules bloat by just . . . well, not having that many rules).

Okay, let's talk strategy now . . .

Thorin's Company: Strategies for the Tabletop

When we think about list building, like we did with Erebor Reclaimed, we really need to tackle just how good the different groups of Dwarves are for the Family Ties special rule. It's entirely possible that the "best" units you can take have no family ties at all: Gloin and Thorin are probably the best combat characters for their cost, Ori is probably the best support, Bofur, Bombur, and Balin have cool utility moves as well . . . and there's very little overlap between the Family Ties rule for these units to help each other with resources. However, being able to share resources on characters like Azog and the White Warg, Gandalf and Shadowfax/Pippin, and Merry/Eowyn have proven themselves to be good investments, so being able to share resources between friends definitely has some utility.

Like we did with Erebor Reclaimed, your best-value of resources/stats for cost depends heavily on which resources/stats you value most:

• If you want to maximize Might, you still want to take Kili/Fili (25pts/Might point, runner up was Dori/Nori/Ori at 30pts/Might point);
• If you want to maximize on Fate, take Bifur/Bofur/Bombur (31.25pts/Fate point, runner up was Dori/Nori/Ori  and Kili/Fili with 25pts/Fate point);
• If you want to maximize on all resources, take Bifur/Bofur/Bombur (9pts/resource, narrowly edging out  Dori/Nori/Ori with 9.38pts/resource - but the lowest score as 11.25pts/resource, so this one is mostly in the noise) ;
• If you want to maximize on total Attacks, take Bifur/Bofur/Bombur (22.5pts/Attack, runners up were Dori/Nori/Ori  and Kili/Fili with 25pts/Attack - like I did with Erebor Reclaimed, I did assume that Dwalin was using Grasper & Keeper and that Gloin was engaged with two people); and
• If you want to maximize on total Fight Value, take  Kili/Fili (10pts/Fight Value - these guys narrowly edged out Bifur/Bofur/Bombur with 11.25pts/Fight Value and Dori/Nori/Ori with 11.54pts/Fight Value).

The interesting takeaway from this assessment (especially as it differs from the Erebor Reclaimed post) is that we see three of the pairings (the ones with the ~50pt guys) scoring better than those with the higher-scoring guys (Gloin and Dwalin). You can get Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur for an astoundingly low 385pts (or 500pts with Thorin and all his gear), so it's quite likely that you'll be able to fit in Gloin into most games (even if it means dropping one Dwarf from both of the triads). I think this also demonstrates (as I said above - and in the Erebor Reclaimed post) that Dwalin costs a little too much. If he lost 10pts, his group still wouldn't have beaten the three dominant ones, but he'd be fighting with Dwalin a bit more and would break the current ties in the Might/cost and FV/cost debates (and close the gap a little in the Attacks/cost discussion). Balin/Dwalin are already better in the Fate/cost debate and the all-resources/cost is basically a break-even for everyone (though Balin/Dwalin are the worst in that one).

Next, let's talk about Radagast. He has the Thorin's Company faction keyword, so he will benefit from:

• Thorin's Loyalty, Honor . . . special rule - the Stand Fast is probably unnecessary with Courage 3+ and a free Will point, but hey, a roll you don't have to make is better still! The rerolling 1s might matter - it's the only way to modify Sebastian's roll and it's always nice when a hero doesn't roll a 1 To Wound.
• Ori's Chronicler special rule - regaining resources on Radagast because he kills a hero/monster OR is near someone who's full-stat and near a hero/monster is definitely valuable.
• Oin's Healing Herbs/Reading the Portents - Healing Herbs is probably unnecessary when you also have Renew, but if Radagast casts Renew on himself and fails the cast, having Oin around gives you a "that's okay - we'll still be fine" moment, which can be incredibly good for your psyche. A banner-like reroll from Reading the Portents is fabulous - if you take this guy, you definitely want him contributing to the damage output of the team, and that starts with winning duels.
• Bofur's Steadfast special rule - immunity to retributive magical powers and special rules? Yes, please.

Radagast's spells are all useful, so here's a quick overview of how to understand them and what they do: 

• Panic Steed might be channelled and is best used to forcibly dismount those big smashy heroes who will absolutely obliterate your Dwarves. It can also be used to knock a mounted model who is racing away to score VPs off his horse (consider channelling it in this instance to make sure it works, even if your target can't resist it).
• Writhing Vines will probably be channelled due to its high casting difficulty, but is a great way to slow down an enemy who is trying to wrap around a flank or race to an objective. It does not work on spiders/flyers, but it will work against a lot of other things.
• Transfix/Nature's Wrath are your go-to spells and should be cast with your free Will point + 1 Will from your store. Use these to lock down a big enemy hero or knock a bunch of models prone so that they can be diced up more easily or so they can't reach an objective/scoring location that they want to be in.
• Finally, Terrifying Aura/Renew/Aura of Dismay are spells that are great to cast when you have absolutely nothing else to do on your free Will point on a turn. Do you need Terror? Sometimes, maybe. Does someone need a Wound restored? They might. Do you need to reduce enemy Courage near you by 1? Possibly - more so if Radagast/Gandalf have Terrifying Aura up than if it's "just because." These spells aren't worth spending resources besides your free Will point on, so don't bother fussing over a failed cast - that's fine, you need your resources for other things.

As we turn from Radagast to Gandalf, we see a very different story when it comes to his spells:

• Like Radagast, cast Terrifying Aura if you have nothing else to do, but only on your free Will point and don't sweat failing to cast it.
• Blinding Light/Protection of the Valar are worth casting with your free Will Point only - Blinding Light is best used against armies with a lot of shooting (if you have to be in the open, consider throwing 1 Will alongside the free one), while Protection of the Valar is best used for keeping someone important alive (Thorin by default, but this could also be a model that you are trying to keep alive in Fog of War/your opponent is trying to kill in Assassination). These spells may or may not be useful - but thankfully, you should know whether they are or not before the game begins.
• Strengthen Will is a nice way to restore previously-spent Will points, which is not as good as last edition, but still useful. This is best used on Balin, Oin, Gandalf, Radagast, and whoever-is-calling-March - but again, this should only be used with your free Will point (otherwise, the best you're doing is transferring Will from Gandalf to someone else . . . instead of creating a permanet Will point from an ephemeral free one).
• Transfix is the best non-channelled spell - use two dice to cast it and target someone that needs to stay where they are.
• Sorcerous Blast is best channelled with 1 Might/free Will to deal a S5 hit and force the model Prone/Knocked-Flying. This doesn't shove the model anymore, but it's still plenty useful (and will still knock everyone else Engaged in the same fight Prone, so don't underestimate using this to knock a BUNCH of people over who have charged one of your guys.
• Collapse Rocks is a S7 version of Blast if partially within a ruin/stone building/cave/rock pile/rocky terrain - if you happen to trigger these conditions, channel it instead of Blast.
• Foil Magic is HEAVILY situational since there aren't that many Exhaustion spells (Aura of Command, Aura of Dismay, Fog of Disarray, Fortify Spirit, Fury, Paralyse, Terrifying Aura). Besides Paralyze and Fortify Spirit, I'm not sure that any of these spells are necessarily worth channelling it, which makes the 5+ casting difficulty a huge limiting factor. I don't know that I'd plan to cast this, but know that you have it in your back pocket, should your opponent walk up with 3-4 Barrow-Wights . . . as this author has certainly never done in a tournament before. :P

Beyond this, I think it bears saying that when it comes to your Dwarves, speed is essential. If you left Gwaihir at home, then you have March and a TON of Will in your list, no matter what models you chose to bring. Use the Will points on different heroes who are all within 6" of each other (or have two groups that have multiple models within 6" of each other) so that you can spread out the resource drain and not leave anyone without a Will point. Get where you need to be, sit there, kill everyone who comes close, try not to die. It's a simple strategy, but it starts with getting there - and for that, you need speed!

Finally, focus on killing what you have to kill. Having a turn where you get a ton of Heroic Combats off can be really fun, but I wouldn't do it with any of your F4 heroes (use those F5-6 heroes instead). I'd use a turn where you get a bunch of Heroic Combats off to even the odds a bit, but you're going to want to play cagey at the beginning, relying on "shooting" from characters like Kili, sometimes Fili, Ori, Gandalf, and occasionally Radagast to mess with your opponent before he reaches you. Ideally you'll be able to avoid losing anyone to archery (Gandalf might need to restrain himself from offensive magic to help with this), but if you can clip a few models before you have to engage, dismount important models, and then slam into the enemy with 5+ F5+ models who all declare Heroic Combats and avoid big enemy heroes like the plague . . . I mean, I think you'll be okay.

Sample Lists

Our first list is a 500pt list that I think is really strong: it sports the cost-efficient Family Ties pairings (sans Bifur and Dori) and adds Thorin and Gloin to the mix - since we have 15pts extra, those who prefer Dwalin to Gloin can make the switch easily if they want to:

Scaling up to 650pts allows us to get the missing members from three of our four Family Ties sets - though again, if you prefer Dwalin/Balin to Oin/Gloin, you can make that switch in-place OR can run Dwalin with Oin . . . but I think the Family Ties are better with each other:

At 750pts, I've abandoned the Family Ties thing a little, taking Fili/Kili (because if you're taking one, you should probably have both), Balin on his own, Ori on his own (SHOCKER), and Bifur/Bofur/Bombur. This conveniently leaves us with 320pts left, which allows us to get Gandalf and Gwaihir - a 10-model army that has a surprising amount of play, I think:

I have one last list which operates . . . pretty differently. There's an argument to be made that "more is not better" in this list - and having characters that give you options to shutdown enemy models and tear through them with combat pieces is better than "spamming F4/D5 Dwarf heroes". As such, the last list I have is a 700pt list (yes, I'm putting this out AFTER my 750pt list) that features only 7 models: Thorin with Orcrist, Gandalf, Radagast without his sleigh, Gwaihir, and three very useful tactical heroes (Bofur, Bombur, and Balin):

Is this last list any good? I don't know. It's got two control pieces in Gandalf and Radagast, two good killing pieces with Gwaihir and Thorin, rerolls on priority with Balin, Will restoration from Bombur (and Gandalf), and protection for everyone except Gwaihir from a wide array of magical powers/special rules from Bofur. No March and the Dwarves probably have to stay together with Gandalf and possibly Radagast, but it would be a tough list to fight if you don't have lots of tools . . . don't know that you can handle a fast horde, though. You could try this at higher points levels, of course, but since you're only growing by 1 model/50pts, it's unlikely that having the points level rise is going to help you at all.

Conclusion

This list is really fun to use and I think the design team did a much better job of making this list look and feel better this edition than last edition. I think the interation between the Dwarves sharing resources (though I wouldn't have minded other special rules emerging if you took pairs as well) makes list building more interesting and I think this list rewards good players for using them well and gives you a LOT of interesting options for dealing with tricks on your opponent's side.

Next month, we're headed to the Elven realms and we're starting off with a list that has . . . more overlap with this list than Elves in it. :) At the request of one of our readers, we're tackling the Army of Lake-town - an "Elf list" because you probably wouldn't run it without the Elf inside it. Find out how this once-staple of the competitive SBG scene has changed next time - and until then, happy hobbying!