Hi all, great community here. I've been a Lord of the Rings fan for so long I can't believe it's taken me until now to get interested in LotR SBG. I have a metric ton of the Sabertooth TMG minis, and I realized I wanted that game to be more than it was.

So here I am getting into SBG. I picked up The Free Peoples and The Kingdoms of Men sourcebooks (and The Fallen Realms, but I know I want to start with a good force) and I've read over the books. I like the allying rules because they don't make you pigeonhole yourself into a certain faction. My problem is that everything looks great to me, someone who has never played a single game of SBG in his life. So I submit to the forum to share any bits of wisdom in regards to choosing my first warband, as it is.

Off the bat I like Minas Tirith, Rohan, Arnor (specifically Grey Company), Durin's Folk, and Lothlórien and Mirkwood. I'm leaning toward Rohan, Minas Tirith, and a contingent of Grey Company, but where to start? I'm not looking forward to painting scads of Rohirrim horses.

Whatever I start with should be able to give potential players a good sense of the game. There is absolutely no LotR SBG community where I live, Madison, WI, so it would be up to me to build it up. And I think the timing is right as (I think) we're seeing renewed commitment from GW and the next few years of Hobbit movie hype.

I apologize if the answer to this post is "pick what looks cool to you, stupid." With my limited funds, I can't afford a misstep. Thanks!

I'll give you brief review of the first four factions you listed off originally. The review of the last one is from memory, seeing that my friend still has my Free People's book.

Minas Tirth has a reasonable selection of Heroes and troop choices. Most of its troops are fair to good in their category so as a demonstration army, it works well. Rohan has a lot of Heroes, but not so many troop choices. In my opinion, Erkenbrand is the best hero to take for Rohan especially if its an allied Rohan contingent. So long as he's alive, the entire army gets +2 Courage which for most troops means Elven Courage and for Aragorn/Boromir/Halbarad/Elf Twins, Courage 8 (unless this has been FAQ'd, but its still pretty awesome). Rohan infantry is fair, though its use of javelins over regular spears means they're a very unique Good infantry. The Grey Company is archer-heavy and a great support choice though it might not be as good of a demonstration army as only Grey Company and Haradrim have the unique bow limits. Durin's Folk are a great melee army with their high defence values making it hard for enemy infantry to bring them down. It's a hard question to answer without a "pick-what-you-like" answer or a cleary defined criteria. For demonstration purposes, I'd say stick to a single main faction with maybe two allied warbands at most. Have the majority of the force be Minas Tirth with a handful of Rohan/Arnor allies which would save you time painting Rohan horses. Maybe consider taking Rohan infantry as allies rather than cavalry. Rohan cavalry is fairly common in SBG but its infantry is fairly good too, once you adapt to its fighting style.

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http://knightscharge.wordpress.com/
- My miniature gaming blog, sorry for lack of LOTR content right now.

Minas Tirith are a good beginner's army; their high defence makes them quite forgiving. They also have a good selection of Heroes and Warriors, so you can tailor the force to your requirements.

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

I would advise something along the lines of what WayUnderThe Mountain said- go with a main force, say, from Gondor, then ally in a couple of warbands- for instance, you could ally in a few riders of Rohan under Erkenbrand or a captain, have a few rangers and Dunedain under Halbarad (though it might be easier to go with just Rangers of the North if the budget is tight), and then have three or so warbands from Minas Tirith or thereabouts. It would give you a nice core force with a bit of variety to it- probably shoot for between 500-750 points so that you have a bit of flexibility.

And welcome, by the way! Glad you decided to join.

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

Thanks very much for the thoughtful suggestions. I like where you're leading me and I think I'll start with a small force of Gondor, then I can branch out with contingents of Rohirrim, the Grey Company, even the Clansmen of Lamedon. Thanks! And thanks for the welcome, too.

Just wanted to mention that I returned home today with a slew of Minas Tirith and Arnor troops including WoMT x24, Rangers of Middle-earth x24, Boromir Mounted & On Foot, Aragorn Mounted & On Foot, Rangers of the North x3, Arathorn and Halbarad, and Minas Tirith Command. I think that should be enough for a core Minas Tirith force with an allied contingent of Grey Company. Would you agree?

Looks like a good start. Good thing you got the command set. You'll find that using heroes like Aragorn and Boromir aren't very practical until you reach a higher point level, 600 points at least, they cost so much point-wise there's hardly anything left for warriors. Faramir and other small and mid range heroes, like Beregond and Cirion, are more useful more of the time, and remain useful even after you start including the big heroes. Halbarad and Arathorn are great choices. Enjoy!

Aye, I agree with the above, Grey Company will also be decent, but you'd need to be careful with the amount of heroes, that you don't ally them in until a higher pts value, at smalll pts Minas Tirith or Grey Company. You can still use the Rangers (and Aragorn) in the MT list anyway.

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

Thanks for the feedback. I was meaning to ask if it matters which version of Aragorn I have if I want him to lead a MT warband. Technically, I believe I have the Aragorn models from the Fellowship faction, as listed in the Free Peoples book. I kept my eye out for some of MT's cheaper heroes but unfortunately the store I was at didn't have Beregond, Cirion, Damrod, or others.

What are some good secondary units for MT? Would you go toward KoMT or Citadel Guard? GotFC or Osgiliath Vets?

Personally I like GoFC with shields. A mounted contingent might be more useful at first though. Nothing wrong with KoMT...they aren't special, but they're worth their points. Then again you mentioned liking Rohan. A Faramir (ranger version) + WoMT + Rangers combined with Eomer + RoR + RRG + SoE could make a nice "cleaning up Ithilien" force. Add in Eowyn and your theme has a love interest

wow, what a nice lot of minas tirith guys, if you are looking to ally in some rohan people i'm afraid you will probably end up painting a whole load of horse, but dont worry as they look awesome on the table, grey company would be a great idea but as a few others have said, watch out for the huge amounts of heroes and ending up with not enough bodies.

anyway, good luck and i hope you have some great battles

Thanks for the advice. Thought I would repost this question since I haven't heard what's appropriate: Does it matters which version of Aragorn I have if I want him to lead a MT warband? Technically, I believe I have the Aragorn models from the Fellowship faction, as listed in the Free Peoples book.

I would say that it largely will depend upon your opponent's thoughts on the subject- if I recall correctly one should have the King Elessar model, but lacking that, providing that you make it clear to your opponent beforehand, hopefully you won't have a problem.

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

It matters which profile you use, but not the model, unless your opponent objects. Technically only Elessar can lead MT, only Isildur's Heir can lead GC, and Strider can be part of the Fellowship. If you field your Fellowship Aragorn as a leader of MT, you'll have to assume he has heavy armour, Anduril, and all the other goodies. I don't know for sure, but the reason looks to me like a game balance issue. Being able to field a cheap Aragorn with a host of troops would be an evil player's nightmare.

Good to know, and what I feared. I completely recognize the need to use the proper profile, but I didn't think the specific model would matter as much. I suppose that touches on a larger question for an SBG newbie like me: If you upgrade certain troops to have shields, spears, etc., must the models that represent those upgraded troops actually have the shield, spear, etc? Based on the previous responses, I'm guessing yes, but that adds hugely to the cost of the game (and thus makes sense for GW's coffers).

Alas, but by and large, yes. In friendly games it is determined by your opponent, but otherwise, it is the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) rule.

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

Thank you for clearing that up for me. What's interesting then, is that a unit like WoMT whose base cost is X will always be at least X+1 since all WoMT have either spear, shield, or bow and each of those additions adds to the warrior's base cost. Is that correct logic?

Yes, but it's not that bad. With a few exceptions, most people field models with the equipment GW has provided. On occasion people will, say, add spears to their wood elf bowmen, but this is easy to convert by adding brass rods. Most non-standard equipment models are done with conversions, not by having to buy special GW models. That said, the box proportions are often poor, especially the Easterling box.

Ah yes, the WYSIWYG phrase is a much better way of explaining what I questioned. Thank you. As for the cost of troops logic in my previous post - is that correct?

Yep