A Noob’s Perspective: Army of Thror

I’ll preface this by saying I won’t talk much about the heroes of this army here as I just wrote about them in my last article. You can find it here if you’d like to have a read. 

The Army of Thror is the smallest of the dwarven armies in terms of units available. With only 7 heroes and 2 troop selections this is much more limited than Khazad-Dum’s vast selection of specialist troops and the Iron Hills’ small but very varied options. It is also a fairly one dimensional army, with no cavalry and basically no shooting. So why play this army? Well, in my opinion, the models are amongst the nicest looking in the game. The heroes are amazing (especially Thror) and the Grim Hammers are beautifully dynamic. And they are all plastic! Winner. There are also a lot of appealing points in terms of gameplay. Everything is F4 or better and everything is D7 or better (I’m assuming you give your warriors shields because why would you not?). And yet your base troops are just 9 points (with a shield). This means that you have an army that has elite stats AND numbers to back it up. This is a rare combination indeed. So let’s have a look at a couple of lists, one pure list and one with some allies to try and add a few more tricks to our arsenal. (By the way, I’ve been traditionally building lists at 700 points in this series but the only two tournaments I currently have booked in for next year are 600 points so I’m going to go for that level today). 

Thror

15 Guardians of the King

Thorin with the Oakenshield

7 Warriors of Erebor with Spears and Shields

Captain of Erebor with Shield

6 Warriors of Erebor with Spears and Shields

600 points, 31 Models, 8 Might

Even after building several iterations of this list I still can’t quite believe you can get this much stuff at 600 points. We have a line of F4 S4 D7 troops, backed up by 2 big heroes and a captain for March. The troops can go two handed when they need to, and they can Piercing Strike too. Perfect for smashing through the enemy lines. Usually for the kind of stats we are talking about here you really hurt for numbers, but we have 31 models, and almost half the army has throwing axes! Insane! I won’t dwell on the heroes too much as I talked about them in a previous article, but they are really good, able to anchor the line in place and dish out some hurt when needed. 

Next up, we have an AoT and Iron Hills Green Alliance, which aims to try and make the list a bit more well rounded. 

Thror

12 Guardians of the King

Dain on Pig

8 Iron Hills dwarves with Shields and Spears 

3 Iron Hills dwarves with Crossbows and Spears

2 Goat Riders

599 points, 27 Models, 6 Might

Now at first this looks like a straight downgrade from the previous list (and to be fair it might be). It has only 2 heroes, not 3, fewer models, less Might, and no access to March (edit: turns out Dain has March so forget that one!). What it provides instead, is a bit of shooting, a bit of cavalry and one of the best combat heroes in the game. I should mention straight away that this is a list I am building towards, so while it might actually be better to include a few more crossbows and goats, I’m trying to keep costs down (which is fairly laughable when it comes to IH but still). 

When comparing Warriors of Erebor against Iron Hills dwarves (both with spears and shields) there is really only one winner. For an extra 2 points you get +1S and Shieldwall. These are both very valuable upgrades to have as it means your front rank can go two handed and still be backed up by a S4 attack, and should that front rank fall then your support is even tougher to take down. It is slightly awkward in this list that the back rank has higher D than the front but no list is perfect. A few crossbows give you the chance to snipe some horses before the lines clash, and they have spears for when things get messy. The goats are mostly to grab objectives but on the charge they are pretty mean. A chance to knock the enemy down before the combat begins is massive, though not something to be relied upon. 

The really valuable inclusion is Dain. He is just a monster. F6 S5 D8 with 4 attacks on the charge. Wowzers. Oh, and he has a two handed weapon and is burly. He’s literally wounding Smaug on 5s! The introduction of a mounted hero is very valuable as the Army of Thror doesn’t have access to any. Finally, Dain’s army bonus gives him Master Of Battle 4+ which helps to offset the lack of Might in the list. 

Clearly this second list has more tricks but I’m not sure it’s any better than the first list. This is all theorycrafting so I’ll have to try them both out before I can make a proper judgement. 

Stupid Bonus List: Dwarf Allstars

Thror
Thrain
Young Thorin with the Oakenshield
Young Dwalin
Dain on Pig
Jeff (Warrior of Erebor with Spear and Shield)

600 Points, 6 Models, 14 Might

Don’t run this, it’s bad. 

Overall, I’m a fan of Army of Thror. It is quite limited, which is usually a turn off for me, but what it does have is everything I love. Lovely looking and impactful heroes, troops clad in lots of armour, and decent allies for variety. I have decided to make them my second Good army and have recently acquired Thror, Thrain and a box of Grim Hammers. I’ll be putting in a large order to Forge World in the new year (my poor wallet) too so that I can try out a few different combos. If you have any advice then please get in touch!