Fog of War, Part 14: Army of Thror

FOG OF WAR

Part 14: Army of Thror

Welcome back to part 14 of the Fog of War series. We're back again venturing into the people who live deep underground, searching for their shiny rocks. This time I'm joined by ETC Team England 2019 member, former Team Wales Captain and the current GBHL League Coordinator Alastair King, for a review of his recently favourite force - The Army of Thror.

Alastair: From day 1 in this hobby I have always liked dwarves. The stubborn, grudge bearing, amour encased dwarves are the largest part of my SBG collection since I started way back in the early 00’s (at last count over 350 dwarves, including 8 Balins!). Dwarves always had a great array of troops and some of the best elites in the game. One thing they always lacked however was spear support for their standard troops. That was until the Army of Thror…

Army of Thror had some major issues in the previous edition. Too many overpriced, ineffective characters and a general sense that Grim Hammers lacked anything to imply they would be "grim" for anyone apart from yourself by taking them. This has changed now, with all the named characters being solid choices for their points cost and Grim hammers becoming D7. Army of Thror now arguably has one of the toughest and strongest battle lines in the game.

There still are however many issues with the Army of Thror you need to consider when playing them. 1st drawback is movement of 5” across the board and the 2nd drawback is no ranged firepower beyond 6” throwing weapons. One of these on its own will hurt you, both combined will significantly impede you when you are playing many scenarios. Your troop choice has become more limited as well now with the loss of Dale from the force leaving you with only 2 troop choice in the list now. This all means to use Army of Thror well, making sure you plan and manage your resources well will be key. 

Also on a non-gaming aspect army of Thror has some of the nicest models around, probably the nicest plastic kits of any army in the game for me so painting them was an enjoyable experience.

Mik: I never really looked into Army of Thror properly until watching the final game of the 2019 UK GT, where Alastair used it against Dave Nolan’s Angmar. It’s worth sharing a link to it here in fact, since it involves some of the most miraculous dice rolls I’ve seen in a long time and one very bad decision that probably cost Dave winning his second GT. For those interested, follow the  link below (you’ll need a subscription to Warhammer TV Twitch channel, but if you don’t have it, I’d recommend using the free subscription you get with Amazon Prime… and if you don’t have either of the two, I’d recommend getting both :D ). 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/393417036

I’ll be honest… I never liked Dwarves. Back when I started, one of my first regular opponents was a familiar face on the GBHL circuit, Loui Joe, who always used Dwarves and always crushed me. For the first year or two of playing, I made it my ultimate goal to beat him. Dwarves just never die, which is something that can be highly frustrating when you generally play armies filled with low defence and low strength. Probably because of my initial experience, they are the only army I never really played competitively (and I even nearly won a GT with Easterlings… which should tell you a lot about how lowly I used to think of Dwarves!), with the exception of sometimes using a warband of Khazad Guards led by Floi in high points games (around 1000) in order to nullify otherwise difficult to beat threats. Despite all that, for a long time I considered the Khazad Guard to be the most powerful infantry units in the game. It took a long time for Dwarf armies to finally find a competitive base, first with Iron Hills and now also with Thror. This variety is good for the game, so I’m looking forward to testing and eventually trying some Dwarves out on the tables. 

Army lists:

List 1: Alastair's 500 Points of Army of Thror

Warband 1:

Thror

12 Guardians of the King

Warband 2:

Captain with a Shield

12 Warriors of Erebor with Shields and Spears 

When it comes to making Army of Thror lists these days the first name on the sheet will nearly always be Thror. A literal tank with D9 and the Arkenstone. You will be unlucky to concede general points with him around (he has yet to take a wound in 10 tournament games). However, the main reasons for Thror being top of the list is unlocking the Strength 4 on the Grim Hammers (I call them Grimmer Hammers personally) and his 6” Banner effect from the Army Bonus. This effectively gives you 3 dice at Fight 4 to win combat across your entire battle line. It also frees up the Grim Hammers to go 2-handed for extra punch (4’s to wound most of the time or 3s against Defence 5 if you also Piercing Strike) as you still have 2 unmodified dice to win the combat. The Ring of Durin is also handy allowing you another shot at getting (or losing) priority when might is low across the board.

The Captain is in the list over the other dwarf heroes for the simple reason he has Heroic March. To help get around those situations where move 5” becomes a massive hindrance or to suddenly redirect your troops into a better position, heroic march is essential. A Dwarf Captain also has a nice stat line for an unnamed hero with F5 and D7/8, he is a match for most things at this points level.

This list’s main strength is not just in its heroes however but its troops. As mentioned, you already have a very solid battle line, having 26 models that are D7 or higher is a scary prospect to break. When most heroes are only killing your dwarves on 6’s the humble dwarves can stop and hold up enemy many times its points for a long time. Grim Hammer throwing weapons are great at making your opponent think twice about waiting just out of 5” but within their own charge range as well, and taking down that extra model when you charge can make a big difference in a game.

An added benefit of the army is that every model can opt not to kill its opponent either by bashing or shielding, meaning those games when you don’t want your enemy to break or drop to 25% just yet are still in your control.

List 2: Alastair's 800 Points of Army of Thror

Warband 1:

Thror

18 Guardians of the King

Warband 2:

Captain, shield

12 Warriors of Erebor with Shields and Spears

Warband 3:

Thrain

12 Warriors of Erebor with Shields and Spears

1 Warrior of Erebor with a Shield and a War Horn

This list builds on the previous list and is an expansion of the army I took to the GT (which has gone undefeated so far). The 2 main additions to the list from the above one consists of Thrain and the War Horn. Thrain gets the nod over Young Thorin as he is a hero with 3’s in all the right places and a master crafted 2-hand weapon to boot, making him a major threat and yet is pretty disposable with Thror as the general. Also, he has a neat board wide Stand Fast! which can help as well keep those dwarves staying where you want them. 

As for the War Horn, I have become a big fan of these recently. With the number of armies now available to good and evil that can cause Terror through various means (often with a -1 courage) having your dwarves that little extra bit more reliable to charge is more useful than you would have thought for a dwarf. With the army bonus, points I would normally spend on a banner are better spent here.

The army comes in with a healthy 46 models, meaning you will match or beat most armies’ model count unless you are facing a horde. Key to the success of the army is making sure that you ensure that you can cut down enemy numbers early on. Thror, Thrain and the captain may not have the benefit of a mount to make heroic combats reliable, but they can still reliably take down 4+ guys between them. Players tend to be apprehensive about using might to kill a basic troop but making sure they do means that your own troops won’t get surrounded and can inflict serious damage themselves. You can also then afforded to send squads of dwarves on objective achieving missions without buckling your own battle line far sooner.

List 3: Mik's 600 Points of Army of Thror

Warband 1:

Thror

15 Guardians of the King

Warband 2:

Young Thorin with Oakenshield

5 Warriors of Erebor with Spears 

1 Warrior of Erebor with Spear & Shield

Warband 3:

Young Dwalin

5 Warriors of Erebor with Spears 

1 Warrior of Erebor with Spear & Shield

Total: 30 Models, 8 Might

Heroes are a vital part of the game and especially heroes with 3 attacks each are considerably stronger than those with only 2 Attacks. As such, whenever I build armies, my first inclination is to look out for those characters that can chew through infantry troops with ease - These normally include the likes of Suladan, Boromir, Gwaihir, Theoden, Wraiths on Fell Beasts, etc - the more of these I can have, the better I feel about the army. Luckily, Army of Thror has an abundance of those between Thror, Thrain, Thorin and Dwalin. When most of your army is very reliable at surviving in combat, thanks to high Defence, your opponent is left with a difficult choice – do they concentrate on trying to surround and pick off your basic troops, or do they instead go for the heroes? In this situation, going for the Heroes can prove rather difficult, because there are few things at 600 points that can deal with three A3, F5/6/6 high Defence heroes in a short period of time. 

The downside here naturally is a lack of any bowfire, but the Grim Hammers’ throwing weapons in such high numbers are nothing to be scoffed at. Finally, the list lacks a Captain with Heroic March, so may require longer term planning than if one was present. 

List 4: Mik's 700 Points alliance of Army of Thror with Iron Hills

Warband 1:

Thror

9 Guardians of the King

9 Warriors of Erebor with Spears and Shields

Warband 2:

Iron Hills Captain on a War Goat

6 Goat Riders

6 Iron Hills Dwarves with Spears

Warband 3:

Iron Hills Ballista with 1 extra Crew Member

Total: 37 Models, 5 Might

When it comes to competitive play, one must always ask themselves “is this the best I can do, or is there an alternative that is better?”. Iron Hills and Army of Thror are similar enough, that one could run comparisons between pure lists of each of them and make a decision which to use based on which they feel is stronger. At the end of the day, they’re all Dwarves, but with slightly different perks. Where Iron Hills have the Ballista, Army of Thror can have larger numbers and more A3 Heroes, plus Guardians of the King are better at chewing through enemies than their cousins from the Phalanx by going 2-handed with spear support and banner re-rolls (but also die quicker). In some scenarios Ballista can be backbreaking for your opponents, in others, it can be the other way around. In some scenarios a few cavalry models can outright win you the game, but in others they’re a waste of points. This list is a bit of a hybrid and by creating it I keep asking myself “is it actually better than a pure Thror or IH list? Should I even bother?”… you tell me… :D

Although I don’t think the IH Ballista is overpowered in any way, since high defence troops generally don’t care about bowfire anyway, in this example list the alternatives aren’t many – likely either Thorin or a captain with a handful of warriors. 

The advantage of Thror over Dain and going purely into Iron Hills is that he’s significantly cheaper, just about as good in combat and you’re actually able to control him in tricky spots, whereas Dain is forced to stick to fighting through his Fiery Temper Special Rule. 

Essentially what I’ve done here is to patch up the weaknesses of a pure Thror’s list by adding 7 cavalry models and a ballista, but dropped from potentially 3x A3 heroes into 1 and a Captain. Whether this is better than an alternative with Thror, Thrain, Thorin and 3 stacked warbands of Guardians and Warriors, I can’t say for sure. 

Allies

Alastair: When it comes to allies for the Army of Thror you have 2 green allies in Dale and the Iron Hills. I first looked at Dale as potential to be in the army as they seemed a natural fit and could provide some good shooting (they used to be part of the same list in fact). The issue is though with the limit to 33% bows applying to each force as opposed to the army what you find is you will only get 4/5 bow shots and a vastly inferior back line who drop from D7 to D5 and only get you 1 extra model for the exchange, not worth it in my opinion. Girion on the other hand is a solid hero with his Great bow and multi-shots with Might can be useful, I am yet to find a points level where I would put him in but doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

The other Green alliance available are the Iron Hills, these guys have much better potential as an alliance than Dale do. While again you lack the ability to take more than 4/5 crossbows realistically, your back line becomes arguable better with S4 and D7/8. The army also does give you the option of the much-feared Iron Hills Ballista, which can ruin many an opponent’s plans, and mounted options with the Iron Hills Goat Riders. These guys help overcome many of the limitations to army of Thror and have considered allying them in a few times (not having the models has held me back on trying it). I think the higher points level is when I would. 

Other options to consider if you look at convenient allies is if you wanted could be Gwahir and some Eagles, giving you models to cover the board at speed and monsters in combat. The White Council can provide some nifty casters as well with Radagast being my pick from the bunch. A popular choice for many players is to ally in a back rank of elven support as well for F5, no self-respecting dwarf would rely on the help from these pointy eared fools though so I usually would give this one a pass (the combo is good though in game).   

One thing to note on when you take allies though is Thror’s banner only effect his dwarves not any of the allies and obviously you lose that when you take convenient allies. The balance then is working out if losing the 6” banner effect is worth what you are bringing to the table instead.

Mik: Normally when taking such elite and high-point forces, I have the inclination to look for alliances that can significantly buff up the numbers and improve the chances of winning in scenarios that require us to split into different places to cover objectives or pass through enemy lines. The problem here is that the only Convenient or Historical allies (with the exception of Dale, which I think is basically a more expensive Lake Town) for Army of Thror are either elves, eagles, ents or even more expensive heroes. So what we're left with is the question of how to buff our fighting formation or how to patch up its weaknesses.

I tried the latter with the Iron Hills alliance at 700 points above, however I still feel that allying elves (I am, after all, not a self-respecting dwarf ;) ) with their F5 could be a major boost to the combat prowess. The lack of bows in Thror's list means that even if we ally somebody in, we're not going to get any significant firepower, with the exception of a Ballista, so that's not something we should be looking for. A lot of players opt for Cirdan these days, but with a meta shifting into more Terror-resistant forces and us having very high Defence, neither Blinding Light, nor Aura of Dismay surve much of a purpose. In alliances I would look for a handful of cavalry models with a cheap leader for them, or heroes that are better than Thrain and Throrin - if you can't find either of those two options, I would probably stick to playing a pure force and ensure I get the Army Bonus.

Summary

Overall, the Army of Thror is a highly forgiving force due to its very high survivability and an abundance of 3 Attack heroes. Lack of bowfire forces you to be the more proactive player, which may be a bit of an issue with a force that moves at such slow speed, but once combat begins, you should be able to cut through most enemies at ease, so it is vital that you have a plan in place from the start of the game and stick to it. 

Good Luck!

BlackMist & Alastair