I'm putting together an Isengard force, about 75 Uruk-Hai, plus warg riders and a few Orcs allied in. I have a real problem with including Saruman, because the gutless loser didn't even bother to accompany his army to Helm's Deep, and I can't see how I can justify putting him with the force. Is Lurtz (and a couple of captains) enough?

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Why don't you add Vrasku, Ugluk and Mahur?

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Well, even Lurtz wasn't there in the films (he wasn't anywhere in the books) so I'd suggest that you just go with what you like. Lurtz really isn't all that great in the SBG. You have to weigh the options; yeah, the named Captains all get an extra Might but they are in light armour and without shields. For the same, or similar, points generic Captains get only 2 Might, but can be Defence 7.

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Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

Named captains for sure. Lurtz, vrasku, mauhur and grishnack is a good combination. And grishnack is for the orc spear support.

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"There are only 4 things you need in life: Lasagna, beer, a girlfriend and of course a gondor army."

You don't need grishnack for the allied orcs, they can be included in an isengard army without needing an orc captain to lead them. I've played against uruks with only captains/lurtz and it works fine without saruman as long as you have the right amount of heroes to make it work.

Luckily for isengard players there is a hero to lead each different part of a force. Lurtz can be fielded anywhere in the army and perform well, however he works best with scouts. Mauhur should be used to lead beserkers or ferals, he can get them to where they need to be nice and quickly. Keep ugluk with cheap warriors, incase he needs to behead anything, a shaman is essential for keeping an army together (and necessary for allying isengard raiders with the legions of the white hand). Standard captains should be in the shieldwall, you only need one captain and a shaman to have a pretty solid, unbreakable battle line. I wouldn't bother with sharku, use Thrydan Wolfsbane on horse and a mounted nazgul to lead the warg riders, transfix an enemy hero with the nazgul and thrydan will atleast deplete their fate with his mighty blow rule. Vrasku is incredibly good, he can shoot like murin or haldir, but has more strength (in combat and at range) and is cheaper, what a don!

For many games generic Uruk Captains in heavy armor + shield are the way to go. The 1-less Might really doesn't hurt them much, they are cheap enough to spread out around your force and their high Defense really keeps them in the game a long time. I like to team a generic Captain up with a few Uruks with shield, one or two pikes and a Berserker to form "kill teams" that can take down big chunks of troops or most enemy heroes pretty easy.

The named heroes are nice for their special rule and extra might but in LoME you need to ally them in from the Scouts list and (except for V that should never had been a "scout") most don't really add much to a Fighting Uruk Hai army. Three Captains in 500 points of armored Uruks can be ugly enough if played well.

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Ditto, only Strength 5 wounds them on below 6, so they are pretty tough to take down, even using enemy heroes. I'd personally reccomend 2 or 3 of them, based on the size of your army, but if you're running a large contingent of Crossbows, you could put Vrasku with them and take out a Captain.

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OERP

If you want a strong hero get Mauhur, if you want a good shooty hero get Vrasku (amazing shot)

The other heros and the captains are just average.