The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Iron Hills Dwarves

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Why Play Iron Hills Dwarves

Because you watched the extended edition of Battle of the five armies and loved every minute Dain and his Lads were on screen. but also because they are one of the toughest and most heavily armoured army in the game. Laugh as your opponent tries to wound your basic infantry with arrows. Hold the line against insurmountable odds as your dwarves form a shield wall defense, and bash every guys head in as if it was your birth right with Dain.

Pros

• Beautiful Forgeworld quality models.
• Very high defence for standard infantry, even more so with the shield wall rule.
• Access to cavalry, no other Dwarf list has this (aside from Thorin's company).
• "The old twirly whirlys"

Cons

• This army will eat up points fast.
• This army will eat up money fast. If you see someone using this army in the next tournament...FLY, YOU FOOLS!
• One named hero option (unless you bring allies). Múrin & Drár are now an option.

Army Bonus

"Ironfoot has come!" - In games where you roll for Reinforcements, you may modify your reinforcements rolls for warbands in this army list by +1 or -1. This also applies in games where you roll to see which part of the board your warbands deploy in, you may modify the dice roll by +1 or -1. Also Dain Ironfoot gains the Master of Battle (4+) ability.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Dain Ironfoot, Lord of the Iron Hills: He's your Boar riding, hammer smashing, headbutting madman. First off, anything within 12 inches of Dain and troops in his army automatically pass all courage tests. As if buffing your troops wasn't enough, when he charges he causes terror until the end of the turn. He even gets to headbutt his enemies if he failed to kill them, roll a D6 and if you get 5+ that unfortunate minion gets knocked to the ground, this is only for man sized units so no headbutting trolls, Balrogs or mumakil. Sadly Dain has one fault, once he's killed an enemy model and is in range to charge he has to do it, think of it like a domino effect, once one goes down everything near has to go down to, so be careful when you charge him because you may loose him to a big scrap for most of the game (this isn't entirely a bad thing since dain is good at killing and if he's in a big fight that means all his troops pass courage tests).

• Iron Hills Captain: Basic Captain, comes equipped with a spear and shield but can be exchanged for a Mattock for free. also can be upgraded to ride a goat. they have one neat trick that makes them fun. when an enemy model within 6 call a heroic action, roll a D6. on a 5+ the captain can call the same heroic action immediately without having to use a single point of might, annoying for your enemy, fun for you.

Troops

• Iron Hills Dwarf: These Dwarves are hard as nails, equipped with swords and shields you can give them a spear for supporting (which you will need to do unless you don't mind doing some weapon swaps), a banner to help others in duels or exchange the equipped weapons for a mattock for free which gives you a two handed weapon with the piercing strike and bash rule for you to choose from when in a duel. You have the option to give them crossbows to pick of a few enemies at range and maybe knock a few wounds of some tougher targets. These guys invented the Shield wall, each model becomes defence 8 making them very difficult to land a wound on with bows and in combat.

Cavalry

• Iron Hills Goat Rider: Fast, Hard hitting Cavalry. Useful for an army with Movement 5, they can exchange their war spear (which follows the rules as if it was a lance) for a mattock and can bring a banner. these guys can help you take objectives and ride down enemies with their special rule "Devastating charge" which Knocks models hit by them on a charge on a 5+. remember if your Dwarf gets knocked of his goat your dwarf doesn't have a shield so no D7.

• Iron Hills Chariot: This massive chariot is an absolute beast, It is almost the same points value of a troll and 10 Moria Goblins (without upgrades) is defiantly best saved for larger games. you have four dwarves on the chariot, one driving, one shooting and the two on either side. these guys can be targeted and killed but if you lose one someone else on the chariot can take their place, also any iron hills Dwarf may hop and become a part of the crew as long as they are in base contact with the chariot. The rapid fire bolt thrower can fire D6 shots per turn even if its moved or in combat, and it doesn't suffer the -1 to hit, but it only has a field of fire of 45% on its left and right.

Artillery

• Iron Hills Ballista: Your number one choice for making your opponent regret bringing bows. Powerful enough that its points got jacked up to 125. The ballista has the options on having an engineer captain and additional crew, it can also be upgraded to be a superior Construction. As for its special rules its first one is reliable which allows you to reroll 1's to hit and only has the shot scatter 3 instead of 6. Tremendous impact affects all the units 2 inches from your target, they are all affected with a strength 4 hit and are knocked to the ground (as long as they are a man-sized model or smaller). Cavalry models must tak a thrown rider test. The final special rule is of course "The Old Twirly Whirlies", first the ballista always counts as calling a heroic shoot without spending a single point of might. Now when the ballista fires and hits its target you need to draw a line in the middle of it and the target, your enemy cannot fire back with anything at strength 6 or lower if your units are within 3 of the line, if it's higher then you must roll a D6, If the resulting roll is a 5+ then the shooting attack is prevented. Watch out for powerful casters with Blinding Light, like Galadriel. One heroic channel of Blinding Light can make your 125 point model nearly useless.

Allies

Historical Allies

survivors of laketown: Though they are much squishier that your average troops they are slightly faster at moving than your Dwarfs and can bring bows which you can't bring in your list. Also you can bring two survivors of laketown for every dwarf that you could have brought, meaning you don't always have to be outnumbered when you bring these guys.

Thranduil's Halls: These guys are another option. You could bring a detachment of just Mirkwood ranchers led by legolas or Tauriel (or just a ranger captain), since they are best buddies in the ally matrix they get to keep their army bonus with means mirkwood rangers are excluded from the bow limit. However this is a much pricer ally than laketown as each mirkwood ranger is worth 14pts!

Army of Thror: Finally, your last best friend. The best thing for this is adding some more good heroes to your list. Thorin is a good choice for boosting the hitting power of your units. They're are also cheaper financially, bring a warband of grim hammers instead of your own dwarves with mattocks, they'll do the job better and you get 21 more models for just double the price of the 3 iron hills dwarves with mattocks.

Convenient Allies

Garrison of Dale:

Thorin's Company:

Rivendell:

Lothlorien:

Impossible Allies

Arnor

Rivendell

Lothlorien

Minas Tirith

The Dead of Dunharrow

Numenor

Rohan

The Kingdom of Khazad-Dum

The Fellowship

The Fiefdoms

The Shire

The Misty Mountains

The Wanderers in the Wild

Fangorn

Radagast's Alliance

The White Council

Army of Laketown

Erebor Reclaimed

Building your Army

Having all your models coming from forge world will burn a hole in your wallet fast. If you're a little more conscious about cash you should make a list of your army first and then only buy what you need in it. Of Course for some you may have a bigger budget but you should start things off slow don't just go buying two ballistas and three chariots all in one go. Start of by purchasing the Iron Hills Warband a unit of Mattocks or crossbows or both and go from there, after a few games you can build your army to your playstyle and how you can use the units you get more effectively.