Long story short, we have gone for the "put the worst player" as captain card......which is me. My job isn't necessarily to win, but to just deny as many points to my opponent as I can while TommyH and Spicerack power through their opponents. We used a similar tactic at a 40k team tournament a while back, and it seemed to work well.
None of our armies are fully painted, and we haven't had a decent game of The hobbit in a while. However, one of the reasons why we still love it is that the rules are so simple. So! What am I taking? Well, I am bringing my normal entourage of Dwarves to tank damage up front, Elves with spears for FV5 badness and Rohan for fast hitting power. Usually this list does pretty well, and it scares a lot of players.....but sometimes I just play horrendously and lose.
The other boys are bringing their usual evil armies. We have absolutely no theme (points were up for grab for anyone who made an effort in theming their teams to Middle Earth), will get rubbish paint scores......but we will try not to come last. Battle will be our saving grace. It should be a decent turn out, with even a team coming up from our Victorian brothers (close nit group of LOTR players here in Aus). All together there should be six teams of three. 18 players is a GREAT turn out for The Hobbit.
Anyway, wish us luck!