Hey all ^^

So some friends and I, are starting Lotr SBG for the first time, we have played Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, and many of the special games, also from GW
but i am not sure what army to make.
So far I have narrowed it down to a mordor army, or a Minas Tirith army

so i would like to hear the pros and cons of the two armys, and how they normally play?
and the most important thing in any game, which one is the most fun to play?

thanks for the help

I've never played Gondor so I don'y know if that's fun to use. IMO Mordor is one of the most versatile lists, you have several elites to choose from (Morannons, Mordor Uruks, Black Guards and Black Numenorean), you have cheap spearman, you have a variety of diferent Ringwraiths, all with their own different uses, seveal other useful heroes eg Gorbag, Shagrat Kardush and Monsters eg Spider Queens, Troll Chiefs and Great Beasts, and you have two different cavakry types, in short it is very varied, and you can build it and play it id different ways. in short it it a very fun army IMO with lots of strengths (and weaknesses).

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Minas Tirith has a lot of heavily armored troops, they'll survive most everything thrown at them. You can also ally in some Rohirrim or some KoDA for cavalry, though Minas Tirith has some decent cavalry on its own. Then you get to the heros. Some of the best heros come from the Minas Tirith list. Then you have the more versatile, but still powerful lesser heros like Faramir and some dirt cheap, but again still great, heros like Damrod and Beregond.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Mordor = MORE!!! More troop variety in general as well as Monsters and equipments. This can be good or bad depending upon if you enjoy painting or not. I have more fun playing evil. It's good to be able to shoot your own men legally when he gets out of line or underperforming!

Just some general thoughts:

I feel that Warriors of Minas Tirith (the core troop of a Minas Tirith army) are a bit of a gamble. You can rely on them to grind down enemy models that are Strength 3 (such as Orc and Haradrim), but they tend to die too quickly to Strength 4 (such as Morannon Orcs and Uruk-hai).
Minas Tirith has a very good selection of Heroes, ranging from cheap options like Cirion to more powerful Heroes such as Aragorn and Boromir.
Knights of Minas Tirth are, in my opinion, the best cavalry in the game. They're reasonably cheap, pretty solid, and hit hard.
The thing that I feel Minas Tirith lacks most is good elites; yes, they have Guards of the Fountain Court but I'd like something with Strength 4 or two Attacks.

Mordor is a very versatile list, probably the most versatile of any army. You can create an elite army based on Morannon Orcs, or you can go for numbers with normal Orcs.
I think Mordor can be a little more specialist than Gondor. The tactics of a Gondor army aren't usually much more complex than "form a shieldwall, and march forward". On the other hand, there are some models in a Mordor army that you have to be careful with (examples include Nazgul, Trolls, and Shelob).

Like I said, just some thoughts.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Gondor is a very enjoyable army to play with, you warriors marching and defending, weak but yet strong... Perfect for a beginner...
Mordor is very nice, habing many units to choose from and the deadly Ringwraiths