Ok, as far as I am concerned, here is how dwarf armies work:
Use all your khazad guards in every army, make that a priority, the same goes for your vault wardens and iron guard, elite dwarf warriors are incredibly effective for their points and are the backbone of the army. Convert all your dwarf warriors with 2h weapon to have spears, you can buy bags of 40 spears for like £4 from places like gripping beast, and the conversion is very easy to do. Then I would reccomend allying in 12 dwarves with spears from Erebor. All 3 of the erebor heroes you have (Thorin, Dwalin, Balin) are very effective for their points, Thorin and Dwalin especially. A dwarf army can afford to have all of it's heroes be big heroes that cost 85 points upwards. Do not forget about your bows by the way, dwarf archers have the highest defence, strong bows, and a decent shoot value, all for only 9 points, I rate them very highly.
In terms of heroes that are not from erebor; never use a dwarf king when you could use Balin, for the same points you get someone with more might and equipment, and then Durin's axe is also really nice. Then when it comes down to Mardin vs dwarf king, the dwarf king has more fight value and will, so is better at leading a force and fighting/resisting spells, whereas Mardin has more might, and is thus a bit of a 'backseat' hero.
Gimli and Balin are both total steals for their points, I personally really like Durin, he has a horn and causes terror, and defence 9 is not to be laughed at, neither is his axe, or his save. That said 1 fate is a bit pants.
If you actually plan on playing 1500-2000 point games, get hold of Floi, all the dwarf heroes you own (except Balin) are very fighty, and considering the amount of dirty special rules evil models have *cough cough* Shades *cough cough*, he can come in very handy.
I hope this helped.
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