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Hiya,
Been a while I played my first game of lotr, and I'm also pretty new to the wargaming hobby. I've been busy with Infinity aswell, and have to divide my spare time between learning these two games ^^
I've bought a secondhand painted goblin army from a club (some deal from a guy who gave all his minis to the club, and they sold the armies to invest money in shelving space ^^), ready to start learning the game.

So there's too much goblins, a goblin king, a shaman, goblin drummers, 12 wargs, warg chieftain and a troll with a hammer and a chain that is broken.
Is there anything I should try to add? Dunno if blackshields or the twohanded goblin guard (forgot the name for a sec) are worth it? (I could easily convert 2h guards from goblin spearmen)

I also got all the minis a friend of mine had. He just had a random pile of things, no complete armies, but there's enough uruks (no bowmen sadly), some uruk captains and lurtz, and enough orcs.
I've learned that goblins are a horde army, but is there any good reason so I could include some uruks or orcs to my goblin army? And are wargriders worth it? Because I could maybe try and convert some orcs to wargriders if I have enough of them?

Goblins are best when in hordes, and can almost outnumber most other armies (apart from other hordes) on a 2 to 1 basis. To this end, you want plenty of spears to make the most of the numbers. The Trolls will be your heavy hitters (especially if you're using The Hobbit monstrous creature rules), but keep them away from powerful heroes. He may be half its size, but the likes of Boromir or Gilgalad that tote huge amounts of might points can put a troll down in a round.

The Warg Riders make a nice harassment force with bows, and are very dangerous on the charge, so certainly worth investing in.

Does Angmar count towards an allied contingent? I mean, is my bow limit in a wargrider band restricted to 1/3 of the warriors included? Or does Moria & Angmar count as one army?
And if I include a wargrider band, it costs 55 points for an orc wargrider captain with bow, but 60 for a shaman riding a warg, if I have the points, would an extra shaman be worth it?
I will certainly learn a lot myself from playing the game, but I'd like to start at least prepared a little bit :p

And is there any quick reference to how many trolls you can include per point limit? Or from what points range it would be an advantage? I notice I can't squeeze a troll into a 300pt. army list without losing a lot of horde power.

As far as I'm aware, the bow limit only applies to the whole army, so as long as only a third of your guys in total have bows, it should be fine. Might be worth checking, though.

I've never really used the various magicians apart from the named ones like Gandalf/The Nazgul ect, so I'm not sure on whether the Shaman is worth it or not, I'm afraid.

As far as I know, there's no limit on the number of Monsters you can have, the only thing is to make sure you're not putting too many points into them. A troll in 300 would be pretty nasty to face, especially with the rest of the points in Goblins, Probably no more than 1 per 400 points, though, as you really do want the numerical advantage with Goblins.

Yes, I know that the bow limit applies to the whole army, but I don't understand the rules in this case: does the bow limit count towards the entire army of Moria & Anmar, or for both separate? So, do moria & angmar count as 1 army for bow limit? Because I suppose I can't take a goblin captain for a band of orc warriors? But I can take an entire band of bowmen from angmar? (if the amount doesn't exceed 1/3 of -the entire- army at that time?) So if I'm correct the bow limit counts towards both armies together, but the heroes apply for each section on its own? (I'm only talking about Moria AND Angmar)
I understand that if I were to take Uruk bowmen, that this warband of isengard can't consist of only bowmen, I can only take 1/3 of bows.

And thanks for the help on the other questions =)

Oh, I see. In that case, I think that if Moria and Angmar are two separate force lists included in the same book, then the 33% limit does apply in each section. So only a third of your Warg Riders could have bows, unless you wanted to bring in some Angmar orcs to build up numbers (which isn't a bad idea, to be honest).

I think if you are going to convert some warg riders, i'd consider warg marauders, as they are pretty good for their points. Shamans are realy good, especially innhorde armies where individual models are generally easier to kill - cast Fury.

Cave trolls generally work best in pairs, but probably only in 500pt + games. As Paradigm said, don't worry if they seem to be using loads of points, the cheap goblins can make up the numbers very quickly.

The goblin guard you were thinking of were Prowlers I think. Like blackshields, they're good, but not necessarily necessary... if you want to convert them go ahead, but remember it will mean less standard goblins to drown the opposition in.

Goblin shooting isn't that great really, so goblins with bows might not be worth the points. However, if you give them bows and spears, they now have two roles so are less likely to be left out with nothing to do!

Yeah, each detachment as the 33% bow limit.

 Paradigm wrote:


The Warg Riders make a nice harassment force with bows,

WHAT?!Why not use the points to buy two goblin or orcs archers?They have the same strength and 5+ to hit.This seems like using an assault unit like slugga boys to shoot:for the same(or less in this case)points you could get a unit that does the same job but better(shoota boyz and orcs/goblin archers in these two cases).Shamans are awesome:use channeled fury and on a five+ any goblin within 6"(it might be twelve Im not sure) that takes a wound ignores it.

 Da krimson barun wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:


The Warg Riders make a nice harassment force with bows,

WHAT?!Why not use the points to buy two goblin or orcs archers?They have the same strength and 5+ to hit.This seems like using an assault unit like slugga boys to shoot:for the same(or less in this case)points you could get a unit that does the same job but better(shoota boyz and orcs/goblin archers in these two cases).Shamans are awesome:use channeled fury and on a five+ any goblin within 6"(it might be twelve Im not sure) that takes a wound ignores it.

To clarify, I was referring to the greater movement that comes with a Warg. A), you can keep pace with the main force easily enough, whereas archers shooting will find themselves left behind. This also means you can move up and still have a 24cm charge range if you need it. So basically, they become archers that also have a good (and possibly unexpected) charging potential as well, which can be helpful.