Dwarf Battle Company Stuff

Today is just some battle company shot of dwarves =)

Here is my starting battle company for my "normal" dwarves. Boggle with his massive shield is the leader, Brynmor with his shovel is second in command and Bluey (the archer with red hair) is the third in command. Joining them are Rocky (two handed standing on a rock), Hornstriker (with the radioactive shield) and Loki Longshot with the bow.

These dwarves are great for a battle company, especially near the start as they have good defence and strength 3 bows. However, they are slow and miss out on cavalry, so some missions are harder than others.

Here's the battle company I made for my son, it's Thorin Oakenshield (the old Balin model, but I've added a piece of wood from the garden to his non-axe arm for a shield) and they're all wearing the colours that are indicated in the book (including Dwalin's blue beard!). It's not a proper out of the book battle company because they're rangers, but Thorin is a warrior and, of course, they have a hobbit =) My son likes the brighter colours and boy, the throwing axes are just nuts in battle companies! All of the heroes are given throwing axes and against some low defence armies in particular they can just be devastating given the low model count of battle companies.

I haven't unlocked any Iron Guard yet, but I've got the models ready to go! I plan on using the King's Champion model for any Iron Guard that become heroes in the making. Strength 4 with 2 attacks, defence 6 and throwing axes! Yes please! 

I've unlocked one Vault Warden team, we decided that they counted as two individuals, the spear guy worth 10 points and the shield guy worth 15 points (to keep the 25 total points). Defence 9 in battle companies is just nuts, and getting a spear in a dwarven battle company can be really useful. I'm not convinced of their use in battle companies yet, it's a lot of points for slow moving, low attack models, but they're strength 4 and high defence, so we'll wait and see how they go. 

The other guys I haven't got any of yet are the Khazad Guard. Automatically passing courage tests while the hero they're bodyguarding is alive when that hero is a dwarf hero with a shield is pretty fun, I reckon! Strength 4, defence 7 looks good too (particularly against pesky armies with strength 2 bows). Also, I love the models =) 

So those are some of the miniatures I'm hoping will hit the table with a bit more levelling up of my companies! Would love to hear any comments from more experienced players as to which options tend to work out better in the long run!

Dwarf Armies

So my son and I got out all my dwarf miniatures to see how many there were now that I've completed the King's Champion.

We arranged them according to type so that I could see them a bit more clearly (with some creative license thrown in to keep things at aleast a little interesting for a 7 year old).

There are:
Balin (who we call Etako).
Dain (who we often call Durin).
2 Dwarf Kings (We often use as captains).
Brynmor (Captain).
Boggle (Shieldbearer).
King's Champion.
14 Warriors with shield
10 Warriors with 2-H weapons
20 Warriors with bows
2 Warriors with banners
8 Rangers with throwing axes
8 Rangers with 2-H weapons
8 Rangers with bows
6 Iron Guards
5 Vault Warden teams
20 Khazad Guards

Click on the pics for bigger sizes as always!

Here are the Vault Wardens and Dain/Durin

Etako with some other Kings and the King's Champion

Some more of the previous, showing some of the line of Iron and Khazad Guard

The back section shows some of the shielded dwarves, warriors and rangers.

Continuing along you can see the main body of axes

Here on the other side are more shields and bows in the back row.

And lastly a sort of side shot to show off the new banners =)

So there you go, roughly 1700 points depending on some of the options for the Kings etc. I know there are bigger armies out there, but I quite like how you can just paint and paint for a while and then put them all together to look pretty cool =)

Next up I need to finish painting some goblin prowler conversions and then do the same for my goblin army!

Vault Wardens

The only "class" of dwarf left to paint in my forces are the Vault Wardens. I have two teams, but could only face painting one at a time for some reason, you know how it gets sometimes!


I'm hoping to head down to Milsims again when I next get some money to get more of these guys in different poses. (Don't forget if you're in Australia that they're a good option compared to the Games Workshop prices!)


These guys are the bastions of hope and defense that you can essentially use to plug gaps and hold lines. Especially good when defending a position because you don't move back in those situations even if you lose the roll. The only catch is that they're expensive and killing the spearman makes the shield guy get a -1 on all his rolls as he only fights effectively with support.


Here's the spearman. The tip of the spear was cut off, rotated 90 degrees, then glued back on. It was a mess and just didn't want to go. You can tell in close-ups but on the table it's unnoticeable. I did that because I have two identical guys and wanted to break it up a little. 

Here's the shield guy. It took me longer to do the design on the front of the shield than it took to do the entire rest of the mini. Well, probably not, but I'm including the practice time on a bit of paper in that. It's a kind of celtic triangly thing. Of course, being the obsessive that I sometimes am, I painted the dwarf first, then put the shield on. Yes, that included doing highlights on the hand that you'll never see. But I still know it's there!

From the front...

From the side...

From the back...

The "runes" on the back of the shield are just shapes, well, some of them are runes, but by accident in the way that enough straight lines will eventually throw out something that's the same as a rune. I'm thinking I'll do a black wash on the back of the shield. It is a little too shiny at the moment. You can actually see the reflection of the dwarf in the shield. (And he could probably eat off it too!)


And from the other side...
I'm yet to find out why the spear guy has a massive loop of chain on his waist. Does he sometimes attach himself to the shield? 

Anyway, I think I'll use them in today's battle. Maybe. Not sure yet, I have three ideas for forces but I won't say yet, just in case my brother checks this this morning and adjusts his forces to match mine =)


Wish me luck!


Oh, and for those asking on the forums, yes, I'll write up the report as usual, though I can't guarantee it'll be done today 'cos I'm going out after the game and am actually pretty busy for the weekend. I'll try to fit it in though =)