Hi! I've been eyeing LotR for years (been playing WHFB since about 2005) and am finally going to start collecting with the release of the Iron Hills dwarves. I picked up a lot of orcs/goblins from eBay to have two forces that was an easy (cheap) purchase, but am not entirely sure what to order for the Iron Hills army. I haven't received the rulebook yet and frankly no one here plays (yet), so I thought I'd check here...

I understand you form warbands out of one hero and up to twelve warrior models, but about how large are armies in a standardish game? 2-3 warbands? A dozen? The large Iron Hills collection is tempting, but I'm also not entirely sure if there's ever any scenario where one would use 48 spear and shield dwarves in this game... I'm sure I'll start out with a fairly small model count, but I'd like to figure out what my goal will be.

Thanks!

Well, it really depends on what definition of standard is used, but I think that 500 to 600 points is the most common, with 750-800 pts on occasion.
I don't think you will ever use the 48 dwarves in a game: even using cheap heroes, we are talking of, at least, 900 pts to 1000 pts. It can be happen, but is uncommon if you're not playing a thematic scenario.

Numbers depends mostly on your style of play. An All-mounted army will have 20ish models at 500 pts, an horde army (goblins) will easily have twice or three times as much.
At 600 pts, I have seen an average of 3/4 full warbands. 750 or 800 is more or less like 600 pts with extra points usually used for a powerhouse hero or, for good players, spellcasters.

That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks very much!