Clearing the Backlog (March-April ‘23)

It’s a little later than planned, but I’ve had to dedicate time to getting sorted in time for Seven Stones recently (that will be in May-June's post).

At the beginning of March there was a big push to make Gothmog the record holder for Battle Streams in Middle Earth. I had already painted him, but decided that I could press mould a couple of shields for him on foot and mounted to dedicate to the effort. 

Gothmog's heroic effort paid off and he claimed the title from Eowyn (I think).

Then continuing the Moria theme so far this year, I began March with a relatively easy, but arguably essential hero to the list, Groblog. I did him in the same colourings as the rest of the Moria brood, but used a nice bright Runefang Steel colour for his Mithril crown, to make it really stand out amongst the dark colours of the army.

Next up, I cracked on with something that I had really been looking forward to, the Cave Drake.

While I was attending the SBG Grand Prix in Feb, I saw that Mr Matt Davies was in attendance, with a stall of his GenerationShift bases (if you are unfamiliar, I recommend you at least take a look). And I grabbed a large ‘Rolling plains’ one for the Drake, as with a different colour palette to its intended one, it could make a nice cave floor.

I began the Drake with this base, and had a moment of inspiration. As I wanted to use the skeletal remains of the Moria scenery kit, but realised that they couldn’t just sit on top as it’s not a flat surface. I could try gently scraping away as the bottom until it fits and then green stuff the gaps, but that seemed like a lot of work. 

Then I had figured out the solution. I got some blue stuff and made a mould of the remains. After this, I crammed it with green stuff and then before letting it set, glued the back of the green stuff onto the base, peeling the blue stuff away and leaving it to then set. I repeated this with a second one and it made a great look IMO.

I then set about the relatively quick task of painting it up, sticking to the same colours as my Moria bases, but with Rakarth flesh, washed with Agrax for the bones and lightly highlighted to give them shape. As well as Steel Legion Drab with the same wash for the cloth.

Next, I had to paint the Drake itself. I went for Rakarth flesh for the eggs, spines, teeth and claws. Lupercal Green with a drybrush of Waaaagh Flesh for the scales. Steel Legion Drab for the underbelly, Gehenna’s gold with Corvus Black pupils on the eyes and Khorne Red inside the mouth. I had tried this mix on the baby first, to make sure it worked out.

With the beast painted, I then drilled a couple of holes into two of the feet and used a small length of paper clip, to wire it to the base, which I drilled another couple of holes into. After a lot of nervous checking and double checking that I’m in the right place. 

That was probably my biggest single model for this year and proudest achievement. And here she was at his debut game, where she helped us to victory by ripping holes in the lines of Dale.

The next project was out the blue, when I saw that the Battle Streams theme for the episode was Denethor. I realised that I had the newer FW one, who sat ignored and thought ‘why not?’ He was one quick evenings work, but I was happy with the effort on him. He is currently sat, waiting patiently, for when I get around to rebasing all of my Minas Tirth army.

I then went back onto clearing out the piles of goblins, by banging out another 16 (the last 8 spears and 8 shields), leaving me with just 20 bows to do, to finish the goblin warriors! 

I then went to a repaint of my old Durburz, as I had painted him 10+yrs ago and wanted his paintjob to fit the rest of the army. He was done just in time for the EAHC event ‘Fool of a  Took’ as my leader. 

This was the first time I had run out my Moria army.

I then had another Battle Streams queue jump, as the theme was unnamed Captains, so I grabbed my metal orc ones, that had been grabbers hastily in a MTO and put them together that evening. I sadly didn’t get any further than spraying them, as our little boy had picked up a bug and started being sick. I did hear later on that I won the dice from the draw for the night and was elated by that. So felt I should show solidarity with that by finishing the captains afterwards.

After this, I hurriedly repainted two goblin spears so that their paintjobs matched the rest for Desolation of Stockport. Here the goblins did me proud, achieving my best GBHL position ever with 6/30.

I now began my tackling of the last of the goblins, beginning with the first half of the goblin bows. Amongst them, I had the 4 metal ones and did all the helmed ones with them. 

This just leaves me with 10 bows, 4 spiders, a batswarm, Ashrak and Druzhag to finish all of my Moria stuff…but I had to crack on with my Seven Stones army and the display board… but I’ll come to that in the future. 

Cheers for reading guys, and I’ll update for the next two months around late June/early July.

CJ's "More will come" Legions The Battle of the Five Armies Part 2: The Forces of Nature

The last of the Five armies to arrive, the Great Eagles and Beorn the Bear break the goblin and warg army. Beorn rescues Thorin's body from the melee, and then doubles back to crush Bolg for good measure. Radagast's Alliance and the Misty Mountains are extremely difficult to make work consistently as pure lists due to the low model count and vulnerability to getting swarmed (we'll ignore the ever popular Gwaihir airdrop into Meta lists and the current success of the Beornings Legion). So in exchange for no Allies, I'm looking to give these guys some extra teeth(!) to make them more consistent for tournament and scenario play. On a personal note, Meneldor the Swift and Landroval are the first characters that I ever wrote house rules for back when I was thirteen and I'm still hoping that one day they'll get included in the MESBG.

THE MISTY MOUNTAINS

ARMY COMPOSITION

Meneldor the Swift and Landroval may only be taken in an Army that also includes Gwaihir.

Meneldor the Swift 120pts 

Eagle, Monster, Infantry, Hero – Hero of Fortitude 

F7/4+ S6 D8 A2 W3 C6 M1 W1 F1

Wargear: Claws and Beak.

Heroic Actions: Heroic March

Special Rules: Fly, Monstrous Charge, Terror, Lord of the Eagles (Gwaihir, pg 95 AoLotR)

Landroval 130pts

Eagle, Monster, Infantry, Hero – Hero of Valour

F7/4+ S6 D8 A2 W3 C6 M1 W1 F1

Wargear: Claws and Beak.

Heroic Actions: Heroic Strike

Special Rules: Fly, Monstrous Charge, Terror, Lord of the Eagles (Gwaihir, pg 95 AoLotR)

Gusting Winds ACTIVE

If unengaged in Combat, at the end of his movement or during the Shoot phase, Landroval can target an enemy model within 3”. The target and all non-Monster models within 1” then resolve a Bash Special Strike against S6.

When rescuing Thorin's Company a couple of the eagles opt to blow the orcs and wargs back in a firestorm. Landroval, Gwaihir's brother, gets an homage special rule for situational shenanigans including cheeky knockdowns/dismounts!

ARMY LIST

Radagast the Brown on Great Eagle

Beorn (Great Eagle….100pts)

Gwaihir

Landroval

Meneldor the Swift

Great Eagles

"...crap", thought Azog. Beorn (Man) with a Great Eagle mount will be able to cause a huge amount of damage with his 3 attacks and Burly two-handed axe combining with the Eagle's F7 and Monstrous Charge. The addition of the two other named Eagle Hero also allows the list to be rounded when taking Gwaihir. Like a lot of these BotFA Legions, this swaps a lack of allies for a bag of tricks to provide a different gaming experience to the usual Radagast's Alliance Army List.

Additional Rules

Radagast the Brown is treated as a Hero of Legend, and must always be the Leader.

Gwaihir is treated as a Hero of Valour.

"Wheeeee!"

Special Rules

“He scattered the bodyguard”

The first time Beorn rolls to transform in a Game is treated as an automatic success. Beorn if mounted will immediately dismount if he transforms into a Bear. Beorn may dismount immediately into Combat, moving models the minimum distance to allow him to be placed. His mount does not need to take a Courage test in order to remain on the Board.

Beorn may use the Bludgeon BPA (see Treebeard pg91, AoLotR). Additionally, instead of moving normally, Beorn (Bear) may elect to put his head down and Ram. Beorn then moves up to 8” in a straight line, and any enemy model he comes into base contact with is immediately subjected to either the Bash special strike or the Barge BPA. Any prone model that Beorn charges during this Ram move suffers 2 S8 hits.

Instead of copying and pasting from the Beornings Legion, I've tried to emulate Beorn's fighting style from the film. He won't have his popular Monstrous Charge, but using the Bash aspect of his Ram movement will achieve the same effect the majority of the time and allow him to reach his targets (see below!). The opponent will also likely be prone before the combat so he's safe from Strikes. These additions to Beorn's profile gives the player a lot of manipulation capacity to set up Hurls, clear objectives, and break up tight formations for the Eagles to pick apart.

Nature’s Wrath

Radagast counts as a Banner to friendly models within 6”, and rules limiting Heroic Actions and Stand Fast!s affecting friendly models in individual profiles may be ignored. Eagle models gain a bonus of +1 to their Strength on a turn in which they charged. Beorn gains the Hatred (Orc, Goblin, Troll, Warg) special rule, and if he slays the Enemy Leader Beorn the Bear also gains Harbinger of Evil. 

A Banner effect will push these monsters from 3->4 attacks on the charge, vastly improving their consistency. In order to make the list more cohesive I've also given an opt out for the rules from Gwaihir and Beorn which restrict the impact of their Heroic Actions. By saying "may", there's an option for Beorn to not move as part of Gwaihir's Heroic Move and then react to the enemy movement or vice versa. In the books Beorn crushes Bolg, not Legolas, which makes the goblins scatter. Reducing the enemy courage will strongly compliment the ubiquitous Terror in this List.

Imposing Presence

Models count as their remaining number of Wounds for the purposes of calculating the number of models in range of objectives or within areas of the Board for Scenarios which award Victory Points for these. In the case of mounted Heroes this applies to both the Rider and the Mount.

This is always the main issue with All-Hero/Monster Lists trying to be viable in an objectives based game. Allowing models to count as their remaining wounds for numbers on an objective will make this much easier. Spreading out is still bad news for this List, but at least a Great Eagle is less likely to be cancelled out by a single goblin. This also gives Radagast's Renew an important use in the late game!

Example List:

Radagast on Great Eagle

Beorn on Great Eagle
Gwaihir
Meneldor the Swift
Landroval

Great Eagle

1000pts, 11 Might, 6-8 Models (18-24 Wounds)

CJ's "More will come" Legions: The Battle of the Five Armies Part 1 The Armed Host

 

After the death of Smaug, three neighbouring races descend upon the Lonely Mountain with individual claims to the treasure found within, unaware that an army of Orcs is also on their way... The Battle of the Five Armies as portrayed in Peter Jackson's film adaptations is more akin to an evolving chain of temporary alliances being made and dissolved as the battle progresses. This suits a short series of Legendary Legion articles looking at some interesting ways you could represent the dynamic combinations of Factions from the film in a themey and challenging playstyle. Part 1 is the alliance between Men and Elves that marches on the mountain.

Feren 50pts

Elf, Mirkwood, Infantry, Hero - Hero of Fortitude

F5/3+ S4 D5 A1 W2 C5 M1 W1 F2

Wargear: Armour, Elven Blade, Signal Horn

Heroic Actions: Heroic Resolve, Heroic Defence

Options:

Heavy Armour 5pts

Horse 10pts

Elf Bow 5pts

Special Rules: Woodland Creature

Signal Horn ACTIVE

If a Mirkwood Hero within 3” of Feren calls a Heroic Move, March, Shoot, Accuracy, or Resolve, you can resolve the Action as though Feren himself called it. The range of Feren’s “with me!”, “at the double!”, “take aim!”, “loose!”, and Heroic Resolve is 12” instead of 6”.

Feren doesn't get an awful lot to do in the Films, but most prominently in a battle context he is the one that Legolas commands to use his Horn to signal to close the river gate, as well as the one Thranduil commands to use his Horn to "call back your company". To have his profile work inkeeping with these moments, he has the option to extend the effects of a Heroic Action from a nearby Hero. This would allow rangers to be more efficient at spreading out and surrounding enemies, as well as using the additional range to move away towards objectives. With Thranduil's key weakness being Magic, Feren has an opportunity to cast a very large Heroic Resolve whilst being an ideal Hero to call it and remain stationary. He also has a brief appearance delivering a message to Legolas at Laketown on a horse so the wargear option is there.

ARMY COMPOSITION

Thranduil with Heavy Armour (Elk, Circlet, Sword)

Feren with Heavy Armour (Horse)

Mirkwood Captain (Swap Elven-made Glaive for Spear and Shield...free)

Mirkwood Elves (Elf Bow, Elven-made glaive, Shield, Spear, Banner)

Bard with Armour (Horse)

Gandalf

Bilbo

Lake-Town Militia (Shield, Spear, Bow)

This is a very restricted selection of the models usually available to these Factions in order to be inkeeping with the protrayal in the film, which just means that the Special Rules will have to make up for it! The Elves as depicted in the film also have spears and shields instead of Glaives so that Wargear Option is available for those who'd like to convert. It does cost the spear having the benefit of an elven blade roll-off but that extra defence could make all the difference to your expensive Elves.

ADDITIONAL RULES

Thranduil and Bard must both be taken, and Thranduil is always the Leader.

Bard gains the Arkenstone from Thror’s profile (pg19 AoTH).

Gandalf and Bilbo gain the Laketown keyword. Bilbo is treated as an Independent Hero, and Gandalf a Minor Hero.

The Arkenstone serves to make Bard extremely tanky if he has a bit of luck on his side! The downgrading of Gandalf and Bilbo represents their lack of standing amongst the Men of Laketown when they march to Erebor, as well as limiting the size of your Laketown component given that they make up a fraction of the Armed Host.

SPECIAL RULES

Form up!

Once per Game, when an enemy model is in charge range of one of your Mirkwood Heroes, they can call a Heroic Move including “with me!” which automatically goes first if contested. Elf models gain +1 to Wound when making Strikes within 3” of Thranduil.

The Elves depicted in the film are a highly skilled military outfit, with perfectly synchronised coordinated maneouvers and pre-planned commands and formations. The one used in the picture above was actually used against Hannibal's elephants! As the goats approach they switch their archers and spears and form the lines ready to receive the impact, which this Special Rule allows you to do if you need to cycle archers behind lines or react to your opponents moves. It'll definitely make Cavalry more cautious about charging in when you can definitely get the jump on them...

“Stand your men down”

The Mirkwood and Laketown models taken as part of this Legion are treated as Red Alliances with the following exceptions to those rules. This Legion only counts as Broken if both the Mirkwood and Laketown contingents are individually Broken. Your opponent will only score VPs for wounding/slaying your Leader if the conditions apply to both Bard and Thranduil. Laketown Warriors can only be lead by Laketown Heroes and Mirkwood Warriors by Mirkwood Heroes.

The Elves issue commands in elvish which the Men won't understand, and the Elves won't respect the military leadership of a citizen's militia. It's also abundantly clear that Thranduil is entirely indifferent to Bard joining him in his march on Erebor. By using the Red Alliance mechanic, the two Factions will behave independently for Heroic Actions and Broken Tests but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you can move half your models, let your opponent react, and then send in your other half you may find a different tactical challenge running this Legion than you're used to! Bard covers the Laketown people for their Banner needs without benefiting from and Elven one. The downsides of a Red Alliance are also softened by forcing an opponent to deal with both Factions rather than focus on killing the softer Men. Bard reinforced with the Arkenstone also provides quite a handy buffer for VPs based on Thranduil being wounded/slain.

Devastating Charge

The Elk gains the Impaler special rule (War Camel, pg203, AoLoTR) at S5 instead of S4. When Charging whilst mounted, instead of making normal Strikes after winning a Combat, Thranduil may make a single strike against all enemies in base contact.

This steroid Bambi absolutely takes names in the film. This ten foot threat to Canadian health insurance is based on a genus with a 4m antler spread and weighing in at 700kg. As the orcs showed us, if Moose-olini here decides you're up next in Eru's waiting room your best survival strategy is to shoot it point blank in the face otherwise your next career move will be as an involuntary tie on his antler rack. At that point Thranduil issues the c-c-c-c-combo breaker! It makes Thranduil without the additional sword on Elk a little more viable, and the Impaler is cos when a furry haulage truck with a cowcatcher that works more like a needle wall is coming at you at 40mph your continued existence is no longer your choice.

Loose!

Once per game, Thranduil can call a Heroic Shoot or Accuracy without spending Might. Elves benefitting from Thranduil calling a Shoot or Accuracy (including those affected by Feren’s Signal Horn), improve their shoot value to 2+ if they have not moved, and of those shots models within 3” of Thranduil will gain +1 to Wound.

Thranduil having a 2+ shoot value was something I loved about his original Fall of the Necromancer profile from way back in the distant past of 2006, so this is a little homage to that. Additionally the 6-10 Elves with bow you manage to bring after also having the Laketown contingent will get a little added punch either when using this rule or Thranduil calls any additional ones afterwards. Combined with Bard's triple shot and some harrassing Men arrows this should have enemies rushing towards you in time for you to make use of "Form up!"

 

Example list 800pts:

Thranduil, Heavy Armour, Elk, Circlet

5xMirkwood Elf (Shield)

6xMirkwood Elf (Bow)

5xMirkwood Elf (Shield and Spear or Glaive)

1xMirkwood Elf (Banner, Spear and Shield or Glaive)

Feren, Heavy Armour

4xMirkwood Elf (Shield)

4xMirkwood Elf (Bow)

3xMirkwood Elf (Shield and Spear or Glaive)

Bard, Armour, Horse

12xLaketown Militia (spear)

3xLaketown Militia (bow)

3xLaketown Militia (bow, spear)

800, 49 models