Xintao wrote:
The first thing I say is go with what faction draws you the most. What scene or battle in any of the 5 movies/or books really inspires you? Go with that. It's that inspiration or desire to fight out a battle that will drive you to finish painting what you buy.
For me I started with Rohan. I loved the Rohan scenes from TTT. I wanted to paint everything, but I had to start somewhere. Go with your strongest impulse first.
The other thought is if you will play with your fiance, start with whatever faction that draws her the most. She is the harder sell, so paint up what she likes the best.
The last consideration is money. Some armies are easy to find on ebay, some are not. The main armies are generally pretty easy to find, and therefore cheaper, Gondor, Rohan, Orcs, Uruk-Hai.
Good luck
I dont know if I would 100% agree with this. I mean, when i play things, I am competitive even when having fun. I still say the battle of helms deep is probably my favorite of the movies. All of them. So i went out and got the heros of helms deep, the rohan warriors on foot and a bunch mounted.
Then I realized unless you buy their elite units and lots of them your army is very hard to be competitive and a lot of it is based off how well you roll.
Just look through the books and see which figures have the stats you like in terms of the game, and then when you find a few you really like, then pick your army.
Like, if you like close quarters mashing ppl just look to the dwarves. Then say, you dont like moving slow....go to Isengard which has raiders and wargs etc.
And yes, do work around your girl. If she only likes some armies obviously it would benefit you.