500 Under 50: Kingdom of Moria

I sat down to write this knowing not a great deal about our stubby legged friends. I knew they were high defence, I knew they only moved 5”, and I knew they lacked spears on their basic warriors.

From the lists I've seen people take to tournaments, there seems to be a running theme of Kings Champion and Vault Warden teams... But sadly, adding those to our army in this case will bump the cost up too much, since a single Warden Team will set you back a tenner!

These are some pricey boys

So, anyway, what have we got as a list?

Balin the Dwarf, King of Moria

4x Dwarf Warriors with Shields

4x Dwarf Warriors with Two-Handed Axes

1x Dwarf Warrior with Banner and Shield

Floi Stonehand

8x Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf Bows

Dwarf Captain with Shield

4x Dwarf Warriors with Shields

4x Dwarf Warriors with Two-Handed Axes

Points: 499

To buy this list and get it on the table you will need:

1 box of Dwarf Warriors: £26 for 24 models.

Dwarf Commanders Pack: £24 for 4 models (Banner, Captain, Shieldbearer, Warhorn)

Balin, King of Moria and Floi Stonehand: £15 for the pair.

Cost: £65

Okay, so lets have a look at the nonsense my “knows nothing about dwarves” head put together.

Balin is your leader, and he's boasting a solid stat line, F6 with Heroic Strike, he can swing with the best of them, but having Durin's Axe, he won't suffer a -1 for fighting two-handed, and to top it off, he gets to reroll a die when making the duel roll! S4 with +1 to wound, and a further +1 if you piercing strike and 2 rerolls if the banner is knocking about? Next you'll be telling me he gets to reroll 1's to wound for his army bonus! Oh, he does?!?! Yes please!! Being a Dwarf, you'll have to get used to a 5” movement, but Balin can spend Will to reroll priority, so this should help offset that a little.

Floi Stonehand is our other named hero, whilst not much of a fighter, he has a fantastic rule allowing him to shut off an enemy model's Active or Passive rules, or the effects of a piece of Wargear at the cost of 1 Will point, as long as he has line of sight to them. Things like “This hero counts as a banner...” or even more obscure rules, like a Chariot Charge can all be shut off with this, so it's worth having a read through the Army books to get a scope of what you can do with it (also check the FAQs as about 90% of them are about him!)

Your final hero here is a simple Dwarf Captain, he has access to Heroic March, like pretty much every generic captain, so you'll be able to use his Might to let your dwarves cover distance quickly, rather than using Balin’s. He's no slouch in combat though, and he'll be able to stand his own against any lower level hero, especially since he's sitting pretty at Defence 8 with his shield!

Onto the more mundane, yet still good aspect of the list, the Warriors.

In the interest of cost, like all of the 500 under 50 articles, we've just used one box of Dwarf Warriors, you get 8 Warriors with Shields, 8 with Two Handed Axes and 8 with bows.

They're solid all rounders, an above average Fight Value for their cost, sitting at F4, they also have Dwarf Armour, so D6, with the option of a shield. Whilst they only have a Strength of 3, having access to the Two Handed axes will let you get past it a bit, just don't forget that you're not burly, so you'll be eating a -1 to your duel with the Two-Handers.

I'll be honest, the bows aren't the best. But, no point in wasting them, since they come in the box, so they're in the list. You're hitting on 4's, providing you don't move, and even then you're at less range than a regular bow. Still, you have models you can sit on objectives and you won't have to sacrifice your main fighters to do so, or you can just stick them into the fight, since they still have their axes.

You'll want to keep as much stuff near your banner, like always, to let you really throw about your F4 against lesser infantry, and if your opponent has a Banner, be sure to use Floi to shut it off. You're going to want to get in to the fight, and win anything you can, break them down, and get your archers on objectives... Just have to get used to the stubby legs!