Monday, 4 August 2025

Errata/FAQ Time: Eagles, Lightning, and Spiders! :O

A non-exhaustive look at some Errata/FAQ suggestions that I'd like to see, whether for lore or gameplay reasons. What did I forget to include? 

ERRATA

 

Armies of The Lord of the Rings

 

The Last Alliance

-Add the following to Heroes of Fortitude: 

"Cirdan the Shipwright"

[He was very much there!]

-Change the first additional rule to the following:

“A Last Alliance Army must include at least one of Gil-Galad and/or Elrond, as well as at least one of Elendil and/or Isildur.”

[Heading off the Erestor+Isildur build that the "unique hero" wording allows, or even Cirdan+Isildur!]

-Add the following Additional Rule:

“You may not include more Elf models than Men models”

[To prevent the Isildur+Elf spam lists which lean into "Whirl of Blades"]

-Add the following Special Rule:

Legendary Might of the High Kings-

 “Whilst within 6” of each other, Gil-Galad and Elendil may apply the following rules:

-They may re-roll any Duel Roll results of a 1. 

-The first time each turn that Elendil spends a Might Point, roll a D6. On a 4+, the Might Point is free and does not reduce his store of Might.

-If Gil-Galad slays an Enemy Hero in Combat, he regains a point of Might spent earlier in the Game. 

[Currently the double High King is probably the weakest build, and with a real Might deficit, let's give them a boost!] 

 

The Eagles

Change the Piercing Cry Special Rule to the following:

“Once per Game, at the start of any Move Phase, Gwaihir can use this special rule so long as he is alive and on the battlefield. If he does, then all enemy models gain the Fearful Special Rule. Additionally, enemy models within 6" of Gwaihir, or attempting to Charge Gwaihir, cannot benefit from special rules that would allow them to automatically pass Courage Tests, with the exception of Heroic Resolve. These effects last until the End of the Turn.”

[This does give the eagles a turn of being extremely hard to charge, but doesn't stop the opponent from being able to play at all]  

 

Army of the White Hand

-Change the Conjure Lightning ability to the following:

"This Magical Power targets one piece of terrain on the battlefield. The piece of terrain should be a ruin, a stone or brick building, a cave, a rock pile, an area of woodland terrain, or some other piece of terrain where the caster could crack rock or bring down branches or debris from overhead. (Agree with your opponent which pieces of terrain would be appropriate before beginning the game). When cast, you should have no friendly models within 6" of the piece of terrain (with the exception of Grima Wormtongue). then roll a D6 for each enemy model within 2" of that piece of terrain. If the roll is equal to or over the Strength of the model, or is a natural 6, then the model immediately suffers a Strength 4 hit and, if it survives, will be knocked Prone. If a Cavalry model is successfully affected, both the rider and Mount will suffer a Strength 4 hit before being knocked prone- they will automatically count as suffering the Knocked Flying result on the Thrown Rider Chart. 

 [Lightning tends to strike the tallest things in the area, rather than being a tactical airstrike!] 

-Add the following to "Serve the White Wizard!":

“If The Wild Man Oathmaker is included as part of your Army List, friendly Wild Man Chieftain and Wild Man of Dunland models gain the Isengard Keyword.”

[As well as being thematic, they can benefit from an Isengard Troll’s War Drum]

 

Depths of Moria

-Add the following Additional Rule:

“A Depths of Moria Army List must either include:

a) At least one of The Balrog and/or The Watcher in the Water;

b) Or else at least one Cave Troll in the Warband of your General, and then an additional one for every additional 3 Warbands taken. E.g. The Fourth, Seventh, Tenth… taken warbands must include an additional Cave Troll.”

[I’d be fine with just part a), but I wanted some caveat to allow an Army List themed entirely on Balin’s Tomb, preferably worded less clumsily]

 

Armies of Middle-Earth

 

Malbeth the Seer

Change the "Gift of Foresight" Special Rule to the following:

“Whenever a friendly Arnor model within 6" and Line of Sight of Malbeth suffers a Wound, roll a D6. On a 6+, the Wound has been prevented and is ignored. Note that if this roll is failed, a Hero model may still use Fate Points as normal."

[Arnor is far too grindy for such a hordey D6 army- a 6+ brings them in line with similar rules like "Oblivious to Pain" and "Great Resilience" and the general move away from negative play experiences. If you disagree, you probably play Arnor] 

 

Fiefdoms

Add the following sentence to the end of the “Leaders of the Fiefdoms” Special Rule:

“Warriors may not benefit from this Special Rule more than once, regardless of how many applicable Heroes are in range. This Special Rule may stack, however, with Wargear Rules which also confer a +1 to Wound, such as a Lance or a Two-Handed Weapon.

 

Arnor

Change Malbeth the Seer from a Hero of Fortitude to a Minor Hero.

 

Druzhag

Change the Ranges of the following Magical Powers:

Enrage Beast from “Self” to “12”

Fury (Beast) from 12” to “Self”

 

Legacies

 

Gildor Inglorion

Add the following to ARMY LISTS

-Rivendell 

 

Balin the Dwarf, King of Moria

Add the following to Keywords:

EREBOR

[This allows the Special Rules of Ori and Oin to work with Balin without opening them up to working for all of the other Khazad-Dum Heroes, which seems reasonably balanced]

 

Ashrak

Add the following to the Spider-Kin Special Rule:

“Additionally, Ashrak may include Mirkwood Giant Spiders and Mirkwood Hunting Spiders in his Warband even if they are not listed in the Army List Ashrak is included in.”

 

Warg Marauder

Add the following bullet points to the rules text at the top of the profile:

-Although there are three Goblin Warriors as the Riders, this model counts as a single model towards your Army’s model count.

-In order to count as slain for the purposes of your Break Point and Scenarios that end when one force is reduced to 25%, all three of the Riders must be slain. If your Army List also includes other Goblin Warriors armed with Shields or Bows, then mark the Riders of the Warg Marauder in such a way so that they are identifiably differentiated from those Warriors. If you have multiple Warg Marauders in your Army List, then any combination of 1 Shield and 2 Bow Riders slain will count as one slain Warg Marauder.

 

Grand Army of the South

Add the following to the ADDITIONAL RULES:

“Khand Warrior models may only be included in the Warbands of Easterling or Khand Heroes”

[I get that it’s not exactly in line with the other rules (except perhaps where Harad and Far Harad can mingle, as well as Fiefdom Troops with Gondor Heroes in the Defenders of the Pelennor Army List), but in an army list where Khand is fairly boxed out by other options (and Khand’s rules being pretty insular), I thought it would be nice to have a token Khandish Chariot option in with the Easterlings. It’s also a nod to the old Khandish Mercenaries profile.]

 

FAQ

 

Armies of the Lord of the Rings

 

Rivendell

Q: When applying "Invoke the Bruinen", in the case of Cavalry models do both rider and mount suffer a S4 hit?

A: Yes.

 

The Eagles

Q: In the event of Gwaihir moving before enemy models, is the range of the “Piercing Cry” Special Rule measured from where Gwaihir is at the start of the Move Phase, or where he finishes his Movement, or both?

A: Measure the range from where Gwaihir is at the start of the Move Phase, and make sure to mark the affected enemy models in a suitable way before moving Gwaihir.

 

Legacies

 

Gildor Inglorion

Q: How does Gildor Inglorion’s rule for including Lothlorien Warriors work in the “Road to Rivendell” Army List?

A: Gildor Inglorion may be deployed with Wood Elf followers as a second warband whilst the other Hero models deploy as a single warband.

 

Expedition to the East

Q: If a model finds the Treasure in Expedition to the East whilst holding an Objective, Heirloom etc. what happens when they are removed from the board?

A: Place the carried Object in Base Contact with the Model, and then remove the Model.

 

Great Beast of Gorgoroth

Q: How many Followers can a Great Beast of Gorgoroth include in its Warband?

A: A Great Beast of Gorgoroth may not include any additional Warrior models in its Warband.

 

Moria Blackshield Drum

Q: If taken as part of the Depths of Moria Army List, do the effects of this Drum stack with the “Drums in the Deep” Special Rule?

A: The Courage effects will stack, so that friendly Moria Goblin models will gain a bonus of +2 to any Courage Tests they are required to take, whilst enemy models will suffer a -2 penalty to any Courage Tests they are required to take. The Moria Blackshield Drum does also count as a Banner for the purpose of scoring Victory Points whilst it is being played, though remember that any single Combat cannot benefit from more than one friendly Banner Effect. Additionally, neither the Moria Blackshield Drum, nor the “Drums in the Deep” Special Rule, will stack with any “Harbinger of Evil” Special Rules in your Army List.

Wednesday, 4 June 2025

Clearing the Backlog, Part 21 – Seven Stars and Seven Stones… and one Round Table!

One thing I've not really talked about much on this blog post is scenery. Mostly because it's something I very rarely paint, or at least, it is in terms of my own collection. I don’t collect much scenery, simply because it takes up a lot more space than models do. However, recently I've been on something of a scenery kick for the East Anglia Hobbit Community.

This scenery project consisted of four sets of Gondor Ruins we'd managed to pick up for a decent price, so I took on the task of putting together a table's worth of terrain for the club. 

For two of the Ruins, I assembled them according to the instructions that come with the kit, allowing me to create four different style ruin pieces. One thing that really impressed me when putting the kits together was how well the kit utilised each part from the sprue – there was almost nothing left over in terms of spare parts. 




For the other two sets, I decided to abandon the instructions and do some freestyling. One thing I was sure I wanted was a tower-style ruin, so I built up the structure, incorporating more damaged pieces as I went higher – I was really pleased with how it looked, and fortunately I had enough pieces left over in the set to make a smaller ruin, built just out of a dozen leftover parts – another plus on how good these kits are.




For the last set, again I freestyled the builds, taking care to make sure I wasn't using too many pieces on one ruin, leaving me short on the other. By the end of the building, I had eight completely unique-looking ruins. Now, onto the painting!





For these ruins, I wanted them to look different from the Osgiliath scenery I'd painted previously, so I themed the colour scheme around the ruined north kingdom of Arnor. I started by spraying them with Zandri Dust spray, before applying a zenithal spray of Wraithbone. I then washed the ruins with thinned-down Sepia wash, before applying a drybrush of Palid Wych Flesh. I then picked out the woodwork with a dark brown Contrast paint, before applying a light drybrush of a khaki colour to make it look old. 


Lastly, the ruins needed basing. I mounted them on some plasticard sheets, cutting them to size and sanding the edges so they were smooth – I found the foamboard bases on the Osgiliath pieces were warping slightly, so I was hoping the plasticard would be a bit more rigid. I then glued sand to the base, painted it brown, drybrushed it with khaki and added static grass – the ruins of Arnor were complete!



Of course, I wasn't just painting ruins – May was fast approaching, and May means one thing – Seven Stones! Sam and I were under a bit of pressure this year, having won the event the previous year. We decided to go with a much less labour intensive project this year (no converting an entire army for us), and decided to theme the army around the BBC show The Traitors (well worth a watch if you haven’t already!). 

We decided our army would be comprised of the various people in Middle Earth who have committed deeds of treachery and betrayal – my half of the army consisted of the following models: Lord Thorne of the Wold, Freca, Lord of the Westmarch, The Master of Laketown, Alfrid the Counsellor, Gollum and The King of the Dead. We also had a few spare points leftover, so I added two Rohirrim Traitors to act as Thorne's bodyguards. 

I started with The King of the Dead, because I'd wanted to try painting him as he appears in the film. I painted the model as normal, and then covered it with several glazes of green, giving him his ghostly appearance – I was very satisfied with the end result, something I'm looking to now apply to the plastic version of the model!



Next up was Gollum, one of the easier models to paint – I'd painted him a number of times before, so I used the same colour schemes I had previously – a couple of evening's painting later, and Gollum was ready!


With two models down, I turned to Alfrid and the Master – both have similar schemes, such as the fur on their clothes, boots etc. Alfrid was painted using a fairly dark palette, although I messed up by painting his fur an off-white when it's black in the films. However, having seen the finished model, I think it still works. The Master was fun as he wasn't a model I'd ever planned on painting, but it was a lot of fun using some rich colours to try and highlight his wealthy status. It helps that they painted up fairly quickly too!


Next, I moved onto the Rohan contingent, starting with Thorne and the Traitors. Thorne I painted up as per the official colour scheme, apart from his cloak – I removed the cowl and painted it green to match the green cloaks the Traitors wear on the TV show. I also used the official colour scheme for the Traitors, but used some older Rohirrim models rather than the newer poses – however, the colour scheme worked just as well on them. 



Last but not least was Freca – again, I stuck to the GW colour scheme – he was a bit fiddly because of the intricate details such as the gold trim on his armour and straps on his boots, but he was still a really nice model to paint – the Forgeworld characters really are great sculpts. 


Last but not least, the Traitors needed a Round Table to have their "friendly" debates – the main structure was a diorama base if found on eBay – I then added the wall panels using MDF archways I found on Etsy – these were considerably larger than first expected, so I trimmed them down to size before gluing them together. The flooring was made using an air-drying clay that I then ran a texture roller over to create a floorboard look. I then painted the floor in the same way I'd painted the bases, applying a dark brown Contrast paint and then drybrushing it with Steel Legion Drab. The walls also got covered in the same Contrast paint, and were drybrushed with a reddish brown. I then hot-glued some led lighting to the top panel of the display, and the Round Table was ready!






Last but not least, you really can't do the Traitors without having Claudia Winkleman there. This model was designed using Hero Forge's custom model designer programme. It was a lot of fun trying various poses and styles, and we of course had to add a Palantir for extra themeyness. I then painted Claudia to go on the board, making sure she had her famous fringe and fingerless gloves – it's always the little details that matter!




With that, our army was ready for battle! We also had some custom dice, and our special "Palantir of Misfortune", designed to give our enemies an edge over us in the games (after all, Traitors very rarely have a positive impact), and the opportunity to give away frog-themed chocolate treats, something we've always done at Seven Stones. Sadly, we lost all six games and finished plum last – who knew that an army of betrayers, backstabbers and oath-breakers wouldn't work well together?



So, to progress – thanks to these models, I've now passed the 100 models painted mark for this year. Pretty good progress, although after some intensive painting in January, February and early March, it was nice to take things a bit more sedately through April and May! Looking forwards, I have a couple of projects I'm hoping to finish before the end of the year – stay tuned to see what those might be!


Errata/FAQ Time: Eagles, Lightning, and Spiders! :O

A non-exhaustive look at some Errata/FAQ suggestions that I'd like to see, whether for lore or gameplay reasons. What did I forget to ...