Clearing the Backlog, Part 23 – The Road to Throne of Skulls (Part 1)

That time of year is upon us again, as hobbyists frantically try to get armies painted, display boards built, costumes made (for those who are either really dedicated, mad or a little bit of both…) and push the standard of hobbying ever higher. Yes folks, Throne of Skulls season is here!

For those not familiar, Throne of Skulls is hosted at Warhammer World in Nottingham, and is easily one of the best tournaments on the hobby calendar. Each player takes a 1,000 point army, and the focus is more on the way you play the game, rather than your actual results – whilst points are awarded for winning games, points are also awarded for sportsmanship and hobbying, with players getting to vote on their favourite games and favourite armies. 

The level of hobbying on display is also of epic proportions, as the attendees produce fantastic conversions, outstanding army painting and display boards that take your breath away. I may sound like I'm fantasising a little bit, but I'd like to think anyone who has been to a Throne of Skulls event would agree with me. It is a fantastic event, which is why tickets are so highly sought after!

However, before diving headfirst into Throne of Skulls preparations, I needed to finish my Easterlings. The centrepiece of the army was The Dragon Emperor, atop his royal palanquin. This was without a doubt one of the most laborious paint jobs I've ever had to do, because of all the various different sub-assemblies he had to be painted in – the Dragon Emperor and the palanquin bearers were all painted separately, and the palanquin had to be painted in several separate pieces, before I glued the whole thing together. However, I was really pleased with the end result – I'd used the same techniques on the Dragon Emperor as I had on my other Easterlings, so the whole army ties together nicely, and he really does stand out on the tabletop. 

The last two models for my army were the War Drakes of Rhun – these are also very unique compared to the rest of the Easterling range, and have proved very popular since they've come out (or, at least, I assume so as they're currently out of stock). They were a bit of a challenge as they paint up completely differently to the rest of my army. I still painted the armour in the same way, but used different shades of green for the scales – I'm not planning on getting any more drakes for the moment, but if I do, it will be fun to try out different colour schemes for each of them – good luck to anyone planning a full army of them! With the drakes painted, I based them to match the army and my Easterlings were ready to go to war!

In between work on the Easterlings, there were also a couple of Battle Streams in Middle Earth evenings, which were themed around Tom Bombadil – a perfect excuse to get him and Goldberry out of my backlog and painted! They were quite fun to paint as they are also completely unique models compared to what would normally go in an army – they're also not in the films, which means there's not really a visual reference for them. Fortunately, we still have Tolkien's words, so I used the descriptions from Fellowship of the Ring (Tom having a blue coat, brown hat and yellow boots, and Goldberry being dressed in green), and I had two more models completed! 

As to models painted for the year, with Tom and Goldberry done, my count is now up to 136 models! I'm very pleased with progress so far, and hopefully my efforts for Throne of Skulls will help me get close to 200 models for the year. 

So, to Throne of Skulls itself! For this year's event, I decided to build on an existing army rather than start an entirely new one, my reasoning being that it would save time only having to paint a few additional models, rather than a whole army. 

My starting point was the Realms of Men army I took to the Grand Tournament, which was 700 points of Minas Tirith  - 24 warriors, 10 knights, a King of Men, 2 captains, a banner and a war horn -  a nice solid base from which to start.

My next task was expanding the army, and after perusing a few different Gondor army lists, I settled on Atop the Walls – the core of my Realms of Men list came from the Minas Tirith Battlehost, which meant I had Gandalf the White and Pippin ready to be added to the army. Gandalf also conveys a courage bonus in the list, meaning I could ditch the war horn and save myself some points there. I also decided I wanted a few Citadel Guard in the list, and the best hero to lead them for me was Iorlas. As to other heroes, I was a bit undecided – captains would be useful, but had proved a bit ineffective at the GT. Fortunately, in the midst of my list planning, Armies of Middle Earth was released, and it had two heroes I was more than happy to add to the list – Hurin the Tall, Warden of the Keys, and Beregond, Guard of the Citadel. Beregond has had a bit of a glow-up in the new edition, so I'm looking forward to seeing how he performs. Last but not least, you can't have Atop the Walls without trebuchets, so I added two! My list for Throne of Skulls was complete!

So, at the time of writing this blog, it is Friday, 3 October 2025. Throne of Skulls takes place the weekend of 28 / 29 November, giving me just a little over 8 weeks to build and paint the army, and prepare my display board, which of course has to be the walls of Minas Tirith (after all, you can't have "Atop the Walls" without a wall…). And I am happy to say that progress on the army is well under way!

I'm aiming to be back with my next blog post at the end of the month to showcase the finished army, which hopefully leaves me the whole of November to work on the display board, which will then be the subject of a further blog post – fingers crossed everything goes to plan!

Tournament Report- Reinforcements in the South East (28th Sept 2025)

 Hey all

It's been a long time since I did a Tournament Report, the last being Throne of Skulls last year. So I thought I'd crack one out on here.

The Tournament

This was a one day deescalation event of four games hosted in Woolpit, which the Palmers hold for us. I've never had a bad event there and as always this was a great day. 

Players would play two games at 750pts dropping to 550pts for the third and fourth games. I believe the only limitation was that you had to use the same army list for both limits. I personally made my 550 scale up to 750 for convenience.

It was also announced that the scenarios would be exclusively rolled amongst the newest ones in the Matched Play Guide.

My Army

I wanted to try out one of the newer forces from Armies of Middle Earth or the Legacies, as I haven't had many games since their release. After a little browse, I took to bringing out my dwarves again, as they hadn't seen any table time in a few years. It was also a chance to take some of the converted dwarves that I made for my Battle Company challenge way back in 2022. (https://eastangliasbg.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-battle-companies-community-creator.html)

KINGDOM OF KHAZAD DUM

750pts

Durin (Leader)

Hearthguard x11

Dwarf King w/ Throwing Axes

Dwarf Warrior x1 w/ Banner

Dwarf Warriors x5 w/ Dwarf Bow

Vault Warden Teams x4

Mardin

Dwarf Warriors x2 w/ Dwarf Bow

Dwarf Warriors x3 w/ 2h

Dwarf warriors x5 w/ Shield

Numbers: 37

550pts

Durin (Leader)

Hearthguard x10

Dwarf King w/ Throwing Axes

Dwarf Warrior x1 w/ Banner

Dwarf Warriors x5 w/ Dwarf Bow

Vault Warden Team x3

Numbers: 24

Game 1- Convergence (Vs. Reclamation of Moria (Jon))

Scenario

I'll explain the scenarios, roughly, for those who aren't yet familiar.

In Convergence, the armies are deployed over opposite corners, alternating warbands. So that you have half of the enemy army to either side of you. Same as Divide and Conquer. 

There are four objectives deployed halfway from the centre to each board edge in a plus sign. These are light objects that have the Heirloom effect and may transfix their carrier each turn, you also may not pass it along to another model. Only one of which can be carried by a model. You maximise your VPs for each by ending the game holding each within 6" of the centre, so running away with them won't help you too much.

The Game

I deployed Durin alone in one corner, with the King and Mardin together in the opposite. Jon had deployed Balin with the Captain in one, and the King's Champion with the King in the last. 

Marches were quickly called by Balin, the Captain and both of our Kings. I marched my King and that army half towards the objective that the Champion was chasing, and Durin ran towards the objective that the Captain rushed towards. Balin marched towards one that I wasn't going for, and his King rushed for the last that I also wasn't contesting.

Before long, my King's warband had taken one objective, Balin's Khazad Guard had taken one, as had his King and the Captain had taken the last, but was hotly pursued by Durin and his Hearthguard, who slammed into the warband. Durin called a Heroic Combat alongside a Hearthguard to slay a ranger and give chase, only to lose the fight. As did many of the guards.

The following turn, I got lucky as the ranger with the objective got transfixed by the objective and Durin this time pulled off his combat and rushed after the ranger. The turn after calling a Heroic Move to catch and slay him for the objective. Then pushing towards the middle, Durin took most of the warband to assist the rest of the army as a few of his guard held the objective in the centre.

The Captain fought against three Hearthguard for the majority of the game. Eventually falling, but havin kept three dangerous warriors busy. (In the pics through this report, I have highlighted objectives in red.)

Meanwhile, as all that unfolded, my King and Mardin ran from the Champion, intending to slam into Balin's warband and isolate him, hopefully taking his objective as we did so. Jon's King took his objective to the centre, and seeing Balin getting outnumbered, rushed forward to assist.

I placed my Vault Wardens to my rear, to hold the Champion's warband back with a handful of warriors, as the King, Mardin and remainder of the warband started to cut into Balin's Khazad Guard. My King fought Balin and managed to take a fate, before being surrounded after a Heroic Combat brought Balin, the King and a Khazad upon him, but he won the fight and slew the Khazad.

The King's Champion was steadily killing dwarves, but I kept placing more in his path to avoid being pincered. My backline of Vault Wardens was also just about holding firm, although I lost a spear to a throwing axe. 

My King was showing himself to be the MVP as he fought the opposing King time and again, steadily killing troops to push Jon towards breaking, including killing a Khazad objective holder with a throwin axe. 

Some of my warriors managed to punch a hole in the Khazad line and get some traps going, just as Durin's warband appeared on the horizon!

I made a mistake as I charged my objective holding dwarf into the front so that, as my banner took the dropped objective, my warrior with the other was slain and had his own taken.

Over the last few turns, I won several priorities, which allowed my backline to rigidly keep the King's Champion warband back and prevent disaster. It also helped as Durin rushed in and took a fate off the Champion's banner bearer, who had rushed around to Balin's side. 

My King showed his value as he cut down a third objective bearer in the final turn, meaning it dropped to the floor. Jon's rangers atop some towers had been raining arrows down on the Hearthguard in the middle with the objective but failed to drop the guy holding it. 

I did have one last worrying moment as Durin charged and fought Balin, losing the fight and narrowly avoiding a wound with his fate.

As time was called, I had claimed three objectives with one in the centre, I was the only one with models in the centre and we had broken one another. This had given me an 8-1 victory!

Game 2- Escort the Wounded (Vs. Army of the White Hand (Kepa))

Scenario

This is similar to the previous scenario, in that you are carrying objectives to target places. You are deployed 24" away from your opponent and each have three 'heavy object' objectives (the wounded). Your aim is to get each of them past your opponent within 12" of either of the corners in their deployment area. You may not carry your opponent's objective.

The Game

I lined up my dwarves with a warband behind each objective (Durin- left, Mardin- centre and King- right). Kepa also spread his army out, with the lead uruk to my right.

Kepa called several marches to push up and get a high defensive line against me. I decided to just allow the left uruks to get past with their wounded, the intention being to shatter the centre and accelerate my own objectives through while keeping one or two of the uruks busy.

I got some good success off the bat, as Durin linked up with Mardin's warband and a couple of Hearthguard using their Burly rule to carry the objectives alone. Durin used a Heroic combat to get through the frontline and get behind to kill some pikes, allowing his Hearthguard to smash the left flank and get the Hearthguard with the objectives to make a break for it. There was a small handful of crossbows before them, but if I could get Durin to assist, I'd be home free.

Kepa's objective to my left had also broken through and been saved, but I had his last one right in the thick of the battle, so I intended to just keep the fight around it to pin it. (My objectives are the black discs, Kepa's the red).

The King rushed forward and engaged the lead uruk's warband. Said lead uruk managed to skirt around me and start making a dash with a pikeman for the corner. I fired a few shots at the pike ot try and slow them down, but got no luck. But the King managed to smash the opposing warband and eventually get his wounded past and running for the corner. With the uruks dead, the remaining dwarves all poured to middle to assist the main army.

Unfortunately for me, disaster had struck in the middle, where it had been going so well. I couldn't win a priority for the life of me, being forced to attempt my Durin's Ring reroll against a 5, as I had to move that turn to have a decent chance, but failed. And so my objective carriers were pinned well by the uruks. At the same time, they had managed to free up their own objective and I could only watch as it was carried to safety. I had also lost a couple of vital Hearthguard, who were keeping the left flank protected and holding back several berserkers for me. This allowed a wave of troops to hit my crucial spot hard.

The King's unit joined the fray but it sadly wasn't going to help too much without the priority to get my own objectives out of the myre. As time was coming to a close, I knew there was nothing I could do, so we played our remaining couple of turns and to my dismay, Durin was slain from full wounds by a captain and berserker! A lot of congrats to Kepa as he had completely turned around what had started as a disaster for him.

Kepa had rescued all three of his wounded, while I had saved one of mine and carried one still. We had broken one another, he had slain Durin and I had a banner remaining at the end to score a 16-9 loss.

Game 3- Sites of Power (Vs. Reclamation of Osgiliath (Ryan))

Scenario

This is a maelstrom deployment scenario. There are four objectives, halfway between the centre and each corner. These have a randomly assigned effect each turn, boosting courage/ wounding/ survivability. You want to hold those objectives, ideally with no opponents also on them or to outnumber them as much as you can. There's also a bonus objective for trying to take out the second most expensive model in your opponent's army. 

The Game

We were now into our 550pt games. Before we started, Ryan mentioned his exasperation at dropping Madril just as we got our maelstrom scenario.

I got the initial priority given to me by Ryan, and had my King use a might to make sure he arrived near terrain for cover, should the big bad Boz turn up. He was in the South-East corner.

Durin then arrived across the board to the West, in hindsight, maybe I should have kept them together, but I wanted to go for the approach of claim two and see if the game ends quickly.

Boromir rolled a two and I placed him right beside the King, deciding to gamble on some shots dismounting him early. He set up a spearwall before me and Boromir skirted around the ruin as we engaged. Ryan immediately managed to slay an Iron Shield bearer, to my horror.

Durin, meanwhile, dropped a couple of Hearthguard at the South West objective and started running the rest of his dwarves up to the North-West one. Faramir had arrived on the North-East and left a few troops before starting to jog and shoot at Durin's unit.

Boromir closed in on the King's unit as I tried to inflict some casualties on his unit. My archers took their only shots they'd get at him...and four missed, the last went through, hit Boromir and narrowly failed to wound.

Boromir then flew in, and quickly started making short work of the dwarves. I killed maybe one or two of the men and dismounted a knight, but the biggest blow I dealt was draining away five of Boromir's might. But in exchange, he had wiped out the King's warband including the King himself.

With that development, Faramir had got close, so I rushed Durin and his guard off the NW objective and engaged the following turn, this turn I bounced off. But the following one, the dwarves hit hard and many of the men around Faramir fell, who had now used two Heroic Defences. He then used another to get a Heroic Move and pull away from the dwarves, towards Boromir, who was approaching up the Western centre.

As Boromir joined in, I threw Durin and the majority of his guard onto Boromir, and called a Strike, forcing Boromir to also call one with his last point. We both rolled a pathetic 1 each for our strikes, and both got a 6 in combat. It was a tense roll off, but it went my way! And I just threw every strike at Boromir himself. With Durin's axe reroll, I did a total of five wounds! Surely, hes dead....no, he only managed to get a 4, 5, and 6 on his fate!

The following priority went against me, so i used the Ring of Durin and seized it! Boromir was rushed again and after rolling a 5 high, fell to the axes of the dwarves! Baruk Khazad! Khazad Ai Menu!

Faramir then stood with a few surviving troops and I desperately tried to break them as time was looming. My two Hearthguard at the SW objective fought hard, but one was slain. The other couldn't land a blow to kill.

In the last turn, with Ryan needing to lose two guys to break, two Hearthguard wounded Faramir three times, to bring him to 1w, 0f. But Durin himself, in the final combat, managed to slay both of his opponent's giving me a comeback of sorts.

At the end, Ryan held the NE and SE uncontested, he had triple my numbers on the SW and I had pulled a lone guard onto the NW, we were both broken, I had slain Boromir and wounded Faramir, but he had slain my King. So I had a 12-8 loss, but what had started out as a rout, was heading towards victory territory!

Game 4- Lead from the Front (Vs. The Eagles (Rob))

Scenario

Again for this one, you deploy 24" away from your opponent for this one. There are three objectives across the middle of the board, and you need to have a hero holding the objective. If the opponent also has a hero there, the one with the highest Heroic Tier will claim it. 

The Game

'How can I tell my Eagles apart?' I hear you ask. Party hats!

My last game was against Rob's Eagles. I had one advantage that I could play for this, I had two heroes to his one, so I could potentially claim two objectives to push for the win.

I pushed up as he carefully approached and, before long, I had priority and forced the issue as I put myself in front of the objectives with the Eagles just before me. They charged multiple Hearthguard and I just had to hope that the reroll for less dice would save a few.

Many of the Hearthguard were rended, and one was hurled into Durin, killing the hurled dwarf and knocking the leader prone. Gwaihir then barged and flew into him. I had not called a Strike or Defence, as I knew that I'd need might for moves and fights to come, with the screech still looming. Gwaihir won the fight, and then, with his six strikes scored three wounds and spent a might to cause a fourth. This meant that I would need to save at least one wound with Durin's natural 6 save. Sadly, he didn't and now I was in big trouble after that miscalculation.

I had sent my Dwarf King around the side of the building, hoping that he could lead a charge of Vault Wardens to maybe cause some counter damage. If one eagle falls, it tends to lead to others.

But the Hearthguard, without Durin's bodyguard rule, failed a couple of tests to charge and freed some birds to land more damage upon me, one managed to wound an eagle. When the Vault Wardens and King hit, they unfortunately failed to win their fights and an eagle swooped onto the King and also slew him. 

With blow heroes gone, I could only hope that I could slay Gwaihir, but the odds were vastly against me, as I was broken and had only caused a single wound. Gwaihir settled onto an objective and the eagles flew into remaining troops to mop them up, until I hit 25%.

Rob had taken an objective with Gwaihir, broken me, killed my leader and neither of us had banners, to give a score of 12-2 victory to him.

If this game seems short, it was because I barely lasted half an hour. 😂 However, with over an hour left on the clock and the finish time looking around 7ish, I decided to shoot off and see my boy before he went to bed, so that was a bonus.

Results

I had managed to win one game in my four, but they had all been good ones, with a good few nailbiters. I had 27 VPS and -14 VPD, placing me 24th out of 30. 

With my last game over and an hour left on the round, I left early to get some time with the boy before he went to bed. But I did receive a message that, in my absence, I had won Most Sporting, which was a lovely way to round the event off! 

Until next time!

Events that I'll attend

25th Oct- EAHC Halloween Event (666pts + 100pts of beasties)

8th Nov- EAHC 2025 Finale- The Clouds Burst

29/30th Nov- Throne of Skulls 

Aragorn, You Need More Men (Backlog Clearing: Mar-Sept ‘25)

Hey all, it’s been a while.

I haven’t posted since March, as I had to pack my modelling and painting equipment back in April, expecting to move later than month. A move, which is yet still to happen. 

I intended to post this when I did, as a way of refreshing myself before I get back on the painting in the new house. But with nearly five months now having past, I need to do something hobby related to break up the limbo.

So back in March, I had an event looming in April for my Army of Edoras. I had six rohirrim left to finish from my Battle of Edoras starter set. And I managed to get them polished off, completing the good side of that box.

Next up, with all distractions aside, James and I had seven stones looming in May. With the move looming all year, I had suggested we do something low key and fun. We had a small collection of spitballed ideas, and we settled on one I had dubbed ‘How am I supposed to trust you!?’ This was an army entirely comprised of those in Middle Earth, who betrayed, backstabbed or cheated those who trusted them. As the idea developed, James suggested that we blend in the BBC series ‘The Traitors’ into the theme. I went away and watched a series as research…then another, and soon had watched all of them and all the other countries too as I painted. It was a little addictive.

Having assembled our horde of scum and villainy, we set to getting them sorted. First up for me, Ted Sandyman. Fool that I am, I had one from when I got Lotho for my Fantasy Fellowship…but parted ways with him because ‘when will I ever have a need of him?’ Less than two years later, as it happens.

Rather than scour eBay and hope to get one for an inflated cost, I took the opportunity to build my own. Since I would also need a handful of hobbit ‘traitors’ to follow him, I bought a cheap second hand pic of militia and chose one to Frankenstein. Below is the model i chose and my planned conversion (no, I simply cannot take any more graphic design requests).

 

I manipulated his hammer arm and cut the hand off to reposition it. I also cut off his other arm and moved it to a nice, accusing point, with added finger of justice! 

The idea being that he can stand on the display, accusing a fellow traitor of…well being a traitor, in typical traitor fashion. So to highlight it, I also added a traitors cloak, which I painted in a nice vibrant green.

I then quickly did up his militia buddies to join him.

Next traitor up for roll call, was Boromir. Using his Breaking of the Fellowship pose, as it illustrated him just after his weakest moment, seemed fitting. And not at all because I needed him to be done from the paint queue. He also got a nice green traitor’s cloak.

Next up, I did a couple of quick repaints on Grima and Saruman, as they both had old, chipped paintjobs that I felt I could improve upon. It was also a nice chance to practice my variations of whites on the wizard. I had ordered a better posed Saruman for the Traitors feel.

 

Luckily, I wouldn’t need the old Saruman, as the new one did arrive in time and I got him sorted out. I felt the pose was perfect for a dramatic round table shouting match.

 

With him, my half of the army was done, with some rebasing on old models to give wooden bases to fit the display board. 

 

We got the nomination that we wanted and six losses in all our great games with plenty of silly revelry. James had done an epic job of his half and a class display board for a truly hectic round table! Another successful Seven Stones! #Milk #Moretickets

 

With all events that needed models all ready, I was free to just paint what I felt like. I opted to do my Rohan Traitor banner for Lord Thorne’s warband. 

I wanted to do a different colour scheme for mine, as I’m a special little flower. And liked the feel of purple and black together, which seemed fitting for Lord Thorne, who seems to be a well dressed and equipped man. And plan to do his warband and himself in similar style, when I get to it.

 

As April started, and packing was intensifying, I decided that I had time to paint one more small project, and opted for the newest Gandalf the White.

This was partly as I wanted to strike while the iron was hot from my experience of doing Saruman’s whites. I should credit the faintly varying shades of white to Will Poynter, who advised never going white, but always an ‘off white’. Meaning always mix a tiny bit of another colour into the white, to make it a more natural colour and help avoid blending all layers into one solid. I used a variation of light greys, creams and browns to give slight distinction to each white I used, and was really happy with how it came out! 

And it was here that I left my painting, packed it all up ready to move. And nearly five months later, sadly, still awaiting my paint revival. But hopefully soon…as Throne of Skulls is calling, I don’t have a lot to paint, but a fair bit to build…and if I don’t, I don’t just let myself down…