The Castellans of Dol Guldur

The Castellans of Dol Guldur

Castellans...

...of Dol Guldur

As mentioned in prior posts, my son and I have been enjoying some LOTR gaming, with us following the Fall of the Necromancer Campaign.

Our next scenario required us to use 4 Castellans of Dol Guldur. I have had these figures for quite some time so it was a nice chance to have them thrust to the front of the painting queue.

Wonderfully evil and sinister models, without going OTT in a Warhammer kind of way…

In the game they are rather useful too. They act as independent heroes, with no attached warband. They cause Terror – no surprise there, and have decent fight skill, strength and defense. 2 attacks are useful and the option to add a Morgul Blade, keeps heroes on their toes.

But what's really interesting is the 12 Will points – which can also be used as fate points too. Meaning these things are darn difficult to kill!  Thus they work a little like a relentless killer - a "Terminator" of Middle Earth... 

These figures have also gone towards Curts painting challenge so have also scored me some much needed points.

The models were prep’d and undercoated black, then the black robes were heavily drybrushed with very dark grey (50/50 mix of black and Mechanicus Standard Grey-MSG) , then the edges picked out in dark grey (MSG). The armour was painted Tin Bits followed by Chainmail. The sword hilt was done in Shining Gold and the belts in very dark brown, Rhinox Hide. The whole was then washed in a thinned black wash, (Vallejo - approx 50/50 with water) and once dry a final wash of green (Thraka Green) was added to give a slightly spectral ghostly quality.

Basing was sparse and barren with sand glued to base with thinned PVA, and then washed with dark brown wash (Vallejo), and lightly highlighted in cream, (Foundry 12c).

The above technique will work equally well painting 'generic' Wraiths, Black Numenoreans, and Morgul Stalkers etc ... 

A few scattered tufts were added to finish the effect.

We hope to bring you the next battle report soon...

A little panzer love...

As part of my entries to Curts Anologue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I painted up a set of 5 Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IV F1's ...

These had been destined to add an extra dimension to my Midwar Flames of War German forces... I had been waiting and waiting for PSC to do the PzIII (LM) variants as this seems to be the bees knees for MidWar Krauts but they still hadn't got round to it, so I grabbed a box of their Panzer IVs and made the Ausf F1 variant...

 I quite liked the direct fire smoke capability and the bombardment possibilities...

Finished in my typical 3 colour camo style...

Not sure when they'll see action now as I've kinda lost interest in the game...

But a sense of 'completeness' has made me paint them up anyway as I had made them for the challenge...

In the Nick of time - finale!

Back again to Mirkwood and the last installment of our LOTR SBG report...
Parts One and Two, as a refresher.

 Things were getting real interesting quickly now, and it was time to take stock, with both sides bleeding casualties, and thus nearing their 'Broken' (50% strength) points..., so we had a quick count up of models dead and alive to see where we both stood...

 It was at this point that it was realised the Evil force had missed deploying 4 orcs!

Awwww, Refereeee???? And whilst my chivalrous opponent suggested bringing them on as reinforcements, I felt it not in the spirit of the scenario to have more orcs turn up behind either elf warband, so I left them off... my fault for miss counting anyway!

On with the show...

Turn 6 - Priority Evil - Elrond calls Heroic Move.

Never one to exercise caution, Elrond again rouses his High Elves to charge forth into the evil ranks... The elves surge forward into the orcs, and Elrond use his last Will point to once again cast Natures Wrath, needing a 4, and rolls a 3 so is forced to spend his last Might point to buff it up just enough... Khamul nursing 3 Will points decides not to resist it... he instead tries to Transfix Elrond needing a 4 but again fluffs the roll... The bats fly over to try and distract the elven archers and a warg moves up to try and get in the way of the elven shots at the orcs trying kill the wood elves further away... Elrond has the orc captain at his feet. A lone orc spearman tries to come to his captains aid, but seeing the enraged Elf with his true Lineage shining through, bottles his courage roll and stands quivering, leaving his captain to his fate...

Elsewhere, pressure continues to pile up against the wood elves, with beasts and orcs hitting from from all sides... sadly the last elven archer here, fails his courage roll and quits the field (or wood). As the elven heroes had already been charged they did not need to pass courage tests, so no hero standfast roll could benefit the faltering elf...

Blue cloaked elf archer runs after this pic!

The elven archers let fly and manage to kill the Bat swarm, approaching their position.

The fights start with Elrond and the orc captain, 3 attacks against 2... Elrond rolls and his highest dice is a 4... The orc sees his chance at the wayward elven thrust and lashes out rolling box cars! Ha! But Elrond has a banner re-roll and throws a six! Arghh curses... The jubilant elf wins the drawn combat on Fight Skill, and the orc counting trapped, takes double wounds rolls - four 6's rolled out of 6 dice and the orc captain is deftly diced!

Orc captain's box-cars, equalled and thus beaten by the Elven re-roll!

The rest of the Elven battle line follows Elronds example and butcher 2 more orcs at their feet, and give another a thick ear for his cheek!

Orc battle line collapses to elven fury

Back in the wood elves copse, Thranduil is fighting for his life, backs away losing the fight and is bitten by the spider, losing his last fate point... The elven sentinel manages to fend off the Bat swarm wounding it in the process... Legolas also finds himself fighting on two sides, and is beaten back and takes a wound from the spider which is saved at the cost of all 3 of his fate points! The orcs then whack him and Legolas succumbs to a wound, leaving him one last wound remaining...

Wood elf heroes under extreme pressure!

Turn 7 - Priority Evil (It seems Chris can't win a priority roll to save his life!)

The orcs need to do something, and quickly, but having won the priority roll, find themselves now at Break point, and must start making courage rolls. Khamul passes his roll, allowing his standfast to keep his force under control around him. To try and negate the enraged Elrond he casts transfix at him again and finally passes his roll. Elrond has no Will remaining to resist it and stands bemused momentarily as the melee swirls around him... Khamul now has one Will remaining, and backs off, trying to keep out of any subsequent charge range... The rest of the orcs and warg charge back in against the elven line, hoping to get some revenge for the loss of their captain, whilst Elrond stands counting the pretty flowers at his feet...

Elrond stands transfixed, as the orcs charge in...

Back in the wooded copse, there is no evil hero present to lend a standfast, and the bat swarm, a spider and an orc flee the battle. But enough evil warriors pass to continue to threaten the elves who are all at critical health levels...

Evil keeps the pressure up against the elves

Melee commences around Elrond, but the elves are not perturbed by the dazed appearance of their leader and hack down two of the orcs - Chris was now rolling sixes with aplomb, his little face radiant!

Two more orcs fall, the rest are beaten off...

Returning to the wooded copse, Thranduil, sensing his doom is at hand, unleashes the last of his reserves and beats off the orcs and spider, killing one of the orcs. The sentinel beats off the orc spearman attacking him, and Legolas also raises his game, and kills an orc that was attacking him!

Wow, another brutal turn, and it couldn't have gone much worse for the forces of evil... The elves were on a roll this turn!

And with that, a quick check and we find the evil force merely needs to lose one more warrior and its all over...

Turn 8 - Priority ... but wait, its at this crucial juncture that it is realised the Wood Elf faction has dipped below its critical 25% strength and flees the battlefield! A special scenario rule has the two elven factions treated separately for 'Break point' (50%), and 'Rout point' (25%)... Not only that, but they were at that point at the start of play today! I think the confusion with the missing orcs, lead to this oversight!

Never mind, such is the confusion in a swirling battle - who knows who is left standing and who has fallen or fled... especially in dense woodland like this... so we will press on and call no foul!

...Priority - Good!

Wasting no time, Elrond marches his elves forward once more, whilst the archers back off forming a covering firing line.

With the front rank of the evil forces engaged, Khamul is left to pass a courage check which he does and moves back to the few remaining orcs behind him, to allow them to benefit from his standfast. They advance from the wood around their leader, in the vain hope they can still hold out now agaisnt the rampant High Elves... The spider scuttles forth, hoping to be in position to charge next turn

Elves charge again

Khamul drops back to rally his troops, as the spider scuttles forth

 Combat is swift and brutal, despite rolling decent dice for the evil forces, the elves roll better or equal and win on fight skill, their banner re-rolls helping again... doesnt matter if evil rolls a six, if the elves manage to too, they'll win!

The orc banner is hacked down by Elrond and another orc is beaten down, the warg and last orc repulsed.

Final positions

And with that the evil force is scattered from the field of battle. Khamul must retreat back to Dol Guldur and face the wrath of the Necromancer!

A great battle that swung back and forth. We cocked up a bit with deploying troops and watching those critical break points, but never the less, we thoroughly enjoyed playing it and hope you all enjoyed the read.

We hope we may have encouraged you to break out those old LOTR figures again...

In the nick of time - Part 2...

Here follows part two of our Lord of the Rings/Hobbit battle report, from Fall of the Necromancer. Part one here.

Where we left off the Wood Elves led by Thranduil and Legolas were under serious pressure, trying to hold off the evil forces, until Elrond can march his High Elves across the woodland to engage their foes...

Turn 4 - Priority Good

The Wood Elves are in serious danger of being utterly surrounded and overwhelmed, and despite there being prone foes nearby, who could be easy kills trapped on the ground, the elves decide to withdraw into the cover of the woodland. This would reduce the number of evil models able to engage them this turn. In addition Thranduil used his Circlet of the Kings to cast Aura of Dismay... making all the elves cause terror. Again hoping to further reduce the number of charging foes against them...

Wood Elves withdraw into woods

Elrond forms his High Elves into a battle line, whilst his archers target the remaining orc skirmishers...

High elves form battle line as they advance

The evil forces now decide to split their force, with enough beasts and orcs remaining to crush the last of Thranduils wood elves, Khamul leads the the main body of orcs back to engage the high elves...

An Orc and spider fail their courage tests to charge the now terrifying wood elves, but two orc swordsmen pass their tests and charge the exposed elves on the edge of the woods, allowing spear support to move to back them up. The Wild Warg Chieftain also passes his test and joins the fight  against an elf...

Wood elf pickets at wood edge pressured

Khamul, leads the main orc warband back towards the high elves forming a battle-line as they do so, he strides forth attempting to compel a lone elf swordsman forward to his doom up on the crude orc blades but his efforts fall short, the elf is clearly made of sterner stuff...

Khamul fails Compel

Back to the wood elf fight and the Wild Warg Chieftain calls a heroic fight, slaying the elf swordsman and advancing into a rather perturbed Legolas!...

Wild warg chieftain heroic charges on into Legolas

But the Warg manages to roll a 1 + 2, Legolas laughs at this pitiful melee attack and promptly rolls snake-eyes! However, with his last point of might, he improves his dice to a 2, winning the fight on fight skill and wounding the warg once more!

A stunning display of melee dice!

At the other end of the woodland the elf spearman falls to the orcs...

Turn 5 - Priority Evil - Elrond calls Heroic Move

Seeing a chance, Elrond charges his High Elf battle-line forward into the orcs and unleashes the fury of Natures Wrath upon his foes, knocking them all prone.

Elronds Natures Wrath flattens the evil force.

Once again though the forces of evil manage to fight back, the orc captain getting back to his feet and charging the elf swordsman at the end of the line. An orc spearman also gets up and backs him up, as does the orc banner bearer...

Orc captain gets up and charges

...meanwhile, Khamul gets back to his feet also and sees a chance to take Thranduil out of the game, and again tries a compel against Thranduil who has no Will remaining, to try and move him out of the woods to surround him. But again fails his roll... Khamul is now down to 3 Will remaining and little to show for it...

The evil forces again pressure and surround the wood elves in their wood... the wild warg chieftain and a spider attacking Legolas, a bat swarm swirls round a sentinel and more orcs defile the woodland with their presence charging in against an elf archer. Thranduil responds by attacking the nearest orc, taking pressure off the elf archer.

Beasts and orcs charge the elves... spiders await their chance

The keen eyed High Elf archers at first are distracted by the melee in front of them but then see two possible targets. One archer shoots and hits Khamul in the back, but the arrow fails to wound the ethereal wraith. However 3 other elven shafts fly past the wraith hitting and spitting a spider that was exposed out by the side of the woodland...

The brown spider is slain by elf arrows

The orc captain calls heroic combat, and slays his foe following up into the next elf and slaying him also! Chris rolled 1's for the elves, followed by 1's an 2's for his banner re-roll... The orc captain chuckling evilly as he slew the elves...
The rest of the high elves have their chance now against the trapped orcs at their feet, but more terrible rolls from Chris means two orcs get back to their feet and one that was beaten, avoided a killing blow from the elf. Not good for the elves here!

The orc captain victorious - not the elves finest moment!

However, when all looked lost, the wood elves now turn up the heat. The lone elf bowman on the right ducks the clumsy two handed swing of his orc foe and kills the orc with a single thrust. Thranduil fights off the pair of orcs he faces, killing the orc swordsman. The sentinel holds off the bat swarm 'wounding' it in the process, and finally Legolas, outnumbered two one, beats off the Wild Warg Chieftain and spider, and slays both!

The wood elves hold out slaying many evil creatures!

Wow... and with that, part two of this report ends... who will emerge the final victor in part 3?

I can't bear the suspense! ;-)

Panels and putty... the Tavern continues to take shape...

A little more work managed over the weekend... Having added the wooden trim to frame out the ground floor, I pressed on and added a simple paneling effect by cutting out rectangles from thin card (cereal box type stuff), and rounding-in the corners with a hole punch.

These were simply glued into place with PVA. I also started tidying up some of the joins in the framing with a liquid Greenstuff and DAS clay. The Greenstuff is OK to use but annoyingly shrinks on drying, invariably revealing the gap you have just filled... hence I went back to using the DAS...

Click Picture for a closer look

Just have to add the card stock doorways, and I can press on with clay cladding the top two stories, then brick etching to follow... At the rear I have added the lean-to... though I have not glued this into place, as it will make the brick etching around it a pain, so I'll do it separately then glue it into place.

It's all slow but steady work... as usual I have several things on the go at once and kids off school wanting to play and do stuff with me when I get in from work... plus my Dad arrives for his visit from UK on Friday, so there has been a noticeable amount of spring cleaning and gardening going on, for 'His Lordships' arrival ;-) .

One good thing about having folks in UK - it gets round some of the dumb restrictions on the GW website... Some stuff is listed as mail order only, and when you twiddle around with the country portals, different stuff shows up, and if its not in your country's slot you can't order it. Ridiculous! So Dad is bringing with him the Hobbit/LOTR set featuring Lobelia, Paladin Took, Fatty Bolger and a Hobbit Horn blower, and for good measure Gandalfs Cart too. The cart I could have ordered from the NZ site, but its way cheaper from the UK... On the flip side I managed to order Bandobras (Bullroarer) Took from NZ site which wasn't on the UK site, so in that case availability was on my side, but sadly at NZ prices, oh well, sometimes you have to bite the bullet... All these are going to go together for my Hobbiton build...

So I have two weeks annual leave from the 20th to enjoy... I hope to still try and fit in some hobby work... there's only so much sitting in the sun together (if summer actually arrives this year!?) and chatting, quaffing foaming ale together you can do in one day! ;-)

Plus as part of my holiday we are all going to head north and visit Hobbiton (Matamata) again - I am looking forward to a pint of ale in the Green Dragon ( It comes in pints!? I'm having one...) - more photos will be taken, for inspiration for the Hobbiton build...

And finally, I caught the first episode of Ripper Street last night on SKY - great stuff, really enjoyed it... I don't watch much TV and rarely tune in to 'shows', as most are garbage and I always feel I could be doing something more constructive. I am more a documentary or DVD/movie watcher, but this show has my attention... I am sure I can spare an hour a week to enjoy it :-)

If nothing else, it will provide some inspiration for more buildings to make - I was having a close look at the police station building for one of my next builds. I was wondering if I can add some kind of transparent blue film over one of the model street gas-lamps I have to effect the police blue lamp...

Adding a little decorative trim...

Well I have been steadily plodding away with mostly terrain tasks recently... a mix of gluing MDF and bbq skewers to my corner tavern, and continued etching work on the base board...

Couple of pics for you...

I am not sure what you call this kind of external detail work on the tavern but I am sure you can see what I am talking about... a 3mm thick piece of mdf trim was added first right under the first story windows. Under this was glued an pattern of round trims made from simple round wooden (bamboo?) bbq skewers approx 3mm dia.

Oh and you can probably the lower half window net curtains in place...

So the ground floor will be a painted surface, whilst the top two floors will be brick etched as the terraced buildings.

I am now going to start added some embossed panels out of thin card... I have found a supply of rub on decals from local hobby store I am going to check out tomorrow, so I can add pub name etc....

Whilst this was gluing, bit by bit... I have been etching in more cobblestones on the base board with my new Dremel bit ... I am managing about 48sq.inches per 90 minute session... and have worked out I am about 1/5th done so far, with about another 30-35hrs work to go... I told you it would be a long job!

I See Fire...

I just had to blog this... I have heard the song a few times now, having downloaded the movie soundtrack from ITunes...

 Found this video on Youtube... Hauntingly beautiful song with wonderful backdrop of MiddleEarth for the video...


 

 Yes I realise all the video sequences are from first movie, but that doesn't affect my enjoyment of this song nor simply seeing, and briefly feeling immersed in, MiddleEarth...

 Hope you enjoy it...

It's one of the great things about gaming MiddleEarth, there's all the movies to watch for inspiration, both model painting and terrain making, and soundtracks to play when gaming - wonderfully 'immersive'...

Ripper Street reaches NZ...

Finally .... saw a trailer advert on SKY last night, Ripper Street season one starts here in NZ on BBC UKTV on monday night (13th Jan)...

Looking forward to checking this out...

Has anymore been heard about if its getting axed or not by the jolly ol' Beeb?

On a related note, my Dremel etching tool arrived in the post so I got a more work done on cobblestone etching on my city base board last night... so far I've got an area done roughly 6" x 36"... getting there slowly... I'll try and get a bit done each night, continue work on the Tavern and try and get more paint on the Requiem figures for the painting challenge... as usual its all go at Chez Bowman...

In the nick of time? LOTR SBG battle report

As previously mentioned my son and I have been enjoying some LOTR action - and have been following through the campaign series of scenarios from the Fall of the Necromancer supplement...

Here follows an AAR of action from our second game, the scenario called... "In the nick of time"...

The scenario is interesting in that it pits a split Elven force of Thranduil, Legolas and wood elves, with an allied contingent of high elves of Rivendel led by Elrond, against, what appears at first glance to be a surrounded evil force of orcs and other beasties led by Khamul the Easterling...

However the deployment quickly puts the pressure on the wood elves, and the battle rapidly becomes a classic 'divide and conquer' in favour of the evil forces, with Elrond's elves rushing to save the day, if they can, in the nick of time...

The setting: a 48" x 48" heavily wooded board...

Mirkwood, viewed from the east.

Deployment: The wood elves first set up within 12 inches of their northern board edge. The Evil forces then set up; they must deploy the orcs within a 6" wide strip across the centre of board. The rest of their force (bats, spiders, wargs and wraith) must set up further than 30" from the southern board edge - this means they are into the wood eves deployment zone from the start! Finally Elrond and his high elves deploy within 6" of the Southern board edge.

So, Chris chose to deploy the wood elves in a pocket with one side protected by a wood. Sword and bow armed elves take the front perimeter backed up by spears behind. Their banner is centrally positioned, and Thranduil is also within the pocket as he took a bit of a battering in Game1, and has not fully recovered... that's the nature of the linked campaign games...

I deployed the orcs in two groups; one led by a captain and banner, the other a smaller group as a surrounding force hoping to make a pincer of their advance. The evil beasts surrounded the wood elf pocket, taking cover in bushes and trees.

Elrond's high elves are following up behind the main orc warband, but have a long way to come...

Deployment, viewed from the north.

The elven pocket with beasts lurking nearby...

 The main orc force...

The flanking orc force...

Elrond's high elves - proxied by Galadhrim

Turn 1 - Priority auto to Good... Elrond's high elves move out beginning their long march across the board, whilst the wood elves grit their teeth and await the onslaught. Wood elf sentinels sing their songs, one becoming terrifying, one bolstering courage and the last trying to repel Khamul to no effect.

High elves advance

Orcs advance towards wood elves...

...as does the flank orc force

By staying static the wood elves have lost the initiative,... Khamul compels an elf archer out the line which is surrounded by beasts. The rest of the beasts rush in, targeting exposed archers where possible to reduce their firing..., including Legolas who is blinded by a swirling bat swarm...

Wood elves surrounded early on

 A wood elf sentinel manages to shoot and kill a warg that failed to charge home, but this is evened when an orc shaft kills an elf swordsman in the line...

Combat is vicious, the surrounded elven archer is torn asunder...
Two more elves fall to the beasts, though a bat swarm is wounded...

Turn 2 - Priority goes to evil but Legolas calls a heroic move... allowing all the elves to charge home... but this now allows the evil force to react with their growing numbers. Seeing a chance to kill the elven standard bearer, Khamul strides forth and unleashes a Black Dart...(or at least that was the plan...), and throws 3 Will points to the roll, needing a 6, and with two Might points to help if needed... and I roll...

Khamul readies a Black Dart at the banner...

... three 1's... classic... wraith, pah? Who are ya??? ;-)

... and completely wiffs...

The battle rages but I need not have worried about the banner, as it was eaten by a spider...

The wood elves under pressure as orcs also start piling in

5 more elves fall including 2 sentinels, though at some cost to Khamul who gets caught up in the action and has to blow all his might to kill an elf...

 But it doesn't all go evils way as a warg and spider also die...

Turn 3 - priority Evil - but Thranduil calls a heroic move...

With the main orc battle line bearing down on him and beasts still among his formation, Thranduil mans up, or should that be elfs up (?) and lets rip with his Circlet of the Kings, casting Natures Wrath, which flattens 2/3rds of the evil force including Khamul... what remains of the elven force charge their downed foes... but many evil warriors still manage to get back to their feet and charge the onrushing elves...

Natures Wrath... though many evil warriors regain their feet

The high elves are now closing with the meager skirmish line of orc archers... they shoot down two of the evil archers.

High elves close with the orc skirmishers

As battle rages further north, a prone orc is killed, but a wood elf is poisoned by a spider. More spiders are wounded and a bat swarm is reduced to one wound remaining. Legolas also wounds the Wild Warg Chieftain in a duel.

The wood elves hold on for another turn but their numbers are dwindling... can they hold out?

Find out in part 2...