The New Age Is Begun: The Reclamation of Moria Army List

Good morning gamers,

This article is special for us here at TMAT as it's our first look at a Legacy army list - you can't run this list at an event that doesn't allow for Legacy profiles. The irony, of course, is that half of the heroes in this army list (and all of the warriors in this army list) are not Legacy profiles - and you could actually run a list very much like it using the Khazad-Dum army list that we looked at last time. Your army list bonuses would change, of course, but the profiles on the whole would be the same.

What makes this list different (and interesting) is that you have to take Balin in it - and the King Balin profile has been one of the best Dwarf hero profiles that we've had since it was first released. So let's see what happens when we get a "beater hero" who costs 60pts less than Durin, change a bunch of rules, add a bunch of hero options, and lose one warrior option, shall we?

The Reclamation of Moria: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

In the last edition of the game, the primary difference between the Kingdom of Khazad-Dum (with Durin and Mardin) and the Kingdom of Moria (with Balin, Floi, Gimli, Oin, and Ori) was the named heroes. Everything else was the same. In this edition of the game, we have all of the generic heroes from the Khazad-Dum list (King's Champions, Shieldbearers, Dwarf Kings, and Dwarf Captains), plus a few named heroes (King Balin, Champ-Ori, Champ-Oin, and Floi). Sans Gimli, this is the same hero corps we had last time.

Except we don't have ballistas in this list anymore. As for warriors, we basically have the same guys as last time, but we don't have Vault Warden Teams. If you liked these last edition, run them in Khazad-Dum (they're still very good). If you liked Dwarf Warriors, Dwarf Rangers, Iron Guard, or Khazad Guards, they're still available to you and they're very, VERY good.

Army List Bonuses

To start off with, there's no overlap between the army list bonuses from the Khazad-Dum faction and the Reclamation of Moria faction. This is good in that there isn't a Dominant (2) consideration to drive us towards the cheaper warriors/March heroes, but on the other hand makes us have to be a bit more intentional about what we need in units because . . . well, what we see is what we get.

The most generic rule of the army is that at the start of the Fight Phase, any of your heroes who would be considered Trapped can declare a Heroic Defense for free (even if they don't have it naturally). This is good, but what makes you "considered Trapped" is a bit of a difficult question to answer. This certainly applies to any hero who starts the Fight Phase Prone and it would also include any hero who starts the Fight Phase with two models that would need to make way for him. However, if a Dwarf hero has been charged by a cavalry model, he WILL be Prone and hence Trapped IF he loses . . . but he won't be Trapped if he wins. So . . . does any Dwarf hero who has been charged by a cavalry model get to declare a free Heroic Defense? I don't think so.

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #11: The Kingdom of Moria . . . and Friends?

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Merry Christmas to all! I hope you've been enjoying this series - it's always great when content creators from across the international community contribute to a project like this (and I feel very blessed that anyone out there who generates good content wants to even be involved with our work here)! Today's "Christmas list" comes to you from . . . me! I've hinted at this list several times this year and it has got to be one of the most FUN lists I've ever played - and it's a throw-back to the way I originally built my Kingdom of Moria lists for MESBG (which was actually the "Erebor" list in the LOTR SBG days). So stroll with me down memory lane as we look at the most awesome Dwarf list I ever made (while most of the posts in this series have been short . . . this article will only be short compared to some of my other work . . . and maybe Rythbyrt's article)!

Oh, and I'm going to cheat and provide multiple lists, but they nest together, okay?

The Evolution of a Crazy Impossible Alliance

It's no secret - I'm a huge fan of the Kingdom of Moria: the heroes are excellent (Balin, King's Champions, and Dwarf Kings are/can be all budget F6/D8+ combat heroes - and two of them give you Heroic March, which is always nice to have as an option), the warriors are excellent (their core troops are 9pts each with 1 piece of gear, while their elite units get stronger and more expensive), and as a whole, they're incredibly forgiving as a faction. You can also splurge on two plastic boxes of core troops (two boxes of Dwarf Warriors, two boxes of Dwarf Rangers, or a box of each like I did), the Balin/Floi pack, and a King's Champion pack (with an optional Dwarf King pack, if you can find it), and you can get started with the army quickly and easily.

No matter how competitive you want to be, this is a great starting foundation for MESBG - good, resilient heroes and solid, resilient troops. What more could you want . . . besides cavalry . . . and spears . . . and maybe some magic . . . yeah, there's some to be desired in this list, but hey, you gotta give something, right?

Like most new players to the game, I stuck to pure lists for a while - I mean, I was slowly collecting models and we were playing at low points levels, so allying just wasn't on my mind at the time. I allied Gandalf into some Wood Elf lists (before getting Galadriel), and I allied Legolas into everything (including Dwarf lists), but I eventually got around to looking at the profile for Radagast the Brown . . . and boy did I have a crazy idea. 

You see, back in the day, you were able to do "volley fire" with 10+ bows of the same type, so if you had 10 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows, you could shoot at targets that were within 18" normally and at models that were 18-36" away from you by hitting on a 6. The trick was, only one model in your army needed to be able to see the target . . . and Radagast could (and still can) "see" everyone thanks to the Master of Birds special rule. 

Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: The Kingdom of Moria in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

And they say Gimli wasn't in Moria...

Photo credit: Quora.com

Something something something BALIN!!!

So there's more to this list than just Balin, of course (FLOI!!!). But if you're opting for the Kingdom of Moria instead of a generic Khazad-Dum list, you're by definition opting for Balin (and his mates) instead of Durin (and his mate). As we'll discuss in the rest of this write-up, that's not a bad thing (Balin is good, and a couple of his mates are great). But that's the trade-off.

Having said that, apart from the changes to the hero suite (two subtractions, five additions) and alliance matrix (which is all Red), you don't lose really any of the options in Khazad-Dum... which means that if you came over here after reading our army summary of Khazad-Dum, you're going to see a lot of repetition. I've tried to front-load some of the differences to save you time... but as much as I love you guys, I wasn't going to re-write everything I've already rewritten.

Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!

Army Quick(ish) Hits

• Strength: A solid (though restricted) suite of heroes. Believe it or not, Moria actually has a better suite of heroes than Khazad-Dum does. Yes, your top-end talent is limited (Kingdom of Moria has no power-curve equivalent to Durin), but apart from Durin, the only other model you absolutely can't take is Mardin... and let's be honest, even most Khazad-Dum players weren't going to take Mardin unless the points level is very high. Every other hero, however, is on the table. Dwarf Captains provide that all-important Heroic March, which you will usually want because (a) dwarves move only 5" base, (b) this particular dwarf army has no cavalry options, and (c) Durin, unlike Balin, doesn't have access to Heroic March for some reason. At Fight 5, Strength 4, and Defense 7 base (8 with shield), they're also reliable tanks when they aren't pushing your army from place to place. If you'd like to double-down on your support role to get both speed and magic defense, Dwarf Kings have access to Heroic March and Heroic Resolve, with an extra point of Will (2/2/1 Heroic Stats), higher Fight (F6), and base Defense 8. Plus, with the errata, they're now Heroes of Valour, with the ability to bring up to 15 warriors (and ally with other yellow/red factions... which is all of them). The Dwarf Shieldbearer offers a way to buff your force's global courage in the absence of Bodyguard, while also offering a buff to some of your combat pieces with his ability to call free Heroic Combats sometimes (In Defense of the King). Last but not least, the King's Champion is one of the best generic heroes in the game, capable of slaying heroes or troops (F6, S5, 3 Attacks, and Heroic Strike with 2/1/1 Heroic Stats) or tanking something really nasty (2 Wounds, D7-9, and 1-5 Fate, depending on where his supporting Heralds are). Oh, and he comes with two heralds with two 3" banners included in his points cost, for fewer points than a Great Beast of Gorgoroth. Finally, Kingdom of Moria gets access to four additional heroes to help take the "sting" out of losing Durin (and Mardin): 

Dwarf Formations: The Tiberius King's Champion Specials

Good morning gamers,

I recently played with my "beared fellows" (Khazad-Dum Dwarves) at a 550-point tournament, and at it, I got to run one of my favorite formations: the "King's Champion Special." Or at least, I used a variant of one of my "KC-Special" formations. I've been running Khazad-Dum Dwarves since I got started in the game back in 2010 and I've been running the King's Champion for most of that time. While I am a huge fan of the core troops available to Khazad-Dum (Dwarf Warriors and Dwarf Rangers - the units you can get en masse in plastic), the three formations we're going to look at today are formations you can run that lean more heavily into the elite troops that Khazad-Dum has to offer. Why? Because there are few force multipliers that compare to the King's Champion. Let's see why that is.

Understanding the King's Champion "Model"

The King's Champion is a 140-point trio of models, containing the King's Champion himself and two "Heralds." Heralds are basically Dwarf Warriors with shields and banners (F4, D7, 1A, 1H, C4, with axe/shield/banner/Dwarf armor) and get +1 Strength (S4), +1 Will, +2 Fate, and special rules that boost their Defense when in base contact with each other or the King's Champion (up to Defense 9) and the ability for the King's Champion to use the Fate points of a Herald that is in base contact with him. Since a Dwarf Warrior costs 34 points with a banner and shield, it would be generous to say that they are valued at 35 points each (though the Will/Fate should make this closer to 50 points each).

IF you consider these guys to be 35-points in value, the King's Champion costs "only" 70 points (40 points if you bump up the cost of the Heralds to 50 points each) and has a stellar profile. With F6, S5, D7 (which can be up to D9 if in base contact with both Heralds), 3A, 2H, C5, 2M/1W/1F and Heroic Strike/Strength, he's basically a cheaper Dwarf King with better Strength and Attacks, potentially better Defense, and lower Courage and Will (and a different set of heroic actions - both sets are quite useful). With at least one banner at his back, the King's Champion will be rolling an absurd number of dice to win the fight (as will friendly models around him).

The King's Champion set of models is one of the best values for points in the game and the low Will and low movement (no mount) are really the only things detracting from the profile (3 Might would be welcome too, but I can't think of any generic, non-monster heroes that have 3 Might). As far as generic heroes go, this is about the best you can get and for Khazad-Dum, he's commonly viewed as a staple before the likes of Durin or Balin. Paired with a hero who can March him around (Dwarf Kings, Dwarf Captains, or Balin), he's a force to be reckoned with. But with 10 warrior slots in this Hero of Fortitude's warband (since the Heralds take up two of the twelve slots), what do you bring alongside this guy to get the most out of him? Well, let's take a look at a few of them, shall we?

Last Month on TMAT (November 2019)

November was full of other-life stuff (with personal travel for all of us), but we still got some content up! With our series on shooting continuing and a few workbench updates, there's a mixture of hobbying and tactics if you need to catch up!

Case Study: Dwarf Archery Tactica, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today we get to do a deep-dive into my beloved bearded fellows – the Dwarves of Moria! This post revisits a post I did back in August 2014 (and a post we did back in April 2011), where I talked about my Dwarves and the strategy for using them. Today, we’ll be using them as a case study to recap what we’ve talked about in the previous two posts in this series (one on shooting in SBG, one on using throwing weapons).

Dwarves of Khazad-Dum/Moria: Why Skirmish?

A few of the armies we looked at in the previous post don’t have access to spears at all – Rohan has throwing spears but not normal spears. Among those armies that don’t (really) have spears are the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum (Sharkey's Rogues is another one). Yes, if you get 1 Vault Warden team for each 1 archer you bring along, you’ll have a “traditional shield-wall” complete with spears, but that’s not only very expensive to actually acquire, but also very one-dimensional. And perhaps that’s not a bad thing.

Where the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum thrive is in their flexibility: while the Army of Erebor list is almost strictly melee in nature, the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum have many shooting choices that allow them to skirmish with their opponents very well. With ballista to force your opponent to move towards your ranks, two kinds of bowmen to lay down medium-range fire, and two options for throwing weapons (besides several hero choices), the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum are a surprisingly good shooting army.

While most of the units I’ll be highlighting in this post are Dwarf Warriors and Dwarf Rangers, I will say that the three more dominant choices of units (Khazad Guards, Vault Wardens, and Iron Guard) are solid elite warrior options. While Iron Guard will show up near the end of this post, I’m not going to talk about Khazad Guards or Vault Wardens except to say that they make great anvils for the rest of your armies. Dwarves are tough to kill – and this is especially true of Khazad Guards and Vault Wardens, so including some of these can help you bog down some of the enemy’s assault force while you harass the flanks (or come crashing through a part of the battle line that’s been softened by archery during the advance).