I'm attending my first one day LOTR tournie in about two months to dip my toes in the GBHL. The points limit is 600, and I'm planning on heading in with Mordor.

In line with my previous points analysis, the backbone of my army will be the following:-

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield - 131


Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans w/ warhorn
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield - 151

That's a solid shieldwall with terror caused along the front row, fight value 4, and strength 4 in support.

Now that gives me two solid blocks of troops at a total of 282 points, with a warhorn supplementing their courage. The average elite army will be about 25 models I'd estimate, and the largest horde possible is about 60 models. So the question now, is what to spend the remaining points on. I should probably add about 10 models, and having something to deal with big heroes is a must. So here a few variants for the remaining 318 points. I'd be interested to hear what you prefer and why?

Variant 1:- The Monster distraction

Cave Drake -175

Captain of the Black Guard
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield - 141

This gives me a nice big monster to hide behind. It's resistant to magic, can one hit ko big heroes if lucky, race forward at a reasonable eight inches, pile into cavalary, and has six wounds to keep people distracted. Bulked out with another ten man shield wall formation, I like to think I'll do reasonably well.


Variant 2 - The Orc Wave

Morannon Orc Captain with Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield - 131

Witch King w/Horse, +1 Might, +2 Fate
5 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield -185

This gives me a reasonably solid spellcaster to transfix and target heroes who can then fall prey to my 40 man strong (reasonably) elite troops formation. It also gives me enough troops that I should match most armies of men as well, I should think. The main flaw is that it's a bit tactically inflexible, if stat-wise and numerically strong.


Variant 3 -Magic Time

Kardush the Firecaller
10 Orc Trackers w/warg -110

The Undying w/ Armoured Horse
5 Morannon Orc w/Shield
5 Mordor Orc w/Spear 205

Here, I diversify a little. I'll do my best to keep Kardush and the Undying reasonably close so they can feed off each other. Kardush can soul grab from random orcs for will, and then every time he pulls off a spell, the Undying will suck a will point off of him. With that sort of barrage, I should be able to dominate the magic phase (metaphorically) to slow down and snipe heroes even with wizards about, I can spam off ten bow shots a turn in support, and have enough bodies with a hardcore centre of elite troops. I could potentially pull the Undying off his horse too, which would give me sufficient points to upgrade the rest of his unit to be 5 Black Numenoreans, and 5 Morannon Orcs (3 with shield/spear, 2 with spear). Or I could just downgrade the horse to being unarmoured and turn the spear orcs into morannon orcs too, etc. Certainly some flexibility there.

Variant 4:- The All Rounder


Mordor Troll Chieftain
10 Orc Trackers - 180 points

AND

Ringwraith w/ +2 might, +1 fate
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Mordor Orcs w/spear -136

OR

Ringwraith w/Horse, +2 might, +2 fate
4 Warg Riders w/shield -137

I get a nice big troll to play around, and a bare bones Ringwraith in on the front line (well, hiding behind an orc/warg rider) lobbing the occasional spell around for good measure. If it's the foot one, I have lots of bodies. If it's the cavalry one, then I really do have a jack of all trades list, with footsloggers, troll, magic, bows & Cavalry!

I'd go with the warg riders, but I'm big on flexibility.

Which ones? The List 4 version, or the Trackers on wargs?