They Have a Cave Troll...(Planning)

My first army will be made up of the denizens of Moria. These days there is a fairly wide selection of models available from Games Workshop including exotic drakes and dragons but I am going to try to theme my armies around the books & movies so I will be assembling a more traditional force based around the encounter the Fellowship have at Balin's tomb in the Mines of Moria.

My initial forces for Moria were quite modest and consisted of:

The Balrog
The Goblin King
13 unpainted Moria Goblins (5 spear, 4 bow, 4 sword & shield)
11 painted Moria Goblins (3 spear, 4 bow, 4 sword & shield)

The Balrog doesn't fit my theme so he's not going to form part of my army and can endlessly duel Gandalf off to one side - the remaining 25 goblins clearly need some reinforcements if they are to make a viable force.

I calculated that the entire fellowship with their appropriate weaponry comes to almost exactly 750 points therefore this seemed like a reasonable size for my Moria army but of course 750 points of Moria is an awful lot more models than 750 points of heroes!

Clearly I needed more models.... fortunately Ebay came to my rescue and, thanks to the apparent unpopularity of Moria Goblins, I was able to secure my reinforcements at a very reasonable price:

1 Cave Troll at a price of £11.99 (RRP £18.50)
72 Moria Goblins were secured for the bargain price of £22.80 (RRP £90)

The initial goblins all came from Battle Games in Middle Earth at £3.99/issue so 3x3.99 = £11.97 for a total army cost of £46.76 which I think is pretty reasonable

The full army list is as follows:

Warband 1    12/12
Durbûrz, the Goblin King of Moria
6 Moria Goblin Warrior with Spear;
5 Gundabad Blackshield
1 Cave Troll with Troll Chain;
----
Warband 2    11/12
Moria Goblin Shaman
6 Moria Goblin Warrior with Spear;
5 Moria Goblin Prowler with Shield;
----
Warband 3    11/12
Moria Goblin Captain with Shield;
6 Moria Goblin Warrior with Spear;
5 Moria Goblin Prowler with Shield;
----
Warband 4    11/12
Moria Goblin Shaman
6 Moria Goblin Warrior with Spear;
5 Moria Goblin Prowler with Shield;
----
Warband 5    11/12
Moria Goblin Captain with Orc bow;
11 Moria Goblin Warrior with Orc bow;
----
Warband 6    11/12
Moria Goblin Shaman
11 Moria Goblin Warrior with Orc bow;

A total of 73 models of whom 23 have bows and 15 have throwing weapons costing exactly 750pts

As I was able to get so many goblins so cheaply it seems silly to spend more money on the specialised troops so I will be doing a fair amount of sculpting to modify the standard goblins I purchased to complete my list:

• 15 Goblin  Prowlers with swords/shields (GW never made these, but they do provide rules for them!)
• 5 Gundabad Blackshields 
• 3 Goblin Shaman
• 1 Goblin Captain with bow 
• 1 Goblin Captain with sword 

I treated myself to a few tools to make the process easier / possible:

A set of GW sculpting tools, green stuff in putty & liquid forms, two clay shapers and a craft knife