A Noob's Perspective: Thorin's Company

Dan: Thorin's Company is one of the unusual all-hero rosters. We decided to do this slightly differently as there isn't a huge amount to talk about apart from just discussing the special rules of each dwarf in turn. This would be boring for everyone (just go read the rulebook!) so instead we decided to have 3 of us each make a 500 point list in secret and talk about why we chose that list. We promise we did not confer at all no one had any influence on anyone else's list. Also, for reference, here is a picture of the dwarves as I never know which one is which!

Dave's List:

Thorin Oakensield with Orcrist and The Oakenshield

Dwalin (The combat one)

Gloin (The other combat one)

Nori (The other Burly one)

Kili (Twin 1)

Fili (Twin 2)

Bofur (The steadfast one)

Dave: This was my take on a 500 point list of Thorin's Company. The obvious thing straight away is that I have forgone Gandalf, as I don't really think it's worth 1/5 of the list, but then again, the extent of my knowledge of Magical Powers in this game doesn't often stretch past Channelled Fury...

So who have I take then? Well, thankfully, the list is small enough that I'll be able to talk a bit about each of my picks!

Thorin is the obvious choice, not just as it's his name sake warband, and the nice rule along with it,  but with an impressive Fight Value and 3's in all the right places, he makes a potent combat piece, his average strength of 4 may be a problem for fighting the higher defences, but thankfully, access to Heroic Strength can help to over come it. I've kitted him out with Orcrist and the Oakenshield, both for added flavour and some nice boosts, Orcrist being a Bane Weapon is very handy in some match ups, and the chance of causing Terror can't be passed up too. However, if nothing else, the Elven Made aspect of it is enough to suit me, especially at F6, since you'll be expecting some other heroes around that level. The Oakenshield is a nice little upgrade to, letting you still attack even when you're on the back foot.

Let's get into the good stuff now, Dwalin and Gloin;

Dwalin is an absolute monster! He's got an impressive strength of 5, and a Two Handed Hammer, with Burly! And if that wasn't enough, he's still rocking 3 Attacks, with 2 points of Might, and he's Fearless, whilst, not huge since, as a whole the whole company have decent Courage, it's nice to have. If you want to win a game and be able to kill your opponent, this guy looks like an Auto pick to me.

Gloin might be less obvious a choice, but continuing the theme of 3 Attacks, he checks in as the third nice damage dealer. His Might, Will and Fate isn't as impressive as Throin or Dwalin, but 3 Attacks, with axes, so he can Piercing Strike to go up to Strength 5 if you're feeling brave, he should be potent in a fight. He's also the first inclusion of a ranged weapon in this list, in the form of some Throwing Axes, not list breaking, but a nice bonus.

Nori is a nice pick, as he's armed with a Two-Handed Mace, and never suffered -1 to his Duel, so he's like a mini Dwalin; He's dropped an Attack and a Might point, and sadly only has regular armour and not the fancy Dwarf Armour, but is also nearly half the points. Don't really know what else to say about him, he's not going to go toe to toe with your opponents Leader, but he'll give any captain a run for their money.

Kili and Fili are incredibly similar, so I'll go through them both now. Their stats are the same as each others, and akin to Nori. They have a nice rule where they can swap places with each other if they're base to bases, and it doesn't count as moving, so pretty handy for getting one out of combat if they're running out of steam. They both have a ranged weapon, with Kili bringing a Bow into the list, though I think all that adds is false hope that it'll be effective.

And that takes us to our last Dwarf, James Nesbitt... I mean, Bofur! I'll admit, I have a soft spot for him, but I think he's worth having for the last Dwarf. He's hitting with a Mattock, so he posses some degree of versatility, but again, like the last few picks, he's bringing a similar stat line to the weaker dwarves in the list, but sadly only get's to F4, the lowest in this list, but he can ignore magic on a 2+, so when the whole list gets Transfixed or Immobilised, he'll be the hero we all need ;D

Dan's List:

Gandalf

Bilbo with The One Ring

Bifur (The one with the axe in his head)

Bombur (The fat one)

Ori (The slingshot one)

Dwalin (The combat one)

Oin (The reroll one)

Dan: When coming up with my version of “Thorin’s Company” I had to actually read all the special rules for each dwarf and then make a little spreadsheet to compare their stats (I know, I’m that sad). As you can probably tell from other articles, I’m a big fan of synergy so that was mainly what I was looking for. With that in mind, the combo of Oin handing out rerolls and Bombur refreshing his Will immediately jumped out so I wanted to take those 2 straight away. Bifur and Ori’s special rules also jumped out at me. Possible free heroic moves and shots that auto wound on 6s to hit? Yes please! Bifur is also the only one with a spear. It seems unlikely that I’ll be doing much supporting but you never know. Also Ori can give back a point of Might, Will or Fate if someone nearby kills a hero. Again, this is situational but a nice bonus if it comes off. I also knew that I definitely wanted Bilbo in there as the Ringbearer is a great way to deal with enemy heroes by halving their fight value. So these 5 are 235 points between them with no upgrades. I did briefly flirt with putting them all on ponies but then found out ponies don’t give cavalry bonuses so forget that! I’ll deal with the 3” fewer movement and use those points to buy a scarier dwarf. 

Speaking of which, the elephant in the room, there is no Thorin in my company. I had him in for a while but then I started looking at Gandalf. Thorin is scary in combat but that’s all he really is. Everyone in the company is already above average in combat so I don’t really feel like I need to double down on that. Gandalf, on the other hand, adds some much needed utility to the list. He can protect (Blinding Light, Protection of the Valar), attack (Sorcerous Blast, Collapse Rocks), control (Immobilise, Command, Terrifying Aura) and most importantly Strengthen Will on Oin who can turn that into rerolls in combat. Since Gandalf gets a free point of Will every turn I can attempt this a lot with little consequence. Finally then, I do actually need a combat hero. I have 95 points left so obviously we’ll go with Dwalin who is an absolute machine. He adds some high Fight and Strength to the list which will be useful in cracking high defence. The way I imagine this list being used is by having Gandalf and Dwalin team up and then Bilbo, Bifur, Oin and Bombur be another team. Meanwhile Ori will stand back and snipe. All in all it’s probably terrible but it does look like fun! I can’t possibly imagine how it would beat a regular army but maybe there is a secret sauce somewhere!

Colm's List

Colm: There were a couple of things that I had clear in my mind before setting off on building a list:

• My collection currently consists of an Azog’s Legion and Dol Guldur alliance, so I wanted to think of a force I could take to a Good vs Evil tournament
• Gandalf is too expensive to include at 500 pts as he makes the low model count of Thorin’s company even lower
• I wanted to include Bilbo because hobbits are cool.

What I’ve come up with is the following:

Thorin Oakenshield w/ Orcrist, the Oakenshield, and Pony

Gloin (the other combat one)

Dori (the one that helps Bilbo)

Bilbo w/Sting, The One Ring, and Pony

Balin (the one that rerolls priority)

Bifur (the one with the axe in his head)

Ori (the slingshot one)

Oin (the reroll duels one)

This list can be split into two sections; the combat half (Thorin, Gloin, Dori, and Bilbo) and the support half (Balin, Bifur, Ori, and Oin). Combat-wise, Thorin and Gloin are very effective in combat with F6, access to Heroic Strike, high defence, and three attacks. Bilbo’s role in combat comes from his ability to wear The One Ring as halving the fight value of his opponent means that there’s
nothing that will beat the F6 of Thorin or Gloin when they’re in the same combat. He’s not the toughest combatant beyond that, but with support from his friends and three fate he can hopefully stick around long enough to get the job done. Dori is decent in combat, but doesn’t hit the highs of the other two dwarves. His ability to share his might, will, and fate with Bilbo is a nice bonus to keep the hobbit around if he’s being focussed on.

There are also some controlling aspects to this part of the list. Thorin is carrying Orcrist, which means he will cause terror to Orcs, Goblins, and Uruk-hai (not to mention the bane rule). This will be strong in the Good vs Evil format this list would compete in as these troop types will be common. There are also terror checks required to charge Bilbo whilst he’s wearing the ring. This will especially help to stop him getting paired off into a fight with a random trooper rather than joining Thorin where the action is.

The support half is there to help maintain the efficacy of the combat characters into the late-game. Bifur is able to call heroic moves for free once he has dislodged the axeblade in his noggin and save on might. This is admittedly not the easiest thing to do, but the payoff is so good it has to be worth a try. Ori is there to refill the might, will, and fate of the big hitters and add a little shooting into the force. Oin can heal the dwarves after they’ve been knocked about a bit, and can help them win a fight with his once per fight phase banner effect (I think access to rerolls is something that is sorely lacking in the army). Balin is there for his ability to reroll the priority dice as well as some magic defence via Heroic Resolve (Oin can also use this heroic action). Controlling priority is powerful in determining charges, but also offsets the slow pace of the army a little by letting them move towards objectives before the enemy. 

Other things that might be worthwhile considering is dropping a character to fit in more ponies to try and speed them all up a bit. I thought about adding in Bombur to refill the will of Balin and Oin, but he’s not the best fighter and his ability only works on a 4+ so I opted against it.

Dan: So there we have it! Three very different lists from the same small roster. This game never ceases to amaze me with the variety it offers. What is even more amazing is that not a single one of the Company is in all 3 of these lists! We promise we didn’t plan this and came up with our lists independently!

The 6 Company members that made it on to two lists come to about 450 points...could it be we have found an even better list between the three of us...?

I have put Thorin's company on my Christmas list this year so hopefully I will get to try some of these out in the new year! Let us know which of the three lists you like best and please share your own Thorin's Company lists with us too! Thanks for reading!