Rebel Vipers - Product Review

Product Description:  Rebel Minis recently released their small class of Mech in resin.  The VIPER comes in three different variants with two versions of each, one standing still and one advancing.  Each kit comes with the legs, the body and a sprue of the appropriate weapons options.  They stand approximately twice the height of a 15mm figure.  These are definitely light mechs.

Vipers, ready for action.

15mm Sahadeen

The Sahadeen have arrived.  They will form part of the second faction for my 15mm sci/fi universe, which is slowly taking form.

"Don't go anywhere".

Defiance Games UAMC

Look what came in the mail.  I've been waiting for this package since February.  Defiance Games has finally sorted out their production issues and gotten their production line in order.  My order of USMC, now re-named UAMC due to copyright issues, is finally here.  (Yes, you read that correctly, the United States Marine Corps has copyrighted USMC).

Look what just came in the mail.

The box, looking remarkably like what it looked like on the Defiance web site. 

This box holds twelve sprues.

Battle Report - Harad vs Corsairs of Umbar

Nuradan knew something was wrong when he saw the Corsair ships approaching.  The Haradrim had fled south, crossing the river above the falls and force marching through Ithilien.  He was planning his return to Kharna when the two ships were spotted tacking up river.  The feeling of foreboding became a certainty of battle when a bolt, fired from one of the ships, killed his messenger.

As Nuradan arrayed his forces for battle, the Wraith was focused on the ships.  Nuradan would have said apprehensively, only Wraiths didn't get apprehensive.  Two boat loads of Reavers and Corsairs left the two ships.  He also saw the black hearted Numenorians of Umbar, and even horses, being ferried ashore.  Then he saw what had held the attention of the Wraith.  The Corsairs had brought another one of the Nine with them.  This day was looking darker and darker.

The battlefield.

Painted Romans

I have painted my first box of Romans.  I still need to put the decals on the shields and attach them, but I'm counting these as painted for April.

Command

Completed 15mm Sci/Fi

I have completed my first batch of 15mm figures.  These were a nice change of pace from 28mm.  Much faster to get done but still with nice detail.

Bike, Grav Scout and two of the infantry.

I have, deliberately, gone with a darker color scheme on these models.  We'll see how it looks on the table, but most of my armies are pretty light.  This is a departure for me.

Romans!

I have assembled the first box of Warlord Romans.  I have two of the boxes of twenty Legionaries with a scorpion.  This is one, out of the way.

Box art from Warlord Games.

15mm Sci/Fi III

I was so taken with the CMG models that I just had to get some paint on them and see how they looked.  I am going to be basing the infantry on washers.  That will allow me to transport them with magnets.  I don't have any washers of the appropriate size so I was not able to get them based and, therefore, basecoated.  The grav scout and the bike, on the other hand, were ready to go.

The CMG Grav Scout.

I'm very pleased with how this came out.

Celts!

As you may remember, fascinated as you all are by all of my doings, I bought a box of Warlord Celts in February.  Rather, SWMBO bought them for me as a Valentine's day present.  They arrived in March and sat for a couple of weeks.  I have finally gotten them assembled. 

A Celtic Warband, marauding across my desk.

Harad Army - Completed

Here are the shots of my completed Harad army for Lord of the Rings.  I actually took these three weeks ago and just found them on my camera.  I'm very pleased with how this army came out.  There is, certainly, room for improvement and I could tweak quite a few details, but all in all I'm very happy.

The entire army, with some extra models to give me choices.

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.

The next Project II

This one is a little bit embarrassing, since the pictures are poor.  My photo foo is low today, obviously.  I have some ideas on what is causing me problems so hopefully I can improve on that.

Here's my new list:

Warband 1
Arwen - 60 pts
High Elf warrior with Banner and spear - 35 pts
6 x High Elf Warrior with shield - 60 pts
4 x High Elf Warrior with Elf Bow and spear - 48 pts
1 x High Elf Warrior with Elf Blade - 10 pts

Warband 2
Erestor - 80 pts
6 x High Elf Warriors with shield - 60 pts
4 x High Elf Warrior with Elf Bow and spear - 48 pts
2 x High Elf Warrior with Elf Blade - 20 pts

Warband 3
Galadhrim Storm Caller - 60 pts
6 x Galadhrim Warriors with shield - 54 pts
4 x Galadhrim Warriors with Elf Bow and spear - 44 pts
2 x Galadhrim Warriors with spear and shield - 20 pts

39 Models
599 points
3 Might
7 Will

The force is short on might but with two Nature's Wrath and Erestor's special rules I think it will balance out.  Now for painting and play testing.  I had to convert all of the sword and shield elves.  I've been working on that for the last two weeks and finished yesterday.  I still have to make the spears for the High Elf archers.  I'm, quite frankly, procrastinating on that since I don't want to do it.

Pictures below, I've included one of the Galadhrim, just for the sake of completeness.

Erestor, banner and Arwen.  Archers in the rear.

Painting Status III

I've been wrapping up my Haradrim army this month.  I don't think I'm going to make my goal of twenty painted models for March, but I'm really quite pleased with how these came out.  It's another twelve models.  Six Warriors with spears and then all of the heroes and specials.  I'll get my Betrayer painted up, to use instead of the generic Nazgul model I have been using, but that should be it on this army.  It's going to be used by the Traveller, while he decides if he is going to invest in the game or not.  I lent him the Fallen Realms army book so he can start making his own lists, instead of using mine.  If he chooses models that I don't have painted then I'll be re-visiting this army.  I suspect that Suladan may get painted in the next couple of weeks, for example.

Without further ado, here's the new additions.

All twelve models.  There is a ton of light on these guys, I don't know why they come out so dark.

Nuradan - front...

and rear.

Aladhi - front...

and rear.

Banner bearer front.  He is not part of the current list, but such a beautiful model...

From the rear.

The Master - front...

and back.  Every time I look at these pictures I find something I missed.

Hornblower - front...

and back.

Mumak Chieftan - front...

and back.

Six spearmen.

I'll do an army shot later today with all of the lads in one place.  It's in the seventies today so, as long as the wind doesn't kick up, I'll be varnishing this army later in the afternoon.  I had hoped to get it done by the first part of March.  That didn't work out but I'm still pleased with my progress.  Now I just need to step up the pace so I can get these 39 Elves and 104 Romans and 43 Celts done in a timely manner. 

The next project

One warband for my new army.

Here's the first warband for my new army.  Twelve Galadrim warriors, four with bow and spear, two with spear and shield and six with sword and shield.  The warband is led by a storm caller, which brings us to an interesting story.

Games Workshop makes a Stormcaller model.  It used to be available as a single metal model in a blister.  With the new format they repackaged it into a box of Galadrim command and made it in resin instead.  This is totally awesome because it means not only is the individual model I want more expensive but I have to buy three other models, that I have no use for, in order to get it.  Of course by totally awesome I mean it sucks ass.

At this point the only models I'm buying from that company are one offs that I need to finish an existing army.  I have to add a few heroes due to the new warband creation rules.  I'm not going to rant here, I'm really not, but what the hell GW?

The Storm Caller is the chappy front and center.

I'm making a conversion to get my storm caller.  Everything you see here is straight out of the box.  The staff is a spear, with some work done on the hand to make it fit.  I'll dig through the bitz box to see if I have something appropriate for the end of the staff.  Worst case I'll make something, badly, out of green stuff.

The archers have had spears added to them.  The two spears, and all but one of the sword and shield elves, are straight out of the box.  The last sword and shield dude has been re-cut to make his two handed stance into a single hand stance.  It's a little awkward now but should look fine once he has the shield attached.

The other two warbands of this army are High Elves and are requiring a huge amount of converting to get right.  I've had to make shields for the sword and shield elves.  I am also having to scratch build spears for the archers, as the only way to get High Elf shields and spears is by buying the three model metal blisters of spear elves.  I'm not going to be doing that, thank you very much.

More to follow on the Storm Caller and the other two warbands.

Battle Report - Harad vs Isengard Part II

Nuradan had gathered the remnants of his warband and started south, with the Betrayer urging haste every step of the way.  Following the battle for the chests all five had been brought to the Betrayer, who had searched them and secreted something within his robes.  Nuradan had no idea what the object of this expedition was but they had, apparently secured it.  Now they just had to get it back to Mordor.

The scouts informed Nuradan that the Uruk Hai were gaining from the rear, and the howls of Whargs could be heard from the front.  More worryingly, the scouts reported seeing Saruman leading his forces in pursuit.  It appeared that the white wizard had more tricks up his sleeve.  Nuradan led his force into some ruins, hoping that the ruined buildings would provide some sort of advantage against the enemy.

The initial positions of the two sides.

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.

Battle Report - Harad vs Gondor and Dwarfs

With the league in hiatus there were only two of us playing last night at Collectormania.  When Rhys and I arrived there was no one else there to play so he played with his Star Wars Squinkies on some Osgiliath terrain while I talked painting and rules sets with Russ and Chris.  Chris is a great painter with a really entertaining blog, which I can't find right now.  Hopefully I'll be able to dig it up or someone will shoot me the link.

Micah showed up a little after 1900 and we agreed on a game.  I had played him a couple of weeks ago, before the switch over from Legions to Warbands.  In that game he had an avenger bolt thrower and Boromir.  Two very expensive options.  His new list is led by Faramir as a ranger.  It had a Capt with five knights, Faramir leading nine rangers, a captain with six sword/board and six spear and shield and finally a Dwarf captain with five or six Iron Guard.

We rolled up Reconnoiter, which is not my favorite scenario.  It pulls me out of my comfort zone.  This is not a bad thing.  My army is designed to stay out of combat as long as possible while shooting the hell out of everything that gets in range.  If I haven't whittled my opponent down, by a lot, before we get into combat then I am going to lose.  My guys are squishy and my force is only average sized.  The opposition last night was very crunchy, and had almost as many models as I did.  Not a good place to be. 

Reconnoiter gives points for getting models off your opponent's table edge, wounding or killing the opposing general and for breaking the enemy.  His knights were a priority target.

I apologize now for the pictures.  I forgot my camera so these were taken with my phone.

Two warbands, one of which is the Nazgul and Hornblower.

The knights moving forward to try to get off the table.  Faramir, his general, with the rangers, moving up in the background.

The Gondor Phalanx followed by the slow moving Dwarfs.

Battle Report - Harad vs Gondor and Dwarfs

The Thursday night league at Collectormania has come and gone and I got in another fun and interesting game.  I was there early and Micah showed up.  I haven't gotten to play him yet so we agreed on a game.  600 points using the old composition rules but he, kindly, agreed to my request to play one of the new scenarios.  We divided our armies up between our heroes, to serve as our warbands.

This is turn two.  You can see each of the warbands in action.  Boromir and the two Knights are just visible behind the wood, top right.

The Knights and rangers battling the Mahud.  Almost everyone in this picture was dead by the end of the game.

Painting Status I

This is my army list, to be painted by the end of the league, which I think is the end of February.  So it will be the end of the league or the end of the month, whichever comes last.

Haradrim King
Haradrim Taskmaster
Haradrim Chieftan w/ spear
Nazgul
6 x Abrakhan Merchant's Guards
1 x Haradrim Raider with Horn
1 x Haradrim Raider with banner
26 x Haradrim Raider with spear
14 x Haradrim Raider with bow

52 Models.

I have now painted 11 Haradrim Raiders with spears and 1 Nazgul.  They all still need to be based.