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That is why you take the black dragoon upgrade, and remember the Easterling special rules regarding pikes

 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
The thing is, however, that your Dwarves don't have the standard Human profile + pikes for 9 points.

Black knights are F4 and C4 for 11pts each, right?
In that case, Iron hills warriors ditch pikes and an inch movement in favour of S4 and D7, which is a fairly sound tradeoff- easterlings can back each other up allowing for more attacks, but in a 1 vs 1 dwarves are better. That's one of the awesome things about LotR- almost all the points are balanced.

Interesting. As I had said, I'm getting back into this hobby, so I'll have to reacquire the rule book, but what exactly are war bands? I don't just take my full point allowance of guys?

 ImRightBehindYou wrote:
Interesting. As I had said, I'm getting back into this hobby, so I'll have to reacquire the rule book, but what exactly are war bands? I don't just take my full point allowance of guys?

Warbands are a way of splitting up an army into groups, as well as putting a cap on troops per hero- for every hero, you can take up to 12 men (no minimum number) in that warband, hence why you'd need at least 2 goblin captains for 24 men
It's also kind of a way of adding relatively fair alliances- a hero can only lead a warband of men from his army section, so Gimli can't lead a unit of hobbits, but he can lead a unit of dwarves.

Interesting. That means I should take Goblin captains or Shamans?

Yup, try at least one Shaman, channeled fury is a pain in the for your opponent :p
It's basically a 5+ invulnerable to anyone within 6"

Wow. Yea, I don't remember the rules all too well, but I do remember Fury! I also don't remember about saves. Is it like 40k where you get saves when they wound you, or do you just die? If it is the latter, then Fury is super good!

 ImRightBehindYou wrote:
Wow. Yea, I don't remember the rules all too well, but I do remember Fury! I also don't remember about saves. Is it like 40k where you get saves when they wound you, or do you just die? If it is the latter, then Fury is super good!

yup, it's the latter. Also, in combat, no rolling to hit either. Just roll to see who wins the fight, and the winner rolls to wound.

That is very interesting. Does that make goblins bad as they have a low fight value?

unfortunately, yes, they're more likely to lose a fight.
Luckily, you'll almost always outnumber your opponent, so you'll probably end up winning at least half your fights, probably more.

It's all random dice rolls. There are some great moments when Aragorn, King of Gondor, subjugator of Rhun and Harad, loses a fight with a single Moria Goblin and gets killed.

 ImRightBehindYou wrote:
That is very interesting. Does that make goblins bad as they have a low fight value?

Most goblin armies have ways to support other models, effectively meaning that you'll get two rolls in combat instead of one. Moria Goblins have spears and the Hobbit Goblins have a "chittering hordes" rule, or something like that.

Yeah, given the fact that blows are decided via just a roll-off, Goblins (And Orcs for that matter) are hardly a bad choice. Fight Value 4 is the best infantry value you'll commonly encounter, and it's 1 die against at least 2, usually 3, so Goblin and Orc armies tend to beat a lot of heads in the infantry theater. Honestly I think about half of the people I'm aware of who play this game field Orc and Goblin masses and they tend to win quite a bit.

Mixing in some hard-hitting trolls or even a Cave-Drake (I've always wanted to field or see one fielded. They look awful great on paper), or better yet bringing in a contingent of Kataphrakts or something, and you could develop a pretty mean Evil list. While I tote 750 of raw Uruk-Hai, I'm looking at creating a more mixed Evil force to bring all the goodies to the table (Or more accurately, defeat my younger brother who I gifted a horde of Easterlings I got after trading my small 40k army away since I wanted him to get in on the fun and he really can't afford to get his own army)

Yes, I've always wanted to field a big dude like a cave drake, but it's also reassuring to hear that goblins aren't hapless.

Hey man so it didn't look like you got a lot of specific advice so let me help you out! I've been playing goblins for a year and I have the new rulebooks and everything.

So firstly, there are two drums when people talk about goblin drums. The original Moria Goblin Drum is okay, but if you can get the Blackshield drum its considered to be superior because the models can move full speed.

Secondly, you don't only want to take moria goblin warriors. Goblin prowlers are very good... however they are metal models. If you have ever used GS they aren't too bad to convert. In my 750pt list i have 12 but you don't need that many typically. Goblin Blackshields are good too but got a bit nerfed in the last army book.

With the new Hobbit rulebook Shamans got better because they can now use a might point to "Channel" fury, making the save a 5+. This isn't always the best choice though because might is very important! If you take Grobolg fury is a 5+ standard (though you cant get fury to a 4+ if you combine).

You mentioned special characters. So Grobolg is pretty good if you have 2 or more goblin shamans. He used to be pretty popular but I don't think he is as vital since now goblin shamans can spend a might point to get that 5+. Definitely take the other goblin king, Durburz. Now with Heroic strike he can actually win combat and will be your best fighter.

Other good heroes are the blackshield heroes. Both in my opinion are amazing but are rarely seen for some reason. The blackshield captain is str5 base and has a two handed weapon at his disposal which is incredibly good. The blackshield shaman is a "bluff" unit against expensive heroes. Basically if the expensive hero runs out of will or runs low, you will run up and destroy all his weapons. This includes staves of power, anduril, and even banners! If there isn't a unit like that in your opponents army, just throw a tremor and then break the banner off of a banner holder.

The last two named heroes are only good in animal heavy lists. I don't have experience with those but Druzhag + Warg Chieftain is an AMAZING combo. The warg hero will have 5 attacks at F8 and S9, meaning you will absolutely destroy any hero this side of the Balrog.

On a final note in the Hobbit rules monsters went from useless to very useful, so any monsters you can take I would! Also bats wargs and spiders are all also very good units to take a couple of but make sure you still have tons of goblin warriors! Swarming is your best strength unless you are going all in on animals.

Good luck!