LotR gaming

We had Lord of the Rings day down at the shop today.  It was a very successful day, in my book.  We had eight people playing, including two new players, one of whom ordered the rule book.  We got to play two of the scenarios that we are developing for the, as yet to be named, tournament.  We kept up interest among the folks who have armies and a couple of us tried out new armies.

I played three games this afternoon.  One of the advantages of 350 point games.  I was trying out the High Elves, and I really need to make some changes.

The first game was against Rob and his Easterlings.  Rob played it better, tactically, and my elves just did not work the way I had hoped they would.  I set up first.

We had some of the new Osgiliath ruins in the center, with trees and wall around it.  We were playing the same scenario as my game against Keith the other night.  The picture above shows my initial set up.

Rob held me in the center and flank and crushed my elves on the right.  After that it was all mopping up.

My second game was against Curtis, who has never played before.  I have been trying to talk him into it for awhile, so he agreed to come down today and give it a shot.  I brought my Isengard army for him to test drive.  He had a good grasp of the rules and had been asking a lot of questions in the game with Rob.

The initial set up of the Uruk's.  Five crossbows are under the hand to the right.

And my elves on turn two. This was a straight up meeting engagement, since it was a teaching game.  My shooting was a lot better this game and I was able to force him to come to me.  I set up just my side of the line of walls, allowing me to gang up on him as he came through.

I did not get any pictures of my third game, against Russ.  He had a Mordor army made up of a generic Nazgul (10 Will) two specters, four trackers, a bunch of Black Numenorians and orcs backing them up.  We were playing a scenario in which each player has a hero in the center of the board and the rest of their army six inches in.  You are pretty much forced to fight at least one round of combat, as otherwise you can't use your stand fast.

This was a really annoying army to fight as the specters kept pulling my troops out of position, leading to the death of my captain, while the Wraith kept my courage down and black darted things.  We played that there were no In the Way rolls or any effects of casting in to combat.  That doesn't feel right to me, but I can't see where, in the rules, that would be wrong.

We both broke and he just got me down to 25% first.  That army build is definitely one that works your skills.  Terror, the specters and the Nazgul are all things that work well together to throw a monkey wrench in your plans.  I have not beat Russ with that army yet.

This was a game between High Elves (cleverly disguised as Galadrim) and Dwarfs.

We got two of our scenarios tested by a bunch more people.  Everyone liked the Stormy Weather one.  (Half your army in the middle of the table).  The Parlay scenario had a lot of questions.  We will have to work on it to see if we can simplify it and still keep the intent.

As far as my Elves went.  Their shooting was as good as I thought it should be, though S3 is not a huge improvement over S2 it is twice as good in a lot of conditions.  My spears did exactly what I wanted them to but my Elves with Elf Blades were too squishy.  I will have to give them shields.  I think the archers also need to have spears as they were squishy in the later stages and would have been better off providing more attacks to my other models.

I may have to re-consider my desire to not ally in Galadrim.

All in all, a very successful day of gaming.

High Elves

I have decided on High Elves as my next Lord of the Rings army.  This will be my army for the tournament, yet to be named, that we are hosting in September.

I have two of the Last Alliance box sets.

 

These form the core of my army.  The problem with this set, and the range in general, is that there are only the two troop types, for High Elves, in here.  You get eight archers and eight elves with Elf Blades.  Spears come in blisters with three.  There are no models for hand weapon and shield, even though this is an option in the book, and one I would like to use.

I am going to have to hack up one of my models to see if I can position the arms right for him to be holding the sword one handed.  After that it will be a matter of figuring out if the Galadrim shields can be made to work, they are slightly different.

The easy answer, of course, is to ally wood elves with my High Elves.  I just don't want a Gladrim army though.  It may still come to this, but I am going to give conversion a shot first.  Of course, on the down side, that means I need another box of Warriors of the Last Alliance and a box of Galadrim to work on this.  I also need a couple more blisters of spears.  

The other downside of all of these Last Alliance boxes is that I now have a bunch of Warriors of Numenor with shields.  Spears and bows are all blisters as well for this army.  For now they have been stuffed into a used yogurt container against the day I decide they are worth my time and money.

I'll be sure to take pix of the conversion process.

Construction Complete

I have spent the last week assembling madly.  I have gotten a lot done.
1 x Land Raider Crusader
1 x Baal Predator
1 x Vindicator
2 x Razorback

And for LotR:
16 x High Elves with Elf Blades
16 x High Elves with Elf Bows
6 x High Elves with spears and shields
1 x Arwen

I still have 72 Moria goblins to get done.  I also need to do some painting this month.  At least twenty models is my goal.  We'll see how that one goes.  I also need to assemble two sets of the new Osgiliath ruins.  I suspect that I will be buying some more of those.  They are truly an awesome terrain set in a game system that sorely needed some more support from GW.

In Work

I am currently in an assembly frenzy.  This last week I have put together 18 High Elf bowmen and 18 High Elves with Elf blades as well as three with spear and shield, Gildor, Erestor, Cirdan, Thranduil, Galadriel, Saruman and Madril.  Oh yeah, and Faramir's horse.  I also assembled two sets of the old terrain of Middle Earth.  I have 72 moria goblins in progress on the de-flashing and gluing to bases phase.

I also picked up two of the Osgiliath ruins sets today.  I am really looking forward to assembling these.  With these two sets and the three sets of the old Middle Earth terrain I have I will be able to put quite a bit of LotR specific terrain on  the table.  It also means I will have a bunch to contribute to the tables for the tournament in September.

The goblins and terrain are going to be on hold for a week or so, though.  To my surprise I find myself with an assembly commission.  I was in the store today when a guy came in with nine boxes of space marine tanks.  He does painting commissions and doesn't have time to assemble these tanks.  I took half and Ian took half.  Five tanks for $65 dollars.  Awesome!  That'll buy me some models, "off the books", as far as the wife is concerned.