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 Post subject: Which army? Playstyle
PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2021 6:07 pm 
Wayfarer
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Hello!

Yes, I know, nobody before asked "which army should I choose", so here I am to make a superoriginal topic :roll:

Talking seriously, I am reading and seeing a lot of photos about different miniatures and armies. The other day I found a PDF with all the miniatures even published (I have to find it again because I closed the window but it should be easy... I hope...) and internet is full of photos, so no problem in deciding which miniatures I love them most.

From what I've seen so far, the miniatures that I liked the most are from the light side even if I've loved Nazgul and Saruman for ex.

BUT I'm having a hard time finding information about armies playstile. So here come my questions:

In the past I've played Warhammer and in that game each army have one playstyle more or less defined (ok, maybe not one but 2-3?). Yes, you can always try to innovate but orks should take advantage of number and dwarfs they shoot and are resistant... does this game follow the same logic, or the armies are not so conditioned by a specific playstyle?

If that's the case, where I can find some info about the playstyle of each faction? I know what I want to avoid! When I played Warhammer I mainly played Orks. They are fun but... I don't want to be forced to paint 1000 Putty Patrollers again (yes, Power Rangers reference), and I think I already had my dose of ugly faces.

And what I'm looking for? Obviously a little army (not a lot of cheap-in-points warriors), better if it comes from tLotR era and I don't know how to express it but I would like it to be "tactical" (I don't know how to explain it better so... you can ignore it if you like :lol: ). If I say that I loved to play with high elves and dwarfs maybe you'll understand better?

Final question: do you think (or are there rumors/leaks) that with the new Amazon series, we could have new armies/figures?

Well, if you've read everything, bravo! :yay: And if you answer... thank you!
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 Post subject: Re: Which army? Playstyle
PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2021 12:36 am 
Craftsman
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There's a lot of flexibility in how to build an army, but in general different factions do have different play-styles. To some extent, the tactics are how you would imagine them. So in Middle Earth too orcs generally benefit from large numbers of relatively cheap combat troops, while elves have fewer, more elite troops.

Human armies are somewhere in the middle, while Uruk-Hai and dwarves are good all-round troops with very useful fight 4 and strength 4 stats.

If you want a small army to paint, like the light side, and are looking for some interesting tactical options then elves could be a good choice to start with. If you pick Rivendell or Lothlorien elves you can build a typical 700 points tournament army with 30 models or so, and someone like Elrond or Galadriel gives you a bit of spell-casting power to provide lots of options.

Lothlorien also has the wood-elf sentinels that have powers to push and pull enemy models around, which can be interesting if you are good at the positioning aspect of the game. Lots of tricks possible with these.

The Drawn Combat blog has a series of articles about collecting 500 point starter armies under £50 that could be of interest:
https://drawncombat.blogspot.com/

Regarding the Amazon series, my guess is they'll make models for this in the future, although nothing has been confirmed by the company.
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 Post subject: Re: Which army? Playstyle
PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2021 3:06 pm 
Wayfarer
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Thank you! I think that web will be a great help!

When you say "good all-round troops" what do you mean? Armies with high resistance, defense and attack, but maybe less movement, shoot and magic, for ex.? Something like dwarfs or black orks in WHF? (A lot of WH references but is the game that I really know so...). I like a lot of dwarves' miniatures :-D

One thing I really like about this game is the possibility to do "impossible" alliances combining armies of different eras. Even if you loose bonus I think that's really cool (maybe not the most competitive thing but if I play it will be just for fun so... :roll: ).
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 Post subject: Re: Which army? Playstyle
PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2021 11:09 pm 
Craftsman
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Two key factors in the game (in case you haven't read the full rules yet) are fight value and strength. Models with higher fight value are more likely to win the fight, while models with higher strength are more likely to do damage if they win.

Orcs and humans tend to be fight 3 strength 3 but cheaper troops. Elves are fight 5 strength 3 so will win lots of fights, but don't always cause a wound. Uruk-hai and dwarves are normally fight 4 strength 4, which makes them good all-round performers as they can win lots of fights, and can cause damage when they do.

You can get a big dwarf army quick for Lord of the Rings by picking up a box of plastic dwarf warriors and a pack of dwarf rangers, then maybe Durin with Mardin or Balin with Floi.

For the Hobbit you can pick up a box of warriors of Erebor and a box of Grim Hammers then for leaders either Thror with Thrain or Young Thorin with Balin and Dwalin.

As you'd expect they can be a bit slow, but they will hold their own in a fight!
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 Post subject: Re: Which army? Playstyle
PostPosted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 6:18 am 
Kinsman
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Welcome to the Middle Earth SBG! Alex123 has covered a lot of what I was going to say, but I'll try to throw my thoughts in. Generally the best advice to give anyone, new or experienced, is to play the models you're most interested in, nevertheless I'll do a deeper dive. Still, if there's a hero or warrior that you think is really cool, there's your first answer. My advice would be to search this site and Reddit's Middle Earth Miniatures sub to see if there have been discussions about it (just keep in mind that the most recent rulebook is from 2017, if you go older than that, you may get discussions about some different mechanics).

So it sounds like you're looking for the opposite of Orks in every way, is that fair to say? Free Peoples (non evil, or the light side, whatever terminology you prefer), not a horde, and by tactical, do you mean something more involved than throwing numbers at every problem (like you can with Orks)?

If there isn't one hero or troop that caught your attention, let's have a brief overview of some Free Peoples' factions from the Lord of the Rings era:

Armies of Men

Numenor: I cheated, not from the Third Age of Middle Earth. Elendil and Isildur are two of the most powerful combat heroes in the game, Captains of Numenor are some of the most versatile Captains in the game, and Warriors of Numenor are fairly solid, having decent Fight Value and Strength (they'll win more fights and kill more stuff) but average Defence (they'll die more easily when they do get hit). Other than that, it's an army low on variety, most of what you're doing is related to your big heroes.

Minas Tirith: It's hard to talk about Minas Tirith because it's such a diverse faction. It can do almost anything you want it to quite well, jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none kind of army. It has access to big combat heroes and elite troops, should you choose to go that route. It has high Defence formations. It has cheap Captains if you decide to horde out later. Some really powerful Siege Engines and great archers for that pew-pew-pew. You also benefit from Gondor being a key player in the LotR story, so you know it's always going to get updated.

The Fiefdoms: Elite infantry, elite cavalry, alite archers, solid-to-powerful combat heroes. This army is very much built around its leader, Imrahil. The special rules are mostly related to buffs he gives the rest of the army.

Arnor: Not an easy one to buy these days, but if you're into converting then it's a pretty good army. Strong warriors with high Fight Value and fairly high Defence, heroes that are very good at keeping those warriors alive, but it does lean on the side of being high in numbers.

Rohan: Another army with lots of variety, with a number of updates over the last few years that have dramatically altered how you can play Rohan. Traditionally, it's a mounted skirmish army. Shoot from horseback, use your mobility, then charge when the enemy is weak. There are many other ways to play Rohan if you like, but that's my best summary of Rohan at its most basic.

I'll skip a few factions of men because they're super specialized.

Elves:

Rivendell: Good at everything, you have access to most of the highest Fight Value in the game here (heroes and warriors), great archery, a number of terrific combat heroes, good magic that can be buffed to great, a number of terrific support heroes, powerful cavalry. Just know that you will be outnumbered by most things, and that your troops aren't great at killing.

Lothlorien: I have a Lothlorien army, and I've been trying to place what they're best at for a while. To me, it's one of the most tactically exciting armies in the game. You have a number of magic options and Galadriel is one of the best, very capable combat heroes (though not as good at pure butchering as Rivendell's or Mirkwood's), great archers, and a really interesting selection of warriors. They range from decent Defence to low Defence, they can be the cheapest Elves in the game, you can have loads of ranged weapons and still outrun most opponents, and they also have cavalry.

Halls of Thranduil: Can get as elite as Rivendell, also gets very expensive in points. Thranduil is your centre-piece, he's a terrific combat hero and he buffs a number of models in the army. I have seen some effective armies sans Thranduil; Mirkwood Rangers and Tauriel have a bunch of really cool dynamics that force your opponents to think about how they will deal with them.

Dwarves:

Khazad-Dum/Durin's Folk: One of the few armies with limited options for spears/pikes, which forces you to rethink how you're lining up your forces. In exchange, you have high Fight Value and Defence, great options for elites, very strong combat heroes, and you can have a decent sized army without being too big. I consider this one another tactically exciting army, the inherent weakness of lack of spears can turn into a strength if you position yourself well. Dwarves in general are quite forgiving too, because they're so hard to kill.

The Iron Hills: Hobbit era, but they're around during LotR. Basically, everything that Khazad Dum does, Iron Hills does better, but they're incredibly expensive (points and money). You'll be outnumbered, but your basic infantry is similar to Khazad Dum's elites with spears and extra Defence, you have tough cavalry, again great combat heroes, incredibly powerful siege engines, and basically all the goodies you see the in Battle of Five Armies movie are available for your enjoyment.

Other Stuff

Probably things to ally in, though I have seen people take pure Eagle or pure Ent armies, but for a first army, I'd look into allying the big monsters in first. Beorn is a lot of fun, so is Treebeard and his Ents, Eagles fly, wizards give you lots of fun things to do (the White Council, Radagast, etc). That's all more if you decide on a main army but think it's missing a bit of punch, for example I like allying Tom Bombadil in with my Khazad Dum because, though wildly unthematic, he allows for some delightful shenanigans.


I hope I helped, and feel free to ask any more questions!
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 Post subject: Re: Which army? Playstyle
PostPosted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 4:03 pm 
Kinsman
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Great Posts so far :)
I can recommend another source to read Up for Infos:
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_th ... attle_Game

Its quite entertaining to read. And although the authors do Not seem "serious" all the time they do capture quite good the tactics and style

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