A few thoughts basically here on this beautiful Saturday.

I was wondering if anyone has ever used Thrain or Thror to their potential or made it worth their points. Specifically Thrain and his battlefield stand fast.
It's an amazing rule but he's just so costly.

In addition to this I was just wondering if anybody had ever used on all Army of Thror.

I often use a warband of Thorin with Dwarves in addition to other armies.

Dwalin has been a huge letdown for my gaming group every time we use the old version.

I also used balin and myself at least three or four times and he's never worth anything. He usually doesn't even do well with his special rule.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

After a few experience I had when the Hobbit rule first came out, I reached the conclusion that the best use for the Army of Thror list is to have Thorin leading 12 Erebor warriors with spears to support Dwarves from the Durin's Folk list.
My idea is that Erebor is indeed a supporting army, something you want to use as allies, but not as core force.
Thorin is amazing, I think we can all agree to that.

Thrain and Thror are not bad themself but, for their point cost, they are not good either.
Thrain has one rule that comes in play only when Azog is on the battlefield, which means that 99% of the time you get no benefit. And his Stand Fast works for me only when playing Domination. In all other games a simple double-range stand fast is more then enough for me.
Thror was a decent hero, but for his points I wanted something more than decent. I rolled a 2 when using his fate point (that happens) and never got the chance to use the arkenstone rule.
I compared them with my results with Dain King, and Dain proved himself the better dwarf.

I thought Balin could be used a la Damrod, but still, not cheap enough. I played him in two match, used all his will and the priority changed only once. In the worst case scenario, we are left with a low defence model who is unable to fight. His ability could be very effective, but is way too random. One time, however, he saved Thrain's Might because I didn't have to call an heroic move.

Dwalin is a glass hammer. My friend was playing Isengard and had 12 crossbows. The moment he read Dwalin's stats, he made him the top priority. As long as Dwalin is keep covered and wins, he can smash through ranks like nobody else, but is not reliable, since he goes down easily when confronted by S4 models.

Basically I agree with all of my experiences or assumptions.

I think Thror is way over costed for his pts.

I think Thrain is possibly good because of his stand fast but like you said of course he can be replaced easily for the couple of other sturdy dwarven heroes. This is one thing I still believe may be useful one day because the battlefield wide standfast can be good for scenarios where your forces are spread thin. But since I still haven't tested it I won't say that it's a fact.

Dwalin I've seen cut down by so many different things including strength 3 troops. It's a Pity because he only has two might and if you lose one fight you have a chance to die.

And yes after multiple uses with Balin his roll is just another gamble and anything outside of certainty in most models I don't like.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY