Got a LOTR tournament coming up in a few weeks which is at 500pts, haven't played a game with the new Hobbit rules properly so was thinking of taking my classic hobbit army but this time without Gandalf on Cart...

Obviously in such a small game not many people will have more than 30 models max.... just wondering how you think I will go against armies that are monster heavy or high defence??
What changes should I make?


The Hobbit Army
500pts
The Shire

Warband One
Frodo
pony
8x Hobbit Militia
4x Hobbit Archers

Warband Two
Samwise The Brave
- pony
12x Hobbit Militia

Warband Three
Peregrin, Captain of the Shire
-pony
10x Hobbit Sheriffs
2x Hobbit Archers

Warband Four
Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire
-pony
12x Hobbit Archers

Warband Five
Paladin Took
12x Hobbit Militia

Individual Heroes of the Shire
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
Fredegar Bolger
Farmer Maggot

Total Points =499pts
Total Models - 68
Half Models - 34
1/3 Models - 22

Looks pretty deadly to me (all those bows and stones), but I've never played with the Shire...too expensive!

I would probably upgrade all the Militia to Battlin' Brandybucks. If you're up against D7 or simply D5, you don't want to require 6/4 or 6s to wound respectively. It's a relatively expensive upgrade (increasing their cost by a third), but you will double your chances of wounding against those.
Other than that, I'd definitely give Meriadoc a shield, if he doesn't have one already. Anything to keep that horn alive longer is worth it, especially since he also is one of the few models capable of doing something in melee.

Three final questions: is their a specific reason for the warbands you have chosen? I'd rather keep combat figures with Merry while Paladin gets most archers for example.
Will you use the full Hobbit rules at the tournament? Although I can't back it up with actual experience, the Shire is vastly improved with special strikes (local tournies only allow special strikes for the heroes to save time). With plenty of axes on the militia, you have a very easy time against tough monsters (and little to lose, frankly). And what about Shirriffs? Charge in with 3 or so against a troll, and have a 87.5% chance of knocking him out for the next turn (when you can charge in with plenty more and quite possibly kill him outright - trapped, lots of axes..). Of course, the aforementioned upgrade is a bit less important if you can increase your strength by D3 anyway.
And not unimportantly: any ideas what the scenarios could be? Not that the Shire list allows you to do much with Lords of Battle or so anyway, but still.

I second the Battlin' Brandybucks suggestion Equip with Axes, and you can tear into that heavy armor.

If you can win the fight, that is... An all Hobbit army has low Fight and no spears...so you will lose many more fights than your enemy - even against goblins.

Cheapest spear warband is now Laketown with Alfred...though a blister of three Laketown models for 20 euros puts them way out of my price range. I am looking at other Perry Brothers creations, perhaps something in their War of the Roses line to convert into Laketown spears.

Meanwhile, consider Furlong the Fat and 12 Dol Amroth Pikes...with four Hobbit warbands, still gives you 65 units at 500 points. Al least you'll have a 12 model line of Fight 4, with 2 attacks. Swarm tactics with heroic marches would do damage...

Most competitive: Two Minas Tirith spear warbands led by Beregond & Damrod, and three hobbit warbands of Battlin' Bandybucks and archers. You'll get 8 hobbits supported by Fight 4 rangers, and 16 hobbits supported by Fight 3 minis tirith, and still have 65 units fielded. That way, a full 24 hobbits will have 2 attacks, with decent or better Fight, with lots of units left for swarming objectives and flanking.

Let us know how it goes.