I've got a friend coming round on Thursday. He has an Isengard army that I haven't fought yet. He has two Isengard trolls and his army is mostly common formations plus Lurtz, but he's bringing along a Balrog as an ally. It's a 2000pt army.

I thought i'd put my Elves to the test against him with my Gondorians as allies.

This is what i've come up with so far:

Elves:

Infantry x2 companies + 1 Captain
x2 companies + Elrond (i'm splitting the Elves to deal with multiple orc formations)
Archers x5 companies + Legolas
+ Trollbane
(Troll killing archer formation hopefully)

Wood Elf Archers with longbows x2 + Hornblower (i'm thinking mobile hit and run)
Wood Elf Infantry with Glaives x4 + Captain (ambushers)

Gondorians allies:

Infantry x4 companies + Boromir
x4 companies
Archers x4 companies

(i'm using the Gondorian infantry formations to try and hold still the trolls and the Balrog while the Elves shoot them)

These are my initial thoughts. Got a few points spare, 50ish, but not many. What would you guys do?

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"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?" - Gandalf

first and formost, format your army list.

epics
elrond
legolas
boromir

commons

rares

legandary


and say what is what. you just say infanty, but what is that??? there are lots of infanty options


back to the army, forget getting any upgrades apart from MAYBE some captains, but still, just get epics instead of captains. never get glaives. troll bane is never worth it
rewrite up your list in the format i showed you, then ill be able to help you more since ill know what your actully taking...

Ok, found out my opponent is now fielding a Mordor army with two trolls, a nazgul (don't know which) and a Balrog ally.

2000pts

Epics
Boromir (175)
Elrond (215)
Legolas (200)

Commons
1x4 companies of High Elf Warriors (220) (plus Elrond)
1x5 Companies of High Elf Archers (280)

1x4 Companies of Minas Tirith Warriors (100) (plus Boromir)
1x4 Companies of Minas Tirith Warriors (100)
1x4 Companies of Minas Tirith Archers (120)

Rares
1x6 Companies of Mirkwood Sentinals (300)

So Elves at 1215, Gondor at 495. So Gondor at the limit as allies in a 2000 point army. 285 to play with for the Elves.

Legolas with the Mirkwood Sentinals or High Elf archers? Suggestions on spending the extra points?

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"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?" - Gandalf

Archers normally work better in smaller formations.

I personally don't like Elrond much; he's really expensive and not amazing. Instead of him you could get Thranduril and Haldir, a much better option in my opinion.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Good point and Thranduril more in keeping with the Mirkwood theme. Won't I be needing a caster though to stop immobalise the Trolls though while the archers take them down?

Normally i'd agree about archer formations but the thinking behind the massive Elf archer formations is so that either Galadhrim bows or Troll bane applies to as many archers as possible to bring to bear on the trolls and Balrog. Six companies of Mirkwood Sentinals with Galadhrim bows and Legolas would be pretty good would it not?

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"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?" - Gandalf

gandalf should be seriously considered. his blinding light will annihilate the balrog (BL him then duel + epic strike), other wise the balrog will totally rickroll you (you have nothing that can really take him out)

I considered Gandalf, but thought I could only have one faction allied. I just reread the rules and I see that it can be two or more as long as they don't come to more than 25%. So yes I might go with Gandalf.

Only problem is i'll have to reduce my Gondorians, which i'm loathe to do, since they are going to be holding back the orcs and Trolls from my archers. I don't want to lose the fantastic (in my opinion) Boromir either.

Hmm...

_________________
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?" - Gandalf

Thranduril can cast some spells.

Galadhrim bows is a really bad option. Troll bane is almost as bad.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Sounds like everything is bad, did they even play test the game before release?

So what is a good Fortune to take for an Elf army vs. Mordor? Also i'm now wondering Saruman the White instead of Gandalf (or do i defiantely need Gandalf against the Balrog)?

I've decided that since my friend is using a Balrog this must be a second age battle, so this is what i've come up with now...

Alliance Army of the Second Age

Epics
Thranduril (125)
Gil Galad (300)
Haldir (75)
Gandalf the Gray (200)
Isildur (85)

Commons
X4 High Elf Warriors (220)
X4 High Elf Archers (300)
X4 Minas Tirith Warriors (100) + Gandalf
X4 Minas Tirith Warriors (100) + Isildur

Rares
X3 High Elf Cohort (180) + Gil Galad
X3 Mirkwood Sentinals (150) + Thranduril
X3 Mirkwood Sentinals (150) + Haldir


Elves 1500
Gondorians 285
Gandalf 200

Total: 1985 (so what to spend the last 15 on and is Isildur worth having at all?)

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"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?" - Gandalf

Sometime I get the impression that they didn't...

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

i dont think the sentinals will serve you very well.... they are expensive d3 models... and fyi, shooting is worthless in wotr (all my armies have no ranged stuff save magic), bows deal FAR to little damage and bows dont get to shoot much b4 they get smashed in cc. and the sentinals special rule is silly, most formations have a hero in them or a hero nearby w/ inspiring leader....
seriously, high elf cohort is the way to go (your low on numbers so you want high defense so you dont die to.... anything)

and yes, GW did 1 playtest of this b4 they released it. Their conclusion was that it was kinda fun

Not to mention noticably cleaner and more balanced than their other two mass battle games. I often introduce WOTR as "pretty good for a mainstream GW game."
I think GW is probably always going to be stuck in their paradigm of individual models and special characters but WOTR at least puts them on fixed bases and takes the base as a unit for many things. Pity about the one-dice per model remaining in there. Baby steps.

And yes, 'kinda fun' (along with 'uses lots of models' and 'has space of special characters') does seem to be the primary design objective.

It is the same phenomenom with those ex-GW players who now rave about 'Kings of War', makes sense when you consider their basis for comparision...

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com