Clearing the Backlog (Nov-Dec '22)

 Hey all

This is my final paint blog for the year. I decided to pile November and December together to make it a bit meatier as I didn't have loads of time to paint in again. (Next year, I may just make it every other month, rather than once a month). 

In November, I began by quickly banging out a Vault Warden team as I had ended up adding one to my Battle Company locally. Rather than leave the shield plain, I added a Scottish flag design to the front, as it goes nicely with my colour scheme to the army (primarily blue with white on the Kings).

My next quick job, was the last two of my Mirkwood Elves. Simply because it finishes off an entire force, and that excites me far more than it should. I did these in the same green colour scheme as I have for the rest.

Since I had enjoyed painting the dwarves earlier, I decided that I would finish off the Dwarf command box that I opened up for the Battle Company challenge earlier in the year. While I tend to make the warriors mostly blue, with black undershirts, making them very dark colours. I decided to give the Shieldbearer a very bright, white and gold shield, as I figured that he is defending the King so we can make him blend with the royalty a little.

To finish off the month, I had to paint up some Feral Uruk-hai for Throne of Skulls in early Dec. They were relatively straightforward and fun to paint up. I liked the faceplates that remind me of Bolg and got plenty of practice in freehanding my white hands. I did these using a method that I had seen someone do previously, sadly I forget who. This is done by simply painting, in Rakarth Flesh, a backwards 'C' then doing a small line about half its width from the gap in the C. Then doing four lines for the fingers, with the index and ring ones being the same length, the middle one being slightly longer (about the same length as the palm) and the little finger obviously being the smallest. You then go over this, once dry, drybrushing with some Pallid Wych Flesh. You can see one that came out nicely, on the face of the central Feral.

In December, I began by doing the same and finishing my last three Feral Uruk-hai, this wouldn't have taken very long, however, our household got struck down by a nasty cold/flu. So our time and efforts ended up being on sorting out the monkey boy, and it took me until halfway through the month to get them done. 

After this, I decided to prioritise getting a Hobby Bingo square achieved. There was one nice easy one I could get done, 'Paint a model with the Spirit keyword'. Looking through the pile of shame, I saw that I had the Betrayer, who had sat unnoticed for years. He seemed like a simple enough task, so out he came.

I had him finished around December 28th~ and tallying up all my models that I had done for the year, I was sitting on 89...there was no way that I could leave it just shy of 90, not while I still had time. 

I had begun the year with Dale, so I would finish the year with Dale. Girion, has also sat in the pile of shame since at least pre-pandemic, now his time had come! The first thing that he would need, would be a Great Bow. Luckily, as if I had foreseen this moment, while using green stuff earlier in the year, I had already made him one with the excess.

 

The majority of his colour schemes were easy to decide, but the part that stumped me for a while was what to do with his coat. In the GW pictures, it appears to be a dark brown, with an orange? trim. While in the pictures of Luke Evans in costume, it appears to be a dark red. In the end, I went for an inbetween and did it with a Mournfang Brown, covered by a layer of Doombull Brown, then washed in Agrax Earthshade, followed by Carroburg Crimson to give it a slight red hue (not very visible in the pictures). And I was happy with the appearance. For the trim, I kept it simple and just painted it Steel Legion Drab and washed in, the old favourite, Agrax.

And with that I hit a nice round 90 for the year's tally of models! Adding in the influx of new Birthday and Xmas models, including an EAHC secret Santa of goodies (organised by Tom Hawker), my pile of shame had shrunk over the year from 419 on Jan 1st down to 384. This obviously fell very much short of my target to get my queue below 300, but aim for the stars and that. I'll renew that target for next year.

These secret Santa models in particular would be helpful for one of my two big projects for next year (Moria and Lothlorien). And speaking of next year, here's a couple of previews of things that are converted (even mildly) and queued for it.

Mounted King Thorin

Thorin III Stonehelm

Cheers for following my year of paint-based blabbing, more to come starting at the end of February!

Sam's Top 10 'What the hell just happened?' moments 2022

 Hey all

This is a post I thought that I'd make to summarise my ten biggest catastrophic and spontaneous failures of the year, inspired by a segment of the SBG magazine from an early issue, titled 'Dice of Woe'. Those, who I play with regularly, are familiar with my moments of abysmal luck that have sunk me unexpectedly. Such as the infamous example against Tom Hawker, where my entire army fled, one at a time, in the final turn, to hand over a 8-4 victory to become a 10-0 defeat. 

I hope that you enjoy these, as much as I did collecting them. (In hindsight, of course). 😂

Anyway, lets kick off with...

10: To War! (August) Host of the Dragon Emperor Vs. Dan (Isengard)

To set the scene, it was the opening game of the day against Dan, who had spanked me in the EAHC finale the year before Covid. I was keen to return the sentiment and I so nearly did as we played 'Lords of Battle' and I so nearly matched the wound tally, after two very unfortunately failed Heroic Combats from Rutabi and the Emperor.

However, what we didn't know was that what would decide the match was the most seemly innocuous moment midway through, as a Rhunish War Drake failed his climb test, to get off a small ledge just an inch high and took a wound. This knocked Dan's tally one above me at the very end, leaving me narrowly defeated. While Dan went on, untouched, to win the whole event!

*Fell warg proxying the Drakes, bottom left being the guilty one

9: Throne of Skulls (December) Isengard Vs. Jacob (Rivendell/Numenor)

We have a classic Heirlooms game in full swing, the objective has fallen into their camp and I'm launching a full on assault to claim it. I just have a small group of warriors with the Oathmaker, who calls a Heroic Combat against the dismounted Rivendell Knight to move them up and get them stuck into the attack. 

The Knight rolls first and scores a 3! Brilliant! With 5 attacks total, I can't fail! Then...

I let out a small wail of dismay! That Knight was a thorn in the Oathmaker's side the entire game, taking away all his might and only falling at the very end, when it only mildly soothed a damaged ego. The Last Alliance held their objective.

8: The Grand Tournament (February) Garrison of Dale Vs. Dan (Azog's Legion/Hunters)

In the thick of another great game of 'Fog of War', I was in a struggle. Bolg was hitting me hard with his warriors and gradually breaking through to, what I assumed was, his objective terrain piece. It was at this point that I saw an opportunity. I had Bard and a small troop of warriors in a second ruin. The idea was that my bow armed Captain, who was on full stats, would call a Heroic Combat against the Hunter orc that he faced, slay it and then rush up to assist Bard in slaying Narzug. And in the next turn, he would then call a Heroic March to push them all up past Bolg's main army to seize my objective.

Instead, my Bow Captain rolled snake eyes in combat, took two wounds from the orc and then rolled another one on his fate, placing him in the ground rather than the orcs. Bard also fluffed his combat and, luckily, wasn't wounded himself. As one final twist of the knife, the Bow Captain, was the hero I had chosen to protect.

7: Will you follow me, one last time? (November) Men of the West Vs. Sam (Angmar)

This was one of those Legolas moments that he would rather you forgot.

He arrived in Heirlooms, away from any friends and fairly far from enemies, so he stopped and took a turn of shooting at a couple of warg riders. He naturally failed to do any damage, and seeing those riders now turn and coming at him, at full pace, tried to climb up the ladder of a tower, from which, he intended to start sniping the enemy force, as I had found the objective.

Unfortunately, Legolas then proceeded to climb onto the bottom of the ladder, be charged by Warg riders over the entire game. For three turns in a row, he rolled snake eyes and would then be wounded, forced to spend fate and might to survive, falling from the ladder with a complete lack of grace. Eventually, he managed to win a fight and slay the second warg, before scrambling up the ladder. Only to face them at the top anyway.

By the end of the game, he was lucky to be alive and had only claimed two mounts for his kills.

6a: Seven Stones (May) Rohan/Fellowship (W/ James) over two games

While I can't remember the specifics of these events, I still have the echo in my mind of James screaming at me 'What is wrong with you?!'

In a weird mirror image across two games, we twice had Aragorn have his horse shot, he would spend all three fate, one after the other failing, before being forced to use one of his stored might to save it. Only to lose it the following turn regardless.

It should be noted that I was dressed as King Theoden for our theme, the Charge from Helm's Deep, while James was my trusty steed, Snowmane, leading to the following image.

6b: Heroes of the Belegaer Sea (May) Army of Thror over two games

In a very similar vein, in two games, again more or less mirroring one another. I first played against the Pits of Dol Guldor legion, so I was understandably concerned about locking down and defeating Azog.

I got a great chance as several warriors, Thror and Thrain managed to finally pin him and using the last point of might, I called a Heroic Strike. It went horribly and suddenly both heroes took 3 wounds from the Pale Orc, and I failed all 4 fate rolls between them! The rest of the game snowballed and I was thoroughly beaten.

Into the second game, where I faced the Return of the King legion in Contest of Champions. I threw Thrain at the King of the Dead to hold him back as Aragorn was behind the army, for fear of being double teamed. Imagine my surprise, when Thrain not only lost the fight, despite Heroic Striking higher, but also failed all three fate to save the only wound the King caused on 1s.

This then happened again as Thror also lost to the King and suffered a single wound, also rolling a 1 for his fate, and after Heroic Combatting the previous turn, and using a might to try and Heroic Move, suddenly also fell. Meaning that I had failed all 8 fate rolls that I had taken (1/256 chance).

5: Friendly (October) Men of the West Vs. CJ (Assault on Helm's Deep)

In preparation for the EAHC finale, I decided to give the LL a few practice games, to figure out how best to use it. I came up against CJ, who was running his army for the finale, complete with big, scary bomb.

There was two ballistae to contend with, so Aragorn led the Heroic March up towards one to get too close to shoot. As the bomb team ran towards the King of Gondor, I braced for impact.

To my horror, it expectedly detonated, but on the chart CJ rolled a 6! He then followed this up with a 6/5 on the wounds caused, meaning the Heir of Isildur now covered the entire battlefield! I don't think that I need to tell you that my army was decimated following this, although Gimli did brutally cut down the Uruk General.

4: Local league (September?) Azog's Legion Vs. George (Fangorn)

George and I were fighting hard in Capture and Control, as Bolg managed to kill Quickbeam before being torn apart by Treebeard or Beechbone. I had all the objectives under my control and had broken the Ents, so just needed the game to end...

Except it didn't...

Turn after turn, a 3+ was rolled, and my heroes were killed and my warriors fled. Until eventually, after the 10th roll had failed and the turn had passed, I was just left with a lone Gundabad Troll on its last wound against Treebeard and Beechbone. And then the game finally ended, which was just as well, or I may have had a breakdown! Luckily, I had maintained control of the objectives to claim the 11-0 win, despite how close it really was.

3: Strider Cup (October) Easterlings/Mordor (W/ CJ) Vs. (Sorry I have forgotten the names) (Mordor) 

To give some context, at the Strider Cup, the cups themselves are awarded for the team that manages to achieve the most Strider points across the weekend for carrying out bizarre actions e.g. lying down with your Ringbearer in a place where they can be charged.

So, we were playing to achieve one in which we needed Amdur (our champion) to fight one on one with a monster, in this case a troll. Then to max out on the points, we needed Amdur to slay the troll. He had a single point of might left and had scored a single wound upon it thus far.

As I prepared to throw him in again, CJ suggested that he throws the Great Beast of Gorgoroth into it first and his logic was sound. 

CJ: It's a 4/9 chance that I do a single wound on it, a 4/9 chance that I do nothing at all, but at least add extra attacks to win the fight.'

Me: But what if you kill it?

CJ: Well, what are the chances of that?

Me: Ok, fair enough

The Great Beast flattened that troll into the ground so fast...

Luckily, despite this, we managed to win the cups, but it was the only thing that stopped us achieving every Strider point going.

2: White Shores and Beyond (February) The Trolls Vs. Tom (Corsairs of Umbar)

At our first EAHC event since the start of Covid, I found myself facing off with the Three Trolls against the corsairs in the capable hands of Tom, who has won several events in the past. This seemed like a fairly clear cut game to me.

I opened up by throwing Bill into combat with some pirates and Tom the Troll into Dalamyr. Tom sneezed over Dalamyr and used his victory to shove the pirate leader into a sack, thus paralysing him. Excellent, I now had them in the palm of my hand, all that I had to do was get some kills with Bill and then ride the game to a victory.

I then realised the issue, I could not be quartered, and so would have to quarter them to end the game. Bill had managed to kill two pirates before fluffing a combat and being slain. Tom then quickly followed and Bert fled not long after.

I should point out that this meant that while I had the higher VP count, I had lost. And this is despite the fact that the enemy leader, who is relied upon to score most of the VPs, had spent the ENTIRE GAME paralysed in a sack...poor show, Bill, poor show.

1: Warhammer World Team Championships (September) Thranduil's Halls/Beornings Vs. Felix (Depths of Moria)

For the final entry, it was a big one. At the Team Championships in Warhammer World no less, when I have the hopes of another three players on my shoulders!

We followed the matchmaking system, and I chose to face off against the Depths of Moria LL in 'To the Death' as I felt that my army had the best chance against them.

The game opened with Grimbeorn firing his Great Bow and scoring a cheeky wound after using a might point. As the flaming demon of doom closed in, Grimbeorn went into bear form and charged, roaring into the beast. He had an elf join in with a glaive supporting him.

Then began a very fast and very unfortunate series of events. First, Felix got a goblin prowler to throw a dagger, which hit, went through the combat and killed the elf at the front. This removed both elves from the combat. Right, that's bad, but I'll roll with it. I called my Heroic Strike and went up to F10, the Balrog then set a bar of 4 highest. With a squeal of delight, I rolled my three dice, and got a 2 highest...

The Balrog then went to wound rolls, and I comforted myself that I have 3w and 3f, so it'll be ok. Only to suddenly be lumped with 4 wounds! I, numbly, picked up my dice and rolled all 3 fate, to get 1, 2, 3. My big scary bear, worth 1/4 of my army, had just been torn apart by an even bigger and scarier beastie! And it hadn't cost him any resources!

Thranduil then led a heroic attempt at trying to pull it back, but there was no coming back from that start and I was destroyed. I went on to win 3 games and draw the last, but that one stung.

In a similar situation, I played against John in the EAHC two months later, again with a Balrog. But this time, he whipped Thrydan, the leader of my Dunlendings, from behind cover and ate him in the opening combat. It pales in comparison to the prior case, but I hope it can help explain my 'irrational' fear of this demon of the ancient world!

I hope that you've enjoyed this chronicling of my woes and, if it's well received, then maybe I'll do the same at the end of 2023.

Have a Merry Christmas all!

Battle Report: Erebor Reclaimed/Garrison of Dale Vs. Easterlings

I asked amongst the local group chat, whether anyone fancied a game on TTS for Sunday 18th December as a pre Xmas game. And had two volunteers, so it only made sense to do a 2v1. We quickly split into two teams (Me v Josh and Will) and decided to theme our game around the Battle of Dale. It was going to be a 1200pt game. 

(Image from the one wikia to rule them all)

I was to be the Easterlings and Josh/Will to be the good forces, with Josh using Erebor and Will using Dale. We also agreed to not use the Legendary Legions for a nice chilled game.

Our armies were:

Me

The Dragon Emperor of Rhun LEADER

12x Easterling warriors w/ 6x Bow and 6x Pike/Shield

6x Black Dragon warriors w/ 5x Pike/Shield and 1x Pike/Shield/Banner

Rutabi

6x Dragon Cult Acolytes

9x Black Dragon warriors w/ Pike/Shield

Brorgir

3x Rhunish War Drakes

8x Black Dragon warriors w/ Pike/Shield

Dragon Knight w/ Armoured Horse

1x Black Dragon Kataphrakt

Easterling Captain w/ Armoured horse, sword and shield

5x Easterling warriors w/ 4x Bow and 1x Pike/Shield

6x Black Dragon Kataphrakts w/ 1x War Drum

1x Rhunish War Drake

Numbers: 62

Josh

King Dain LEADER

16x Iron Hills warriors w/ 8x Shield and 8x Spear/Shield

1x Goat Rider

Thorin III Stonehelm

11x Iron Hills warriors w/ Spear/Shield

1x Goat Rider

Will

King Brand

2x Knights of Dale

15x Warriors of Dale w/ 1x Banner/Spear, 2x Bow/Spear, 7x Shield/Spear and 5x Shield

Bard II

7x Knights of Dale

8x Warriors of Dale w/ Bow/Spear

Captain of Dale w/ Shield

Numbers: 65

This wasn't a typical scenario, for this we were trialling the approach that was to be used at my event, coming in January, 'The Fog of War'. This would involve randomised objectives, deployment and end conditions.

Fog of War event pack: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MV73FUVwwPvOImaFnnYe16MRfxSEPHco/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116936616889776102357&rtpof=true&sd=true

We rolled for ours and got:

Up to 12" deployment from your board edge/On breaking, a D6 1/2 will end the game.

Minor objective: Option 4- Similar to Heirlooms, the Heirloom is worth 1VP for having more models nearby or 3VPs for holding it.

Major objective: Option 3- Similar to Fog of War/Assassination, note down a friendly hero to defend, worth 1VP for surviving the game and 3VPs for being unharmed (fate is allowed to be spent). Also choose another friendly hero (may be the same one if you wish), this will be your assassin. Note down an opposing hero as a target, if you wound them, you gain 1VP. If they are slain, you gain 2VPs instead, but if your assassin deals the killing blow, you instead gain 3VPs. (You may select leaders for any of these roles).

The final 3VPs are for breaking your opponent, if they also break you, then you both receive 1VP instead.

I will unveil our selected targets at the end of the game.

We found a nice gates of Erebor to use as our map and so we began.

We deployed thematically so that the forces of good were outside of the Gates of Erebor and the Easterlings were across from them. I deployed Rutabi to my far right. Beside them I had the Emperor's warband, to the left of which I had Brorgir. And on the far left, the Captain. At the rear, the Dragon knight hung back.

Across from us, King Brand was on their far left. To his right, he had Thorin III. In the centre, Dain had a solid rank of dwarves and the far right was held by Bard II. The Capt of Dale was at the rear.

Good got the immediate priority, and found the Heirloom instantly. This would usually be a big blow, but since it was worth only 3VPs, it wasn't game changing for now. They continued forward, forming a nice wall of defenders, as the Easterlings sounded the drums and surged their left flank to the centre. Rutabi and the Emperor pushed their own warbands forward.

After another sound of the drums and rush forward, the Easterlings were right before their opponents.

Good got priority again and leapt upon the attackers, Brand charging with his men into the Acolyte lines. Thorin nearby charging a pike formation. In the centre, Dain threw himself and his dwarves into the Easterlings and wrapped around. The Easterling cavalry responded by pincering the pincer.

On the Easterlings' right flank, Brorgir stepped up and cast Tremor on a knight, it then went 5" up the line. This managed to kill one Acolyte, two Knights of Dale and two Warriors of Dale, also knocking King Brand prone. Rutabi then launched her ambush, personally pouncing upon the floored King and after a Heroic Strike off (in which they both rolled 1), she used her two remaining might to slay him outright. King Brand had died in the first turn of combat! Many of his men also fell to the blades of the Acolytes and pikes.

In the centre, the Easterling Captain had charged a lone Iron Hill warrior with a Kataphrakt and called a Heroic Combat. He then used his last might to slay the dwarf and, while the Kataphrakt rushed into Dain's two spear supports, the Captain charged the goat rider at the rear. He managed to slay this too.

Dain led a pushback as he managed to kill both the Easterlings that he faced and the combats up and down the line had men and dwarves both fall in a vicious turn of combat.

The next turn, Bard II arrived and leant some assistance to Dain. He charged himself and his warriors/knights into the Easterling flank, as Dain and his dwarves flattened out their line to fill the gaps formed. The Easterling Captain was surrounded by angry dwarves and Dale men. 

However, this was when Brorgir returned, and cast a second Tremor. This time upon Dain's spear support and it ripples back into the Captain's combat. In which, it kills; the second goat rider, an Iron Hills warrior, a Dale archer and a Knight. The Captain also took a wound, and then was thrown from his horse by it and took a second one from the fall, killing him too. This wasn't the end of the world, as I suspected that he was about to be torn to pieces anyway, but this way had killed many foes with him.

I then sent the remaining cavalry and Drakes into the flanking force, to turn the tide on Bard's assault. This worked fairly well, as many men of Dale and Dwarves fell. But Bard called a Heroic Combat and killed a Black Dragon Kataphrakt and then a Drake.

Dain also called a Heroic Combat, and then I saw the danger too late. As he slew his opposing Black Dragon and rushed forward and around the back into Brorgir! The enraged Dwarf King managed to score three wounds! Brorgir, only being saved by a lucky couple of fate rolls, but left on 1w, 0f.

On the right flank, Rutabi led her troops forward, slaying yet more of the dwindling Dale unit. While a handful of troops from the centre, managed to score some good success against the dwarves and kill several.

Since we were running out of time, we decided that we would play one more turn and call it. The Easterlings got priority, but Dain called a Heroic Move. This was countered by Brorgir, but won by Dain. He used it to charge Brorgir and an Easterling archer together. This prevented the Emperor from being able to reach him. His handful of warriors that were in range, rushed into a few of the Easterlings before them.

I charged my cavalry into the dwarves again, trying to break them down. And threw my drummer off to the left, to run down a small group of archers, that I worried may try to pick off pikes. The Drakes swarmed around Bard and his remaining men. Finally, I threw the Dragon Knight into the back of Dain.

In the combats, Bard called a Heroic Combat and lost to two Drakes, luckily, getting away with only a lost fate point, considering the venomous beasts. His two men, were not so fortunate, and they were slain by a beast.

The Dwarves and men at the front, managed to rally and win several of the fights. And though they lost a few more of their numbers, led by the Dale Captain, they drove back their foes with bloody noses. Dain stood up to the Dragon Knight , who rolled a 1 on his Heroic Strike to Dain's 5. The Knight was hewn from his horse with Barazanthual and killed instantly!

On the right flank, the Emperor saw an opening and marched his palanquin into Thorin. The troops around him managed to secure the trap, making this a very concerning fight for the Dwarven Prince. Rutabi, on the cusp of a thorough victory, charged once more at the last few men of Dale. She and her troops cut them down to the last three, as just two spears and their Banner were left standing after her aggressive assault.

The Emperor went next, seeing his chance to strike down the dwarven heir. He rolled his Heroic Strike, and scored a 1 (I was 3/3 by the end of the game on this), while Thorin got up to F9, he won the fight and gave the Emperor a single wound, which I just threw all three fate at to save. The Emperor's men did better managed to kill another couple of dwarves.

By the end of the game, many were dead and the frontlines were shattered, but who had won the titanic clash?

Scores

Let's start with the objective that everyone knows already, the forces of Good held the Heirloom and therefore got 3VPs.

As for breaking, I had killed 34, requiring 32.5. They had killed 22, while needing 32 dead. So Evil claimed 3VPs.

For slaying a chosen enemy hero, I had selected King Brand, who I had killed. I had done this with my assassin, Rutabi, Evil got another 3VPs. Josh and Will had chosen the Dragon Knight (oh no...), who they killed in the final turn. However, their assassin was Bard! So they claimed 2VPs. This put the scores at 6-5 to Evil, with one objective to go!

The final objective, defending a chosen hero. They had chosen to defend Thorin, who had narrowly avoided a huge assault from the Emperor at the very end of the game, to come out unscathed and get 3VPs. I had chosen to defend Brorgir, who Dain had Heroic Combatted into and taken a wound off of, leaving me with 1VP.

Final score after that, left Good with a cheeky 8-7 victory, saved by the heroics of the Dwarves! They lost the battle, but they won the war! Grats to Josh and Will and thanks to them for giving me a good end of year game before Xmas!