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As you can tell by the title, I am thinking about playing LOTR, however, I need to decide on 2 things.

1. Should I play SBG or WoTR? I like the movie and theme perspective of SBG, but I am a major war game player and think that WoTR would suit my favored style of play.

2. Now there is the infamous "What army should I choose?" question. For my evil army I can't decide between goblins or Uruk Hai. Goblins look cooler model wise and I like the fluff, but Uruk-hai look more suited to my playing style (even though I don't know the full rules yet)


Help Please.

I would start with LOTR, b/c it takes way fewer figures.... honestly, a box of basic warriors and a hero or two and you are good....

WOTR is a great game too.... they honestly play completely differently.... If you are a fan of large scale games, you'll love WOTR, but LOTR is fun too, for smaller skirmish level games.

As far as which army to pick, it depends on what you play like and who you like. I personally like Rohan, bc they are very flexible and have great cavalry, but thats just my 2 cents. Hope you decide to join in... both are very fun games...

I like the skirmish idea.
I've probably spent at least $2000 on 40k minis

A couple of warriors and heros seem like a breath of fresh air for my wallet.

yeah, LOTR is definitly much cheaper to get into than Warhammer (40k or fantasy), though after a while, when you get the bug to buy more stuff, It can end up just as expensive. However, you get a much better value for your money. for 30 bucks, you can get 24 of most of your basic infantry, as opposed to like 10 marines for 30... Good gaming!

I begun with LOTR SBG, maybe that's becouse WOTR didn't excist back then. If you want to safe money, i suggest you'd play LOTR SBG!

I should choose goblins, if you say they are more awesome. Uruk-Hai doesn't use any tactics, if you use a standard army...

I'll be more likely to get my (cheap) friend to play SBG with me that LOTR. I think I have decided on goblins (In the movie they look awesome) so I'll try to pick up the moria boxed set Asap. Thanks guys!

no prob man... hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up with a PM and i'd b/e glad to answer them.

Archon Revoc wrote:As you can tell by the title, I am thinking about playing LOTR, however, I need to decide on 2 things.

1. Should I play SBG or WoTR? I like the movie and theme perspective of SBG, but I am a major war game player and think that WoTR would suit my favored style of play.

All of my instincts are telling me to scream SBG, then smack your head on the table if you disagree with me, but seriously, you can use the same models for both systems. Just WotR requires more and is crap

Archon Revoc wrote:2. Now there is the infamous "What army should I choose?" question. For my evil army I can't decide between goblins or Uruk Hai. Goblins look cooler model wise and I like the fluff, but Uruk-hai look more suited to my playing style (even though I don't know the full rules yet)

Only you can really decide which army you want to collect, and it all comes down to what is your preferred way to game - do you want to win, or do you want to enjoy it? Don't get me wrong, you can win and enjoy with both these armies, but if one suits your play style, you'll obviously start winning quicker

There are pros and cons to each army -

Moria Pros:

Massive model count
Access to Cave Trolls, but still letting you get a crapload of goblins into your list

Moria Cons:

Crap fighters.
Low Defence
Good Heroes will wade through your horde like it's a bath of oxygen

Isengard Pros:

Good Fighters
High Defence
Crossbows
Saruman

Isengard Cons:

Expensive models (points wise)

So, yeah, there you go. Make of that what you will.

Also, if you do decide to go SBG, pick up Legions of Middle-earth. No one plays by just selecting out of the ORB anymore.

Doop.

Final question! In SBG, are there certain battles with onlly certain units involved (such as The Battle of Helm's Deep with the evil player using only Uruk-hai infantry and a champion) or can you just use whatever units you want for a battle, such as a skirmish that takes place in....erm.....the plains of rohan between gondor and mordor (this helps me choose which source book to get first)...Thanks!

in most of the books, they give you the option to do each scenario as a points match, using whatever you've got... so you can use whatever you have, but there is something to be said about using the "correct" models... It feels like you are acting out the books... lol

caledoneus wrote:in most of the books, they give you the option to do each scenario as a points match, using whatever you've got... so you can use whatever you have, but there is something to be said about using the "correct" models... It feels like you are acting out the books... lol

This. IMO, playing with the correct models feels so much better. But I don't think anyone would get too upset if you decided to play with different models

All of my instincts are telling me to scream SBG, then smack your head on the table if you disagree with me, but seriously, you can use the same models for both systems. Just WotR requires more and is crap

I couldn't put it better myself

I play WOTR with urak hai and even though i have played very few games i have discovered that the Heavy infantry of the Urak hai is one of the best troop units in the game. they have a high deffence and generally good looking models.

Uruk-Hai are the kind of army that wins if you let it touch you. It's main tactic is walk across the board in Phalanx, and then punch you until you die. Where it really struggles is maneuverability, they can only really get it by either forsaking their pikes, which is their main strength, or by buying Wargs, and wargs die to arrows like no tommorow.

Goblins on the other hand rely very much on hammer and anvil tactics, as well as some courage shenanigans. Your Goblin horde should take up lots of room, be incredibly cheap, and backed up by your hard hitters, trolls. Trolls are there to to do two things, draw off heroes that will blow through your lines, or smash through your opponents line if he has his heroes target your goblins. You can generally take enough Goblins that almost all Good forces can be worn down by them if their heroes are kept out of it long enough.

Another awesome thing about goblins is that the box gives your the right ratio of troops, equal numbers of sheilds and spears, and one third of your total force being bows. Goblin bows work well in massed numbers, where their low to hit score is mitigated by the fact that you should be outnumbering enemy bowmen by quite a factor.

I haven't done WotR at all, but all of the comments I'v heard about it since it came out limit my interest in it. Either way the best way to start is on the Strategy battle side. You can uild up a few smaller forces and find out what you really enjoy playing and then, if you still have the interest, move on to bulking out your favorite for WotR. Both play totally differently, so there really is no need to make a final "one or the other" type determination for what you want to do.

I like my dwarves and easterlings and far prefer the smaller skirmish scale, but that his me.

Skriker