Horses for courses

 Hi all,

While remote gaming will hopefully continue for the near and mid-term future (barring some interference from the Traditional September Hurricane), in-person gaming is likely coming to a close for a while.  There is a decided nip in the air, we're getting more rain, and the wind is growing teeth.  That said, I managed a flurry of games around the end of August and beginning of September, including Cub's first game of Flames of War (the subject of a future post).  Among those were a couple of games of Lord of the Rings SBG, both of which I lost, but, as usual with SBG, were fun games with plenty of thinking involved.

Rohan deploys.

The first game involved a couple of firsts for me; it was the first time I'd played with Eomer (who's the best combat character for Rohan, although probably a second tier fighter across the whole game), and it was the first time I'd played against a war machine (in this case, a Mordor catapult).

That big gap in the line?  Yeah, that's from one catapult shot.

Turns out, the latter was a bit of an eye opener.  On the first turn of the game, my opponent dropped what amounted to a perfect shot right in the middle of my line.  Several dead riders, and unhorsed heroes, later, I had to radically reassess how I was going to proceed in the game ;) !

All shots are from the Mordor side of the table.

Eomer, Eomering.

This left me with a bit of a quandary.  Scoring points in the scenario meant taking an objective behind his lines, and harming his general (although, amusingly enough, I spent the entire game confused about who his general was), while preventing him from doing the same.

On the plus side, Eomer was still on his horse, had a couple friends, and turns out to be a complete beast.  He ended up in a 3(or 4?) on one in his first combat, and won ;)

Riding to ruin, and the world's ending.

The catapult continued to be a  . . . . presence . . . on the battlefied, although he never connected with it quite as well as that first shot.  In the end, he pulled it out, but had the game gone another turn, I'd likely have pulled out a win - which wasn't bad, given how things looked at the beginning of the game.

That catapult.  That damned catapult . . . .

A few weeks later, we got in what I hoped would be the revenge scenario, my Mordor vs. his Numenor.  For those less familiar with SBG, or LotR in general, Numenor is the "olden times" human kingdom, and Elendil and Isildur are the father-son combo who, along with the elves, stood against Sauron in the second age.  In other words, they are top-tier raging baddasses, which sadly, Mordor generally lacks (beyond the Big Man himself, whom I don't take).

Odd deployment on this one.  Our forces were split into opposing corners, and we had to chase objectives across the centre line of the table.

Playing against the dynamic duo is generally an objective game.  Can you get ahead on points / position far enough that when they contact your lines (and it's really, really hard to stop them), you can soak the casualities until the game ends, and edge them out.  This time, the answer was "no".

In retrospect, I should have raced for the centre, using the "march" option.

I find playing against Numenor with Mordor rather similar to playing my Beasts of Chaos in AoS against . . . well, anyone, in that you pretty much forget the attrition / killing stuff element, and just play for the objectives.  This one was pretty tight until the final turn, but he managed to break through with Elendil, my "control" resources were exhausted with my Ringwraith's will depleted, and had the game continued, he would have simply pulled ahead.

As it was, his troops are superior to mine, and I couldn't bring the numbers to bear to offset that advantage.

I alsways forget how much I enjoy SBG until I play it.  It's mechanically solid, very much objective based, and "thinky" without being oppressive.  Although there are a few dud minis in the range (why, oh why, did they put Morannons in the starter box?), there's also some that are just gorgeous, and the line as a whole had weathered the years well (the older sculpts are what, 20 years old?).

The painted stuff is mine.  Yes, I did just throw shade on my buddy ;)

It also fits nicely into that "mass skirmish" scale of game.  A large army is maybe 3 dozen models, which is entirely manageable, even for a slow painter like me.  I've now got (more or less) fully painted 700 point lists for both Rohan and Mordor, which is enough for a "big" game, and am at the stage where I'm adding characters, and thinking about new projects - like expanding the Galadhrim I ran for Battle Companies a while back (the "small skirmish" version of the game - thing LotR Mordheim).  Plenty to keep me occupied, anyways.  Assuming we weather the upcoming hurricane, I might even squeak in one more game before the winter.

Elendil, demonstrating why it took a corrupted Maiar of the first rank to take him out.  Those two orc archers are not going to do the job.

What I did on my Christmas holidays

Hi all,

Truth be told, I didn't do as much as I might have another year, for all the reasons noted in recent posts.  Did, however, manage to finally finish up some Napoleonic Cossacks who's been glaring at me accusingly the last month or so:

Don we now . . . 

 . . . our gay apparel?

They're intended as "Don-ish" cossacks.  While there were a few different cossack formations that formally had uniforms, it seems to have been pretty common for cossacks to wear more or less whatever they damn well pleased.  I painted some of these guys up in blue Don uniforms, some in brown, and a few in a mix.  The black shapkas tie them together well enough.  Played around with the formations too, looking for something less organized than my previous cavalry base.

In addition, the MESBG fiend I mentioned a post or two back was able to come over to the house for a few games.  We roped in the Cub, and had several Battle Companies games.  I think I only got pictures from the first, but a good time was had, and I was delighted to actually get a chance to play.

Mordor started on the hill, but opted for the better part of valor.

Rohan closing in.

Fights break out.

There can be only one.

I'm hoping to get out at some point in the next couple of weeks, as I owe a game to another buddy, and a BC campaign is getting going down at the shop, so fingers crossed on that score.  Not sure what I'll run.  The organizers are running it as a historical Arnor / Angmar fight.  I'm tempted to paint up some of the Lothlorian figs I picked up a while back, but to run them in BC I need wood elves, and I'm trying hard not to buy new stuff.  Maybe just use it as an excuse to paint up another batch of Rohan foot - with the new book, there's the potential for a non-mounted army that might be fun to try.

In the meantime, I've been prepping some more 6mm Austrians, and picking away at both some Lybian foot and Eomer, whenever I can steal a few moments.  Work starts up in a few days (I'm already deluged by emails), as does school for the kiddos, so some kind of routine will assert itself, no doubt.  Until then, enjoy whatever's left of your holiday!

FMB

Abeyance

Hi all,

Interesting, if disruptive, news from Monkeyland.  Looks like we are moving, to what will hopefully be our forever home.  Having settled in to a long-term position here in the East, the Beloved and I have spent a good chunk of the last couple years squirreling away a nest-egg, and looking at houses.  It seems like we've found one, and assuming some necessary work is completed, we will be moving into it at the end of the summer.  This has implications for hobbying, as you can imagine.

The Cub and I got in another 40k game down at the shop.

In the short term, it means some disruption, in that I will be packing up a fair bit of my hobby stuff in preparation for the move.  A chunk of this has already been done, in fact, and all that's left on my shelves if is the stuff I'll be using in the next few weeks; Blood Bowl, SBG, and Khorne.  I also left out my 6mm SYW, in the vain hope I'll put together another solo game.

The cheeky monkey brought his knight on behind my lines with reserve shenanigans.

In the medium to long-term, having a house of our own opens up a number of possibilities, including expanded gaming space.  While the house isn't huge, I will have a dedicated office / nerd room for my gear and small games, and a rec room I can take over for larger games.  It also means storage will be less of an issue, both because of room and permanence of stay.

View from the left flank.  

This, of course, has led my wandering thoughts to the topic of the Big Boy project.  Anyone who's followed this blog knows I've toyed for years with the idea of a long-running historical project in 28mm, but for a range of reasons (space, stability, the need to focus on one thing for more than 5 minutes), I've never really pulled it off.  The move, or at least, the anticipated conditions of my life post-move, now make this a realistic possibility.

Cinematic moment when the drednaughts come to grips!

I'm a little stumped, however, about what to do.  My core criteria are a) most models must be available in plastic (cost, quality, and durability are all now higher for plastic than metal), b) it's got to be something in which I can sustain interest (so likely needs some variety in the army), c) it's got to be something I can read about / immerse myself broadly in the hobby (so there needs to stuff written on it, both fiction and non-), and d) it's got to be something with which I could reasonably expect to get in a game (so based in a way that is flexible, and in not too obscure a period).  The last is more wishful thinking, as given my circumstances, it's likely a solo army / hobby project, but it's worth keeping in mind.

Also got in a rather fun game vs. Easterlings with my Rohan

My "bucket list" army has always been Indo-greek Successors, but in 28mm, the bulk of the army is hard to find, and mostly metal.  Carthaginians or a Macedonian / Successor army (Diadochi?  Imperial Alex?  Pontic?  Generic successor morph?) are another possible option.  Napoleonics would seem an obvious choice, and certainly meet my criteria, but that is a very deep rabbit hole indeed, and opens up questions about theatre and period that make me a little twitchy (that said, the new plastics from Victrix are sooooo lovely -  have you seen the lancers?). 

Dark ages are another option.  Victrix is doing some very nice plastic Vikings and Saxons, and while the armies don't offer much in the way of variety (would you like some medium infantry with your medium infantry?), the models themselves offer lots.  I could get behind the idea of a Mercian horde, although I'd need to paint Vikings to oppose them.

Hail Theoden!  King!

There's counter-considerations.  I have the core of several 15mm historical armies, and shifting to 28mm would likely be the death knell for those projects.  I already paint and play in 28mm, and have painting queues for games I enjoy (MESBG, AoS, BloodBowl, 40k).  I even have pseudo-historical projects I could paint within those systems as a hobby lark (nothing stopping me from painting Bretonnians in historical heraldry, for eg.)..  I also have historical projects (6mm SYW) that I'm still pursuing.

The thing is, though, I've wanted to do something like this for a decade, and not doing it, now that I have the space, seems a shame, however sensible it would be to consolidate / focus on what I already have.  There's also the sad reality that I'm finding smaller scale stuff more of a challenge to paint these days - my eyes and hands are not what they were, but 28mm is still relatively comfortable.  The real issue for me is the need to choose and commit to one thing.  For a certainty, I only have the time, concentration, and resources for one big project.  It's a nice problem to have (and one that certainly have time to consider), but a problem nevertheless.  Any thoughts much appreciated.

FMB

Gutsplitters

Hi all,

We kicked off the local MESBG Battle Companies campaign (say that ten times fast) the other day, and man, it was a blast.  There was a pretty big turn-out, with 11 or so people there (and a couple more who are participating, but couldn't make the evening), which is probably the largest BC turnout I've seen.


For the campaign, I'm taking Mordor, with a starting band of 3 orcs with shield, 2 spear, 2 two-handed weapon, and 2 bow.  My leader, Thrakul, is one of the 2H orcs, something a little different from the last time I booted up an orc warband.

He's a bad 'un

My first game was against a buddy, who's a regular opponent in both SBG and Age of Sigmar.  He took out an Isengard force.  This gave me the edge in numbers (my 9 to his 7), but he had an advantage in troop quality (in that the fighting Uruk Hai are a strict upgrade to your average orc).  We played the  scenario in which one player defends a position (and set of objectives) at the center of the board, and another tries to "burn" the objectives by ending a turn in contact, without having shot, or participated in a fight that turn.

The Lads

The scenario (which we've played a few times before), tends to favour the defender, unless the attacker has a real advantage in numbers, or gets some lucky breaks on priority rolls.  Basically, the attacker needs to get into a position where they can tie up multiple defenders, freeing other models to reach and burn the objectives.

Initial deployment

With the edge in numbers, I was generally  able to gang up on my opponent's Uruks, denying them access to the objectives, and counter-balancing his advantage in quality.  Of the five, he only managed to burn one, and the game ended when his warband broke.  First blood for Mordor!  I used the Influence points I'd gained (basically, campaign resource rewards) to recruit another orc, and upgrade Thrakul to heavy armor.  I also got enough experience on one of my heroes, Grudak (an archer), to make a roll on the advancement table (he'd been lethal in the game, picking off three wounds from opposing models).

Isengard closes in

In the new edition, heroes commit to one of a range of different advancement "paths", each of which offers a variation on the kind of stat improvements and special rules a hero can pick up.  Grudak opted for the Path of the Scout, and ended up getting Throwing Daggers.  Admittedly, a little odd for an archer, but throwing weapons can come in handy (you can move and shoot without penalty), and I tend to use my archers as back-up fighters pretty often.

Final stages

The way the campaign works, each phase allows for one hex expansion.  If you win, you can claim an additional hex.  I quickly moved from my starting position towards the Lake of Rhun, one of the special bonus hexes on the map.  Whoever controls it has a chance to expand an additional hex when they win a game.

Phase 1

While we'll only play one round per week, as this was the launch, we opted to go through a second round and game.  I used my "free" expansion to take the Lake, which puts me in a good position to drive towards the centre of the map, where some of the juicier bonus hexes can be found.

Unfortunately, another player also had designs on the Lake, and decided to take her pesky Lothlorian elves out for a spin.  This was, in many ways a repeat of the Uruk game, in that it was my numbers vs. her troop quality.  The scenario was based off of kills by your leader; whichever player's leader model caused the most wounds, would win.

In the end, despite some rather heroic turns from the Lothlorian captain (at least two rounds of combat where he was surrounded 4 to one, and won the fight), the elves were whittled down and broken.  Thrakul and the elf captain ended up tied at two kills each, so we drew on the scenario.  This meant I didn't get to use the bonus ability from the Lake of Rhun (you have to win to expand again), but I did keep control of the hex.  Thrakul also promoted, choosing the Path of the Warrior, and gaining an point of Fight (which is pretty solid for an orc), and I rolled a "special" result on my attempt to recruit, gaining a Morgul Stalker (basically an orc ninja).  I don't have the official model, so have busily set about converting one.

Phase 2

Both games were a blast (I got so engrossed in the second I forgot to take pictures!).  I love SBG, and Battle Companies combines all the campaign advancement goodness I associate with games like Mordheim with the strong mechanics of the core game.  It's objective driven, and lends itself to narrative gaming, which I love.  Super-excited to see the campaign continue.  We plan to keep it going all through the summer, so hopefully the level of interest is sustained.

FMB

Hail, Theoden, King!

Hi all,

Got in my first, "full game" game of Lord of the Rings the other day with Rohan.  I've played them extensively in Battle Companies (the narrative / skirmish version of the game), but this was the first time I've had enough painted to be comfortable dropping them on the table.

The Rohirrim ride forth.

I took out 500 points of Riders, led by Theoden, Gamling, and Eowyn, against my buddy's brand new Corsairs of Umbar army, led by a (generic) Ringwraith, Dalmyr (the Corsair "big name" character), and a couple of bosuns (minor heroes).

Theoden inspires the troops.  Finished him up the other day, lovely model.

It was smashing fun.  Rohan bring to the table what I love, mobility, and flexibility.  The can shoot, fight, skirmish and charge; not the best at anything, but pretty good all-round.  About the only thing they don't do well are numbers / horde tactics, and for that, I have Mordor.

Both sides worn down.  I'm looking to take out his characters at this point.

We played a scenario (the game is very much scenario / objective driven) in which we were both trying to escape across the table, getting points for models we moved off, and wounding the opposing leader.  This actually presented me with a fairly interesting tactical problem, in that while my all mounted force could easily run rings around my opponent, if I simply ran across the table, I'd lose.  He outnumbered me to a significant degree (about 2:1), and the game ends when a force is broken.  In other words, if I ran across the table, he'd be able to do the same (although it would take him longer), and he'd end up with more scoring models than I had.  I had to not only get my guys across, but also whittle his down enough that he couldn't outscore me!

With at least moderate success.

This led to some fairly cagey play in the first half of the game, where I used my speed and range to try and whittle him down, and then a series of charges, counter-charges, and melees in the second half as he tried to break through, and I looked for advantageous fights.  Rohan does well on the charge, but is vulnerable to being bogged down and mobbed, and it was a solid learning game for me, as I worked out how to use heroic abilities to keep my Riders in a position to choose fights.

The more I play this game, the more I enjoy it.  We'll be starting another Battle Companies campaign this week, but I'm also hoping to get in some side games with full armies, so likely to be coverage of SBG in the future.

FMB

Maggots

Hi all,

More Middle Earth, as I seem to be on a kick with this game.  My Rohan Battle Company has expanded faster than I can keep up with painting, so to while away the time in between, I've started up a Mordor (i.e., orc) BC in lieu.

A different set of Boyz than usual.

They were surprisingly challenging to paint, in that the palette one usually sees with orcs (at least in ME) is rather drab.  Getting a range of distinct colours on the models, while keeping them relatively desaturated, was tougher than I anticipated.  It kind of brought home the extent to which I rely on colour to define models on the table.



By the time this goes up, I'll have had some games with them, but it should prove an interesting shift from Rohan.  The latter are an extremely balanced / all-round force in game, while orcs seem to rely more on combat and numbers.  Time will tell what suits my play style better.

FMB

Shield Maiden, shields of the maiden

Hi all,

Some more Rohan figures finished up, including my first hero, Eowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan.





Eowyn is one of my favorite characters in LotR; her stand against the Witch King is the stuff of sagas.  In the LotR SBG, she serves as a cheap hero with decent might, i.e., a force magnifier, rather than a beatstick in herself.

In addition to Eowyn, I also finished up another five warriors of Rohan.  This brings me to an even dozen.  As I write this, that's enough to fill out my first "warband" for the army (each hero "unlocks" up to 12 regular warriors), but early previews of the new edition suggest that how armies are structured may have changed.





The box set is due to release Sept. 1, so I should have my hands on some riders, as well as some orkish opposition, soon enough.  In the meantime, we've got a Battle Companies campaign up and running, so hopefully I'll post some AARs soon.

FMB

Battle Company Battles

Hi all,

Got in our first round of Middle Earth SBG / Battle Companies games the other night, and to be honest, had a blast.  At this scale of play (6-12 models), games resolve quickly, and in the space of 4 hours or so, I got in at least 5 games, with plenty of time for breaks and chatting.  The night culminated with a massive 3 on 3 battle, which we lost by the narrowest of margins.

My opening game was against a War Riders list, which proved . . . interesting.  Wargs count as cavalry in the game, and have the added advantage of being mounts with a combat profile - which means they make their riders more effective, and have a chance to stick around if the rider gets killed.  I know cavalry can be really effective in this game (especially against infantry in the open), but this was my first taste of what that meant in practice.

Wargs and riders.  I had to get past them to win.

The archers have the right idea.  Get up high, and shoot them.

I would have deployed in the ruins if I could, but it wasn't an option.  Not everyone made it to cover - Wargs are fast!

In the end, I did my best to use terrain.  Once I discovered how powerful the Wargs were (they're stronger, fight better, and move faster than my Rohirrim infantry), I got as many of my guys up on the ruins as possible.  Ordinarily, this would have provided ideal protection, as cavalry can't climb, but we ruled that the wargs could on a 6 - we wanted a game after all.  I rethought my position after the wargs rolled a ridiculous number of 6es, and my poor warband was more or less gobbled up!

The recovery table for Battle Companies is, however, reasonably forgiving, and my warband emerged relatively unscathed (one character picked up an "Old Wound" that means they have a chance to miss subsequent games).  Moreover, I rolled really well on reinforcements, and managed to have a full-fledged Rider with mount join my warband.

No harm done.  Derhelm the rider joins the Woldwatchers.

My next game was against an Easterling warband, my opponent in the first game I played.  This gang is emerging as a bit of a nemesis, in that in that original game, they wiped me out (I've been pretty lucky with recovery rolls so far).  This time, however, things were different ;)

I think this round did a fair bit to cement for me some of the distinct features of how the game works.  First, terrain matters, and you can interact with it extensively.  Cover, elevation, climbing, jumping etc.all have meaningful mechanics, and risks that prompt meaningful choices.  Second, while there's skill in the game, and there's plenty you can do to influence outcomes, said outcomes are based on a limited pool of dice, and so can't be controlled.  Unexpected things can happen, and even the strongest model is at risk.  This means that while Hero models are really powerful and influential, they're never invulnerable.

Easterlings, about to have a bad time.

An even cavalry fight (post spearing of the second rider) and I get to fight with numbers and cover?  Yes please!

Dernhelm (really the Eowyn model) vs. the Easterling

Second to last turn?  I hold the hill, and am winning the battle at the ruins.

In my game against the Easterlngs, the goal was to take the hill (which my opponents held at the start of the game).  I had, however, an advantage in missile fire, and set up in the cover of the ruin, which goaded him into attacking me, and leaving his archer to hold the hill.  A bit of luck (I killed one of his riders with a bow on the way in). and the advantage of numbers let me take out his attack, and my counter attack took the hill.  Victory to Rohan!

I got in a few more games, but the highlight of the evening was teh big 3x3 game we played, my Rohan, and a couple of Gondor / Fiefdoms (gondor light), versus Wargs, Uruks, and Easterlings.

Rohan at bottom.

That's a lot of bad guys . . . 

Archers prepare.

Just before the clash

This is where it got ugly - the two Rohirrim on the left are about to go down under a swarm of uruks.

The game broke down into two sections, with most of my warband and a Gondorian knight trying to hold off the orcs and easterlings while my archers and the Gondorians tried to eliminate the Wargs.  The game was pretty much hanging in the balance when we called it (shop was closing), but there had been some brilliant moments, including when Tinbold, my new character (warriors can become promoted to heroes) sniped an orc leader, my left flank collapsing under the sheer ferocity of the uruk charge, and the Gondorian knight holding off a ridiculous number of easterlings and uruks for something like three turns.  We lost by one model, but I think that if the game went on, we'd have turned it around.

I've wanted to play LotR for ages, and I'm delighted both by the relaunch, and the surge of interest locally.  We had a solid turnout, and there were several other people either hovering or who have models and looked interested in joining in.  Pre-order on the new box / rules is Saturday, and I'm hoping to see more of this game in the future.