Im admittedly right in the middle.
If I start a generic mordor force for example, Ill say, hmm....I want a wraith and a strong hero.
Then Ill say, ok. Ill take the Dark Marshall on horse. I have no clue where in middle earth he if ever fought an actual battle, but its not going to stop me.
Then Ill say, alright, I need warband leaders. Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol is awesome. His model is sweet, his stats are great, and I wanna play in an era where he was a powerful war chief instead of the miserable civil war ridden uruk he was in the films.
So Ill take them. Then I say, hmmm....Morannon orcs....I love their stats, and more importantly they look a hell of a lot cooler than regular orcs. Im taking them in some warbands.
Then this is where the power gaming comes in.
From here I can make like two more warbands to fill my force. I say to myself, I can take a morannon orc captain, or for the same points basically, I can take Gorbag or Grishnakh with an extra might. To me, its stupid to not take the model if you have it, especially if he was in the movies, because it gives me fond memories.
But I take them and use them with the xtra might.
Then I say, what else does this army need, not to be themed but to be competitive. Maybe Ill throw in some Serpent Raiders to not only have mobility, and cavalry, but because it kind does tie in with a Pelannor fields evil force.
To me in general, Armies should be at the least 40% competitive and 60% theme. Once you start caring little about playing with a decent army, your army starts to suck. I dont play the game just for fun. I have fun looking at the movie characters and fighting with them in a battle that can go either way.
If I wanted to make a themed army as opposed to that one^ it would be like the Dark Marshall on wraith, Morannon Captains, all morannon orcs, a troll Chieftan maybe and it would be a black gate army. For me, I pretty much want to have the option to do anything I want within the warbands limits in this game.....So mixing and matching for sure etc. I dont play a fantasy game to just be boxed in with decision making.
The furthest Ill make theme wise is a battle of the five armies, helms deep, etc army. But I dont find losing fun even if I play Lord of the Rings. I dont want to break my armies back and see them scatter miserably just because its fluffy.
Whos to define fluffy anyway. If you make a Defender of Helms Deep army for example, would I be wrong to put a warband led by Eomer and Riders of Rohan, and another with Legolas leading 12 Mirkwood Rangers?
Because in the film every single elf had a bow, and in the game the Galadhrim dont, and never had a special rule to signify.
So where some people would say I had a power list, Id say it was just as fluffy as the game can dictate. Its a grey line.
Other than a rare example, I dont mind my opponents using anything against me other than egregious misuses of the system like putting forces together from like the Iron Hills, Grey Company, and High Elves to make a power list. Stuff like that is ok if its the only models you own, but thats about it.
_________________ BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY
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