Hello, let me introduce my recall for aid. This is my first post in this forum and also, english is not my native language, so sorry for my mistakes. I have never played Lord of the Ring before, I have played Warhammer, Bloodbowl, Warhammer 40000 and other games for more than 15 years, but now I am showing interest in this game.

I don´t know exactly how, but I have finished with more than 30 high elves, 30 gondor warriors and some heroes for the Light that I enjoyed painting. Now I am painting the Dark side and I have 75 goblins of Moria (more or less) and some evil heroes.

After all the effort that I am putting to paint that horde I would be glad to play them in a game, but I don´t know how to build the sinergies of the army. I have read about the basic rules, I know that I need goblin heroes and, probably, a dragon or a balrog. But what I need to know is if there is some way to put that 75 miniatures in the tabletop. In adittion to them, I have collected and painted Lurtz, Saruman and Nazgul, but I guess that they are not compatible with a Moria army.

Are they playable or competitive? What would I need to support that phalanx? Drums, shamans?

You don't need a dragon or Balrog with your goblins, though in higher points games, you may want a Balrog.

A drum, a couple of cave trolls, some Warg Marauders, and/or some prowlers is enough to add some extra punch to a Moria list with lots of goblins, though drowning your opponent in bodies is actually pretty strong.

If you don't have the Balrog or a Drum, you'll definitely want a shaman or two for Fury. If you have the Balrog, there's not much point in shaman, and with the drum, they aren't mandatory (though you'll probably still want one or two, depending on the points).

Durburz and Groblog are both good heroes for a goblin horde list.

With a drum, 71 goblins, Durburz, 2 shaman, and 4 captains (All the heroes combined is 75 warrior capacity), you'd have 750pts. It'd probably be a pretty good army as well. That's a lot of might, and too many bodies for most armies to deal with. Goblin bows may suck, but with 20 shots a turn, it doesn't really matter.

Thank you very much for the advices, I am following your guide and converting four warriors in captains. After that, I will adquire I balrog, I guess.

I almost finished to paint my horde (after some very long days). And the list that I made following your advices is this:

MORIA 695 points:

Warband 1 - 220pts
-Durburz
14 Goblins spearmen
Troll with hammer

Warband 2 - 115pts
- Shaman
6 Shields and 6 Spearmen

Warband 3 - 110pts
- Goblin captain with shield
6 Shields and 6 Spearmen

Warband 4 - 110pts
-Goblin captain with shield
6 Shields and 6 Spearmen

Warband 5 - 85pts
- Goblin captain
-10 Goblins archers

Warband 6 - 85pts
- Goblin captain
10 Goblins arqueros

After that, I feel that I would need some monsters and I have prepared 3 Vargheist of the Vampire Counts to proxie as Dwellers in the dark.

*edited to remove individual unit's point values for copyright/legal reasons.*

Seems pretty solid. I'd run half shields half spears for Durburz's warband instead of all spears.

The shaman can only lead 6 models, so you'll need to move some models to other warbands, and/or add something more expensive so you can reduce the model count (another troll, dweller, bat swarms/warg marauders, another hero, and/or some prowlers).

You need some cavalry, it seems to be your biggest weakness, otherwise you'll be stuck defending if the enemy has it and you don't.

You could have left out the part where English is not your second language, you speak better than some English First Language people. Anyways, you will want a goblin war drum to boost your courage, and Cave Drakes give you pretty good bang for your buck. They can also go around eating troublemakers like Aragorn. As for 75 miniatures on the table top, that would be 375 points, plus 5 captains and a balrog. Would depend what points match you are playing, but they are great for swarming and encircling your enemy, trapping their fighters. Balrog can provide a heavy hitter.

_________________
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

First, thanks again for your aid, I appreciate it very much. Today I played my first game, it was a demo game, although I did not played with any of my armies it was useful to learn the basics, fortunately, I enjoyed the game a lot. One of the things that I realized was the importance of the shields, is like a +1 Thougness in Warhammer, the other one was the influence of mighty points and heroic actions, they serve to build very cinematic scenes and to add a relatively simple game tons of strategy and deep.

Given that next month I probably will go to an 800 points tournaments I will try to make a list with the painted miniatures that I have, unfortunately I do not have cavalry (yet). Due to the mistake in the shaman I will try with Groblog, that is the result:

MORIA 800 points:

Warband 1 - 160pts
-Durburz
14 Goblins spearmen
Warg Marauder

Warband 2 - 110pts
- Groblog
6 Shields and 6 Spearmen

Warband 3 - 100pts
- Goblin captain with shield
6 Shields and 6 Spearmen

Warband 4 - 100pts
-Goblin captain with shield
6 Shields and 6 Spearmen

Warband 5 - 160pts
- Goblin captain
10 Goblins archers
Dweller in the dark

Warband 6 - 160pts
- Goblin captain
10 Goblins archers
Dweller in the dark

Most of the players seem to appreciate very much the Vargheist conversion as Dwellers so I will play them, undoubtly. Futhermore, I have an old dark elf hydra that I think could stand as a Cave Drake.

Thanks again, is always a pleasure to find a nice community.

I'd like to see the pictures of your conversions actually. :3

Yeah, gonna need at least 1 heavy hitter.

_________________
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

Hello again. After two years of absence. I have played the list posted, learned the game, collected and painted the Moria army, collected and painted another army of High elves and even a Fellowship of the Ring. I thank you all the support provided and the help and inspiration you gave me. Now, after a year having left the game aside, I am returning to this project of Goblin Horde. I painted 1 drake and 65 goblins, now I am painting 25 more. I hope I could field the 90 in a tabletop some day.

There are some pictures about my army.