So you might have seen my "Dwarves or Elves?" post, and after much deliberation, i've decided that i cannot resist the dwarves, so I would like to start an army with them. I was just wondering what you guys thought would be the best things to buy to start me off.
I was thinking a dwarf warriors box, a dwarf rangers box, and the Balin's guard box (since it's cheaper than getting 3 blisters of Khazad Guard). I also have Gimli anyway...
I play SBG (don't even own WoTR) so i'd probably go with an Erebor theme, but maybe Khazad-Dûm later.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on:
1X Dwarf Warriors Box
1X Dwarf Rangers Box
1X Balin's Guard Box

and later:
1X Dwarf Command
2X Iron Guard Blister
2X or 3X Vault Warden Team

thanks!

This is about what I started with. looks good.
I would suggest a balista instead of the vault warden if you want to stay with the Erobor theme. The balista from experience are very useful, have not used vault wardens though.

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"Wait. Am I out numbered by Dwarfs?"
If I had a blister of Khazads each time I heard this.
...then warbands...

It looks good, except I'm not sure how useful the Vault Wardens will be... do you play games with lots of terrain and scenery? If so, the Vault Wardens will be great, otherwise I wouldn't bother with them.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

well i've got two different boards that i play on, but i wouldn't expect it to ever get that crowded. I guess i just thought they look awesome... haha
so otherwise, plans look good?

almost the same way i started it looks good

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"I will take it. I will take the Ring to Mordor...though I do not know the way."
—Frodo, at the Council of Elrond

I started this way just a month ago! (see blog in sig for WIP and battle report with the new dwarves if you want to help decide which types look and do which types of things).

I've only played two games with them so far, one win, one lose, but loving them all the same!

I also want to get some vault wardens at some stage just because they look cool!

I found the warriors, rangers, Balin, Gimli and Khazad Guard to be a really good starter. You've got enough points there for a really decent game and plenty of flexibility (in as much as dwarves are flexible).

You'll love watching arrows just ping off your armour!

To be honest, I also got some Iron Guard, and in the last game I played I really wished I'd painted them in time to use them. Although the dwarves are tough, it's pretty easy against some enemies to find them 1 dwarf vs 2 enemies (when there are spears) and even though I've been in situations where I win on ties it is still a lot of losing the fight roll even though not getting wounded.

The Iron Guard have two attacks, so that would help even up those odds a lot. In short, what you've got is really great defensively, but on heavy terrain maps where it's hard to fan out and surround, it's hard to inflict casualties sometimes.

Just my 2 cents, and I haven't played with the I.G. yet anyway, so it might not work out that way at all! I'm loving the little guys so far though =)

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My LotR and 40k blog, Realm of Battle board, dwarves, gobs, space wolves and battle reports. http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com/

Which is why you need a banner, a banner is crucial if you don't have spears as in most fights you will only have 1 attack and the banner will give all the warriors in those fights in range, effectively, 2 attacks. And iron guard are very good and I know (after playing General Elessar dozens of times, though I wasn't the one with the iron guard, grumble grumble).

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

Normally the banner is great - yes, I should have added that to my list (I just converted a 2-hander). However, in this case we were too spread out all over the map due to the scenario!

But yes, Spuds is totally right, a banner is crucial for a normal dwarf game!

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My LotR and 40k blog, Realm of Battle board, dwarves, gobs, space wolves and battle reports. http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com/

How I love my Iron Guard...

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

so, in larger battles, should i ally with people who have spears and better bows, so i can have more attacks and well,,, better bows? haha

Dwarf archers are fine, there's really no need to ally in some other archers.

I've tried allying some spears with Dwarves, but I've never found it that successful...

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

I think that the best ally for spears for dwarves are Arnor. Ally malbeth and warriors of arnor to have your rock solid dwarves come back on a five or six! Also you now have defense six spear men, perfect as the enemy doesn't get anything much lighter armored once they get through the dwarven shield men.

??? what do you mean come back on a five or a six?

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

I mean Malbeth's special rule, wounds can be discounted if a model is within a certain distance of malbeth and a 5+ is rolled.

As General Elessar said Dwarf bowmen should be fine in larger battles. I think a balista or 2 are a must have for larger games. The extra range and fire power can give you missile superiority if you are careful/lucky enough not to lose all the crew members.

Never tried allying in anything except Radagast the Brown myself. He has been fantastic against Trolls, mumakils (by casting at the commander) and anything on a mount.


theavenger001 is right. Sounds annoying.

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"Wait. Am I out numbered by Dwarfs?"
If I had a blister of Khazads each time I heard this.
...then warbands...

I want to try allying some Eagles with my Dwarfs, they should make up for the Dwarves' slow move rate.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Actually, no magical powers can be targetted at a mumak which it clearly says in the rules on mumakil. If you want to cast spells, you have to cast it at the commander (so you could for example compel the commander and make him trample his own guys.).

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

Thats what I meant (I was a bit unclear, have edited it).

Immobilise, balista, S3 bows and Khazad Guard have more or less stop my friend using a mumakil.

@General Elessar. Eagles, sounds awesome and points heavy, please tell me how the eagles do if you ever use them.

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"Wait. Am I out numbered by Dwarfs?"
If I had a blister of Khazads each time I heard this.
...then warbands...

Will do, but it might not be anytime soon.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

radagast sounds realy anoying, what if u were up
against a 500 pts army that only had orc warriors
and a orc captain ? what magic would u use?

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spare some man flesh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PSeEuu6pW4