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okay so i want to collect LOTR
but i dont know what army i enjoy seeing massed troops charging in but i absalutely love archery lol
and is it a good fun game worth buying

If you like massed troops, I'd recommend waiting another week or so until the War of the Ring game comes out- it uses the same models but is geared towards massed combat.
The Strategy Battle Game is brilliant though- I heartily recommend it. As for army, the great thing is that most armies can ally with each other, so if you pick up the rulebook and the Legions of Middle Earth armylist book, you can look at what models you like and construct a force that way.
Which models do you like the look of best?

How about the forgotten kingdom?


How doesn't love fighting hobbits, and mighty ents!

well im really not sure i like the idea of loads of archers firing into the massed troops so i dont know
whats best for archers?
i like the look of rohan and minas tirth
what do you collect and why?

Well Jammy, I would first and foremost try and find an opponent or two in your area who have troops, or maybe your FLGS has access to both. Play a few games with a variety of troops and see what you like before committing to buy stuff. As previous posters have said War of the Rings is almost out in stores right now, expect a large display at any local game store that stocks LOTR, maybe even a few demo games will be run!

If you like archery and charging troops then Rohan is not a bad choice - they have Riders who as cavalry always have a bow at least. And they get to add their shield bonus to armour value even while doing so as they are considered to be Expert Riders - they aren't called the Horse Lords for nothing. Their elite troops the Royal Guard get throwing spears instead, you can give throwing spears to ordinary riders and foot Warriors of Rohan too, giving them the chance to throw them at up to 6" range even at an opponent you're charging. The shot gets worked out & if the opponent dies they get to charge another if they have the movment left.

Minas Tirith on the other hand has plenty archers, some of the Citadel Gaurd can be equiped with longbows and you can have Rangers of Gondor also with bows. All of them except the Rangers are in heavy armour too making them tough to kill especially if you deploy them behind a wall of other soldiers with shields, or in cover. Then theres the Knights - heavy armour, shield, lance. If you take Dol Amroth knights they're extremely good fighters also heavily armed on armoured horses and absolutley stonking if lead by Prince Imrahil - they can be well nigh unstoppable then.

The ultimate Good shooty army is of course Elves, not cheap but all of them are excellent fighters too. Take heavy armoured ones and they're tough as nails too. No cavalry to speak of al present though, although War of the Ring might remedy that, we've been promised such for ages.

Hope this helps

thanks baldiman that actually helped loads ive been looking through april white dwarf (im a subscriber so i get it early) and can you have rohan and minas tirth working together

Rohan and Minas Tirith can indeed work together.

Da Boss wrote:Rohan and Minas Tirith can indeed work together.

yay lol

Go with an evil army as well. Who wants to play as the good guys all the time? I'm working on an Uruk-hai list. Lots of good, solid units and you can get Berserkers!

hmmm evil
now im stuck at wat to get for evil lol

Well the great thing about the system is that you can mix it up. Uruk-hai with Goblins, Rohan with Minas Tirith, etc... as long as you keep it divided between good and evil.

Take what i have to say with a grain of salt. I'm getting the book this week, but I've been working up some lists through army builder and have been talking to a store owner who has had the book for nearing a month now.

I have some Uruk-hai, goblins, and mordor orcs. I'm just going to build armies that are mixed and will focus into more themed armies when I build up a large enough collection.

mixed it is
om the good side rohan and minas tirth
on the evil side urak hai and goblins or easterlings

I'm painting up a Mumak right now for a friend. A big model that is easy to paint and probably a terror on the field. Easterlings look like they will be a good formation to use.

how can you not like a elephant with spiky tusks lol

In War of the Ring it looks like you'll even be able to mix good and evil to an extent. Evil Dwarves with Goblin ally/slaves ftw.

While there is plenty of alliances in War of the Ring, you cannot mix Good and Evil forces. Other than if your opponent agrees to it, that is.

Awwwww. I had been led to believe otherwise.

Sorry! You can always ask your opponent's permission though!

The rules state that you pick an alignment, Good or Evil, then a faction, such as Rohan or Gondor, and then make an army built around it to your points limit; however, 25% of those points may come from any other faction who is in your alignment.

That's cool, it's not a big deal. The game is still incredibly flexible with regard to what factions can be used together. I could go buy a mamuk tomorrow and be able to use it with my mordor or my goblins, which can already team up together. It's clever from all sorts of angles.

If you like the army of the dead, they have rules now for the Army of Angmar's Ghostly Legions, which is the Evil Army of the Dead.

Get high elves. Heavily armoured shooty freks. I played a large game with them against haradrim, including a mumak, orks, and goblins. I shot the mumak to elephant heaven and the only thing left was sauran with 1 wound, which by the way is very very hard to kill sauran. I still had treebeard (the ent), gil-galad, and elrond left. Pick high elves and sauran. High elf troops can get bland though.

high elf hmmmmm lol

Yes high elves!!! Pick them. And if you lose you can say its the models fault because they want to leave middle earth.

I really like how the Elves cause Terror in WOTR.

karlfranz wrote:Yes high elves!!! Pick them. And if you lose you can say its the models fault because they want to leave middle earth.

lol thatr made me laugh

When exactly does WOTR release? I too am looking to get into LOTR and was wondering about just buying boxes of troops (like Gondor soldiers) or starting with the starter box set with the heroes and goblins included.

WOTR is out now. I would suggest buying the book, planning and army, and then buying the boxed sets. The mines of Moria is an introduction to the Strategy Battle Game, it's only really good if you want the Fellowship and some goblins and a Troll cheap.