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I was thinking about trying my hand at a bit of competive play in LOTR. Unfortunately, I've also decided that it might be fun to make a themed army to do it with. And the theme is: Servants of Morgoth. 1 Balrog, 1 Dragon with Tough Hide and Wings, 750 points of monster. It'll probably get eaten alive by some of the other builds out there, but I was wondering what you guys thought of it?

Good idea?

Bad idea?

Well, it wouldn't be LoME legal, since you'd need minimum three models in your army.

However, it would be an excellent idea for 1000+ games, and something I'd been thinking about doing myself. Basically, a Balrog, Dragon, then buy as many boxes of Mordor Orcs as you can and add in a few banners, Orc Captains and Shamans. Basically, anything to get your numbers up to keep from being Broken easily.

Oh, I thought every entry in the Monsters of Middle Earth list counted as an army unto itself (otherwise you wouldn't be able to ally them to anyone)
Am I wrong?

The Monsters of Middle-Earth list as a whole counts as an "army list", however all armies must have at minimum three models in order to play with LoME.  Each model doesn't count as its own army.

Aha, okay.Hmmm. Slightly problematic.
I suppose I could drop an upgrade from my Dragon and take a few orcs. but which upgrade?

Wings, definitely.  Though any one of the powers would work decently on their own, wings gives you a very hard-hitting and very mobile killing machine that can chase down and murder practically any model.  And your defense is still good enough to ward off taking too many Courage tests, though since it can move fast you can also position the Dragon behind some cover to cut down on that.

Yeah I suppose so. Plus the model has wings!

I'm trying to think of which orcs to use as my basic troopers. I'll need a cheapo captain to lead them, but I'd like them to fit my theme well.
Hmmmmm.
This is going to be a wee bit difficult to figure out. Moria Goblins would be the best (35 point captain and 3 goblins)...but I dunno if they fit the idea I have very well.

Goblins could work fine; they infested many of the mountain ranges of ME, and (especially in the Northern Wastes) could easily come across a Dragon who decides to "requisition" their services.

Likewise, you could use normal Mordor Orcs to represent some roaming band of raiders who were similarly drafted into the Dragon's bidding.

Uruks and Morannon would be less likely, since they're more closely sided with Mordor (plus they don't have any options for ranged fire)

Yeah. I picked up the Cirith Ungol box today, so with my 500 points of Goblins I can do either. I'll give both a try, I think.

Hey Boss, how about 2 Dragons and Gulavhar, the Terror of Arnor?

700 on the nose.

Hmmm.
Might be an idea. I recently accidentally dropped my entire LOTR collection, and I just can't face repairing the damage right now, so it's been put temporarily on hold while I mess around with 40K for the first time in about a year.

2 dragons and the terror would be vulnerable to just being surrounded by two handed weapons and slaughtered, you would need some horde troops such as goblins to help with this.

It's funny to think of the mighty dragon needing Goblin bodygaurds.