Galadhrim Warriors

I continue single-handely to regenerate the economy of Nottingham

One thing I do not need at present is any more Lord of the Rings figures. I have hundreds to paint! However I couldn't resist this latest box set from GW of Galadhrim Warriors.

I love the scene in The Two Towers where Haldir brings his elves to the relief of Helm's Deep but up until now you have had to fork out a fortune (well £7.85 for three figures) to build this force. So the £20 for 24 figures is a bargain (by Games Workshop reckoning).

It's still pretty steep for plastic figures given that Victrix sell 60 Napoleonic French for the same price.

Interestingly, if you look at the scenes from The Two Towers (very much my favourite of the trilogy) quite a few of Haldir's Elves are women (see far left in the picture above). This is probably not reflected in the plastic models! GW no longer call them Haldir's Elves but just "Elves with bows" or "swords".

I might take them on holiday with me to paint but will try and ensure that they don't look too bright but more Peter Jackson (or Weta) muted. Guy is keen that I build a Helm's Deep model but all those curved walls may be beyond my capabilities!

GW do captains and a banner bearer (at an eye watering £5.85) to make a War of the Ring unit. I suppose it's less than half the price of a Martini at the Langham Hotel down the road. I have a GW exactly 170 paces from where I work and it's a good thing I took this new job last year with its threefold salary increase or I'd be stuffed!

Rohan Horn Player

Here is the new War of the Ring Rohan horn player, which I finished today. Now all I need is to paint the standard bearer to make my first Rohan command unit. The standard bearer in the three figure box is also a nice figure although I can't say the same about the Captain who is modelled with a captive Orc. Fine if you are playing against Orcs but I won't be so it's annoying that they turned it into a diorama. Never mind, as they makeother Rohan Captains.

Uruk Hai scouts

I had sort of missed the fact that there was a second plastic set of Uruk Hai. Having only glanced at the box I thought that they had just changed the name of the original figures. This second set, of course, represents the creatures who've "taken the Hobbits to Isengard"! They should be used for the Amon Hen and Wrath of Rohan scenarios.

I painted them slightly differently from my other Uruk Hai using the colours from the original costume designs.

Uruk hai Scout Helmet

I've got another ten about half way finished so may have a go at them this weekend. I certainly need to complete a few more figures to get back on my painting target.

War of the Ring movement trays

It was a block of Uruk Hai pikemen that sold me on the idea really.

These have been hard to come by and I couldn't even get any infantry ones at Salute but I picked up some today in the GW Oxford Street branch. It's weird that the existence of the trays in advance of the rules is getting me back into the LotR again but it is!

Anyway, here are some of my Rohan figures entrayed.

War of the Ring

Guy and I are very excited about the new War of the Ring mass combat rules from GW. They don't come out until April, it seems, which is just as well as we will need to get a lot more figures painted! I don't know much about the rules yet although having asked a few Games Workshop guys they are not based on Warhammer.

A few interesting things I have picked up. They use units of eight figures which you can combine into bigger units but that effects their manoeuverability, which is an interesting one I haven't come across before but seems perfectly logical when you think about it. There is a one stage wounding process; not the Warhammer hit followed by wound sequence. Heroes are very important in effecting the fighting abilities of the unit they are with. There will be new command figures and special bases for the figures. The book is really thick, apparently, and contains all the army lists. Can't wait!

Having painted 12 Uruk Hai in a day yestarday I am thinking that this must be an army to go for and possibly Gondor, who are equally quick to paint. I have also wanted to do the Last Alliance Second Age battle between Elves and Men and Sauron's orcs on Mount Dooom.

I wonder whether the reason for the whole thing (other than selling a lot more figures, naturally) is the imminent arrival of the two new Hobbit films and the ability to do the Battle of Five Armies?

Battle Companies Game: Moria Goblins vs Dwarves and Gondor

My liitle boy and I usually play a game of Battle Companies during the Christmas holidays and this year was no exception. However this year my daughter wanted to join in too so we modified our planned forces to include a Dwarven company (seven figures) and a Gondor (also seven)taking on two Moria Goblin forces (24 figures).

The board set up. Goblins coming on from the left, Gondor from the top and the Dwarves from the bottom right.

We set out the board with the usual scenery but this year put my Weathertop model in the centre. I still haven't painted this but my recent discovery of how good the Citadel spray black paint is should accelerate this process this year, hopefully.

Turn 1

The Goblins won priority and split into two to head towards the dwarves on the right flank and the men of Gondor on their left.

Turn 2

Good won priority and the Dwarves and Men of Gondor headed towards a planned rendezvous in the ruins on the hill.

Turn 3

The Dwarves reach Weathertop

Good won priority again and several Dwarves reached Weathertop before anyone else.

Turn 4

Goblins swarm in


The Goblins win priority and race to the Weathertop ruins as well. The Dwarves flee from the ruins in order to avoid the Goblin bowmen.

Turn 5

Gondor and the Dwarves meet up

The Dwarfe and Gondorian forces Rendezvous below the walls of Weathertop whilst the Goblins have become split into four groups.

Turn 6

The first shooting sees a Gondor bowman dispatching a Goblin. The Dwarf Captain soon chops up another Goblin who is trapped against a wall: he can't do anything against the Dwarf Captain's (christened King Dwarf the Fouth by my daughter who prefers Narnia and names most of her Dwarves after those from Narnia) four attacks. First blood to Good!

Turn 7

The Dwarves put paid to four Goblins in one turn!

Turn 8

Three more Goblins bite the dust. The Dwarf captain takes a hit and then a wound but uses up his fate point to recover it.

Turn 9

Hooray! A Dwarf is down!

At last the Goblins hit back and dispatch a Dwarf and a Gondor Spearman for the loss of one more Goblin.

Turn 10

Despite winning priority four more Goblins go down, mainly to the axes of the Dwarves. The Goblins have now lost 14 out of 24 whilst the Dwarves and Gondor have only lost a man each.

Turn 11

The end is nigh for the Goblins as the Captain of Gondor flank attacks the Goblins dispatching one more on the walls of Weathertop.

Turn 12

Over the far side of the watchtower, away from the main action, two Goblins try to dislodge the Gondor archer who has been taking pot shots at them but the first is dealt with quickly. Down below two lone Goblins have tried to scuttle around the base of the tower unseen but they are spotted by two Gondorians who deal with them rapidly.

Turn 13

It's all over for the Goblins who find themselves double and triple teamed. Six lost in one turn and the game is over leaving only my solitary Goblin captain to scuttle away to try and find some more axe fodder.

I haven't played as a Goblin force before and know that you should try to use archers to whittle down opponents before they can get into close combat and then try and surround opponents to triple team them. Unfortunately the main fights developed in a very constricted part of the board and I couldn't get my Goblins in in enough numbers or use my bowmen. I found dwarves blocking narrow gaps and chopping my goblins up as they were fed in literally piecemeal. It was like a horrible Middle Earth Thermopylae and I was the Persians! Total losses were two Dwarves out of seven, one Gondorian out of seven and 23 out of 24 Goblins! A crushing defeat at the hands of my gleeful children!

Moria Goblin Captains

I knocked out a couple more figures yesterday. These Goblin captains have been sitting on my painting table undercoated for a year so, given the Battle Companies game today I dusted them off and finished them. I don't go mad on detail with goblins but they look OK. I tend to follow the muted colour scheme of the films (which suits my use of enamels) rather than the brighter acrylic look of the official Games Workshop painted figures.

Dwarven Battle Company

I had forgotten that I also painted a Dwarven Battle Company last year so if we have time we can have a Dwarves v Goblins Game!

I've just looked at the Games Workshop Website and all mention of the Battle Companies game has disappeared from it. No doubt they realised that a game that only needs a handful of figures each side isn't going to sell lots of product and instead they are coming out with very expensive boxes of vast armies. I'm glad I downloaded all the Battle Company details! For me it's an ideal way to play Lord of the Rings because as the companies grow and we need extra figures we just go out and buy them which means only having to paint one of two at a time.

Gondor Captain

I painted this Gondor Captain today to represent the lieutenant hero leader that you need for a battle company.

I am planning a Battle Companies game with my little boy (we only seem to play one game a year!) before the end of the holiday and rather than use our normal Rohan v Uruk Hai forces we are going to have a Gondor v Moria Goblins game (not very likely in Middle Earth I know!).

It should be interesting as the forces are very different. We will be using the starting forces for each company.

The Gondor Battle Company starting force.

Gondor gets 7 heavily armoured troops (2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows, 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with hand weapons and shields and 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with spears and shields)

Goblin starting force

Moria gets more figures (12) but they are a lot weaker (4 Moria Goblins with bows, 4 Moria Goblins with spears and 4 Moria Goblins with hand weapons and shields).

I've not used a Goblin Battle company before but we did do a game at the club and John, who was playing Goblins did win his battle but I can't remember his opponents!

Guy wants to be Gondor so I think my tactics will be to surround each Minas Tirith soldier with the maximum number of Goblins possible giving me the best chance to win the combat. We'll see what happend on Sunday!