Hold Ground skirmish - Galadhrim Elves vs Goblins of Moria Battle Report

Had a chance for a quick game with mate Brett.

Brett was wanting to try the game at a relatively small points level; 400 points, just to see how quickly the game could be played and without going into all the Uber characters and beasties... in other words trying to 'keep it simple'...

Brett was going to bring his Galadhrim, and I decided to bring some goblins down out of Moria...

Now my past record of Goblins vs Elves has not been the best... I have usually taken a few goblin warbands led by a few heroes and thrown a cave troll in for good measure... but one cave troll was invariable 'nerfed', either being turned into a pin cushion by elven archery or immobilised and cut down whilst in a 'stupor'... Once the cave troll was dealt with the rest of the goblins were usually either avoided, shot up, or mopped up by the rampant elves...

However having had some success with my Angmar force fielding multiple trolls, I wondered how many I could squeeze into 400 points and still have enough heroes to lead them and have enough goblins to back them up, and be a viable force...

So I took Durburz with a cave troll and 11 goblins,... and a Captain , with a cave troll, 10 goblins and a Bat Swarm.

[I did think about trialing a Dweller, instead of a troll, and swapping out the captain for a shaman, but despite a furious last minute effort I didn't quite get the dweller made in time]

Brett brought a force comprising a Captain, with Galadhrim spear and sword infantry... another captain with bow, with Galadhrim archers and spears, ... and a small warband of a captain, with a sentinel and a spear support.

 After chatting through the missions we decide to try Hold Ground.

This mission is basically to fight for and hold the centre of the board, marked by an objective marker. But you start the game with no troops on the board. Warbands come on each turn from a variable random board edge position, and have to make their way to the centre where they will no doubt engage the enemy....

We didn't take many pictures of the game but here's a selection...

The elves get their two main warbands coming on pretty much together from the Eastern board edge, archers to the right...

Whilst the small warband with the sentinel, finds itself coming on from the northwest corner...

Both goblin warbands come on from the south west corner...

The main elven warband headed towards the centre whilst the archer warband took up firing position behind a crumbling wall... from here they shot several volleys at the approaching goblins, dropping a few of them on their way to the centre of the board. The goblins also tried to get a little cover from the broken wall, from the elven shooting... I also peeled off one of the trolls, screened by the bat swarm to go after the archers and try to flush them out, making them move and reduce their shooting effectiveness...

The picture below shows the Cave troll and bats engaging the elven archers at the wall as the main goblin horde pushes on for the centre...

As the game progressed the power of the trolls became rather self evident and Brett struggled to deal with them...His archery had targetted the goblins, not the trolls, and he had no spell casters in range to affect them either...

The centre goblin formation, split with some heading south to deal with the archers and aid the troll and bat swarm there, as the other goblins led by Durburz, the captain and second troll pushed on through the centre and forced the elves back...

The elven archer captain was knocked about by the rampant troll and eventually slain, trapped against the crumbling wall... the bat swarm had done it's job, shielding the approach of the troll and getting in the way once melee with it commenced... The elven centre started to collapse, but the fight had by now drifted away from the central position where Brett still had his main captain and the remnants of his centre warband...

However after a brutal turn for the elves, they were broken and the dice thrown by Brett afterwards, summed up his dice for the game... a 1 to end it...

A final tally for VPs saw the goblins edge it 8-7... Brett had more elves left near the objective than the goblins did at games end, but the elves were broken and the goblins were not. Neither leader was injured either.

-----o0o-----

We discussed the game afterwards as is usual, and Brett was concerned at the viability of his compact force. He had expected elven archery to have a strong effect in the game, but that had not eventuated and without any magic to deal with the trolls, and once engaged with the greater numbers of goblins, had struggled hold them off...

Perhaps the two cave trolls were too much for this small simple game? But then I would have had another captain and an extra full warband of goblins and other beasties to make up the points, so the elves may then have been swamped by numbers???

So it appears a basic elven force of infantry and captains just does not cut the mustard, by itself... there clearly is a need for some elven sorcery to help tip the balance. Or perhaps some cavalry?

Perhaps the mission and random deployments had not favoured the elves in this scenario either?

Any thoughts on a 400 point Galadhrim force... comments below please...

The Goblin King's domain

After some work I got my 4th submission into the painting challenge; The Goblin King, or 'Great Goblin' as he was also known, his Scribe and two Goblin captains including Grinnah, all from the The Hobbit boxed starter set.

 I painted them all to match the existing Goblin Town goblins, in my prior post.

As usual, click on pics for a larger view.

Here is the Great Goblin, a huge loathsome hulking figure, played wonderfully in the movie my Barry Humphries, and superbly rendered by the team at Weta digital.

He's a huge figure, standing some 6cm tall to top of his crown, towering over his minions and adversaries alike.

In the game, classed as a monster, and with the new monstrous combat abilities, he's going to be a real handful to deal with!

Great Goblin

Next up is a diminutive goblin captain, un-named though I suspect he may be the character that wrestles Bilbo in the movie, and falls to his doom with him...

Goblin Captain

The second Goblin Captain, Grinnah, bears a large  spiked flailing whip, with which he keeps his charges in line.

Grinnah, Goblin Captain

Next up is the goblin scribe... this little fellow, notes the Great Goblins proclamations and orders, and in the movie is seen to be ordered to 'send word to the White Orc!', concerning Thorin's capture...

In the game, he brings much needed reinforcements to the goblin forces...

The following did not make it to the painting challenge as, though part of the The Hobbit boxed set, it would be classed as 'terrain' and thus dissallowed, but it has taken a fair amount of time to convert and paint up; The Great Goblin's Throne.

The throne was a multi-part plastic kit, like the rest of the boxed set contents and went together well, though I left the base piece off unattached to paint separately.

The only issue I had with it was that the back of the kit was an open void, which looked pretty naff if you had just left it like that. So I decided to fill the void with foam and clad it with bark chip, to effect a rock surface.
 

Throne

I checked back to the movie imagery, just to check for shape and proportion, and did note the throne forms part of the top of a giant spur of rock jutting up from floor of cavern, (see below pic), so needed to maintain its angled slope.
 

Goblin town

Back of throne clad with bark chip

And though not noticeable, that I recall, in the movie, the figure sculptors went to that level of detail typical of a Jackson movie; a hole in the seat of the throne for the Great Goblin to crap into a bucket positioned underneath!

There were also skeletal remains and entrails suggesting remnants of his last meal! Difficult to see once assembled but I painted them none the less!

So there we have them all, The Great Goblin, and all his minions in his domain of Goblin Town!

Great Goblin and goblins of Goblin Town

Now I just have to press on with Bilbo, Gandalf and a company of 13 dwarves... and not forgetting Radagast too!

The Goblins of GoblinTown - The Hobbit

I recently managed to get my 3rd submission in Curts, 3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...

As always click on pics for a larger view.

I burned a bit of the midnight oil and finished off the 36 goblins I have been working on, off and on, since the beginning of the challenge. The quality of the plastic sculpts was very good, and the amount of mould line to scrape away was minimal.

As for painting them up I was in a slight dilemma as to what colour to paint them. They were not going to be classic 'green' as the majority of the Moria goblins are.

In the movie they come across as having a yellowish hue, yet a lot of stock pictures show them with a pale grey skin colour. I can only assume the lighting effect in the movie from the flaming torch-lit caverns of GoblinTown would have cast a yellow colour to their actual pale grey skin.

So I went with the pale grey base tone. After this they had shading washes and heavy drybrushing to set the flesh tones. The loin cloths and equipment were painted up, and finally the disgusting spotty lumps and bumps were given red and purple washes and the yellow spot heads added, just ripe for popping! An adolescent kid would have a field day on these buggers! ;-)

Finally facial features were added, including eyes and teeth/mouths.

I have to confess to the eyes not being the best - normally I do the eyes at the mid point of the models, but with so many washes and dry brushing going on they would probably have got messed up, so I left them to the end.

Typically by which point my fine detail brush had given up the ghost! So with nothing good to hand to dot the pupils I resorted to trimming a cocktail stick to a sharp point and used that!

Not the most accurate way of doing things and some of the eyes went a little off centre, but in the end I think it actually added to the character of the mis-shaped limbs and general ungainly poses. Bases were PVA sand textured and painted and drybrushed.

So I am rather happy with the way they turned out. Suitably loathsome!

So whilst they and their setting are clearly suitably for playing the Hobbit games in Goblin Town... I did have a bit of a lateral thought, with all this Empire of the Dead stuff taking off...

Wouldn't they do wonderfully as evil minions of the Vampire faction? I can just see the underground catacombs below the vampire castle teaming with these little villains... perhaps there to protect the Vampire when he rests in his coffin, and aid the master in his evil plots and plans...

I could run them as a 'thrall' with a hand weapon or improvised weapon, or perhaps make them a little weaker, in stats for a suitable cost reduction?

Above you can see the Vampire Hunters searching out their prey in the catacombs below 'Castle Dracula'  !

The Misty Mountains

The Misty Mountains.

Once under the snow capped peaks of the Misty Mountains the Dwarven City of the Dwarrowdelf, known as Khazad-Dum, was a seat of great power and wealth for the dwarves. A golden time followed in their trade and dealings with the Elves in Eregion, where the great elven smiths of old wrought the Rings of Power.

But that time is long gone...

Sauron in his rage with the elves, destroyed Eregion. The dwarves, content to shut themselves in the safety of their mountain fortress, delved too deeply for the prize of mithril, and so awoke a dread demon from the ancient world, a Balrog of Morgoth, who laid waste to their dwarven realm.

Fell creatures made the abandoned dwarven halls their home, and the mountains filled with goblins, happy to plunder the wreck of the abandoned dwarven kingdom.



The forces of the Misty mountains can draw on a solid core of goblin soldiery. Not the greatest warriors in Middle-Earth, but in great numbers, can smother and enemy force.


Durburz, the goblin king, leads his warriors to battle, aided by a shaman, and the boom of the massive goblins drums. Not the greatest friend of Durbruz, Druzhag the Beast-caller, summons forth all manner of fell creatures to fight alongside the goblins hordes, including giant spiders, monstrous bats, and wild wargs.

The goblins also bring with their armies, huge cave trolls that lend brute strength to the goblins attack.