Iron Hill Dwarves

Resource: Dwarf Faction

Marshalling Points: 4
Unique. Playable at Iron Hill Dwarf-Hold if the influence check is greater than 8.
Standard modifications: Elves(-2), Dwarves(+2).

Close to, if not the best faction in the game. Only 1 fewer M.P. than Southrons, and it's in a safer area and requires a lower number for influence checks. Compared to the others it's also a lot safer. You can get there, if you're willing to manuver a little carefully, without facing anything more than a wilderness or border-land. Yes, dragons are keyeable in that area, but if Doors of Night isn't out there's no worry from that, and if it is you can either play Gates of Morning, Twilight, or just risk it (though they can be pretty nasty, if you have good characters with enhancers you can go there). Still much safer than some of the other areas, where Nazgul are playable (though Khamul's playable in some of Mirkwood, just take the route around there to the North through Woodland Realm).

And also easy to use. Take one of the dwarves from there, for instance, Gimli or Dain II, and have them use their TWO bonuses (+2 to Iron Hill Dwarves, and +2 for being a Dwarf) for an incredibly easy influence check. Let's look at the other factions that have this much or more:

Army of the Dead: Well, yes it's worth two more points, but hard to get out...
Southrons:A little dangerous to get to, plus FOUR Nazgul are keyeable there and there are -2 modifiers for 3 races and no + modifiers.
Easterlings:Pretty much the same problem as the Southrons, just with three Nazgul, though you have to pass through lots and lots of regions to avoid Nazgul-playable ones.
Variags of Khand: Again, same problem.

Also, you can play Dain and Gimli in the Iron Hill Dwarf-Hold, good since it's two turns from a haven (and if you're up in that area, you'd probably rather not go all the way there and back again to get the needed influencers, or if you're low on characters it's good too). Total of 8 M.P. available in their site, with very little work. Plus remember, they're Dwarves, so if you're up there to go to the dangerous sites and get rings you can get all the benefits of the Dwarven ones now.

But back to this specific card, there's one more little minor disadvantage about it, the elven modifier, though this is rather insignificant considering most decks aren't exclusively elves.

Overall, an extremely good faction, one of the best in the game.

Ratings for: IRON HILL DWARVES

Rater	Rating	Rater	Rating
Gandalf	9.0	Lobelia	9.5
Morgoth	7.5	Faramir	9.0
Shadowfax	7.9	Beren	N/R
Isildur	7.0	Gollum	8.3
Turin	8.0	Sauron	N/R
Radagast	9.0	Cirdan	N/R
Eru	8.0	Average	8.32

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