The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Moria

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Why Play Moria

Because Goblin are meant to be Green! One of the first armies to get miniature's (its starting show) Moria has/had one of the largest selection of units to bring in games, making it one of the most versatile armies available. At least half of the units in this army are all monsters, from the simple cave troll, the watcher in the water, a Dragon and the Balrog himself. Of Course your main units are cheap goblin infantry with all the options of spears, shields, swords and bows giving them the advantage over their Goblin Town neighbours.

Pros

• The Balrog
• Multiple large monsters to choose from
• Horde Army!
• Cheap units
• Large selection of Units to pick from

Cons

• Weak troops
• Most of the models cannot be found on the store website.

Army Bonus

We Cannot get out, they are coming: Any Moria Goblins involved in a fight where there opponent is trapped receive a +1 bonus to their fight value. being a horde army this should be easy to achive by surronding your opponents.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• The Balrog:

• Durbuz, The Goblin King of Moria:

• Groblog:

• Druzhag, The Beastcaller:

• Ashrak:

• The Watcher in The Water:

• Dragon:: 250 point monster that can decimate enemy armies. A plethora of special rules mean that the Dragon will be devastating to the armies of good, by causing terror, resisting magic, lowering enemy courage and knocking everything to the floor. Can be upgraded with up to two abilities that allow it to fly, breathe fire, cast magic or raise its defence for 50 points each. Fire and magic are dependant upon the will points of the dragon and as these are in fairly limited supply then its going to be situational at best, although the sheer damage of the fire attack is scary for enemies. Tough hide will raise the defence to Sauron levels of durability so its worth investing in. Beware of leaving the dragon unsupported however, as a courage test after every wound suffered combined with a lacklustre courage of 4 leaves him vulnerable to a lucky first shot

• Cave Drake:: A less durable dragon which has the ability to lash out at any models which corner it, can move through terrain without penalty and can eat multi wound man sized targets causing them instant death. Effective choice for 175 points, but not quite as out and out destructive as a dragon

• Moria Goblin Captain: A cheap hero that should always be upgraded to bring a shield to make him more survivable, he can use Heroic march to get his goblin underlings to move faster. Don't bother with the orc bow since his shoot value is 5 and it's not worth spending the might point to improve the result.

• Moria Goblin Shaman: Good support for your goblins, being able to use transfix and Fury will help your goblins out in a fight. No available upgrades but he does bring a spear so you can hide him in the second line.

• Moria Blackshield Captain: For ten extra points than a Goblin captain you get a slightly better fighter (especially against dwarves) that's equipped with a two handed sword and heavy armour.

• Moria Blackshield Shaman: Exactly the same stats as a usual shaman but comes with a staff instead of a spear. He can use the Shatter and Tremor Spells.

Troops

• Moria Goblin Warrior: These little greenish guys are some of the cheapest fighters you will ever get, even when your upgrade them to have a shield, spear or Orc bow they'll still be cheaper than an Orc. Of Course they don't have very good courage (2), strength (3), movement (5) or fight and shoot values (2/5+) but that wont matter because you will be bringing a lot of these guys. Against most armies you will be outnumbering your opponent two to one or even three to one if they're bringing an elite army.

• Moria Goblin Drum:

• Moria Blackshield: They cost twice as much as a regular goblin but have almost identical stats. What they have that is better than a regular Goblin is Defence 6 and Courage 3 but at the cost of having one goblin rather than two just doesn't seem worth it. That is of course until you see that they have the Hatred Dwarf special rule, so as long as you know your playing someone bringing Dwarfs they're then worth taking.

• Moria Blackshield Drummers:

• Moria Goblin Prowler: With a fight and shooting value at 3/4+, being equipped with Two-handed axes and throwing daggers these guys can hit pretty hard at range, on the charge, and in combat. However, they are only Defence 4 and do not come with any other options to improve this so do not put them on the front line. Prowlers come with the Backstabber special rule which gives them +1 to wound while you make strikes against a model that is trapped, having two handed axes with this rule will really make them dangerous, so in games want these guys to flank your opponents units and get them caught between your Warrior Goblins and Prowlers, if you pull this off you will have made a murder sandwich.

• Bat Swarm: Being bts they ofocurse have the Fly special rule, useful for when you need to get past your opponents units and get to objectives or silencing archers and siege equipment. They have 4 Wounds but only defence 3 so they can be hit rather easily but not killed too quickly, Just don't throw them at a large group of elves with bows. while in Combat they only have a fight value of 1 but they have the special rule blinding swarm which makes any enemy model half it's own fight value, so these guys can help debuff enemy units to make yours have a better chance at winning draws.

Cavalry

• Warg Marauder: One mount and three riders, each goblin gets to pick from a sword, a sword and shield or a bow (funny thing is, all three can bring bows but it only counts as one model to the bow limit instead of three).

Monsters

• Cave Troll: At 25 points cheaper than a Mordor troll you still get a scary monster that can do most things its big brother can can but he is slightly weaker with having defence 6, strength 6, fight value 6 and courage 3. He has access to a few different weapons though, he comes stock with a spear but can be upgraded to bring a troll chain as well. The chain is classed as a throwing weapon that has a range of 3 and hits at strength 5. Of Course he can be upgraded to bring a good old hand-and-a-half hammer if you really want to make things dead. For the price you can get them for they can work in small games and then you can bring two for the bigger 700 point games.

• Dweller in The Dark:

Described as a mini Balrog, a Dweller can hold is own in most fights with 3 attacks and fight value 7 but he only has defence 5 so he is very susceptible to weapons with the piercing rule. He's resistant to magic and has the terror special rule but also has the Murderous Power rule, this allows him to regain a wound (Not to exceed his starting amount) after slaying an enemy model while using the rend brutal attack. When it comes down to if he is worth taking over a cave troll then that's where he starts to look less impressive, sure he can regain wounds and move fast at Movement 8, he is weaker and isn't as strong, although he is less likely to run away at courage 7.

Allies

Convenient Allies

Angmar

The Serpent Horde

Far Harad

Corsairs of Umbar

Isengard

Variags of Khand

Mordor

The Eastern Kingdoms

The Nazgul of Dol Guldur

Azog's Hunters

Azog's Legion

Goblin Town

The Trolls

Smaug