The Lord of the Rings: Armies of Middle Earth: September 2008

Wednesday, 3 September 2008

Orc Battle Company

I went to GW in Oxford Street (it's only 170 yards from my new office, worryingly!) to get a few acrylic paints to paint my Warhammer 40K free figures for my son. Whilst I was in there I picked up the new Mordor supplement for the Lord of the Rings. It looks quite good (without having much actual content!)and so I decided to start a few more evil army figures. I have had a couple of Orcs on my painting table for months and so, suitably inspired, I have just based enough more for a Battle Company. I already have the two archers you need as I painted those for a game we did at Guildford a couple of years ago. Even though I am up to my eyes in the Zulu War at the moment (I must have spent over £100 on Zulu books in the last couple of weeks) I can see that having a few LotR plastics to do might come as a relief to all those regimented figures.

The Battle Companies Mordor starting force is as follows:

2 Orcs with bows.
3 Orcs with two-handed weapons.
3 Orcs with hand weapons and shields.
3 Orcs with spears.

This is the force so far. Lets see how they progress in a couple of weeks!

Wargaming Middle Earth

I confess that I had never been a fan of The Lord of the Rings until Peter Jackson's monumental films came out. I had never read the books and had, years before, given up on The Hobbit half way through. Now I have read most of them (I am still struggling to finish the Return of the King) and whilst acknowledging their influence and scope still don't think they are particularly readable.

No, for me , it was the fantastic images created by the film that inspired me. Oddly, when Games Workshop came out with their Fellowship of the Ring boxed set I didn't buy it as I couldn't see how you could turn a film featuring largely invincible heroes into a satisfactory game.

It wasn't until D'Agostini came out with their Battlegames in Middle Earth part-work that I got interested, at the prompting of my little boy, Guy, and subsequently subscribed to the magazine; eventually collecting every issue.

I painted the 12 goblins included in the first issue in a day and my little boy and I immediately played a game using these and the cardboard Aragorn included as well.

Since then I must have acquired hundreds of figures, although very few are painted. Most are designed by the Perry brothers and are, as a result, completely gorgeous. Some of them are truly remarkable portraits, in 25mm, of the actors who played the parts in the films.

Occasionally, LotR games are played at Guildford but the main driver for me in getting more figures done is Guy, who loves playing the game.

So over the next year or so I will see how many more of these splendid figures I can get onto the gaming table and even have a go at making some scenic items.