There are a lot out there. Im just curious of everyone opinions....

Theres Arnor with their Ranger of the North combo....theres Rohan with 100% bows and moving and shooting.....you have Mirkwood with Rangers and general strong bow skills......you have goblin spam.......you have harad at 50% with cheap units and heroes....


If you can pick the best and state your case Id just be curious.

Heroes can be included as a reason.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

It really depends on what you are trying to build. As you mentioned, both rohan and arnor can play 100% bows, haradrim can reroll DMG, and field 50%, woodelves can be set up to hit on a 2+ in addition to sporting str3 bows. I have never seen goblin spam work though. Oh and then there is the uruk cross bow which is a str4. I've been on the wrong end of that one before. There is also the specialized black root rangers who deal extra DMG to monsters.

To answer your question, I prefer woodelves who hit on a 2+ when with old thranduril

I think it's a very interesting question and I'm not really sure there is an undisputed best shooting army. As mentioned in the previous posts lots of armies have different strengths and I feel that shooting in the game is relatively well balanced. I suppose someone could work out the potential chance to hit and wound of the archery contingent of a 700 point army for example and rank them that way or something like that.

Personally I like Dwarf archers, because they shoot well, are hard to kill and can always muck into melee when required.

Grey company would be my top pick. Once I made up a 500 points Grey company army with 32 archers and 8 of them had at least one might to spend. Even at with common bows, 32 shoots at 3+ can decimate every army. With the right deployment (ranger of the north single drop helps) one could decimate almost every army.
But I think it doesn't work as well on higher points battle, where is easier to find ways to reduce bow efficiency.

or hobbits, due to sheer number.

Rohan Riders have 100% bow limit, but also 4+ to shoot (5+ when moving) and are too expensive to be played as archers.
Mirkwood rangers are good, but a single warband of them with Legolas or tauriel is very expensive.

I really like the Rivendell Knight list. 100% bows at S3 with a pretty good roll to hit. Lances with that F/V 5 when it comes time for close combat. Excellent heroes too.

Definately riders of rohan. No doubt. You can get 30 bows in there at 500 pts!!!!
(eowyn,2captains+bow,28 riders)
Good thing in here is that you are highly manouvrable so can shoot and run away.
And when you get shot at, half the time a horse is hit. Noone cares when a horse goes down in a bow army. And if the enemy is decimated enough, you just charge in and finish the job. Even a crossbow army can't beat 30 bows on horses.

Just deploy in difficult terrain. Rohan bows hit on 4s (5s if moved) and wound uruks with xbows on 6s whilst xbows wound rohan riders on 5s (therefore twice as likely to wound) or the horses on 4s. I would put money on xbows in this situation not only because xbows can match double their number in rohan bows but because you've also still got a fighting contingent to your army as well. God Damn OP Isengard.

The most bows/best shoot value would be Grey Compan/Arnor and Hobbits (hobbits also get throwing rocks). Though personally Mirkwood rangers in woodland terrain would ruin a lot of peoples days (until combat where really their special rule isn't that fantastic).

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I would put my bet on the rohan for sure.
Isengard might have equal killing power in the beginning.
But every round 2.5 uruk crossbows, 1.5 riders and 2 horses get killed (30 bows rohan, 17 crossbows). After let's say 4 turns of shooting the uruk-hai only have 7 crossbows left and rohan still has 24 (ofcourse rougly. crossbows will kill less as they have less shots every turn, but will kill more archers as they will be targetting dismounted riders possibly).

And there has to be noted that rohan has the possibility to move 5" and shoot, while crossbows cannot move at all. More possibilities means more advantage.

Those hobbits are nice, but 1 or 2 decent charges and there won't be much remaining of them.

Their special rule really is.....you just have to know how to use it....Ive had games where 10 Mirkwood Rangers took out a whole warband of a Gondor Shield wall while losing like 3-4 troops....

Ive had them charge and slaughter a warband of Uruk crossbows within 2-3 turns....

Ive seen 10 of them take on two warbands of Morannons and kill most of them while watching the Morannons break and run or die slowly before the Rangers themselves were killed.

You put them somewhere with some shield and spear support and a good hero and theres not many warbands who can compete under such odds.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

I feel like hobbits have been mentioned, but not really given much love. Sure they can be ridden down by RoR or whatnot, but this is about shooting. They have the most bows, usually, and every hobbit can throw rocks. Since they're only 3 or 4 points apiece, they take a lot of shots. Even though their power is very low, when you're rolling that many dice, some are bound to hit. 400 point Shire, with average rolling, has taken down a Balrog, in my experience.

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Really? You killed Sean Bean again!

Yes hobbits are very underrated.

I once played a silly game where I was hobbits defending the heroes. Glory4Gondor and his cousin played on either side with 350 points each. Glory wit Dol Amroth and his cousin with Hunter Orcs. I think I killed and de mounted a combined 5 knights and killed like 10-12 Hunter Orcs with just bows that game.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY