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...

Durin's Causeway - Finished!

At long last I have finished Durin's Causeway. 

It's been a marathon journey, and as usual what seemed like a simple idea at the outset, grew and grew in the making...

Unsatisfied with how the suggested terrain looked in the Fellowship of the Ring Journey book, to play the game, I started making this to look more in keeping with the movie. It's still far from a perfect copy, and several things I did my own way, either for practicality or play-ability reasons.

I am more than happy with how it has turned out, though the amount of effort that has gone into building it, compared to how often I will actually get to play on it, plus I have still to figure out where to store and keep it, having yet to be resolved, has led me conclude this is most likely my folly! ;-)

However, I am still happy to have built it and will look forward to playing the FOTR scenario upon it :-)

Just to put things into perspective I have included the movie sequence which the terrain piece is derived from. It's an epic and iconic movie moment, and also gives perspective for any blog readers who are not fans of or simply have not seen the movie...



Here's how it looks under normal lighting and fill in flash photography...

And then some more atmospheric 'night-time' pictures. These took several goes to get right and I still think they are perhaps a little over-exposed but I haven't figured out how to reduce the exposure on my camera settings as yet. It took me all my time to get these to work at all!

Never the less, I hope you enjoy them...

I left this picture un-cropped, just to give you an idea of how big it is... its roughly 3' x 3' x 3', give or take a few inches...

The next terrain piece on my list of to-do's is to finish Balin's Tomb, which is actually for the scenario, before this one! Yes I know, I know, I should have made that one first, but oddly enough this one had given me most cause for concern so I had decided to tackle it head and get it out of the way first...

Ah well, that is part of the madness that goes on in my head! ;-)

The Dwarrowdelf - The great Dwarven city of Khazad Dum

The Fellowship continue on their quest...

Having evaded the attentions of the Watcher in the Water, they are forced into, and thus on through, the Mines of Moria... a four day crossing on foot, to the other side, through this dark and treacherous place...

Passing through the various passageways and corridors, and mine workings they finally come to the Dwarrowdelf, an imposing realm of high ceiling chambers, or mansions and massive supporting pillars...

Onward, ever onward, hoping beyond hope to pass unnoticed by the vile denizens of this subterranean lair...

Nearing the Eastgate, the Fellowship are nearly through this dark place, their luck has held, their passage gone unnoticed, other than being followed by the soft flap of feet behind... Gollum it seems, has picked up their trail...

And then, a shaft of light catches their eye, to the side of their way, shining down upon a stone tomb...

More Moria work...

Underground matters of Moria nature continue to keep me busy... more work over the weekend...

Finally got stairway properly re-positioned and level this time... also built up a more rocky irregular surface to back wall left of causeway (as it was too smooth before), to better match back wall down to right... and lengthened final section of stone bridge across last gully...

With flash...

And with side wall MDF panelled "de-warped" - its now glued into position, and pre-done foam/poly and gallery glued back into position against it...

...No flash... I often wonder which way is best to photograph...

Just need to block up the gap at base and rear corner with more poly chunks and skim the whole in polyfilla again...

After that, I think it will be time to sort flame effects and wiring through base, and battery pack placement and concealment... possibly may include switches so each flame can be switched on individually... though this might be a little OTT? Not that the whole thing isn't already eh? ;-)

So I am kind of back on track to where I should have been a few weeks back now...

While the above was gluing and drying, I started making Balins Tomb. Once again, 'Celevue' has given a very good idea of how to make a detailed tomb in his battle report on One Ring Forum... He's clearly done the hard yards in endlessly staring at the movie footage to see what goes where, so I will be basing my effort upon his excellent example... I doubt this will be quite as detailed as his, but it should make for an interesting skirmish game none the less...

Balins Tomb started...

More to follow...

Weekend work - Moria continued...

More work over the weekend, saw progress on my Moria terrain...

I managed to build up the rocks on back wall of causeway to right of stairs... polyfilla looks dark as its not fully dried yet... also, photo perspective may seem odd... I actually had it lying on its back while I worked on it, and photographed it that way, and have rotated the picture around - that's why the paint tin is upside down in the background ;-)

The side wall is undergoing more reinforcing and straightening still... that part of the build is becoming a bit of a nightmare! I am beginning to wonder whether I should even bother with it, but its one of those classic movie moments - seems a shame not to try and do it justice... I'll get there in the end I guess... this project is rapidly becoming known , at least to me, as 'Bowmans Folly'! ;-)

I should buy shares in Polyfilla!

Back to the Bridge of Khazad Dum board... and I finished making the chasm edge... with my DIY 'plaster cloth'

I made up more polyfilla, though quite runny with an excess of water, then also poured some PVA glue into the mix. I cut strips of crepe bandage and dunked them in the mix, keeping one end dry. This I hot glued to the top edge, then draped the wet cloth down over the chasm edge, going back over the dry top piece with more of the mixture to blend it all together. Strip by strip, I worked my way along both sides... a messy process but it worked and is strong.

I now want to texture up the surface of this chasm, and am thinking of breaking up more foam (or maybe also bark mulch chips) into tiny fragments - spraying the surface with thinned PVA, sprinkle the fragments on , then spray again with glue to seal, them maybe skim coat with thinned filla again if it needs it or just paint with sand textured paint... I'll have to try it out see how it looks...

I was looking long and hard at the rubber rock molds you can get from Woodland Scenics and other suppliers at my local hobby stores. They are rather pricey and you would need several different ones to avoid repeating the same rock over an over... hmmm ... I like the look of them, but...

I also got my Dwarrowdelf pillars finished and painted... I'll show them soon, after the Watcher in the Water Battle report, as would be about the right timing! ;-)

Further Moria activity included cutting out a base board for Balins tomb, and sketching out a plan of how to build up the walls and pillars on it... So I guess that will be more foam cutting this weekend...

The Watcher in the Water - custom scenario board finished.

Finally, managed to complete my Watcher in the Water terrain board... this kind of grew from a humble plan following the guide in the FOTR Journey book... But then I saw what effort Celevue had put into making his one on the The One Ring Forum... and remembering back to descriptions in the novel, I decided to expand my vision for the board...

I wanted to create the impression of a pretty sheer cliff face looming up, at the end of an old tree lined over grown path. If I recall correctly the region had become known as Hollin due to the holly trees that grew there and lined the path. I also wanted the stream to tumble down some smaller cliffs to the left of the path, and go on to fill a small lake or pool. This pool has washed away part of the path, revealing subsurface rocks and stones. The excess of water has also killed the trees whose position the pool has engulfed, so dead trees remain upright and also fallen and submerged through the pool.

Most of these features we don't see in the movie because it is set as a night scene, so the darkness means most of it was either simply not done, or couldn't be seen...

The board progressed well until I came to grief using some water effect products.... This had to be ripped off the board and other products researched and sourced, finally producing an effect I was after...

I have decided to show this fully illuminated, before we play the battle scene, as I am going to try some low lighting for the game to give it that night time quality...

So here's the board, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The Doors of Durin...

Inscribed with Ithildin, which mirrors only star light and moonlight...

Speak Friend and Enter!....

And with the door open...

A better look at the stream and small waterfall

A close up of the water surface, also showing depth...

The stream, washing lighter silts through into the main pool...

Another water surface shot...

Reverse view from cliff tops...

Hopefully not too long now till we get round to playing the game!

The High Ground - LOTR SBG Battle Report - Moria vs Gondor

After last weeks game at the club, Sol and I arranged another game for tonight. Sol was going to tweak his army after his last game, and I was happy to let him try out against any of the evil armies I have.
Sol chose Moria, so that's what I went with. We also chose to theme the battle in Moria - Gandalf the White leading the forces of Gondor to root out the evil there...

We set up the terrain and rolled off a mission getting Hold the High Ground. After looking at the terrain, the wooden scaffold structure was selected as the High Ground and repositioned centrally, with a little more terrain adjustment to balance it out.

750 points per side.

I had taken :
Durburz Goblin King with 12 goblins; 6 shields, 6 spears
Moria Shaman with 12 goblins; 4 shields, 8 spears
Druzhag Shaman leading 2 Giant Bats, 6 Giant Spiders and one goblin with spear
Wild Warg Champion leading 6 Wild Wargs
Spider Queen (Independent)

Sol had taken
Gandalf the White, leading a warband of Knights of Minas Tirith with banner
A Gondor Captain leading a warband of Rangers and a Ballista
Pippin, Guard of the Citadel, leading a warband of Warriors of Minas Tirith with banner

I won roll off for starting deployment, and immediately placed Durburz and his warband on the scaffold. We then alternated off warbands with my forces arrayed around and either side of scaffold, whilst Sols forces were grouped off towards one corner of board with Ballista up high on a rocky outcrop.

Moria - deployment

Evil forces

Good forces - Sol hasn't got all his forces fully assembled or painted as yet -  the grey horses are actually mounted knights

I won start initiative, and consolidated my position, advancing my infantry to make shield/spear wall in face of the Gondor infantry and knights, and advanced spiders round scaffold towards the rangers, whilst bats overflew to head towards the ballista. I forgot to move the wargs! Oh well they spent a turn out of it but showed up later to distract Gandalf and some of his knights attention away from main scrap (that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!)

Mid battle - red counters are wound markers

These new missions really have you right into it from turn one pretty much, there's little messing about! It makes for a quick and brutal game - with little noncing about at range!

I wanted to deal with the rangers and ballista which were the missile threat and got the rangers busy early on with the spiders and got my bats into the ballista but since Sol had upped the crew to 4 I couldn't get at more than 2 crew with the bats, leaving 2 crew firing still... curses... but their firing proved relatively ineffectual until one turn near end when they nailed Druzhag with two hits! Thankfully he passed both fate rolls...

So Gandalf and the knights dealt with the wargs, the spiders mostly dealt with the rangers and the goblins and WoMT battered away at each other in the centre. Sol probably had the best of the early game, but it started to turn mid game on a brutal turn for Moria when I killed both his banner bearers...

I lost the Spider Queen annoyingly... I set her up to slaughter the Gondor captain leading the rangers, and enraged her with Druzhag, having burst forth all her three broodlings (using up all her will). But then Gandalf cantered over and Immobilized her with a spell! Dang it! So she lost the fight taking a wound and took a wound from the spell!

The following turn she got back into it, but lost the fight roll and was dispatched!

So Spider Queen down and Wild Warg Chieftan down, but I had been steadily killing my way through the forces of Gondor, thanks to my spiders and goblins, and Gondor's force had broken....

The game continued another turn, but numbers were now starting to tell against Gondor, especially with their lack of banners... I really just had to consolidate now, so made sure I had some goblins back on the scaffold to gain VPs...

Eventually Sol called it, his force was broken and though they had not fled the field, it was going to be very difficult at this point for him to capture the scaffold, and as he has a long drive home, it made sense to call it quits.

So I came out with a win, 5-0, though Sol had inflicted a heavy toll on the forces of Moria...

Another good game, which drew some interest from other club members...

End of battle

Gondor casualties

Moria casualties