Carnage In Middle Earth, an End of the Year Battle Report

Sylvan Angodnil sat uneasily on his spotless white charger (and it was spotless because be and his whole troop spent long hours grooming them when off duty) watching the dark hosts approach.    Aglardor, their troop captain, laughed like silvery bells in a high tower, which Sylvan found annoyingly pretentious, and said coldly “The more of them, the more glory for us, am I right, lads?”   The laughter of the troopers sounded a little forced and just slightly nervous, because there were a LOT of them.   Sylvan counted four armoured trolls on the right flank, anchoring at least six bands of orcs and goblins marching towards them, and how many more on the left, or behind the tall trees which screened their centre.

The elven host was divided into two wings, that of King Cuildil on the left, and the right wing under the command of The Lady.    A band of her nymph scouts had passed by earlier, taking up position in the woods on the right, only pausing to pet the horses of the Evenstar Hussars.   “Pretty ponies!”  they giggled, before flitting off into the foliage.  Sylvan thought them underdressed and insubstantial.   And then there was that damned giant bear, Bjork or Bjorn or something, one of the Lady’s pets, and his smell got the horses whinnying every time he ambled by, muttering loudly about how many goblins he would eat before the day was done.    Sylvan wished he’d also wander off into the woods, as if you could tell which were woods and which were the tree spirits ambling about, more of The Lady’s friends.

Now the horns were sounding on the left, as Cuidil began shifting some of his reserves to that wing.   Sylvan could hear the howls of wolves, rather a lot of them.    That also made the horses nervous.    Next, a company of light archers, their gray green cloaks flowing, trotted in front of the troop and took up positions.   Felanor, the trooper on Sylvan’s left, looked at them critically.    “Oh, that they were not in front of us, to steal our glory!”   Sylvan scowled and thought, “What a birk.   As far as I’m concerned, they can stand in front of us for the whole battle."

Soon battle was joined across the whole front.   Elven horns, the deep voices of the treefolk, the brazen trumpets of the orc hosts, and the howls of countless wolves came from the left.   A messenger from the king came and told Aglardor to be ready as the reserve.   Aglador acknowledged curtly, watching enviously as Lindor’s troop of Hussars trotted towards the right wing, while ahead of them Bjork the Bear raged forward, bellowing in his uncouth and monosyllabic tongue.  “BEAR SMASH!” , Sylvan thought he was shouting.   

Both companies of elven archers were now continuously drawing and loosing, their bowstrings emitting a continuous thrumming sound, and as the battle lines shifted, Sylvan could see black orc and goblin bodies piling up before them like windblown leaves.  “Good," he thought, "keep it up”.

With silver horns braying, Lindor’s troop of horse smashed into a goblin regiment and scattered them.  “See them ride like the furies!” Aglardor cried to his men.  “Oh, that we were with them!”  “Oh that you’d shut up” thought Sylvan.

From their reserve position, Sylvan could see that the pressure on their right wing was easing.   There were fewer orc and goblin trumpets sounding, and through a break in the trees he thought he saw goblin bodies flying into the air as the bear ripped their ranks apart.

On the left, though, things were still dire.  A regiment of armoured foot trotted left to seal a gap on the flank, struggling to hold off a surge of goblin wolf riders.   A bloodied nymph came running past them, clearly done with fighting.  “Those wolves were REALLY MEAN!” she complained to no one in particular.   More wolves were surging against the King’s bodyguard.

“See how the king staggers!”  cried a trooper, and in horror, they saw Cuildil wander aimlessly, clearly under some sort of enchantment, while the few of his guard left standing struggled to protect him.   Aglador drew his long and expensive sword.  “Trumpeter, sound the advance!  We ride to the king’s rescue”.     But, scarcely did the troop begin to move before cries of triumph began to rise through the elven ranks.   “They flee!  The day is ours!"

Sure enough, the dark hosts, now much reduced in number, were streaming to safety, while the Nazgul leading them shook his fist at his fleeing minions before turning about and himself galloping away.   Elves ran to steady the king, who, recovered, beamed in triumph and summoned a minstrel for a first draft of the victory lay.

Aglador sheathed his sword in disgust.  “Never you mind, sir”, said Sylvan consolingly, “I’m sure we’ll get to charge one of these days.”  

“Shut up, and go wash my horse.”  

So ended another big game of Dragon Rampant fought just before the end of the year in James’ Basement of Quondam Rabbits.   As is our tradition, we try to get together at least annually for a big Lord of the Rings themed game, using our preferred rules, Dragon Rampant.  Almost all the figures in these photos are from James’ exquisite collection of old school figures from Vendel (now Thistle and Rose), though I brought a mix of my own, some GW, some Foundry.   We put about 100 points aside on the table.  I don’t mind saying that I was quite pessimistic at first, as I didn’t see any clear way of stopping James’ hordes, but my archers did yeoman’s work, and James had some bad dice luck with the morale roles in response to their volleys, so the archers bought me the time I needed to counter attack and gradually break James’ army morale.  Some of my reserves, like poor Aglador’s riders, never got into battle.

It was a good lesson for me as a player in keeping my nerve, as I’d lost the first (Napoleonic) game we played that day and I was feeling a little pessimistic.  As is our custom, the winner of our big Dragon Rampant game gets to keep Smoochy, the plush dragon, so he will remain with me until our next match up.

James has already put some of these photos up on the Wargaming in Middle Earth Facebook page, here.  I hope everyone else’s gaming year is ending on a similar high note.

Cheers and blessings to your dice rolls.

MP+

Friday Fantasy: Thistle and Rose Barbarian Raider Cavalry

These four rough and smelly riders are finished and mustered into the ranks of the wild Dunlending hillmen opposing the Kingdom of Rohan for my Lord of the Rings gaming.   These are 28mm sculpts from the Vendel catalogue that was taken over a few years ago by Thistle and Rose miniatures.  I have quite a few of their hillmen foot counterparts, which I’ve collected to use as allies of my Isengard orc and Uruk army in the service of Saruman, so it’s nice to have a small mounted capability for my Dunlendings.

 These are very basic sculpts, with minimal detail, but they have their own old schoo charm, rather similar to Minifigs in style.    The horses supplied are likewise very basic, without a ton of detail.   Because they’re such simple minis, I painted them much more quickly and basically then I usually do for, say, Seven Years War figures.   I had to drill out the hands to fit the spears supplied with the minis.

 

I don’t imagine that the Dunlendings would have mustered many horsemen.   As I imagine it, they’ve been pushed into the hills  and lower mountains over the centuries by the Rohirrim, fighting a guerrilla war against Rohan’s border forts and garrisons, and retreating where the Horse Lords’ cavalry can’t reach them.  They would likely have a small number of sturdy, smaller horses suited to the rough country and useful for raiding the occasional village.  As you can see by the one shield, they have received some arms and pay from Isengard, who find the Dunlendings useful for keeping Rohan off guard.

One of the sets of rules I want to use for this sort of fighting is the Dux rules by Too Fat Lardies, and in the Dux the Raiders supplement there is some provision for small bands of raider cavalry, so these chaps will do nicely.  Those sheep a few posts back are now in a lot more danger!

 

Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Meanwhile, in Mordor

Hello friends!

My new (since June) post-retirement church job has kept me happily busy, along with finding safe day-trips to do with Joy during a stay-at-home summer.   I was able to use part of the last few months to finish this lot of orcs for my Lord of the Rings collection.  What a horrible lot!

This batch includes a GW orc captain from the lad pile, as well as eight Thistle and Rose (formerly Vendel) orcs, painted in Mordor livery.  I love that they are well wearing the same baggy trousers and puttees, it gives them a bit of a regular army look, the 3/92nd North Mordor Foot, maybe.  If you want to see Thisle and Rose figures well painted, visit Rabbit Man’s blog.

“Roiht, you ‘orrible lot, what do you do when you sees an Elf Lord?  You stick him, see!  No, don’t bleeding tickle him, STICK HIM!"

This ‘orrible lot also includes a box of Oathmark goblins that I purchased May 2019.   I built some as archers:

Spear chaps without shields.  Sorry the photos are rather dark.

Shields and hand weapons.  Tried for a general red and black theme to the shields, with some Mordor Eye livery, some more tribal.

Shields and shabby sticks.

Regimental photo before marching off to Gondor.

In general I found the Oathmark plastic figures to be easy to assemble, with a pleasing variety of weapons and gear.  While the Oathmark universe, from what I’ve seen of the rule books, is standalone fantasy, the figures fit well with my existing LOTR collection and have a Tolkienesque feel to them.  I haven’t done the math to see if they are cheaper than GW plastics, but they add a variety of poses to the Perry orc sculpts, so I may order a few more boxes over time, though the old Vendel figures, happily back in production through Thistle and Rose, are appealing..  I currently have a box of Oathmark wolf riders half-assembled to tackle next.

Blessings to your brushes!  

MP+ 

 

 

Orcs, Mostly

Hello friends:

I hope this finds you well and happily busy, as I’ve been lately.  Busy and productive enough to break out my light box to capture some finished work.

Today it’s mostly beastly orcs to swell the armies of Mordor.   Here is the command pack of some Vendel orcs.  My friend James and I went in on a joint purchase of some Vendel figures when they were still in business.   I love their chunkiness, the fact that they’re lead and not the spin-cast resin that GW now uses, and that they have their own identify, independent of figures based on the Jackson LOTR films, though I have more than enough of those minis as well.

Command group.   The fellow on the left looks mean enough to be a senior NCO, probably what passes for an RSM in an orcish host.  Sadly all the weapons the Vendel figures had were spears, for the most part, so I gave him a pointy mace thing from the Oathmark Goblin box to go with his eye of Sauron shield device. The fellow in the centre looked like he needed a banner, so I gave him one from the Little Big Men Saxon/Viking set, cut and mounted on aluminum foil and embellished with a skull from the same Oathmark pack.

 

Another Vendel figure from the same set, with another Little Big Man flag.  I made a total hash of this flag, and had to work desperately to save it.   I figured the dragon looked suitably orcish, though perhaps too fine a design for crude orc hands.

Seeing as I was doing orcs, I thought I would also do a test-paint of these figures from a box of Oathmark goblins purchased recently.  They look a little stunted and hunched over, compared to the confident upright Vendel poses, but they do look suitably menacing.  I’m reasonably pleased with them but I don’t like the shiny final look of the Army Painter Strong Tone washes that I bought recently.

A quite nasty bunch to add some character to my orc hosts.

I have a raft of figures that I started and then abandoned when Kay entered the final stage of her illness some years ago, and I now have the energy to start finishing them.  Here is a Gripping Beast Alfred the Great lead figure, painted to be a Lord of Rohan.  The LBM shield transfer is quite appropriate for that purpose.

 

 Finally, from the same raft of figures, four Sash and Sabre ACW casualty figures, to mark units in trouble or perhaps just for Matthew Brady to paint.  Thinking out loud here, I wonder if anyone makes a Civil War era photographer miniature?   

Thanks for looking.   Blessings to your brushes!

MP

Sometimes You Paint, Sometimes You Build, Sometimes You Salvage, Sometimes You Re-base

I love starting new projects, and always have too many on the go, but sometimes it’s good to revisit some older figures that just need some love.  This weekend, while Joy was in the states visiting her daughter and granddaughter, I had the place to myself and found that what I got done wasn’t at all what I had thought I would do.

Here are some GW LOTR plastic orcs that a friend gave me - he found a bag of about 30 figures, very roughly painted, jumbled in a zip-lock bag.   I had my doubts about remediating the paintwork, but I pulled out a handful and decided to see what I could do with them.   I’d say I repainted about half of each figure and tried to give them scary-face shields, though I think my surrogate granddaughter could have done scarier faces.

I also gave them my usual bad-guy base treatment - scrubby, mostly barren ground, evocative of Mordor, Dead Marshes, etc.

I liked how these fellows turned out - they fit nicely into my growing evil LOTR models.  I will probably salvage handful in the near future.

Also underway is a significant basing project for my Isengard collection.   About ten years ago, when my son was a teen and living with me, we played a LOT of the original GW LOTR Strategy Battle Game.   To get some figures on the table quickly I cut a lot of corners, such as leaving the bases still in their original black undercoat and nothing more.  Currently I have about 30 of these figures in the basing shop, and a few of them marched out ready for action this weekend, including this Uruk-Hai captain.

These 6 Uruk-Hai crossbowmen were only 60% painted, and required a fair bit of brushwork to get them ready.   Repainted and with some proper basing, they look ok.   I would like to get a full unit of 12, but they were pricey buggers ten years ago back when GW sold LOTR metal models in blisters of 3.  Perhaps I can find some more on Ebay or the like.  In Dragon Rampant terms, I would rate these as heavy missiles.

Between the stray basing material and my cat deciding that the light box makes a good place for a nap, these pictures are rather messy.

I did also finish painting some new figures and got them based.  These are 8 orc arches from Vendel miniatures.   My friend James and I are very fond of the Vendel fantasy range, and there are some great examples on his blog.  They’re fairly simple figures but they have a pleasing, old-school look and feel to them with tons of facial expression.

The Vendel moulds got sold recently so all this range is sadly OOP at the moment.  When I was at Hot Lead this March, I was talking to an American fellow who knew the chap who bought the moulds, so I have hopes that they will be back in production soon. 

I only have 8 of these archers, so I decided when I was ordering some bits from North Star recently, that I would splash out on a box of their Oathmark goblins, to see if I could build this unit up a bit.

Each sprue comes with five torsos that can be built out in several ways.  I decided to build four of them as archers.   They have a hunched, furtive look, making them look sneaky and fierce, but they look suitably Mordor-ish.   It took me about ten minutes to assemble five figures, with a minimum of hacking and cutting.

Side by side comparison with the Vendel figures.   I think they’ll work together.

‘So a mixed bag of thoroughly bad hats, with a variety of worthwhile ways to use spare time - painting, salvaging, basing, cutting and gluing.   I’m pleased with the results, though I had better get some reinforcements for Rohan and Gondor into the field soon.   And speaking of the field … I should use these figures in a game - what a crazy thought!   

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Life Goes On - Part Two

Hello all:

I was totally bowled over by all the support that I received on my last post, where I resumed blogging after my wife’s death last winter.   Thank you all so much. It’s been a few months since then, so a little catch up.  Back in May I said here that “A lovely lady, a cancer widow, has entered my life and made it much richer”.   Well, “much richer” barely describes half of it.    Her name is Joy, and she is well-named.   

I met her through the Anglican parish where I serve as a volunteer assistant priest.  Her husband was being treated for cancer at the same hospital where Kay was a frequent flyer, so we often crossed paths and would meet for coffee and mutual encouragement, telling the war stories that only caregivers can really understand.   Then, last November, mysteriously and ten days apart, first Randy died, then Kay.   That winter was hard, but we got through it, checking in and feeding each other as necessary, and gradually realizing that life, and love, can go on.

In April we celebrated Joy’s birthday with a trip to Mexico.   On the flight home, we talked about how difficult it was visiting each other’s houses with a dog and three cats in the equation, and so high above the Gulf of Mexico we decided to throw in together.   

 

It was a splendid decision, and looking back on it, totally the right one.   We weren’t expecting to find love so quickly, but as is the case with a long terminal illness, we had both been in mourning for a year before our spouses passed, and coming back into the land of the living was an unexpected blessing.   As C.S. Lewis said in another context, I was truly Surprised by Joy.

As I moved into Joy’s house, she was a little dismayed at what came with me.   Most of my furniture I left for the tenants of my house to enjoy, but I did bring a steady stream of boxes full of games, terrain, and little soldiers.     She was a good sport, even as she lamented how her basement was now overrun with things that she didn’t truly understand, but she did appreciate the paintwork on my “little men”.

In late May, a bemused Joy had the chance to see some of my collection set up on her dining room table when my mate James came up the three hours from Stratford for one of our ongoing EX THUNDERING DICE dustups.     We don’t see each other as much as we’d like, so we try to get a lot out of our EX TD weekends.  Here the hordes of Middle Earth prepare to do battle - I think we each used about 40 points of figures using our favourite quick play fantasy rules, Dragon Rampant.

I love James’ work, and am always curious to see his latest units.   That day he debuted this impressive unit of wolf riders, old Vendel figures, with a handprinted banner of little doggies circling the Eye of Mordor.  Joy, who adores husky dogs, was suitably impressed.

Much mayhem occurred that day, and while the Wolf Riders died in the end, they were a right pain in the arse.  Even when they were reduced to one figure, they tied up my Rohirrim cavalry and were generally annoying.  Good doggies.

James has some more pictures here.  Also that weekend, I tried to introduce James to one of my fav GMT games, Space Empires, but I think it was all a bit much for him.  On Saturday we decided to play TFL’s Sharp Practice, but the unpacking was still in progress and since I couldn’t find my ACW figures, we used my SYW figures, Russians versus Turks.   It made me realize how much I enjoyed this period, and how much I would like to get back into it.

 

Joy and I spent a lot of time together this summer, solidifying our relationship, and everyone we know says we just look like a pair of happy idiot kids, so that bodes well, I think.

There was a little more gaming, and I’ll tell you some more about that sometime.   Oh yes, there is a project involving Space Kitties.    More to follow.

Blessings to all of you in the land of the living.

MP

Meanwhile In Isengard - 5: Yet More Vendel Barbarians

Here are yet more scruffy, nasty, flea-bitten, root in-tootin, cattle steelin, mean feel in, smelly, yelly and generally unpleasant barbarians, the last of the Vendel Hillmen from my big order this year, and my second entry in this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

This group includes four more archers, including two of the feared Teddy Bear Guardsmen:

Eleven chaps with spears.  Included are some more high tech metal shields with the White Hand device supplied by Saruman’s quartermasters, though the Dunlendings, being conservative folk as are most barbarians, generally prefer their hide shields.

Stab for Saruman and a Free Dunland!

And finally a musician and six fellows that I equipped with choppy things.   After I upended a tray containing all the spears supplied by Vendel with the figures, I was inexplicably short six, and after multiple searches decided on raiding the sprues in my bits box to find some orc swords and a Gripping Beast axe.  It give the force a pleasing variety, I think, as I had already finished twelve spearmen from the original test group back in the fall.

Vendel figures are clunky and don’t have a lot of fine detail, but they paint quickly and with a little wash and dry brushing, I think they look fine en masse.   As I was saying on the AHPC site, I worked hard to give them some variety in terms of hair colour and the colour of the skins and furs they are wearing, rotating through a palette of five different base colours.  I think it worked fairly well.  I currently have some of these figures on my gaming table for a solo game of Dragon Rampant, where they are scampering through woods and kicking elven arse as Bellicose Foot.   I think Saruman will be very pleased with the money he spent to influence the election of the new President of Dunland, as it will pay dividends.

I am currently working on two personality figures from Heresy Miniatures who will be the leaders of this motley crew, and when they are done I’ll take some shots of the whole Dunland force.  Let Rohan tremble!

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

These figures bring my 2017 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 22

Meanwhile in Isengard 4 - Or, Some Vendel Barbarian Archers

I think this is my final post of the year in terms of things what I got painted. These rude and scruffy archers are another step towards finishing the batch of Vendel fantasy figures that I ordered early this fall.  I started with 12 spearmen in October, with the plan of using them as proxy figures for Saruman’s barbarous allies from the hills of Dunland.

 

With 12 bowmen, the Dunlendings now have some missile capability.   The sculptor give them very primitive looking short bows, so I wouldn’t rate them overly highly as missile troops, but in Dragon Rampant terms I would allow them to work as scouts in groups of 6, with the skirmish and evade capability.

I am sure that there are a lot of fleas under those furs and skins.

I have been thinking lately of whether, at least in Dragon Rampant terms, barbarians and wild tribesmen types should be 6 or 12 figure units.  Six figure units are more brittle, and they increase the chance of failing an activation turn early and messing up a turn, since there are more units to activate.   It would seem to make sense that troops like these would prefer to fight in small bands, hunting or raiding, whereas larger 12 figure units would need some sort of formal training as a battle line - thus showing the advantages and disadvantages of trained vs irregular units.  The trained bands are used to moving and fighting as a mass, have more endurance to casualties,  and require fewer activation rolls for the army as a whole, but can be outmaneuvered and damaged by small irregular units if they get to strike first.   I need to give this some more thought.

Here Saruman urges his new hires to get to the archery range and practice their shooting before going up against Helm’s Deep.

Finally, among the figures just finished at year’s end, is this figure from Bombshell Miniatures, described in their catalogue as  “Thorga the Half Orc” and shown here in two crap photos.  Perhaps Saruman can use her as his close protection detail?  She will also make a useful and unusual command figure for the armies of Isengard.

 

I think I’ll save the other figures nearing completion for my 2017 totals.  I wish you and yours all the very best in the new year.   Thank you for all the views and support that you’ve expressed here for my lovely bride.  She has read your comments and has been quite moved by them.

Blessings,  MP

These figures bring my 2016 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 128; Mounted Figures: 10; Buildings: 3; Terrain Features: 2

20mm:  Buildings: 1

6mm:  Mounted figures:  36;  Buildings:  2

Best Christmas Present Ever (And Some Orcs)

I am very happy to report that Madame Padre is back home where she belongs, after two surgeries and a long recuperation.  She went into hospital on 11 Nov, was discharged on 9 Dec, and then readmitted on 12 Dec when everything went rather sideways, for a total of 35 days and nights in hospital over two months.  In today’s health care system, where they send you home hours after minor surgery or delivering a baby, that length of stay is almost unheard of.  Yesterday she celebrated her first day of freedom by going back to hospital, but as an outpatient this time, for her first dose of chemo.   She will receive this drug every three weeks, and by Easter we should know how she is doing.   During all the ups and downs of this process, I was buoyed and supported by so many of my wargaming friends, including readers of this blog.   I thank you all.  Life from here on is uncertain.  Kay is classified as a palliative case, meaning that her cancer can only be managed, not cured, and while her doc says that chemo gets good results, we know that her cancer is advanced and inoperable.   Each day is a gift, a chance to appreciate what we’ve done and been together, and to make plans as bravely as we can for the future.   That seems like the best Christmas present we could receive, and we’re grateful for it.

 In all of those 35 days I have been visiting the hospital when I wasn’t working, sleeping, or tending the Catbeasts of Mordor, so there wasn’t a lot of painting going on.   I did however get a few small projects accomplished, including these eight Orcs from Vendel Miniatures, which are now repped on the Sgt. Major Miniatures page, here.  My friend James and I went in on an order to flesh out our armies of Middle Earth project, as I wanted some diversity from my mainly GW collection of LOTR figures.  These fellows are the OR5 Small Orcs Charging, I think, though the chaps in the photo aren’t throwing their spears overhand (which seems to be a Vendel thing).

I wanted to give them a uniform look, as one would expect for a liveried and trained orc regiment raised in Mordor proper.   A lot of the GW Orcs look quite irregular and scruffy, but these fellows look more dependable, less prone to fighting amongst themselves (Damn!  Lord Sauron, my troops have self-decimated … again!).  As per my SOP for basing LOTR badges, the bases are 

I owe the inspiration for the various Eye patters on the shield to James.  Over on his blog he has done some terrific work bringing his Vendel figures to life, including elves, bad guys, and dwarves. Highly recommended.  These four look like they are posted on guard, perhaps at the gates of Dol Goldur, looking for bagginsess?

And orcs stabbing overhand, or maybe throwing, though since most of them are not cast with any other weapons, throwing may not be such a good idea.

 

I am quite happy with Vendel figures, seeing as how my orcs and these other fellows have painted up.  Vendel figures have a pleasantly old school feel to them, and are quite a bargain, allowing me to round out my legions of Middle Earth without spending a fortune on GW figures - the LOTR range is still available for the most part, but is produced on demand now, I think, and is now all hard plastic, even the sculpts that were once metal.  

I wonder, do they know it’s Christmas time in Mordor?  Well, we do here.   

From Madame Padre and I, blessings to all of you and your loved ones.  Cherish them and cherish your time with them.

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

These figures bring my 2016 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 110; Mounted Figures: 10; Buildings: 3; Terrain Features: 2

20mm:  Buildings: 1

6mm:  Mounted figures:  36;  Buildings:  2