NumberNine - Theoden's Royal Guard

So while I stick with the evil guys for LotR, my wife represents the free peoples with her Rohan army. We recently finished painting up some Rohan Royal Guard, which round out her nice little band of Theoden and his most trusted defenders. Above, Theoden is shown on horse, and on foot we have the three Rohan Royal Guard with their captain, Hama. The Royal Guard are a bit tougher than normal Rohan Warriors, and they have a cool "Bodyguard" rule where they always pass courage tests if their leader (your choice) is still alive.

A funny thing about the Rohan army, is that all your heroes inevitably need both mounted and unmounted copies. Cool, but time consuming.

We really like these mini's though, with Theoden decked out in his Pelennor Fields armor. The armored horse (Snowmane) looks pretty slick as well.

The rules for these two heroes reflect the films well. Theoden has a lot of Defense, but fitting to the story he also is very susceptible to magic, as he has zero points of Will.

Hama has the "Bodyguard" rule, but unlike the Royal Guard, you don't choose his leader - it's always Theoden, since Hama is the king's doorward and main defendant. Also, because of how he ends up in the second LotR book, he has zero points of Fate. So, poor Hama will do anything to defend his King, but cannot avoid a wound if he's hit.

Theoden and Hama lead a group of Rohirrim as they charge into battle!

Helm - Give to Game

I just heard about the very cool event going on here in Austin, Texas.



http://givetogame.blogspot.com/

From their site:

Give to Game is a board gaming event in Austin, Texas, whose goal is to collect food and raise funds for the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. Come join us for a day of gaming and a chance to win some great prizes!

Playing board games for charity! That's awesome!

That weekend is the Sherewood Renassaince Festival Jousting Tournament (http://sherwoodforestfaire.com/jousting-tournament/) so I won't be able to make it to Give to Game, but now that I know about it I'll defintely go next year!

Helm - Massive Fail on the Painting Pledge

Poor timing on the painting pledge! Our local store is having an inventory sale and I decided to spend a good portion of my tax return on hobby stock for the next year! HAH!

So...err. Pledge starts again now? Eh who am I kidding, the pledge was really just to get some traction on more regular hobby time.

Helm - Painting Pledge

Over the past couple of months I haven't been able to paint or model much. I notice that not having the time to paint or put together my models really doesn't curb my spending habits when it comes to picking up new models.

Right now I have several armies that need finishing. I've been inspired by others who have undergone a painting pledge and come out fairly successful with it.

As of Sunday, March 13, 2011 I will buy no more models until all of my current armies are 100% completely painted! I'll define "completely painted" as painted to a standard I am happy with and sealed in varnish.

I'll take it one army at a time starting with LOTRSBG Uruk Hai.

This is going to be a hard promise to keep, I love buying new plastic and metal! Wish me luck!

NumberNine - Mines of Moria

Hello, hello, I game with Mr. Helm here and have been invited to co-blog on his blog. As far as miniatures go I just play Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game - so, I thought for my first quick post I would share some pictures and thoughts on the box set that got me into the gaming system in the first place: the Mines of Moria set.

What appeals to me most about the Strategy Battle game is the Lord of the Rings theme, so the Mines of Moria set was a great starting point. It has all the fellowship, a slew of goblins, and a cave troll, so you can set up an iconic scene from the story right away. My wife and I played some "Balin's Tome" scenarios to learn the system's rules and now we've moved on to other armies and more "normal" army vs. army matches.

Above is a bit of a mock-up of a Balin's Tomb scenario. The Strategy Battle game really lends well to small skirmishes like this.

For the gaming table I quickly cut off a square of particle board and spray-painted it with textured speckled hobby spray paint. Worked well, I think, and spraying the Mine of Moria pillars with the same paint helped bring it all together. I spent more time on the other little terrain pieces that came in the box set and actually painted them - Balin's tomb itself is a particularly cool little set piece.

With the highest Defense in the fellowship, Gimli is a tank and a lot of fun - it takes a swarm of Goblins to bring him down.

Boromir is another thorn in the side of the goblin army because of his high Might and his "Horn of Gondor" rule. If he is out-numbered (which he always will be if he's fighting the plentiful goblins), he can use the Horn of Gondor, which means one of the enemy must pass a courage test or else Boromir automatically wins the fight. And needless to say, goblins are not very courageous.

I am particularly proud of our paint job on Sam, Merry, and Pippin. Black wash did wonders here to brings out the details in their clothing and gear.

The hobbits are very weak compared to the rest of the fellowship. They're usually used in scenarios as figures that the good player has to protect.

Cave troll! Enough said.

When using my Mines of Moria army in normal point-based matches I like think having a couple of cheap anonymous captains for Heroic Moves is crucial. I did a simple conversion to make these two captains - I took archer models who are reaching back to grab an arrow and glued swords and shields in their hands for a dramatic pose. I named these guys Hellbash and Skullbash.

And here's about half of my Mines of Moria army in all it's glory. These guys are weak, so it's definitely strength in numbers with the goblin kingdom.