Armies of Middle Earth SBG: Iron Hills Goat Riders (Profile and Basic Tactics)

Photo Credit: Sepulcher of Heroes

There are many stunning models in Forge World’s Iron Hills range, and yet the Iron Hills Goat Riders still manage to stand out. They’re not cheap (either in points or real money), but your investment is rewarded in-game. With a beefy stat-line, an 8” move, heavy armor on rider and steed, and a Strength 4 lance (okay, War Spear), they are a versatile and invaluable part of any dwarf army (and can be fielded in two: the Iron Hills and Erebor Reclaimed).

Below the jump, we’ll jump into their profile (including their signature special ability, Devastating Charge) and look at why they prove so dangerous (and resilient) on the table-top, as well as some basic tactics for when to commit your Goat Riders to the fray (and when you might want to rein them in). Plus, our signature series maths!

A Pocket Full Of Power, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

A long time ago (almost seven years ago now), I put up a post on different allied contingents you could get from the White Council to add to a traditional force in order to compensate for weaknesses or just include some White Council characters into an existing army (in that case, I looked at Minas Tirith, though in the comments I noted that you’d get a more thematic feel from Rivendell or Mirkwood). Today, we’re coming back to this idea of allies from a slightly different tact:

Given the historical/convenient army restrictions of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, what are some heroes/warbands you can ally into your army that would compensate for some key weaknesses without being an overly-large burden on points?

We’ll be going beyond the White Council today, but I’d very much like to hear the allies you like to use. The requirements I’m providing for this post are that they can’t be more than half of your army’s point value (we’re playing 700-pts right now on TMAT, so for me that’s 350). I will note that the Forces of Evil will not show up prominently here, since most evil armies are Impossible Allies with each other (and so you suffer a LOT by spending points on models that won’t be able to call heroic actions/Stand Fasts that affect models from another contingent). That said, you will see some evil models here, though they may not trait as high as you want. Without further ado, here we go:

Workbench Update: Minas Tirith

Recently, I put up a post (two, really) on Minas Tirith armies that I liked that centered around Gandalf the White. Today, it's show and tell for Minas Tirith, with painting, basing, and conversions to show for all our work.

Painting

Not much to say here - pictures will show more below. I will note that in all my previous armies, I've adapted my painting scheme so that no two models were alike. If you have 48 Moria Goblin Warriors, for example, you could paint up all 48 to be exactly the same. From what I hear, this is a slog and a real psychological hurdle. For me, I do the following:

• 2 colors of Goblin skin: Green, Gray
• 3 colors of Goblin tunics: Red, Orange, Brown
• 2 styles of armor: Black (with metallic highlighting), Metallic
• 2 styles of weapons: Black (with metallic highlighting), Metallic
• 2 colors of sandals: Brown, Black

With this method, I can make a grid that has 48 total combinations, making all the Goblins look different (but keeping a united color pallet). Minas Tirith, however, works differently: all the Warriors of Minas Tirith will need to have the same brilliant metal shine and their weaponry will want to look uniform too. To accommodate this, I took a leaf out of my Uruk-Hai book, where I focused on highlighting details (hand prints - took a long time to do) on my models and adding blood/gore to some of their weapons. This still kept all the models looking unique while keeping a very uniform appearance. For Minas Tirith, I made small differences - gold hilts vs. black hilts, brown boots vs. black boots, and various different hair colors (brown, black, yellow, gray, white - a trick I did with my Dwarves too). Where I got stuck were the swords, because I decided to do brown spears/bows vs. black spears/bows - so I used a little plastic cutting and gluing to change the poses of the swords (which was easy, considering the wholesale changes I made to my Numenoreans a little while ago).

Armies of Middle Earth SBG: Iron Hills Dwarves (Profile, Wargear, and Basic Tactics)

Photo Credit: Wargameterrain

Iron Hills Dwarves are a personal favorite of mine. Beyond their aesthetics (which are stunning in Forge World resin), they boast very good statlines and a host of customization options and special rules for function and theme (or both). They can also be fielded in two separate army lists—The Iron Hills and Erebor Reclaimed—which offer loads more thematic material in addition to many capable heroes, including some of the fiercest and most resilient combat heroes in all of Middle Earth. Wherever they are found, Iron Hills dwarves are second to none when it comes to stubbornness and staying power.

We discussed the big-picture strengths and weaknesses of Iron Hills dwarves in our summary of the Armies of the Iron Hills and Erebor Reclaimed, but if you finished that unsatisfied and craving more, this is for you. In this detailed expose, we’ll spend far too much time breaking down the profile of Iron Hills Dwarves, running through their basic combat probabilities, and exploring how we can customize their wargear options to mitigate some of the weaknesses common to dwarves, or to further augment their prowess in combat.

(Combat Stats, Tactics, and Maths ahead...)

{7th Edition} Armies of Middle Earth: Iron Hills and Erebor Reclaimed in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

Du Bekar!!! (Or something like that)

Updated: Seventh Edition (October 2025)

In the lore of Middle Earth, there are dwarves, and then there are the dwarves of the Iron Hills. Founded by Gror, the brother of Thror, the arrival of the Iron Hills have tipped the balance of many fateful battles: at Azanulbizar, routing the orcs when a young Dain Ironfoot slew Azog before the gates of Moria; at Erebor, when they stood against the forces of Bolg in the Battle of the Five Armies; and in the North, when they resisted Sauron in the War of the Ring.

In the Seventh Edition of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, the Iron Hills dwarves remain the pinnacle of dwarven military power and ingenuity. Their heroes have undergone some significant revisions (some improvements, some lateral, and some head-scratching), but their warriors remain both resilient and deadly fighters in close-combat; and their cavalry, crossbows and war machines still pose a threat to enemies who doubt the reach of their “stubby little legs.” In stubbornness and staying power, they are second to none.