I'm still very new to the game (we haven't even used all the rules yet due to trying to figure out how everything works), and I can't seem to find any battle reports or other writings that might help me to play Moria better. I realize that it's a swarming army (read: throw a wave of goblinsa t 'em) , but surely there are some more in-depth tactics i can learn. Can anyone share a bit of wisdom?

Thanks in advance.

I find there's not much to Goblins compared to other forces, but ur completely right in thinking that you have to swarm the opponent. Some people use archers... but I feel what's the point when you could get more men on the attack. If your opponent is in a solid block, you have to do what ever you can to split his army up. Make sure your always outnumbering ur opponent in fights. You will probably take heavy casualties from bow fire, but that's pretty normal. In your force I'd also include some hard hitting stuff too, not just goblins. It's essential you win priority, but if u don't make sure you have heroic moves.

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"By the blood of my people are your lands kept safe" - Boromir, Lord of the Rings

goblins are all about running towards the enemy with a shield wall and spear support. then get a shaman/drum too counter their low courage. then get a troll or some spider for some elite hard hitting power (as captains usually still have less/equel fighting skill as warriors from other races i dont consider them very usefull).

How to play Moria? On the drums of course!

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Phantom_Lord is absoloutely right.

Moria is a fairly simple list to play. It is a case of take as many sword armed ones and as many spear armed ones as you can as well as a troll, a drum team, Durburz and at least 1 captain.

For 500 points I take:

Durburz
Drummer Team
2 Captains (1 with bow)
1 Cave Troll
12 Goblins w/bow
12 Goblins w/Sword and Shield
12 Goblins w/Spear

Very rarely fails to do it's job.

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"That'll do it..."

if i counted right your list only has about 40 models, while you'll really need maxed out numbers. at 500 points thats 50, so i'd take a list like this:

Durbûrz.......................................................60pt
2x cave troll/w spear....................................162pt
shaman.......................................................45pt
46 goblin warriors /w shield/bow/spear...........230pt

thats 497pt, 50 models, 4 might.

its a simple army, have the shaman support durbûrz (a shaman's staff counts as a spear) and cast fury. it's the safest place the shaman can be, make sure he survives.make sure the trolls are behind a wall of goblins so they can wreak havoc when you hit the enemy lines. i picked durbûrz over generic captain is that he has 28cm stand fast!, which you'll need with courage 2. thats another reason to keep the shaman within 14 cm of durbûrz as he'll run away just as fast as the rest of the army.

as an alternative, you could drop a troll and shaman and take a drum. you'll have points left, so upgrade a few goblins to prowlers to fill these up.

Here are a few tactics that work for me:

1. Always max model count. Because that's so easy to do, you'll find you have lots of points for minor heroes, heavy hitters like trolls, and "utility" troops like spiders, wargs and bats.
2. You'll nearly always want a Shaman for his Fury spell, and the chance of a timely Transfix. The new Druzhag model looks to be very powerful (I haven't used him yet though).
3. Give your trolls, spiders and bats an escort of shielded goblins until you make contact.
4. Use prowlers, they are worth far more than their points value would suggest.
5. I make kill squads of 5: 2 shields, 2 spears and a prowler. Charge the prowler first so he can use his throwing weapon (not that he can't after, but less risk). Then try to trap the enemy. Add a hero and a bat, and you have a Glorfindel killer.
6. Remember you get an automatic 6 on any jump or climb roll, so use terrain to your advantage. Creating a single gap in a low wall makes it useless for the enemy.

Hope that helps!

Thanks a ton for the advice, everyone! Something I failed to mention before is that I'll mostly be playing teamed up with other players of various armies.

My likely team mates:

Troll Guy: Who got as many trolls as he possible could.
Wild Guy: Who got as many wild men as he possibly could (matches me in spammyness)
Uruk-Guy (haha): Who has a fairly well-rounded Isengard force.
Dragon Guy: Who has a great big dragon and not much else.
Also, possibly Warg guy who has lots and lots of warg riders.

Each of us has five-hundred points to work with, by the way.

I don't have my list on hand, but what I've been going with is something like this:

1 Captain
1 Shaman
15ish Shields
15ish Bows
15ish Spears
1 Drum Team
A couple of bats.

How should my tactics/list change to work with these guys?

Well, for starters, you might want to consider a troll. Since goblins lack real hitting power behind their charges, a troll will easily be able to solve this problem. Otherwise, your list is pretty good. Sorry if I can't give actually tactics advice, I don't play Moria and don't know anything about the bats. Sorry.

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Mordor summons them. Vengance drives them. Hatred lends them strength. Gondor will burn.

Durburz is better than a normal captain, and getting a few prowlers in there wouldn't hurt. Otherwise, it looks like your allies are the heavy hitters. The Uruk guy can spread his pikes a little farther if you back up his shields with your spears. Then your shields are free to do escort for the bows, or terrain leap-frogging, or whatever.

Oh yeah, I forgot about your allies. So forget about the troll. Put in some Prowlers instead of the Bat Swarms, since your allies provide you with monsters (like the Dragon) you should get some elites in.

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Mordor summons them. Vengance drives them. Hatred lends them strength. Gondor will burn.

No way! Prowlers and bats go together like ham and cheese, or lembas and a hobbit A bat, a prowler and a swarm of shrieking goblins is a surefire hero killer.

If I play 500 points I have the following list

Durbûrz
Shaman
5 Prowlers with Two-handed
Cave Troll
Spider Queen
14 Shield Gobbo's
14 Spear Gobbo's
13 Bow Gobbo's

Makes 50 models, and you can get 3 extra even.

I always try to stick the Shaman to Durbûrz since he has a spear and it makes the possibility to survive larger (Fury is nice). The Queen can chew up heroes without a problem (Aragorn has been mincemeat most of the time I played against him ) and the Troll is there to wet some pants. Just use your Broodlings to give the Queen less problems.

If you trap a model try to stick a Prowler with the group so he can deal with them easily. Very nice when it's a hero .

Sorry for the false advice. I don't know much about Moria.

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Mordor summons them. Vengance drives them. Hatred lends them strength. Gondor will burn.

This is starting to convince me that I should start Moria, ha I just thought though, how many men can I fit in while still having a lot of might

2 captains, shield:80
Cave Troll:80
28 Gobbos, 8 shield, 10 spear, 10 bow:140
4 might, 31 people and 300 points on the dot

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I'm back guys

That looks pretty good to me Snowy. Nice job.

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Mordor summons them. Vengance drives them. Hatred lends them strength. Gondor will burn.

Woohoo! Another goblin for the horde!

Alright, so what I'm getting is that I should definitely trade up for The Goblin King, be sure to keep my model count as high as possible (I think my friends accidentally allowed me to have too many bodies) and add some prowlers to the mix. Sound about right?

Yeah, that sounds good. But make sure that you keep any captains or shamans you have, since good leadership is very important for goblins.

Actually, keep Durburz, and take the captain and shaman. The goblin king's Stand Fast! of 12" is incredibley invaluable to low leadership goblins.

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Mordor summons them. Vengance drives them. Hatred lends them strength. Gondor will burn.