Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Came back home recently due to the holidays from my university, and decided I'd like to try and find my old LOTR's armies I got years back (Like around when the Fellowship boxset was pretty big or something) and some of the other boxes I picked up around that time! Gotta say, I was surprised with how much survived (though REALLY BADLY painted by my younger self) so figured it'd be a cool project to kick up again! So this is around a rough number of models as I'm currently away from home right now to look but I don't know if this might be cool for a combined goblin/Uruk army?

What I have (That is decent and workable) :

-Uruk Captain + Standard Bearer
-15+ Sword and Board Uruks (Does the Pikes and Swords matter anymore?)
- Around 8 Scouts with swords
- Around 8 Scouts with Bows
-5+ Warg riders
-Goblin Hero with Bow
-15+ Goblin Bowmen
-Goblin Hero with Sword
-20+ Goblin Warriors
-The Goblin King (The Old Metal Model!)

What I could get :

-A troll?
-An actual Hero?

Just curious if this is workable, and tempted to pick up one of the LOTR Books to get started!

You certainly have the makings of an army there. In short, the rules now require you to take a Hero for each warband, which can include up to twelve Warriors. Any evil faction can ally with any evil faction, same with good; good and evil can never ally. But the 1/3 bow limit (by model count, Warriors only) applies to each faction in your army separately.

For example, you could have an Isengard warband made up of 8 Uruk-hai Warriors with shields and 4 Uruk-hai Scouts with bows led by your Uruk-hai Captain for about 170 pts depending on how the Captain is armed. Pikes do matter, in that you can use them (up to two of them, in fact, as opposed to spears) to support another of your models that is engaged in combat. Warg Riders are also in the Isengard list so based on the size of your current collection, I'd recommend getting some other Isengard heroes. You already have enough Goblin Heroes and Warriors for three warbands, coming in around 320 points. Ally them and you already have a 500-pt army!

The biggest challenge to getting into LotR/Hobbit SBG right now is that the army list sourcebooks are almost all sold out at the moment. And unfortunately they are going for a ton on ebay at the moment -- I guess a lot of people are getting back into the game lately! OTOH GW has hired a couple of folks to do something with the line and it seems like they will discuss it at the Throne of Skulls tournament in early April.

Oh that's fantastic to know! I was curious as I know a few folks who do still have the models and thought I'd have a test game in the future but thank you. I do definitely think getting another isengard hero would be good (Maybe Lurtz or something) and running either two of those 8 Uruks with Shields and 4 Scouts with bows with some hero involved or one of shields and one of pikes!
But really glad to know the game isn't as dead as I thought, and I will definitely contemplate tossing in a troll cause what evil army goes in without a handy troll now? ;D But thanks again!

About trolls - if you get one, make sure you either get a Cave Troll to go with your Moria stuff or, if you get the plastic kit, build it as the Isengard troll to go with your Uruk-hai. As far as Isengard Heroes go, you might look for Mauhir given you already have so many Scouts. He has a special rule that allows you to upgrade them to 8" movement for a point a piece.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and since you're in the UK, you might have a look at the Great British Hobbit League:

http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=101

https://www.youtube.com/user/GBHLPodcast

These guys are fantastic! Another poster recently played in one of their tournaments. You can read about his experiences here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/684494.page

 Sampson97 wrote:
Came back home recently due to the holidays from my university, and decided I'd like to try and find my old LOTR's armies I got years back (Like around when the Fellowship boxset was pretty big or something) and some of the other boxes I picked up around that time! Gotta say, I was surprised with how much survived (though REALLY BADLY painted by my younger self) so figured it'd be a cool project to kick up again! So this is around a rough number of models as I'm currently away from home right now to look but I don't know if this might be cool for a combined goblin/Uruk army?

What I have (That is decent and workable) :

-Uruk Captain + Standard Bearer
-15+ Sword and Board Uruks (maybe pikes too?)
- Around 8 Scouts with swords
- Around 8 Scouts with Bows
-5+ Warg riders
-Goblin Hero with Bow
-15+ Goblin Bowmen
-Goblin Hero with Sword
-20+ Goblin Warriors
-The Goblin King (The Old Metal Model!)

What I could get :

-A troll?
-An actual Hero?

Just curious if this is workable, and tempted to pick up one of the LOTR Books to get started!

Hey Sampson97 -
you're speaking my language with Isengard, my favorite army

As Manchu has noted, the Warbands rules are the common / official playstyle nowadays. One hero unlocks 12 warriors. So since I'm the #1 Uruk Fan, here's my suggestion for your Isengard guys.

You mentioned you have...

-Uruk Captain + Standard Bearer
-15+ Sword and Board Uruks (Does the Pikes and Swords matter anymore?)
- Around 8 Scouts with swords
- Around 8 Scouts with Bows
-5+ Warg riders

Do you have any pike Uruks, or only Sword/Shield? An Uruk with Sword/Shield is the same cost as an Uruk w/ Pike, so feel free to modify my suggestions based on model count. Pikes are definitely great because of the supporting attack.

You'll definitely need some more heroes - as Manchu mentioned, Mauhur is _great_ for your scouts. He's still available from GW. I'd also say get a Lurtz and Ugluk - they are still available in a combo pack from GW and also pretty cheap on ebay. While their rules are not super great, the models are! And you can always "counts as" a normal Uruk captain (actually Lurtz has 1 more Might than a same-priced Uruk captain so I think is worth it). Ugluk is good if you have some cheap Orcs in your army as well, as he can kill them to automatically pass Stand Fast tests (which could very well come in handy!). I'd also recommend finding a Sharku model (also relatively cheap on ebay, but the Sharku on foot is kinda pricey) to lead your Wargs as he's got more Might than a normal Orc Captain on Warg.

Uruk-Hai Captain
Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Banner
11 Uruk-Hai Warriors w/ Sword & shield (or Pike)

Lurtz (he's your shooty Uruk captain)
8 Uruk-Hai Scouts w/ bows

Mauhur
8 Uruk-Hai Scouts w/ shield(?) w/ Marauder upgrade

Sharku w/ Warg
5x Warg Riders w/ various loadouts (throwing spear is good)

That'll put you close to 600 points. Warband 1 is your shieldwall of doom, with high Defense troops putting out a lot of good Fight and higher than average Strength attacks. Warband 2 is your shooty scout warband, but should always be on the move, as even just a bow-armed Uruk-Hai can kill a man in single combat. Warband 3 is your fast moving scout force to engage and defeat any fast skirmishing enemy troops (can even catch enemy cavalry unawares!). and Warband 4 you should use to flank and entrap an enemy force between your shieldwall and wargs.

From there it's easy to go to 750 pts, adding an Uruk Shaman and Troll, or if you want to add more support options, add a pack of Berserkers in there and maybe some Crossbow troops! (Uruk-Hai have good shooting values and are one of the only sources of a high strength shooting attack in the game)

Just to be clear for OP's sake, only the crossbows are S4 ...if you have some, definitely field them!

Thank you all very much for the advice and help, this is all very useful for me!

But yes I do have some pikes! About 4+ that are usable I believe (Not completely wrecked by younger me), so I guess having 8 Swords and 4 Pikes could work, or 6 Swords and 6 Pikes if I have the numbers which can work great! Also I do happen to have three of the crossbows, so I do not mind at all at trying to grab an extra 3 or 4 to add onto them, as I bet S4 shots can be fantastic. And I will likely run a similar list to what you've shown, and I've already begun listing on ebay what I'm going to get. But yes, I will definitely field a troll for both armies, and definitely beserkers, loved them in the films!

Thanks again, and thanks for the links too! (Now I need to find the Isengard book lol)

What you're looking for is the Fallen Realms sourcebook, which is currently OOP and goes for about regularly sells for 30-40 GBP on ebay. Hold tight and let's see what Mr. Troke has to say about the game next weekend at Throne of Skulls. Rumour is there will be a reprint or maybe even a PDF release.

That's cool! I can hang back and wait for news!

But just had a major clear through and check, and I HAVE MORE CROSSBOWS! Workable ones too! (Ones missing a bare crossbow but maybe I could scrap an empire crossbow and hope no one realizes? ;D But got 6 of them (including Mister Forgot his Crossbow!) AND A LOT OF PIKES! I can easily run a 6 Uruk-Hai w/Shield + 6 w/Pike Unit, and 5 w/Shield + 5 w/Pike Unit, 8 Warg Riders, 5 Scouts w/Shield + Five Bare Units, 6 Scouts w/ Bows Unit, a Captain (No shield though may just buy another cheapo metal captain on ebay though), AND A BANNER DUDE.

I say that's a pretty good Uruk hai force, apart from needing more heroes (and crossbows!)

And don't forget Berserkers Honestly now that you know your totals, I'd say hit up ebay for a handful of Berserkers and a few heroes. Mauhur, Lurtz, Ugluk, and Sharku, plus another Uruk captain if you desire (and maybe a Shaman!)

(it's pretty easy to put a shield on the metal captain if you have any Uruk swordsmen who have lost their sword that you won't be using - just chop off that shield and carve off the arm from it!)

Some good advice to deal with the Isenguard force! Don't forget though, that while the Goblins are a separate list, you can mix any evil forces together (you just need to use a hero from the same list for each warband). If you want to use the Goblins, either to build a larger force or just for fun, you could go with these. I like to spread the bow armed figures around, but you could do one warband of 12 bowmen and two warbands of Warriors if you wanted. Just remember that overall only 1/3 or your force can be armed with bows/crossbows.

-Goblin Hero with Bow
-4 Goblin Bowmen
-8 Goblin Warriors

-Goblin Hero with Sword
-4 Goblin Bowmen
-8 Goblin Warriors

-The Goblin King (The Old Metal Model!)
-4 Goblin Bowmen
-8 Goblin Warriors

-A troll?

For a pure Moria army, I think that 1-2 Trolls are a must. For a mixed Uruk-hai and Goblin (or all Uruk-hai) list, they are still useful but not so much a requirement.

-An actual Hero?

Hero's are important in the game. You got some good advice on Isenguard heroes. On the Moria side, the actual named heroes other than the Goblin King can be a bit pricy and hard to find, although the Shaman is always useful. For Isenguard you can also think about taking Saruman. He's a lot of points, but can be a must have if you are facing lists with someone like Gandalf, Galadriel or even one of the Ringwraiths.

I think I would rather take goblin shamans than captains, if I have the points.

 Manchu wrote:
I think I would rather take goblin shamans than captains, if I have the points.

I'd probably agree with that.

I'd take both. Fury is nice (indeed, crucial) for goblins, but it's nice to have some more combat-orientated might. Certainly, for a Goblin army, there's usually enough points spent on minor heroes to encompass both.