More Mayhem in Middle Earth

I was keen to get in another go at Lord of the Rings Battle Strategy game, and I was keen to try out a points based army in the style of the 'Legends of Middle Earth' book, I'd picked up (I understand GW have superseded this book with another set for everyone to purchase, which you need to buy to enter an 'official' tournament, but as a historic gamer rather than an die-hard Games Workshop junky, I'm quite happy to ignore GW's marketing stratagems and play with older rules.) Ben wanted to get out his dwarves again and wanted to try a really big 1,000 point game. Of my various options Moria Goblins looked the easiest to get to 1.000 points and most appropriate for taking on Dwarves. Even so over 100 Goblins only came to 500 points, so I took a Red Dragon (albeit a Ral Partha not official GW model) and a Troll to get to the points total. Ben augmented his dwarves with Saruman the White and an Eagle. We rolled up an 'Ill-met by Moonlight' scenario, and so we had two forces stumbling into each other at night in a boggy area.

I took the first pic 3 or 4 moves in as my goblins surged forwards and started to get to grips with the Dwarves. My dragon caught Ben's Eagle and managed to wound him, but he managed to escape.

My Troll and Goblin leader rushed the Dwarven King and tried to kill him but his bodyguard held us off.

Saruman the White fired a couple of Sorcerous Blasts across the marshy ground.

My goblin archers eventually managed to swamp his Crossbowmen who had been badly outshooting them, and my dragon managed to escape from being held up by dwarves charging him one at a time, tasty snacks but for quite so many points he should be killing something more valuable.

Meanwhile both my Troll and Goblin captain's had gone down fighting without scratching the Dwarf King.

On my left my warg-riders came to grief being shot down before they could get anywhere, with Ben's eagle picking off a couple. Elsewhere, apart from the Dwarven archers, my goblins were starting to suffer the attrition of fighting a much better armoured opponent, and numbers were being whittled down without making much of a dent in the Dwarvish line. My dragon gave Saruman and some unfortunate dwarves standing next to him a bit of a fright with a fiery blast and may have finished him in the next turn, but we had unfortunately run out of time.

With so many figures on the table we were still a long way off the 'break point' of 50% casualties in either army. Personally next time I'd go for a smaller points value. In my view, however, I could see the Dwarves heading for victory. Ben had used the restricted front of the marsh well. This meant I couldn't outflank him to 'swamp' his figures in the way that had proved effective in the previous game and forcing the goblins just to attack in waves, which were getting hacked down without doing much to the dwarves. Good game, though.

First outing for the Lord of the Rings army - Mirrormere

So having been distracted from getting our Lord of the Rings toys on the table for over a year, I dropped the suggestion to Ben, and me, Steve and Ben, partly through the medium of this blog assessed our forces. Using the clubs blog Ben suggested we go for a Dwarves versus Goblin scenario to get Steve's Balrog on the table.  We attempted to co-ordinate efforts for the scenario on the forum too, but mercifully Ben stepped in on the night with a fully thought out idea for the game.

He wanted to do a 'Mirrormere' type game, when Balin met his death. He was actually shot by an arrow, but we thought we'd throw a Balrog into the mix.

Dwarves had to get back to the gates of Moria (foreground). Goblin ambushers swoop in from three directions

I'll leave the telling of the tale to Steve and Ben who wrote up proceedings on the club forum:

So after much toing and froing on the forum and by text the lord of the rings game staggered into life . Using a combination of mine , petes and bens and with scenery by the above and simon the game looked good ( loved the dwarves ! ) and played very well too . Ben took the dwarves and to get balin lord of moria out of an ambush . Both sides started with some troops on the table and recieved reinforcements as the game progressed . Thanks to ben for his early dice rolling which meant dwarves and goblins were causing equal casualties . He then began to stage a bit of a come back to make it really interesting but still had the decency to feed balin to the balrog at the end . Seems there are lots of figures owned by club members for this games system and look forward to trying out other scenarios and armies

Balin, himself (sorry all attempts to rotate this pic have failed)

If think the decision to feed the Balrog was rather taken out of my hands after you had eaten the rest of his body guard  It was the best game of LOTR I have played though  . I think between us all there must be a good 600 - 700 figures. :  

Oh and the final kill count was: 
42 Goblins 
1 Troll 
1 Embarrassed although uninjured Balrog. 

to 30 Dwarves and Balin

Balrog 'Durin's Bane', rises out of the depths of Moria

Dwarves thinned out Balin's bodyguard with some accurate archery and managed to swamp these  unfortunate stragglers

Balin himself did a better job of holding the Goblins at bay

The Balrog makes a bee-line for Balin

Despite making a break for it with half his bodyguard Balin is encircled

Alerted to the cries of help a force of dwarves emerges from the gates of Moria to try to rescue the ambushed king

Dwarf bowmen take down a troll, while Balin's bodyguard valiantly hurl themselves one at a time at the Balrog to stop the creature reaching their king

My goblin archers turn to try and slow down the relief force pouring out of Moria

Finally the Balrog is free from blocking kamikaze dwarf bodyguards...

...and wins the initiative so can turn on Balin

...

Balin gets lucky on the first combat roll...

....nevertheless, Simon thought he'd get Balin's tomb ready!

Over of the far side of the table Dwarf rangers have done a good job holding off  a mob of goblins commanded by Simon, but finally he gets some good rolls and they start going down like nine-pins...

...With the remenants of Balin's bodyguard each swamped by hordes of goblins, the Balrog moves in for the kill as  no less than 3 other goblins hem Balin in...

The Moria relief force starts to turn the battle against the blocking force of Goblins

The goblins rush some more archers to block the relief force

More Goblins go done the relief force has nearly broken through

Unbelieveable! The Balrog rolls a one and Balin wins the combat driving back his assailants!

But this time the Balrog quickly takes back the initiative and Balin, with the creature to his back, is swamped on all sides by half a dozen goblins...

...Finally Balin falls to the fiery Balrog!

Although slaughtered goblins lie everywhere they have done enough to hold off the Moria relief force

The dwarf rangers are also overwhelmed

Balin put to rest in his tomb

Steve's LOTR Forces

Steve's sent me a text  last yearof his full roster of LOTR figures. Having just posted my inventory of figures for Ben  I'm posting this so we can work out what we have bewteen us.

Elves

Elrond
Gil Galad
Glorfindel
Haldir
Around 80 Elves

Around 20 humans (unpainted, I guess Numoreans for Last Alliance)

The Shire
Paladin Took
Lobelia Sackville Baggins
14 more Hobbits

Evil

Saruman (unpainted)
Grima
Dragon (unpainted)
Lutz
Uruk Shamen
Assorted (I think uruk/orc) captains
A Balrog!!!!
A Troll
Around 60 Uruks
Around 30 Orcs
About 60 Goblins
10 Wolf Riders

By my reckoning that is around 144 Elves, 66 Numenoreans, 98 Uruk-hai, 94 Orcs, 120 Goblins and 23 Wolf Riders between us!

GW LOTR Figure Inventory for Ben

Steve and I discussed doing something with the Games Workshop 'Lord of the Rings' Figures early last year and for a couple of months in the early part of 2011 I went on something of an eBay buying and painting frenzy to get some armies together. Courtesy of eBay I also acquired copies of the Battle Strategy game rules and the War of the Ring rules.

I still think these gorgeous figures sculpted by the Perry's are brilliant, and it has got me into enjoying painting 28mm, which much as I love 20mm, I have to confess do really repay the effort much more. But inevitably all enthusiasms fade, and by the end of the year I'd switch my attentions to my WW1 and WAB Anglo-Saxon army, with buying Star Wars figs being my current fad.

Ben at the Club has expressed some interest in getting his own LotR collection out and brought some brilliantly painted dwarfs and Corsairs of Umbar along. I have been promising Ben an inventory of my LotR figures for some time so we can match them up for some time, and been a bit re-miss in following up on it, so anyway here we go.


FREE PEOPLES

Fellowship of the Ring


Characters (All Painted unless otherwise noted)


Gandalf the Grey (with Hat)
Gandalf the Grey (without Hat - fighting Balrog Pose)
Gandalf the White on Shadowfax - (Basic paint job - could be repainted)
Aragorn (with Sword, Amon Hen pose)
Aragorn (with Cloak, Sword and Firebrand, Weathertop pose)
Boromir (with Horn)
Boromir (shot by arrows)
Legolas (with Bow)
Mounted Legolas- (Basic paint job - could be repainted)
Gimli (with Axe)
Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry (Weathertop set)


Riders of Rohan - Most complete (and most completely painted army)

Characters

Theodan Mounted
Eomer Mounted (Painting not finished)
Theoden (on Foot)
Gamling (on Foot) (Unpainted)
Eowyn (on Foot) (Unpainted)

24 Mounted Riders of Rohan (Painted & Finished)
Plus 5/6 to be repaired
Already on blog here:
http://peteswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/riders-of-rohan-are-coming.html

32 Warriors of Rohan (on Foot) - (Painted & Finished)
-20 are archers

Gondor (Third Age)

Characters

Mounted Boromir - Bought painted
Mounted Standard Bearer- Bought painted to a high standard
Denethor (on Foot) - Unpainted
Boromir on Foot (with Horn, as Fellowship)- Bought painted
Faramir on Foot (basic paint job could be repainted)

50 Gondor Warriors (All painted, half need varnishing/bases terrained)
-16 are Bowmen
16 Mounted Gondor Knights (bought painted to a high standard)
-2 are in need of repair

25 Rangers (Good for either Northern Rangers or Ithilian Rangers)- All painted. On blog here:
http://peteswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/latest-unit-to-be-painted-for-lotr.html

Numenorians (Second Age)

Characters

Isildur on Foot - Painting needs completing
Elendil on Foot- Painting needs completing
Isildur and Elendil wounded (Sauron Set) - Unpainted


46 Numenorian Warriors (26 Painted, 20 Undercoated/half painted)


High Elves 

Characters

Elrond
Gil-Galad
Galadriel

27 High Elf Warriors with Glaive (Painted, some need finishing)
37 High Elf Warriors with Bow (27 Painted, 10 undercoated, some of rest need finishing)

I also have a set of Ral Partha High Elves. Different look same scale.

Wood Elves

-I don't have any official LotR Wood Elf figures as such, but I do have 30? Wood Elf figures with bow which I cast myself using Prince August moukls (4 different poses) which are very compatible, but currently unpainted.

Dwarves

-As with the Wood Elves I do not have any official LotR Dwarf figures, but I do have some highly compatible Ral Partha figures. All painted.



FORCES OF EVIL

Mordor (most are painted)

Sauron (Second Age Large Figure)

Witch King on Fell Beast  (Still unassembled but bought painted)

5 Nazgul on Foot (Weathertop set)

4/5 Orc Characters (not sure which)

64 Mordor Orcs

Already on blog here:
http://peteswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/mordor-orcs-nearly-finished.html

1 Mordor Troll (acquired badly painted, need to repaint)

Although it is not an 'official' model I have recently acquired a 'Shelob' sized spider within a cheap toy set and have various other giant spider models.

Also have numerous Ral Partha Orcs - while not 'official' are much closer to Tolkein 'realism' than more extravagent GW Warhammer style orcs.

Harad

Characters

Mounted Haradrim Chieftain (Unpainted)
Haradrim on Foot (possibly a conversion has birds head)

40 Harad Warriors (Mostly painted, need finishing)
-24 are archers, 16 Spear

6 Harad Riders (unpainted)

Easterlings

1 Standard Bearer

32 Easterling Warriors (acquired some painted, some undercoated, some unpainted)
- 14 Bowmen
- 13 Swordsmen
- 5 Pikemen

Misty Mountains

Balrog (unassembled and unpainted)
89 Goblins (All painted, some need varnishing/bases terraining)
-Around 24 are archers

13 Warg Riders
 - 8 are plastic and in process of being repainted/touched up
 - 5 are metal and are unpainted and lack bases

1 Cave Troll with Hammer
-Also an 'unofficial' plastic troll figure that could make passable Cave Troll if painted.


Isengard - Bought all painted to a 'serviceable' standard

Characters

Saruman
Grima Wormtongue (Unpainted)
Lurtz (with Bow, Amon Hen Set)
2 Lurtz (with Sword and Shield)
2 Uruk-hai carrying Hobbits (Amon Hen Set)
1 Uruk-hai Standard Bearers

38 Uruk-hai
- 18 Pikemen
- 20 Swordsmen
12 Uruk-hai Bowmen
4 Uruk-hai Scouts (3 from Amon Hen Set)
8 Uruk-hai Berserkers
6 Siege Troops
3 Assault Ballista Crew (No Ballista)
3 Siege Ladders
2 Mines

(Note also have GW Warhammer Siege Tower).

Other

Two Dragons (one painted red, one blue) not official, Ral Partha figures.




As mentioned I also have other Fantasy figures which might be compatible for 'Lord of the Rings' scenarios. There are basically three sources. One is my collection of Ral Partha Fantasy figures.Ral Partha figures made in the US were back in the 1970s/80s thought even better than the figures being produced by 'Citadel' (since acquired by GW) in the UK. A lot of the plastic 'Mage Knight' figures are based on original Ral Partha sculpts. As mentioned the Ral Partha collection includes, Dwarves, High Elves, Orcs, Goblins, Trolls - probably more suitable as giants in a Tolkein context- not to mention wizards, witches, warlocks, fighters, thieves, assassins, barabrians, undead, demons, dragons, wyverns, wolves and various monsters.The other is the casts that I have done from Price August moulds (Wood Elves). The third source is my Warhammer Fantasy collection which includes Dark Elves and High Elves, which much as GW would frown on the use of these in an 'official' game they are highly Tolkein 'inspired' at the end of the day, and would be suitable for say a Similliarion era battle. The other thing in my collections are Skeletons and Zombies (Ral Partha and GW), which much as Peter Jackson/GW had their own take on the 'Army of the Dead', not hard to see how these could 'bulk' up such a force.

In terms of expanding the collection, high on my wish list is a set of the new Galadrim Elves to give the High Elf force a decent variety of poses as the holding glaive overhead pose looks a bit silly in large units on their own. Also some Wargs without riders for Misty mountains/Witch Kingdom of Angor and maybe a few more Haradrim riders. The other thing I've been checking out is some 'wild men' for Isengard's Dunland allies and the wild men/warriors of the Witch Kingdom of Angor. I follow the 'Rough War of the Ring' blog which used plastic Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory for these, as the official figures are expensive and dull. I have been doing some digging around, though, and concluded that the old Grenadier Barbarians (sculpted by a young Mark Copplestone) and sold by EM4 look much more my idea of an axe-wielding 'Wild Man', for Dunland at least. At £1.30 a figure a lot cheaper than GW and as I'm toying with doing something 'Game of Thrones' related would make great 'Wildings' too.
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Infantry.html

Also have experimented with converting plastic Gondor Warriors (which are cheap and plentiful on eBay) into Arnor Warriors (which are metal and expensive) with a little bit of green stuff and very happy with the results. Seen some people have done similar for Rohan Royal guard which in metal cost an arm and a leg even second hand on eBay. In a similar vein thought of painting some Rohan figures in different colours/patterns (tartan?) for other warriors from the books or at least appendices, such as Rhiovannians (humans who lived beyond the Misty Mountains before the Easterlings came, and intermarried with the Gondor Royal family and ended up falling out with Gondor). Eorl the Young brought his Riders from East of the Misty Mountains to settle in Rohan, so fair bet that they'd look similar. Also thought of adding green stuff turbans to Rohan figures to get some cheap generic 'Southron' or even actual historical Saracen figures. As I got into buying this collection mainly through the cheapness that they can be picked up on eBay (often just 30p a figure for common plastics), tend to think of other ways of exploiting this.

GW does not produce any Huorns, only a couple of expensive Ents. In the Wood Elf army for Warhammer Fantasy, however, it does produce a set of plastic 'Dryads', clearly inspired by the Huorn/Ent concept, and how different can you make a walking tree? So an easy way to kit out an Ent Army.

Latest unit to be painted for LOTR -Rangers!

I acquired these very recently from eBay, and last week having arrayed my Gondorian force to have a look at them, felt the figures, all in black undercoat, were standing in the way of a good-looking army! So I got the paint brush out and whipped through them in a couple of days.

These plastic figures can basically be used for Rangers of the North (aka. ' the Dunedain') or Faramir's Ithilien Rangers.

In the first role they can be headed up by Aragorn, and teamed up with Elves from Rivendale, especially Elrond's sons, or Gandalf or even Shire hobbits in their mission to stop the encroachment of wargs, trolls, marauding bands of orcs and even barrowwraiths into the more civilised parts of the Northern Lands. Or they could provide a light infantry element for the army of Arnor in their fateful struggle with the Witch Kingdom of Angmar. Last but not least they form the core of the 'Grey Company' at the Battle of Peleannor Fields.

As Ithilien rangers, they can be deployed as a stand alone guerilla force against the encroachments of orcs from Mordor or Haradrim from the south. Or they could be teamed up with some warriors of Minas Tirith to help defend Osgiliath.

All around a pretty versatile set.

Unlike some other forces, where there is a 'standard' GW colour scheme, there seem to be several variations out there, and it is tempting to get some more to try some different ones out, including one I saw for Haradrim intruders. I've kept one back to try a 'Night Stalker' colour scheme, I've seen, which could be generally useful for a thief/assassin, even a Ninja, type figure for a variety of games, not just LOTR.

I got 26 in my purchase for some reason (I think there are only 24 in a box), so taking one out does not mess up any plans for WoR companies of 8 figures, especially as I've got a Faramir and various Aragorn figures which can be added as heroes/captains. Some had broken weapons which I should have fixed before painting, but I haven't so I till have do a bit of supergluing, then just varnishing and basing.

Mordor Orcs nearly finished!

The first shot is one of the whole force, angled 'down the battleline'. Yes, you can almost hear the tramp of iron shod feet, grunts and growls, and smell the bad breath and BO, from these monsters!

The next shot is a more sedate overhead one. They are groups into 8s, as per WoR company size, and it gives you an idea of what 64 Mordor Orcs looks like on the tabletop. It is enough for a game, not least as I have warg riders, Haradrim and Easterlings to support them if necessary (or Misty Mountain Goblins if you were doing a game like the 'Last Alliance'), although I have to say, it would probably look more impressive as an army core with at least double the number of figures, which would be possible combining my and Steve's forces.

With a force like this it is always difficult to know when to top painting. They are not in uniform, I've varied the paint job for an 'irregular' appearance, so any highlighting and shading of colours can be a bit tedious, especially as they already look good 'en masse' and most look good individually. I'll probably pick out those I'm really happy with and start varnishing and basing, and keep working through them, touching up a colour here and there until their finished.

To close here's a closer shot of a unit with two-handed weapons with archers to their front and a unit of spearmen just getting in the shot.

Riders of Rohan are coming!

Pleased to report that the Rohan army is getting close to completion. I've led off with a couple of action shots, one in close up, of the main force of Riders.

This is a another close up of a rider with bow. I need to just check over the whole lot for any paintwork that I've missed. I've also got a few repairs, mainly those I neglected to do at the beginning, but also a couple associated with an encounter with my daughter and a revolving chair! Then its just on to varnishing and basing.

Here's another shot of the whole force from a different angle.

Finally here's an overhead shot, a bit more boring but shows the whole force on the tabletop more clearly, bar 3/4 including Eomer, which are all still on the workbench for one reason or another.

I've got about the same number Rohan figures on foot, a few more in fact, which could be used to represent the whole force dismounted or support the riders in action. Rather fewer foot figures than for most of my LOTR armies, but the Rohanrrim are basically horsemen after all! The infantry are at a similar stage and should be finished at the same time.