Tournament Report- The Eastern Expansion (20th April)

 Hey all, it's been a little quiet on the blog front for a while as James and I have been working on our Seven Stones army (more to come on that next month!)

So I thought I'd do a write up for an event that I went to last weekend.

The Tournament

The Eastern Expansion was a 650pt tournament (GBHL 90pt) where players could bring Good and Evil armies. They and their opponent roll and the highest roll would be Good for the round, if a player only had one army, their opponent could choose which of their own to use. I decided at the beginning of the day that I would always do GvE to stick with the theme.

My Armies

The reason for choosing my lists this time was simply that I hadn't used either in a long time, and it gave me a chance to use the Spider Queen for the first time*.

*See how that goes later

Scenario 1: Capture and Control Vs. Sol (Isengard)

Opponent's Heroes: Lurtz, Mauhur and Uruk Shaman

Opponent's warriors: Isengard Troll, Uruk warriors and Uruk Scouts

My first game was against Sol and his Lurtz led Uruks. I deployed stepped slightly back from the centre to use a building so that my flank was protected, counting on the dwarven defence to help me win the coming fight. Dain was in the centre, so that his fearless bubble would cover the army and he could get stuck in. Then as the Uruks get pushed back, I could reclaim the middle, while my Goat Riders claim the outer objectives.

The game began and I held my lines before opening fire at the Uruks, killing a few. The next turn they charged and engaged, as did Dain. He called a Heroic Combat to threaten Lurtz, who called a Strike, so Dain instead rushed into the pikeman and slew him too. Meanwhile, Goat Riders captured the right and rear objectives.

The following turn, Dain and a goat rider charged Lurtz and he was quickly dispatched after an unfortunate Strike off that Dain had successfully mimicked with Master of Battle. Mauhur took on the Iron Hills Captain and was wounded after spending might to draw the combat and losing the roll off. The turn after, he was slain by his foe.

Dain then rushed the Troll that had waded in to kill some dwarves, Dain called the Heroic Strike and got to F10, won the fight and then, to both our surprise, rolled 4 6s to wound!

With the three big threats dead, the dwarves were able to push the Uruks back and claim the objective in their half. A lone Uruk somehow held off 6 dwarves to neutralise the centre and the dwarves failed to seize the left one from the Shaman's warband, but stopped them claiming it themselves.

By the end of the game, I had tagged 3 objectives, slain their leader and broken them to claim the 8-0 win.

Scenario 2: Storm the Camp Vs. Oliver (Mordor)

Opponent's Heroes: Witch King, Troll Chieftain and Gorbag

Opponent's warriors: Black Numenorians, Morannon orcs, Mordor Orcs, Warg Riders and Orc Trackers

For this game, I could see that my opponent didn't have much shooting and I didn't have a lot of pace so decided that I wouldn't try to get their camp. 

I moved out of my own leaving 4 crossbows to hold it against any opponents that slipped past. The rest of my army anchored themselves between two gaps across 3 ruins and opened fire. I got lucky in that I killed an orc each time and while I missed the Witch King, I managed to take a fate and might off of the Troll, before taking a wound the following turn. 

Oliver sent a small unit towards my left line of Black Numenorians and Morannons. My Captain tried to break through them quickly, but the evil warriors held firm and were a stubborn foe. Dain,meanwhile, charged out and attacked the Witch King. He caused a single wound, but that wound went through all the Witch King's might and fate! The following turn, he was finished by the Lord of the Iron Hills, who went on to fight the Troll in the next. Incredibly, after the Strike went off and he won the fight, he rolled two dice against the Troll (there were two Black Numenorians also in the fight that he wanted to kill) and rolled double 6. In two games, he had rolled 6/6 6s to wound against Trolls!

Gorbag was making himself a nuisance however, and was steadily killing several dwarves, but thankfully for me, not breaking through. By the end of the game, a lone warg had got into my camp, but was outnumbered by my crossbows.

I had broken the Mordor hordes and slain the leader to win 6-0.

Scenario 3: Clash by Moonlight Vs. David (Minas Tirith)

Opponent's Heroes: Boromir, Faramir and Siege Veteran

Opponent's warriors: Minas Tirith warriors, Minas Tirith Knights, Rangers of Gondor, Fountain Court Guards and Avenger Bolt Thrower

In this game, David only had a Good army, so as I said earlier, I had vowed to stick to the GvE intention. Although I was tempted by the higher dwarven defence against the dangerous shooting and Boromir. 

I approached as carefully as I could using the terrain (indicated in the pic below), using Heroic March to cover the dangerous gaps in shoot range quickly. It worked really well, as I only lost 3 orcs on the hike...until I was forced to step into the open to charge the Gondorians.

As soon as I stepped out, the Bolt Thrower went into overdrive, and I lost 6-8 orcs in the first volley, followed by the Spider Queen the following turn! She hadn't even reached combat! Razgush leapt in to lead from the front and laid into a small group of men, killing several over the game. The bats flew in and killed a handful too, including in the final turn, where one killed a Fountain Court Guard in Razgush's Heroic Combat as he attempted to get one last attempt on Faramir, before killing another in the next! Razgush made his attempt but fluffed his dice, narrowly avoiding the wound from the lead ranger.

David would have claimed more heroes slain than I, had it not been for my valorous orc archers, who shot through the battle and took out the Bolt Thrower's Siege Veteran! Because of this, when time was called, we had each slain a hero, but both had at least one left. While David had also broken me and had Boromir's banner left to beat me 7-1. 

Scenario 4: Destroy the Supplies Vs. Chris (Rangers of Mirkwood LL)

Opponent's Heroes: Legolas, Tauriel and Mirkwood Ranger Captain

Opponent's warriors: Mirkwood Rangers and Wood Elf Sentinels

The final game saw Razgush facing some elves, making him delightfully mad! I knew there was little chance of them coming at me, so I was going to play very aggressively and March over asap.

Over the three turns of running at the elves, I lost ~1/3 of my orcs and the Spider Queen was again slain after being weakened by two Heroic Accuracies from Tauriel and a direct hit by Legolas! But then the orcs crashed over them like waves on a rock. Both sides were taking heavy casualties and the bats had been flown away by the sentinels songs.

Eventually, Razgush joined the fray, having hidden at the back from the opposing shots, and he announced his arrival with the appropriate 'razzle dazzle', beginning by killing a sentinel. He then pounced on Tauriel as her might ran out, and quickly Heroic Struck to win and landed 11 wounds on her, while trapped! As his orcs trashed a supply, he then managed to Heroic Combat off 2 rangers into 2 more before being pushed back by 3 more and then killing all 3 at once in the final turn!

On the other side of the board as I broke, a batswarm fled, allowing a ranger and his wounded captain to destroy two supplies. The bats then passed two courage tests to stay and sit on the last and protect it, killing both the captain and his ranger in the final turn!

Legolas during all this, was hovering near the central supply and doing direct shots at my 1w, 1f shaman, desperate to clear my Fury that prevented my troops fleeing. But over 5 turns, he failed every shot either to hit or to wound! Mostly since the Shaman was fighting a ranger each time and killed a couple. Then, as Razgush slew the last 3 rangers alongside him, a Mirkwood spider smashed his supply and a giant spider paired with a Mirkwood one both pounced. They won the fight against the elven prince as he rolled a 3 high and he was mauled to death!

In that incredibly lucky turn of events, I had levelled the supplies with 2 destroyed each, we were both broken and I had just killed his leader from full fitness in the last combat to win 7-5!

I had managed to get through the day with 3 wins and a loss, having a VPD of +10 and scoring 22. I'm happy to say that this meant, amongst the crowd of 42, I had claimed 6th. I was ecstatic with that being a very middle-of-the-pack player generally, but am very aware of the luck I got in some of those moments.

I will do another tournament report in the future, hopefully not too far off. I do intend to do one for Seven Stones in a month's time. James and I shall also be doing hobby posts regarding our halves of the army prep for it, as we have something really cool planned.

Long live the King!

Aragorn, You Need More Men (Backlog Clearing- Nov/Dec '23)

Hey all

First of all, I've changed the title to more easily separate mine and James' posts, this was the best to come to me that didn't clash with an already used title. Hope it's everything that you've ever dreamed of and more.

First thing I did in November, was kickstart the painting that I needed to finish for Throne of Skulls late in the month. All I had left to do was 6 Huscarls, so I got them sorted to match the ones that I had done previously.

And then, along with all the stuff on snowy bases from the previous month, based the lot.

With all the models that I needed for tournaments now done for the year, I could focus on simply clearing my to do pile, marking off hobby bingo and painting things that I simply wanted to paint. Sitting in my drawer for the last 3 years, begging to be done, was 8 Minas Tirith archers. There was nothing fancy or different about how I did these guys, but it was great to finally see them done. And I'll try to take them to a tournament, so that I can see my opponents scratching their heads and wondering why I didn't bring rangers or citadel guard.

Another small job that had sat in my cupboard of shame, after I had won them as part of the victorious Team Evil in a pre-Covid tournament, was 3 Dunedain. This seemed like another easy task that may not get another chance, so they were opened up and sorted out.

Dipping once again into the drawer, I saw a chance to mark off the 'Paint a member of the Fellowship' box of Hobby Bingo, as I had started the Dying Boromir much earlier in the year, during Boromir week of a BSiME stream. But then deadlines had forced me to put him back in the queue. Since he was half done, this seemed like another easy job to do.

Continuing on the theme of BSiME, in early December, they did their ROTK 20th anniversary special. And since I had bought an old command pack when trading in unused models earlier in the year, and I had recently painted some Minas Tirith, this seemed to be the perfect time for it.

A lot of nostalgia opening up a pack like this

Next up, I had offered a load of scatter terrain that I had just lying around to the local club. I decided that, even though some of it clearly wasn't Middle Earth based, I could just paint them in the same style and it would blend in nicely.

That was quite a nice easy task, that cleared a lot out quickly.

With about 3 weeks left in the year, I decided to choose some small packs of models to clear out in the remaining time, starting with a pack of Mordor Uruks that had sat forgotten for a long while. In the past, I had simply painted the last ones in a mix of greys with some metal and leather boots/gloves. Simply by making the tunics into leather, really made them pop more for me.

Another pack that had sat ready to be done in spare time for months, was the 'Riddles in the Dark' set, this seemed like another straightforward set to slap out, so they finally saw day too.

By this point it was Christmas, and I knew the next few days would be too busy to get anything done. I got a lot of cool stuff, including the Spider Queen. I also got my secret Santa from the EAHC a few days later. All I had to ask for was 3D printed models for Dwalin, Fili and Kili on goats. I got these and a treasure trove of other cool stuff to go with them.

Cheers again to my Secret Santa, whoever you may have been

With a little under a week to go, I chose only two other packs to try and get done. The first was the two Dwarf Kings that I had kept after splitting a MTO several years ago. I decided a while ago that I would paint the royalty in my Khazad-Dum force to have white capes, to help them stand out nicely.

And I had chosen my final model of the year, the year before. As I had wanted to finish last year on a high with this character, but time had run out. However, I had started using a wet palette this year, that meant I was able to do my absolute best effort on this model. And finally finished him in the early hours of New Years Eve.

My last model was Gimli on Dead Uruk, who I bought on a whim in a MTO years ago. I did the gold in my favourite mix (Balthasar Gold-> Golden Griffon-> Agrax Earthshade). For his elven cloak, I found a good mix to match the films was a 1:1 mix of Castellan Green and Mechanicus Standard Grey to give a grey with a slight green tinge. The leather vambraces and boots, I did a base of Dryad Bark, highlighted Catachan Flesh, washed in Agrax and highlighted again in Catachan Flesh. And for his hair, I based in Mournfang Brown, went over it again in Skrag Brown, but to dull the fiery orange down, went over again lightly with Knight-Questor Flesh, washed in Agrax and went over again with another light Knight-Questor Flesh.

The part that I had to think about was Gimli's clothes, as I didn't want a flat red all over, so I based them all in Khorne Red, then highlighted the trousers in a 3:1 mix of Khorne Red and Skrag Brown, washed in Agrax and hightlighted with the same mix. For his top, I did a 3:2 mix of Khorne Red and Doombull Brown for highlighting, Agrax wash and top up with the same mix. As hoped this added a subtle difference for the top and trousers of his clothes, and I felt really happy to close my year on this!

And that's all the models that I painted for the year! I've been keeping count of models that I have painted each year since 2018, and this year also counted the total points also. Previous numbers are:

2022: 90

2021: 98

2020: 104

2018: 144

2019: 184

For this year, 'Final Count...':

2023: 217

Points: 4483

It's a new record! I sincerely doubt that I'll be able to top that in the coming years but that made a large dent in my grey mountain (remember that some are repaints, some were new and some I hadn't remembered to add to the list in the first place).

So, on Jan 1st 2023, my grey mountain had 385 models in it. By Jan 1st 2024, I had reduced that number significantly to 254! I am ecstatic by this and hope to get it down to 150 or less next year. 

Hobby Bingo

In Hobby Bingo, I had a productive year and managed to complete every square by mid December!

And for one final, accomplishment/brag that I was really proud of, I got my best every ranking in a GBHL event this year, getting 4th out of 24~ through a good helping of luck.

I may not post any paint blogs for the first few months, as I'll be heavily working on our Seven Stones project, and think the first few months will be simple sculpting. So I'll save it all as a big reveal at the time of the event. If I paint a reasonable amount inbetween, then I'll post about that.

So this concludes my year of Hobbying, hope you all have a great New Year. 

Clearing the Backlog, Part 17: The End of All Things (for 2023)

Another year of hobbying comes to an end, so it's time for the annual round-up of my hobby adventures over the course of the year, and see how much of a dent I've made in my backlog. Let's dive in!

January

January was a productive month for me in terms of hobbying - I finished off a few models that had been sitting around for ages, including my mounted Witch King and reinforcements for my Assault on Lothlorien army. I also started a new hobbying plan of pulling random models out of my backlog to help break up large painting projects - January saw me finish Golfimbul. Lastly, I made a start on my first army project of the year - my Army of Dale.

February & March

More progress throughout these two months - I painted up some more Men of Dale, along with King Brand and his son Bard II to lead them into battle. This however was where I ran into the painting obstacle that was the Knights of Dale - it took me forever to paint them because of all the detail on them - famously finishing the models at 1:45 in the morning the night before the Grand Tournament at Warhammer World...

I also continued the trend of random models, this time pulling Khamul the Easterling and some Castellans of Dol Guldur out of the backlog and painting them up. By the end of March, I'd painted nearly 50 models - good progress so far!

April, May and June

A mixed few months of hobbying here, as April and March saw little time for hobbying - May and June however were much more productive months - I continued progress on the Men of Dale, but also worked on a small cohort of Easterlings to join my Mordor forces. May also saw me working on a trio of Galadriel, Elrond and Celeborn, along with a display board for Seven Stones. By the end of June, I'd doubled my number of painted models for the year!

July & August

Here's where progress started to stall, all because of half a dozen models - my remaining Knights of Dale. Whilst being lovely models, the sheer amount of detail made them a very daunting prospect to paint - to the extent that I was painting anything and everything apart from them. However, after much procrastination, I finally got them finished, and at last, Project Army of Dale was complete!

Having finished the Men of Dale, I got through some pretty easy models I had lying in the backlog - some Ringwraiths - these provided a nice distraction in between the Knights. I also managed to paint up Erkenbrand to start a slow-growing Riders of Theodred force. I was up to 100 models painted, but it had taken a long time...

September

Here's where progress picks back up, and there's one race in Middle Earth to thank for it - dwarves! Throughout September, I smashed my way through over 30 models for my Army of Thror project, including Thror himself, as well as Thrain, Young Thorin, Young Dwalin and a host of Erebor Dwarves. I also painted up a small contingent of Dwarves, led by a repainted original Dain Ironfoot model, to join my army of Khazad Dum. In just one month, I'd taken my painted count from just over 100 to nearly 170! Progress indeed!

October & November

One main project occupied my time over these two months - my Thorin's Company army and display board for Throne of Skulls. I had a lot of fun painting both the Company and my display board for the event, and was thrilled to walk away from the event with a Favourite Army nomination - a great reward for all the work and effort that went into the project!

December

So, to December. A lovely time of year for hobbying, because with no tournaments on the horizon, I can just have some fun and paint any random model I feel like! I did however have a few projects that needed finishing, so I started with those.

First of all were the remaining models in my Army of Thror force - Young Balin and a warband of dwarves, plus a banner bearer I converted (the banner being a 3D print produced by Guardians of Wiltshire) - I stuck to the same techniques as before but again varied the colour of the cloth and beards in order to make them look different from the rest of the army - the end result turned out great, and my Army of Thror was now complete!

Next up, I painted the last few Ringwraiths to finish off the Nine. Nothing fancy, just layers of different shades of grey over black - simple, but effective!

I also had a few cavalry models I wanted to finish off, consisting of the mounted versions of Khamul the Easterling and The Dark Marshal, having painted the foot versions earlier in the year. I also dug my mounted Hurin the Tall out of the backlog and finished him off, given that he'd been sitting half-finished for ages.

My last models for the year were a few Uruk Hai scouts - I'd noticed whilst doing some sorting that I only needed to paint a few more models to give Lurtz, Ugluk and Mauhur full warbands in my Lurtz's Scouts list, so I grabbed the models I needed and painted them up. I also painted up a banner bearer, and the two Uruks carrying Merry and Pippin - I may well use these as banners going forwards as they suit the theme nicely. I even got my hands on the old captured Merry and Pippin models and painted those up too - they'll make perfect objective markers for the force!

So, to the final count - I am sitting pretty on 230 models painted for the year! Another excellent year of progress, and whilst not quite as many as I managed last year, it's still a number I'm very happy with. There's still plenty of models left however, so expect a few more posts throughout next year to see how I'm getting on. I must be getting near the end of the pile soon, right?... Right?

Hope you all have very Happy New Years, and happy hobbying for 2024!