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Hi all Ive been thinking about start a LOTR army for a while but cant decide which one. What are your thoughts a good beginer army and why?

Welcome to the Dark Side.

Really, I suggest just picking your favourite faction from the books/movies and going with it. As far as the LOTR stuff goes, everything is pretty well-balanced, so you're not getting punished for building an army around the Rule of Cool. Here's a quick run-down of the major factions.

Gondor: They guys are pretty much the all-rounders. Their troops (except Rangers) pretty much all have good armour, so they make a good battle line/shield wall. They have some very powerful Heroes (Boromir of the White Tower is amazing). They can do cavalry pretty well with Knights of Minas Tirith or Dol Amroth offering a real sledgehammer.

Rohan: Really, all about the Cavalry. As you'd expect, they can spam good horsemen better than anyone and are therefore very fast if you go the all-cavalry route. They are less of a hammer like the gondor Knights and more of a scalpel, striking hard and fast in one place before heading off to the other side of the board. They generally have lower defence than a lot of armies, but are cheaper because of it. Rohan Warriors on foot make nice backup, and Royal Guard are pretty tough.

Elves: Whether you go with Rivendell, Mirkwood or Lothlorien Elves, most things are the same. They're all good archers, and have a high Fight Value, meaning they're more likely to win a tied combat. They are expensive per-model once you kit them out though, so you'll be outnumbered most of the time. They also get some good Magic users in Elrond, Celeborn and Galadriel. It'ls worth noting that elves are very squishy, so you do need to be careful in using them.

Dwarves: Dwarves are slow, expensivem, but tough as the mountains they call home, boasting a very high defence once armoured. Like elves, they are likely to be outnumbered, but are tough enough to take it head-on, making them great for defensive armies. They have no cavalry, so are very slow as an army, but very durable, and have some great Heroes that can be near-unkillable.

Others: Hobbits are weak, fragile and dirt cheap, but best saved for fun/themed armies. Ents and Eagles make nice allies, but again are less good on their own.

Mordor: What do you give to the army that has it all? More Orcs, of course. Mordor is a very versatile army, capable of fielding Orc hordes, Troll spearheads, Black Guard and Morannon Orcs that match Uruks in strength, Nazgul that can sap the life of your foes. There's too many options to cover here, but if you can think of it, Mordor can do it.

Isengard: I think of Isenguard as the evil counterpart to Dwarves. High strength, good Defence, sometimes low model-count (which can be mitigated by cheap-as-chips Orcs). Saruman is very powerful, as are several Uruk Heroes, and Crossbows are maybe one of the best units in the game for shooting. Beserkers are lethal as spearheads, and you can also get Trolls and Wargs like Mordor.

Fallen Realms: The Easterlings and Black Numernorians offer much the same as Gondor troops, with high defence stats and middling cost. Haradrim are the Rohan counterpart with cheap archers and horesemen, and the Corsairs of Umbar are much the same as Orcs. Like Mordor, there's not a lot the Fallen Men can't do. Also, Mumakil.

Moria: The ultimate horde, if you want dozens of expenbdable Goblins this army is for you. Individually, goblins are very poor, but there's always more where they came from. You can back them up with Wargs, trolls and in larger games, The Balrog itself. If using the Hobbit Goblin Town list, there is even a way to get more Goblins mid-game and everyone counts as having spears, doubling your dangerousness in combat.

Hope that covers everything, and once again, welcome to the game.

What paradigm says is good information, I'd definitely take a look at the escape from goblin town set as a starting point, it gives you the rulebook, and a ton of models and scenery,

From there as paradigm says it's about your favourites

On the rules, there are actually a couple of options depending on who/how you're planning to play.

If you're looking to play pick-up games in a store/club, then you'll want the Hobbit rulebook, best found in EFGT or on ebay, depending on whether or not you want the Dwarves and goblins (all of which are decent models, the former as display pieces and the latter as test opponents or as cannon-fodder if you run an evil army). You'll also want the Sourcebook for your chosen faction, best found from GW.

If, on the other hand, you only plan to play with friends, then you can try and get the Big Blue Book (3rd edition rulebook, I think) which is the same bar a few tweaks, but also has rules in for most of the non-hobbit models. It's not strictly up to date, but if you're only playing with friends it could save a lot of money and give you more options.

Thanks guys

I think that if you want a LOTR army, it's good to have 2 allied forces. If you want evil, my favorite combination is easterlings for armour and melee, and haradrims for range and speed (and war mumaks!) that's what I use. Use the same 2-Allie thing for good to, elves for archery and either gondor or Rohan for armour or cavalry.

I used to liek running a goblin army with Shelob- was quite nice.

What Para said is quite good advice if doing a little diservice to the harad armies.

These are similar to rohan, but also have things such as Half troll, cammels, and Mahud. you ahev access to poisin arrows and also blow pipes! they are a really versatile force

True, I did neglect to mention the more esoteric elements of the Haradrim army. I likened them to Rohan in that they have light armour, cheap bowmen and good cavalry, but I do agree, they are one of the more varied armies out there.

Poison Arrows is a real nice bonus, especially when you bring a bunch of archers. I'm not actually too sure on the rules and roles of the Half-trolls and Mahud, but I presume they're tanks and skirmishers respectively?

I just use the harads for the bows, I put them just put 11 spearmen, suludan, and 12 archers with chieftain with my easerling force