Hi Hydraface,
To give you an idea, here is what a mate runs at 1000pts - we do our best to give each others' armies a solid and sutained 'testing'
, so I think it is a good example for a 1000pt list:(The unit Shaman is IMO iffy, you are better off allying in Khadush, but we've peer-pressured the line that allying Non-Forgotten Kingdoms spellcasters is just sad, unless you are a learner - the player is not a learner. Personally, I would go for three more coy of warbands)
Saruman
'I can't believe it's not Thrydan' (an Uruk impersonating Thrydan, he inspires men by eating some)
4xShield Uruks (I agree they are more expensive than I'd like, General Elessar. However, str4 actually does help in a lot of matchups and they are still dead hard)
Ruin Shaman (Shatter shields and Dark Fury are both worthwhile at different points of the battle)
3xShield Uruks
3xcrossbow Uruks
5x 2HW Orcs
4x Feral Orcs
Essentially, if you can keep Saruman alive, you can do a heap of damage to the enemy with 2HW troops, xbows and Ruin spells, while Uruks with shields tend to hang around a lot. If you adopt a -_- formation with Shield Uruks to the front and xbows w Saruman to the rear, you can keep them firing while making it impossible to charge and duel out the spellcaster until they evetually flank the army or wear down the guys in the front.
It is always tough to beat that army. Its str 4 does a number on my Carn Dum army. I had to give in and put Aragorn into my Gondor army to beat it last time.