Back in Cyberspace - and back to Middle-Earth!

Five days seemed a long time to be sans-computer, but thankfully I am now back; 'hard-wired' once again :-).
Having a very tech-savvy neighbor come and help out at short notice, who didn't 'know me from Adam', saved my bacon, and lets just say, I owe him a few beers for a job well done... Big thanks to Ben :-)

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Back to Middle-Earth and a catch up seems in order...

Last weekend saw my son Chris and I, take a road trip down to Wellington for some LOTR action as part of the Great Wellington Hobbit League.

This was my first game in the 'League' which is being run a simple mapped campaign setting. I took my Angmar force along led by Buhrdur, and played Matt who had brought a Gondor force led by Boromir on horseback and Faramir on foot.

I won't go into a full battle report, but here's a few pictures of the game with a little commentary...

The force deploy for a 'To the Death' engagement...

The two forces approach each other...

After a few turns and carnage is evident... the trolls in the centre have battered and pummeled the Gondor line, and Buhrdur pulled Faramir apart! The cavalry charge led by Boromir was not as effective as Matt hoped for. Boromir was able to take down the troll on that flank , but the rest of the orcs there contained the horsemen and steadily reduced their numbers... hacking brave men from their mounts...

Near the end, and Boromir finds himself completely surrounded, his Horn of Gondor has no effect due to the Barrow Wight easily passing courage, but with no might remaining he manages to roll high enough to survive despite only rolling 3 dice against 9!

Boromir surrounded!

Final positions, and its a rough day for Gondor, their force battered and reduced to 8 models at the end...

We didn't tot up VP's at the time, not that they were important at the the time for the campaign, but I think the game would have been scored 7-0 in Angmar's favour....

Matt was a very pleasant chap to play against, and I look forward to my next encounter with him.

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On the adjacent table, my son Chris played Eli. Chris was using another Gondor force with infantry led by Boromir on foot and an allied mounted Rohan contingent lead by Theodred. Eli was using a late Second -Age /Early Third-Age force based on the prologue to The Fellowship movie; using Gil-Galad, Isildur and Elrond, with a handful of supporting elves and Numenoreans.

Eli thus found himself somewhat outnumbered, choosing to field several high powered heroes....

They made a good account of themselves but were finally taken down by Boromir and the remnants of his alliance. Both sides had been broken and were surviving on courage tests each turn towards the end... a nerve biting finale... and the whoops of joy from Chris as Gil-Galad finally fell, surrounded, were fun to behold!

The Bowman's thus headed back north with 2 victories under their belts and smiles on their faces :-)
Thanks to our opponents for some very enjoyable gaming, to Michail at Warlords for hosting us and Andrew for organising :-)

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Back to the painting front and over the last couple of weeks I have been building up my basic orc forces including core troops and captains... Here's a 'warband' I finished recently with bows backed by spears...

It wasn't designed this way, I was just wanting to get a load more spears done as they are very useful troops now that they can support just about ANY model in the game. I also wanted to get some more archers done so I could field a full warband of orc archers, led by an orc 'hero' with a bow... Now I know orcs can't hit a barn door at point blank range , but a whole warband together might hit something! Perhaps might be able to take the sting out of a cavalry charge if can take out a few horses?

Metal orc archer models... now discontinued... the central orc will make a distinctive hero to lead them...

And some spears... the ones on the left I like to call my 'Hawaii-5-0' mob as they always remind me of the guys paddling the canoes at the beginning credits of that TV show ! ;-) Its an odd pose - they're either trying to take you out at the ankles, or perhaps skewer a prone warrior? The two on the right are again old metal models, again discontinued...

And a pair of Orc Captains to lead my orc forces. Metal figures again, which I believe are once again discontinued. I managed to pick these up from a facebook trade recently... great models - very 'orcy'...

Orc Captains

... and their backs too showing embossed Eye of Sauron on their shields...

And finally there's that now completed orc archer warband...

Orc Archers

I also found time to paint up some of the little pre-made terrain pieces... they may do to embellish the battlefield or act as objective markers...