Hi 100% new to Tolkien,other then the movies, so much so I bought lake town guard believing they were Easterlings and clearly need help. I recently bought the middle earth strategy battle game and want to get into the main game.I just don't know where to start other then buying the rulebook. I don't mind getting into an army that is overly complicated and unwieldy. The armies I was thinking of getting into are Fiefdoms, Durin's Folk, Harad, and Easterlings for starters but I am open to any suggestions or ideas. I really do like armies that have different ways to play them. For example, heavy infantry that once you include a certain hero or spell could be faster then average. I'm not a huge fan of calvary,war machines or elfs. Any help on where to start would be much appreciated. Thanks.

i've always loved the high elves, they have a good selection of infantry and are tougher than other elves, also have a good selection of heroes - elrond, arwen & others. They do have some cavalry options but definitely no war machines.

Also, because of their stats they can hold quite well in battle both offensively & defensively & whether using archers, spearmen or swordsmen.

Well, the Uruk Hai are considered the basic troop, the space marine of LoTR. Their army is quite powerful and easy to play, plus it allies nicely with Mordor and the army of Angbor, which has some really neat models with special abilities.

Fiefdoms is really a fun army to paint and collect, but many of their models are OOP and expensive to buy on the secondary market. The other armies are all in stock, at least most of their models are.

My suggestion would be based on what kind of gamer are you? If you really are in it for the narrative, paint what you like. If you are the more competitive type, have a read on the forums under the various army help topics and choose your warriors that way. You could also select a battle company, they are a nice way to start the game and have fun while slowly acquiring a collection. (Battle company rules are seperate from the standard rules.)

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Thanks for such quick responses. I looked into the high elves but most of the models are unavailable and the same with the Uruk Hai. I'm more of a narrative player so I'll probably go the Battle company rules route and do a slow build of models then. Would it still need the main rule book and or the specific army books to play Battle company rules?

Yes, you would still need the basic rules. A rather cheap to collect army are the Easterlings, as all their troops are in plastic. As long as you don't care being competitive.

I really do like the Easternlings but couldn't really find units for them. I'm going more for a fun army but it seems as thought I can't really order a vast majority of the factions on GW website or find much variety at the store. I was able to pick up the main rule book and the only two boxes they had for the game the Moria Goblin Warriors and Dwarf Rangers since the models did look like fun models. This maybe an off topic question but is this game still supported? Or is a new edition about to come out so GW is holding out for new releases?

I'm not really too hung up on competition. I just don't want an army that is so weak that by the first turn I'll be tabled or unsupported by GW. I think I just have a bad flash back to my days playing with Bretonnians and Dogs of War.

The game is still somewhat support but after the mess that was the Hobbit release after all the new stuff got added in last minute GW has been moving the range to Forge World. A Battle Companies skirmish supplement was just released and a new edition is supposed to be coming out in the summer. SBG has always been something an unknown quantity for GW after the movies ended. They pulled the in store floor space a few years ago. Back when they stopped third party online sales too. Perhaps it would be wise to wait and see what happens with the launch of new edition. If the stuff comes back buy in and if not then give it a pass.

I don't want to say just go full proxy right out of the gate but I have seen it done with the human factions well enough in years past. Rohan, the Easterlings, Laketown, and the Fiefs are easy enough to sort out. That does seem sort of cheap though. Maybe just get some of the models you want to have in a display case, paint them, and see what happens.

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