Evil... Orcs or uruk-hai?

[electricwolf]

Through various trades i aquired a large (4100 pts) evil army with moria, Mordor and orc's. I have yet to play LOTR and i'm looking at trimming this army down.

Should i stick with Uruk-hai or orcs?

[SirSnipes]

moria goblins are great for sbg, but ive always loved urak phalanxes and how they look

[Avatar of the Eldar]

LotR or WotR or both?

I look at it this way:

- Isengard is an efficient, cost-effective, if somewhat unvaried army. Keep one unit of Mordor orcs and maybe even a unit of goblin archers (if you don't have or don't want to splash for metal Uruk x-bows).

- Misty Mountains is good in that you can get scads of plastic goblins on the cheap. But you'll need huge blocks of them and there's little variety without allies. I'm not a fan of the dragon or Balrog options. But that's me.

- Mordor is the classic, and opens interesting ally options - but how many Mordor/Morannon orcs and Mordor Trolls do you have for starters?

With that, I'd say balance the faction you like the best against the one for which you have the most models and go with that.

[electricwolf]

Here is what i have:

LOTR Evil Force

4100 pts

Saruman 150 pts

5 Ringwraiths 110 each total 550 pts
Balrog 400 pts

Moria
Moria goblin shaman 45 pts
31 Moria goblins w/ shields 155 pts
31 Moria goblins w/ spears 155 pts
34 Moria goblins w/ bows 170 pts

2 Cave Troll 140 pts


Mordor
Shagrat Uruk-hai War Leader 110 pts
Lurtz Uruk-Hai Captain 60 pts
Uruk-Hai Captain 50 pts
46 Uruk-hai w/ shield , Banner 531 pts
31 Uruk-hai w/ pikes 341 pts
12 Uruk-hai w / cross-bows 144 pts
6 Uruk-hai Beserkers 90 pts
6 Mordor Uruk-hai 48 pts
6 Mordor Uruk-hai w/Bows 54 pts

Grisnak Orc Captain 45 pts
Gorbag Orc Captain 45 pts
Orc Captain 45 pts
30 Orcs w/ shields , banner 205 pts
11 Orcs w/ bows 66 pts
17 Orcs w/ spears 102 pts
15 Orcs w/ 2handed weapon 75 pts
8 Orcs w/ pikes

Mordor Catapult w/Troll 180 pts

Mordor Troll 100 pts

4 Warg riders 2w/bows, 2 w/spears 44pts

[Jobu]

Couple of things

Your uruk-hai are from isengaurd and not mordor, small but significant for both WotR and LotR.

If you do not have Legions of Middle Earth book it is a good investment as most games/tourneys are based on the army lists in the book. It is also how I am basing the keep vs throw advice.

I would trim this list down by losing the goblins. With this list they are the only single purpose force.

Having isengaurd is a good starting force that is expandable with the regular( i.e. mordor) orcs. Isen has strong infantry, great x-bows, magic with saruman and pikes.

Keep those regular orcs for your mordor force, and they can also be included in the isenguard force.

The regular trolls can be included in either the mordor or isengaurd force as can the warg riders.

The cave trolls can be included in an Angmar army as can the regular orcs/captain.

Keep the wraiths as they are great for magic in both WotR and LotR, just paint them a bit differently ( i.e. adding specific highlights on weapons and details on cloaks ) to differentiate them so you can give them "names" like undying, betrayer, khamul etc.

[electricwolf]

so essentially you're advice would be to keep everything but the goblins?

[Jobu]

If you want to put it in a less wordy way ....yeah .

[Avatar of the Eldar]

I would echo Jobu: the critical mass of your models are Isenguard, which is a great faction to play. Focus is a good thing, so try to trade off the other stuff to refine the things (or cool options) you need for that faction.

You have enough for 2x3companiy formations of Uruk Hai w/HW+Sh and 1x4company of pike. Good core there.

Here's what I think you should trade/sell:

- All the gobbo's except some archers (see below)
- All but about 48 HW+Sh Mordor orcs (maybe all of them depending on your preferences)
- All the Ringwraiths but one foot and mounted (He can be an ally sent by Sauron to keep Saruman honest. )
- I'd say trade off that Balrog for other models you'd get more use out of, unless you're dead set on fielding it. Personally, I wouldn't want to play against a Balrog on a regular basis.
- Trade off those Mordor Uruk Hai - they don't fit. (I have some Isengard x-bows I could trade you for them! )
- In the short term, use the Cave Trolls as proxy Isengard Trolls but trade them when you can for at least one more Isengard Troll to go with your Mordor Troll (which is close enough to keep)
- Trade the Mordor Catapult - get a Isengard Siege Ballista if you really want a war machine. Not sure you need one, tho'. Isengard is pretty hitty and Vrsasku's special rule can lay down some serious shooty hurt when you need it. Besides, you won't be facing any monsters besides Ents, maybe Eagles, if you play mostly against good faction armies.

Here's what I think you should acquire:

- At least 4 more Uruk Hai x-bows for 2 companies of "Vrasku's Talons", an excellent legendary formation. (eventully 3 companies would be nice to have either as legendary or common)
- 2 (later 8) more Berzerkers for at least one company
- at least 4 - 8 more Warg Riders (this formations need to be big as they're easy to shoot up - so build to a big mob of them)
- Keep enough Mordor orcs for maybe a 6 company mob of Isenguard orcs - your disposable meat shield to screen you better Uruk Hai.
- Keep 12 goblin archers to combine with your Mordor archers + Grishnakh to field 3 companies of "Grishnakh's Trackers" as a supplementary shooting unit that can ambush. Probably don't want more than 3 companies so that they can fit into most pieces of defensible terrain.
- What you're calling "Mordor Uruk Hai w/bows" are probably Isengard Uruk Hai Scouts" At some point you should get a box of these. Keep an eye out for a trade here or at Bartertown.
- Personally, I'd love to see an Isenguard army with significant Dunlendings and some amount of regular orcs - as in the books. But the GW models are expensive. Some players are buying plastic Wargames Factory ancient Germans and Dacians as alternatives.

How's that for feedback?

AotE