Dave: In my first post I went on about how people generally only suggest getting the
starter set as a viable way to get into the game affordably, and I mentioned
how I'd go into the other ways to go about it...
But
what if you and a couple of friends came into a little bit of money and wanted
to get into the game, and it just so happened that one of you wanted to play
Rohan, another Mordor, and then your third friend, by some wacky happenstance,
wanted to play the Army of the Dead? Well, we'll have a look at the three way
split of the starter set and how you can get them up to 700 points (Yes, 700!)
for about £50 per head.
First
things first, just to give us some extra leeway, we'll say that all 3 people
involved in the split have decided to put £10 each in to cover the cost of the
rulebook, we won't be counting this £10 as part of the budget as, like I said
in the first article, buying the rulebooks is just a cost you have to make
eventually. The Rohan and Mordor players will pay £25 each for their share
of the starter set, and the AoTD player will only pay £10, since he gets
significantly less.
And
as a side note, I really do urge you to check out your local FLGS (friendly local gaming store), as they will
offer you a better price on the box, and its generally available in most
stores. Rebel Base Gaming, for example, will even offer you free delivery if
your order is above £50,which ours certainly will be, and to top it off, the
box will only set us back by £72, saving us a stonking 20%! We'll be working
out the costs when buying from here, instead of GW, unless we say otherwise, as
it's simply much more viable to do so, and it should be readily available. It’s also worth noting that this saves each person 20% on their share of the split too!
Alright,
lets have a look at the easiest army, the Army of the Dead. To complete the
army, you will need;
Starter
Set Warriors of the Dead: £8
King
of the Dead and Heralds: £20
The
Three Hunters: £20
Total
Cost: £48(!)
The
list will be as follows, and we'll be using the Return of The King Legendary
Legion;
Aragorn
with Elven Cloak and Anduril.
5
Warriors of the Dead with Shield.
2
Warriors of the Dead with Shield and Spear.
King
of The Dead
5
Warriors of the Dead with Shield.
2
Warriors of the Dead with Shield and Spear.
Legolas
Greenleaf with Armour and Elven Cloak
4
Warriors of the Dead with Shield.
2
Warriors of the Dead with Shield and Spear.
OR
Gimli
with Elven Cloak.
4
Warriors of the Dead with Shield.
2
Warriors of the Dead with Shield and Spear.
You'll
have to choose between Legolas or Gimli in this list, or drop about 6 Warriors
to fit them both in, but a you'll pretty much all you need in this army, a strong
selection of heroes, and powerful set of elite warriors. The only thing you
will need to add after this would be some Riders of The Dead for a bit of
speed.
So
where do we go with out other Good force, The Riders of Rohan? Like with the
Army of the Dead, I'm going to suggest a Legendary Legion, this time, Riders of Theoden.
This means all of your warriors on foot will be unable to join your army list,
and will only be put on the table in the events that one of your riders if
knocked off his horse, but at the end of the day, who plays Rohan for the foot
soldiers!? (Edit: Well that’s what we get for trying to write articles ahead of
time! Check out our War in Rohan preview here!)
To
bring the list up to a neat 700 you will need;
Starter
set Theoden and Riders: £20
Eomer
ft & mounted: £15.50* (GW)
Gamling
& Hama : £25* (GW)
12
Riders of Rohan: £26* (eBay. I was able to find sets of 6 for £13)
Total
Cost: £87
*I'd
really recommend getting all of these from eBay or your local trade group. I've
seen plenty of people selling Eomer and Riders, and since we only need Gamling
from the set with him and Hama, you should have better luck trying to find him
on his own, you just need to make sure he has his banner.
Ouch,
this one was expensive, but I honesty couldn't get a way to get the list any
cheaper and it still be effective! The models above will let you make this
list;
Theoden
on Armoured Horse with Shield and Heavy Armour
8
Riders of Rohan.
4
Riders of Rohan with Throwing Spears
Eomer
on Armoured Horse with Shield and Throwing Spears.
4
Riders of Rohan.
2
Riders of Rohan with Throwing Spears
Gamling
with Royal Standard of Rohan on Horse
4
Riders of Rohan.
2
Riders of Rohan with Throwing Spears
Okay,
so like I've said above I really would encourage you to look at your local
trade groups for this, you'll definitely be able to find Eomer and the 12 extra
riders for cheaper than I did. This is the most expensive of the lists, but
boasting 24 Warriors on horse back and 3 great heroes, it's certainly able to
pull its weight. Gamling's banner letting heroes recover Might is fantastic,
and all of your Riders have bows, letting you kite effectively due to your 10”
move. You'll need to play smart with this list, as Rohan are very reliant on
their charge and the AoE from Theoden to buff the Riders is a great bonus
you'll want to make sure you play for. Since we're using the Riders of Theoden
legendary legion you'll be able to call “Death!” once per game giving all your
heroes a free Heroic Combat or Heroic Strike, really letting you devastate your
opponent when you're able to pull off that Pelennor Fields inspired charge!
Looking
into the Mordor side of things we have an obscene amount of wiggle room. Out of
the box you get 2 monsters in the form of a Ringwraith on Fell Beast and a
Troll. This is the easiest army to bring up to a full 700 pointer.
To
get your Mordor force kick started you'll need to procure;
Starter
set Ringwraith on Fell Beast, Troll and Orcs: £20
Your
choice of hero from the Mordor section of Games Workshops website: £X
That's
it. You get about 600 points from the set alone, you just lack the heroes to
get in on the table. Really, you're free to get whatever you want
with this one, you could even pick up another Ringwraith on a Fell Beast for
£30 from Rebel Base Gaming, or your local FLGS for a similar price. I'd
recommend picking up Gorbag and Shagrat for £12.30 from Games Workshop. This
will let you go up to about 800 points, but for the sake of keeping in with the
article, we'll only use Shagrat and get to 700 points. But this just shows how
much flexibility you'll have with Mordor as a whole. This list I came up with
is below;
The
Witch King on Armoured Fell Beast with the Crown of Morgul. 3/20/3*
9
Morannon Orcs with Shields.
9
Morannon Orcs with Spears and Shields.
Shagrat
with Heavy Armour and the Shield of Cirith Ungol.
5
Morannon Orcs with Shields.
5
Morannon Orcs with Spears and Shields.
1
Mordor Troll.
*3/20/3
refers to the Might, Will and Fate of the Witch King, as you pay points for
each point you choose to add above his starting value.
As
you can see this list is pretty Orc heavy, the main focus of the list is to get
in combat, and be backed up by the powerful spells of the Witch King. Morannon
Orcs are really good in combat, being strength 4, backed up by a defence of 5,
with the option to go to 6 if you have a shield.
Shagrat
can be amazing in combat, with 3 attacks and 3 Might, he hits hard, especially
at strength 5! But the real sugar is his shield, when he charges, he gains the “Knock
to the ground” rule, just like a Cavalry model would, meaning if wins the
ensuing duel he'll knock the enemy prone and receive double Strikes against
them!
If
that wasn't enough, lets not forget the Witch King is mounted on a Fell Beast,
and there's a Mordor Troll knocking about too! Both of these are able to lay
down some high strength attacks, and are very capable to taking out enemies
heroes (or at least, forcing them to spend Might to have to deal with you) with
Brutal Power Attacks (such as Rend which pits your Strength vs their Strength rather
than their Defence) stick that in your shield and smoke it!
 |
| You could even think about adding Gothmog and some Commanders and then you would have enough to run The Army of Gothmog Legendary Legion |
This
whole article is written with splitting the box between 3 people, but should
you not be able to find a third buddy to join the split with you, you can
always sell the army you don't need on trade groups or eBay to make a bit of
money back and help you fund the rest of the purchases in here!
Dan Slb: Thanks Dave! Splitting the box is a great way to get into the game cheaply but if you are anything like us you will want to keep all 3 armies for yourself! If you go with all of Dave's suggestions it would cost you around £190 (that's including the Core Set). Considering this gets you three 700 point armies that is an absolute bargain! I may or may not have ordered myself a Core Set after reading this...
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