Im trying to figure out the diffrences and advantages of diffrent good armys.
I was hoping some one could help me a little and tell me what is good about each army and how best to use them, and what seperates them from other good armys.

These are the armys im looking at, Gondor, Rohan, Dwarfs, High Elfs, Wood Elfs.

dwarfs have really high defence and a good amount of elites but they are slow and don't have spears.
they are best used as a shieldwal and for 1 vs. 1 fighting.

high elfs are the really elites, they have good defence, high courage, great shooting and an amazing fight skill but they are expensive
wood elfs are the same as high elfs but are cheaper but lack def.
wood and high elfs are best used by simpley shooting the enemy to pieces and then use there superior fight to finish the remaining enemy of.

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live good and you will be rewarded
live bad and you will have fun

Furthermore, since armies get overpowered troops lately, Gondor and Rohan I think have a small disadvantage. I don't really know for sure.^^

Rueben

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"Mickey, my friend!"

i should be able to help seen as i have used all of these exept dwarves but i regularly play aggaist them

gondor - resonable deffence for most their troops. not relly outstanding at anything but not really awfull either. a huge range of troops and heros.

rohan - easily accessable cavilry all with shields and bows, however i belive that this is their downfall as only a few of the cavilry actuly get to use their bows. a poor range of troops but some good heros. i actualy find rohan quite weak

dwarves - high deffence army, which is very forgiving to begginers. however they have no spears which in combat sometimes is a problem. they have a higher than average fight value of 4. but are slow and have no cavilry. a decent range of troops and some powerful heros

high elves - pretty much good at everything, best shooting in the game decent deffence too. However all this comes at a cost, they are very expencive in points and will frequently be outnumbered . They don't have a huge troop choice but there are new highelves to be released soon, they have some very powerfull hero's, i particularly recomend elladan and elrohir

wood elves - same as highelves, but with no armour, so are naturaly cheeper in points cost, have some brilliant heros such as legolas haldir and galadrial and more and have a decent troop range too. i would not advise this force to a begginer, they are trickey to use

Ultimately it's going to depend on what flavour you want to bring to the game, who do you want to pretend to be. They are all competitive, you just have to learn to use them.

Gondor: great flexibility, excellent range of elites, large range of models from warriors to seige weapons, and a wide range of heroes, from Boromir down to Damrod. Good sets of plastic models. Gondor is your standard battlefield army, and probably the most forgiving if you're learning.

Rohan: reasonable warriors (nothing special), good Riders, a few elites but they're decent, and a good range of heroes. Eowyn is great value, and Eomer makes a good hero muncher Good sets of plastic models. People play and win with all-Rider armies (which is quite a feat, since you're outnumbered almost 2:1), but it takes a lot of skill. You could field a "standard battlefield army", but you'd suffer with the warrior and rider's (relatively) lower defences.

Dwarves: slow, with high defence and good fighting. Plastic models are good. The elites are excellent (except, IMHO, the Dwarf Rangers), great at punching through a line. The heroes are also top notch. Dwarves are best in tunnels and areas with small access points. They're a bit expensive, so on a big open field they tend to get surrounded, but they might still win because of high defence. I also like they way they look, all stunty and colourful

High Elves: best warriors and bowmen, but you pay for it. IMHO, poor range of models. You can only get bowmen and bladesmen in the Last Alliance box set. For spears you have to go metal. No cavalry yet They have the most awesome heroes in the game this side of Evil. The best bang-for-buck are the Monkey Twins (Elrond's sons). If you field an army of them you're pretty much forced to rely on your bows to whittle the opposing numbers down. Personally I find that tactic boring by now, so I usually use High Elves as an allied force, not a full army, as they are great shock troops. An Elf captain with 10 shielded spearmen charging a flank causes Terror...at least in your opponent

Wood Elves: my favorite so far (until more High Elf models are released). Good plastic set. Only one real elite at this point--Sentinels--but they are worth every point. No cavalry, but I don't think they ever had any in the book, which makes sense. Great range of heroes, some of the top heroes in the game, such as Galadriel. The wood elf spear is a highly underrated piece of equipment, as are throwing daggers. They (naturally) excel on terrain with lots of forested areas, but I've found if you use them right they can hold their own almost anywhere.