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I've refined my Mordor army to be a Barad-Dur force, incorporating only wicked Orcs, Nazgul and Sauron himself.

Here's what I have so far...
Lurtz
Vrashku
50 Uruk-hai Warriors w/ swords and shields
20 Uruk-hai Warriors w/ pikes
20 Uruk-hai Warriors w/ crossbows
9 Uruk-hai Berserkers

I dunno if it's entirely legal yet.

A company (one stand) is eight models. A formation can be a certain number of companies. A formation of berserkers, for example, can only ever be one company strong, while a formation of Uruk-hai warriors can be up to six companies. (A formation of Isengard Orcs can have up to 9 companies).

So for your common, you have a formation (6 companies) of warriors, and a formation (2 companies) of pike phalanx. 1 company of berserkers for a rare, a Legendary formation in Vrashku & the crossbows (Vrashku's Talons), and Lurtz the Epic hero. You do not have more companies of rare & legendary than you do of common, and you do have at least one epic hero or legendary formation in your army... your army is legal, and about 760 points. You can get it to 995 by adding one more company of crossbows to Vrashku's Talons, and putting a captain and a banner-bearer in the pikes and the warriors.

You've got a few models to spare, so convert a couple of pike-Uruks into banners, and a couple of sword-Uruks into captains (stand them on a chunk of cork or something).

I see. What do you think Trolls would add to my army? Would my CC Uruks get in the way?

I want to do a Dwarf army but some of those metal Dwarf blisters are so expensive. I cringe at the thought of the price of even a full company of Vault Wardens.

Thank goodness there are two plastic dwarf sets. Unfortunately the rare units aren't plastic :( I thought about adding some Ents as allies, even though it's not particularly fluffy. I just wanted some monsters in my army.

I'd also liked to start a misty mountain army full of Spiders, Wargs, Bats, Goblins, and Trolls.

Probably topped off with a dragon

@ Lagduf: I watched a game of Dwarfs vs. Mordor the other night. It was the first game evar for the dwarf player, and the army was almost entirely plastic- lots of rangers and regular warriors. The first three turns did not go well for him. Then Durin got into combat, and buzz-sawed through three big units of orcs inside of two turns, not incidentally killing off both the Betrayer & Gothmog. Completely turned the game around. I don't think he missed his expensive metal units. They are nice models, though.

@Cheese: Trolls are always good. They bring Terror, 360 degree LoS, and striking before infantry or cavalry. They are great to put on a flank, and use them to protect your rear and hit the enemy in his flank. I'd round out your force with a few more pike companies, a formation of Warg Riders for extra mobility, and maybe eventually a seige engine, just for completeness. It wouldn't hurt to get Sauruman and an Uruk shaman or two, so you can have a bit of magic someday.

Anyone seen a pure Misty Mountain Army?

I don't know how effective it would be but thematically it sounds like fun. I'm just throwing stuff around at the moment but i'm thinking something along the lines of

Common Formations:

6 Companies of Goblins w/ Shields
4 Companies of Goblins w/ Bows
4 Companies of Warg Packs (With Chieftan)
4 Companies of Giant Spider Broods
4 Companies of Clouds of Bats

Rare Formations

Spider Queen
Cave Troll
Cave Troll
Dragon of Ancient Times

Epic Heroes:

Durburz, Goblin King of Moria
Druzhag, the Beastcaller

That s around 1500 points. What type of point value are people playing - 2000?

Unfortunately the Spiders are kind of expensive, and the bats even more so!

So i'm probably going to change this up a bit. I worked it out before really looking at how many of the models came in the Box Sets and Blisters. I'm thinking i'll drop some of the bats and add more Wargs since you get 6 Wargs in a Box.

The Spider Queen box set does come with three of the Spider Swarms. I could get two Spider Queens and then i'd be able to field three companies of those Spider Swarms. Any thoughts?

I'd add more spiders if I could it's just that they are expensive :(

I'm also considering a Misty Mountain force.

For giant spiders you might look at Reaper Mini's "Giant Spiders II", also their "Bat Swarm".

With usual online discounts these are significantly cheaper than their GW equivalents. Also keep in mind that both these units use cavalry bases so you won't need as many minis.

Ebob also makes an interesting giant spider pack, but I haven't checked to see if it's cheaper.

Anyone play Dwarves? I think I'm going to start WotR with Dwarves, though I'd like to get that Misty Mountain force as my evil army at some point.

I like that the core troops are rock hard. Their high point cost means I wont have to buy a lot of boxes of troops also

It's too bad most of the rare troops are in Metal, making them quite expensive. I want two companies of Vault Wardens, and three companies total of Durin's Guard and a slew of other expensive, metal rares.

I have a pure misty mountain force myself.

18 stands of wargs with 2 chieftans, 12 stands of giant spiders using the WHFB goblin spider riders spiders. 18 stands of goblins all led by durburz and druzhag. Druzhag is incidentally quite broken. Not something you might want to bring to a friendly game.

As for dwarves, I solved the problem of durins guard by buying 4 boxes of "balins guard". This gives you a full company in each box, and is cheaper than buying the khazad guard models in blisters. Besides the durins guard and ballistas, the only other metal models in my dwarf army are dwarf kings that I use for captains and kings champions.
It makes the kings champion the cheapest monster to buy in the game @ $7.50 for each one if using a dwarf king. (or all those extra balin models from buying 4 boxes of balins guard...)

Even though the misty mountain army was prety expensive ($800+) the dwarves havent been much cheaper even with all the plastic. Vault wardens make sure of that. ($200+ for a full formation, much like durins guard)

Thanks for all the advice.

I think i'll definitely use the spiders from the WFB Spider Riders!

Balin's Guard is still quite the expensive set though, at $40 for 9 models.

I wil most likely start with a single company of those and work on the plastic stuff.

I'd like to purchase a single company of Vault Wardens as well...but that is going to get quite expensive. Any of the online GW discounters carry these?

Something to keep in mind is who you will be playing.

None of my opponents mind if I line the front row of the company base with the correct (expensive, metal) figures, and fill in the back row with suitably similar plastics- or if, out of a 4-company formation, only the command stand has the actual metal models, as long as the rest of the companies are painted to match.

Heck, a few of us (those with armies that don't come in boxes divisible by eight, like Uruks and Easterlings) have glued rocks or discarded weapons to spare bases and used them as unit fillers. One or two per company, in a large formation, can really help stretch the miniatures, and it doesn't look bad either.

The only issues are whether GW would frown upon such work-arounds in actual tournament play, and of course the inherent, anal-retentive desire for "completeness" that we collectors tend to be subject to.

Yeah balins guard boxes arent exactly cheap, but they are cheaper than buying those khazad guard blisters though.

Plus, you have the added bonus of the visual aesthetic. Khazad guard are unique in that they have 8 different models all with differing poses. The balins guard boxes ensure one of each pose. This makes visual redundancy in units a non issue.

A small benefit, but a good one none the less. That is if you can stand fixing those VERY fragile axes that come bent to hell when the box arrives. They pretty much are a hobby nightmare made manifest in the form of a sweet looking dwarf.

fellblade wrote:Something to keep in mind is who you will be playing.

None of my opponents mind if I line the front row of the company base with the correct (expensive, metal) figures, and fill in the back row with suitably similar plastics- or if, out of a 4-company formation, only the command stand has the actual metal models, as long as the rest of the companies are painted to match.

Heck, a few of us (those with armies that don't come in boxes divisible by eight, like Uruks and Easterlings) have glued rocks or discarded weapons to spare bases and used them as unit fillers. One or two per company, in a large formation, can really help stretch the miniatures, and it doesn't look bad either.

The only issues are whether GW would frown upon such work-arounds in actual tournament play, and of course the inherent, anal-retentive desire for "completeness" that we collectors tend to be subject to.

I already plan to do this to some extent:

Each company of Dwarves w/ shields that I do will have 4 models with shields up front, while the back row will feature Dwarves with two handed weapons. This way a single box of plastic Dwarves will supply me with two non archer companies.

PS: Boxes of Uruks are divisible by 8 - you just have to buy 4 boxes which will net yet you 5 companies Pikes and 5 companies of regular Uruk Hai

The question still remains though is where are the plastic Uruk Crossbowmen?

I started on an army of Ents So far i got Treebeard and 2 Ents

Just hit 1000 points on my Dwarves.

Go Khazad Guard!!!!

Easterlings,Isenguard and mordor
"For the Dark Lord and the White Hand!"

Uruk-Hai with a Balrog.

I started with a metal Balrog.
- got two more boxes Uruks in short order
- added a 3rd box of Uruks after that
- probably going to get even more Uruks

Looking forward to when our group is finally ready to play some WotR.

Just finished off a few characters, as a break between hordes of rank-and-file.

Foot Eomer, foot Erkenbrand, foot & mtd Elladan and Elrohir, and my mounted Rohan standard bearer (a converted unarmored Theoden).

I think I will try to finish off the Galadrim foot & Haldir, and then reward myself with Elendil & Isildur.

Mordor here. I have:

3 Companies of Mordor Orcs w/ Shields - an alright unit, it won't do much on its own but put alongside a character or hitting a unit like archers they can be worth their cost.

3 Companies of Mordor Orcs - cheap shields, nothing more - less than 50pts for 20 wounds that need to be killed.

5 Bases of Morannon Orcs w/ Shields - One of the main "Combat" units in my army. High defense, decent numbers, slightly better at wounding than regular Orcs. If points need to be filled, combine these with Cursed Armor for an even tougher unit (6/4+ in combat to wound, 6/5+ for long-range bows).

Generic Ringwraith - Can be used as any, often use it as the Undying or Shadow Lord unless situation asks for something else.

The Tainted - is pretty good at what he does. Which is Sunder Spirit & Visions of Woe nice juicy targets.

Gothmog - Why not take him? A little over twice the cost of a regular captain, but with one more Fight, one more Resilience, two extra courage and might, overlord, and being a "Master of Battle"? Worth all of it.

Sauron - Rarely take him as, though deadly, he's stupid-easy to drop and is a huge point sink. Only really use him if I need to fill points.


Things I plan to buy for my army:

At least two more boxes of Morannon Orcs. Better line-troops than Mordor Orcs.

A model to convert to represent Kardush the Firecaller. Just so I have some Lore of Ruin without needing Sauron or a non-Mordor model.

Black Guard of Barad-Dur, full sized. The only Mordor Uruk-Hai unit worth taking, but most definitely worth it. They have an actual defense and weapon skill.

Castellans. Because while alright on their own, if I use the generic Ringwraith as a Dark Marshall they become beasts.

Took some good advice and got myself a troll. Very effective, I must say. It was a lot easier to deal with my friend's Gondor army; all that armour was screwing with my Uruks.

Cheese Elemental wrote:Took some good advice and got myself a troll. Very effective, I must say. It was a lot easier to deal with my friend's Gondor army; all that armour was screwing with my Uruks.

Saruman has Shatter Shields, which should be an effective-enough mean to weaken Gondorian units. Though I can see where the Troll would come in handy.

Mordor

Pretty much all orcs and uruks

I'm just starting out and think I am going to be getting into Mordor. Right now I have

10 Ringwraiths (Can you use 10?)
24 Mordor Orcs
Gorbag and Shagrat
3 Morgul Stalkers

Trying to figure out what to do with these - suggestions welcome. I also have some Misty Mountains for allies:

24 Goblins
1 Cave Troll

Looking to trade in the Swap Shop - especially for Mordor - see my sig for my list of trades, especially if you have extra Mordor or are getting out of Mordor these days.

I think you can only use 9, but they can make a single 500 point Uber Unit that is one of the scariest things in the game.

Da Boss wrote:I think you can only use 9, but they can make a single 500 point Uber Unit that is one of the scariest things in the game.

That's cool. What confuses me a bit about Ringwraiths is that they seem to put out a new Ringwraith or Nazguhl every few months - lots of variations on these, but at the end of the day, you can only do 9, right? I got the boxed set with The 9, but should I have waited and gotten them individually (ie the Tainted, the Undying, the Betrayer, and so on)?

Or is it legal to use my 9 and just identify whoever I want as the Tainted, the Undying, the Betrayer, etc?

I believe that's hunky dory alright. No one will mind.

Starting Dwarves this Week w/ Forgotten Kingdoms allies. Eagles, Treebeard, Gandalf etc make for quite a nice force coupled with dwarves. We'll see if I can stand up again my opponents giant Elephants, however.

I'm working on Harad.

So far I have comming,

2 boxes or warriors of Harad
2 boxes of haradrim raiders
2 captains of harad
1 captain of haradrim raiders
the betrayer
1 mumak

I'm working on a Gondor Army.

So far it consists of:

Aragorn, King of Gondor
Captain of Gondor
Warriors of Minas Tirith x25
Rangers of Gondor x24
Knights of Minas Tirith x6

It just sucks that not that many people play LOTR SBG.