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Greetings,
Just won a Lotr Return of the King 2 player starter, heard about some of the unwellcomed changes in Hobbit so went with the older version I tested out what feels like a life time ago. Ready to get familiar with the rules again and get these armies growing.

Please treat me as a fresh faced newb as I barely remember the rules. What should be my must buys for Mina's Thirth and Mordor? REALLY want to add a nazgul or one of the named versions, what's the difference between them?
I also came across the legions of middle-earth book, would that be a helpful buy?

I'm sure I'll have plenty of more questions once the game arrives.
Thanks,Dakke

Welcome aboard! This game ain't dead yet!

Mordor and Minas Tirith are my two main armies, so I'll deal with those first.

If I recall, the RotK starter set contains 24 each of Minas Tirith Warriors and Mordor Orcs. That gives you a solid core of troops for each faction, what you'll need next is some commanders.

The simplest thing to do is convert a couple of Captains from each side. You need 1 hero per 12 regular models in the current rules, though if you're playing purely RotK rules then you can ignore that stipulation. Either way you'll want some leaders, though, and a simple reposing, distinct paint scheme, weapon swap or similar on the basic troopers will provide that easily enough. If you can spare a Gondorian and an Orc, you could easily represent an Orc Captain in Heavy Armour by a simple head/weapon swap. Gondorian Captains are harder, but for now, just repositioning a weapon, changing the pose or even just painting his tabard a different colour will do.

You will then want to start adding to the forces. At the moment, Gondor are going to come out ahead on equal numbers, so the Orcs are the best place to start there. Adding a Nazgul of some kind will give your army a powerful magic-user, and if you grab one of the generic ones feel free to run him as any of the specific profiles, just make it clear to your opponent. Each has a different rule or ability, some more combat-centric while others are more magic-based, all make an excellent addition. To bulk out Mordor in the Troops department, I'd grab a set of Morannon Orcs. These are tougher and hit harder than regular Orcs, so should provide a nice combat for your force, and the set has half with spears and parts to give them all shields, so they are formidable both defensively or offensively. A Troll would add some real hitting power, as might Warg Riders.

Gondor, meanwhile, are more than set in thecore troops department, 24 WoMT is a solid core for any army. What they lack is mobility and range (with just middle-of-the-road Archers), so I'd add Knights of Minas Tirith for some hard-hitting Cavalry and some Rangers for shooting potential. Rangers with Spears and Bows are very nice, as they can shoot at range and when the enemy close in, stay safe behind the WoMT while still contributing with the Spears. Boromir or Faramir both make good additions, as do Cirion and Madril if you can track them down at a non-obscene price.

LoME isn't hugely useful. If you're just using RotK then all the profiles you need are in there, if you're expanding past that the up to date information is in the sourcebooks (some of which are OOP now).

Hope that helps.

 Deus Mortis wrote:
Greetings,
Just won a Lotr Return of the King 2 player starter, heard about some of the unwellcomed changes in Hobbit so went with the older version I tested out what feels like a life time ago. Ready to get familiar with the rules again and get these armies growing.

Welcome back to the fold! This is actually a good time for you, as there are fairly substatial rumors about continued support for LOTR.

I pretty much agree with Paradigm as far as expanding your armies. Morannon Orcs and a Troll for Mordor and Knights and Rangers for Minas Tirith are a good start and will leave you with a solid pair of forces. Beyond that, both sides have a lot of options (especially if you include the Fallen Realms sublists for Mordor and the Feifdom sublists for Minas Tirith).

What should be my must buys for Mina's Thirth and Mordor?

The hardest thing will be eventually finding the army books for those two forces, Kingdoms of Men for Minas Tirith and the Mordor book for (obviously!) Mordor. Unfortunatly, these are both OOP and getting harder to find. Keep an eye on eBay and if you are patient you can still find copies for semi-reasonable prices at times.

REALLY want to add a nazgul or one of the named versions, what's the difference between them?

Each of the named versions has special rules and special powers that impact game play. Generally, the named Ringwraiths are more powerful and more expensive, so the un-named ones still have a use if points are tight. If you do add a Nazgul to your Mordor force, you might want to consider adding a magic user to your Minas Tirith force, too. Legally, this could be anyone from the "good" side but if background matters to you that means Galdalf the White. It can be frustrating to face a powerful magic user if you don't have one of your own to counter them.

I also came across the legions of middle-earth book, would that be a helpful buy?

Unless you are a completist collector, I would not bother with it. It would be of only limited use and your money would be much better spent on the above mentioned army books.

 mdauben wrote:
The hardest thing will be eventually finding the army books for those two forces, Kingdoms of Men for Minas Tirith and the Mordor book for (obviously!) Mordor. Unfortunatly, these are both OOP and getting harder to find. Keep an eye on eBay and if you are patient you can still find copies for semi-reasonable prices at times.

Actually Mordor shows as available on the Games Workshop Web Store.

Thanks guys for all the awesome help & suggestions! After some searching I was able to download the blue core rulebook, all the supplements, and the hobbit rulebook.

What changes are there from the older blue rulebook to the rotk rulebook I'll be receiving in the starter?

The supplements talk of army comp and warbands, where as the blue book pretty much says pick what you like as long as its all ether good or evil. Do I just stick with the blue.book army comp, and use the supplememts for model cost or just use only the blue book for now?

Am I to understand in a fight, hitting is determined by who rolls the highest, unless you roll equal than WS comes into effect.

Want to get in a few games before purchasing rangers, cirion/madril set, orcs, & a troll.

The Blue Book is largely the same as the RotK one, the only difference being that it has a ton more profiles in as it essentially consolidated everything so far into one place.

The Warbands/Army Selection thing is one you'll basically need to decide on with whoever you'll be playing with. I personally think the 1 hero/12 warriors setup is a little too heavy on the Heroes, but you do get used to it. Personally, I'd say use the supplements, they simply have way more stuff in so you might as well use them.

Yep, the duel roll is simply a rolll-off, with the single highest die winning (so if Aragon rolls 3,2,4 against a Goblin who rolled a 6, the Goblin wins, as it's the highest, not the total). If it's a tie, the side with the highest Fight score involved wins.

Starter set arrived!!!!! Unfortunately there was no rulebook. :(

I've did get a chance to read through the Blue rulebook and the hobbit rulebook I downloaded.

So correct me if I'm wrong. Are the only major changes the army comp., bow cap, bow movement penalty, and the special rules for like every weapon?

 Deus Mortis wrote:


So correct me if I'm wrong. Are the only major changes the army comp., bow cap, bow movement penalty, and the special rules for like every weapon?

Yep, pretty much. That and new Heroic Actions and some changes to magic.

Cool, have to re-read those sections. Kinda speed read so I can get to playing. might as well go with the new rules since anyone at GW will probably be using hobbit rules.

All the weapon rules seem unnesseary, I think GW likes to take simple smooth running games, and make them over complicated to make them more interesting. But just seems to bog it down and boring.

Oh well, time to start clipping and assembling.

Quick question again, was looking at rohan. Do the riders of rohan count towards the bow limit since they come equipped w/ them already & calvery.

I've searched the rulebook but can't find anything that says they don't count. :/ Kinda screws the whole all.cav idea.

Thanks

 Deus Mortis wrote:
Quick question again, was looking at rohan. Do the riders of rohan count towards the bow limit since they come equipped w/ them already & calvery.

I've searched the rulebook but can't find anything that says they don't count. :/ Kinda screws the whole all.cav idea.

Thanks

Riders of Rohan do not count towards bow limit. I believe it was clarified in the later FAQ's/source books.

Yep, it's in the FAQ for the Kingdoms of Men book (you can find this on Black Library). All-Cavalry Rohan is definitely doable.

All of the FAQs are on GW's main page, under the 'Rules Errata' link at the bottom of the page.