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So I've always wanted to get in on this game, when I was a kid I was just fading out of the hobby as the game started, and then when I got back into the hobby years later the game was already on the back burners and gathering dust in the corner of the LGS.
However I realise this may be the last opportunity to get hold of the game as it will probably disappear soon without warning.
If I wanted to pick up 4 reasonable sized armies say Isenguard, Mordor, Rohan and Elves? What would I need to get model wise, could you guys help me make some basic shopping/army lists for each faction, and what books would I need to source for each race?
For those armies, you'll need the following books:
The Fallen Realms (Isengard)
Mordor
Kingdoms of Men (Rohan)
The Free Peoples (Elves of all kinds)
You might find them cheap second hand, but if you can't, there are certainly enough profiles in the old rulebook (blue hardback with The Ring on the front) to get you started among friends.
As for the armies, here's my suggestions on what to get. Not sure how even the points will be, but this at least gives a taster of each:
Isengard:
Saruman
Captains
2 boxes of Uruk Warriors
1 box of Warg Riders
(1 box of Uruk scouts if you can find them, they're oop)
Mordor:
The Witch King
Captains (easily converted)
2 boxes of Orcs
1 box of Morannon Orcs
Mordor Troll
Rohan:
Theoden/Eomer
Captains
2 boxes of Rohan Warriors
2 boxes of Rohan Riders
So there's a rough idea that sticks mostly to plastics and iconic characters, if you're willing to convert some stuff (can be done just with paint schemes. Rohan Warrior with red cloak and spear=Royal Guard) then it shouldn't be to expensive to get going. Check eBay regularly, you can get armies for a fraction of retail on there.
Like I said, I'm not sure how even those are in points, but one of the beauties of LotR is that the balance is probably the best of any GW game, pretty much perfect. While there are some hard counters, most lists at even points will be balanced against one another.
If you go heavy on one thing (Cavalry, Archers, Monsters), of course you will accentuate the strengths and weaknesses of each, but it balances out well enough. For example, an all-Knight Gondor force will hit like a ton of bricks, but lacks any kind of shooting and will have have a low model count, so an Elf bow line might do well against it, but that same Elf list might suffer against a Horde of Goblins for example. So as long as you don't skew your list too heavily, even points should mean an even game.
If you want, I can write up some lists based on my suggestions above and try to level them out.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/12/15 11:37:14
Paradigm wrote: Like I said, I'm not sure how even those are in points, but one of the beauties of LotR is that the balance is probably the best of any GW game, pretty much perfect. While there are some hard counters, most lists at even points will be balanced against one another.
If you go heavy on one thing (Cavalry, Archers, Monsters), of course you will accentuate the strengths and weaknesses of each, but it balances out well enough. For example, an all-Knight Gondor force will hit like a ton of bricks, but lacks any kind of shooting and will have have a low model count, so an Elf bow line might do well against it, but that same Elf list might suffer against a Horde of Goblins for example. So as long as you don't skew your list too heavily, even points should mean an even game.
If you want, I can write up some lists based on my suggestions above and try to level them out.
Yeah that would be really helpful. I've just picked up the kingdoms of men, Moria and fallen realms sourcebooks
So I guess you're going with 4 Swords and the Captain in each front rank then 5 pikes in the back? That's solid, gives you a very nice battle line and Easterling are great troops for that. Kataphrakts give a nice counter-punch unit, especially with Amdur.
All I suggest is swapping one warband of Easterling warriors for Easterling watchers, as a) you get 4 per sprue anyway and b) ideally you want at least some shooting to disrupt the enemy as they come to you and to deal with their own archers.
By the way, the Gondor list is in the same book as the Rohan one, so if you have that you have the most up to date list, the older Gondor book isn't as complete (although does have some scenarios and painting guides in should you see it cheap).
For Rohan you mey wanna grab erkenbrand. HE gives you the option to upgrade your riders of rohan to fight 4 which in invaluable for cavalry.
Erkenbrand, Eomer and about 8 Westfold redshields (Riders of rohan with the s4 upgrade) each should be a good start.
The advice is solid so far, but really the games revolves heavily on the actions of heroes, so you are often better off using a named hero than a captain often for only a small price upgrade.
Automatically Appended Next Post: For the easterling army for example I'd also suggest running a hero like Amdur to lead some of the troops and provide more might, and with that many bodies a warpriest can be a god send.
Casting fury makes your guys auto-pass courage tests and gives everyone a 6+ (5+ if channeled, which you shoud always do) fate roll which maked them very scary!
Automatically Appended Next Post: It's great to see some enthusism for the system on here too.
If you haven't already, you should check out the GBHL (great British Hobbit Legue) youtube channel and the facebook community (I'll post links when i'm not at work)
There are already a number of independant tournaments organsed for next year accross the UK and they're very newbie friendly and well worth checking out if you wanna meet some more players
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/12/23 13:40:15
