Sam’s Top Ten ‘What the Hell just happened?’ Moments 2025

 Hey all

This is one blog that I always look forward to doing each year, where I write out the biggest WTF moments from my games of the year.

Bear in mind that these are ranked, not necessarily on odds alone, but sometimes also by drama and hilarity.

Merry Christmas and enjoy!

Number 10

Good- Practice Game (Jim (Sept)

In Stake a Claim, I had a rough start as Jim got to the objectives quickly and got a headstart on fortification points. 

Later on, as the game was coming to an end, Jim is one away from quartering himself and ending on a win. The last goblin of the turn, is fighting two Hearthguard and a Vault Warden team. That goblin wins his fight and receives an utter bollocking from Jim for his selfishness!

The next turn, I now have enough objectives to overtake on fortification points. Until the Watcher yanks two dwarves off an objective in the shoot phase, making it uncontested and levelling the score again. 

Then that same goblin from earlier is killed and receives an utter bollocking from Jim, again, for making his objective uncontested for me and ending the game as my victory!

Bad- One Book to Rule Them All (Kepa (June))

Time is coming to an end for the round, and I desperately need to break Kepa to have a chance. He is also in a tight spot, and is forced to charge Grima at Prince Haleth. Through the entire combat phase, I am one away from breaking him and just cannot get a kill. Time is called during the combat phase, and as we get to the final combat it’s almost guaranteed…except then Grima overcomes the Prince, leaving me gobsmacked, but mercifully doesn’t also wound him to rub it in.

Number 9

Good- Seven Stones (Larry and Sam (May)

Our opening game of Seven Stones, we manage to get Grima to run up the tower in the centre with the table's Palantir at it's top, and use our other 'Traitors' to protect the door.

Sam or Larry then makes the joking suggestion that they would 'allow' us to throw the Palantir at them if we wanted.

So we obviously did, Grima hurled it out the window (at Strength 10!) and crushed the skull of a Hillman against Saruman beneath!

Grima was, unfortunately, then unable to get out the tower, as the Hillmen held the door closed and the archers used him as a moving target in his little room. Until they eventually got him.

Bad- Throne of Skulls (Ossie (Nov))

We’re playing Sites of Power (a night battle) and my catapult has been firing blindly throughout, simply missing. Not an issue, as my orcs are fighting well and draining Thorin’s Company’s resources quickly!

Finally, I roll the 6! The rock sails through the air magnificently…before I'm watching it slowly veer off course…and land on Bombur, who uses a fate. When it kills five of my orcs…exposing Gothmog, much to his surprise, to four or five angry dwarves.

This causes an absolute avalanche in momentum change, as my solid line is shattered, heroes are left exposed and Gwaihir is freed to cause carnage. Quickly, this snowballs into an absolute wipeout for me.

Number 8

Good- Practice Game (Jason (Jan))

Jason is winning and needs to kill one more guy to end the game. He has three corsairs surrounding a Grim Hammer with +1 to wound for Backstabbers. He rolls his six dice, needing a single 5+, and gets a four high. In the next turn, I’m able to swing the game into a draw.

Bad- One Book to Rule Them All (Kepa (June))

Same battle as the Grima entry earlier. I got Prince Haleth and a couple of riders charging a lone Uruk for a Heroic Combat, using Haleth’s last might. This would allow me to slingshot the three into the main fight and shatter a flank to give me control, hopefully giving me a big advantage later. 

I win the fight and roll my twelve strikes to wound…but get a four high…the Uruk lies confused in the mud.

Number 7

Good- EAHC Halloween Event (Darren (Oct))

In this event, there is a lot of wacky wargear options opened up to the army leaders. So my Thorin is mounted on a goat, and Bolg against him in Contest of Champions is on a chariot...

I lose the move off and the chariot slams into Thorin, but I am pleasantly surprised when the goat isn't wounded! 

Less pleasantly surprised, when Thorin is wounded twice...

They both call Heroic Strikes, both go up to F9, and Thorin wins the roll off with Orcrist. None of the blows go past the chariot. I mutter 'Well if I can kill the chariot, I'll let all that go...' Thorin rolls 6, 6, 5 to wound, so spends a might and shatters the thing!

Bad- Side by Side with a…Friend..? (Fergus (Sept))

My Fellowship is against Fergus’ Harad army with a Mumak. In the opening turn, I rush onto a bridge, to give me some cover from the enemy archers, and keep safe from a trampling.

Gandalf puts up a Blinding Light and I feel pretty safe. Until the Harad upon the Mumak fire their five shots at Legolas. They get four hits and then score four wounds on him! He is left on two might, one wound and no fate immediately!

Number 6

Good- Practice Game (Ryan (Jan))

Wanting to get a few kills and maybe take the out of my heroes, Ryan calls a Heroic Combat with Aldrac against my two dwarves. He then spends a might to win the fight and another to kill. He charges Young Balin afterwards, but I succeed with my own Heroic Combat, and Young Dwalin and a dwarf trap Aldrac.

In the combat, Aldrac has F7 due to charging, so when I roll my six dice and get a four at best, my head falls into my hands…until Ryan rolls a two high, and has spent too much might to save it! Aldrac is cut to pieces.

Bad- One Book to Rule Them All (Richard (June))

My Army of Edoras is just settling into the thick of battle against the hardy Battle of Five Armies list. In the fray, Beorn picks up a Rohirrim and hurls him at the King, which was to be expected.

Less expected was Helm taking a wound from the fall from his horse, not the impact, failing all three fate on ones and then being slain by two dwarves the next turn! Setting me up for a swift defeat!

Number 5

Good- One Book to Rule Them All (James (June))

Helm Hammerhand has pushed too deep and slain the Gondorian cavalry. But now Earnur has him on the ropes with no might, two wounds and no fate, while riding at him with lance lowered. He also has the assistance of two elves and a banner in range.

In desperation, I pull out the stops. Frealaf and Hera both call Heroic Combats. Frealaf succeeds and takes the spear support off from against Hera, as he can't directly help Helm, but can make Hera's odds better. She then succeeds her own combat and charges the banner and Earnur. 

Not only does she then win that fight, but she also slays the banner and dismounts the King, who takes a wound from the fall!

Bad- Ride to War (Josh (Dec))

The final game of the day, against Riders of Eomer with my Barad-Dur list. Sauron has had a good day, helping me secure a win and almost doing it again in the second game. 

In this game, the backswing came in hard. And over five turns of combat, he never rolled above a four, as his orcs were destroyed in two turns. We carried on as we had plenty of time left, to see if Josh could kill Sauron. Eventually he did, but Sauron had only survived that long due to the Ring.

Number 4

Good- EAHC Not GT (Tom (March))

I have The Three Trolls, drawn against Fangorn. I feel like I’m against it, fighting tougher beasts, with larger numbers.

However, in the opening turn, the trolls put on a performance. Tom first faces Beechbone and wins to score three wounds against him! Bert then defeats Birchseed and his Oak ent, scoring two wounds on the weaker one, finishing it off the following turn! And finally, the leaders face off, with Bill winning and doing his 'Mince 'em fine' rule on Treebeard. I rolled a six to Treebeard’s one, causing four wounds on the lead ent!

I ended up losing the game anyway, but what a start that had been!

Bad- City of Kings (Alex (April))

Alex has brought an army of Troll Brutes led by Bolg. I figure that my best chance is to get a couple of early kills and snowball the damage quickly.

To achieve this, I got Princes Haleth, Hama and five warriors to surround one and call a Heroic Combat with the former’s last might. Alex rolled his dice and got a five high. So I rolled my twelve dice and banner reroll, only getting a four…

Those trolls then absolutely annihilated me with a tsunami of trampling.

Number 3

Good- The Clouds Burst (Jimmy (Nov))

Zagdush finally has a chance to show his quality...

Against Thranduil's Halls, he first rushes the frontline, and Heroic Combats through it to kill the spears behind too. The following turn he rushes and slays a wounded Legolas. Before being attacked by the elven King himself, who he holds back for several turns. 

Until the troll also breaks through and holds Thranduil still to allow Zagdush to also kill him! Zagdush had personally ended the Royal line of Mirkwood!

Bad- The Clouds Burst (Ed (Nov))

Playing Treasure Hoard, my Gothmog’s Army vs Return of the King. It’s late game and I’m going for broke. Goroth is holding two treasures and attacks Legolas with three Morannon Orcs, one of which also has a treasure.

Both use their final might to call Heroic Strikes, both getting to F7. Legolas rolls a five high. So I roll, expecting a swift victory and end to the elf…but get a four…Legolas slays the treasure bearer and snatches it! The game ends there due to time and causes me to lose 10-9!

Number 2

Good- Side by Side with a…Friend (Phil (Sept))

The Fellowship has taken a right kicking from the Legions of Mordor. Legolas and Gandalf stand alone in a ruin on an objective surrounded by orcs and Easterlings. 

As the game nears its end, Phil's Ringwraith on Fellbeast swoops down onto the central objective (Divide and Conquer). Legolas is in combat with Amdur and draws his bow, firing three times at the leading Wraith. One hits Amdur and wounds, the other two hit the Wraith. One of them wounds, and goes through both fate to slay him and score me leader VPs!

Phil, as one of hte loudest anti-elf voices in our local community, was not pleased.  😂

Bad- Reinforcements in the South East (Kepa (Sept))

Playing Escort the Wounded, I have decided to ignore two of Kepa’s objectives and focus down just one, while getting all three of mine past, as well as killing his leader, and breaking him.

This started well, as I got one past and the other two were making good progress, getting in behind him. Just as Durin and his guard were ready to break them out, and maximise my VPs, I couldn’t win a priority for the life of me. The Uruks won all five of the last priorities, and the move offs. 

To add salt into the wound, a captain and a berserker both trapped Durin and one shotted him after some insane dice rolls to really hit it home!

Number 1

Good- Throne of Skulls (Liam (Dec))

It’s the last turn of the game in Convergence, I have only one of the four objectives, but it’s in the middle. Liam has one within my reach and the other on the edge of the centre. 

I get a Heroic Move and Amdur charges the Rivendell knight holding the closer one. He calls a Heroic Combat with his last might in one last desperate hope, as I eyeball the distance, and he seems close enough. 

Amdur quickly cuts the elf down, snatching the heirloom, and I measure the distance. He’s a little under the six inches and charges into the next! Bringing his blade down and slaying the second knight to claim a second heirloom that he could only do as he was a hero!

It was in the final combats of the game, and had swung the VPs by twelve accumulatively, to win it for me! A truly great Throne of Skulls moment, where a big 'Hail Mary' comes off!

Bad- War of the Rohirrim (James (Jan))

It’s the local league opener and I’m against my often suffering doubles partner, James. 

It’s Hold Ground, and my Gundabad orcs have done well. We have killed Faramir, Madril and all the rangers/Minas Tirith warriors off. I have my Catapult troll and leading Captain in the centre with a group of orcs. Now, having already rolled a few times to continue the game, we just wait to win…

After the fifth turn of rolling to end the game, and still continuing…my numbers have thinned out. My lead Captain has done a runner and taken a few orcs…

After the seventh, the Catapult troll has also run…Frodo and Sam, who have sat off to one side behind a pillar to avoid the catapult projectiles, now emerge and start shuffling towards the objective.

After nine turns, I have a lone Gundabad spearman left in the middle. And the hobbits are closing in!!!

In turn ten of rolling, I have to charge the hobbits to try pushing them off the centre. They naturally win, but have the good grace not to table me, as the game finally ends! Now that they’re in range…

My 15-3 victory was turned into a 16-6 defeat! 

Hope you all enjoyed these and cheered for my good fortune or laughed at my terrible luck! I’ll begin the next list in the new year!

Tournament Report- Throne of Skulls 2025 (29/30th Nov)

The Event

Throne of Skulls is quite simply one of, if not the, best event on the calendar. 1000pts with theme and sportsmanship as important as your gaming results.

My Army

Early on in the year, I spoke to regular co-conspirator, James, about his TOS plans, and floated the idea of a joint display. 

He mentioned that he was intending to do the Defence of Minas Tirith. So I ended up bringing the attackers. How I made the army is here: 

https://eastangliasbg.blogspot.com/2025/12/aragorn-you-need-more-men-backlog.html

I also decided that I would begin each game by ‘releasing the prisoners’ and firing the severed heads once, just for the theme.

Game 1- Stake A Claim (Vs. Gary (Dragons of the North))

I’ve never played against the Dragons army, so didn’t know how this would go. I quickly realised that Amdur would be a big asset, with his high fight value and 5+ limit on wounding heroes. 

I called a Heroic March with Guritz to move up the board quickly as the dragons flew to the centre and got early fortification points. 

Then the dragonfire started….😆

I lost nine of my guys to the first two fireballs. As they hit my big group hard. I ‘released the prisoners’ in return, but it just seemed to make the Dragons angry rather than frightened. 

The next turn, I charged in with as many troops as I could, alongside Amdur and the troll, into the Yellow/Red dragon. Gary’s leading Dragon, the Golden one, blew another fireball into the Enforcer’s warband as the Red Dragon also blew one at Guritz’s. I had another six incinerated. 

Amdur then helped me give some clap back, as he and his troops overcame the beast and dealt three or four wounds. Some of which were saved by fate. 

In the following turn, I managed to get all two Dragons into fights to avoid most fire this turn, and luckily the spare dragon missed. Amdur, and his troops again took on the Yellow and Red and dealt another three wounds. He would then fail a courage test and fled the battle. However, the other two fights wouldn’t go as well, as I lost the Enforcer and several orcs.

If I could now, just flood another objective and also kill another dragon, I could have the last flee and win by default, or maybe reclaim the VPs that I needed. I called a Heroic Move with Gothmog to try and grab the Goldenboy, breaking and leader VPs in him after all. He called one in response and won the roll off, he flew backwards out of Amdur’s range and landed behind the Enforcer’s surviving orcs. 

I pursued but the orcs in charge range, failed their courage tests and refused to pin him. So another fireball came and hit my troll square in the face. He was slain immediately, and Amdur survived with his fate. I fired my catapult in response and dropped a rock onto the Red’s head, but he was saved by fate. Guritz tried to seize the right objective but was eaten by the Red. The following turn saw Amdur attack the Gold again but lose and fell to the beast. 

Over the last few turns, I closed down the fortification point difference but the game ended before I could equalise. Gothmog also fell to the Golden Dragon in a heroic last stand. I had less points, owned less objectives in the last turn, was broken and had lost my leader.

Result- 12-0 Loss

Game 2- Treasure Hoard (Vs. David (The Easterlings))

I knew that against David’s mostly mounted Glimmering Horde, I needed to be quick off the mark and take my three treasures early. So I called Marches with Gothmog and Guritz, pushing up quickly and taking the first. 

I then ‘released the prisoners’…it was supposed to be a gimmick…a prank…it scared off five of his kataphrakts…

We claimed three objectives each and they rushed towards each other. When the lines hit, we formed two big fights either side of the central house. An easterling was carrying my left objective, Gothmog took my right one and another easterling held the central one. 

On my left, Amdur and the troll pushed into the Glimmering Horde. The troll ended up fighting the enemy Amdur for the rest of the game, taking the blows but not falling. My Amdur edged towards the Dragon Knight when a catapult shot landed and knocked them all prone.

On the right, Gothmog and his Enforcer skirted around the side and started cutting down kataphrakts. A handful of spare troops ran through the garden of the house and started flanking the cavalry. Beside them, I ran my easterling with a treasure up alongside an orc, with the intention to try and cause damage to the left flanks rear and cause a breakthrough.

I was getting lucky early on and the damage was snowballing.  A catapult shot scattered onto an enemy treasure and stopped its progress dead for me. Gothmog and his unit managed to kill most of the right flank off.

On the left, the troll held Amdur in place and kept him from doing any real damage to me, but causing a wound myself eventually. My orcs and easterlings were taking down a good number while not losing too many in return. My Amdur stepped up to face the Dragon Knight, when a scattered rock came sailing down and flattened them both! At which point, time was called.

At the end, I held four treasures, David had two, I had broken him, I had wounded Amdur and he had a kataphrakt close to my board edge.

Result- 12-5 Win

Game 3- Sites of Power (Vs. Ossie (Thorin's Company))

Ossie is a guy, who I have encountered at many tournaments, but never yet played against. We arguably had a good scenario for me in this. 

I had brought Guritz in first, and used his bonus to reduce Amdur's roll of 2 to a 1 and give him a second chance. When he came the next turn, he reinforced Guritz. The rest of the army all arrived further up the same board edge. The prisoners were released, missed and who knows where they ended up.

I tried to move up quickly to engage the dwarves ASAP and start draining their resources. I got a couple of orcs to hold the South-East objective, a couple of Easterlings moved up to the North-East, my catapult sat on the South-West and Ossie had Balin later sit back on the North-West.

Once we were in charging range, Ossie won the Heroic Move off and had Gandalf immobilise the troll before the dwarves charged. I tried to undo the damage as best I could with the troops. Amdur was just out of range of Dwalin, so couldn't remove him from the troll, but the orcs and Easterlings got a lot of the others including Gwaihir.

The first turns of combat went pretty well for me, as the dwarves were forced to spend might/fate and lost some wounds. I had some real momentum building and quickly had a small group of orcs all pouring past to go for Balin and his objective. Things were going really well...until disaster struck.

This was a night battle and so the catapult had been largely uninvolved...until it wasn't. It finally rolled a 6 to hit. Heading right for Gwaihir, and then quickly deviating sharply to the left and striking Gloin. This knocked all the dwarves prone, but didn't cause any wounds...but killed all five of my orcs in range. Suddenly the dust clears and Gothmog is left awkwardly staring down the barrel, exposed as five dangerous dwarves are all very close.

Suddenly, the game turned on a dime, Amdur was torn to pieces by Gwaihir followed qucikly by the Enforcer, who stepped up to protect Gothmog. The orcs near the North-West objective finally brought Balin down, but Gothmog didn't last much longer as I broke. Several of the dwarves were on their last legs, but were clearly inspired by how their fortune had turned and I couldn't kill any more of them. 

I had the orcs on the South East objectives both flee, and lost me a vital objective right at the end of the game. Ossie pulled some of his heroes to the North-West objective (Thorin and Bombur, I want to say) and edge me out as he outnumbered me on it. 

Ossie had outnumbered me on one objective (x2), while I solely held two, he had broken me, slain Gothmog, and he had slain my troll. 

Result- 10-6 Loss

Game 4- Escort the Wounded (Vs. Jake (Men of the West))

Opponent Heroes: King Elessar (converted from a Hurin), Legolas, Gimli and Gwaihir

Opponent Troops: Minas Tirith Warriors and a Great Eagle

Day two began with us trying to carry our poor beaten soldiers to safety. I was a little concerned about facing another Gwaihir after he did so much damage in the previous game. I began by getting two orcs to carry one to my left, another couple took the central one and my troll took the right. I released the prisoners, but the army bonus meant that the Men didn't care.

Gwaihir made a swift attack, flew over my army and viciously attacked the troll, winning the fight and Jake picked up his dice. I remember saying this'll be where you get all 5/6s...and he rolled 4, 5, 5 and 6. Obviously, it's too good a chance for Gwaihir and he mighted it to one shot the beast. That was a very bad start on my part.

I then set up my lines to goalkeep against Aragorn to the right, and Legolas/Gimli to the left. I threw handful of orcs at Legolas to occupy him as my wounded guy was run past. I managed to get by and saved one. 

On the right, I tried to keep the men back, but they pushed hard and started slipping by with their own wounded. Amdur was attacking the flanks, trying to thin out the ranks and isolate Aragorn.

One on the back of an eagle, the other two in the hands of men. Gwaihir, meanwhile, had taken a rock on the head, but passed his fate, and then flew towards my crew. In the ensuing combats, I threw my troll in and we started well, managing to remove two fate. In the second, we got him down to two wounds, zero fate. But then the troll failed his courage...Gwaihir attacked the orcs instead, so the troll threw a stone...and killed his engineer captain...whoops...

He did make up for this, right at the end of the game, as he charged in one last time and rended the bird into oblivion, scoring three wounds!

On the right, Amdur was successfully keeping pace with Aragorn's unit, killing many in exchange for the fallen orcs and easterlings. On the left, Gothmog and his Enforcer were slaying many of Legolas and Gimli's men, but Jake was about to rescue his last two wounded (top right corner), and mine were nowhere near safety.

As the last turn was coming to a close, Amdur had finally made his move and charged Aragorn. We were both out of might with elven blades, equal fight value, and I had elected to go 2h with Amdur to increase my wounding rolls to 4+, so naturally, being evil I brought two orcs in to trap. We both got a six and in the roll off...Aragorn won! He dealt two wounds to Amdur as the game ended. (I rolled after the fact, to torment myself, and I'd have done four wounds, if I had won. But nevermind.) It was a great game!

I had saved one wounded, broken Jake and killed his banner bearer. He had rescued all three wounded and broken me.

Result- 13-7 Loss

Game 5- Convergence (Vs. Liam (Rivendell))

My last game would be against Liam and his all mounted Rivendell army. I’ve never had much luck against Rivendell knights, but maybe there’s a first for everything. 

I deployed Amdur and Guritz in one corner, near the catapult and Gothmog with his Enforcer in the opposite. Liam put Elrond and Arwen together and the twins across from them.

I called Heroic Marches with Gothmog and Guritz to try and seize a couple of heirlooms, as I reckoned that if the elves got them, I’d not get them back. Gothmog led his guys towards the Northern one, and Guritz towards the Eastern one. I figured the elves would focus down one or the other, so I could at least guarantee getting one. The prisoners were freed and the elves rolled their eyes.

As we closed in, Gothmog and his unit stood before the elven cavalry, in charge range. And both sides called Heroic Moves. I won it and rushed into the elves, but couldn’t clear the fence to reach the objective. In the combat phase, the orcs had a blinder and cut down several. A catapult shot landed square on Elrohir’s head with my first direct hit of the weekend and killed his horse along with several of his cavalry. Elrohir survived.

On the Eastern side, Guritz’s unit took the heirloom and pulled back towards the easterlings, who were covering the catapult from the approaching elves, led by Arwen.

Amdur had started approaching the centre, helped his men kill a few elves, who rushed in and then pulled back to join the catapult. Liam had taken both the southern and western objectives and also stepped in with a dismounted knight to pick up the northern one as the orcs and elves fought. 

It was another game if the catapult troll showing his quality, when the elves flew in and charged the defence I had put up.

Arwen had cast a Nature’s Wrath and knocked down several of my guys. My troll regained his footing in combat and the next turn began hurling, taking down pairs of elves at a time. I wanted him to hurl at Arwen, but his intelligence kept failing him (what an idiot!) 😆

Over the game a heroic effort was put in by them all, but we never managed to even dismount the she-elf.

Back in the North, Gothmog’s orcs were gloriously winning against the elves, getting the move offs and killing a handful each turn. That was until we lost the move off…the elves immediately turned the tide and slaughtered sooo many of my guys! This was compounded as Elrond arrived and slew the Enforcer and before long, only Gothmog and a handful of orcs remained. The lead orc tried to put up a heroic last stand with Heroic Defences but, before long, all but one grunt were slain!

I was in trouble, my leader was dead, I was broken and I only had 1/4 objectives. When priority was rolled, I won. Amdur, who had led a push into the centre, attacked an heirloom holder and pinned him. Liam then moved his guys onto the edge of the centre. He only eyeballed it though…and I realised Amdur could be in charge range of another heirloom holder…I also had my heirloom firmly in the centre…but, this was Amdur’s last night..Elrond was closing in with a tsunami of elves, unbroken and would wash me away easily if  the game continued…

But it’s TOS, where this sort of reckless gambit is encouraged! Fuck it!

Amdur spent his last might, calling the Heroic Combat. He slew his first opponent, taking the heirloom! He then rushed into the next as he was in range! And managed to slay him too! Because he is a hero, he is able to hold more than one!

But then the truly crucial moment came, where I had to end the game or die…I rolled and sighed with relief as I had got a 2!

I held three objectives in range of the centre, Liam held one off the centre, I had more models in the centre, while I had been broken and lost my leader. 

Result- 11-7 Win (All thanks to Amdur and sheer dumb luck. Two mins earlier, Liam had been winning 13-5!)

End Results

By the end of the tournament, I had one major and one minor win as well as two minor and one major loss. I had also had a favourite game vote and three favourite armies votes, getting me 43rd place out of the 80 players.

As always it was another awesome Throne of Skulls and a great weekend, always a great way to bring the years events to a close...but maybe I have time for just one more this year...

Clearing the Backlog, Part 25 – The Road to Throne of Skulls (Part 3)

As you saw in the last blog post, my army for Throne of Skulls, 1,000 points of Atop the Walls, was complete. What I now needed, was a display board…

Having decided some time ago that I wanted to expand my Realms of Men army into Atop the Walls, the only logical display board for the army was the walls of Minas Tirith. An initial idea was to simply have the top of the wall as the base of the board and just arrange the models on it, but that would be too easy for Throne of Skulls [although having worked on my display board, it would have been a far more sensible option…]. Instead, I went with something a bit bigger…

My starting point for the project was, perhaps surprisingly, not the walls themselves. I wanted to try and recreate the scene from the films where Mordor's siege towers assault the walls. Unfortunately, Games Workshop doesn’t make a siege tower model [although it did used to make one for Warhammer Fantasy about 20-odd years ago, but they're very difficult to get hold of], and I don’t really have the skills to craft one. So, I did a quick search on eBay, and in a staggering display of luck, managed to come across a listing selling this beauty:

This tower comes from a range of action figures released alongside the films, and after placing some models on it to test the scale, it was the perfect size to use for the board! Now I just needed to build some walls to match it in terms of scale!

For the walls themselves, I had two choices – either scratch build them, or 3D print them. I'd used 3D prints for my Grand Tournament display board, but decided this time that I wanted to have a go at crafting the walls, especially once I'd worked out how tall they needed to be.

The basic structure of the wall was built from foamboard – this would be my inner layer, and was essentially a big box. I also made sure to make some supports to give it some sturdiness – I would be placing two metal trebuchets on it after all. As to the walls themselves, I used XPS foam sheets, into which I carved a brick pattern – I really do need to give a shout out at this point to ZorpaZorp and his excellent tutorial on How to Carve Realistic Stonework. Essentially, you mark out the lines for the stonework, score them with a craft knife, widen them with a pencil and then add texture to the foam by using scrunched up tin foil - the end result looked fantastic!

With the stonework carved, it was just a case of glueing the XPS foam to the foamboard box, taking care where the bastions were on end of each wall. The crenelations were made by using a hot wire cutter and a special MDF cutting jig I found online – this made things so much easier, and they looked great!

With the wall under construction, I needed a way for my army to reach the top of the wall – stairs! Whilst I could have also carved these from foam, it would have been very fiddly, and would've taken ages. Fortunately, the Gondor Mansion kit comes with a set of stairs – I'd saved two stair pieces from a previous project, and bought two more Mansion kits, so that I could use the stair pieces and then use the rest of the kits for future projects.

I started with a simple set of stairs, made by gluing one set on top of another (with a spare floor tile so that the stairs could actually sit on something), plus two floor tiles to create a landing where the stairs change direction – I then cut some foam sheets to size and glued them around the stairs – my stairway was complete!

Now to the section behind the walls themselves – I didn’t want it to just be empty, so I took one of the Gondor Mansion kits to use as a building. The design I had in mind was one I'd seen crafted a few times, and I wanted to see if I could replicate it using the kits – and I'm very please to say that I could!

I left the back wall off of the building to save parts – the walls would serve as the backdrop. Next, I glued various pieces of scrap foam to the board, before carving it to look like flagstones, using the same technique as I had for the walls – you can see there's a number of gaps in the foam, which I intended to fill with filler and then cover with scenic to look like rubble – the city is under siege after all!

Next came the siege tower, which I needed to look less like a toy and more like an actual siege tower – I used thin strips of balsa wood, glued to the inside of the tower to avoid there being bare surfaces – I then added extra platforms to the tower, making it look more to the scale of the models, and two support struts running up the inside of the tower. I had planned to convert two trolls to be pushing the tower towards the wall, but had to abandon that part of the project as I simply didn’t have time. After a bit of work, the tower was ready for painting!

So, to painting the board itself. For the foam, I first applied a coat of foam primer (i.e. paint that you apply to foam before spraying it so that spray paint doesn’t melt it) – I used a white spray paint, before picking out individual bricks with different colours in order to give the stonework some variety. I then applied a wash of Contrast Apothecary White over the whole thing, before drybrushing everything with Pallid Wych Flesh. Finally, the White City was indeed white!

The mansion kit got the exact same treatment, before it was glued into place. I then added some scatter terrain I'd scavenged from my GT board, and the city itself was ready! I then added sand and flock outside the walls, painted to match my Pelennor Fields basing scheme – the board was almost ready!

As to the siege tower, I used different metallic paints for the various panels, such as brass, bronze and silver, before applying a wash of thinned down Contrast paint, before lightly drybrushing the edges with a dark silver. The wood was painted with the same wash, before being drybrushed with light browns – I then painted the flags at the top of the tower and it was ready!

Last but not least, I needed some orcs to assault the white city, and for that, I picked up a sprue of Morannon orcs. I sprayed them black, then silver, before applying two washes - first black, then brown. This is my go-to recipe for dirty metallics – orcs aren’t going to have shiny armour after all. The cloth was picked out with brown, before being highlighted with a dark red and then a lighter red – I kept the colours fairly muted so that they would stand out against the bright walls. I then picked out the skin with greens, browns and greys, before painting the weapons a light brown – with the orcs glued in place on the tower, the board was finished!

So, here is the finished board, with the army added! I was really pleased with how this board turned out, and as it was mostly constructed from foam, it wasn't overly expensive either! It looked great with the models all set up on the walls – I then paired it with Sam's army and display board, and we were ready for Throne of Skulls!

So, to the event itself – as usual, it was a showcase of incredible hobbying. The standard seems to get higher and higher every year. Sadly, my army wasn't nominated for Favourite Army, which ultimately was my goal, but having seen the incredible armies and their display boards which did get nominated, I can have zero complaints – they really were stunning pieces of work, and all of them deserved their nominations – the event organisers must have one heck of a task trying to come up with their shortlist. 

As to my numbers, the model count for this year has now reached 178 models! I've been really pleased with my progress this year, and I'm hoping that with a bit of a push, I can get to 200 painted for the year. Post Throne of Skulls, things get a little bit more relaxed as I have no upcoming events, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Secret Santa may bring!

I'll be back with one more post this year, which will be my usual end of year round up – until then, hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!