The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Erebor Reclaimed

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Why Play Erebor Reclaimed

Because you like playing Thorin's company but always wanted them to be a little bit harder to kill and to have a standing army supporting them. This gives you loads more hero options for leading your Iron hills, but you do loose a couple of awesome units in the process, both the ballisa and the Chariot are removed (unless you upgrade it to have Balin, Dwalin, Fili & Kili on it, then you can have it lead your army if you want), but since you get 13 heroes to choose and lead your warbands with is not abad trade off.

Pros

• Du Bekar!
• Plenty Of Heroes to choose from.
• Hero mounted Cavalry.

Cons

• You lose two Iron Hills units.
• Play a lot more effectively in larger games.

Army Bonus

"Will you follow me, one last time?" - All Erebor Dwarf units in this list gain the "Du Bekar!" special rule. This makes Thorin a banner if he is 6 within any Dwarf that is a part of his company, sadly it doesn't affect Dain and his Lads.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain: a budget elendil, this upgraded version of thorin goes down to 1 fate point but gains heavy dwarf armor (D8), rerolls to wound against azog, and most importantly the ability to call a heroic combat every turn. oh, and he gets heroic resolve, for all the times you'll be using that. no oakenshield but can be put on a war goat, which makes that free combat all the more useful and makes him a powerful troop mulcher. At only S4, though, don't expect him to be chewing through heroes at the same rate- though in good v evil games, orcrist is a very worthwhile buy to deal with the majority of orc, uruk, and goblin armies you'll be facing. always worth taking and the centerpoint of erebor reclaimed lists, don't forget he benefits from du bekar too.

• Fili, Champion of Erebor: Combat stats that put him on the lower end of the good fighters from the list, kili's biggest strengths are his cheap price and (relative) versatility. His stats are very similar to a dwarf captain, and he should be used about as such- though with an extra point of might and heroic strike, but no heroic marches (so not really used as such). He's also able to trade places with his brother at the start of any phase, which can prove very useful if either one of them is wounded or out of might, and the other could do the job for them. He can also take a bow, which can be useful to unhorse a hero or something.

• Kili, Champion of Erebor: the exact same stats as above, but trading heroic accuracy for heroic strength. That probably makes him the better of the two, in an infinitesimally small way.

• Bifur, Champion of Erebor: Weak combat stats, not particularly durable, and F4 means he can struggle just fighting troops; but none of that matters, because all you care about is yanking that axe out of his head. Once he does (by wounding an opponent with a single S4 strike) then he can call a heroic move every turn for free, which is an invaluable tool in dictating the field and stopping cavalry from running you over.

• Bofur, Champion of Erebor: Similarly weak combat stats to Bifur (F4 S4 D8 A2 W2 2/1/1) but luckily his weapon is hand-and-a-half and not just flat 2h this time, so you aren't always stuck at -1. His only notable rule is the fact he ignores magical powers on a 2+, which while not counting as a resist does negate the entire effects against powers like wrath of bruinen/nature's wrath, so that's something.

• Bombur, Champion of Erebor: the OG beefcake comes in at 60 points and (due to his immense girth) gets 3 wounds and the ability to use bash special strike to knock people to the ground. However, it turns out being hundreds of pounds beyond morbidly obese isn't actually a good thing, so he can never call heroic moves and rerolls 6' for jump/climb tests. Aside from his weight, his combat stats are in the weak set (F4 S4 A2) but he can regenerate a friendly will point in base contact on 4+, which is useful in a number of gimmick lists due to how many abilities key off will. Aside from those gimmicks, though, don't expect to see or take him, he's much better suited to the kitchen table than the battlefield.

• Dwalin, Champion of Erebor: Identically priced to thorin, dwalin is the raw killing machine of the list. 3A, S5, and two rules making him burly (take that floi, i guess) he's who you send in to eat the enemy heroes, and anything else for that matter. While on foot, he can forgo the +1 to wound from his 2h weapons and instead get 4 attacks, which is situationally handy (slightly better damage against D1-3, slightly worse against D6+, even at D4/5 so use the 4A to roll more dice on the duel) but you still want him mounted anyway.

• Balin, Champion of Erebor: Don't take him. Only having a 2h weapon with no weapon master, and otherwise weak combat stats, means his only benefit is spending will to reroll priority. For only 5 points more, you can have bifur be significantly better at all of the above, and get free heroic moves so you don't even have to worry about priority.

• Oin, Champion of Erebor: Tied with ori for worst combat stats, he's F4 1A with no bonuses or rerolls, but at least he has D8. His ability to heal friendly models is solid, especially in an army as hard to wound and reliant on heroes as this one, and the ability to spend will to give friends within 3" a duel reroll is situationally nice, but in this you're relying on the heroes to jump in and do the killing, not to stay back buff other heroes.

• Gloin, Champion of Erebor: Third best fighter of the company, he's exactly what you'd expect a souped up gimli to look like. F6, 3A, weapon master with a 2h weapon, rerolls 1's to wound, and 3M for heroic strength/strike make him an incredibly capable fighter, and a very cheap one at that. Do be careful, for as much damage he can put out, he can't quite take it back in turn- D8 means regular troops won't be hurting him, and the standard 2W/1F of most of the company means a single bad combat can take him off the field.

• Ori, Champion of Erebor: He has low defense (for a dwarf hero), low strength (for anyone), low F value, low might, and all-around weak stats. But, like Bifur or Bombur, you don't take him for that- rather, you hover him near important combats to make use of his chronicler special rule to restore a point of M/W/F to a champion of erebor/thorin after they kill a monster or hero. Not particularly useful since you already have a lot of free might going on, but if you somehow have a spare 55 points and no other way to use it, just make sure he tails someone that can benefit from it.

• Nori, Champion of Erebor: weapon master with no 2-handed weapon (young dwalin says hello) and heavy dwarf armor/shield but still D8, nori has a very strange set of rules. Despite this, he has a great profile, only 80 points for F5/3A with 2M and heroic strike, and the ability to reroll a dice for the duel as well as to wound.

• Dori, Champion of Erebor: A budget gloin (who himself is a budget dwalin), dori is a solid 75pt bargain that packs F5, 3A, and weapon master/2h weapon. F5 with no heroic strike, though, means he's relegated mostly to bludgeoning troops and captains rather than taking on the big heroes. At least he makes a compelling case for using heroic strength, if only for lack of options (who am i kidding, you'll still keep it for defense)