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I have a bunch of skeleton minis that I've been thinking of using for LotR SBG somehow. Mainly because the thought of painting more Orcs makes me wince.

Sadly, as much as I like Tolkien, there is a distinct lack of reanimated skeletons walking around. Plenty of ghostly things in the LotR game, but no skellies that I know of.

So I'm trying to find a way to use the skeletons as 'counts-as' proxy figures for some other entry. For instance, to count as Orcs in a Dol Guldur army, to put some necromancy in the Necromancer. It would be a bit more lurid and sword 'n' sorcery than the usual LotR SBG style, but it's just for fun.

The trouble is, I can't really find a troop type or stat line that would be a good fit for skeletons. Does anyone have a good idea what to count them as?

Ideally they should be weak, but cause Terror because they're dead. They could also have high Courage, although that's not essential, as failing a Courage test and being removed could simply represent them falling to bits. They can use a range of ordinary weapons (hand weapons, shields, spears, etc.) but have no weird powers like Spectres do.

For reference, I only have an older edition of LotR SBG (the blue hardback with the ring on the cover, the journeybooks and several of the thin supplements from that era).

The Dead of Dunharrow will have you covered nicely on all accounts.

-Are already ghostly skeletons.
-Not "weak" per-se given that they have Defense 7, but are expensive, so you wont have as many of them.
-Cause Terror.
-Base Courage of 6.
-Use ordinary weapons
-Only weird power is they can treat water as open ground, but that's completely ignoreable.

Why not just make a stat-line up.

Snrub wrote:The Dead of Dunharrow will have you covered nicely on all accounts.

-Are already ghostly skeletons.
-Not "weak" per-se given that they have Defense 7, but are expensive, so you wont have as many of them.
-Cause Terror.
-Base Courage of 6.
-Use ordinary weapons
-Only weird power is they can treat water as open ground, but that's completely ignoreable.

I considered the Army of the Dead, but they're specifically ghosts, whereas I want actual solid skeletons that walk the earth.

They're also too strong, and too few/expensive. Skellies should be weak but numerous.

They also have that odd rule about attacking an enemy's Courage instead of Defence (at least in the edition of the rules I have), which emphasises their ghostly nature and doesn't suit skeletons.

BaronVonReichspudding wrote:Why not just make a stat-line up.

I may have to do that, but sometimes I play against people who dislike anything not official, so using a counts-as stat line saves arguments.

Dead marsh spectres?

Run them as angmar orcs! They cause terror when near a spirit hero, and there are already ghosts and ringwraiths in the army.

 Commitz wrote:
Run them as angmar orcs! They cause terror when near a spirit hero, and there are already ghosts and ringwraiths in the army.

Exalted for this fantastic idea! It works out so well it's unreal!

Another alternative is to use them as hunter orcs/ Gundabad Orc warriors for the Necromancer of Dol Guldur list?

 Commitz wrote:
Run them as angmar orcs! They cause terror when near a spirit hero, and there are already ghosts and ringwraiths in the army.

Now that's more like it! Thanks for the idea.

Unfortunately I think Angmar Orcs were only introduced after the edition I have. Just checked the old Ruin of Arnor book and there don't seem to be any special Orcs in there, just regular ones. A shame, as that book does have Spectres, Shades, Barrow-wights and a big bat thing, so it's otherwise excellently deadified.

If anyone with the current edition wants to try using skellies this way, the models I'm using are from Warlord Games--though I think they were formerly Wargames Factory minis. They're quite thin and fragile, so they look a bit better for LotR SGB scale than other skeletons, and their weapons are realistically sized instead of chunky.