Coming late to LotR

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

Hey all, I'm just getting started putting together an LotR force (for the strategy battle game). My club has a lot of guys who really like the game, and I'm a bit burned out on WFB at the moment.

I'm starting a goblin force and though I really didn't like the models at first, I'm warming up to them. Painted like 15 of them this past weekend over a total of around 6 hours - pretty big change from WFB there!

Anyway, I'm curious what those of you who've played the game think of it, and if you have much experience with Misty Mountain lists I'd love to hear it. Right now I'm building towards about 70 gobbos, 2 trolls, and 3 gobbo captains, but I've got warg-riders and a bunch of orcs/uruk-hai that I can dig into as well.

Finally, is there a place to find LotR files for Armybuilder 2.x?

Thanks! (he said, not expecting to get a lot of replies)

[ungorlucky]

A lot of the guys I know who are into LOTR have gone heavily into War of the Ring.

This is a fast paced fun game with no ceiling limit on model numbers.

[mrtn]

I've never played it, but I got the old LotR starter set in the box when I bought a Death Guard army, and the rules seem pretty neat, so I'd love to hear how you're getting on.

[Pat man freedom]

I'm eyeing it up. Would be easterlings though moria was my second choice.

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

Well, I've played a bit with it just to learn the rules. The rules are very intriguing. I can see how the game could get very deep strategy-wise. The armies seem balanced - though if you want to play 'hero-hammer' you can still do that. Unlike with WFB, though, it doesn't appear to wreck the balance factor - that's a pretty uninformed opinion on my part though!

I think what finally pushed me to try it out was my realization that I always enjoyed Warbands style games - fast & fun - and every LotR game is essentially like that (though not as fast).

You can get the models cheap too, though that's not really my personal concern.

On a side note, I painted up a troll last night. I think that puts me around 1/3 finished with the army. I'm definitely digging the speed with which you can crank out an army!

[ukrocky]

Well, well, well.

LoTR is by far my favourite game and I play pretty much all of them (Hordes, WFB, 40k, Bbowl etc...). Love it man! If you get a chance, when the websites back up, check out lastalliance.com, and deffo come to the GT if your in UK.

Goblins are a cracking starter army, you can pretty much ally with anyone once you get confident with the rules. If you can borrow a copy of Legions of Middle earth do, and if you wanna know out just ask on here, I'll keep an eye on it, I've used pretty much every army...

Love LoTR too much....

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

I'm not in the UK, but I appreciate the invite Good to hear there are pockets of LotR fanatics thriving out there!


I've got to put the finishing touches on my last 40 goblins and then I should be just about ready to rock. I need to pick up another troll, though.

Do you have any experience with Bat Swarms and Spiders? Can they be viable replacements for Cave Trolls? I'm just thinking down the road on how to expand the army and give myself a little variety. Most of my clubmates are fond of pushing Ringwraiths, but I'd rather take the road less travelled. I know I can pull in allies - and I definitely will down the line (I love all the dead angmar stuff!) - but I'd like a diverse and fun all-goblin force first.

So here was my thinking - I can get 4 spiders and 2 bat swarms for the price of a 2 trolls. I figure I could scatter some Goblin Prowlers in there to make room from a model count standpoint. But I fret over how soft that makes the army. No defense anywhere, and about the only thing keeping the spiders and bats alive is as many in-the-way rolls as I can muster.

[ukrocky]

Bats are one of my favourite things in the game, with 4 wounds apiece and heroes absolutely terrified of them, they're great, but they NEED to be teamed up with a hero, I often team up with a Spider Queen or Wild Warg Chieftan and they can take down pretty much any hero in the game, although someone like Durburz (Who, in my opinion, is essential for a gobbo army) would work fine as well.

Spiders are useful against somethings but cack against others, but I still take them, they can be pretty nasty!

I am not a big fan of trolls, nor are many tournament players, they get stopped so easily and are so many points, so yes, I would reccomend spiders and bats.

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

Brilliant! Thanks for the replies and insight!

I love the Wild Warg Cheiftain as well. It may be the only Warg model truly worth painting Do you find the regular Wild Wargs any good in practice? I thought they sounded ace until I realized they don't get knockdowns.

Spider Queens I'll have to look at a little closer. I've heard they are the building blocks of one of the nastier builds - nasty enough to have TOs limit their use. But I could see how they'd be useful as an ally. I like the picture in my head of goblins cackling evilly as she emerges from the shadows

Trolls are easy to stop, are they? This is my noob brain thinking here, but thought with a swarm of goblins around their feet that they'd be a little harder target with shooting or feed single models to. Can you elaborate?

[mrtn]

HSHP, how about posting up a painting diary or something?

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

I've got a couple pics in my photobucket account. I see what I can do

[ukrocky]

Alreete;

Wild Wargs - Are cack, but I use them for theme

Wild Warg Cheiftans - Pretty nifty

Cave Trolls - Well let's just say any spellcaster makes sure these things are useless, and it's got hero level stats with no might, something like that needs might, add onto this that yes it's got goblins around it's feet, but somethings gonna shoot it, and it's slow for 80pts...

Spider Queens - Sigh, here we go again. Well, as singles they aren't bad, as multiples they are horrific. People were taking 4/5 to the UKGT (Me included, I was going through my 'cheese' phaze - long gone). Doubles GT rolled around so naturally, me and my mate James took 8 (All 8 are mine), and the guys from the design studio played us and well, they got banned. This is also the same point I stopped cheesy armies...

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

I tried out the cave trolls that I have yesterday, and yes indeed they were sorely lacking in Might when I needed it. I failed 6-7 priorities in a row, so I couldn't interdict where needed. I'm hamstrung at the moment because that's all I've got, but I look to expand in the near future.

For now, I guess they need to have goblin heroes follow them wherever they go.

[ukrocky]

Aye gobbo captain and troll's together are nice, what are your regular opponents going to be (If you know)?

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

They're all over the place:

Easterlings
Mordor orcs
Rohan
Kazad Guard-heavy dwarves (played them over the weekend)
Galadhrim
Grey Company
Hobbits

Some of the guys in the club have multiple factions with lots of variation. Guys appear to favor heavy armor or shooting in most situations. Throwing some armor and F4 in there and using the goblins as archers and spearmen seems like a good way to develop the force. That, and bat swarms! Bat swarms seem like they'd be uber.