Theodred, on foot.

Continuing the Rohan theme of LOTR painting... I dug out my Theodred, on foot model.

I painted the mounted version some time ago, but at that time didnt have the foot model, but managed to source one on the web trade groups, though had to buy the whole character pack again to get him... so I have a spare Mounted Theodred now...not sure whether to sell him on or keep for a captain conversion...

I painted him up trying to match the original colour scheme I did for the mounted version, and I think I came pretty close.

I also entered him the New Zealand Hobbit League painting competition for May...

The mounted Theodred model, painted back in March 2011. I jazzed up the base a bit adding a few scenic clumps to better match my more recently done stuff.

Both models together...

Theodred...Kings son,.. doomed to die at the Battle of the Fords of Isen...

He's a good hero in the game to lead a Rohan warband... his only downfall... a lack of fate points!

Erkenbrand, Lord of the Westfold

Getting back to some LOTR painting, and I have recently completed Erkenbrand, Lord of the Westfold of Rohan, to compliment my growing Rohan force.

Erkenbrand's name is possibly derived from the Old English 'eorcan' meaning precious, and 'brand' meaning sword.

Erkenbrand was the Lord of the Westfold of Rohan at the time of the War of the Ring, at the end of the Third Age.

He is largely missed from the movie trilogy by Peter Jackson, with a brief appearance in Return of the King.

In the books, during the battle of Helms Deep, it is he and his Eored, that Gandalf seeks out as reinforcements to the beleaguered defenders of the Hornburg, and not Eomer, as in the movie. In the books, Eomer is already in the Hornburg, as one of the defenders...

Again, in the books, after the battle of Helms Deep, when Theoden leads the forces of Rohan to Gondor's aid, Erkenbrand remains behind to manage the Dunlending prisoners and make repairs to the fortress.

After the War of the Ring comes to an end, Éomer makes Erkenbrand Marshal of the West-mark

In the game, Erkenbrand is a potent hero of Rohan, allowing me to field another warband of 12 Riders of Rohan. What attracts me to using him though is his special rule "Red Shields". For 1pt per model, Warriors and Riders of Rohan can have their Fight skill increased from 3 to 4.

That doesn't sound much but when their traditional foes are Uruks with Fight 4, that brings the Riders back to parity... and with the extra mounted attacks a cavalry charge brings, that should start scattering the evil forces, especially against any lowly Fight 3 orcs in their forces...

Looking forward to giving Erkenbrand a whirl, alongside Eomer and Theodred...

Eomer - Marshall of the Riddermark

Eomer -Marshall of the Riddermark, and nephew to King Theoden of  Rohan.

Info from LOTR WIKI:

Éomer means "one who is famous in terms of horses" (Old English). His name was likely derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "eoh" ("war-horse"), "maer" (famous), and "éadig" ("blessed").

Eomer, riding Firefoot

Éomer, born in TA 2991, of the House of Eorl, was the son of Éomund, a descendant of Éofor, and of Theodwyn, sister of Theoden King. In TA 3002, when Éomer was eleven, Éomund was slain in battle with Orcs. Theodwyn died of grief shortly afterward. Éomund also had a daughter named Éowyn, Éomer's sister. After they were orphaned Théoden adopted them as his own children.

Éomer was third Marshal of the Mark, and was a strong leader of Men. Éomer was faithful to his country, and people. He was honored highly, and prized extensively by the king and was good friends with Théodred, son of Théoden who loved him like a brother.

His éored hunted down the Uruk-hai that had taken Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took as they camped near Fangorn forest, slaying them all. He never saw the Hobbits, as they fled during the battle. Afterwards he met Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas in the plains of Rohan, and he lent them two horses, Arod and Hasufel.

Éomer returned to Edoras and reported on meeting the Ranger and friends and allowing them to go free, a violation of the king's law. Under the poisonous advice of Gríma Wormtongue, he was imprisoned by Théoden, who had grown weak, aged, and suspicious under Saruman the White's influence.

After Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas reunited with Gandalf, the four hastened to Edoras, where Gandalf broke Saruman's influence over Théoden and restored him to health and vitality. Théoden freed Éomer, who offered his sword to Théoden in token of his loyalty. Théoden named Éomer his heir prior to riding away from Edoras to the defense of the Hornburg.

Eomer
At the Battle of the Hornburg, he and his éored drove the orcs and Dunlendings of Saruman into the walls of the Glittering Caves and in the Huorn forest, where they were killed. One of the main defences that Éomer was involved in was the defence of the gate where he, Aragorn, and a small band of men left through a small door at the side of the Hornburg and led an assault on the forces attempting to break the gates of the Hornburg. After this attack Éomer and Aragorn attempted to return through the door when Éomer was jumped upon by several orcs who had laid low during the assault though Éomer was saved by Gimli who had secretly followed him out to the gate.

Afterwards he rode with Théoden, Aragorn, and Gandalf when they went to Isengard, where they confronted a trapped and defeated Saruman. Éomer then rode with his king to the defense of Gondor, leading the first éored in the charge against the forces of Mordor besieging the city.

In the year TA 3019 at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Théoden was fatally crushed by his horse, Snowmane, after being thrown by the Witch King's Fell Beast. Éomer became King of the Mark upon his death. Following the battle, Éomer and his men went back to Edoras to attend to affairs of the kingdom, returning later to bear the body of Théoden back to his home for burial.

Eomer at the coronation
Éomer King at Aragorn's coronation
Éomer renewed the Oath of Eorl with Aragorn after Aragorn had been crowned King Elessar of the Reunited Kingdom, and Éomer had been crowned King of Rohan, swearing everlasting friendship between Rohan and Gondor (and legalizing Cirion's grant of Calenardhon to the Éothéod.)

He became known as Éomer Éadig, or "the Blessed", because during his reign Rohan recovered from the hurts of the War and became a rich and fruitful land again.

Éomer had met Lothíriel, daughter of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth during his stay in Gondor, and they were wed. She bore him a son Elfwine, who succeeded his father, after Éomer's death in the year FO 63.

Éomer's sword was called Gúthwinë (Old English battle-friend). He also used a spear. In the movie Return of the King, Éomer also wields a bow during the fight with the mumakil. Also, in the Return of the King he is shown wielding a shield while fighting dismounted at the Black Gate.

Eomer, dismounted.

In the Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Peter Jackson, Éomer is exiled by Gríma Wormtongue before meeting Aragorn, and is an outcast until he arrives at Helm's Deep, summoned by Gandalf. In this sense, his character has been combined with the character of Erkenbrand, who, in the book, is the one with whom Gandalf returns to Helm's Deep. At the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in the third film, Éomer kills the Chief of the mumakil riders. Éomer was played by New Zealand actor Karl Urban.

In terms of painting, I decided to tone down the colour of the leather armour as I feel the GW crew painted it much too bright, virtually red. Perhaps they were trying to make the figure stand out more so on the table top, but it was too much for my liking so I used Foundry 6A as a base and highlighted with 6B.

I feel the way the model has come out is more in keeping with how the armour looks in the movie...

Karl Urban, as Eomer.

In game terms, Eomer can be fielded in two forms, a medium level hero as the Marshall of the Riddermark, and an upgraded more powerful version entitled the Knight of the Pelennor, for which GW produced a separate model. But frankly, I really dislike the pose of that model... I am not a big fan of the 'sideways' pose for heroes in general, especially if you're on a horse and supposed to be charging headlong leading your men forward... and in the this case the horse also looks like its about to sit down!

So I will stick with the above model, which I think is a wonderfully dynamic pose, and simply tell my opponent which version he is pointed for and represents in the game.

So finally I have Eomer, or as a certain Yorkshireman refers to him; the "B*stard of the Riddermark", to lead my Eored. I hope he enjoys every success, crushing foul orcs ands uruks under his horses hooves, clearing their blight from the lands of the Riddermark!

-----o0o-----

This model will be the last I complete before the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge commences on the 5th December, and as such was my last chance to clear the decks of outstanding work before the 3 month painting madness begins, so between then and now, I'll continue trimming, preping and undercoating - busy assembling Radagast on sleigh... I have decided this will be a wonderful entry for the 'Comedic' round of scoring...

Rohan Royal Guard...

.... Charge!

Well it took me a little while to get these guys completely finished, but here they finally are. Six hard charging Rohan Royal Guard with Throwing Spears.

I have used my mounted Rohan force a few times in small skirmishes against their traditional Uruk foes, but they have often come off second best. The reality gradually dawned on me that the Riders of Rohan are not hard charging knights, they are more like light horse - the give away is they're all bow equipped...

So don't be fooled by the 'Red Dawn - Death' charge in RotK, these troops really need to be using light cavalry tactics to survive, that means shooting and using movement and maneuver.... to weaken the foe before charging in...

So if you're a Rohan player and you really want to get stuck in, especially protecting your Lord, The Royal Guard are the way to go. F4 and D6 are a significant improvement over the regular Riders, and a throwing spear , whilst somewhat nerfed in the new Hobbit rules due to move and shoot penalty, is still an extra string to their bow, so to speak. You just need one spear to hit home solidly on the charge and there may then be a gap in the enemy line your charges can exploit...

These troops have had their first outting already and I am pleased to say they acquitted themselves rather well, and did not become struck down by the curse of the newly painted figure!

Looking forward to getting them on the table again and more orcs trampled under their hooves!

Hold Ground - LOTR/Hobbit Battle report.

Once again Ste journeyed up from Wellington for an arranged game; Rohan vs Isengard. Ste has been steadily building an Isengard force, and was keen to try it out, and I have a slowly expanding Rohan force I was interested to see how it would do against its 'traditional' foe...

I arrived at club first and set up a themed battle field, depicting a Rohan village, to one side with a more open area to the other side.

We played 550pts forces. Rather than pick a mission we rolled off on the chart and got Hold Ground. This is a bit of a bugger of a mission as whatever plan you had for deployment, just went out the window, with the very random deployment of troops in the mission - your typical 'Maelstrom of Battle', with your forces coming on from the sides, where you may or may not want them, depending on the roll of die...

The game then becomes a race to get to and hold the centre ground, shown by an objective marker.... with a victory point for each model within 6" of it at the end of the game.

Ste won initial Priority and started rolling for and putting down his forces... Mine then turned up next... I think to be fair I got the sh*t end of the stick in deployment, but them's the breaks and we played on...

See below for deployments...

Deployment

Ste basically had the jump on me with respect to getting to the objective first... I either had his troops in front of me, or a greater amount of terrain in the way... this was going to be tough...

Below Ste's Uruk enter the village ... my Warriors have to cross the fence, then wade through the cornfield (difficult ground - half pace we decided)...

The game simply devolved into Ste's march towards the objective, and my attempts to harass and shoot him up with bows and spears on his way there.

The orcs and warg riders were the obvious choice as they had the lowest Defence so would make for the easier kills... The game progressed for several turns this way with orcs and wargs steadily dropping from the spears and arrows of Rohan. Theodred dispatched an orc early on whose warg had been shot from under him... and a couple of orc bowmen who stood their ground to shoot were riden down...

With game time running low, I had not suffered a single casualty, and many orcs and wargs lay slain about the field... but the telling issue of the objective eluded me...

Finally the orc captain on warg turned at bay and put up a fight with a small group of orcs. Since time was running out and although the harassing archery was working, it was all happening too slowly for Rohan... so it became a what-the-heck situation, and Theodred charged in... As his stat line suggests, fate is not with him and it certainly wasn't in my dice throwing either! Despite being previously wounded, the orc captain won the fight and struck Theodred from his horse, after two rounds of fighting!

Theodred vs the Orc captain - sorry for blurry pic

By now the Uruks were at the village boundry objective in numbers and were dug in like a tick behind the hedge... My horsemen approached to at least get some numbers near the objective, so Lurtz decided to lead what was left of his orcs out against them, in another what-the- heck, lets try and kill some stuff move...

This move played out well for the orcs who managed to charge the seemingly somewhat stunned riders, and hacked a few from their saddles. The Riders recovered from this shock and charged down most of the orcs but Lurtz stubbornly refused to go down easily...

With time expired we surveyed the scene, and the orcs were still several models from breaking. Rohan was no where near break point, but the issue of the objective marker became all important... the massed uruks behind the hedge clearly held sway, with just over 20 models within 6" of the object and only 3 Riders near it... it was a clear victory to Isengard! Roughly 21-3 to Isengard.

I had just got my Warriors led by Hama coming up behind the uruks, via the cornfield and into spear range but it was too little too late.

Had the game played on indefinitely I could have kept my distance and kept sniping the orcs and uruks until they broke, but time was indeed a factor and I couldn't kill them fast enough...

The end positions below...

It was an enjoyable game none the less and it really showed the contrast in these forces... The brute solidity of Isengard against the harassing forces of Rohan...

I had hoped to trial some mounted Royal Guard in this game but I still only have them half done. Once they, and Eomer are done I wouldnt mind another go at Ste's Isengard forces...

The "High" Ground - LOTR SBG BattleReport; Rohan vs Mordor.

Managed to have an impromptu game tonight, with Brett and his muster of the Rohirrim!

 We agreed to drop the points of the game to 500 points, to make for a smaller game, hopefully playable to conclusion in an evenings playing time available.

To theme the Battle, I decided to take a a Mordor force, across the Anduin, into a raid into the Eastfold...

I selected:

Mordor:
Mouth of Sauron, on Armoured steed, leading warband of 6 Morgul Knights with banner and Horn, a spectre and two orcs, shield and spear.
Kardush the Fire caller leading a warband of 12 orcs including a banner.
An Orc Captain leading a warband of 12 orcs.
(I had been toying with the idea of having a Troll Chieftain lead my force, but at 140pts he seemed too much for such a small force)

Brett took:

Rohan:
Eomer Knight of the Pelennor (model proxied by Theoden), leading a warband of Riders of Rohan. 
Erkenbrand (model proxied by a nicely coverted Mounted Boromir), leading a warband of Westfold riders.
The Kings Huntsman (model proxied by Legolas), leading a warband of Warriors of Rohan on foot.

I had set up the board again depicting an isolated Rohan farm.

We rolled off for mission and got The High Ground. Having already placed the farm centrally I didn't want to shift it all out of the way to place a hill there, so we just decided that the cornfield had mighty tall corn! So that would be the prize!

Brett won the initial roll, selected the side closest the cornfield and started deploying...

The forces deployed.

I then managed to win the roll for starting turn, and started my attack, charging in with two Morgul knights and supporting with the rest of the force. I advanced into the cornfield with the central warband, but was wary of being outflanked by Eomer heading down the road, so left a few orcs to cover my rear.

Brett pulled back as best he could, playing for time, and hoping to have his archery do some work... and probed down the road with Eomer...

Seeing the possible risk to my flank and seeing the chance to trap Eomer's warband in the confines of the fenced road, I swung the central orc warband over this way... whilst the fight hotted up on my left flank...

Brett stays out of reach on my left... still playing for time and very wary of the Morgul knights backed by a horde of orcs...

After several heroic move declarations the orc captain leads his warband across the fence into the packed horsemen... Eomer was bunched up and pinned against fences and his own men with the orc captain and his followers swarming in to get to the action... This scrap then raged over several turns with Eomer hanging on and eventually forcing the orcs back!

The evil forces continue the press on the other flank, eventually forcing Rohan to commit...

The ongoing scrap for the farm and road...

My best chance to really hurt the resolve of Rohan; Erkenbrand  attacks the end of the orc line with more riders piling in and others holding off the Morgul knights... But evil saw its chance, the spectre swung in behind Erkenbrand, and the Mouth of Sauron trotted forward and with a wave of his claw like hand, Transfixed Erkenbrand, then charged in to trap him and seal his doom!

Erkenbrand was beaten in the fight and trapped took double hits, but his high D7 saved him and he managed to only take one wound from 8 dice (needing a six to wound). He fluffed his fate roll, but had survived, and I had thrown everything into that transfix!

The battle raged on another turn but Rohan had escaped the trap, Erkenbrand fought clear, and Eomer stayed lucky and forced off the orc attackers back down the road. Kardush was lucky to survive a fight against 4 foes on the edge of the cornfield.

By this point the orcs were broken and time was telling so we called it.

Brett had managed to break me without being broken himself, he also had more troops in the cornfield at the end than I had.

So win to Rohan, 9 - 1 .

 A great fun game. I, as usual lost sight of the victory conditions, hold the field, and went after Rohans troops. I could have sat my whole force in the field and possibly held on for a win, but thats not the way I play!

Interesting points:
The Morgul knights were certainly a handful!
Kardush wasnt terribly effective, his spells achieved nothing...
The MoS, was cool to use but couldnt land the killer blow against a tough opponent.

The D7 Eomer and Erkenbrand took all that was thrown at them.
The Huntsman, sniped a couple of orcs, nothing too telling... though Rohan archery overall took a steady toll of orcs.

Again a lot of fun and looking forward to the next battle in Middle-Earth...

To the Death! - LOTR SBG Battle report - Rohan vs Isengard

A lazy Sunday afternoon saw me have the chance to entertain two gaming chums; Paul and Brett, to a game Lord of the Rings SBG.

In this case I was happy to umpire it, taking them both through the ropes of the games rules and subtleties of tactics within the game.

Paul is primarily a Flames of War player, who had not experienced skirmish wargaming before so this was all new to him.

Brett had played a bit of Legends of the High Seas before, which is a derivative of the SBG rules, and is also a SAGA player so has a fair grounding in Skirmish games.

Brett also had some Rohan troops he had acquired and wanted to try them out, so I added some of my own to bulk out his force and then gave Paul an Isengard force to theme the battle - an Isengard probe into the Westfold.

I accordingly set up the terrain depicting a small isolated farm...

 The battle was 750pts each.  

Rohan's force was (roughly)
Theoden (the King) leading warband of Riders of Rohan, including gaming with royal banner
Theodred (King's son) leading a warband of Riders of Rohan
Hama leading a warband of Warriors of Rohan on foot.
Eowyn (King's niece) leading a warband of Warriors of Rohan on foot.  

Isengard's force was
Uruk Hai Captain leading Uruk Hai with 6 pike and 6 shields
Uruk Hai Captain leading Isengard Troll, and 8 Uruk Hai Berserkers
Orc Captain on Warg leading warband of Warg Riders
Uruk Hai Shaman leading Uruk Hai warriors with 6 pike and 6 shields

 We played 'To the Death' just for ease of learning the game and mission.

Paul won dice off for deployment and started first...

Final deployments as below...

Theodred is bottom right facing the Warg-riders, Eowyn leads the foot troops near the ruin, Theoden is in the centre, and Hama is in the farm paddock, facing the Shaman's Warband.

I am going to let the pictures do the talking for the most part...  Paul won the early priority advancing as best as he could though the Shaman's warband had a hell of a time negotiating the farms fences with 5 out 13 Uruks rolling a 1 trying to cross the fences. This caused the Rohan commander much amusement who promptly fell foul of the fences himself, though not quite as badly...

For the most part of the early game, Rohan tried to keep a distance, and shot up the approaching Isengarders This succeeded in dropping several Uruks despite needing a 6 to kill. As Brett says "Need a six? Roll a six!" ;-)

Flank Rohan cavalry withdraw, to shoot bows...

Centre Rohan cavalry, advance...

Slightly exasperated Paul kept plodding forwards... with troll and Berserkers heaing to centre of board, away the disengaged warband of Theodred.

Theodred rode forward, bows again shooting...

Early combat is joined in the centre as Theoden cavalry engage the central and left flank Uruk Hai warbands catching some up against the farm fences...

Eventually as battle became properly joined, the power of the cavalry charge was revealed but also shown to be blunted in the face of pike supported troops.

The fences again quickly came in to the equation as they frequently trapped those who could not back away from combat...

The battle for the farm also heats up...

Theoden leads the central charge against the Uruks, but has he over exposed himself...?

The Uruk captain facing off against Theodred quickly found himself surrounded, yet kept fighting gamely... the troll sees easy pickings in front of him, and focuses on the blonde haired female bravely wielding her sword...

The Uruk captain slays Theodred! Then runs away the next turn when he fails his courage check, as by this point the Isengarders are broken...

The troll was a huge problem, but Eowyn bravely led her forces against it... but even surrounded the troll could not be stopped (it rolled a 6), and turned Eowyn into a red pulpy squish mark on the ground! She might be able to deal with the WitchKing of Angmar, but a great lumbering troll? Nope!

Theoden, who could have made use of the Royal Banner of Rohan to recharge his exhausted supply of Might, never got the chance when Paul won priority and charged Theoden with a pike armed Uruk, who promptly spitted Theoden from his horse! Gamling was left trying to hold the centre together...

The forces of the White Hand eventually broke and started losing troops to failed courage rolls but the Shamans recast Fury held the end of the line.

The troll still could not be stopped! Where's a wizard with an Immobilize when you need one!?

Gamling holds the centre together...  just...

Final positions...
The troll is a serious problem on the Rohan left flank...

The centre has been carnage leaving only three Riders and two Uruks standing... whilst the paddocks and fields in the farm remain contested... though Rohan probably has the upper hand here...

But eventually the Isengarders were dropped to 25% of their starting number bringing the battle to close. All that remained was to add up Victory points:-

Both sides have inflicted huge losses on the other with both sides going past their break point - 3 points to each side.
Both sides had slain the enemy commander, another 3 points each.
Yet Gamling remained holding aloft the Royal banner scoring 2 points.

This tipped the game to a victory to Rohan, 8-6.

Sadly this must be considered a Pyrrhic victory for it was truly a frightful day for the noble house of Rohan, losing the King, his son and niece in one encounter! Saruman will be chuckling and rubbing his hands together in glee in the Tower of Orthanc at this boon, and the way is clear for a full invasion of Rohan!

A thoroughly enjoyable game that both players enjoyed and played in great spirit.

Sadly Brett had to depart half way through the game, leaving me to take over Rohan, but not before using up all the heroes Might points, the bugger! It was shortly after this the Rohan heroes started dying! That's my excuse and I am sticking to it! ;-)

What pleases me more is Brett was even motivated to buy some more Riders of Rohan the day after we played the game, so I count that a victory for the LOTR SBG game!

I have that many LOTR figures that Paul is more than welcome to use whatever force he wishes whenever he fancies a game, though I have a sneaking suspicion he may be contemplating embracing his Dwarven side!