Hello everyone,

I'm returning to the LOTR SBG after about a ten year absence. When I last played, I was 11 years old, broke, and struggling to really enjoy the hobby. Now as I've gotten a little older, have a decent paying job, and a little bit more skill to devout to the hobby, I'm back in the game. As of now, I have a hodge podge of various figures from every force imaginable. Right now, I have just short of 200$ American to spend to hopefully complete an army or two as well as grab some basic hobby supplies. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to spend my money? I'd like to stay away from the Goblin Town starter said due to it's inability to really contribute to building an army. I'm also not in love with any of the Hobbit figures due to their price and limits. Any thoughts would be appreciated?

Pm sent man.

In addition, welcome back! Always nice to hear someone has the ability to get back. The economy sucks and inflation on all levels does too. I was blessed to have a family that supported me in the past and to have gotten a job that pays for my hobby now.

Do tell me, what figures do you have? Also, what country origin?

And yeah Goblin town has a hefty price tag for you being able to complete an army with so much left over. But after that all you really need are some dwarves or more goblin heros. But I digress....

Whats your favorite force and what are you most likely to come with?

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

First off, hi, second off, what models do you like? SBG is literally the best game in the world where even if a model doesn't have a great profile, it can still pay it's points back if used correctly, because of this there is rarely any tactical disadvantage of basing an army around a model just because you like the model/character.

My first purchase if I were you would be the big hardback hobbit rulebook, it has the most up to date rules in it, and although costly and weighty, I think it is worth every penny. Once you've given the rules a thorough read you will probably have a solid idea of what kind of army you want use. Generally speaking though the best way to build an army is this:

Good:
Get a big named hero (Thorin, Legolas, Thranduil, Boromir, Arathorn etc)
Choose an 'elite' (metal/finecast) troop unit (Iron Guard, Sons of Eorl, Fountain court guard etc)
Buy a few of them (8 is a good number)
Choose a 'standard' (plastic) troop unit (preferably one with spears)

When purchasing though, keep in mind that armies now have to be divided into warbands (up to 12 troops being led by a hero of their faction). So if you go and spend all your money on Aragorn and 120 Warriors of Minas Tirith you will need another 11 Gondor heroes.

Anyhoo, what faction are you looking at getting into?

First step, if you don't want goblin town (although you almost get a decent force of goblins, ally in some harder troops and it's there), then the Hardback Rulebook is your best bet.

After that, it's open season, really. Although some forces are more or less competitive, unless you're hardcore tourney material, everything is fine. And the game is generally well balanced enough that a poor force well played can out fight a great force averagely played.

Pick a plastic kit you like the look of, say Easterling Warriors or something. Then grab a hero and the relevant supplement book. Leaf through the book, and expand at your leisure. (To continue the example, you might grab the Easterling Warriors and Amdur. Once you've looked through the book, you might then decide to grab another box of warriors, the commanders set and a box of kataphracts.)

But generally - start with the Rules, then a boss and a box. You can't really go far wrong at that level, just make sure they're something you like visually.

Thanks for the speedy responses everyone. Just a bit of an update. I am located in Denver, CO where I am fortunate enough to have a local Games Workshop. What I currently have is:

24x Moria Goblins
Cave Troll
Eomer mounted
Theoden mt
Gamling mt
3x Khaza Guard
24x Warriors of Rohan
20x Mordor Orcs
1x Ringwraith Mtd
1x Gorthmog Mtd
15x Uruk hai Warriors
8x Warriors of Minas Tirith
Haldir
3x Mordor Uruk hai

What you need more than anything is heroes. Is that what you brought for your 200 bucks.

No. I haven't spent any. All those models are from the last time I played about 10 years ago.

I think rohan, mordor and moria are the main armies you could go from there. I think getting the goblin town rulebook off ebay would be the best then getting the sorcebook(s) required for your force. I would personally collect one good and one evil army so that if you want to recruit friends then you can just us your armies. However 200 dollars wont get you much now with price increases. Try and get the foot versions of the mounted heroes on ebay if you choose one of those armies. Armies like mordor,rohan and moria can be found cheap on ebay.

I don't really have any particular ties to any of my older models, but people had asked so I posted the list. I really don't care for Rohan but at the time I played, they were one of the more popular units. I tend to lean towards the evil side. Especially Isengard, Harad, and Mordor. Moria is somewhat appealing due to numbers and monsters, but the lack or recognizable heroes is frustrating. I also like Azog but the prices on the hobbit figures are out of control, to me anyway.

I would also like to field a good army of possibly rangers of gondor or dwarfs.

If you go dwarves I gotta tell ya even the old ones arent cheap on ebay. Cuz the hobbit movies of course.

And rangers are a higher value lot too.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

If you want the best bang for buck, that would probably be Harad, with maybe some corsairs. The reason is your core troops are plastic, and you can make, for relatively little cost, a pretty effective force with just a few boxes of warriors and corsairs. Throw in a box of raiders, a couple blisters of elites like watchers of karna, a few foot and mounted captains, Suladan, a hasharin, and a wraith (maybe even on fell beast), and you should have something pretty flexible.

Isengard might also work, since the legion troops are plastic, but to get the most out of them you'll want quite a few elites like xbows, berzerkers, etc.

So I have a few questions,

Are rangers (dwarvan or gondorian) viable in competitive or will an army build around them get stomped?

How much better are fighting Uruk hai over Uruk hai scouts.

and which point limit should I aim for at first?

I'm headed to Games workshop tomorrow, but have very little idea what to buy. I will be buying some figures from eBay, but my Games workshop is so friendly, i have a hard time not trying to support them to some degree.

In terms of pure competitive armies I would say that rangers are nothing special. Capable of holding their own no doubt but they have no "edge" over other models. You may want a second opinion though as I haven't used them too much.

The Uruk-Hai scouts are decent once upgraded and combined with Mauhur are a nimble warband. Combining them with any other hero is problematic though as they won't have the same 8" move as your troops do. The fighting Uruk-Hai are generally considered better. Thematically you can comfortably include Feral uruks and Berserkers which are your elite models that you will almost certainly want. Crossbowmen which are better than scouts with bow. You can also get some support troops with the pikes. I personally consider the fighting Uruk-Hai a solid army.

500 points is generally considered the sweet spot and most first armies aim for that. You can alter your warbands to drop down to 400 but another box and hero and you can easily go up to 700/750.

The most important thing to remember though is just go with the models/armies which you like. I could probably win lots of games with goblins but I wouldn't enjoy doing it!

Hope this helps

So I've decided to go wit dwarfs for sure for my good army and will be ehading to GW tomorrow to grab some rangers and possibly a hero. Still having trouble deciding on an evil army.

Get some standard dwarf/erebor warriors too bro, the highest draw of dwarves is getting defence 7 soldiers!

I definitley will. Just the rangers for now. I'm trying to decide between warriors, grim hammers, and erober dwarves. Also, I need a hero.

For Dwarves the old Balin model; Balin, Son of Fundin is a great start. Also I'd recommend Dwarf warriors over the other two you listed, as they can be in the same warbands as your Dwarf rangers while the erebor dwarves and grim hammers cannot

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Grim Hammers are generally considered to be a poor choice, and not worth their points. A shame, because of course they are made of all kinds of awesome, modelling wise.

I plan on buying a box, and kit bashing 24 Erebor Dwarves out of the grim hammers, and erebor dwarves I already own.

But don't use the profile for Grimhammers, is what I'm trying to say .

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