Hello everyone! This'll be my first ever army in the LoTR SBG (and battle companies).

So, to start with, My army of choise (for now atleast) is Moria. Because I'll be having my Mines of Moria starter set soon and the 'Moria & Angmar' Book and I just got the 'Goblin Captains' blister box.

To the questions:

What should I start buying in order to play BC games?

(I bet I can see this when the book comes, but I'll ask anyway.) Can I use Warg Chief as a Hero choice in BC games and can I have Wargs also?

As I start to get my army bigger and bigger (to 500 - 700p) I thought of taking couple of Trolls and alot of Goblins(not sure if I want to make full Goblin + Troll based army or not) and Balrog(just because I love the model ). So, is the troll + goblin themed army going to endure well against most armies or is it too unbalanced that it wouldnt work?

Any suggestions and such are welcome, critiq and advices you can give to this sneaky lilla fellow. (the funny thing is, I'm more like Uruk-hai or Dunlending warrior than a goblin, I just have a thing for the little guys. X3 )

And thanks for your patience.

_________________
"Let's Dance With Death While Drinking The Poison of Life.."
- ArkkiError
W 0/L 0/D 0

Welcome, hope you like the game, and hope we can help!

I don't play with BC rules, so I can't help you there. The most recent incarnation of the SBG uses warbands, ie: 1 hero per 12 warriors. So you'll need more heroes. The best bang-for-buck in that department is Durburz, he has decent stats and can keep your army together better than most. Another "must-have" for goblins is a shaman...turning on Fury means your little imps will have no trouble charging those terrifying elves, and sometimes they'll survive a hit.

It sounds like you'll want to play with wargs as well. The warg chief is a decent leader so long as you don't send him against other heroes. A good ally for wargs is Druzhag, since he can power them up. The only problem with Druzhag is he's slow (like all goblins) and wargs are fast, so deployment at the beginning of the game is pretty important. So long as we're talking about beasts, I find bats really useful, even better than wargs under Druzhag's spell, and as a great team with trolls to take down tough heroes. My son also like the poison shaman dude (I can't recall his name, I don't have my books handy) because he can upgrade spiders to Venombacks, which have done quite a number on my Gondor forces

If you're not into beasts, there are other goblin troops you might be interested in. Prowlers are very useful for their special rule and throwing weapons, and blackshields cut your casualty rate in half against most good armies and elvish shooting.

As for trolls, I like them for the look and theme and the occasional smash-fest, but sometimes they're just arrow magnets.

As for the Balrog...maybe the new warband rules have changed things, since the scenarios are more objective-based, but if you just play straight-up battles you likely won't have any opponents before too long. It's not that he can't be killed, it's that doing so is a long boring process. You might want to get more familiar with the game before committing to such an expensive model.

Thanks for the advice whafrog!

About Balrog, I thought as much about him while reading the battle reports and decided to get him just for the sake of painting.

anyone tried Watcher? That tentacle guy with ugly face. I bet he costs alot and isnt good in little games (dont really know), but the model is awesome.

Well, spiders shall join my growing warband and the guy you ment, would it be 'Ashrâk The Spiderling' ? Thought of getting that model to be a Shaman (or Drûzhag) but it seems I have to get them both and that goblin king.

Are goblin drummers required? I've heard a thing or two but nothing that would make me consider getting them. :/
Blackshields I should have quessed. but Prowlers were a new info for me, have to add them to the list.

As for trolls, I thought of taking 2 trolls the most. (if they get shot more than I would like, then they are the good for taking the attention away from the spiders. but quite costly attention takers I presume. O-o)

_________________
"Let's Dance With Death While Drinking The Poison of Life.."
- ArkkiError
W 0/L 0/D 0

ArkkiError welcome to the forum and the hobby!

I would wait for your Moria book to arrive before purchasing any models. You wouldn't want to get stuck with models that you won't use, unless you like them as figures!
I think it all depends if you are planning to take your army to the direction of wild beasts or mainly goblins. The good thing about goblins is that they have a lot of options and can be deployed in vast numbers.
From what I know, the Blackshield drum is far superior to the simple Goblin Drum making the Goblin drum somewhat a redundancy.
I would not include the Balrog in an army less that 1000 points, and even then would do so reluctantly. He is just too slow to pose a major threat and your opponent can always disregard him and focus on the objectives of the scenario.

Once again welcome to the community!

Constantine

Yeah, I think I should wait for the book and check. then ask again. but it is nice to know that there are people who are helpful.

_________________
"Let's Dance With Death While Drinking The Poison of Life.."
- ArkkiError
W 0/L 0/D 0

There are a lot of helpful people on this site - which is why I love it so much.

Welcome and I hope you like the game, by the way.

_________________
"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

well lets hope one of the helpful people on this site can answer my question:
what do you meen with bc rules?
thx
martijn

_________________
"tonight you will taste man flesh!"
saruman the white

The only thing I know is that it stands for Battle Companies and that there are a number of topics for battle companies in the Strategy section of the forum. I've never looked through them though...
By the way, a Dragon is a very useful model for an army, especially if guven the appropriate upgrades. Sometimes I ponder on starting a goblin force but the thought of painting bunches of Gobos dissuades me.

Erm, have to ask..

I really havent seen any 'Khandis' warbands? Are they that bad or just plain slaughter machines that no one wants to play against / with them?

I thought of taking them instead of Isengard. (Reasons: I love chinise + japanese + korean history and warfaring. Art of War by Sun Tzu <3 ) Thought of buying the book, if it would make me a little bit better tactician than I am now. (or it just is the dices that make my games go bad...(I play WH fantasy mostly and been playing for a long time.) :/ )

_________________
"Let's Dance With Death While Drinking The Poison of Life.."
- ArkkiError
W 0/L 0/D 0

I don't know a thing about the Khandish, (although the chariots look great) but Sun Tzu's book is purely genius. Its magnificent, thought provoking and awe-inspiring. Buy it now!

I haven't had a chance to play with the new Khand, the profiles are slightly different from what they used to be. I think chariots are still way overpriced for what you get, except the Khandish King looks a little better than he used to. The warrior profiles are soft, but cheap, and have a better than average fight value, if you need some cheap cavalry, a Khandish King in a chariot and a bunch of riders might be fun.

I think few people collect them because they are all metal (maybe soon to be finecast) and cost a lot.

I would so much love to go for Khandish. They just look awesome..even name their warband as: "Red Dawn". I have a banner Idea on a paper already also.

They cost alot..cant really even start to think why. :/ if it is the metal that is the thing, then hopefully it will soon become plastic. =__= (and that the prices will be lower. <.< )

Well, I have to see first that is there going to be anyone who is willing to play. (I know there are some, and couple are little bit interested, so I just have to push them with the Mines of Moria set. X3 )

Eastern Power! (even tho I'm from north.) \o/

_________________
"Let's Dance With Death While Drinking The Poison of Life.."
- ArkkiError
W 0/L 0/D 0

As I now got the 'Moria & Angmar' Book, I thought of this kind of warband list for 500p of Moria:

Leader: Durbûrz With:
12 Moria goblins with 8 shields and 4 spears.

Warband 2: Ashrâk
6 Giant Spiders

Warband 3: Goblin Captain with shield
10 Moria Goblin Prowlers With Two-Handed weapons

Warband 4: Goblin Captain With orc bow
9 Moria Goblins with orc bows

Be gentle, my first list. ^^'

Then I thought of something like this:

750p

Leader: Durbûrz With
10 Gundabad Blackshields with 5 spears

(Allied)Warband 2: Buhrdûr with
2 Cave Trolls with spears

Warband 3: Gundabad Blackshield Captain with
Gundabad Blackshield Drum

Warband 4: Ashrâk with
4 Giant Spiders

Warband 5: Goblin Captain with orc bow
3 Goblins with orc bows


This second one is kinda bizarre. ô_o

Well...opinnions? XD

_________________
"Let's Dance With Death While Drinking The Poison of Life.."
- ArkkiError
W 0/L 0/D 0

I'm wondering if your first list wouldn't beat your second list or it might if there were more spears. Numbers matter in this game, unless you play an all hero army and are good at it.

Consider this: throw a cave troll into a pool of goblins. The odds of him rolling a 6 and auto-winning the fight are pretty good: 42%. But that means 58% chance he will not roll a 6, which is more than half the time. Let's say you have 3 goblins on him, and they have spear support...6 dice. The goblins have a 67% chance of rolling a 6...much better. With enough goblins, every troll will go down. Burdur is no exception, he just has a buffer with Might, but once that is gone, he's toast.

Your first list is pretty good, though I'd drop at least 2 spiders, upgrade the remaining spiders to venombacks, add more spears, swap a couple prowlers for basic goblins with shields, round out your warbands, and maybe add a shaman or a bat. Goblin bows suck, but enough of them can make an impact, and you have enough for a volley line if you need it, so I'd leave that alone.

Out of curiosity, how did you calculate the 42%?

erm, so you can throw mixed models in to a warband? like prowlers and moria goblin warriros mixed?

And I thought I forgot something, and those spiders it was. yeah, two away and rest the poisons. And wouldnt Ashrâk work as a shaman? o.o or did I read something wrong..=.=
so, basicly, fewer shields and more spears?

_________________
"Let's Dance With Death While Drinking The Poison of Life.."
- ArkkiError
W 0/L 0/D 0

Yup, why not? It's very handy.

You need a spearman for every shieldman, and another for each of your heroes/captains, ideally. I'm not what you'd call a great SBG expert either (WotR for the win!), so I can't really say how good your lists are beyond that base.

_________________
"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

http://www.edcollins.com/backgammon/diceprob.htm

Basically you take the number of dice, and the chances of each die *not* being a 6, and multiply them together, so:

5/6 x 5/6 x 5/6 = 125/216 = 58%

You can certainly mix the warriors in warbands. In fact I'd recommend it, you can then put a few elite with each warband.

I'd probably take a few less Prowlers to get more Goblin Warriors. Split them something like 5 goblins with spears, 4 with shields and 3 prowlers with two-handed weapons in the 2 warbands.