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I'm just getting into WOTR and I'm playing Mordor. Does anyone have any recommendations on what to use and what not to use? I'm not aiming for any point limit in particular. I'll probably start with 1k points and work my way up.

First of all, welcome to WOTR, for Mordor here are my very brief top tips
1) Ringwraiths are your friends. Khamul, The Betrayer, The Tainted, The Dwimmerlaik are all absolutely amazing

2) Morannon Orcs are awesome. Strength 4, Defence 7 for 25 points a company...um HELL YES PLEASE!!!

3) Mordor Siege Bows are awesome

4) If you really want to have an awesome army, you cant go wrong with an 18 Company strongh Gorgoroth Horde.

5) Gothmog. Enough Said

As for 1000pts, I'd probably say start with Gothmog and either one or two Ringwraiths, take 2 big blocks of Morannon Orcs, then decide what you want from there, if you like Cav, maybe some wargs, or Morgul Knights, want some long range firepower? Siege Bows! Mordor has a whole lot of options, dont be afraid to just try stuff out

-Any Wraith(aside from the Witchking) is a good buy because of their wide number of spells and high wizard level. Their abilities range from broken to meh though. Khamul and the Betrayer are broken. The Tainted is annoying to good guys and down right devistating to bad guys. The Dwimmerlaik is good since Might is a very valuable resource, but not broke since it only works on a +4. The Dark Mashal, Undying, and Knight of Umbar are ok, the Shadowlord is sitational, and Witchking is alittle meh for his extra cost.

-Orc Trackers and Morgul Stalkers are awesome.

-You really can't go wrong with Warg Riders.

-Trolls are great in numbers with a Troll Captain to Troll Charge with.

-The Nine are Abroad is pretty amazing. Not much use in 1k or less points though.

-Shelob is a beast. Just keep her safe from much Magic/shooting.

-Fellbeasts are fun, but pretty easy to kill.

-Castellans of Dul Guldur are slow, but really hard to kill and hit like a ton of bricks.

Tzeentchling9 wrote:-Any Wraith(aside from the Witchking) is a good buy because of their wide number of spells and high wizard level. Their abilities range from broken to meh though. Khamul and the Betrayer are broken. The Tainted is annoying to good guys and down right devistating to bad guys. The Dwimmerlaik is good since Might is a very valuable resource, but not broke since it only works on a +4. The Dark Mashal, Undying, and Knight of Umbar are ok, the Shadowlord is sitational, and Witchking is alittle meh for his extra cost.


-Fellbeasts are fun, but pretty easy to kill.

-Castellans of Dul Guldur are slow, but really hard to kill and hit like a ton of bricks.

These are the only things I sorta figured out. Even then I was just guessing as I haven't played a game yet. If it helps for tactics my brother's playing Gondor and I'll mainly be playing against him. All I know list wise is that he's using lots of rangers. BTW is the Oliphant any good?

Mumaks are interesting. I'll admit that I've not seen one in used in practice, but they look like they can either win big or be a waste of points. They can remove units, but they can also rampage and get your own units. They can beat up a unit in CC, but they need to be maneuvered very carefully around terrain with their random movement.

How may formations/ companies of archers would you recommend? I'm more of a shoot the heck out of the enemy person than a fight them in close combat person. I was going to take almost all archers until i remembered bows are strength 2.

Well, you can always get Siegebows, which are super wicked, but Mordor usually doesn't have much shooting.

Orcs with bows are ok, but you might find your firing lanes clogged up by your things trying to get into CC. Lots of Orcs with Two-handed weapons or hard-as-nails Morannon Orcs is pretty much the way to go. Especially since Mordor has large access to Darkness magic to Wings of Terror right into CC turn 1.

Trackers are amazing since they can Ambush(and Prowl if you get an opportunity to flank/rear charge something) into terrain kind of behind or to the flank of your opponent and get some shots in the rear/flank of your opponent's shield bearing formations.

A heads-up though. The silly Mordor Orc box set only comes with 4 Orcs with bows. You need a lot of boxes or come up with something else if you want lots of Bow Orcs(which also work as Trackers if you don't want the metal models).

You mentioned Siege bows are good but what about catapults? I was thinking about running several of them.

Catapults are largely inferior to seigebows.

-S10 really is not a significant difference from S8.
-You'll hardly find yourself needing longer than 48" range.
-Seigebows don't friendly fire on a 1.
-Seigebows don't have minimum range.
-You can have 2 seigebows for every catapult. Meaning more shots.

I agree that Siege bows are better than catapults.

Otherwise, if you are anticipating fighting a lot of rangers (ie bows), I heartily recommend Morannon Orcs over Mordor ones. If you want to do a lot of shooting, I think you need the Gorgoroth Orc Horde (from the Battlehost supplement). 12 companies with bows, with 2 supporting attacks each is a lot of shots. If you put the betrayer in that unit, they get to reroll everything.

Add in a couple of small units of wargs (4 companies with shields and a captain) and two units of two siege bows, and that's about what you are looking for. You could probably also squeeze in a small unit of trackers on top of that...let's see...

Orc Horde Battlehost (12 co) 330
Betrayer 125
4 co wargs w/cpt and shields 150
4 co wargs w/cpt and shields 150
2 siege bows 100
2 siege bows 100

Ok, well, that's 955. The horde will shoot/stab anything it touches to death...the wargs will take care of any infantry in CC, and the siege bows...well, they're siege bows

Well, as with all mordor armys, base your force around a backbone of orcs, then biuld upon in with trolls nazgul and elitle warriors. thats mainly how a mordor army list works

I personally use the Dark Marshall to lead my army with a really solid core of Morannons - his rule through fear rule is awesome as he has Insiring Leader (Master) AND can confer his fight value to an entire formation within 12" so you then have a horde of Morannons with F5, giving you at least 1 extra attack over most cmmon troops alonside the mob rule means a high number of S4 hits thats just gonna do damage

add morgul knights and a couple of trolls and thats the backbone of my force - Wargs for flanking and i think i may dabble with those siege bows after such a high recommendation

oh p.s. being a ringwraith he's a decent magic caster too pretty solid all rounder IMO

Personally i don't rate the Dark Marshal, the extra dice your throwing for having a higher fight are somewhat "meh" for me. Also note, that Morrannon Orcs DO NOT have the mob rule, and therefor only add one dice when supporting

true that lol my bad - still he's handy enough in a fight and i still think giving everything within 12" of him C5 is nothing to be sniffed at for orcs