march 11 game

have been talking with ben , pete and nigel about dusting off our lord of the rings figures . not sure what doing with them yet though . if anyone else interested could try a large unwieldy game that would look good but probably not get finished , or try a series of smaller games

I bought the Lion Rampant rules recently and then, looking around for some medieval figures, thought the Lord of the Rings would do. Felt it worked well up to a point.

been talking with Pete about the lion rampant rules . hadn't got as far as thinking about using them in lord of the rings games . but they do cover many of the troop types . possibly not mumakil, but most of the others.
have usually used the games work shop rules, the exact title of which escapes me for the moment. isn't age a wonderful thing!!!!
would be good to try the lion rampant rules sometime

There is a nice system in Lion Rampant around boasts. This seemed a good substitute for all the special power stuff in that you have to take crazy heroic risks to deliver on your boasts. What worked less well, it seemed to me, is the difficulty in getting clean wins from melees. Both sides seem to get ground down by the same amount making every attack more of an exchange. But I guess a tweak could fix that.

sounds like the boasts would suit a proud dwarf . but there were a few proud elves in middle earth too . and boromir . and it may suit an orc/goblin who is trying not to fall foul of some nazghul or other by taking desperate measures !

I have the pdfs for the latest LotR source books if you want to run with some points game. Happy to email them out.

we have now decided to do this with the war of the ring rules . pete , ben and myself will be working out what we have points wise by sunday. we will then decide how many points to use . nigel is also interested . if anyone else is interested, get those figures out and have count up .

Good Points:
6xDwarf Warriors=240pts
Captain =50pts
Banner Bearer =35pts
Shield Bearer =25pts

3xDwarf Archers =95pts

2XDwarf Rangers =70pts
Captain =50pts
1XDwarf Rangers=35pts
Bows =5pts

Balin =100pts
Dain =200pts

2XHigh Elf Reg =110pts
Banner Bearer =35pts
Captain =50pts

High Elf Archer =60pts

Elrond =215pts
Great Eagle =140pts

Total: 1515 (This is not technically a legal army in terms of the game however.)

good starting point . we probably should try and make legal armies , but i won't tell if you don't
due to a hectic schedule including going to the pub tonight , visiting my sister to sample her drinks cabinet on friday and a restaurant trip saturday i probably won,t get into the loft until sunday

at a rough guess i can do

3 bases wood elves including banner and captain
3 bases elves with the choppy sword things banner and captain
haldir plus 2 bases of archers
2 bases rivendell guard and another elrond
i ent
2 bases of very scary hobbits


3 bases uruk pikes including captain and banner
3 bases uruk scouts
2 bases uruk crossbows
4 bases warg riders
lurz
grima
possibly saruman
4 bases isenguard orcs including captain banner
a uruk shaman
a troll
8 bases of goblins

will,as i say , update this on sunday

2 elronds though is definitely not legal

I'd be interested in the pdfs Ben. I'll PM my email.

On another note.

Recce and I will be putting on an 2nd Afghan war game. All are wellcome to join.
With no insergants in sight

Simon

As agreed been totting up the War of the Ring points values for my various armies. I enlarged my forces with a couple of big purchases 12-18 months ago. A lot were painted but to very variable standards. I've just started tidying the armies up which is a pretty big job. I'm close to finishing two (Rohan and Gondor) and one was done already (Misty Mountain Goblins). The rest need a lot of work, and I'm trying to work on a couple of armies at a time, but there is a fair number of useable figs depending on how fussy you are about the standard of painting.

I'm only putting the point values of the basic troop types. You can probably add around 250 points to each army for so for captains/banners (though I am a bit short on banners) and anything from a few hundred points to a 1,000 for the various heroes/monsters/upgrades to legendary units by adding a special fig or two. All the armies has some heroes etc.. I'll probably put more detail on my blog when I get chance, and probably put some totals for how the forces stack up on the SBG points values.

The three finished are:

Rohan 23 Companies Points Value 630 points
Gondor 20 Companies Points Value 530 points
Misty Mountain Goblins 12 Companies 300 points. 200 points of Warg Riders could be added from Mordor Army).

The armies I'm still working on are:

Elves 12 companies 620 points (6 companies are painted)
Numenorians 6 Companies 350 points (3 Companies painted)

Mordor 29 Companies (10 Warg Riders) 600 points (8 companies almost finished, rest bought poorly painted).
Isengard 12 Companies 480 points. 200 points of Warg Riders from Mordor Army can be added. (Most bought reasonably well painted, needs some work on bases etc.)
Harad 7 Companies 345 points (3 Companies of Riders still unpainted)
Easterlings 5 incomplete Companies 165 points (only a few painted)
Corsairs 3 companies 85 points (bought with very poor paint job).

Not all will end up as full WoR armies. Some I bought just to use for SBG but can be used as allies. Was planning on doing work on most of these before bringing to the table, but happy to bring along anything that helps anyone else out put on a game next week.

have done a recount of the models i have for lotr and my estimate was not too far off . won't bore you further with the details

there are i believe 5 of us interested in playing . ben, nigel, pete ,pete and myself,

we could therefore build 6 commands of say 600 points each and hope for a sixth player to fill the gap .

alternatively we could go with the 5 we have and field 4 commands , 2 per side and the 5th could act as rules consultant/umpire to help speed the game along . i am not aware that any of us have much experience with this system . i wouldn't mind sitting out the first try and attempting to make sense of the rules . if this does happen just ask that everyone else is gentle with me !!

by trying 750 twice on each side should get a reasonable number of figures on the table and with 2 players a side should be relatively easy to move and fight them

i could bring elves and isengard and then if ben and pete can agree to bring either a suitable good guys or suitable bad guys force each . nigel has some rohirrim but not enough yet for 750 points

we can then see how it goes and if we need to adjust stuff for future games .

if it is felt 750 per player is too ambitious for a first try we could drop down to 600 or 500

Just done a tally up of the evil stuff I have painted. I can easily bring along 750pts of good or bad, just let me know which you want me to bring along or if you need both.

although dwarves and elves are not traditional allies, at least not recently (except for the battle of the five armies , which is actually quite recent in historical terms ). the dwarves of eregion could have potentially linked up with the elves of rivendell . so if you could bring your dwarves and if pete can bring some of his isengard forces we could refight sarumans invasion of eregion after the defeat of rohan .
well it could have happened !!!!

Do you want me to bring along some orcs as well for Pete 2 to use? Book wise there was plenty of orc warbands roaming around that joined up with Saruman.

better check with pete , i don.t think he needs anything . i will text him and one of us will get back to him .

hi ben , just remebered pete is bringing saruman so won't need to borrow extra orcs

Looking forward to tomorrow evening. Fished out my LotR Rohan; had forgotten quite how nice the figures are. Pity that there are only 6 figures and only 2 different horses which are used across the whole range! As all addicts know too well, all it takes is one little drink. Can't see how one can assemble an army without some eye-watering damage to the plastic. Might look out for second hand deals though. Always happy to support Steve's barmy projects. Next game could be Viking lancers go pig-sticking.

BB: interesting to see the books - you see what I mean about 'just one little drink'! Never understood why GW would just stop publishing ranges.