White Dwarf had a battle rep of the Ents attacking Isengard, but other than that I am not aware of any all or mostly monster battles from official sources (obviously because it is kinda hard to do a "legal" army of monster).

How would such an army perform, do you guys think? Does anyone have any experience with monster heavy forces?

The reason I ask is because ever since I got WotR I have thought there was enough variety of trolls to do an all troll variant army list. My impression though is that it would get eaten alive by most armies. What do you all think?

I see such a list comprising

Common Formations
Cave Trolls
Mordor Trolls
Isengard Trolls
Half-Trolls

Rare Formations
Mordor Troll Chieftains
Troll Drummers
Isengard Troll Captains
Stone Giant

Legendary Formations
and Burhdur

That's almost as many unit entries as the Angmar list and I think it would look pretty cool on the battle field but would it be at all fun to play or would it just be an exercise in placing wound counters?

It is really good to play an all monster army.
I almost used one in WOTR(but i had Witch King and Tainted but hey were riding fellbeasts, it's really good.)
The only promblem is that they have less attackes and less wound in total and are more expensive.
But a single trol can destroy 3 formations before it die(or something like that i think)

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I am a ranger of the north.

I've seen this Troll army just massacred versus Isengard with Saruman and Druzag. Epic Ruin and Tremor and you can kiss more than a few trolls goodbye. It was quite comical and sad to see since my friend spent more than a few bucks to accumulate 15 trolls. Any idea how to make it work, I'd like to hear it. I'll forward this topic to him.

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

I played a tournament with a monster army before, here's a link to the report: http://venivididouble1.blogspot.com/201 ... -none.html

They're pretty cool to look at and if everything works out well then they're quite powerful, but 2 things I learned while testing armies for that tournament:
- Non-chieftain/non-captain Trolls are completely worthless, they must be one of the biggest wastes of points in this game because they are insanely slow and die too easily. Essentially everything that can't at the double and has only Hard to Kill is worthless. Troll chieftain in this case is miles better because he moves up to 16", can duel heroes (and with F8 that's not too bad) and doesn't get killed by a random non-hero-containting formation of archers in a single turn.
- Stone Giants are the best monster units in the game because they're really cheap for the EHtK rule and generate 12+ attacks against F4 formations, eating almost everything on 3+

It can work, but it's generally not very good. However, an all-Fell Beast army is one of the best in the game I found (I mean the 5 wraiths Battlehost) - my friend used that at the WotR GT last year (I will probably be using it this year because it's an army with insane capabilities) and on his way defeated Gorgoroth Horde with 5 foot Wraiths, Grey Company with Galadriel/Elendil/Aragorn/Dain and I believe another 3-wraith force, only losing to my army in the final game where my one lucky Mumak/Overlorded move killed 3 of the wraiths in the 2nd turn because of the rules of deployment in Maelstrom of Battle. I would've probably lost if I hadn't lucked out there.

Multiple Dragons fare pretty well too, although they're too easy to defeat with 5 foot wraiths, while the Nazgul Battlehost can move up to 36" while killing with mutli-swoops and casting multiple spells.

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Coordinator of the Great British Hobbit League

Hi, I played with a Monster heavy list yesterday as I wanted to use the models I've finally got around to painting. I had a Dragon, two Stone Giants and Gulavhar making up 1100 of my total 1500 points. I found them all fun to play with, probably not the most competitive list ever but one I'd definately play with again.

I was facing The Nine so my Dragon had "Pall of Night" cast on him continuously but still was able to breathe fire and take out a few Wraiths until they finally ran out of Might and failed to stop me charging them. He also had a couple of Mordor Troll Chieftans but they did not really pose much of a threat, one was smashed by a Stone Giant and the other Duelled to death with Epic Strike. Overall, the Monsters with the Extremely Hard to Kill rule did well, the ones with the Very Hard to Kill rule did not (including Gulavhar).

Having said all that the 3 Companies of Goblin Prowlers with Druzhag were the surprise stand out performers, they took down his Morgul Knights thanks to their two handed weapons, the Prowlers special rule and re-rolls (thanks to Druzhag's magic) and then killed two Wraiths before being slain themselves.

So in answer to the original question, a good mix of different types of units will normally give a better army overall but Monster heavy lists can be fun and can do alright.

Thanks for the info. Personal experience is always critical.

The general weakness of H2K models for their points is a disappointment for me in WotR. Though I use Mordor / Isengard Trolls in a supporting role anyway (where they do ok if you have enough ), I really would love to field an army of Ents, but just don't think the K2K models would stand up well. Too bad as they are a fine example of what a Monster-based army could be like.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

If you want to play the stone Giant what do you use as there is no model? Just a troll and name it as a stone Giant?

If I once build a stone giant, that will similar like this. plans, plans....

So do you need to build one? Or can you play anything as a replacement?

I use an oldish D&D mini that I have (A fomorian) that works very well.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TLttug-taEs/T ... morian.jpg

A Warhammer Fantasy giant put on a round base (I think 60mm would do) would be a most excellent stone giant.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catal ... prod840934

I dont like the WH desing, I think it really dont match with the Lotr style.

So what would you use to resemble the stone giant?

Like I sad I would sculp something. But it takes a lot of time. But in my mind the stone giant is a stone monster.

Haha maybe a tad big but love it! I may attempt a sculptured one myself

I also think it should look like it is made out of Stone, maybe a Golem-like Ent (I said Golem NOT Gollum)

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

I didn't really take "stone giant" to mean large, animated stone. Rather I took it to mean giants that live in the mountain regions. I may not be remembering a specific reference if anyone has a pointer.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

I agree. The best stone-giant models I've ever seen are those sculpted and produced by ukfreddybear.

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

Agreed. His Mountain Giant looks great and is probably the best model I'd ever suggest for this. Even Tolkien's Trolls in the Hobbit, which turned to stone in the light of day, didn't look like stone while they were a Troll. There's not much in his mythology to support animated rocks as a direct "creation" of evil and even less to support it as a natural beast. But I could see small communities of largish Men in various remote parts of the world.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

To me, enormous Men are not ?Tolkienish and they wuld look more stone-like (how can it be a stone giant if it isn't made of it)

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

The same way a Cave Troll isn't made out of caves and a hill troll isn't made out of a hill, wood elves aren't made out of wood. Because they live around great big stones.

I don't care either way personally, it is one vague reference in the books, they could be evil maiar spirits that live on the mountain tops for all we know.