Hello everyone! I am a huge fan of everything lord of the rings, and an on and off player of warhammer /40k and with the release of the new edition of the Lord of the Rings game I decided to pick up the rule book but now face the obstical of choosing an army to collect. So of the list below which do you think is best or just the most fun (i play mostly for fluff and enjoyment, not a huge powergamer) I would like a fairly jack of all trades type force, and shy away from masses of cheap units. Thanks in advanced for helping me choose

Good:
Dwarves
Men
Elves
Hobbits (are they even a viable choice?)

Evil:
Easterlings

I think Rohan are very fun to play as. Also dwarves are fun I'd say both are good fluff-wise too

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'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

The new dwarves coming out this year (we assume) from the hobbit look amazing, could be done really fluffy and can still use the older models as well.

Easterlings are also a good jack of all trades force, especially when you can add other groups like Khand.

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QOTN: "Bronzed flesh is a terrible name, it should never be used for painting flesh or bronze" - at the local GW

I think that, unless if you want to run an all hero list, or a sort of 'standard' army comprised of regular soldiers and heroes, then evil is your best bet as they, generally have more variety in their lists.

That said, Easterlings are pretty much like an evil version of gondor, albeit with ringwraiths and no rangers. Dwarves are a good choice given that there will be alot of (presumably rather good) stuff released for them to coincide with the hobbit.

Dwarves are my favorites but truth be told they are not a jack-of-all-trades army. They lack mobility and speed and will mostly be outnumbered.

Gondor is good-all-around while not being overly specialized in some aspects, (as Dwarves and Elves are). I would therefore suggest Gondor as an army that can field viable troops from every category.

The Easterlings are also a fine choice. Easterling warriors form the backbone of the army while Khandish horsemen and warriors provide disposable troops and skirmish cavalry. Furthermore a king with a chariot is a helpful addition since it benefits from the new monster rules. Additionally Easterlings have access to magic through Khamul.

Elves
100%
High elves or a mix of wood and high elves.

a few elves can cope with almost twice their number of goblins or orcs, and, if you add one of the powerful heroes, many, many more.

Rivendell knights are being released in February along with a new elrond and Lindir

their archery is the best in the game, which means that, by the time the enemy gets to your front line, a large proportion of them will be dead (unless your dice rolling is very, very poor).

They have magical heroes in cirdan and stormcallers and other heroes (elrond, gildor and arwen) also have a few spells. I find that archers can even be your front line in battle, as, if the enemy manage to dodge all of your arrows, you can put elrond in the front line too and blow up the remaining guys using natures wrath

i find that it is useful to ally with the wood elves for the sentinels and galadhrim cavalry, however, soon, i won't have to ally in the cavalry as rivendell knights are coming.

Although there are very few troop types, you can build a flexible army by using different heroes and allying in different units from the wood elves

Hope this helps,

LordElrond

P.S. If you have any questions, just ask