Dwarves of Erebor - 2000 pts

[Jind_Singh]

This is my current 2000 pt list - enjoy!

Fortuanes:

Inner Glory - 50 pts (An enemy unit auto-fails its terror test)
Desperate Heroics - 50 pts (Choose a hero, sacrifice his might so another hero within 12" regains all their might back)

Heros

Dain Ironfoot, King under the mountain - 200pts
Radagast the Brown - 160pts

Common

3 companies Dwarf Warrior Kinband - 120 pts [two-handed weapons]
- Captin 50pts
- Standard Bearer 35pts
- Hornblower 15 pts
3 companies Dwarf Ranger Kinband - 120 pts [two-handed weapons]
- Captin 50pts
- Hornblower 15 pts
3 companies Dwarf Ranger Kinband - 105pts [thrown weapons]
- Hornblower 15 pts
1 Dwarf Archer Kinband - 35pts
1 Dwarf Archer Kinband - 35pts
1 Dwarf Archer Kinband - 35pts

Rare

Iron Gaurd Ancients - 60 pts
- Captin 50pts
- Hornblower 15pts
Kings Champion - 175pts
Dwarf Ballista - 60pts
Dwarf Ballista - 60pts
Dwarf Ballista - 60pts

Legandary Formations

Murins Gaurd, 3 companines - 110pts + 120pts
Drars Hunters, 3 companies - 95pts + 105pts

The overall breakdown of my playstyle....

The 4 main columns of Dwarves are arranged so Murins Gaurd defends a flank (with the Iron Gaurd Ancients gaurding THEIR flank), doubel handers in the middle, rangers with thrown weapons on the other flank.

Balista & 2 archers at the rear (protect my warmachines from attack), 1 archer on flanks of rangers with thrown weapons.

Radagast helps me have some magic options, plus love his model, Dain is a killer, and my combo of the month....

Imagine this!!

Charge Balrog with one of my terror causing heros...Dain for eg

Balrog auto-fails his terror test, use heroic action to get fight 10, and issue challange.
Dain gets PLUS 11 to his die roll!
If that isnt enough to kill the Balrog then I can always declare epic rampage to stick in the boot!

Later on as Dain runs out of might, let a nearby captin sacrifce his might to replenish Dains might - off he goes again! Hurrah!

So far I have only played against Elves & Easterlings, Elves normally get beat down, Easterlings are more resiliant as they outnumber me 3-1!

Today I take on the might of Mordor for the 1st time, looking forward to it! I get to see the Balrog in action too, very excited!

[Master Toddius]

Just a couple things to consider:

1. In a formation the first company is always the command company. Unless you have the special rule "indominable" once that company gets down to 50% its considered destroyed. So if in one turn you take 4 wounds to an 8 man archer warband they're ALL dead, you remove the company. So its best to have a minimum of 2 companies per formation because it essentially gives you 4 more wounds then if they were single.

2. I would really take a look at Gimli's epic rage rules and reconsider taking him. Radagast the brown is amazing for his points, granted, but gimli can take out a formation ALL BY HIM SELF if you roll high enough. Its insane. And if you want to really make him nutz you add aragorn to the command company and now his epic rage needs usually only a 2 or better to hit...

3. I would also figure out a way to make 4 company formations of CC warriors, theres a possible balance issue there in my mind.

[jaws900]

1 - Combine your Arhcer sinto 1 formation (See Master of Toddius's post for why)
2 - Consider combineing your Balaistas. I can see why you might want to have them seprate but soemtimes consitrated fire is better. However consider who you are fighting before you do thins (They works far better together agaisnt larger forces rather than a few 2 company unit of elves)
3 - I would drop the Horn's. Yes horns maybe more important to dwarves than any other race but they are jsut not worth the poitns cost. not to mention 2 out of 3 of them have captains any way for At Double rolls. I'm fine with keeping them tho if it's to use up the last few points.
4 - Bye bye ancients. They will die in seconds if they are in the frount lines with only 1 formation. I'm not the best person my self. I take only 1 unit of Prowlers but i will often get them to hide in terrain and wait to attack exposed flanks along with the rest of my force (Dragon + flanking Prowelers = dean enemys)

[Jind_Singh]

archers do die -but since i dont count on them its never a big deal. their job is to sit right back and gaurd the balista most cases - or provide bait for the enemy! ancients - well i am looking to grab 8 more models soon, but the 1 tray is WEAK! they hide behind a combat unit and support charge as the game goes on
ideally i would like more ancients and khazad gaurd - 2 of each - and with 1-2 vault wardens

by the way, my kings champion killed a balrog (who only had 2 wounds) in...ONE GO!!!
he charged the balrog, used inner glory, and called a challenge and epic fight.
my fight 10, plus 1 for challanging, v's fight ZERO! i rolled a 6, he rolled a 1 to add insult to injury and i won the fight by 16!!!
BANG WHAM!!!
Oh yeah!
And a captin (with dain and dwarves with double handed weapons) burned might to stop a spell, opponet was so happy i was 'wasting might'. I then burned all of dains might to get fight 10, epic rampage, charge 1st, and issue challange. He was even happier - until my captin sacrificed his 1 remaining might and dain went back to FOUR might!
Dain and his boyz proceeded to butcher 8 trays of orcs, including killing the ring wraith in a challenge!
a grand, grand day for my dwarves - i actually felt bad for beating his so bad - i think fortuanes are way to good for this game - or at least too cheap for what they do!

[jaws900]

Fair enough. You really do know how to use those fate well (I might pinch that tactic).
On a little side note my 1 Knight Captain is far better than your Kings Champion. He faought a Dragon head on and tho he lost 3 knights he then used all his might to jsut wound the Dragon once but then on the kill table he rolled a 6 which ment i could roll again. He kept rollign 6's getting a total of 6 6's in a row killing it in 1 combat and all from just 1 strike and not duels!!!!!!!!
I am sooo glad i converted him all those years ago.

[Jind_Singh]

lol, good kill there!
As for the fortune combos - yeah this is something that has only entered my gameplay the last 2 weeks, up to now we've all been so focused on using horde armies, our heros are used for 3 things...

1) At the double
2) Magic
3) Whatever special rules a named character has (Gimlis Epic rampage for eg)

And thats pretty much it! But reading the book over the last month made me realize that theres so much to War than just the fighting units - heros can and really do add another level! Even just the basic actions a basic hero can pull off, they can change the entire way a game goes.
That game v's Mordor, my Dain called some epic action that allowed him to charge 1st (As I had lost priority roll that turn) What I didnt know was if he won he got to move and fight AGAIN! IF I knew he would have flank charged this juciy unit and destroyed them too - but we didn't see this till afterwards, and besides if I had done it the other dude would have been...not happy!
In other ways though I also felt bad for the level of thrasing I gave the Mordor orcs as I felt like a proper cheese monkey - i didnt realize that dwarves were such tough buggers! my regular opponet plays elves so for the most parts I have to play pretty hard just to pull draws off, the amount of shots the elves fire off kills even the most determined dwarven warriors, and their spells are orrible!
So then my battle hardened warriors gaced this poor guys mordor - who he hasnt had many games with - and it was like beating small kids with Hulk Hogan!
I think next time I see him I will have to drop the fortuanes!

[jaws900]

i think i need to start panicking as i play MM and fallen realms so i'm goign to have my work cut out for me.

[Jind_Singh]

I think the trick with the evil armies is....HORDE! My mate plays the fallen realms (which I feel are not as good as MM) and he is a tough cookie to beat. His massive horde means that I exhaust my army fighting his 1st wave (brought in with wings of terror by 3 ring wraiths)
While I am busy destroying his 1st wave - which is normally just a bit bigger than my entire army) he falls back with his ring wraiths to bring up his second wave of troops - by which time most of my formations are down to the last company - you just cant beat the guy! I cant even single him out with bolt throwers as theres normally at least a mumak or some chariots to give me food for thought!
Horde it out Jaws900, and you'll be fine!!
Oh - and half trolls - those suckers are buggers, espec with the wraith who can deflect hits back on a 5+!

[jaws900]

but Khamal can't join half trolls as they have Imdomable (Dam my spelling) and Khamals abilty only works on his own unit (Tho he can refect any hits to ANY unti within 12")

[Jind_Singh]

Indomitable - Only the most determined or crazed warriors fight on to the last man. A company with this special rule is not removed once it reaches half strength, but will fight on until the models are removed.

This allows Epic heros to join them - the rule your thinking about is called "We stand alone" such as ghosts, Valut Wardens - those guys cant have anyone join them.

Bascially Ring Wraiths (if used well) can be really dirty fighters - which is good as they should be.
I'm not sure why Mordor would have too many issues dealing with Dwarves - having read through their book they have lots of potential combos they could use, not to mention some of the strongest artillary pieces in the game!!!

[jaws900]

you are right. My brian suffered from a malfuntion but i'm better now. DONKEYS ARE ALIANS! DONKEYS ARE ALIANS!

Enought with the witty jokes(Or lame by my standards) and back on topic. I often use the Nazgul alot especially Khamal and the Betrayer. Khamal works really well in my 1500pts MM army along with a Morodor Troll and 4 units of Orcs with Two-haned weapons as the allys.

[Jind_Singh]

WARNING! I re-read the fortuanes and fates section and it turns out you need a 2001 pt army to get 2 fortuanes/fates, therefore the list I have is illegal as it contains 2 fortuanes

Khamal is one of the better wraiths for sure!

It's strange, I ran a poll on the general thread to get people to vote for the top tier armies and dwarves were right up there - tied elves for 1st place!
kind of sad as it means im stuck with a beardy (literally and gamewise) army now!
Im moving my good army choice over to Gondor - they got ZERO votes!

[jaws900]

its more fun to play and army that no one else plays.
I had voted for MM as i am a MM player so i had to really (I love my Dragon ^-^)

[Jind_Singh]

Now THERES a game I would sell a few models to see - My dwarves v's the Misty Mountains! MM have so much going for them, I think I can see why the dwarves lost their precious & hallowed halls to the gobblin scum!

[jaws900]

don't you mean the glory of dragons.