Painting - GW Mordor Orcs

  This week's entry is twenty five GW Mordor orcs. They are a combination of plastic and metal and include two of the ooooold metal orc models from when the line was first started, now re-purposed as captains. 

First up, painted as Isengard orcs.

Painting - Challenge XV - Sharku

This is my first entry of the 15th Challenge. This is not the first thing I've painted since last spring, just the first that I've photographed and posted. 

Rhys picked this model out for me as my first model of the Challenge. I've wanted Sharku for years but could never find him in metal; only fine-crap (Finecast, a misnomer if there's ever been one). Last December ('22) I was in the UK and made it to Warhammer World and they had Sharku in metal. Problem solved.

Sharku, Champion of Orcthanc.

Entry 8 - 7th Challenge - A mix of models and some go backs.

This entry is an eclectic mix of models that have been getting bits of paint here and there and were close to finished. I like to keep spare models on the painting desk to soak up the bits of paint that are left after working on a unit. At a certain point they reach critical mass and I just finish them off.

The first entry does not count for today. It's the Celt unit from a week (2 weeks?) ago. I went back and finished the backs of the shields, since if I don't do it now it'll never happen.

Entry 6 - 7th Challenge - 11 28mm Uruk-Hai

My next entry is eleven Uruk-Hai from Games Workshop. I thought I had finished these off last year but then remembered that I hadn't painted the horizontal pikes because I hate them. On the other hand, we may be playing a Helm's Deep game and will need all of the nasty buggers we can field. I also picked a couple of captains up off of ebay, and they definitely needed paint.

A little gaming - Lion Rampant

Nick, of Little Nicky's Gameroom, came over on Saturday and we played a couple of games. He wanted to try out Lion Rampant, and we followed that up with a Star Wars Armada game.

The lines close.

Isengard - 54 Uruk-Hai

This entry is the majority of the remainder of my Uruk-Hai. As before these are 28mm Isengard models for Lord of the Rings by GW.

Entry 1 of the Painting Challenge - 28mm Uruk-Hai from GW

In keeping with tradition, my first entry is six models. It's a nice easy number that breaks the rust off without being overwhelming.

Lion Rampant

One of my Christmas presents was a copy of Dan Mersey's Lion Rampant rules.  While these are designed for medieval warfare they will work just fine for any sword and board type of troops.  They are a skirmish level game, with units of twelve, or sometimes six models.  Much is simplified in the name of game play but they work very nicely and are very quick to pick up.  This, however, is not a review of the rules.

Cirion leads his men against Isengard raiders.

Entry 5 - Vth Analogue Painting Challenge - 8 Uruk-Hai

This is the final entry of Uruk-Hai for this challenge season, if for no other reason than the rest of my unpainted models have at least one color put on them already so are ineligible for inclusion in the challenge.

Entry 4 - Vth Annual Analogue Painting Challenge - 8 x 28mm Uruk-Hai pikes

This post is eight more Uruks for Isengard.  These are eight pikes, one of the stronger features of the army.  I actually don't play with them as much as they warrant because I hate the pikes in game.  I don't mean the rules are bad.  I hate that I am always stabbing myself with them or knocking them or other models over because of them.  The physical limitations are frustrating.

Entry 2, Vth Painting Challenge - 8 Uruk-Hai swordsmen

"There were four goblin-soldiers of greater stature, swart, slant-eyed, with thick legs and large hands.  They were armed with short broad-bladed swords, not with the curved scimitars usual with Orcs; and they had bows of yew, in length and shape like the bows of Men.  Upon their shields they bore a strange device: a small white hand in the centre of a black field; on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal."

Eight swart, slant eyed gobin-soldiers.

Battle Report: 1000 pts of Rohan vs Isengard

Two weeks ago Huntsman came over and played a game of LotR.  The day of the game he suggested that we play a big game, since he wanted to bring out everything he had for his Isengard.  I thought that sounded just grand.  The only army I had that could hit the 1000 points he had was my Rohan, which I haven't played in years.

Eowyn leads seven riders against the Whargs.

Battle Report - Harad and Isengard vs Wood Elves

Last night was the Thursday night club night.  As so often recently, we only had three players.  Since we had two good and one evil we decided to have Tony and I split our armies in half, each fielding 300 pts vs Jake's 600.  We rolled up a meeting engagement.  This scenario is a kill 'em all battle.  It was bloody and unpredictable with some awesomely funny moments.

This is near the end of the game.  The Elves have done surprisingly little in combat up to now.

Battle Report - High Elves vs Isengard and Galadrim

The Thursday night league has closed but that is still Lord of the Rings night down at Collectormania.  We have not had any games in a couple of weeks and Jonathan and I were both Jonesing.  In addition, Huntsman is back in the rotation, so there are three of us who plan on being there every week.

Last Thursday was the last night back and with three of us we had to get creative.  We decided to play a three player game, (all right, so not really that creative when you have three players).  There was an objective in the center of the table, victory points for each model within six inches when the game ended.  There is random deployment with a die roll determining where each warband comes in.  A 1 means, not this turn, 2 your opponent chooses a North/South edge, 3 your opponent chooses an East/West board edge, 4 you choose N/S, 5 you choose E/W and 6 you choose any board edge.  There are also points for wounding and killing the enemy general.  For players of LotR this is the Hold Ground scenario.  The effect of this deployment, with just two players, is chaos as warbands come in all over the table and head for the center to mix it up, often fighting as they go.  With three players there was even more confusion. 

Initial deployment.  Arwen will come in behind the ruins top center.  Galadhrim top left and bottom left with Rumil's band bottom center.

Battle Report - Harad vs Isengard Part I

On Monday I was able to get a couple of games in against Huntsman and his Isengard army.  Huntsman was recently blessed with the addition of a little orc in the family and has not been able to play in several months.  Our first game reflected his re-learning the rules.  Our second showed that he was definitely playing attention during the first.

Nuradan was again attached to the command of the Betrayer.  It was clear that Sauron had a plan for his men, it just wasn't at all clear what it was.  The army had force marched to the north and crossed into the lands of the horse lords.  They were supposed to meet with Saruman's Uruks.  The problem, from Nuradan's point of view was that the meeting between the Betrayer and Saruman went poorly and he found himself facing an army of angry Uruk Hai, deep in doubly hostile territory.  Some days it just didn't pay to roll out of the blankets.

The battle lines on turn four. 

The Betrayer was interested in five chests, spread through some ruins.  Saruman, apprently, did not want to give them up.  This fight would be for control of the chests, but also for the survival of Nuradan and his men.  Nuradan was able to get one of the chests, on a hill, firmly under his control.  There was a second, in some ruins at the base of the hill, that he knew he could contest at will.  The other three were on the wrong side of a bunch of angry Uruk Hai and one angry wizard.