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.

Hey guys. I've been noticing an up-tick in sales since the Middle Earth announcement, and have seen Ebay and more LGS stock running low than I expected. I went to five stores yesterday, in an epic day of driving, and stores which previously still had decent stock we down to a few lonely Goblin Town kits (I did manage to snag a 50% reduced additional Ruins of Osgiliath though, and i'm a sucker for nicer terrain kits).

Anyway, i'm resorting to one last GW order before I going into buying lock-down for a while, and was wondering if people had any suggestions for fun, excellent, or otherwise worthy purchases from any of the following armies... Durin's Folk, Hobbit-Era Dwarves, Lothlorien Elves, Rivendell Elves, Mordor (any), or Isengard. I'm thinking I need at least another banner per side (as for some of those lists I don't even have on yet), meaning i'll be buying some unfortunately overpriced blisters of Captains/Commanders/etc. Anyone fun, or interesting that might offer new or interesting tactical approaches?

Also, a question regarding profiles. Do "newer" entries supplant older ones, for a named Hero? IE, is the Free Peoples Legolas, for example, still valid, even though he has a new profile in the Hobbit books? Same regarding Elrond's, Galadriel, or really any named hero.

Finally, reading the profiles of the named Nazgul, am I wrong in thinking the Witch King seems far and away better for the points than any other? Especially with a Morgul Crown adding those attacks?

Things you might want to look at getting:

Durin's Folk: Khazad Guard are tough as nails and also make great Msonter hunters with Bodyguard and 2-Handed weapons. Iron Guard are dead killy, though not as heavily armoured, so that's a little different for Dwarf armies. Vault Warden teams will be pricey, but are literally the toughest infantry in the game.

Lorien Elves: Sentinels have a neat ability to mess with your opponent's movement, and Galadrhim Guard with pikes are are also good to have, tougher than your standard Wood Elf and make a great hero Bodyguard.

Mordor: Black Guard for really heavy infantry/bodyguard, Troll Chieftain for a very dangerous Monster/Hero combination, Trackers for more reliable shooting... all sorts really, Mordor is the most varied army going.

Isengard: Uruk Scouts add something different to the standard pike walls if you don't already have any. Saruman is a must-have, Grima is neat too.

On the profiles, so long as the names are different then they're all still valid, if the names are identical then the newer one takes precendent. For example, there are currently 4 useable Sarumans (Isengard list, Free Peoples White Council list, AUJ and BOTFA versions), 3 (maybe 4) for Galadriel, I can't remember if the Protectress of Lothlorien one was updated or not... so on and so forth.


The Witch King is my go-to Nazgul, but the others do have some nice tricks. Khamul and The Betrayer are better fighters, The Tainted, The Shadow Lord and The Undying are better support guys. Can't remember what the others do.

Thanks for that Paradigm. I've added a few bits from your suggestions, and I appreciate the other information.

My wife wanted me to make a follow-up and ask how an Ent/Eagle army might fare, even in casual play? She'd like me to get Treebeard and a few Ents and Eagles, but I told her I don't know how a 5-model list at 600pts would do in objective games. :-p

I didn't want to make a thread, but I am curious... Did Finecast or resin molding ever improve for GW? I ask because as you guys know I came to LotR/Hobbit so late that I am ending up with tons of Finecast models... and yet... so far the boogyman hasn't reared its ugly head. Everything barring a Galadriel with a bit of a miscasting on her neck seems not only fine, but really crisp.

Did I just get very lucky?

Meanwhile, my wife is thrilled over her wilderness army which we bolted on to our last order. Treebeard, two Ents and two Great Eagles are 600pts all on their own. Hopefully our games don't go so lopsidedly against her that she gets frustrated.

Oh, man. Ents and Eagles are awesome. The eagles are great at going after objectives, and Ents are great at holding back objectives.*


*Disclaimer, I may have played an Ent/Eagle army at a major tournament or two.**

**Full disclaimer, I did.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, the witch king is very good, but he's also the most expensive nazgul. Knight of Umbar is my favorite, though.

So even being ultra low model count doesn't hold them back? We've had only a few games so far, but as others were saying, this ruleset isn't hero-hammer, and everything usually goes down to volume of dice. Do Ents/Eagles have something I am missing to defy that trend? I do imagine army-wide Terror helps hold back hordes, but still...?

Terror, and the fact that Ents in particular are tough as it gets, even if they're dogpiled by half a dozen Orcs the odds of them getting a wound through is pretty low. Eagles on the other hand are fast enough that unless the enemy has other flying units, you can pick and choose your battles. Having access to the Monster attacks is a great leveller too, if the enemy gang up on you one turn, they're nice and lined up to have a friend Hurled at them next turn!

Any good Batreps out there (GBHL Podcast for example) with Ents/Nature prominently featured? I'd love to be able to show my wife to keep enthusiasm high.

Her being excited about this game has made it much easier to spend $750+ in the last couple months on it. :-p

Hmm...I don't know if they've done any Ent/Eagle Batreps, but have you checked out the DCHL page? They're kind of like a DC based GBHL. Who knows, if you're really interested in it I might be able to talk him into a game with my Ents/Eagles that we can post.

http://www.dchobbitleague.com/

Oooooh... that's only a four-hour drive for us. :-p

Yeah, Nikki would LOVE that. If you make that bat-rep we'd appreciate it. Hopefully we get to game with you guys at some point too!

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
I didn't want to make a thread, but I am curious... Did Finecast or resin molding ever improve for GW? I ask because as you guys know I came to LotR/Hobbit so late that I am ending up with tons of Finecast models... and yet... so far the boogyman hasn't reared its ugly head. Everything barring a Galadriel with a bit of a miscasting on her neck seems not only fine, but really crisp.

I think the general opinion was that the early Finecast was the worst as far as casting quality. In my (limited) experience it did get better in later production.

I bought a small amount of Finecast stuff for 40k early in its life, and I remember bubbles, and all kinds of weird issues. I know firsthand it isn't a myth that it sucked when it launched. :-p

But yeah... i'm looking at a couple dozen individual FC Middle Earth models here, and as I said, only one has a (fixable) issue.

I ordered a few LOTR models from GW today including some Finecast, so I hope I have the same experience!

Finecast is especially bad on Hobbit models due to their true-scale nature and much finer level of detail and sculpting than 40k or WHFB models. The Mirkwood armoured infantry are at the top of worst models I've ever had to clean.

NewTruthNeomaxim, have you ordered yet?

 judgedoug wrote:
Finecast is especially bad on Hobbit models due to their true-scale nature and much finer level of detail and sculpting than 40k or WHFB models. The Mirkwood armoured infantry are at the top of worst models I've ever had to clean.

NewTruthNeomaxim, have you ordered yet?

I ordered a ton of LotR/Hobbit stuff over the last two weeks in particular. Very little "Hobbit" stuff actually, but any of the LotR:SBG finecast heroes (and Treebeard), almost all came out quite nicely.

It might be a pure fluke, mind you, and I got lucky, but as I said, outside of a Galadriel who needed a little work, anything else I got in fincecast was... um... fine. :-p

As for the plastics, the Grim-Hammers I got were the only models which were the tiniest bit fiddly to assemble. Those two-handers just weren't all lining up with their points of contact if a way I loved. And everything else in plastic was earlier, functionally one-piece, models.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
Finecast is especially bad on Hobbit models due to their true-scale nature and much finer level of detail and sculpting than 40k or WHFB models. The Mirkwood armoured infantry are at the top of worst models I've ever had to clean.

NewTruthNeomaxim, have you ordered yet?

I ordered a ton of LotR/Hobbit stuff over the last two weeks in particular. Very little "Hobbit" stuff actually, but any of the LotR:SBG finecast heroes (and Treebeard), almost all came out quite nicely.

It might be a pure fluke, mind you, and I got lucky, but as I said, outside of a Galadriel who needed a little work, anything else I got in fincecast was... um... fine. :-p

As for the plastics, the Grim-Hammers I got were the only models which were the tiniest bit fiddly to assemble. Those two-handers just weren't all lining up with their points of contact if a way I loved. And everything else in plastic was earlier, functionally one-piece, models.

Finecast LOTR models have definitely been better - this is because the vast majority of the LOTR models were originally metal and the molds were far simpler. Hobbit FC models are more complex. So you wind up having Lake-town Guard finecast infantry models in three pieces with about a dozen finecast 'triangles" that need to be searched out and carved away. Whew! Having painful flashbacks to assembling all of my finecast Mirkwood guys and Lake-town Guard and Militia!

Mercifully those are all factions the wife and I had no interest in. So I suppose I did luck-out in that we just happened to not want/need any of the problematic models/kits.

I am assembling my FC Erkenbrand. The cast is fine, but the huge number of gates and extra bits that need trimming off is quite annoying.

 Slinky wrote:
I am assembling my FC Erkenbrand. The cast is fine, but the huge number of gates and extra bits that need trimming off is quite annoying.

I call 'em "Finecast Triangles' cuz they're usually triangular in shape.

The most frustrating were all the Mirkwood armored infantry, and Lake-town Guard and Lake-town Militia as the sculpts were made for plastic, but then released in Finecast. So I'm carving these godawful Finecast gates and bits and triangles off expensive models that are like 5 points apiece and should have been ten times easier to clean in plastic anyway. sigh!