Tame the Beast

On Sunday, my youngest son and I decided to get our old Lord of the Rings figures out and play a Battle Companies scenario of Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. From the older Battle Companies supplement, we randomly rolled Tame the Beast, which we have played before, but this time the outcome was totally different.

The small Gondorian warband, under the control of Damril, approached a small village from the east. They had heard rumors of a great beast that was attacking farmers and stealing their livestock, and wanted to be rid of the monster before it could do any more harm.

Ushnar, the orc brute approaching from the west, had also heard the same thing, but he was of a different mind. He was hoping to gain from the chaos caused by the beast, but also wanted the glory of slaying it.

Damril and his faithful band of Gondorian warriors...

Ushnar's warband...

The orcs were spotted by the troll and it charged them with a roar of wild glee. The orcs were in line of sight and nearest to the troll, so they were charged as per the rules.

Whilst the orcs were busy trying to fight their way out of the troll's attack, Damril ordered his men forward.

After several rounds of combat (no less than 20 dice were rolled by the orcs without a single 6!), the orcs were forced to give way and slowly retreated as their losses began to mount.

Damril kept his men at a distance whilst hoping that the orcs would whittle down the troll's strength so that they could then move in for the kill.

In the meantime, the Gondorian archers made mincemeat of their bow wielding counterparts...

Until only one orc skirmisher was left and the rest of the orc rabble turned tail and fled...

This didn't work out too well for the Gondorians as they now felt the full brunt of an angry troll that had been attacked (but not injured) and was looking for another chance of vengeance.

The Gondorians fought bravely but slowly lost ground, and soldiers, to the enraged troll.

The orcs' courage had failed them, and all turned tail and fled the village except for one lone archer.

He too fled the scene moments later, leaving just a handful of Gondor's finest to face down the troll.

They too thought that running away was the better part of valour, so the field was left to the triumphant troll.

The game ended a draw as neither side was able to down the troll.

We both enjoyed the game although we made a couple of minor mistakes with the rules as we hadn't played for a while.

Gondor Repaints III

Apologies for the long hiatus between posts. I have not been well recently and I am still not fully recovered. Hopefully, I will be seeing the doctor again soon to see what is happening; I don't think it is anything serious but it is affecting my daily life, in that I do not want to do a lot at the moment except relax and/or sleep.

That said, this weekend saw me pick up the energy to get my paints and brushes out again to finish off a few of my son's figures that have been stuck on the painting table for several months. I managed to complete the basing for a couple of elf repaints...

And also the final few colours on another half-dozen or so Gondorian soldiers (the broken ones featured in the last post) and a Black Numenorian (a 2nd Age warrior of Numenor)...

This year I am hoping to get a lot more of my own Lord of the Rings miniatures painted in order to do larger battles with my youngest son. We have played several Battle Companies sized games over the last year, but we both feel the need to go larger on occasion. I think I will go for a new system for this, and Dragon Rampant is back in the frame.

A Weekend of Hobbying

The kids came over this weekend and for the first time in ages I was able to grab some time with my youngest and get some hobby time in. We didn't really get anything fully completed but we did make some progress on some figures that have been on the shelf for several months.

I managed to fix up a bunch of his eBay Gondor purchases from my bits box, whilst he painted one of his Elf warriors. I also based up some official D&D type figures and glued the arms and shields onto my second batch of Otherworld skeletons.

Gondor Before...

Broken Gondor figures

Gondor After...

Mended Gondor figures

From left to right, the first archer had a brand new hand and bow; the swordsman had a new sword; the next archer had the bottom of the first archer's bow transplanted to the top of his bow; the second swordsman had a new sword; the third archer had a new top to his bow from the bits-box; the last Gondorian had a new hand and sword grafted on; the final chap had a new hand and spear grafted on.

I think they have turned out just fine, and even though they don't match the "official" look weapons-wise, from my POV they can be a kind of veteran unit with non-standard equipment that has been picked up when their original weaponry had been lost or broken.

I didn't get a picture of the elf that my son was painting, but I did get pictures of the other work I was able to achieve...

Skeletons...

 

These are the second set of skeletons I got from Otherworld Miniatures. I have mixed up the weapon and shield choices to make them look different to the previous set. There will be a third set purchased soon; armoured versions of the above. But, no buying new stuff in this faction until the old stuff has been painted, so that may be a few months away.

D&D stuff...

At my local comic shop, I bought a handful of official D&D figures; an owlbear (for reasons unkown even to myself, owlbears are one of my very favourite monters in D&D) and four halfling adventurers. These halflings are much smaller than my Lord of the Rings ones unfortunately, so I am not sure if they will get used as hobbits in any of my games. Then again, I am not too much of a stickler for every figure being the same size - in every population there are tall people and shorter people - so I may very well use them in town or village type encounters.

My son glued a couple of paladin types to their bases and I managed to put a bit of paint on a Goblin Town goblin figure he had painted bright yellow when he was about four years old, but I didn't get photos of these yet.

The kids are over again in a few weeks time for the Christmas break. Hopefully we can get these painted and finished at some point over the break to clear the decks for new stuff in readiness for completing a few projects and playing a few games with them.

Gondor Repaints II

The weekend just gone saw the paint brushes come out again in force. I managed to paint seven more Gondorians for my son; this time it was the turn of the swordsmen.

Again, these are just re-paints; lots of tidying up where I could. They took maybe four hours tops to get to this stage - the waiting time between the different stages of basing took up the lion's share of time for them though. I am pleased with them even though they are just single layers of paint with no shading or highlighting. The main reason for getting these done this way was to get them ready enough to plonk down onto the tabletop with the minimum of fuss. 

There are still around half-a-dozen Gondor miniatures to be painted, but these are the broken ones. I will need to find some swords and bows from my historical bits box to complete them. This mis-match of weaponry will make the Gondor force look more like a rag-tag, battle-hardened unit of veterans than if they were all painted neatly with their "official" weapons all pristine. This worked well for his orcs, but I was a little disappointed with my work on his elves.

My son's forces are really coming together now. He has more than enough now to make several Battle Companies, but there is still have a little way to go to create a couple of forces for something like Dragon Rampant. I will sit down and calculate what is required soon as I think a mass battle would suit us both nicely at the moment. He still has a force of about 30 or so Warriors of Rohan and a few less in the guise of Easterlings for me to paint up. I think, added together, there should be enough figures to make a good side and an evil side if we can also find a couple of leader types.

I was due to sort out roster sheets for the two Battle Companies in readiness for this post. I have got them both written up but there are a couple of annoying issues with the PDFs that means they will be difficult to showcase. I will see if I can find an alternative version that works a little better.

I have also managed to do a little bit of work on my skeletons. They are glued up now but just need shields that match the previous ones adding. Hopefully I can get a little more painting done on the undead cavalry soon too, as once these are all completed I can buy the last few skeletons I need to complete the force. As mentioned in a previous post, I am going to try to paint up units of my old figures before buying any new ones. Once the skeletons are done, I will try to move onto a force of zombies which are needed for a lot of the games I have recently bought, like Frostgrave and Rangers of Shadow Deep.

Battle Company Re-inforcements

We played our second game of Battle Companies a few weeks back, but I didn't get round to dicing up the results and writing up the Battle Company rosters.

After our first game, Damril was able to recruit an extra spearman using his Influence points from winning the scenario...

And, after our second game, he recruited another spearman from his winner's Influence points. He still has 2 Influence points left, so even if he doesn't win the next game, he will still be able to recruit another warrior to his cause...

However, Ushnar, the orc battle company leader, despite losing both games, was able to recuit an extra in the shape of a Black Numenorian. I managed to roll two sixes in a row to achieve this - its a shame I cannot do this in a game. Unfortunately, I lost one of my orcs in the scenario, so this new arrival was just a replacement - but what a replacement!...

I used a 2nd Age Numenorian figure to represent this new arrival as I didn't have any of the purpose made Black Numenorians that Games Workshop designed. I like the idea of these once proud men turned evil; especially as they cause Terror in their opponents, which may come in handy against normal warriors, but I daresay my son's impressive dice rolling for his archers will come in handy for despatching this warrior in short order before he can use his full powers on the tabletop.

The camera has been a bit harsh on my paint job, showing up places where I quite seriously went over the lines - my eyesight is not what it once was, even with the aid of glasses.

Anyway, this was just another short post to keep the blog turning over with my gaming stuff. Next time I will try to show off the two Battle Companies as they stand right now, including maybe a roster sheet for both at long last.

Gondor Repaints

The kids have been over the last couple of weekends, so I was able to spend some time with my youngest son again to do some work on our gaming stuff. Last weekend was paperwork for Battle Companies and Rangers of Shadow Deep, which I will get written up properly in the next few posts.

This weekend we got the paint brushes and glue out to complete a few more Gondorian miniatures to go with his Gondor Battle Company under the command of Damril. Here are seven archers that we repainted in order to add to his Gondor force when they are needed...

Apologies for the blurry picture - it doesn't do the figures any justice.

This was the first time my son had really used a paint brush on his own figures. He did previously paint a Goblintown warrior at Games Workshop that he was allowed to bring home for free, but he was very young and literally painted the whole thing yellow (he wants me to re-undercoat it so he can give it a proper paint job).

He did a really good job with these archers - we went one colour at a time and most likely both of us put at least one or two colours on each figure; so it could be said that these are all a joint effort rather than full repaints just by me.

His total completed Gondor force now consists of his original six (2xswords, 2xspears, 2xarchers) from Damril's Battle Company, plus the extra spearman he gained as a reinforcement after our first campaign game. He now has the seven archers mentioned above to add to that total as well as another spearman reinforcement (more on that in the next post), bringing his total to 15 completed Gondorians.

Battle Companies : Gondor vs Orcs

This weekend the kids were over again. Two weeks ago, when they should have been over last, I had spent a long weekend in York, so missed out on a gaming opportunity with my youngest. We didn't get the chance to update the rest of the warband roster sheet and stats, so we have carried on from last time we played. We grabbed our miniatures, rolled for the scenario and put out the scenery.

12. Plunder the Camp

The table was set up as per the scenario. In the roll-off, we determined Gondor as the defenders and the orcs as the attackers. Gondor therefore had to set up first and then the orcs could set up no closer than 6" away from the encampment.

Upon re-reading the scenario after we had finished playing, we realised that we had made the camp only 6" across instead of 12". Not sure if this would have made much difference to the outcome, but it was a fast-paced, exciting game none-the-less...

The forces of Gondor led by Damril (the five objective markers for the scenario are the barrels)...

The few days after the encounter with the troll at the previous watchtower, Damril led his patched-up men onwards to the next watchtower along the valley. Again, the small hamlet should have been uninhabited, but hopefully he could repair it a little, like the previous one, and report back to his commander that he had had some success ridding the area of a troll, an orc warband, and had reinforced the two watchtowers so that fresh guardsmen could be posted in them thus allowing freer movement of troops throughout the valley.

Night was falling and the light was fading fast as Damril and his warband approached the next hamlet. In the distance he and his men could see the glow of a campfire. He whispered his orders and the troops approached the camp cautiously, but all was deemed safe when the camp password request was sounded out from behind the ruined walls. He responded with the correct code for the day and the warband made their way into the camp.

The latest news and passcodes were swapped over a hot meal and then the current incumbents gathered their belongings and moved out. However, Damril was told that a new recruit, a spearman, would be his to train up over the coming weeks, thus his warband now ranked seven warriors; Damril, two archers, three spearmen, one of whom was the new recruit, and another swordsman. It was time he decided upon a couple of sergeants to help him with the chain of command.

By the time the other warband had left, Damril had staked his camp and ordered the watch; no-one could see further than a dozen or so yards in front of them due to the darkness, which would make it very difficult for the archers to pick out targets when on sentry duty. Damril got his company of weary troops into position to see out the night; he was wary that the orcs they had encountered the previous day would still be somewhere in the vicinity.

On the other side of the settlement, Ushnar was approaching the camp with vengeance on his mind. He had wanted the glory of killing that troll, so he had followed Damril and his warband throughout the day in order to spring an ambush at an opportune moment. Upon arriving at the campsite, he noticed that bundles of supplies were dotted around the camp. If he could destroy some of these, he thought, he could whittle down his enemy through hunger and fatigue, and then finish them off when they were weak and weary.

He split his forces and gave each squad orders on what he needed them to do. With a few hooted signals, the orcs advanced upon their foe. The two orc warriors with bows loosed their arrows at the earliest opportunity, but their shafts flew wide of the mark. The Gondorian archers returned fire and felled two of the orcs charging the campsite, but this did not stop combat ensuing. The orcs had the worst of the affray and two more fell to the trusty swords of the Gondorian soldiers.

The combat in the camp became more intense as more orcs joined the fray. A further orc fell to the Gondorians but they managed to set fire to two bundles of supplies. Fearing for their supplies, the Gondorians pulled back from the orcs to readjust their battle lines, but one of the swordsmen was felled by Ushnar (using his point of Might). Damril returned the favour and slew another orc (using his point of Might), before the rest of the orc warband turned tail and fled the scene.

The final score was that two bundles of supplies had been destroyed before the orcs had to retreat. This meant a victory for Gondor. Again, the orcs were cursed with rolling too many ones and twos, whilst the Gondorians were blessed with an inordinate amount of fives and sixes. If the orcs hadn't lost four of their number in the second round alone, then things might have been different and a possible draw could have been snatched by the orcs.

These two warbands are now slowly drifting apart in power; Gondor has two victories under its belt, so this gap will widen a little more. We still did not use the full rules and we will hopefully get two sergeants statted up by the time of the next game. 

Anyway, here are the Experience scores...

• Orcs - HW Orc killed Gondor swordsman
• Gondor -Archer 1 killed 2H orc, Archer 2 killed spearorc, Sword 1 killed HW orc and 2H orc, Damril killed HW orc and spearorc
  

and Influence...

• Orcs - Taking part (2)
• Gondor - Taking part (2), Winning the Scenario (2)
  

We ran out of time to see who survived and died or how to spend our Influence points. We will do this next time he is over.

In this battle, we used the orcs and Gondor warriors that I painted up for him recently. What with my new temporary role being extended out for another three months, I will not be able to paint and procrastinate about our games as much as I was just five or six weeks ago before I started work. That said, at least we have longer evenings now, so I may be able to do something if I get the chance.

Damril of Gondor's Battle Company

I had a few hours' spare time yesterday and this morning that allowed me to get to work on my son's first proper named Battle Company for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Once again, these are just touch-ups on some second-hand miniatures we got from ebay. Some of them had very thick paint jobs already on them, so they were difficult to do anything with, but here they are in all their (re) painted glory.

Damril (front rank, first left with sword held aloft) and his Battle Company (after gaining a new spearman as a recruit for his success in slaying the troublesome troll in our last game)...

Damril and his trusty right-hand man (although he is on his left)...

The Archers from Damril's Battle Company...

And finally, Damril's spearmen including his new recruit on the right...

I will have to get my son to name the rest of his troops (as I will with the orc Battle Company I am currently running alongside this one) and then we can try to find a roster sheet to make note of who they are and what they have achieved so far.

I enjoyed painting these and they didn't take as long as I thought that they would. Some of the previous paint jobs were a little crude but I was able to fix them up somewhat. I also left most of the armour as was, to give a beaten look to the crew. My son decided he wanted purple tunics on his men rather than the standard black from the films. His collection is really becoming his own now, what with him deciding to go non-canon on most of the figures.

I got a couple of weeks extension to my temporary work assignment, so I will still be busy on that rather than painting miniatures during the day, but hopefully I can get a little done on the rest of the Gondor figures during the longer, lighter evenings over the coming weeks. I will also be reading the new Rangers of Shadow Deep rulebook so that we can at least get a Ranger and a few companions statted out this weekend when the kids are over. Now, I just need to look online to see if someone has any PDF versions of the Ranger character sheets so I can print a couple out as well as the Gondorian Battle Company roster sheets.

Battle Companies : Gondor vs Orcs

This bank holiday weekend saw son number two wanting to play another battle in Middle Earth. We read up on the rules for Might and Will to go along with Fate that we already knew about. We chose our miniatures and then we rolled out the scenery (I managed to find a few more items in some boxes in the garage), set up the table and then randomly rolled to see which scenario that we would play.

10. Tame the Beast

The table was set up and the troll placed as if he was coming out of the barn which was as near to the table centre as made sense. As the troll moved first, we measured up and found that the Gondor troops were closest, so it headed off in their direction with the intent of mayhem (the troll is controlled by a limited set of AI instructions - I rolled the dice against Gondor, my son against the orcs)...

The forces of Gondor led by Damril...

The orcs led by Ushnar...

The troll...

The early evening dusk added to the gloom of the weighty rain clouds skudding overhead. Damril, wanting to find shelter for the night for his patrol, remembered a small watch tower just over the next few hills. He ordered his men forward on the promise of a warm fire and shelter from the imminent downpour. Unfortunately, upon entering the environs of the tower he spotted an orc warband skulking their way through a set of ruins on the other side of the hamlet.

Suddenly, the door of the central barn was flung open and a small hill troll (statted as a cave troll) stepped outside finishing what looked like the last part of a stringy joint of meat. Something must have caught its attention as it stopped and sniffed the air. Unfortunately for Damril, he and his men were upwind from the beast and it had caught their scent. With a roar of rage, the troll charged towards them.

On the other side of the settlement, Ushnar was also getting ready to camp for the night. He had heard rumours of a troll in the area, so was a little more cautious approaching the village. He spotted the troll at the same time as he spotted the men of Gondor. Seeing that the troll had charged towards the men he barked out his command to follow the troll, pepper it with arrows from a distance and then close with it once the little band of men had weakened it with their efforts so that it would be easier to take down.

As the troll began its charge towards the Gondorians, their two archers who were slightly apart from the main force, launched a few arrows at the beast. At the same time, the orcs also let off a volley of arrows, one of which managed to find a weak spot in its tough hide. The troll charged on regardless, seemingly not feeling the arrow that had pierced its hide, or possibly thinking that it had been one of the Gondorian arrows that had caused it harm.

Damril called for his men to be steady and to await the charge of the beast. They met it with shields, spears and swords, but the troll was more than a match for the brave warriors. It focused on Damril as its main source of hatred but was unable to strike a telling blow in its frenzied state (the first of many sets of very low rolls). Perhaps the arrow sticking from its hide was causing it to be a little more clumsy and slower than normal?

Damril and his steadfast warband attacked the troll supported by a couple of doughty archers...

Ushnar and his rabble tracked the troll from a little distance, supported by a constant barrage of shafts from his own archers...

The very poor rolling by me as the troll attacking Damril kept failing to wound (it needed just a 4+ to wound)...

The orcs drew ever closer to the fight as the Gondor warriors fought on trying to bring down the troll...

The troll still could not harm the warriors of Minas Tirith - even though it tried its luck against the other swordsman this time (we changed up the wounds remaining dice for the troll from white to red at this point to make it stand out a little more)...

And again...

Finally, the Gondorian archers got a shot in through its thick hide as Damril and his men were forced ever backwards, but the troll's persistence against the swordsman paid off and he was beaten down by the troll's heavy club...

Meanwhile, the orcs were very sneaky and proceeded to take down the two Gondorian archers and, again, the troll failed to harm Damril in any way...

With half of the Gondor patrol down, the two remaining spearmen deserted their leader and skipped off the board to a safer locale, taking their downed brethren with them. The orcs decided to gang up on the troll, but were unable to approach the fearsome beast (all failed their Courage rolls). That was OK though as the troll took the fight to them and again showed its prowess by rolling yet another bunch of ones and twos..

Damril, seeing his opportunity, passed his Courage test and hit the troll from the rear, killing it outright and winning the scenario for Gondor...

Damril roared defiance in the face of the orc rabble and, after seeing him single handedly drop the troll, they ran pell-mell away from the victorious lieutenant of Gondor. The men of Minas Tirith held the field at the end of the battle and were able to tend their wounds in the safety of the watch tower. Ushnar and his warband had to settle for shelter beneath a copse of trees several miles away.

 

The final move of the game was a very clever piece of gaming by my son. We had not needed to use Fate or Will during the game so far but we both had a point of Might to use. I did not find any opportunity to use it, but as a final thought before Damril left the field to the orcs, he decided to attack the troll. He passed his Courage test, won the fight and rolled a 5 to wound the troll (he was tempted to use his Might to help with Courage and Fight if necessary, but didn't need it). This would ordinarily have been a miss, but remembering how Might worked, he added the point and slew the beast. Well played him!

These two warbands are going to be what we will use going forwards when playing LotR Strategy Battle Game. We still did not use the full rules and only statted up the lieutenant. We will get two sergeants statted up by the time of the next game. Anyway, we made a note of the Experience...

• Orcs - Archer wounded troll, 2H-axe killed Gondor archer, Ushnar killed Gondor archer
• Gondor - Archer wounded troll, Damril killed troll
  

and Influence...

• Orcs - Taking part (2)
• Gondor - Taking part (2), Winning the Scenario (2)
  

gained by each warband and will print out a roster sheet for each warband to include these. For three of his four Influence points, littlun rolled an additional warrior with Spear and Shield.

In this battle, I used the orcs that I painted up for him recently. My son used his second hand Gondor warriors that still need to be repainted. He has given me instructions for how he wants them painted - we managed to get to Games Workshop over the weekend to purchase some more undercoat spray paint, a couple of paint brushes and the colour he wants his troops' tunics painted.

Unfortunately/fortunately, I will not be able to paint much over the next few weeks as I was (fortunately) able to secure a few weeks' of temporary work. Hopefully I can do a little, at least on his battle company.

Battle Companies: Orcs vs Gondor

Yesterday my youngest decided he wanted to play with his newly painted orcs to see how well they would do on the battlefield. I pulled out my trusty old Battle Companies manual and put together a Battle Company for each of us.

He picked a standard Mordor force (3x Orc with shield, 2x Orc with spear, 2x Orc with 2-handed weapon and 2x Orc with bow) and I had a standard Minas Tirith force (2x warrior with shield, 2x warrior with spear and shield, 2x warrior with bow). As usual, we only used Fate (we still have to learn Might and Will stats properly) for the leaders of each warband.

I let him set up the table how he wanted it and away we went...

The orcs...

Minas Tirith...

Gondor started with priority, so the sword and spear armed troops advanced towards the centre of the board to try to gain some advantage around the farm house. The archers peeled off to the right wing to engage the orc archers and flank the main body of warriors. The orcs huddled together trying to find cover on their way towards engaging the men-at-arms.

A little more manoeuvering and the Gondorian archers had the orc archers in their sights. An exchange of arrows saw little in the way of danger to either side, but the warriors that clashed in the centre of the farmstead exchanged blows and a Gondorian swordsman and spearman fell in quick succession to the savage blows of orc scimitars.

 

 

The orc archers had by now got their bearings on the Gondorian archers and stuck one of them with a well aimed arrow. In the centre of the village, the Gondorians, now surrounded, saw more death as their leader bit the dust (failed Fate roll). A further flurry of combat saw the last remaining, extremely outnumbered Gondorian spearman not only win the combat but also dispatch the orc leader - things had become quite blurry by this time...

 

 

On the flank, the last remaining Gondorian archer fell to the well-placed orc shafts and the now hopelessly outnumbered and totally surrounded final Gondorian man-at-arms was cut down by the remaining members of the orc warband.

 

This game was a total disaster for Gondor. Five rounds and completely wiped off the board. I have never seen so many fives and sixes rolled in a game! The lad had a little dice rolling ritual that seemed to work for him (but not me when I foolishly tried it) - left hand up in the air with fingers crossed and right hand mumbled into saying the result required.

Also, if these newly painted figures had been mine they would have suffered from newly painted figure defeat syndrome. Not for my son - the new paint jobs positively made them shine. Sour grapes, moi? Surely not!

Moving swiftly on. We have played quite a few games of straight fights now, and we ar efairly familiar with the basic rules, so I think it may be time to set up a campaign. I had a chat with my son and outlined how Battle Companies actually works for a campaign style game. He is up for it. So, next time he is over, we will sort out a new Battle Company each, name them and read up on the other stats (Might, Will and so on) we have not covered yet.