500 Under 50: Fun Edition

 Dan Slob: Christmas is coming and, if your family is anything like mine, so are the inevitable requests for gift ideas ("I don't know what that game you like is, just tell me what to buy"). Well dear Reader, let DC write your Christmas list for you this year with a few cheap ideas for a whole new army that can double up as your painting New Year's resolution! 

The idea behind this article is to get a new force for around £50. In this bumper Christmas edition we have gone for some of the more 'fun' ideas rather than anything particularly competitive (not that they can't STOMP the enemy, one list in particular...). So without further ado:

500u50 Fun list 1: The Fellowship!

Need to buy:
The Fellowship (£30 from GW or around £23 from discounted stores)

Now, if you are reading this blog then chances are you already own The Fellowship. Then again, you probably painted them when you were 14 and they could do with another go. What's more, the recently released Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion has given a new breath of life to them! Now I know that there are specific models for the BotF but they are expensive, hard to get hold of, and I don't want my Boromir hobbling around with a chest full of arrows. A bit of green stuff could easily add some rope to Sam, or a glass vial to Frodo and some cloaks to the other heroes. Here is an example list for you, but there are many ways to build this army!

Aragorn - Strider
Legolas Greenleaf
Gimli Son of Gloin
Boromir of Gondor
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Peregrin Took

6 Models, 15 Might, 1 Bow

I have put these models together to represent the Scene where Boromir is defending the Hobbits and the 3 Hunters are rushing to intervene. Now I know that Boromir is not doing brilliantly by the time Aragorn arrives so for maximum fluff points make sure to deploy them in two groups of 3 at opposite ends of the table!

Steve's lovely Fellowship in Balin's Tomb

500u50 Fun list 2: Mumak!

Need to buy:
War Mumak of Harad (around £50 from discounted stores)
Mumak Mahud (around £7 but optional)

Who doesn't want a Mumak? They are such a great centrepiece model and you get to make Elephant noises and say "stompy stompy!" throughout the entire game. Not only that but the kit comes with 12 Warriors too! With those we can make a list from the Serpent Horde, Far Harad or the Grand Army of the South LL. I have gone with the LL here because the Mumak War Leader is a bit more competitive and gets a bunch of extra rules basically for free. I know that the point of these wasn't to be competitive but losing in 3 turns isn't that much fun so we have to make some concessions!

The Mumak War Leader
6 Haradrim Warriors with Bows and Poisoned Arrows
6 Haradrim Warriors with Spears

13 models, 3 Might, 6 Bows

What is there really to say about this? Load the Warriors onto their mount-of-doom and go stompy-stompy until everyone is dead. In reality it is probably better to use the spear warriors as objective grabbers/screens for the Mumak but it depends how much you actually want to play the game and how much you just want to cause maximum carnage. The rules that the LL give you really help survivability, in that it is harder to charge you (because of how big and scary your trunk is I assume) and you get a free Heroic Combat/Strike every turn too. Also you have a bunch of poisoned shooting so can kite if you really want, and the more I think about it the more I love the idea of a drive-by-Tokyo-Drift-Elephant doing donuts on the board. Or you could, you know, stompy-stompy instead.

500u50 Fun list 3: Eaaaaagles!

Need to buy:
2 Boxes of Eagles (around £24 each from discounted stores)

From stompy-stompy to flappy-flappy. Here we are going all bird-brained with some feathered friends. The Eagles are great models and terrifying on the tabletop. F7 (8 for Gwaihir), S7, D8 and Monstrous Charge. Oh boy. These guys can take down most things in the game without too much trouble, and Gwaihir has 3 Might too! Added to which they can obviously all Fly so can pick their battles better than anything in the game (and frankly, they will need to). You might want to do a bit of modelling to distinguish Gwaihir, but even just a bit of a scenic base would do it!

Gwaihir
Eagle
Eagle
Eagle

4 models, 3 Might

Very annoyingly you can only get to 450 points because of how Gwaihir is costed. Jay Clare, if you are reading, then we defo need an Eagle LL some time in the future! Your major weakness here is getting bogged down and surrounded. Luckily with Fly you can have some agency over that but you definitely are at the mercy of the dice. Isolating and picking off parts of the enemy army has got to be your tactic here and if done well there is really not much your opponent can do. Make sure to shout "Ca-Caw" every time you move them too, otherwise what is even the point?

A scenic base has turned this Eagle into Gwaihir

500u50 Fun list 4: Barad Dur!

Need to buy:
Sauron (around £25)
Mordor Orcs (£20 from discounted stores, or way less from trade groups)

The big man himself, the mighty Sauron! He's 80% of your points but boy is he worth it, since basically nothing at this level will be able to touch him. Your army doesn't break if he is healthy, which is very handy since he is just leading a bunch of Orcs. He is also one of the best offensive casters in the game, as well as an absolute beast in combat: F9, S8 and 4 attacks (or even more if you use his Unstoppable! rule). You won't make too many friends while using him but at least you will have fun!

Sauron
16 Orcs with 1 upgrade each (spear, shield or bow)
1 Orc with no upgrades

18 Models, 3 Might, max 6 bows

You can play this smashy-smashy or sneaky-sneaky. With Sauron being a beast he can just wade in, or with 6 Bows and a Chill Soul every turn you can afford to stand back and snipe. You also have plenty of objective grabbing Orcs to toss around the board. However don’t rely on them too much, this list is all about the big boy.

500u50 Fun list 5: Thorin's Company!

Need to buy:
Thorin's Company (£22 from discounted stores)

Everyone’s favourite moody Dwarf and his bros. Not exactly the speediest army in the world but full of lovely flavour and special rules. We actually did a whole article on the Company before so I’ll just link that and let you have a read. In it you’ll find how me, Dave and Colm decided to put together 500 points of the Company in a variety of different ways. Interestingly, between us we selected every member of the roster and no one member appeared in all 3 lists! Just goes to show that every one of these characters has their place.

https://drawncombat.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-noobs-perspective-thorins-company.html

500u50 Fun list 6: The Trolls!

Need to buy:
The Trolls (£45 from discounted stores)

The Trolls are one of the very few armies in SBG that I have never played with or against so I really don’t know much about them! On paper they look pretty good, F7 S7 3A (except Tom who is F6 S6) monsters with 6 Might between them. They also have a variety of flavourful Brutal Power Attacks which are actually quite terrifying! Either taking a S6 hit and being knocked prone, being set Ablaze, or with a bit of luck taking up to 8 wounds (for a S4 model). They can also paralyse and Tom can halve fight values! Unfortunately they only total 400 points which is an unusual size so could make them a bit tricky to get on the table. The fact that there is only 3 of them also means they are basically guaranteed to lose any objective based scenarios. However if you lean in to their Monster abilities then they look like a barrel of fun, just try to stay at the shady end of the gaming hall!

500u50 Fun list 7: The White Council!

Need to buy:
Saruman the White (£18 from discounted stores)
Galadriel and Celeborn (£12)
Gandalf the Grey (Easily acquired via ebay/trade groups for less than £5)
Elrond and Gil-Galad (£18 though you don't need Gil-Galad so Elrond can be found cheaper on ebay/trade groups)

What better way to see off the forces of evil than with Middle Earth’s mightiest wizards? These models all have buckets of special rules to keep you entertained, as well as some of the best Magic in the game. If you want to play with Magic then these guys are the force for you. 3 of the 4 of them get a free Will per turn so that is at least 3 free casting attempts every single turn. Poor Elrond doesn’t have this but he is the combat muscle option. Sadly at 500 points you can only get 3 of them (and one has to be Galadriel, Lady of Light) but I put in 5 figures so you can pick and choose which you like, and all in all it is still about £50.

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So there we have it, 7 super fun options to choose for you Christmas list! I certainly hope you’ve been nice this year! And since even the biggest list on here only contains 18 models you should have no trouble getting them ready for battle quickly. We’d love to see pictures of any of these models so please do share them with us!