I'm fiddeling about with a dunlending army list - I'm thinking Numbers, Banner an bow to compensate for lacking spear support and have created this 600 points list.

Warband 1 12/12
Thrydan Wolfsbane with Horse;
9 Dunlending Warrior with Shield;
2 Dunlending Warrior with Two-handed weapon;
1 Dunlending Warrior with Banner;
----
Warband 2 10/12
Dunlending Chieftain with Bow;
2 Dunlending Warrior with Shield;
8 Dunlending Warrior with Bow;
----
Warband 3 12/12
Dunlending Chieftain with Shield;
2 Wild Man of Dunland with Two-handed weapon;
10 Wild Man of Dunland
----
Warband 4 12/12
Dunlending Chieftain with Shield;
3 Wild Man of Dunland with Two-handed weapon;
9 Wild Man of Dunland
----

50 models
All axe!

What do you think?

And I thought my local Goblin Town player's army had lots of piercing strike.
You won't have an issue killing with this army, that's for sure, but winning the fights will be difficult, F3 ain't doing you any favours. Even Thrydan's only F4, so he'll have to strike to have a hope of taking on any decent hero. I think that your men will drop easily in combat as most troops will be on 5s to kill and your wild men will be prime targets for shooting and easy kills towards breaking you, but you'll last a while with all those men. I like the mix of weapons, have the two-handed guys in small 'kill teams' to take out trapped models. Probably not the most competitive list but good on you for going pure dunland.

Thanks!

I think one takes Dunlendings for their coolness, not their competitiveness. But having said that, one needs to try to give them at least a glimmer of a hope.

I've been weighting numbers against adding another banner, but fell down on numbers as that seemed less fragile. Besides I'm thinking one probably need to run this army in a more loose formation, having dispersed bands/kill teams roaming around the battlefield picking fights where they are i numerical superiority, and to use my archers as close fire support - callously firing into duels if necessary.

For bigger games, or if I want to up their competitiveness, I could add Saruman and still remain fluffy.

Now, I have the Dunlendings, most are GW, but some are Gripping beast metals (the twohanded weapon guys and archers). I'll add some Rohirrim warriors to bolster my number of archers - after all Dunlendings would have raided Rohan, and could easily have picked up some wargear.

But for the Wildmen I'm at a loss as to which proxies I should use. There are just too many options

I think Saruman would be an excellent addition, he can tag-team with Thrydan to transfix heroes and then Thrydan can take them down with that brutal 2 wounds before fate rule, throw Saruman into the fight with him so that the enemy has less of a chance to shoot him and so that you can use that nice F5 (he'll have the highest fight in your army. Coz old man strength). Come to think of it, even the regular chieftains have S5 and can really deal the damage against transfixed heroes at D7, which is one of the most common values you'll see for in particular good heroes. Give Saruman a horse if you do take him so that you can be where you need to be and line up some nastier sorcerous blasts. The 12" stand fast will also be an absolute godsend. If you can find a way to get him into the 600 point variant of the list I would probably give it a go, drop a Chieftain and some of the wild men, they're the weak link in the army.
I agree with your choice on numbers over banners: your army's too vulnerable to shooting lose any more men for the sake of another banner. You've got one for 'To the Death' and getting re-rolls where you need them, IMHO that will be enough. You're also definitely right about the numerical superiority tactic, try to flank them and get two guys into each enemy model, don't charge head on. You may still lose the fight due to your low fight value but if you do win you need to make sure you're killing the opponent to even out the losses.
On dealing with larger heroes if thrydan and saruman are elsewhere, feed them one model each turn and then just kill it with shooting to stop heroic combats. You'll be losing a guy a turn but with your numbers you'll hopefully be able to handle it. Leave a few wildmen in for this purpose, they'll die anyway so you may as well make it benefit you as well. Hope this helps and good luck with them!

Hepp,

Made an attempt at getting Saruman into a 600 pts list.
What do you guys think about this spread?

Warband 1 12/12
Thrydan Wolfsbane with Horse;
6 Dunlending Warrior with Shield;
3 Dunlending Warrior with Bow;
1 Dunlending Warrior with Shield; Banner;
2 Dunlending Warrior with Two-handed weapon;
----
Warband 2 10/12
Dunlending Chieftain with Bow;
5 Dunlending Warrior with Shield;
3 Dunlending Warrior with Bow;
2 Dunlending Warrior with Two-handed weapon;
----
Warband 3 12/12
Saruman with Horse;
2 Wild Man of Dunland with Two-handed weapon;
10 Wild Man of Dunland
----
598 points, 37 models, 8 might, 11 Will, 6 fate.
7 Bow
the rest are all armed with axes/picks

I found a forgotten box of Chaos Marauders amongst my WHFB stuff, they will be standing in as wild men, at least for now. I arm the chieftain with bow even though shield is a more sensible choice, but I picked up this amazing model from RedBox - "Hawkeyed Arvid" , that I really want to use, and he's just to fine to use as a regular bow "grunt" (I'am as you understand, normally, not your typical power gamer )