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Over the past few months i have been putting my trading and buying efforts into getting more LOTR minis before they all go OOP and go for insane prices on ebay.
There was one lot i bought that had a a lot of extra basic troops in it that i had planed to resell / trade but then i got my hands on a war of the ring book for $5 from my local stores discount rack.

flipping through the rules it looks like a great game but i got to thinking that those finecast / metal units will eat up a lot of money quickly.

From what i have seen on paper at least the finecast / metal (mostly rare) formations tend to hit harder or have special rules at a small points increase. But would that really have a game breaking effect?

Some units are just out of a sane persons price range.
Moria goblin Gundabad blackshield formation of up to 9 companies? Thats a $470 formation... If im going to spend that much ill just add in the $20 and get friggin smaug.

However the more "reasonable" formations i could see taking 2 or more of if points and the decree allow. Units like watcher warbands or khazad guard.
I could maybe see taking smaller formations of 1 -2 companies of guards of the fountian court.

Some of the common units can rack up in expense too.

To me at least, the 5 points a company seams worth it to upgrade riders of rohan to mounted royal guard. however the price tag of $60 for the plastic unit vs $160ish for the royal guard? now that 5 points seams a lot less likely to happen.
Now i know in this case i can greenstuff plumes onto some helmets, give a slightly different paintjob and call it a day. however the foot milita vs foot royal guard? no. i will not have the core of my army be $5 a pop metals that all blend in together to look like the same pose... i have enough of that with my sisters of battle army.
Though i must admit i went a little crazy and picked up 12 sons of eorl (only to have eorl the young go OOP before i could get him )

And there are some units you can use 3rd party minis for. dunlending units, ruffians and some of the fiefdom formations spring to mind.

But some units like the mordor uruk hai, high elf cohorts (spearmen), Guards of the fountain court, and feral uruk hai have sculpts i really like with no good alternate out there and are not easily converted.

I know what you mean, some things just aren't viable. WotR is really an opportunity for proxies and conversions if your opponent doesn't mind, and third parties as you said. Imo the units like GotFC and Elves etc. are worth it, especially with ebay providing said models more and more cheaply (i feel like a parrot repeating ebay the whole time! ). You can afford (gamewise) to have small formations of these hard hitters if you whack a hero in there and use them as a temporary beatstick or a distraction, and magic can buff them nicely as well.

Something that just isn't worth it is an army of haldir's elves... Would be cool but a tad expensive!

Convert, convert, convert! Gundabad Blackshields? Paint your Goblin shields, er ,black! Mordor Uruks? Take Isengard ones, swap the swords out (or don't), shave the helmet crest and paint them grey.

In game terms, units of a couple of companies led by a hero can still have a decent impact on the game, especially if you can hide them from archery until they hit combat. As mentioned, Magic can be a great force multiplier, so throw Galadriel in a block of Galadrhim Court Guards and you have something good there. You can also just play smaller games, 750-1k points-ish, and obviously they will have more effect there.

Since the rules are no longer really supported by GW, I see no reason not to half the number of figures per stand to bring the price down dramatically too. But perhaps that is not what you want for a mass battle game. I certainly feel 36 models in a maximum size unit puts it well into "mass battle" for me, though.

 Captain Galenus wrote:
especially with ebay providing said models more and more cheaply

Im not sure what ebay you are using but all the LOTR stuff i find on ebay is more overpriced then GW.

Sooooo many auctions of things you can still get listed for OVER retail price. And some of those have bids too!
Sons of eorl sell for about $15 + shipping on ebay. But you can get them from GW direct for $13.25.

Yeah, I'm really bad at using Ebay but I have the same problem. Everything I find is so close to retail that I don't consider it worth the risk and hassle of dealing with Ebay sellers.

 Da Boss wrote:
Yeah, I'm really bad at using Ebay but I have the same problem. Everything I find is so close to retail that I don't consider it worth the risk and hassle of dealing with Ebay sellers.

Thats how I feel too.

When I was young lord of the rings used to be way cheaper than most GW models and they used to have heaps of cool sets too. I wish I had purchased models back then instead of trying to start it now.

The way with ebay is to look for job lots etc. where you can get lots of models for a reduced price and you can resell any you may not use. What you say is true though, i find that people can get so caught up with bidding to win that they don't realise they have left the retail far behind

Yeah, EBay is best for buying 20+ minis at once. Even though it has become more expensive as GW have driven the cost up, there are still plenty of 'army lots' that are way cheaper than rrp.

You have to watch out for what people have labled OOP like 24 man boxes of plastic. I have seen those listed for $75. Fog at barrow downs box is usually listed just under $200 but to buy them in resin vs metal is less then half the cost. If metal comes with that big of a premium to you then i guess go for it.