MESBG : Orcs vs Gondor

This weekend saw a little more Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game action in the form of another Battle Companies confrontation between my youngest son's Gondorian company and my orc company.

My son set up the table and we decided on a fight to the death scenario rather than select one from the rulebook. In the end though, a narrative grew out of it and it became more of an ambush set by Gondor upon an orc patrol.

The starting positions saw my son hide all of his troops from sight of the orcs. So, I decided that I should approach the village as if I did not know they were there.

My orc archers on the right spotted the Gondorian archer over the back behind a tree and shouted across to the Black Numenorian leading the party to warn him of their presence. A general advance began on the village with a small squad of three orcs peeling off to hunt down the lone Gondorian archer.

The three orcs harrassed the archer, but one of the double-handed axe wielders fell to a Gondorian shaft. First blood to Gondor. The rest of the orc company ran forward and the Gondor patrol sprung their trap. It was a bitter fight but the orcs had the better of the Gondorians in the end. The Black Numenorian with his F4 made the day (this is the first game ever that the Fight stat came into its own - the extra point of F for the orc commander proved pivotal in a couple of important melees).

The Gondorian forces were whittled down, surrounded and butchered over the course of just a few rounds, but they kept making their Courage rolls until there were just two soldiers left. They high-tailed it out as soon as their combats were over.

This was a solid victory for the orcs; orcs lost one two-handed axe wielder (out of a starting 10) for the price of two archers, two swordsmen and two spearman (out of a starting 8).

We used the new dice tower to make the dice throwing fairer and this time it actually worked in my favour. The usual plethora of sixes every other roll by my son was nullified and the dice gods actually favoured the orcs this time.

It was a fun game and over in the space of around half-an-hour. A nice afternoon's treat just before lunch.

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.

Glueing and Prepping

Long time, no post. I have been busy doing lots of stuff other than gaming recently - real life has a habit of taking over sometimes. Luckily, I have been able to dip my toes into my hobby from time-to-time, but not really had much I can comment on for the blog. I have read a few rulebooks and supplements that I received as gifts for Christmas, kept on with my 2000AD and Judge Dredd comics reading, and started re-watching Game of Thrones on the DVDs I have. I have not seen series 8 yet (I must be the only fan not to have done), so I am re-watching them all over again to prep for the final series. I have managed to avoid spoilers thus far. I have heard it is very disappointing, but I have my own ideas for an ending, so I may not find it so.

Anyway, over the last couple of days we have had some very nice weather in the UK. The brighter days have meant that I can actually kind of see reasonably smallish details again. So, in order to get stuff done whilst the light holds, I broke out the most recently purchased miniatures (from the last few months for my son's but up to a few years ago for mine) that have been staring at me from their vantage points on the book shelves.

Alongside his interest in The Lord of the Rings, my youngest son has begun to show an interest in historical gaming; or, more accurately, he likes the miniatures and, as he now gets some pocket money, he decided to buy some. He has recently picked up a box of plastic Dark Age Irish warriors from Wargames Atlantic, some Welsh Archers from Gripping Beast, and a few Roman slave-type minis from Footsore, due to one of their likenesses to Grumio out of  the TV series Plebs.

My figures are from a mixture of manufacturers (Hasslefree, Otherworld and Northstar) that I went to to create some fantasy wabands for RPGs and Rangers of Shadowdeep, and the Nickstarter set of ten pairs of wizards for Frostgrave. The wizards are several years old now, but the Rangers and other fantasy miniatures are maybe only a year or so old. I have kind of set myself a limitation now due to the huge backlog of unassembled and unpainted figures that I have, where I can only buy new figures when I have finished painting my latest additions to the lead and plastic mountains. I am almost there with painting those Otherworld skeletons from a few posts back (if the light holds, I will get them finished in the next week or two), and I have now broken out my other latest purchases in order to get them completed too. Once these are completed, I may treat myself to a few more of the figures to make up the last of the adversaries for some of the games I wish to play.

Anyway, enough chat, and onto the lead (well pewter as it is nowadays). First up are my son's Welsh Archers. As mentioned above, they are from Gripping Beast. There are four poses and he got three of each pose. They are tidy little figures, and will make great standard warriors for any games we play with them...

I still need to glue their bows on (unfortunately we only seemed to get 10 bows instead of 12 - the bag they came in had split). They are shown alongside the Footsore Roman slave figures for a size comparison. My son wanted these mounted on Saga-style bases which came with the Welsh miniatures (I also had some spares in my bits box he could use for the Romans). Here are the Roman figures alongside a pair of plastic wolfhounds he got with the plastic Irish warriors set...

Next up are some of his new Lord of the Rings miniatures. Most of his figures for LotR are second hand from eBay. These are from a few packs he recently bought for himself, that he liked the look of...

The Bilbo miniature is metal, and the Elf warriors and Thranduil models are resin. The Elf warriors all need their shields glued on, and Thranduil needs his sword arm glued on. These are lovely miniatures but do not scale in at all with the historical figures above; the LotR figures are a fair bit smaller and finer (more anatomically accurate), and the quality of the sculpting is much better. That said, sometimes quantity is a quality in itself, and that is where the historical figures come into their own - good value for money for decent enough figures - armies can be built much more cheaply.

Next up are the last of my son's figures from this batch and the first of mine. They are Noldur's D&D figures bought from our local comic and gaming store a few months ago. Here we have a griffin and an umberhulk...

The griffin will be glued to a base the same as the umberhulk to fit in with more of my son's fantasy miniatures (all of his Lord of the Rings figures are on GW style round bases of various sizes). These figures are really nicely made and not too pricey for their size. For some reason my umberhulk came without one of its antennae - it was not in the box, so I could not have glued it back on even if I had found it. I am not too fussed actually, as it gives it a bit of character.

Next up are my Rangers and RPG characters...

They are from a variety of manufacturers and I have stuck them all onto 30mm lipped round bases. I am going to begin to standardise my basing if I can from now on, so they all fit in with my Lord of the Rings figures - 20mm for hobbits and other small creatures, 25mm for standard humans, elves, orcs etc., 30mm for heroes and medium-sized creatures like wolves, 40mm for mounted figures and medium-large monsters, 50mm for large monsters, trolls and giants, and larger bases for dragons etc.

The back row consists of Hasslefree figures, the second-rear row are from Otherworld, and the two front rows are Northstar's official Rangers of Shadowdeep figures. I have yet to glue on some of their arms and weapons - hopefully at some point this week I can accomplish that?

Finally, here are the first of the Frostgrave wizards that I bought a long time ago. Again, they are glued onto 30mm lipped bases to match in with the Rangers and adventurers above. Each school of magic is represented by a pair of wizards...

From left to right, these are; a Chronomancer and apprentice, an Elementalist and apprentice, an Enchanter and apprentice, an Illusionist and apprentice, and a Necromancer and apprentice. I have yet to decide which is the master and which the apprentice - that decision will most likely come once they have been painted, or not. I still have five more pairs to prep and glue, but the light has run out for today. I am working overtime all day tomorrow (another Bank Holiday in the UK), so will not get any modelling done then - hopefully there will be some good days through the coming week that will allow me to complete these.

In addition to the figures above, I have an eleventh pair of wizards (not sure what school they belong to until I look them up again) and some treasure tokens/markers for Frostgrave. There is also a box set of 20 plastic Frostgrave Soldiers and a sprue of 5 Frostgrave Barbarians which need assembling. Hopefully the next post will see all of these glued up at least.

I am really hoping to get some tabletop gaming going again very soon; either solo or with my youngest son. I have my eye on a few new rulesets too - Sellswords and Spellslingers (for solo gaming) and the latest version of Runequest; a game I played extensively back in the day. I no longer own these rules (I have owned three different editions in the past) and the new rulebooks look lavish, so I am very tempted.

So, there is plenty for me to be getting on with for now. Once the above miniatures have been fully prepped, they will need undercoating and then painting. Also, once the long summer days roll in, I may take another look at my LotR miniatures - I have over 800 to complete, although many are almost there.

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.

Battle Systems - Northern Homestead

Good morning everybody - long time no post. This is due to a number of reasons, mostly good, but primarily because I have been working. After another long time out of work I managed to secure back-to-back contracts. I am still in the second role and it seems to be going well - hopefully at the end of this contract I will be back to where I want to be financially, so I can begin spending a little more time, effort and money on my hobby.

So, what have I been up to hobby-wise over the last few months? Due to my new work roles and various other reasons, I have not been able to see my youngest son often enough to do any actual playing, but we did do lots of sorting out and chatting about gaming. He has managed to put some paint onto some of his Ebay bought miniatures (not finished yet, but when they are I will feature them in a separate post) and also bought some new figures from a local comic and games shop. I bought a few one-off figures from the same comic/game shop (four halflings which are a bit smaller than the GW LotR ones and an Owlbear - one of my fave monsters from D&D), some Ghost Archipelago rule and scenario books, and some card-stock buildings from Battle Systems.

The card buildings are the main-stay of this post. A month or so back, out of the blue, my son sent me a few pictures on my phone and a link to a company called Battle Systems. He suggested that they might be good for our tabletop battles as they were quite cheap (relative to resin and plastic buildings they certainly are). They looked really good in the photos (not promo shots by the company but in-use shots by a gamer), so I thought I would buy a few to see how they turned out for myself.

There was a sale on at the web store (result!), so I was able to afford to buy enough buildings from my gaming budget to hopefully kit-out one of the scenarios in the Rangers of Shadowdeep rulebook. I chose three of the Northern Homesteads as my mainstay, plus a couple of outbuildings, as they could double-up for use as Rohan, D&D, Pathfinder and so on buildings for a quasi-Dark Age/Medieval setting. There are also options to buy snow effect roofs (rooves?) to allow gaming in Frostgrave or other cold-set climates (Winterfell or beyond the wall for Game of Thrones perhaps?).

The order was delivered in double-quick time and sat on my workbench (well, pile in the corner of the room) until two weekends back when my son was over and we decided to build the first homestead. Out of the box you get three sheets of card-stock building pieces (two the same plus another different one) and a small bag of plastic connection pieces.

The pieces push out very easily, with no cutting required. The only thing you don't get is a set of assembly instructions. Now, I have made many kits over the years so thought I would be able to construct these easily, but I went about these in completely the wrong way. I tried to put the connectors at the bottom of the walls etc. thinking they would be least visible there. However, after my son looked up an online tutorial and we found out that they should be joined by slots in the middle of the walls, the building went together in seconds. We literally built it in under two minutes. Once constructed, they are very sturdy.

There are three choices for the doors, two singles and a double. We decided on a simple single door for this building. As these kits are multi-purpose; they will fit in with all the other kits for completely customisable building construction, so many of the pieces can be used on other buildings. We will look at the watch towers and mead hall next so the double-doors can be used there (Meduseld anyone?) - they do look impressive.

The entry way - the door is off to one side with a porch to cover the entrance for times of inclement weather. You may also notice some holes in the thatch and flooring. There are pushout pieces to give buildings a more run-down look if required. We decided to go full-out on this building. The good thing is, the little bits that get pushed out can be used for scatter terrain later on too!

The front view - with attendant horse-head posts. Perfect for a Rohan setting.

The rear of the building has a platform upon which your archers can stand to defend their homes from marauding uruk-hai.

The side opposite the entrance shows the horse-head posts in better detail.

And finally an internal shot. With the kit you get internal flooring, beds, bed rolls, weapon racks and weapons; in fact all sorts of paraphernalia to sprinkle around the table top when gaming to add flavour. The weapons are a little over-sized, so I won't use them, but plenty of the other bits will be very useful as scatter.

Next time my son is over we will construct a few more of these buildings, most likely in different formats to make up a small hamlet. We can then fight over it with his Rohan (once re-painted) and orc miniatures before moving onto rangers of Shadowdeep once he has figures for his small warband for that game.

The system also features more medieval style buildings that would suit D&D and Pathfiner more, but they could also double-up as buildings from places like Bree or towns around Gondor and the fiefdoms in Lord of the Rings.

Overall, I am happy with my purchases. I will most likely try to find suitable basing material to put these on so they become even more sturdy and hard-wearing, and it will stop the flooring falling away from the buildings too when they are moved. The rest will hopefully be built in a few weeks' time, so I can photograph them all together to see how a hamlet or small village would look.

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.

Fathers Day Haul

A little late, due to being away this last weekend, but here is a small summary of my Fathers Day haul. My kids are wonderful and always get me a small hoard of wonderful gifts. This year I had the usual scrummy Green and Blacks quality chocolate selection, as well as the beginnings of a Hobbit warband for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game...

My youngest took it upon himself to go to his local GW and order up the Hobbit warband - a dozen Hobbit Militia (8 of) and Archers (4 of). He then split the cost with the rest of my kids. Add these to my big 4 (Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin - a few variants of each), Farmer Maggot and his dogs, and I have the beginnings of a great little battle company. Just a few more packs to go to complete the army.

These will be next on my list of warbands to paint after I complete the skeletons and my son's Gondor troops. I may be some time on these however, as my temporary role has been converted to a fixed term contract of three months - happy days - and this will leave me with a lot less time to spend on our hobby.

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.