The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings. Sauron. The Dark Lord. Lord of the Black Land.

He has many titles.

Originally a Maiar, who was swayed to follow Melkor; a Valar who became known as Morgoth to the Elves. Morgoth and his lieutenant Sauron, led the forces of evil against the Valar, Elves and Edain in the battles of the First Age of Middle Earth.

Although Morgoth and his hosts were finally defeated, and fortess lair of Angband thrown down and laid bare, many evil creatures fled the wreck and hid in the east, including Sauron, and the Balrog that hid in Moria.

And thus it was the evil rose once again.

In battles and betrayals with the Elves and Numenoreans through the Second Age of Middle Earth, finally these two forces came together in the Last Alliance, and fought together against Sauron and his dark forces in Mordor.
This is the image we see in PJ's movie trilogy, in the opening 'Prelude' battle sequence at the start of the Fellowship of the Ring, and a great and awesome image it is too. The model from GW is an excellent representation.

I must admit, I just had to buy the model, simply from a collectors perspective. How could you play Lord of the Rings and not have The Lord of the Rings? ;-)

However, I am not sure whether I will routinely field him in my tabletop forces. He is rather pigeon holed into one great conflict, thus probably best scenario based, rather than a routine adversary. And as in terms of the game, he is exceptionally powerful in the SBG skirmish game, and yet in the WOTR battle game, whilst powerful, he has some unexpected weaknesses!

Still, a marvelous model to have on the wargames room shelves. :-)

The Necromancer of Dol Guldur

The Necromancer of Dol Guldur. Later to be revealed by the Wise to be Sauron, the Dark Lord, returned to Middle Earth, some 2000 years after his defeat by the forces of The Last Alliance. Yet still not yet able to fully take physical form.

Eventually the The White Council assembled and attacked Dol Guldur, forcing the Necromancer to flee to East, where he would build his strength once more before returning to Mordor, and rebuilding his fortress of Barad Dur, in readiness for the battles of the War of the Ring, at the end of the Third Age.

Sadly at the time, the Wise of the White Council did think to destroy the fortress of Dol Guldur, and this once more was re-occupied by Ringwraiths, led by Khamul the Easterling.

I must admit I was a little disappointed by the quality of the cast parts of this model. There was a huge mis-alignment between the front and rear halves that needed extensive greenstuff puttying to hide the gap.

But once this work was done the model has painted up nicely.

I now have a suitable figure to lead my forces of Dol Guldur.