[Archive] LOTR Dwarf Army

maxxev:

I have recently been painting these guys up as i’m curious about them game and had them lying around for years anyway, so here is my WIP WOTR army. 8 companies of Khaz guard, 4 dwarf with shields, 3 archers, and un-pictured (because of lack of any paint), 1 kings champion, 3 rangers with bows, 2 balistas and a giant eagle.

I have not the time or willingness to paint an army properly, so these are 6 colours (or less) over a black undercoat (scab red, gold, leather brown, silver, skin plus whatever colour beard) and then a black wash, nothing more.








Thorne:



Nice work bud a cool dwarf army for lotr looking good. Additionaly Oooooh where did girly dwarf come from in this picture ? shes just the one I had been looking for for a while ? Only having ever seen one before like it and shes awfully unusual.

maxxev:

Right here:

http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/pack.php?pack=954

Hashut’s Blessing:

VERY nice force. very nice indeed. What are the plans for expansion? Do you have very many WotR players near you?

Would you be interested in trading my Dwarf Archer Kinbands for any unwanted Dwarf Warrior Kinbands? (Or any other companies really, lol :stuck_out_tongue: )

maxxev:

lol, actually I have 2 dwarf archer companies that I probably wont be using myself… along with 2 ranger great weapon companies.

Hashut’s Blessing:

Have you traded everything else off/sold it all already then? I will admit to being VERY surprised to see that you have 8!!! companies of Khazad Guard! MOST impressive O.o

maxxev:

I have 2 companies of ranger bow men and 1 company of rangers that have been converted into ranger bow men, i’m holding onto the last ranger company in case I decide I want 4 companies of ranger bow men.

I also have kept 2 companies of great weapon warriors.

Thus the only minis I have left I don’t want are the ranger 2 handed weapon fellows.

I should note that quite a few of my archers and some of my warriors are metal ones do I don’t have an equal number of the model types (i.e. I don’t have 4 companies of warriors, archers and 2 handed weapon guys, I have 4,5 and 2 respectively).

Oh and I don’t currently have any plans to expand and there are only 2 WOTR players near me that I am aware of, but then I haven’t been looking at the moment. I’ve still yet to play one game.

I have 8 Khaz guard because someone I knew sold me 10 for £12, I bought an army of elves on eBay for £26 quid which had 15 guard in it, which I then sold on eBay again for £30… lol and I bought a few other lots on eBay with smaller amounts of guard in, in the end it added up to enough models to build 8 companies (with the 6 command models).

I have 11 Iron guard in the case too but no plans for them yet. If I enjoy the game I may push the axe warriors up to 6 strong, rangers to 4 then get 3 companies of ironguard sorted.

Hashut’s Blessing:

Well flipping done, sir :smiley: Well, if you don’t want those Iron Guard, let me know a price that you think is fair and p&p to England :smiley:

What bows did you use for the conversions? Were they easy or difficult? I’m trying to think of how to convert the rangers with great weapons in the case that I decide to buy/trade them with you (presuming you were interested, lol :stuck_out_tongue: ).

I’d also like to point out right now that I am somewhat strapped for cash, so even if your price is fair IMO, I may not be able to follow up on it: if you find someone to trade them off to other than me, do so :wink:

maxxev:

Hi, I’m not looking to trade anything off as yet, because as I’ve not actually played a game, I don’t really know what would be useful to me! lol, note postage to England wouldn’t be an issue because i’m in England :stuck_out_tongue: lol

The bows are just made from wire, I hacked off their axes , drilled through their hands then added a length of wire to each dwarf and slightly bent it into a bow shape, very easy for the most part, though a couple of the standard rangers are a bit tricky to convert. I don’t think the 2 handed weapon rangers would suit for that use otherwise I would have mixed in some of them to make the company more varied. Dwarves holding bows in two hands doesn’t work for me :).

Hashut’s Blessing:

I thought not :wink: I think you’ll find it will be a good decision to stick a character into any Khazad Guard formations you have because the -1 Fight can be a real pain. However, they will deal MASSIVE damage to anyone that attack. If you have a character with Epic Strike (I think. The one that makes your formation have F10), they will cream almost anything. They would go up to F10, then down to F9 because of their two-handed weapons, but the bonus is that this is even when the enemy are attacking. If you have a hero (epic or not), then their increased fight value only works when attacking, not when the enemy is.

I found that Dwarf Archer Kinbands are rather pathetic: the enemy has to be within 9" for you to shoot at normal strength, which is still just 2 and by that point, most things can likely charge. Dwarf Ranger Kindands are better in a shooting role because they have S2 bows at 12". Those extra three inches will help a lot, as will the extra few inches of S1 shots.

Dwarf Warrior Kindbands with Shields are incredibly tough and I can’t wait to get several companies of Vault Wardens. You may also wish to consider getting some cavalry. I’ve not yet used them, but I had the models (from ages ago), but the Rohirrim seem to be the best for this. Take Erkenbrand’s riders if you fancy a little extra punch. They can move full distance, shoot AND charge all in one turn and they are cavalry.

Those are the few tips that I have.

As for the postage thing: it was late/early and I saw it as the Stars and Stripes, not the Union Flag, lol :stuck_out_tongue:

You could always scuplt cloaks onto your archers to make them dwarf rangers, btw. Also, you can use the two-handed weapon rangers are captains and a few conversions could provide banner bearers and horn blowers too :wink:

maxxev:

I read a thorough article on WOTR on warseer and the guy was basically saying that there is no point in horn blowers for dwarves, basically "we already move slowly, just deal with it, 1 extra inch won’t make enough difference to be worth the points"

I plan on taking

4 Dwarves with axe and shields. Standard. Captain. Dain.

4 Khaz guard. Standard. Captain. Balin

4 Khaz guard. Standard. Captain. Gimli

3 Units dwarf archers (they are painted already)

3 units dwarf rangers with bows

1 Giant eagle

2 Balistas (I still need to get one more of these)

1 Kings champion

Not made my mind up yet about a favour, but with a favour (I WAS looking at desperate heroics, but may well change my mind) this is 2000 points.

Please note I don’t actually have the book at present as I wanted to paint everything first.

Hashut’s Blessing:

Well, I was more saying for making use of the models :wink: To be honest, the extra inch of movement brings them up to everybody else’s minimum speed and they need that to use any bows to best effect. However, what the guy has said about an inch of movement, that is the same with all armies. If they added one to your charge distance as well, they;d be worth it, but I don’t really think they are. As I said, I was more thinking of ways you could use them :wink:

You mean fortune, not favour :wink: I would recommend downgrading a captain to a shieldbearer (this is presuming that your list is 2,000 points, I’ve not yet checked) and taking Mithril Coat as a fortune and giving it to Dain. He’ll have a HUGE Resilience 5, more than ANYthing else. Only he and one other character have a resilience of 4 to begin with!

If possible, drop 15points and sculpt some cloaks onto the archers, upgrading them to be Dwarf rangers with bows. I figured that a change of giant eagle to ent will give you that (make an ent from sticks :wink: )and may actually be more useful to boot. For the other ballista, make one yourself and convert some two-handded rangers into crew :wink:

It looks strong, but it is still likely to get crushed by anyone with more than two or three averge units of cavalry (note that I said more lol). You’d be best off to concentrate fire on any cavalry and try to get the King’s Champion and the Giant Eagle/Ent into combat with them (preferably simultaneously).

EDIT: Quick calculation and, not including a favour, you have 100 points spare! You could use that to get the Mithril Coat and upgrade your warriors into Moria Expeditionaries and have 10 points left. Or you could take desperate heroics, upgrade to Moria Expeditionaries, upgrade the archers into rangers with bows and have 15 points left (if you have the space, may as well buy a hornblower, lol :stuck_out_tongue: Only thing that is 15 points :wink: )

maxxev:

I have exactly 1950 points according to the spreadsheet I’m using (without fortune)

4 warrior companies plus standard and captain: 245

3 archers: 105

3 rangers with bows: 120

4 Khaz guard with standard and captain: 285

4 Khaz guard with standard and captain: 285

2x Balista: 120

Kings champ: 175

Balin: 100

Gimli: 175

Dain: 200

Eagle: 140

I was going to take shield bearers but I didn’t want to have to convert more minis, I do have an Ent but a couple of people on Warseer said that eagles would be more useful to flank people due to their speed.

Moria expeditions would unbalance my Rare vs. Core ratio, plus my opponents are Rohan and Elves… lol

I was led to believe that Khaz guard can take a charge from Cav without worrying too much, and Balin has Epic defence (+2 Defence) so I think they should cope ok.

Giving the Mithril coat to Dain would be pretty cool, but wouldn’t it be better given to Gimli, to create 2 R4 characters?

Hashut’s Blessing:

Sorry, I did it quickly, in my head and was doing a myriad of other things too lol :stuck_out_tongue: You’re quite right :wink: Maybe I forgot to add in a captain somewhere, lol :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s fair enough about avoiding conversions, but I would say that an Ent is better: it takes less damage, has a higher strength and has throwing weapons. The main advantage of an eagle is that you can fly it over companies and do automatic hits, but I think the ent may be of more use and would give you an extra 15 points. However, it;s your list and I was going with my personal tastes :wink:

That’s a very good point and I didn’t bother to look at that, lol :smiley: No Evil armies of any kind? lol :stuck_out_tongue: With Elves, you need to be aware of the Terror causing side of things. With Rohan, they will have LOTS of cavalry, all of which can move full speed, shoot and charge in the same turn. Big ouchies :smiley:

They probably can take a charge, but the lowered fight value means the enemy is more likely to get extra attacks and you’re less likely to. Having said that, 4 companies in each with a character in each will be hard to beat :smiley:

You certainly could do that, but it’s finding the extra 25 points to do so. Unless you’re prepared to use a captain model as a shieldbearer, of course. I can’t recall how many points it is, but I like the Fortune that gives a normal hero +1F and +1C (Courage will be useful against elves and fight is always useful, unlike in Lord of the Rings).

Regardless, the best of luck :wink:

Kera foehunter:

wow nice dwarf army !! i always love the axes on lotr dwarfs