Hi guys,
I have not yet decided which army from the Hobbit I want to start building. So far I have just supplemented my the Lord of the ringes armies with some hobbit models.
Any recommentdations?
Also i wonder if it can work well with a mirkwood force only made up of rangers and palace guards as troops? (haven't seen the rules for theese troops yet)
Heroes will prob. be Thranduil, legolas greenleaf, Tauriel, captains + one or 2 eagles.

Playing with only Rangers and Palace Guard is hard....really hard. You are playing an elite heavy force with half your list at defense 3. You will lose alot before you get good with this race. I really suggest bringing normal Mirkwood Elves in the race to compliment the elite units. The race is really good and fun to play, but does require some positioning skills and some flexibility. If you bring the Palace Guard, you should definetly carry a banner. You have minimal attacks and you need more dice to make sure you win the fight. If you lose, your rangers will die fast.

As he said its very difficult. All of your troops are almost 15 points each.......

And yes their defense is pretty weak as well.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

well he can still make a decent force with rangers and palace guard, although, like legion said, you need to know how to play with them.

The only problem for those who might want to start mirkwood/hobbit army seems kinda relutant getting finecast mirkwood elves to serve as the army backbone.

Still my recommendations would be that you leave the Battle of the Five armies models out of your army gathering except the mirkwood elves (infantry)

If you manage to:

- get the basic versions of:
- thranduil, king of mirkwood
- legolas greenleaf
- tauriel

You should get the basic heroes (which are somesort cheap on elven standarts and simply enough to do their roles well)

characters like Thranduil, king of the woodland realm and such, might be very strong and interesting, but they tend to tip for the balance of 1 specialty (like for example this 1 is beast for combat and fighting numbers)

You might just want the previous version as its a bit of everything
- hes cheap
- hes decent in combat
- decent army leader
- decent magic caster (as on this last quality, it will provide alot more help than the melee beast to support your army overall)

Legolas its the same, keep him a good archer to a minimum and help the rangers.


There is a some synergy bettewn some elven units and some characters like Thranduil + palace guard.
If youre a bit experienced on lotr fights, you can more or so pre dictates on how usefull those combination can be and how they benefit you the most.

For example I find myself liking 5/6 man line of palace guard with shield and blades to be supported in a fight (with fight 6 having thranduil nearby) as with elven blade I maximize the effectiveness to win combats even against foes with fight 6, like some major heroes and cave trolls.

Some others prefer the backline support having an higher fight and letting the front rank do the killing, so thy opt to get palace guard with spears and benefit from spear support line fight 6.


One thing you have to consider is to get enough models/units and characters for diferent roles in the field like:

asign a group to take on heavy hitters
asign a group just to capture stuff
asign a group for rank filling
or try to mix up groups so none from above get ill from the lack of something.

When i mean by that for example its the way I use mirkwood elves

Normally for me to keep warbands cheap and effective (when i need characters leading other things I do like this)

Warband ****
mirkwood Palace guard Captain with shield
4 mirkwood elves with shield
4 mirkwood elves with glaive
4 mirkwood elves with elven bow

This group for example, although it doesn´t to see to specialize in a roll, it allow you to adjust to the right proportions "a bit of everything" it got spear support, shieldwall, shooting, and some 2 handed option killing.
You can of course adjust the numbers and not needed to get full warbands running around, just try to find a nice combination :)

*PS**

do not be hasty to get elves into combats all the times, they do amazing to win combats "if you roll well" but like the majority of S3 armies, they lack on punching power to kill tough foes and they are expensive enough not to be gathered in horde when 1 dies 5 others take his place which wins wars to attricion.
Use the board well and avoid fights when you have to and make surgical strikes when you feel its right...

Having 100% bows is huge boon for the Rangers. They can easily thin the ranks enough to not just die to the enemy.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Youd think so.

I faced easterlings before with 20 Mirkwood Rangers. Between terrain, their defense, and fury, I managed to kill mostly their allied orc contingent and only a handful the entire game. Maybe 10-12 kills.....and this is at likee 850 points.....


If he faces the Shadow Lord, Isegnard, Dwarves, furied troops.....good, luck.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Draugluin is right as well, apart from the combination synergy i mentioned bettewn thranduil + palace guard, there is another synergy which people tend to use more often.
You can see on the army composition for the mirkwood faction that mirkwood rangers will not count for bow limit if X type of heroes are leading those warbands,

This "formation" can make the army interesting and very much able to fight anything if you play well.

Lordofthebrownring, made another good statement about the excess of bows.
Unlike goblins which you can literally throw half hundred goblins at a foe hoping they do anything and meantime offering cannon fodder, for the elves the job aint so easily done and the loss of every elf in your force will hurt you. Things like what he mentioned Shadow Lord, Isengard, Dwarves, furied troops tend to give you troubles in 3 ways:

- specialized characters that got rules to counter your army strong advantage
- heavy hitters: troops with alot S value base
- heavy armoured: the mentioned on the previous post as elves nastiest things to handle, they dont have the punch for it.


And now prob people will hate m from this post on, but least im giving him methods to counter such weakeness....


There are some cases backing off a fight and shoot bow, might not be an entire good idea, as for example the shadowlord will only let hit his nearby friends to volley fire o na roll of a 6 regardless what race his using a bow at them. For example the elf in this case will be almost as good at shooting at the shadowlord of his nearby army friends while within his magical "shield" range as an orc shooting.

People tend to make 2 things to counter this:

- or add allies to neutralize that problem
- or manipulate the troops wargear in order to face off such threats.



my suggestion if you wanna keep just mirkwood, I would exchange the elves basic wargear for axes.
This is just a matter of sculpting or finding other lotr axes and replacing, its cheesy I know, but its valid and with it removes the elves lack on punching capacity to deal with foes. keep in mind this can only happens to models that dont present a specyfic type of wargear for example mirkwood elves and it states if they dont get elven blade upgrade, they carry hand weapon(which can be, swords/daggers/axes/clubs so on....) other models like mirkwood rangers it says on their profile they carry daggers and which by you cannot replace such weapons for others of your choosing.

Suddently Isengard uruks, dwarves and even low defence models whom relied to get used on elves wounding them on 6s (vs heavy armoured ones) or 5s vs light armoured, now they find themselves bettewn heavy armoured being wounded on 5s and those light armoured on 4s drastically not being so fond of fighting elves anymore...



If you want to make such a list here´s an advice for that for example at 750pts


Warband 1
Thranduil, King of Mirkwood with armour and elven bow
4 mirkwood elves with shield and hand weapon (axes)
2 palace guard with elven blade and shield
6 mirkwood elves with glaives


Warband 2
Legolas Greenleaf with elven cloak and armour
6 mirkwood rangers

Warband 3
Palace guard captain
5 mirkwood elves with shield and hand weapon (axes)
6 mirkwood elves with glaives

Warband 4
Tauriel
5 mirkwood rangers

this ends up around 745pts, you could give the last remain points to fill up some extra stuff like giving 5 elven blades to some elves to make them opt bettewn axe or blade.

Here's what I would do as a wood elf/mirkwood player and as a player whose friend takes that list every time I play him.

Thranduil, the old one.
Legolas, the new one or old one
Tauriel, the old one

in that order

As for troops....do a mix of Galadrhim(or new mirkwood elves-they are literally the same exact profile with different wargear) and palace guard.

For your army, Id suggest 4 Palace Guard with spear and shield maxiumum per warband, or maybe two. The rest Id suggest a mix of Galadhrim with shields spears and elven blades.

If youre worried about it not being themed perfectly.....think about the fact theres not going to be an elf force of only rangers who galavant about the forests and the elite of the elite of mirkwood. Obviously, theres gonna be some normal elves in there.

And at the risk of sounding egotistical about this, dont listen to anything anyone else says about Thranduil other than to use the old one.
Sure, some high courage armies and fury might not be bothered too much, but channeled aura of dismay will do much more than you can ever imagine with a small force. Its easily worth all of thranduils points in certain situations alone.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Thanks for inputs, guys. Should I just stick to my rivendell force then?

Well no....you can use them, but I would much rather go Rangers and Galadhrim. Palace Guard are really going to hinder your success.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Lordofthebrownring might be right on it, galadhrim are the lorien variation of the mirkwood elves, only diference si that mirk elves got a glaive that works as spear/elven blade/shield


If you choose Lorien to mix, you can pack up a great bunch of powerfull heroes :)

For example at 750pts with both:

Warband 1
Thranduil, King of Mirkwood (use the basic lotr model rules, but you can use the hobbit lookng as its realistic)
6 mirkwood guards with elven bow and elven cloak
2 galadhrim warriors with shield and spear

Warband 2
Rúmil with cloak 80
6 galadrim warriors with shield and axe
6 galadhrim warriors with shield and spear

Warband 3
Legolas Greenleaf with armour and cloak
6 mirkwood rangers

Warband 4
Tauriel
6 mirkwood rangers

total 750pts

might: 12
models 36

if you wish to replace legolas group for regular elves, then you can have a few more extra guys like 9 or 10 wood elves with gear

Thanks for tips and info, guys. I like elves, but after all im just looking for a new army to build, any tips?

Old wood elves.

You can get them in box sets and give those a go. They're a much stronger army, I feel. They still have all of the problems of the mirkwood elves but they cost a lot less to buy and build an army so you can just have more of them. Maybe add Tauriel and some rangers but Thranduil and Legolas can lead old wood elves too! I feel like non of the elf armies are easy to play but if you like elves you could also go all hero and just grab the biggest fattest elves around. New Thranduil, Legolas, Tauriel, twins, glorfindel ect. Again. maybe not super easy but you will at least get to chop through all sorts of stuff

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Cheers,

P

@Galanur, I'm not sure if you've realised, but there are 2 different Mirkwood lists and you cannot have a warband made up of models from both. You cannot have Mirkwood Guards and Galadhrim in the same warband.

Also, it is not advisable to have Palace Guards that aren't in Thrandy's warband.

_________________
"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Apparently I realized better than you on how the mirkwood guard upgrade are from thranduil from free peoples sourcebook (that is just a wood elf with upgrade) can´t mix with galadhrim?

I do treat things by the names, if I ment for mirkwood/hobbit infantry I would say mirkwood elf or mirkwood armoured elf. You didnt thought much of this comment apparently as you prob didnt noticed not even elves other than rangers can´t take elven cloaks, these ones do, just add 2+2 and you will know what elves im talking about...

Fall in solider, it's a long road to Mordor and we take only the best with us.
(sorry couldn't resist given your profile name )

If your stuck trying to think of an army to take...go with something you love.
Ultimately you get out of the hobby what your putting in so if winning the games is the main thing you want then worry about competitive choices. If you're more concerned with having a cool army with your favourite characters then go with that.

I'd suggest having a watch through the films or a good long look at the GW site at the different armies available and pick the one you think looks the coolest or that really appeals to you.
From there we can talk about hammering it out into competitive shape. Just about anything can be made to work to a degree, and the top tournament spaces go to all kinds of different armies.

I think Mirkwood could work quite well once you know what you're doing with them. They've certainly got a lot more options now following the latest film.

All in all, 'What does your heart tell you?'

I would place a like on this if I could 8)

It still tells me to destroy my "enemies" with King Ellesar, ranks of heavy infantry and a bolt thrower but I also want something new..

Oops sorry, I don't read wargear on Good models, and I forgot about all those silly upgrades in the warbands books.

_________________
"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Dang Gothmog, want some ice for that burn? I don't think I've ever seen Galanur get snippy with anybody before .

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.