I am looking to add some variety to a fledgling WOTR Moria army. I have plenty of goblins and a couple of trolls. Are spiders and/or bats a good addition? I can read the stats, but does anyone have experience of how they play? If they are good, how many do you need in a formation to be worth including in an army?
Thanks.

Dunno about the bats, but spiders are definitely worth the point (and mini) cost. Two S5 attacks, unhindered movement and the venom ability are lethal.

EDIT: And of course I'm thinking in SBG terms. Though I've heard there is a larger scale game too, what was it called now...

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Spiders are a good choice, especially for Druzhag to summon. If price of the miniatures puts you off the spiders from the Warhammer Fantasy goblin spider riders set are good alternates. I got 40 of them off ebay for $.75 each.

Bats I haven't been too impressed with. I haven't played them myself though. I have heard some people comment on using them for the terror (because a flock of bats is scary but a spider the size of a horse, or even a box truck, isn't) and for the flight to hit formations from behind.

Thanks. My next question would be - are there any cheap alternative figures, so well pre empted. I dont have Druzhag, he seems one of those very unbalanced heroes. I think I'll try to get 3 companies of spiders for a formation and see how they work.

Small, 1-2 inch plastic or rubber spiders should be quite easy to find in toy shops, especially when we get around Halloween.

http://costumecreations.com/tag/rubber-spiders
http://www.horror-shop.com/en/black-plastic-spiders-144-pcs.html

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I have a few companies of "official" GW spiders but also have a few companies worth of some fairly well detailed "toy" spiders like you'd get at a science store / museum gift shop. I want to paint them up to match my GW spiders and think they'll stand in nicely and for a fraction of the cost. In both WotR and SBG they have proven worth their cost.

I haven't played against any bats in WotR yet. In SBG I would say they were worth their cost for sure. Having one or two of them in an army almost always paid off. They wouldn't win the game for you obviously but were great harassing / stalling units as well as providing a lot of tactical assistance supporting your main force. Unfortunately, I'm not really keen on GWs Bat Swarm model but not yet sure of any alternatives.

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It is miles better than the WFB Vampire counts bats



If you don't like the GW one, how about the reaper one?

These bat swarms aren't bad either. Especially considering the price, €5.58 for three. Link

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I like those last two (get rid of the gravestone base though). Thanks!!!!

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

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

I too like them more than the GW batswarm, but I need mine for arrow shielding. The GW model does cover a wide area. And there is the Tournement consideration; I've heard some competitions can get picky about non-GW models. I haven't played mine yet, but I expect big Hero Killing returns when they halve the enemy fight value. Too bad they are such cowards that elf lords-or any terror causing enemies-- are immune.

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but then, I just read this: "well luckily there are some benefits to GW's approach, with them no longer supporting tournaments, most TO's are allowing non GW models back into tournaments. So a whole heap of small model companies with some truly wonderful models will get more trade. That means a whole dwarf army with no GW models is now on the cards"

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"make me lunch... worthy of Mordor"

What are you referring to here? I don't know of such a rule.

I do believe he's saying that because the elf lords or any terror causing enemies will be hard to charge with bats because of their low courage, though they won't be totally immune, they will be ALMOST immune.

Ah right. That's why Druzhag and shamans are so useful...

OK, I still don't have any idea what you guys are talking about.

What do Bat Swarms have to do with hero killing? How are they supposed to cut an enemies Fight value in half, terror reduces it to zero? What low courage? Bats actually have a surprisingly high courage value, as good as basic elves. What do Shamans have to do with it? Druzhag has inspiring leader (bats) (but has lower courage) but goblin shamans cast Ruin spells, they can't impact Courage at all, either the Bat's or the enemies?

Basically, none of these quotes make any sense at all to me.

Are you applying them to both the SBG and WoTR rules at the same time?

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His original post specified that he was talking about WotR so I don't know why any SBG rules would have been getting brought into it.

My bad. In SBG, Batswarms half fight value...real handy with lots of dice being thrown, and might used, when fight value can determine the winner. But thier courage is so low, they likely won't pass the courage test needed to charge terror-causing heros. I don't think in WotR. I'll pay better attention...

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"make me lunch... worthy of Mordor"

Oops, my bad

Finally managed to win some warhammer spider riders for a reasonable price of ebay. Thanks to forgottenlore for the recommendation. I now have 5 companies of spiders to try out. The spiders are good, the goblins which go with them remind me why I was never too taken with warhammer models.