Hi All,

Newcomer to Lord of the Rings, just discovered table top gaming with miniatures last year and have been doing a bit of 40k and sigmar.

One of the guys at my store is really into Lord of the Rings and I was hooked when he came in to demo a Moria scenario. Here I am now with a Mines of Moria starter box.

I'm interested in making an army with Aragorn, Legolas, some rangers, and warriors of the dead. I was told this is odd because it's mixing a couple factions. I'm wondering if anyone has seen a list like this or has any suggestions for a newbie trying to make this type of a list. I'm aiming for something like 300 points to start.

Any thoughts or advise is really appreciated. Even if that advise is "Just stick to a moria list to start cause you've got most of it already and what you're thinking about will not be very strong/competitive"

(Moria list is planned )

Mixing factions is not that odd in general. But the Grey Company, Fellowship, and Dead of Dunharrow is a hard list to make work, particularity at lower points levels. That is because Aragorn is expensive one his own but so are the Dead themselves. Leaving you with a very small number of troops on the field compared to what Gondor or even the Elves could field. Which leaves you at a disadvantage since the Dead aren't great fighters one their own. I can work but it has limited viability if you run into a wizard, wraiths or dwarves.

Also if your going off the Mines of Moria rule book your working with an older edition of the game than is being used by the general player base. I don't recall what the ally rules were for the that edition before the Legions of Middle Earth expansion but it should still be possible to due. The newer edition, however, requires you to bring a hero for every twelve warriors you bring from each army list. Meaning you'd have to use the King of the Dead or some other fiefdoms hero to lead the Dead while Aragorn and the Rangers of the North would come from the Arnor and Legolas would come from the Fellowship.

That said a 300pts level list containing Aragorn and the Dead is going to have little to no board control potential. You might trying just bringing Legolas, the King of the Dead and some warriors to see who it goes and then build up to 500 or more points with Aragorn and the rangers later. I have done something similar in the past actually with Gimli and the Dead but I was always fighting uruk-hai so it didn't really pan out so great.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Thanks so much Wan Shi for the comments. There are some people at my shop with the current rulebook. I'll get it eventually but not in a hurry for that. Just want to figure out a list and start painting it up. Playing will come later.

I guess I'd be more interested in the Aragorn and rangers + the dead. Happy to leave Legolas out. But it sounds like Aragorn is the issue more than anything.

What about a warriors of the dead list by itself? Is that viable or still not really recommended? Sounds like they are expensive for what they are is the main issue?

Yes - it's OK to mix factions. You need a warband (1 hero + up to 12 warriors as Wan Shi Tong notes) to all be from one faction, but you can include 1 warband of say, Elves, and another of say, Men.

And while I wouldn't be overly concerned with building highly competitive lists (I'd just focus on playing what you like, having fun, and learning the game), I'd also agree with Wan Shi that that force will be pretty hard to make work, and will likely be quite uncompetitive. Aragorn and Legolas alone are over 300 points. Aragorn is hard to include in low points level lists just because he's so expensive. He's even pretty hard to include in high points level army lists.

Since you already have some Moria Goblins, that's your fastest path to a force that will be competitive enough (especially with the Troll) at a relatively low points level, and for a relatively minimal amount of investment.

If you're looking to expand, Legolas is a fairly cheap hero for what he brings, so maybe consider building a list around him. Plastic wood elves are reasonably priced, and he can lead a warband. You could put a couple of not quite full size warbands of Wood Elves on the table for 300 points, and it would be pretty reasonable from a physical price standpoint as well.

If you want to just buy the King of the Dead and a box of his warriors to have fun painting I'd say go for it. You can always just put them aside for later if you don't like them at first. I found them a real challenge to get looking right but it can be fun to give it a try. You can only build ten warriors out of a single box actually but that plus the king and a warrior with banner (some eleven guys and the king) comes out to 300pts exactly. I would say buy that and see what you can make work. It will be outnumbered by about 2:1 in most games, have no might, and the dead are only around average fighting skill so they will struggle with some things but against other fun or experimental lists it should be a good time. I might be wrong on this but I would bet on that the Dead could thrash 300pts worth of Goblins if they were short a shaman.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

The main way to get a good use out of Aragorn at low points would be as part of an all-hero army, which can do fairly well but is difficult to use (perhaps not a good idea if you're just starting out).

Army of the Dead with Rangers, on the other hand, is a force that can do pretty well as both sides complement each other: the Dead form a terrifying front line of very tough troops which can wound some opponents with great ease, while the Rangers provide spear support, a higher Fight value and good shooting. Starting out, you'd form a decent foundation with just a box of each, the King of the Dead and then a blister of Rangers of the North to enable the Grey Company list to take 100% bows, thematically best led by Halbarad. The Dead lack Might points as well, but allying in Rangers of the North, let alone Aragorn with his free point per turn, solves that easily - makes the cavalry an interesting option for later on as well.

Also: welcome!