The Fellowship begins...

But before any battles are started, I wanted to re-do so of the paintwork done five-ish years ago when I go the Breaking of the fellowship set:

Instead of conforming to the film's colours of the characters. They shall take up some of their regional colours from my models. So Boromir will have more red, Gimli blue, Aragorn green. The hobbits some purple and light blue, Legolas purple but Gandalf shall take his own colours. All will have a grey cloak like normal.

Merry - The yellow waistcoat should be less muddy
and have more layers

Gimli - The purple hem and blues need a bit of touching up

Missing throwing axe end

Legolas - His hair is terrible, but I am proud of the tunic
and under-tunic

And this view, missing the end of blade

Sam - I chose a light blue for his jacket,
hopefully to be dissimilar from Pippin's

Aragorn - His under-tunic is green-ish,
but still needs a bit of highlighting

Boromir - His sword needs work

Frodo - I wanted to use purple on one of the hobbits,
he seemed more likely to wear one

Pippin - He has a black shirt, although barely visible or paint-able

All the colours are relatively simple. Here is a basic outline, as the number of colour mixes varies from colour to colour and model to model.

Red: (Blood red, Scab red)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:1 - 1:2 - 0:1)

Green: Earthy green (Dark angels green, Catachan green)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:2 - 0:1)
             Merry green (Dark angels green, Snot green)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:2 - 0:1)

Blues: Light (Ultramarines blue, Ice blue)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:1 - 1:2 - 0:1) 
            Dark (Regal blue, Ultramarines blue)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:1 - 1:2 - 0:1)

Browns: Dark(Scorched brown, Bestial brown)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:1 - 1:2 - 0:1)
               Light(Bestial brown, Graveyard earth)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:1 - 1:2 - 0:1)

Greys: Elven cloaks (Chaos Black, Codex grey)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:1 - 1:2 - 0:1)
            Gandalf beard(Chaos Black, Codex grey, Skull white)(1:0:0 - 2:1:0 - 1:1:0 - 1:2:0 - 0:2:1 - 0:1:1 - 0:1:2 - 0:0:1)

Metals: Boltgun metal - Black wash - Mithril silver drybrush

Golds: Boltgun metal - Black wash - Shining Gold

Purple: (Liche purple, Skull white)(1:0 - 2:1 - 1:1)

While that was happening I took some time to base a few heroes with sand and flock.

Before

After

The evil models have black rims and the good models have brown ones. Durburz, the shaman and the dwarf captain are usually in the mines or rocky terrain so no flock for them.

Also It is with much regret that I can say I like the new paints, although you have to break the seal which is slightly annoying and mentally calming at the same time. The actual opening system makes opening awkward, but it is still better then the precursor, because there isn't a problem with paint drying on the inside of the lid as with the first pots.
The most annoying thing though is, that the names are getting too easy to remember. My hatred of them and in trying remember them for that, means I have remembered them.......Curses

So I think I've done a lot here, still, this means nicer looking models for battles, of which I'll be doing the four scenario's from the Mines of Moria booklet, which has gone out of production sadly. And there may be time for another one off battle...

Until then

Fish

Face off 2012 teams analysis + photos

Rohan


The choice between Theodred and Eomer would be simple, but I just couldn't wait to try out Theodred since I'd painted him. The four guard provide supporting muscle with the bodyguard rule. A bit pointless, but it could be useful. and with the spare points three Rohan warriors with throwing spears.

Harad


The serpent lord is by far the best possible choice for a leader, and not because their aren't any Haradrim non-named heroes below 100pts, with three attacks, wounds, might, will, few could contend. Followed up by six of his guard, with poisoned blades rules. Maybe he has too few.

Easterlings

With only One named hero (apart from Khamul) Amdur is the obvious leader, He has a fight value of 6 surpassing most other leaders and he may retain some might points by killing enemy heroes. joining him are 6 Easterlings (well there wasn't much of other choices) only one has a spear. Again not many warriors here.

Gondor

Faramir leads the charge here. wrapped in heavy armour, he should be a deadly adversary, and joined by 6 guard of the fountain court, with shields, his guard will find little difficulty  outmatching opponents, there number could prove unsatisfactory.

Elves

Haldir leads here with bow and expert shot, to deal with lightly armoured enemies, as if fight value of six wasn't enough. And he is supported by seven High elves with blades. Quite a good force I think.

Moria

Durburz was the natural choice for leader, although he will be of little contest to others. He is followed by eight prowlers, to deal with heavy armoured troops, and 8 Moria goblins, none have bows,  to swarm over enemy units and assist Durburz. I kind-of cheated here, they have more that 13 models, but goblins aren't exactly expensive.

Mordor

The formidable force, Shagrat with shield, controls with a strength of 5 (highest in games), and might of 3, which is average. He has 11 morannon orc minions with shields, and 2 have spears also. A large number of good units, although their leader may let them down.

Dwarves

The final team of a Dwarf king, and eight dwarf warriors with shields. A tough one to beat, though their stumpy legs may let them down. Again cheating a bit by having a non-named hero, however It was him or Gimli.

That concludes the teams, analysis and photos. Now with the rules.


Along with other rules from LOME, points are awarded for:

• Winning scenario (10pts)
• Losing scenario (4pts)
• Drawing scenario (7pts)
• Killing enemy leader (3pts)
• Breaking enemy force (regardless of scenario)(5pts)
• Winning every priority roll off in battle(2pts)
• Tactical move (4pts)
• Killing spree (kills five models in two turns)(5pts)

This is added to the end scores of objectives etc. etc.


Until then

Fish

2012 Face off teams

You might be wondering what i mean by 'face off'.

What I do mean is that two teams battle each other, then the winner progresses to the next round, who then faces another team that won in the previous round and so on...

like:

Anyway the important part, the teams consist of 150pts of models. The leader must not be a generic hero and the other models consist of their guard. I've tried to keep them within the new rules, but since I don't have them, there is a model limit of 13(including hero). Here they be:

Rohan

Theodred (shield)

4x Royal guard (throwing spears)

3x warriors (shields,throwing spears)

Harad

Suladan (horse)

6x Serpent guard

Gondor

Faramir (heavy armour)

6x Guard of the fountain court (shields)

Mordor

Shagrat (shield)

11x Morannon orcs (shields,2x spears)

Elves

Haldir (bow,armour)

7x Elves (heavy armour,blades)

Moria

Durburz

8x Prowlers (two-handed axes)

7x Goblins (3x shields,3x spears)

Dwarves

Dwarf king

8x Warriors (shields)

Easterlings

Amdur

6x Easterlings (1x spear)

The 'timetable' over the coming games:

Elves Vs Moria

Mordor Vs Easterlings

Dwarves Vs Gondor

Rohan Vs The Serpent Horde

and then onwards..

Until then

Fish

Spraying Session

Quite a lot done, for me that is.


I was doing a tester/sample for the battle board, so:

I took a piece a polystyrene and coated it with a thin film of sand on one side, and dirt on the other. The dirt part sounds strange, but someone suggested it on http://www.thelastalliance.com/, so I'm going to compare the results afterwards.

After leaving it for a day or so I shook off the excess. Then applied a coat of watered down glue .

After leaving that to dry...

The next(and final) step was to apply spray paint to the piece.


I was most worried about this part,since spray paint and polystyrene don't go well together. But with the glue coating should hopefully protect it.


Seeing as I was using the paint, I whisked up some models glued sand to the base etc. 

In the picture before the spraying:

• 12 Warriors of Minas Tirith
• 11 Rangers of Gondor/Arnor 
• Mounted Theodred
• 2 25mm bases, for future use as objectives.
• 8 Praetorian Guard + Centurion and two men with shields (Probably Auxiliary infantry) 
• Unattached spears of Rangers and warriors, Elessar's right arm (from mounted version)
• And a piece of rocky terrain.

The results

Well, I think it worked. The polystyrene didn't melt or anything like that. Even the unprotected sides, which caught some of the paint, remain solid.


A closer look at the tester piece. With flash.

Without flash

So, you might see some painting of mine up this or next month.


Until then

Fish