Hey crew,

I've been tinkering with trying to get a dwarf list I like and I've mostly decided as much as love the idea of an Iron Hills list, the way my games go, Erebor Reclaimed is just a better base for dwarves. The cheaper leader in Thorin, with more free might from your army bonus and of course the banner effect, Du Bekar!

So I've been trying to build at 800. Got some events I'd like to go to eventually that will be 800 so here we are.

I've got Erebor reclaimed, allied with Survivors of Lake town allied.

Warband 1 18/18
Thorin, King Under the Mountain with War Goat
12 Iron Hills Dwarf with Shield; Spear
6 Iron Hills Dwarf with Crossbow

Warband 2 12/12
Dori, Champion of Erebor
8 Iron Hills Dwarf with Shield; Spear
4 Iron Hills Dwarf with Crossbow


Warband 1 9/15
Gandalf the Grey with Horse
3 Lake-town Militia with Bow
6 Lake-town Militia with Shield; Spear

42 models, 13 bows, 9 might, ect, ect

I am not 100% that Dori is the Co member who should be the second leader for Erebor, Dwalin could be worth a shout able to mount is huge, maybe Nori, or Fili or Kili? Gloin also is beast for a few more points.
Not sure if it is worth dropping a couple models to kit out troops with better gear, get spears for the crossbow dwarves, maybe more shields and spears for laketown.

I honestly think this general type of list is pretty solid though, you have a lot of tools to deal with most different types of armies and have a good go at almost any list. Gandalf rounds it out so well with blinding light to shaft any other army that wants to shoot, allowing you to dictate where fights happen, he also helps with bigger heroes and monsters, blast to dismount cavalry armies, ect.
The way you'd lose games is if people can force a fight onto your crossbows and or the Laketown survivors with your dwarves getting stuck at their slow walking speed trying to catch up but as long as you deploy well and play the objectives and you should have a good go in most games. Full fellbeasts would probably be pretty scarier too but I havent seen that a lot where I play and even still, other then elves it doesn't seem much worse then any other list into them.
Actually pretty worried about the Return of the King list too..

Thoughts? Experiences playing Erebor?

Edits,
Tweaked around the numbers a bit. Dropped two laketown milita to give my crossbows spears and spears and shields for the rest of the laketown guys as well as a couple dwarves for a goat rider and smoothing out the gear. 40 models now.

Warband 1 17/18
Thorin, King Under the Mountain with War Goat;
10 Iron Hills Dwarf with Shield; Spear;
6 Iron Hills Dwarf with Crossbow; Spear;
1 Iron Hills Goat Rider with War Spear;

Warband 2 12/12
Dori, Champion of Erebor
8 Iron Hills Dwarf with Shield; Spear;
4 Iron Hills Dwarf with Crossbow; Spear;

Warband 1 8/15
Gandalf the Grey with Horse;
3 Lake-town Militia with Bow; Spear;
3 Lake-town Militia with Shield; Spear;
2 Lake-town Militia with Shield;

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Cheers,

P

I would suggest you consider mounted Dwalin as he can potentially have 5 strength 5 attacks on the charge when mounted on the goat which isn't anything your opponent will want to ignore.

Yeah thats pretty nuts. On a goat though, he is about 45 points more then Dori i think? Which is quite a bit. Thats the whole warband of Laketown militia or a handful of dwarves. Nori, also, can go up to 5 dice to win a fight if he's within Du bekar range of Thorin and his weapon master reroll and he's only a few more points.
The reason I went with Dori initially is he is in that sweet spot where he's at 3 attacks but is the cheapest of the company dwarves that does, and I kinda think burly might be better then Nori's extra reroll.

Dwalin is obviously a beast though!

_________________
Cheers,

P

Tweak numbers and gear slightly

_________________
Cheers,

P

Seems yuck! Very strong lists. Iron hills + Thranduils halls and Iron hills + Lake town are popular here in Australia as competitive lists.

I saw folks talking about that. I really like the Gandalf pick up, though, I feel like most of the other lists grab Bard or Thranduil, which are great models but I am not sure they serve as important of a role as Gandalf. He serves a similar purpose as the balista for Iron hills but stays in allies. Forces enemies to fight on your terms, lets you combat monsters and big heroes, you can blast hordes, ect and best of all you get some extra troops tossed in. Although, the laketown militia are garbage, especially without Bard but an extra couple spear supports in there are and numbers to walk off the board or hold an objective is always good.
You end up with like 13 shots, not too shabby, and with blinding light up thats a decent come at me bro :p

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Cheers,

P

I feel like a list that can already bring Dain or Thorin, mounted either way or mounted bard isn't going to struggle in that department.

I love the inclusion of Gandalf as well, very powerful wizard, and strong defensive option in a very defensive army that wants the fight to come to it. I also love that you're using the reclaimed list, rather than Iron hills with the 2 big crutches that are their army bonus and Dain.

The appeal of Bard on Horse with the kitchen sink or Thranduil with his magic nonsense and some elite elf bros is that it brings something different to the table. A more aggressive hammer and anvil army rather than the super mega anvil that you've built yourself. Different styles, I guess, not better or worse, just different. You've really gone all out on making the enemy slog through the crossbow fire to fight ya, rather than looked for a counter punching answer. I like the list a lot. My only question is why Dori? I understand your earlier point about wanting a cheap and cheerful leader, rather than a gangster on a goat, but Nori gets strike, and basically lord of the west and the ability to shield for 5 more points, and Gloin for 15pts more speaks for himself!

Hmmm yeah, I just went with Dori since he was the cheapest 3 attack co member. I liked burly too but I usually write lists in army builder not looking at the book, so I more recently noticed Dori doesn't have strike, which is definitely a one or two strikes against him.
I am leaning towards Gloin a bit. Drop a dwarf and pick him up. I might lose a crossbow too then though :/
Nori is definitely a good shout but I kinda think he's over kill and I originally liked Dori cause he had burly. Three attacks is still super decent and he gets dubekar! so you can get up 4 dice, potentially.
In general though, I just really value troops, and so whenever possible I try to take cheaper heroes.

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Cheers,

P

I tweaked around a little to squeeze in Gloin, basically drop a dwarf, shift around, and after going over his profile again I am not sure how much better I think he is then Dori. Big thing is he is fight 6, which might be good enough to make him worth it on his own but other then that he has one more might, rerolls 1s. He also gets better heroics, so its definitely worth a look but I remembered him being more buff :/

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Cheers,

P

Why are you running that many warriors without a banner is my main question?

All friendly Erebor Dwarf models from this army list gain the DuBekâr! special rule.
Du Bekar therefore will on go to the Heroes. Not the warriors as they are still "Iron Hills" warriors and nothing that I'm familiar with changes up their affiliation like the Khazad to Moria keyword change due to Balin.


Thus only Thorin and whichever other Champions of Erebor will be all that has a banner due to Thorin/Army rule.

If I'm mistaken I apologize but as far as I can see nothing would change the keywords for the Iron Hills warriors. Checked both the Army book and the Errata/designer commentary and nothing changes it to my knowledge!

Oh interesting, I assumed they all would get it since they're in the Erebor list but yeah maybe not?


Uhg, yeah I guess so. Poked around on the GBHL page and that seems to be the consensus. The way that is worded seems shoddy at best and makes little to no themey sense to me honestly but alright. Like the only good scene in BOFA is where all the dwarves rally around Thorin's charge from the gate but yeah sure why not..

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Cheers,

P