Hey all! I've been a Warhammer 40k player for some time, but I've been interested in GW's LOTR game for a while and I'm thinking about starting it up. That said, I think WOTR appeals t me more than the normal LOTR strategy game. That said, I was hoping I might be able to learn about the evil armies, since they appeal to me. I'm pretty keen on a Mordor army, although the Easterlings catch my attention. How different can I expect them to play?

There is a good discussion on all the factions in this forum
Continuous Tactical Discussions: WotR Codex - viewtopic.php?f=88&t=18896

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http://drinkingwotr.blogspot.com/ - Links to my CrAzY House Rules, Games and 'poor man's' terrain.

Wait until next month before making any decisions. There's going to be some major new releases.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Basically there are three types of list you can make: - An OP Mordor list with Mordor RAF or Khamul, Betrayer, Dwimmerlaik, Knight of Umbar, Gothmog in Gorgoroth Orc Horde/Morrannons. You will win almost without thought, but EVERYONE will hate you for it.
-A normal Mordor list with Mordor Orcs, a few Morannons, some Black Guard/Black Numenoreans/Morgul Knights/etc. and some of the lesser Nazgul.
-An Easterling army. This would be something along the lines of: Khamul (who isn't as OP here, though he is still OP, if that makes sense), Amdur, a LOT of Easterlings with Pikes, maybe some Archers, a 3-6 coy Kataphract formation, and some Khandish.

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

I find it funny that this guy says he is new to LOTR, and then you start rattling off all these abbreviations and short-hand names for models. I was reading through your post, and, though I am a noob, I have been playing LOTR for several years on an off, and I could not translate all your abbreviations. What is Mordor RAF? And why don't you just say 'over-powered' instead of OP?

Mordor RAF = Mordor Royal Air Force ie, an arm composed entirely of Winged Nazgul with their battlehost.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Sorry, clear version:`There are three types of army you can take, which I explain below with subtypes
An overpowered Mordor army. These come in two basic types: -The Mordor Royal Airforce, a nickname for putting as many Winged Nazgul in the list as you can, using the "the Nazgul" Battlehost. This ends up with an army that is very hard to get to grips with, while pumping out spells and Swoop Attacks at an amazing rate (Swoop attack is explained in the Winged Nazgul entry)
-The Nazgul Spam. This is basically coupling 4-5 Nazgul (among which almost always The Betrayer, Khamul and The Dwimmerlaik) with Gothmog (so any duel is to go right back into your opponents face, for free) and either the Gorgoroth Orc Horde (18 coys of orcs rerolling misses, with +1 to hit (for the twohanded weapons) and bouncing any hits back into you on a 5+ is NASTY), or (for a slightly less overpowered list) formations of 4 coys of Morrannon Orcs (which are basically improved WOMT) and maybe some allied in Corsair Arbalesters (put the Betrayer in here).
"Normal" (as in not-overpowered) Mordor lists: This would be any combination of Mordor Orcs, the lesser Nazgul (Witch-King, Undying, Shadow Lord), a few Morannon Orcs and some of the heavy hitters (Black Numenoreans, Morgul Knights, Troll Chieftains, etc.).
An Easterling list: Basically, there are so few different Easterling kinds, that most of them will end up quite the same. This would involve Khamul (the Easterling), Amdur, maybe some of the other Nazgul, Easterlings with Pikes (maybe in the Battlehost), Kataphracts, and then Easterling archers (overcosted, but they come in the Eastelings box, so make for cheap archers) and/or some Khandish (with 2HW they give some punch, with bows they are cheap archers). After that, you enter the realm of the Haradrim

Excuse me if went overboard on the clearness, no offence was meant.

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

My advice would be start collecting an army you like the look of, then you will enjoy collecting, painting and playing with the army. Many people choose Mordor as the orcs and warg can be used for other armies, so they help spread the cost. My main army was mordor - they are easy to play and collect and I use the orcs for Angmar also.
I collect dwarves, but after painting them decided there not for me, so now on to Gondor and Rohan.

I love the game, as I am sure you will - you might want to check out army lists and battle reports to see what others use and how they perform (there are a few on my blog below).

Good luck

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Leonardis
Army blog:Http://www.thewarofthering.blogspot.co.uk/

My advice woul be get a very, very big loan...

About armies, pick whichever army taks your fancy, as mentioned above,s ome things are better than others. Briefly:

Mordor, when taken as RAF or massed Morannons and Wraiths they are the top list, they have some of the most overpowered items. They are very easy to learn how to play effectively.

Gondor, Misty Mountains and Fallen Realms, also have some great units and would be next in power, good enough to get to ggrips with, but you are less like to be hted by your opponabnts when fielding a very good list.

Dwarves and Isengard also some good heavy infanttry, though costly, are effictive, as well, but you must take alittle more care not to be massively outnumbered.

Elves, Angmar and Rohan are the hardest lists for a beginner to try and require much more careful troo selection. I would not recoommend thes to a beginner but here is bit of advice for each. Elves - take only archers and shield troops, and use the cheaper but better heroes Thranduil, Haldir, Elven Twins. With Angmar the best core infantry is Carn Dum, use them and cheap wraiths and buhrdur, don't use spirits as core troops, and don't use them att all with appropriate support eg Sunder spirit spell, Rohan, the infantry is good, and the Knights are the only worthwhile caval;ry, heroes eomer and earl are good. With these lists more than any other make syure you use up your ally aklotmment and pick wisely.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Sadly, I have to agree. Or get a HUGE amount of luck on ebay (I myself just lost a 180 Dwarf lot for less then a tenth of the ordinary price in the last second ).

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

The secondhand market for many of the armies is still very good so I would get into that.

Aristocrap, in order to evaluate the lists I suggest that you look at what you can make out of the better value troops types from either: generally it is better to have a good defense (as long as you get it cheaply, ie a shield) and preferably something to make you hit harder eg Lances, two handed weapons, Berserkers, Dunlending rule. Smaller units working flanks can be another way to hit harder. Bow is not so good in WOTR vs high defense troops but can be handy vs Hordes of defense 3 troops. I would give up high defense to be able to hit harder with some units early on. So the likes of Orcs/Goblins with two handed weapon (or even bow, they are cheap) are also a solid choice.

Crossbows are great in this game, and Fallen Realms get a very cheap unit of them. The right artillery can be good also, and the Mordor Siege bow is the best of the bunch. If you take monsters, make them heroes. Cavalry needs to be used carefully due to it's relative vulnerability (effectively only half the 'wounds') and tends to perform best when 'buddied' up with foot units.

Either large units with appropriate hereos (eg Captains, spellcasters) to boost them can work Or you can work together multiple smaller units. I use both approaches. Smaller units tend to work better with high def infantry and cavalry, as the aim is to get the right charges and work flanks and the high def infantry can work in units as small as three coy strong.

There are really multiple play-styles and lists within most factions. Fallen Realms can be done in a number of ways, as can Mordor The 'go to' list for Mordor is a whole lot of Morranan Orcs (eg high def for low costs AND hit slightly harder) plus Gothmog and Wraiths. On that view, Easterlings are only a lesser version of the same (eg the infantry costs more). Both armies can have all of the better heroes to boost them up, due to the allies rules. However, there is much more flexibility in the lists than that cookie cutter version so I recommend using the above principles to get a good combination of the unit type that 'grab' you and effectiveness. I also have this comment on some of the heroes in the evil list:


YMMV

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com