Hi all

I am coming back into the lotr hobby and looking at a few options, Would Goblin town be a recommended purchase?
I have a budget of about 150 pounds so have already ruled out iron hill dwarves as i wont be able to do a good starting army for that, though its on the cards for the future!, the army will also double up for some other games also so looking to buy as much as i can in one swoop.

what would be a relatively easy force to learn the game with? i'm looking at
-Dwarves
-Galadrim
-Rivendell
-Minas Tirith
-Rohan

i'm very indecisive at the moment so would like some advise if possible on how the armies play, and some recommended purchases if possible.

thanks for any help

Hello and welcome to lotr! Hopely next answers help a bit with decision... :3

Dwarves: Super powerful melee units. Their only con is that they walk slowly. Also nice mid-prices overpowered heroes... insane against enemy melee troops...

Elves: Best archers in game. Many heroes are in nice price range - not too cheap, not too pricy, and their heroes are actually very good at melee, ranged or magic when needed. Melee is lacking, both cavalry and infrantry, at least when we simply consider the fact that normal soldiers are so pricy for.. having same s3 and a1 as all other basic troops. These soldiers can still be decent even in melee, if you have banner, as they have high fight-value, the banner makes you get a lot 6's and then you will auto-win most enemy melee forces.

Minas tirith: Has good archers, medium plus melee (not just as op mleee as dwarves), but also good cavalry if needed. One problem is that most heroes are either reallyyyy expensive or really cheap.

Rohan has cheap heroes that are still decent. A lot might, so if player knows how to do heroic movements it will benefit greatly if he also has a lot cavalry (cavalry is strong if they charge). Also, best cavalry in game. And actually, quite a lot archers. Possibility to have also piles of throwing spears in army... Might be worth it depending on enemy?

I think dale has just as good shoting

I think that Minas Tirith is the best army to start with. If you have nothing against second hand stuff, you'll find the core troops going for cheap on ebay and similar websites so you can use the money you saved to buy a box of cavalry, some elites and some heroes (Faramir and Cirion and Madril should be good enough to learn).

I would not suggest Rohan to a beginner because it's an army that has to be played as an all-mounted force to fully perform but that means that it requires a lot of finesse, the kind of finesse you learn with experience.

If you’re interested in Dwarves an idea might be to get the Goblin Town box, the There and Back Again book, along with with a box of Erebor Dwarves and a box of Grim Hammers. You can then use Thorin, Dwalin and Ballin from the Goblin Town set as their younger versions and have around 500 points of Dwarves (you can also use the Dwarves as a all Hero Thorin’s Company army). The Goblin Town box will give you around 400 points of Goblins so you can play games with a friend.

I second Minas Tirith as probably one of the best ways to pick up the game. They have dependable troops (high defence, spears, some elites with higher fight value and bodyguard), good shooting (rangers and citadel guard), cavalry, some big heroes, a nice selection of medium ones (captain-level with extra might) and some cheap leaders to easily get high numbers on the table. (The latter also mean they do well both at small points levels and in bigger games.) Core troops all available in plastic too, making it a cheap way to start.

Wow, lots of great suggestions. BTW, great to see you interested in getting started!

I recommend you play with an Army that you really like. When you read the books and the movies, what faction do you like the most? I think that will go a long way in informing what kind of Army you should start with and your collecting habits. Of course, over time, you'll just want to collect anything .

If you don't have anything, to include rules, I'd recommend you get a copy of the rules and a warband book (free peoples, mordor etc) first. Read over stuff, ask some questions before spending your money on a bunch of stuff. Is there any way you can borrow/play with someone's stuff so you can get a feel for the type of Army you'd like to play with? Perhaps watch some GBHL batreps and DCHL youtube videos to get a sense of the Armies and what you'd like.

Paul
DCHL