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I was going to start my LotR gaming with Strategy Battle Game, but everyone's ditching it in favour of WotR. Besides, mass battles are much more fun in fantasy settings.

So anyway, I'm at a bit of a condundrum here. I'm torn between a few armies that I really like the look and theme of. First we have Isengard. Uruk-hai look awesome and I'd love to be able to use the mighty Lurtz and lots of crossbows.

Next we have Moria. They have awesome monsters like the Balrog, cave trolls, bats, and giant spiders. Whee! At least, I think they do. I read about it in the WD issue that introduced the Khazad-dum scenario. That was a good batrep they had there...

Then there's the Dwarves. I like a heavily armoured force with lots of hard-hitting elite troops (like Khazad Guard), but they're slow as gak, which might be a turn-off for me.

Finally, the Fallen Empires. Specifically Rhun and Harad. The Soldiers of Rhun (Easterlings for you Tolkien purists) look awesome and I hear that they're dead 'ard when it comes to survivablity and Harad reminds me of the Middle-East, which I find to be quite an interesting place and I like the idea of giant elephants trampling everything.

Thoughts? Some basic tips on the game would be nice too; I've never even read the rulebook...

Maybe it's just me but I love goblins.Even though they aren't the best fighters but in enough numbers they can take almost anything down.They also have the cave dweller special rule if I rember right so getting around even on difficult terrian isn't a problem.Their drum is also good,but be sure to protect it well.

Stolen from a similar thread on TWF:

[theft]
Evil Forces

Mordor
Strengths: Sauron, massive variety of troops, with both horde and elites. Monsters and very capable magic casters as well.

Weaknesses: Lack of strong combat heroes, general low Courage (but can be fixed).

Isengard
Strengths: Great infantry, decent cavalry and some awesome heroes.

Weaknesses: Erm...not many. More costly than your standard bod, and the points do rack up, so you can be easily outnumbered in some situations.

Misty Mountains
Strengths: Hordes N Monsters! Great horde troops, some reasonable low cost heroes, and a load of nasty monsters.

Weaknesses: Lack of real elites, and a lack of decent RnF heroes. Plus low Courage.

Fallen Kingdoms
Strengths: Great all round Infantry and Cavalry, with some solid heroes. And....Mumak!

Weaknesses: Virtually no magic or monsters (Mumak aside). Makes tackling Monsters in other armies fairly tricky, and very little you can do to counter enemy magic without burning Might fast.

Angmar
Strengths: Ghost N Ghouls! Able to field lots of Spirits as well as RnF troops, as well as some monsters.

Weaknesses: Virtually no basic RnF Epic heroes or Magic casters. Since the army contains many spirits, certain spells can urinate on them badly. And of course fairly low Courage all round.

Sidenote-Ringwraiths.
In WotR, you can take Ringwraiths in any list and count them as 'native' to that list i.e. they do not eat into your Allies allowance, and count as your minimum 1 Epic hero in the force. This allows armies such as Fallen Kingdoms to gain quick access to powerful casters. Worth thinking about for sure!
[/theft]

I will note that the last bit about Ringwraiths is, as far as I can tell, incorrect. A Mordor list can take any or all Ringwraiths. Fallen Realms & Angmar can take certain Ringwraiths as 'native', but other wraiths would have to be taken as allies. For example, the Fallen Realms can take Khamul the Easterling, the Dark Marshal, the Knight of Umbar, the Betrayer, the Undying, and the Shadow Lord as though they were Epic heroes in the Fallen Realms army list. Isengard & Misty Mountains can only take wraiths as allies.

We've played a few games now, and Isengard by itself is a pretty good army. Using Mordor, we've tended to add Fallen Realms allies, and vice versa. The Mordor list really seems to need allies, but I think a pure FR army, using all the various options, could stand alone. I personally am working on a Misty Mountains force ('cause I want to get me a Stone Giant some day!), and I am powerfully tired of painting goblins.

Cheese Elemental wrote:
Thoughts? Some basic tips on the game would be nice too; I've never even read the rulebook...

Check this: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/235538.page




And in the interest of completeness, the Good Armies:
[theft]
Good Forces

Gondor & Arnor
Strengths: Good all-rounders. Decent heroes, both minor and Epic, decent Ranged and Combat formations. Large selection of both Infantry and Cavalry, and of course, Siege Weapons.

Weaknesses: Little in the way of Magic or Monsters.


Elves
Strengths: Brilliant infantry, amazing heroes, great shooting, and strong magic. Also now with cavalry!

Weaknesses: Points heavy in the case of High Elves, resulting in miniscule armies, or crap defence for Wood Elves. However, Wood Elves do have Enchnated Cloaks which means they can't be shot at from over 12" away.


Dwarves
Strengths: High Strength, high Defence. Effectively like being beaten over the head with a tin can. The heroes are even more so.

Weaknesses: No magic, little ranged weaponry. Very low manuvorability. Best place for these guys is getting stuck into the action, but it'll take a while to get there.

Rohan
Strengths: Cavalry. Cavalry is amazing in WotR, and the Rohirrim truly are the Horse Lords. Also a good selection of solid heroes, all with some cool abilities. The Infantry isn't too bad either.

Weaknesses: Not many. If you field an all-Cav army, you will be outnumbered, and if you field all Infantry, you'll be outclassed. Best to go for a balance, weighted more towards Cav. Also no magic.

Forgotten Kingdoms
Not a list in their own right, just allies. Using FK, you can ammend a lot of weaknesses-for example, if you need magic, throw in Gandalf, Saruman, or even The White Coucil. Need a monster to take out Cav? Take an Ent. Want something manuvorable that can act as bait without being too vulnerable? Great Eagle. Something for everyone here.
[/theft]

In general, Good gets better Epic heroes, while Evil gets a broad choice of monsters.

We have found that games around 1500 to 1600 points give a pretty fun fight. When we have played slightly larger games (say, around 1800 points) we find ourselves taking more epic heroes or legendary formations, rather than adding more formations to the army.