Hi people, ive recently decided to play LOTR. But I have a couple questions before actually buying the stuff i need.

First of all, im not very intrested in The Hobbit, i want to play LOTR armies. Is it okay if i get the little rulebook included in "escape from goblin town" and then LOTR sourcebooks?

Is it effective to mix different armies in a single list? For example, using moria and mordor or rohan and rivendel togheter. I assume there are some combinations that are more powerfull than others, but in general terms, is it better to stay with a single list or to mix armies? I dont really care to use "anachronic" armies.

Are there any armies simply not worth getting (gamewise, not miniswise)? Im a Warhammer player and since i started playing, both Wood Elves and Ogres are super underpowered, id like to avoid that kind of army.


Thanks in advance, JD

Yeah, the little rulebook from EfGT has the new rules, but the army books (Kingdom of Men, Free Peoples, etc.) have the stats and stuff. Gamewise, Hobbits are a bad army, and it's generally fairly balanced on the points/effectiveness ratio. I personally prefer dwarves or Gondor (strong armour, lots of options). Allying is essential for some armies (the aforementioned dwarves, for example), and it allows them to have the troops that are desperately needed. The dwarves can ally in some Rohan cavalry, for example. Pretty sure there's a 25% limit on how much your army can have allies.
I'd say it's better to ally in what the army needs. Also, unless it's a massive battle, don't bother with any siege weapons. It's just not worth the points cost for a weapon you'll only fire once or twice.

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There is no 25% limit on allies actually, your army can be as allied as you want

Hobbits have their uses, cheap models, the army you really want to avoid no matter how tempting is Rohan, every unique feature they have is a limitation, they are pretty much unplayable.

Also, welcome!!

Here are some pointers:
Good can ally with all good , evil with all evil, no evil with good or vise versa
Moria (horde usualy) average defence, good selection of monsters, heroes with buffs for the lil guys, And very cheap and remarkably effective troops rarely need allying, I wouldn't go for drums as they eat up alot of points, that could be spent on say 20 goblins, there are some half decent spell casters in moria note if you get good at using different buffing tactics Moria is unstopable

Harad: (elite/semi elite) NO MAGIC, low defence however Harad contains some of the best fighters in the game (half trolls, Abrakaan guards, watchers of kaarna etc...), it also sports some amazing archery, such as corsair arbalesters, and the warriors of harad and their poisoned arrows, and final note on these guys, the mahuds camels cause an automatic Strength 4 hit when they charge. No need to ally Harad

Isengard: (Elite or horde)plenty of powerful heroes and strong units(with S4 units), potent magic, variety of models to choose from.
Uruk-hai are good but not cheap in points, these guys also have access to cavalry, can benefit from allying but is a solid list

Eastern kingdoms: (elite) poor selection of troops, expensive units, average strength; High fight values, chariots are monsters and manoeuvrable, only give them to heroes though; Khamul is a badass, this army has acces to pikes and the models look really good too, I would sugest allying this with other evil armies

Durins folk: (elite)Slow, no cavalry, no monsters, no spears; Awesome and effective heroes (cheap at that), Highest defence in game base troops, above average Fight and courage values, Strongly advise allying if you want more attacks and manoeuvrability

Elves: (elite) expensive units and heroes, no monsters, low defence for wood elves, average for galadrim and high for rivendell, arguably best archers in the game, access to amazing heroes, highest fight and courage troops in the entire game; never forget about legolas! Very powerful magic and nasty tricks too
make good allies to other factions

Wanderers in the wild: (elite) Some of the best monsters in the game, and very fun units like the woses too, tacticaly challenging this list make great allies for other good armies

Mordor: (hordes/semi elite/elite) Mordor probably has the greatest selection of heroes,warriors, monsters and magic in the game, ranging from Sauron himself(not a monster) all the way to an orc tracker, Morranon, orcs, nazgul, mordor trolls and the named orc captains are all great choices, but a special mention goes to shagrat warleader, simply put he's a brutal killing machine, this list also has cavalry, Mordor rarely need allies, however the odd bat swarm never hurts

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As you asked in your original post, it is almost always advantageous to ally troops from different factions (ie Dwarves with Elves etc). As a bit of a purist however I strongly recommend against it, for me personally, it is much more satisfying to have to plan strategically against the weaknesses inherit within each faction. This is probably due in large part to previous table-top games I have played where allying was not an option and the challenge made it that much more fun.

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Harad do have access to magic. They can take the betrayer and Knight of Umbar, both of whom can cast magic.

And for moria drums, always try and take gundabad drums instead. I find drums invaluable in my moria army. 18" banner? Yes please. +1 courage on the battlefield? Yes please.

Isengard: one word. Feral Uruk hai. Most underrated unit in the game. Dr Grant will attest to their awesomeness.

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Hi JD. Welcome to the site - you've asked a good question and I'm pleased to see the members chipping in with solid advice.

The thing about the Lord of the Rings game is that you're playing a strategy game in a richly detailed world with strong stories that can be told on the battlefield - it's not all about winning games and planning the most balanced army.

A lot of the beauty of this game lies in the underpinning back story - Rohan and Dwarves make a powerful combination, with the speed and flexibility of the cavalry combined with the sturdiness and field artillery of the Dwarves. But would they ever have combined forces in Middle-earth? Erebor and the Iron Hills are a long way from Rohan.

But it's all about how you want to play the game and so feel free to forge alliances between whatever factions you like (within the rules of course) and enjoy yourself.

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Dagster

Dagorlad makes a good point about the nature of the game, whereas in Warhammer 40k/Fantasy, where your army has to have X number of 'core' units, Y number of 'elites', and Z number of 'rare' units, in Lotr/Hobbit SBG there are almost no restrictions as to how you want to build your army.

As long as you have at least 1 hero for every 12 soldiers in your army (and that hero is from the same army as that particular bunch of soldiers), you are fine. You can field 6-7 big elf heroes if it pleases you, but at the same time you could field well over a hundred goblins for the same points cost.

Welcome! Hope you enjoy it.



In a word, nope. I mean, well, sure, some require a little more finesse, or you need allies to bring missing abilities to the table, but I think you'll find this game is a lot more balanced in general. It really is more about the flavour you want, and there is a lot more satisfaction to be had with epic moments or achieving scenario goals.

If you wanted to start with something forgiving, Uruk-hai or Dwarves are probably your best bet. On the other end of the scale are Khand, all-cavalry Rohan, and Wood Elves...tougher to learn (though once you do, Wood Elves are one of the top competitors).

Hey Dag, you happened to catch my attention with that last sentence there. Did you know Gimli went to Aglarond(The deep caverns that lay behind Helm's Deep in the White Mountains) in the Fourth Age and founded a colony there? Gimli became known as Lord of the Glittering Caves. Seems like an awesome background story for an army to me. IMO, JD, Dwarves are a very formidable army when allied with spears and/or cavalry, and even without.

http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/a/aglarond.html
http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/l/lordofth ... caves.html

Yep Sir Richard, I was aware of that. But by the time that happened, the Ring had been destroyed and the armies of Mordor, Isengard and Moria were dispersed. However, having said that, the folk of Rohan originally came from the lands along the northern reaches of Greenwood the Great, adjacent to Erebor and the Grey Mountains so might have had dealings with the Dwarves of that region. Who knows, there may have been a deep friendship between these two peoples that spanned the centuries.

See what I mean about a strong backstory? It's wonderfully rich and reading the books and the appendices would give you a lot of ideas for forging alliances that actually make sense.

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Dagster

Also wanted to contest this statement. No army "needs" allies to even be competetive, most are fine just as they are. Dwarves (if you are considering them) absolutely do not need allies to be competitive. Dwarves are my "main army" if you will, and I've been playing them since they only had 2 troop choices lol and I'm still undefeated with them, so I'd say they're doing fine flying solo.

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I always forget about the 2 harad nazgul, i apologise

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Hey guys, thanks for the advice!

Im almost sure that im going to build a Mordor/Isengard army and a Elves (dont know which yet)/minas thirith army. Do you think these are good combinations? Which Elves list fits better with Minas Tirith? Gamewise, as I said before, I dont really care about going against middle earth history and all elve models look cool to me

Im about to buy the following models rather cheap:
-Mordor troll and witch king on fellbeast (as a set, i cant buy only one of them)
-Blalck numenoreans and black guard of barad-dur (same as above)

Are any of this units bad? I know im still mising some cheaper units, and that both the mordor troll and the witch king on fellbeast are rather expensive for small games. But will they be usefull in the future?

And today I bought my first two minis! Two ringwraiths

Im really glad the game is rather well balanced, the huge amount of powercreep in WHF is one of the things that are driving me away from it.

Also... what an active comunity! Its great to see that in just a couple of days ive got like 10 posts helping me

All those units you listed above are very solid units. The Witch-king is far more effective on Fell Beast (its easy enough to see why) and Mordor Trolls with the new Hobbit Monster rules is a force to be reconed with. Black Guard and Black Nemenor are very solid as well, both make pretty good elites/heavy troops.

I do like the Mordor/Isengard mix, it fits story-wise gives you a wide range of units to select from. You might even find Isengard almost unnecesary (only almost) simply beccause Mordor also has Uruks at their disposal (Isengard's are better thou). Be sure to get a few shamen, both Orc and Uruk-hai (especially Uruk-hai).

For the Elves/Gondor list I'd combine Galadrim elves with your Minas Tirith Army. The better fight, courage, and archery will definately help your Gondorians, while your Warriors of MT have good survivability in their defense. Understand though that mixing these two will lead to you almost always being outnumbered (probably by a significant margin) so you always need to keep that in mind when deploying and even selecting your army-lists.

And of course good luck in your matches.

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