Guards of the Fountain Court

I've added some new troops to my Gondor line up. GotFC or Guards of the Fountain Court. These are some walking tanks that add some punch to my battle line. I didn't paint these, I got them off ebay in 2 different groups. But I did touch them up to give them a cohesive look and painted the bases to match the rest of my troops. I have more unpainted that I will do at a later date.

Next up to be painted will be some Heavy Metal from Dol Amroth

Gondor Reinforcments

I finally manged to finish the basing touch up on 72 Warriors of Minas Tirith. It took longer than I thought. Well that and life getting in the way of my wargaming.

So now I have 24 Spearmen, 24 Swordsmen and 24 Archers fully painted and based. I need to finish up my commanders, Aragorn, Boromir and Faramir. Also on the painting table is an Avenger Bolt Thrower. They will be done soon. A big thanks to Thor for painting them for me. He is awesome.

 

Ciao for now, Xin

My first LOTR SBG Game.

Well technically not the very first, I did do the Mines of Moria intro fight.

So I have a force of Minas Tirith that is the process of being painted and I bought some painted Haradrim at a flea market. We had enough to put on the table so we set up a battle.

The Set up:
Faramir leading some Knights, Warriors and Rangers of Minas Tirith are sent to defend a river crossing in southern Gondor. Meanwhile Suladan, Warriors and Raiders have reports of an undefended river crossing and make to raid into Gondor.

Minas Tirith: Commanded by me
Faramir and 5 Knights
7 Warriors/Capt w/ Sword and shield
6 Warriors/Capt w/ Bow
7 Warriors/Capt w Spear and shield
Damrod and 5 Rangers of Ithilien

Haradrim: Commanded by my friend, Thor

 Suladan and 6 Raiders w/ War Spear
7 Raiders/Capt w/Bow
7 Warriors/Capt w/Spear
7 Warriors/Capt w/Bow

Suladan(Thor) set up south of the river.

I was marching in from the north edge of the board.

Haradrim cross uncontested at the ford.

 After a few turns of movement and very little bow fire, the lines close on one another. Haradrim split it's forces in a 2 pronged attack, while Gondor is trying to form a solid line as it moves closer("None shall Pass")

 Suladan's Bow armed Raiders got too close and my spearmen charged! "For Gondor!!!" This fight on my right flank becomes a blackhole. After a few turns he feeds in his bowmen and I feed in some Swordsmen.

My Knights on the left charge the Spear Armed Raiders supported by Ranger bow fire. I killed , I think, 2 Raiders. But not by bow fire. In fact I don't think anything was killed by bow fire. See Suladan hiding behind the shrubbery?

2 Knights, bowmen and some Swordsmen push up the center. The Warriors of Haradrim bar the way. The little orchard there with my swordsmen proved to be a bit of a trap. I didn't know how in the rules to deal with it since he was right up against it. Defended obstacle? So I just edged closer without making a big push.

Back on my right the meat grinder was still going on. I'm missing about half my spear, but he's missing half is raiders. I think I'm getting the better of it.

Inching closer in the middle, bow fire still completely ineffective.

Missing one knight, but 3 Raiders are dead. Suladan joins the fray and kills one of my knights.

This draws the wrath of Faramir and he charges Suladan. I think Suls had to burn a fate point.

In the center I charged with 2 Knights into the road block of Haradrim spear! One lone swordsman that jumped the fence to help. I lost one knight and he lost one spear. Not a good trade.

One the right, I only have 1 Swordsman, 1 spear and the Captain left. But the Raiders are almost all gone. He had to bring over his bow guys to help out. Again, this right flank was a meatgrinder. But in the end, I think I got the better of it.

Last shot of the battle. He was strong in the center but both flanks were pretty much crushed. It was getting late and he didn't feel he had the strength to push into Gondor, so he fled back across the river.

I'm sure we did a bunch of stuff wrong, but it was fun. I need to get those flea market Warriors of Haradrim properly based. So much to do, so little time. Hope you enjoyed. You can click on pics for bigger views. Feel free to comment.

Ciao for now, Xin

Captains of Gondor

O Captain my Captain

I finally got around to painting some Gondorian troops.  Up until now, I have been just putting the finishing touches on troops my buddy painted for me.(Knights, Basing) I'd thought I'd take a break from the masses of troops and painted up a few myself. Besides my troops needed Captains to lead them in battle.

So here are 3 Captains and 3 Standard bearers.

It's about time for a battle. Time to get the lead on the table. Gondor vs Harad coming soon, but up next will be some Rangers. They are drying now.

Cheers, Xin

Knights of Minas Tirith

As I posted before, my friend Thor painted up crap load of figures for me, cause I'm too slow. However I had him hold off on finishing the bases so I could get them to match what I painted.

Here are six Knights of Minas Tirith that I just finished basing.

Now to finish 24 Bowmen and 24 Spearmen.

Ciao for now, Xin

Basing my Gondor troops

Ok I cheated. I got very lucky when it comes to painting up my figures for LOTR. My good friend, who I like to call Thor, paints about 1000 times faster than I do, and he doesn't mind painting up my figures as long as he gets to play with them.  Maybe he's impatient cause if he waited for me, the 5th Age of man would start.

So anyway he painted up 72 Warriors of Minas Tirith and 6 Knights of Minas Tirith. I think that is 3 box sets and all the figures in the Return of the King box set. Here are a few of the figures.

I had him not paint the bases as I wanted to do it. His basing style is different from mine, so if I did the bases that would help give what he did and what I did a more uniform look. Now I am in the process of painting and grassing the bases.

The steps I take to finish the bases is not that hard, but I think looks pretty good on the table top. The first obsessive compulsive thing I do is weight the base. The plastic figures are so light and can bounce all over the place. It bugs me enough to take an extra step basing my figures. I buy lead fishing weights at Walmart, smash them flat with a hammer and Zap Gap them to the bottom of the bases.

Then I texture the bases, with a Liquitex Texture Gel, Resin Sand. That's the white stuff drying.

  Next I paint the whole thing brown with a craft paint, Americana Dark Chocolate. After the first coat dries, I dry brush a mixture of the same paint with white mixed in.

The next step is a few random highlights. If there is a big chunk of the texture gel, I will painted it gray as a stone. Not to many, just a few here and there.

 
Then add static grass and paint the base ring green. I might also add in some grass tufts, again not to many. I use Army Painter Highland Tufts. I like the contrast of the darker grass on the greener static grass. Army Painter Tufts

And Done. 24 Minas Tirith Swordsmen ready to battle Evil in Middle-Earth.

Only 48 more to go.

Ciao for now, Xin