My friend plays Gondor/Rangers and this I thought, would be a good tactic:

Well, with my Mordor army I thought of a good tactic yesterday (I haven't played more than 2 games with it and I just got some more models to add to my army). My plan was to send Buhrdur and around 16 out of my 48 Mordor Orcs (8 w/ sword and shield, 8 w/ spear) directly at the enemy while my 2 Mordor Trolls flank the left and right shoulders of the enemy (While slowly moving the rest of my force up). With the Orc band led by Buhrdur, the enemy would draw their attention to them. As the Orc band takes the 'fire' my Trolls would get to the sides and wipe out quiet a few men before falling I'd think. With my band of Orcs (if any still live...) I would charge the enemies front. As that battle progresses, I will start moving the bulk of my force led by Shagrat (the Warleader) up into the battle and assist any remaining Orcs/Trolls and finish the day with a victory. Remember I haven't played to many games, I am new, and I have never used this tactic and it is just an idea.

Please tell me if this is a good tactic and give suggestions or tell me any flaws that you may see in it. Thanks for reading!

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Mordor will conquer this... Middle-Earth...

it could work but there's no gaurentee.

as a ranger player my tactic is shoot the little low D troops when i can and bring your force down that way, without your orc fodder mordor is pretty much usless! by shooting the low D moddles (such as trackers and spearmen) it is really easy to bring the enemy down to its breaking point, also it helps allot in combat because then you are less outnumberd


and when faced with your tactic i would simply just send a bunch of seasond warriors your way e.g. some osgiliath vetarans or citidel gaurd your way and keep bhurdur ocupied untill later



or come to think of it bhurdur is only D6 so i will shoot him then resume to my normal tactic

My army list is this:
48 Mordor Orcs
2 Mordor Trolls
4 Mordor Orc Captains
1 Buhrdur
1 Mordor Troll Chieftain
1 Shagrat (Warleader)

You may be right, your archers could easily take out the Orc band faster than I thought, Then again you forgot those Mordor Trolls on your flank! Those could do some real damage to your archers and mabey lose you the battle. Thanks for the comment.

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Mordor will conquer this... Middle-Earth...

this is how many points??

and its rather troll heavy

It is... 1028 points. I am thinking of making a second (Moria) army soon. I will remove Buhrdur to add in my Moria army and 'mabey' take out an Orc captain. Back to the tactic, yes it has alot of Trolls! They are (obviously) my favorite race. I use them as what I call 'sponges'. They soak up a lot of damage but do not really go down to easy. (The point value may seem extremely high but me and my brother play around 1000p. )

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Mordor will conquer this... Middle-Earth...

if i were you i would cut down on the trolls and captains and go for pure numbers instead


in 500 points i would expect somthing like this:


shagrat warleader
orc captain with shield

mordor troll

orc drummer
48 orc warriors

6 warg riders


see i have only included one troll however this force should work quite well



(i havn't totaled any points up there by the way so it would have to be somthing along the lines of that force)

I have a topic for my army in 'Army Help' but I still like my army, I have quite a few Orcs, Trolls, and cool Heroes. This tactic might work better too in the Osgiliath terrain I play on also.

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Mordor will conquer this... Middle-Earth...

I'd be wary of relying on the Trolls versus the Rangers.

I've not played too many games of LotR. % I think, and that's 2 vs. Wood Elves, and 3 vs. Grey Company.

Trolls are a big target for enemy archery. The one game I used my Mordor Troll and Chieftan, both were shot to ribbons within about 3 turns.

Also, I'd suggest dropping a Captain or two, and using the points to fill up with some Morannon Orcs. They are pretty survivable in large numbers with shields.

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Studio gaarew; Gaming armies, by gamers, for gamers.

Here's the thing; you've separated your trolls from your good leaders. So I'm going to use my archers to break you, and then watch as those 100-point models flee the battlefield.
For 1,000 points, it can work, but I'd be wary about taking it against an archer-heavy force.

I agree with Wandering Dunadain in using wargs with shields. I think may be to replace one of the trolls on the flank to close the gap quickly on the rangers.

Well, after reading the suggestions I came up with a (mabey better, mabey not) tactic. I could send all the Trolls to the left shoulder of the enemy. That would be the big distraction of the enemy drawing attention from my main force which i will break in 2 large groups. As the Trolls take the fire, I will bring 1 Orc Band on the right shoulder and take any archers out (If my Trolls haven't). The main force led by Shagrat will go straight into battle ASAP. I think this is good because the enemy won't have to much time to think of what to do and will be faced to fight on 3 fronts. Thanks for the ideas and comments. Keep reading!

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Mordor will conquer this... Middle-Earth...

Everyone keeps saying archers... I dislike archers very much. I am more of the melee type. You can say archers will be the downfall of the tactic, but almost all good armies have a massed group of archers. Every tactics downfall are archers. There are almost no evil archers (that are actually good). So yes, archers will be my downfall. They are also the downfall to everyone else that is the Evil force too.

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Mordor will conquer this... Middle-Earth...

Not true at all. Orc trackers hit on a four and are VERY cheap. Regular orc archers can also be massed. And let's not forget about Haradrim shooting.
Here's the deal; if you have no shooting, your opponent controls you from the get-go. He can make you come to him and make you split your forces. He can hinder any flanking you attempt. With archers to counter him, you take away that advantage. Not that I'm suggesting you go out and get into a shoot-out with elves.
Use your archers wisely. Move them up 3" and shoot until you get into combat; don't hang back. That's a waste of an orc.
Who knows; they may do nothing, or they make win it for you. I got three rounds of shooting on Uruk-hai with 14 goblins, and dropped at least a dozen of them. Other times, they just get splattered without getting a single kill. It happens.
Rarely are my archers ever my "downfall." To not take shooting is, in my eyes, rather foolish. Sometimes it works. But for me, not usually.

When I use Trolls I cover them with a bodyguard of shielded troops and use terrain. Or use Warg riders to tie up the archers until I get there. I expect the bodyguard to die from archer fire unless there is terrain to hide behind, but once the Troll arrives it's whack-a-mole time.

Still, too many Trolls and you don't have enough cannon-fodder to both guard the Troll and create a significant force that can't be ignored. And if you don't time things right your enemy will eat you piecemeal.

The great thing about this game is it doesn't matter so much what you field, as how you field it.

you could always get a drummer and get into combat asap then allow the trolls to throw stones at pesky heros, then bring them in to hit hard.

well i would agree with what you just said throwstones can be usfull however on a 5+ to hit it isnt likley it will, trolls are built for melee and if you waste time picking up stones and forfiting your move then they cant let rip

I will say the force will not do well against elves, grey company etc...

What i would do is get a lot of trackers, some warg riders and send the trolls with the foot troops. The warg riders will do the skirmish, and the trolls can deal with the troops. IF you get warg riders to charge the enemy archers, then the shooting priority changes and if you get trackers then the enemy will have to think if they want to shoot at the masses of trackers hitting on a 4, or a troll not yet in combat.

So I'd say buy about 24 trackers (Or 16 and convert the orc bowmen)

What? Are SIXTEEN Orc Trackers necessary? That really sounds like a lot. Also, if you didn't read the rest, I do NOT like archers. Thanks for the comments.

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Mordor will conquer this... Middle-Earth...

It is a lot. And that's good. You want a lot of shooting.
I know you don't like archers. And I always tell people to play what they like. But that's a huge tactical disadvantage, so much that you might want to overlook your distaste.
And who's saying you can't jump your archers into combat? They're just like normal soldiers, minus a defense point or a spear. Move 'em up slowly and shoot, then rush into combat with them.

And just for curiousity's sake, why don't you like archers? :p

The terrain I play on is usually Osgiliath like or has many ruins. So cover isn't the issue so I do not think archers are either. Mabey when I decide to play in some forest/desert/Mordor terrain I will be in deep trouble, but other than that I am fine as far as I am concerned. Thanks for the comments and keep reading.

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Mordor will conquer this... Middle-Earth...