A Noob's Perspective - The Kingdom of Khazad-Dûm

Steve: Ah Khazad-Dûm, the OG dwarves of MESBG. So OG in fact that the first model released for them was already dead in a tomb and his buddy Ori alongside him. I'm actually starting work on a Khazad army myself so now felt the right time to delve into one of our Noob's Perspectives on one of the greatest dwarven kingoms in Middle-Earth...and one not so great. So immediately off the bat youre limited in what you can take in a Khazad-dum force purely based on who is leading you're army - an historic army led by Durin himself or the more recent reclamation force led by Balin before he decided to retire to a small stone box. With that in mind, let's have a look at a list made for each shall we?

The Kingdom of Khazad-Dûm

Durin, King of Khazad-Dûm
12 Khazâd Guard with Hearthguard upgrade
1 Dwarf Warrior with Shield
2 Vault Warden Teams

Mardin
12 Dwarf Warriors with Shield
1 Khazâd Guard

King's Champion
2 Heralds

700pts, 29 Warriors and 8 Might.

Going into this list was the very one-dimensional thought of 'we will outlast them'. Going off the great standard Defende of the Dwarves and making sure that everything survives long enough to get up close and personal. It severely lacks in ranged power, but makes up for it in Strength. Particularly from the Hearthguard protecting Durin - Strength 4 and Burly with two-handed means that most standard enemies will be dropping on a 4+. Even if they roll badly, the army bonus of re-rolling 1's to wound means they get another shot. A little bit more defense and tricksiness is provided by the two Vault Warden teams to help against anything big and scary.

Durin himself is a mean customer with plenty of tricks including terror, a Warhorn, a soft fate roll, a crazy powerful axe and a single priority re-roll. He does suffer from a shortage of Fate however, but is stocky with Defence 9. Being surrounded by Hearthguard will make him tough to kill, but shame about a lack of Heroic Strength. Durin is being backed up by other warbands, the first being led by Mardin who I took over a Dwarf Captain firstly for that extra point of Might, although this is at the cost of Heroic March which Dwarves could do with.

To fill out the roster, he has a bunch of Dwarf Warriors to provide some extra bulk to the force and general boots on the ground. Finally we have the King's Champion. A set of three models so cool to look at that I couldn't really resist putting them in the list. There's not a huge amount of complexity to it other than that this is a guy who likes to fight, and he brought his mates along to back him up with defense and re-rolls.

The Kingdom of Moria

Balin the Dwarf, King of Moria
1 Dwarf Warrior with Banner
6 Khazâd Guard
5 Dwarf Warriors with Shield
2 Vault Warden Teams

Dwarf Captain with Shield
9 Dwarf Warrior with Shield
3 Khazâd Guard

Flói Stonehand
5 Dwarf Rangers with Dwarf Longbow

697pts, 35 Warriors and 6 Might.

So we start off with a soft version of Durin - Balin, with slightly worse stats and missing a lot of the wargear aside from the axe. He does have a better version of the priority re-roll however which goes off his Will, so if the opponent has no magic you've got three chances to get priority back which isn't too shabby. Filling out the rest of the force, I wanted to be a little thematic of Balin's expedition. So we've dropped a few of the Khazad guard in favour of more Warriors and a few Rangers to round it out. Also a Ballista. Because Trolls and Balrogs. The crowning part of the list, personally for me, has to be Flói Stonehand.

Flói who has probably one of my favourite rules (and got me very excited about starting Dwarves myself) - negating enemy passives. This is a crazy rule, letting you turn off Aragorn's free Might, Imrahil and Boromir's banner effects and The Crown of Morgul for a turn, potentially swinging engagements your way (providing you have line of sight). It's gimmicky stuff like this that I love.

Filling out the list we have a Captain with the handy access to Heroic March to make up for that dwindling Dwarven speed and a little boost of Might where we need it.

Overall, both lists are quite heavy on the defensive, which is certainly a way the Dwarves like to play - they're stubborn and they'll take hits like nothing else. Personally I like the appeal of a strong central character of Durin over Balin, but Balin does have access to Flói and good ol' Gimmers if I were so inclined. The interesting thing is each list does feel different - the first working around a solid core whilst the second has a few more toys at it's disposal to work around brute force.

Have any of you played using Khazad-Dûm? Let us know in the comments and any thoughts you may have on their roster!