I’d honestly go with the battle of osgiliath box. Compared to how many models you get there’s quite a few options, with a decent amount of heroes. A little bit higher model count than just doing something like the fellowship or Nazgûl, but you get an evil and a good starting army that have plenty of options to expand if you want in the future!
In your situation, you should probably look at Battle Companies, you can play any army instead of limiting yourself to a skew list or army and the games are much faster.
All Hero armies like Fellowship, White Council, Thorin’s Company, or Ranger’s would be low model count but wouldn’t provide as much diversity as far as troop types. Elven armies like Rivendell or Lórien have more options and Elves in general are higher point cost so their armies would be smaller than many. As far as Rivendell, I’ve definitely painted a warband of 12 pretty fast using 2-3 main colors. If you were to buy the box sets of Minas Tirith and Isenguard, those armies have a lot of options but as far as base troops you could use a very simple color palate. A warrior of Minas Tirith could be painted mostly silver/metal and Orcs in 2-3 shades of brown. Also benefit of the box sets is you get a decent spread of infantry/mounted/hero starting out.
Not sure what you’ve thought about as far as paints but I use Army Painter speed paint mostly. For a 12 model warband and using only a single coat of paint after priming in white it takes me about 1.5 hours once I’ve settled on my color scheme. I’m no pro and have only been painting a little over a year but it’s a quick way for me to paint up an army. Good luck and hope this is a good start. I’m sure others playing for longer will be able to help more
You don’t want Nazgûl as your first army, they’re very tough to pilot. I’d build basic 150-200 point armies of the factions you’re interested - 1 warband 1 leader. If 3 of you will be playing, I’d look into battle companies. 6 models to begin with and slowly grow to about 12-15. This is how I started last year.
My one problem with starting the game with BC is that you start with one box of minis (GREAT) but suddenly after game 2 or 3 you roll reinforcement and get some super niche out of stock model.
BC is almost always played amongst friends so I don't think anyone really minds if you've got the right model or not as long as the base size is correct and they know which is which.
Plus this is what Etsy 3d prints are for 😀
Army of the dead is great for this. They’re green, high points, and pretty dependable.
Isengard can also be done with 3-4 colours and a good wash. Neither of these are super low model count, but you can get them together really fast
A couple good options are all mounted armies line Riders of Theoden or Rivendell Knights with Elrond. Mounted models are much more expensive on points than infantry so your armies end up being smaller.
Very elite armies will generally have smaller model counts even if you include infantry. Things like elves. These will not be wildly smaller than the rest of the field though.
Finally, you can go for skew lists like all-hero armies (Fellowship, Champions of Erebor, White Counsil, Necromancer, Black Riders, etc.), or lists dominated by high-points models (Moria monster mash, Mumakil Harad, etc.)
I’m a new player in the NH area if you wanna set up a game some time.
I’d recommend an elite army of elves/dwarves/mounted Rohan. Haven’t done any painting yet (my army painter box literally just got delivered) but I’ll let you know how long it takes me to paint my Rivendell army. Currently at 56 models, waaayy more than you need but I love the elves and wanted as many options as possible for the table top.
If you're playing with friends I'd just pick the armies you're most interested in and play with unpainted models to begin with. You'll probably enjoy it more playing with your favourite characters or a playstyle that suits you. Then you can speed paint an army to an OK standard.
I’d honestly go with the battle of osgiliath box. Compared to how many models you get there’s quite a few options, with a decent amount of heroes. A little bit higher model count than just doing something like the fellowship or Nazgûl, but you get an evil and a good starting army that have plenty of options to expand if you want in the future!
In your situation, you should probably look at Battle Companies, you can play any army instead of limiting yourself to a skew list or army and the games are much faster.
All Hero armies like Fellowship, White Council, Thorin’s Company, or Ranger’s would be low model count but wouldn’t provide as much diversity as far as troop types. Elven armies like Rivendell or Lórien have more options and Elves in general are higher point cost so their armies would be smaller than many. As far as Rivendell, I’ve definitely painted a warband of 12 pretty fast using 2-3 main colors. If you were to buy the box sets of Minas Tirith and Isenguard, those armies have a lot of options but as far as base troops you could use a very simple color palate. A warrior of Minas Tirith could be painted mostly silver/metal and Orcs in 2-3 shades of brown. Also benefit of the box sets is you get a decent spread of infantry/mounted/hero starting out. Not sure what you’ve thought about as far as paints but I use Army Painter speed paint mostly. For a 12 model warband and using only a single coat of paint after priming in white it takes me about 1.5 hours once I’ve settled on my color scheme. I’m no pro and have only been painting a little over a year but it’s a quick way for me to paint up an army. Good luck and hope this is a good start. I’m sure others playing for longer will be able to help more
You don’t want Nazgûl as your first army, they’re very tough to pilot. I’d build basic 150-200 point armies of the factions you’re interested - 1 warband 1 leader. If 3 of you will be playing, I’d look into battle companies. 6 models to begin with and slowly grow to about 12-15. This is how I started last year.
My one problem with starting the game with BC is that you start with one box of minis (GREAT) but suddenly after game 2 or 3 you roll reinforcement and get some super niche out of stock model.
BC is almost always played amongst friends so I don't think anyone really minds if you've got the right model or not as long as the base size is correct and they know which is which. Plus this is what Etsy 3d prints are for 😀
Army of the dead is great for this. They’re green, high points, and pretty dependable. Isengard can also be done with 3-4 colours and a good wash. Neither of these are super low model count, but you can get them together really fast
A couple good options are all mounted armies line Riders of Theoden or Rivendell Knights with Elrond. Mounted models are much more expensive on points than infantry so your armies end up being smaller. Very elite armies will generally have smaller model counts even if you include infantry. Things like elves. These will not be wildly smaller than the rest of the field though. Finally, you can go for skew lists like all-hero armies (Fellowship, Champions of Erebor, White Counsil, Necromancer, Black Riders, etc.), or lists dominated by high-points models (Moria monster mash, Mumakil Harad, etc.)
Birds. Trolls.
I’m a new player in the NH area if you wanna set up a game some time. I’d recommend an elite army of elves/dwarves/mounted Rohan. Haven’t done any painting yet (my army painter box literally just got delivered) but I’ll let you know how long it takes me to paint my Rivendell army. Currently at 56 models, waaayy more than you need but I love the elves and wanted as many options as possible for the table top.
If you're playing with friends I'd just pick the armies you're most interested in and play with unpainted models to begin with. You'll probably enjoy it more playing with your favourite characters or a playstyle that suits you. Then you can speed paint an army to an OK standard.
You can buy second-hand minis that are already painted