Russ' Hobby Blog

Eagles: Throndil

2012-02-13T23:37:00.002-07:00

Welcome back to my continuing series of blog posts showcasing each of the models in my Eagles of the Misty Mountains army for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Click here to find other posts in the series about the Eagles.

Throndil, Work in Progress

Today we are taking a look at a model I have named Throndil, the Troll-Killer. Descended from the ancient Eagle hero Throndor, Throndil is a fierce warrior.

Throndil, Work in Progress

Throndil is represented by the Great Eagle I from Gamezone Miniatures. I have mounted him atop a piece of brass rod on the Dead Troll base from Micro Art Studio.

The Dead Troll Base from Micro Art Studio

Another angle of the Dead Troll Base

There is such great details on this base that all I had to do was paint it. Here are a couple of finished shots of the base.

Throndil, Troll-Killer

There is a look at the Great Eagle Throndil. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment!

Coming soon: the last of the Eagles, other stuff?

Terrain Time

2012-02-13T00:03:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to see if I could embed a Flickr Slideshow in a blog post. So here is a slideshow of my War Games Terrain Set on Flickr. These pictures are mostly works in progress of my terrain projects.

If this works I hope you enjoy it.

Gondor Warriors: Converted Citadel Guard

2012-02-11T16:10:00.001-07:00

Citadel Guard are an interesting choice for a Gondor army. They have the Bodyguard special rule which allows them to automatically pass all courage checks as long as a designated hero is still alive and on the table. In my army lists I typically have them follow and bodyguard Cirion. The Bodyguard rule, combined with Cirion's own special rule Boldest of the Bold, which gives him +2 courage when charging models that cause Terror, makes for a group that can reliably charge terror causing models.

Citadel Guard can be armed with swords (hand weapons), spears or longbows according to the rulebooks. Unfortunately Games Workshop only makes Citadel Guard models with spears or longbows. Since I wanted to field them with swords, I decided to convert some of my own.

These guys started out as lowly Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows, a model not likely to see the game table with the option of fielding Rangers of Gondor just putting them to shame as archers. To begin with I cut away their bows and quivers and any visible sword hilts. Next, I used green stuff to extend their tunics and add cloaks with shoulder mantles. The sword hands were added next, they come from the Warhammer Fantasy Bretonnian Men-at-Arms set.

For painting, I started with the Army Painter Silver spray primer. Then I used P3 Cygnar Blue Base and Cygnar Blue Highlight on the cloaks, Shining Gold and Chainmail on their armor and Dwarf Flesh on the exposed skin areas. I also used a Badab Black wash on the armor and Ogryn Flesh wash on the skin.

So there are my converted Citadel Guard for Lord of the Rings. Let me know what you think by adding a comment.

Coming Soon: Eagle vs Warg, Mordor Army lists, Lizard Folk!

Eagles: Westrilan

2012-02-11T00:29:00.001-07:00

Hi, welcome back to the newest post in a series spotlighting the models for my Eagles of the Misty Mountains army for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. This is the fifth post in the series featuring an eagle I have named Westrilan. Click here to find previous posts in the series.

This young warrior spends most of his time hunting orc in the Rhovanion east of the Aerie. Westrilan was among the first to answer Gwaihir's call to arms.

Westrilan is represented by the Great Eagle III figure from Gamezone. The base is made from half of one of the fallen column pieces from the GW Lord of the Rings Terrain Pack.

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished base. It is painted and decorated with static grass, twigs and some clump foliage in autumn colors. Westrilan is mounted on a piece of brass rod and can be moved betwen this base for playing games and the Eagles Aerie display board.

Well there is the completed figure from all four sides.

Coming Soon: A few more eagles posts to finish up the army, more Lord of the Rings army lists using the new rules and hopefully soon some lizard folk and terrain posts.

Gondor Warriors: Converted Osgilliath Veterans

2012-02-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

Osgilliath Veterans are a nice choice for a Gondor army that uses either Faramir or Boromir. They have a special rule called Loyal to the Captains, that gives them a +1 to their fight value if they are within 6 inches of either Faramir or Boromir. Since my Rangers of Ithillain army is led by Faramir, I wanted to include some Osgilliath Veterans in my army.

Osgilliath Veterans Converted from Warriors of Minas Tirith

[edit: above picture added 2/6/12]

Now Games Workshop makes some perfect good metal models of the Osgilliath Veterans. The only problem is that they sell them three to a blister pack, 1 with sword, 1 with spear and 1 with bow. Since shooting a bow or supporting another model with a spear does not allow them to take advantage of their increased fight value when near Faramir, these are kind of lame choices. I was only interested in fielding the veterans with swords.

Since Osgilliath Veterans are basically just Minas Tirath warriors that have been on an extended deployment, that was the obivous place to start for the conversion. I have used plastic Minas Tirath warriors and added the tattered cloaks of the veterans. This is actually a pretty easy conversion if you want to try your had at using green stuff for the first time.

I just added leather sashes and tattered cloaks to the plastic warriors with "green stuff"- two part epoxy modeling putty.

The warriors primed silver and ready to be painted. I converted eight veterans in all.

One of the Osgilliath Veterans painted up.

Coming soon: Converted Citadel Guard, more Gondor units.

~R

Minas Tirith 600 Point Army List (Updated)

2012-02-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

So if you play Games Workshop's Lord of the Ring Strategy Battle Game, you probably know that whole boatload (5) of new source books were just released for the game this weekend. These books don't change the rules of the game per se, but they do overhaul the army composition rules. Basically your army is now comprised of "units" called warbands. A warband consists of a hero and up to 12 warrior followers. For most armies this shouldn't pose a problem, but for horde armies that are 50 warriors led by 1 or 2 heroes, this is going to cause a major rework.

So I set down today to see how my existing armies fared with the new warband rules. First up is my Rangers of Ithillian army. the original version of which can be found in this post. Since the Rangers of Ithillian army list no longer exists, this army is now built off of the consolidated Minas Tirth list which combines the old Minas Tirith, Rangers of Ithillain, and Tower of Ecthelion lists.

I was a bit surprised to see that the list could be used as is with no changes necessary for the new rules. The army was already organized into four "units", something I previously did just for flavor. The four units consisted of groups of 16, 6, 9, & 12 warriors each lead by a hero. The only thing I had to do, would be to move 4 of the warriors from the big unit into one of the smaller units and I would be good to go - theoretically. The problem was that some of those warriors were Osgilliath Veterans, who have a special rule that only comes into play when they are near Faramir - no sense moving them to another warband. Also there is now only one Faramir profile, so my ranger Faramir suddenly has access to a shield which would be very nice to work into the list if possible.

So here is what I came up with:

Minas Tirith 600 Point Army - Faramir's Rangers

Warband 1: Faramir's Troupe (188 pts)
Faramir, 80 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour, Shield; Heavy Armour)
6 Osgiliath Veterans, 54 pts (Loyal to the Captains; Hand Weapon; Shield; Heavy Armour)
6 Minas Tirith Spearmen, 54 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Shield; Heavy Armour)

Warband 2: Cirion's Guard (139 pts)
Cirion, Lieutenant of Amon Barad, 55 pts (Boldest of the Bold; Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield)
6 Citadel Guard, 48 pts (Bodyguard; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour)
4 Rangers w/Spears, 36 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Bow; Armour)

Warband 3: Osgilliath Garrison (157 pts)
Davion, Captain of Minas Tirith, 55 pts (Hand Weapon; Shield; Heavy Armour)
6 Minas Tirith Swordsmen, 48 pts (Hand Weapon; Shield; Heavy Armour)
6 Minas Tirith Spearmen, 54 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Shield; Heavy Armour)

Warband 4: Damrod's Rangers (116 pts)
Damrod, 20 pts (Hand Weapon; Bow; Armour)
12 Rangers, 108 pts (Hand Weapon; Bow; Armour)

Heroes: 4
Warriors: 46
Bow Count: 16
Total Model Count: 50
Total Roster Cost: 600

So I dropped the banner and the spears from most of the rangers, but the entire model count went up by 3 and the bow count went up by 4. So I am excited to try this list out. I also looked at some options to customize this list a bit by switching out warband 2. Below are some alternate warbands that I could swap in its place.

Warband 2A: Tower Guard (139 pts)
Knight of the White Tower, 55 pts (Heavy Armor, White Sword of Gondor)
6 Minas Tirith Swordsmen, 48 pts (Hand Weapon; Shield; Heavy Armour)
4 Minas Tirith Spearmen, 36 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Shield; Heavy Armour)

Warband 2B: Beregond's Guard (133 pts*)
Beregond, 25 pts (Bodyguard; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armor; Longbow)
4 Citadel Guard, 32 pts (Bodyguard; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armor)
4 Citadel Guard w/Spears, 36 pts (Bodyguard; Hand Weapon; Spear; Heavy Armor)
4 Citadel Guard w/Longbows, 40 pts (Bodyguard; Hand Weapon; Long Bow; Heavy Armor)
* Use remaining 6 points to add spears to 6 Rangers in Warband #4!

This one allies in a waband from The Fiefdoms list.
Warband 2C: Men of the Fiefdoms (139 pts)
Angbor the Fearless, 55 pts (Armour; Two-Handed Weapon)
6 Clansmen of Lamedon, 48 pts (The Honour of Lamedon; Armour; Two-Handed Weapon)
4 Axemen of Lossarnach, 36 pts (Heavy Armour; Axe of Lossarnach)

So that is what I have come up with for Minas Tirith. Let me know what you think by posting some comments!

Isengard / Dunland Raiders 600 Point Army List

2012-01-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here is an army list that I have been thinking about. I am not sure if this is the final version of the list yet, but here is where I am starting from. I have all of the models for this list. They are ready to be assembled and painted. Unfortunately that means no pictures yet.

600 Pts - Isengard Raiders Roster - Isengard/Dunland Raiders

Hero (1#, 60 pts)
   1 Lurtz, 60 pts (Hand Weapon; Orc Bow; Armour; Shield)

Uruk-hai Scouts (16#, 144 pts)
   16 Uruk-hai Scout, 144 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield)

Uruk-hai Archers (8#, 72 pts)
   8 Uruk-hai Scout, 72 pts (Hand Weapon; Orc Bow; Armour)

Feral Uruk-hai (9#, 108 pts)
   9 Feral Uruk-hai, 108 pts (Hand Weapon; Hand Weapon)

Minor Hero (1#, 55 pts)
   1 Dunlending Chieftain, 55 pts (Hand Weapon; Two-Handed Weapon; Armour)

Dunlending Bannerman (1#, 31 pts)
   1 Dunlending Warrior, 31 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour; Banner)

Dunlending Warrior (6#, 42 pts)
   6 Dunlending Warrior, 42 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield)

Dunlending Warrior (6#, 42 pts)
   6 Dunlending Warrior, 42 pts (Hand Weapon; Two-Handed Weapon; Armour)

Dunlending Bowman (6#, 42 pts)
   6 Dunlending Warrior, 42 pts (Hand Weapon; Bow; Armour)

Heroes: 2
Warriors: 52
Total Model Count: 54
Total Roster Cost: 596

Army Strengths:
- Uruk-Hai with Str 4 Killing Power! Yes I want to play a game with Str 4 troops.
- Feral Uruk-Hai with two attacks. I hope this will make up for the lack up spear support.
- Some 2 handed weapons on the Dunlending Warriors will be helpful against high defense targets.

Army Weaknesses:
- No spear support. This will be a new challenge for me, to play an infantry army without any spear support.
- No volley fire. My archery is split between Uruk-Hai and Dunlendings. I don't think I can combine the two types of warriors together to volley fire.

Eagles: Evandor

2012-01-21T13:28:00.002-07:00

Welcome back to my continuing series of posts showcasing models from my Eagles of the Misty Mountains army for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Click here for more posts concerning the Eagles. I am about halfway through this series, but there is still a bunch of Eagles goodness coming down the blog pipe.

Evandor, work in Progress

This time we will be taking a look at Evandor, Guardian of the North Peak. At this point, I have exhausted all of the official Lord of the Rings lore about the Eagles so I am creating my own. As Guardian of the North Peak, Evandor is responsible for the security of the Eagles home, the Aerie, and is therefore seldom seen away from its borders.

Evandor, work in Progress

Evandor is represented by the Giant Eagle figure from Ebob Miniatures. The woodland base is also from Ebob.

Evandor

Here are a few shots of the completed Evandor. I wanted to do at least one of the eagles as a bald eagle and I think the one from Ebob was a good choice, although it is a bit smaller than the other Eagles. The base is painted and decorated with static grass and clump foliage to represent some small bushes.

Evandor

Evandor, Guardian of the North Peak

There is a look at Evandor.

Coming Soon: Isengard/Dunland Army List, Firestorm Armada, Lizardmen, more Eagles.

Eagles: Gwaihir

2012-01-20T02:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the next installment of the the series featuring models from my newly completed Eagles of the Misty Mountains army for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Click here for a list of posts relating to the Eagles. I will be covering all the models in this army in a series of posts over the next couple of weeks.

Gwaihir, Work in Progress

This time we will be taking a look at Gwaihir, the Windlord who is the greatest of the eagles during the third age of Middle-Earth. Gwaihir is a friend to Gandalf and led Landroval and Meneldor to Mt. Doom to rescue Frodo and Sam after the destruction of The One Ring.

Gwaihir, work in progress

Gwaihir is represented by the Giant Eagle miniature from Reaper Miniatures. His base is made from a plain plastic base and a statue from the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings Terrain Pack.

Gwaihir's base

Here are a couple of pictures of the completed base. It has been painted and decorated with static grass, autumn leaf scatter, twigs and some clump foliage. Gwaihir is mounted on a section of brass rod and can be moved between this base and the Eagles Aerie display board.

Gwaihir the Windlord

Here are pictures of the completed miniature from all four sides.

Gwaihir the Windlord

Gwaihir, the Windlord

Gwaihir the Windlord

There is a look at Gwaihir, the leader of the Eagles army. Let me know what you think by posting some comments below.

Coming Soon: More Eagles, Firestorm Armada, HotT Lizardfolk

Eagles: Landroval

2012-01-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

Okay I have recently finished my Eagles of the Misty Mountains army for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. You can read my previous posts about starting the army here and the first eagle, Meneldor, here. I will be covering all of the models in the army over the next couple of weeks.

Landroval, work in progress

Next up is Landroval, who is the brother of Gwaihir and was one of the eagles that rescued Frodo and Sam from Mt. Doom after The One Ring was destroyed. Landroval is represented by the Great Eagle II figure frome GameZone Miniatures. The base was constructed from a plain plastic base and one of the fallen pillar pieces from the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings Terrain Pack.

Landroval, work in progress

Here is another work in progress shot from the other side.

Landroval

Here are some pictures of Landroval with his finished paint job and his base finished with twigs, leaf scatter and some clump foliage for bushes.

Landroval

There is a look at the second Eagle in the army, there are five more to go.

Coming Soon: More Eagles, Firestorm Armada, HotT Lizardfolk.

Space Marine 200 Point Kill Team Army List

2012-01-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

200 Pts - Codex: Space Marines Roster - Kill Team Inflexible

Sternguard Veteran Squad (5#, 150 pts)
2 Sternguard Veterans
Bolter; Bolt Pistol; Special Issue Ammunition; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour;
1 Sternguard Veteran - Relentless
Heavy Bolter; Bolt Pistol; Special Issue Ammunition; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour;

1 Sternguard Veteran - Tank Hunter
Missile Launcer; Bolt Pistol; Special Issue Ammunition; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour;
1 Sergeant - Move Through Cover
Power Weapon; Bolt Pistol; Special Issue Ammunition; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour;

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 50 pts)
1 Land Speeder Vehicle (Skimmer, Fast); Heavy Bolter

Pre-Game Analysis:
Here is my Kill Team list that I will be using for tomorrow. The Land Speeder with heavy bolter should provide a nice mobile firebase. The Sternguard are expensive but provide a great balance of shooting and close combat. They can buy weapon upgrades without being a full 10 man squad like tactical marines and have 2 attacks base for close combat. Relentless on the heavy bolter will allow him to move and shoot his heavy weapon. Tank Hunter will provide a little extra kill power for the missile launcher. And move through cover should ensure that my power weapon toting sergeant does not get bogged down in difficult terrain.

Post-Game Analysis:
Well after playing yesterday this list seems pretty solid. I ended up with second place (out of four). And had 2 wins and 1 loss and alot of fun. The game that I lost I was assaulted on turn 1 by Grey Knights that all had power weapons so it is not surprising that I lost since this list is more of a shooting list.

Coming Soon: More Eagles, Firestorm Armada, HotT Lizardfolk.

Eagles: Meneldor

2012-01-13T20:33:00.002-07:00

Just last week I have finished the Eagles of the Misty Mountains army for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game that I have been working on for about the last six months or so.You can read this post from last August when I had the idea to start the army. I am really happy with the way they turned out, so I am going to be showing them to one at a time in a series of posts over then couple of weeks.

Meneldor, work in progress

First up is Meneldor, who was one of the eagles that rescued Frodo and Sam from Mt. Doom after the destruction of the One Ring. He is represented by the Games Workshop Giant Eagle figure. This is the one figure that I already owned and had painted when I started the army. I have remounted the figure on a section of brass rod so he is now flying up at an angle rather than level. The base is a Woodland Base from Ebob Miniatures.

Meneldor, work in progress

Here is a side view of Meneldor, with his old paint job.

Woodland Base

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished base; painted and with static grass and some clump foliage for bushes. The figure can be moved between this base for playing games and the Eagle's Aerie display base that I have built - more on that later.

Meneldor with his old two-tone paint job.

Meneldor with his new paint job

This figure was already completely painted, but as I was working on some of the other figures, I grew less happy with the high contrast between his tail and wingtips and the rest of his body. I redid the shading and highlighting to reduce the contrast and repainted some details like the beak and talons to match the other eagles and make him fit in better with the rest of the army.

So there is your first look at my Eagles of the Misty Mountains. Please leave me some comments about what you think.

Coming Soon: 40K Kill Team List, Hordes of the Things Lizardfolk

2012 New Years Gaming Resolutions

2012-01-04T03:14:00.000-07:00

So it is now 2012 and New Year's is the time for resolutions. It seems the game blogging community is no different, so I will join my fellow bloggers in recapping the previous year and laying out some goals for 2012.

Blogging
Well with only 17 posts in 2011 I didn't even come close to my goal of 1 post per week. However I am going to raise the bar anyway and shoot for an average 2 to 3 posts per week in 2012. I am going to try and accomplish this by coming up with some regular weekly features or types of posts. One of which I have already experimented a bit with - posting army lists every Sunday. I want to expand this past Lord of the Rings SBG and include some other games. I am not sure of the other types of posts to make regular features, but I want to include more painting posts and start doing more terrain posts.

Gaming
Anyone reading this blog in 2011 might reasonably assume that Lord of the Rings was the only game that I played. While it has been the game I most frequently played the last year it is not the only game. I have actually started playing some Firestorm Armada games in the last few months and just recently tried out a new game (for me) called Hordes of the Things with my friend Craig last week. I also want to get back into playing both Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K on a regular basis. In fact there is a 40K Kill Team event this Saturday at my local game store that I will be playing in.

Painting
Even though I have not posted anything since Mid-November, I actually have been painting a few things. Mostly the LotR Eagles and Firestorm Armada Terran Fleet. I found breaking up the LotR stuff with a few spaceships kept me from getting burned out on painting as fast. So I am going to try a rotating painting schedule with a few models from one game at a time as I rotate through my various games. I also am going to attempt to post every model that I finish painting up on the blog.

Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings has been a big focus for me the last six months and will continue to be so. I developed a set of league rules called Battle for Middle-Earth a few months ago. I am currently updating them for the second round of league play for our local LotR group. Also I need to post pictures of the rest of my Rangers of Ithillian army that has been finished since last September. Lately I have been painting my Eagles of the Misty Mountains and they are nearly complete with only two models remaining to be finished. Expect to see some photos soon. I have models for several other armies waiting to be assembled, but the next one that I work on will be the Cirith Ungol list that I posted a while ago. I will be working on this as I begin painting squads from other games on a rotating basis.

Firestorm Armada
I have been working on painting my Terran Fleet for Firestorm Armada as well as playing some games. I have a relatively large fleet that includes two started sets and at least one squadron of all the currently available choices. I have been painting some of these ships lately and I would say approximately 60% of the fleet is completed. I need to get some photos of these guys up on the blog.

MERCS
Mercs is a neat little skirmish game that I bought over a year ago but have not had a chance to play yet. I recently found some other people who have this game and I really want to give this game a try. I have three complete factions for this game that need to be painted. Now that may sound like a lot, but given that each faction consists of only six models, it is not really that bad. As soon as the LotR Eagles are finished then one of the MERCS factions will be on the painting schedule, probably KemVar first.

Hordes of the Things
This is a quick and relatively simple Fantasy minitures game that I found. The rules are available as a Free PDF and are based on the classic historical DBA ruleset. The reason I was interested in this game is that the rules define generic types of units like, spears, blades, heroes & magicians and you can use any type of miniatures you feel are appropriate to the unit. The game can also be played in 15mm or 28mm scale. Since I have a boatload of 28mm "RPG" figures I will be using miniatures I already own to make some armies. The first HotT army you see from me is likely to be lizard men. Not Warhammer Lizardmen mind you, old school AD&D style lizard men.

Malifaux
Another game I bought a while back but have not had a chance to play yet. I was interested in this game because it is a diceless system that uses cards to determine the random results. I at least want to work my starter set of Guild (Lady Justice) into the painting schedule. Finding someone to play against would be nice too.

Dystopian Wars
From Spartan Games, the makers of Firestorm Armada, this steampunk Naval/Air combat game looks pretty cool. I have bought the rules, but have not yet been able to pick a faction. You may see some Dystopian Wars from me in the coming year.

Warhammer 40K
I really want to get back into playing Warhammer 40K on a regular basis. Look for Eldar an on the painting schedule a bit down the road.

Warhammer Fantasy
I would also like to get back to playing Fantasy. I am not sure which army I want to concentrate on, but my Bretonnians really need some love.

Okay that sure is a lot of games up there, but if you are going to dream, dream big. My first game of the new year is likely to be LotR at our weekly game night this Thursday, but I am already working on my 40K Kill Team list for Saturday so the first week of 2012 should see a return of 40K to my gaming life.

Happy New Year

Cirith Ungol 600 Point Army List

2011-11-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

I am trying out a new feature on the blog where I post an army list for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game every Sunday. So far I have posted my Minas Morgul and Rangers of Ithillian lists

So this is a new army that I will be making for the Lord of the Rings. It is a Mordor List using the Cirith Ungol roster. Even though this is a Cirith Ungol list there will be no Shelob. The army is led by Shagrat and is packed full of Mordor Uruk-Hai backed up by regular Orcs. Unfortunately, since this is a new list and none of those Uruk-Hai are painted yet, I don't have a picture to show you.

You may have noticed that the biggest weakness of both armies that I have already posted is they are all Strength 3. This army has 24 strength 4 Uruk-Hai, 12 that are carrying two handed weapons. I am expecting that this will go a long way to cracking high defense armies.
600 Pts - Cirith Ungol Roster - Cirith Ungol Horde

600 Pts - Cirith Ungol Roster - Cirith Ungol Horde

Uruk-Hai of Cirith Ungol (25#, 326 pts)
   1 Shagrat, War Leader, 110 pts (Hand Weapon; Shield of Cirith Ungol; Heavy Armour)
   12 Mordor Uruk-Hai w/Shields, 108 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield)
   12 Mordor Uruk-Hai w/Two Handed Weapons, 108 pts (Hand Weapon; Two-Handed Weapon; Armour)

Orcs of Cirith Ungol (30#, 274 pts)
   1 Gorz, Orc Captain, 45 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield)
   1 Orc Drummer, 40 pts (Advance!; Hand Weapon; Armour)
   1 Orc Banner Bearer, 30 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour; Banner)
   12 Orc Warriors w/Spears & Shields, 84 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Armour; Shield)
   15 Orc Trackers, 75 pts (Hand Weapon; Orc Bow; Armour)

Heroes: 3
Warriors: 52
Total Model Count: 55
Total Roster Cost: 600

Army Strengths:

24 Strength 4 Uruk-Hai means only needing 5s instead of 6s to kill a defense 6 model. 12 Two-handed weapons should help alot as well.
Fight 4 on the Uruk-Hai will help win tied fights as well.
Lots of orc spearmen to support the Uruk-Hai fighting one handed.
Shagrat is a beast with the Shiled of Cirith Ungol that knocks down enemies when he charges.
The Orc Drummer affects every model in the army, so +3 inches of movement to everyone within 12 inches. This should make getting to objectives much quicker.
15 Orc Trackers should provide a good base of shooting.
Super high model count of 55. I think anything over 50 is officially a horde.

Army Weaknesses:

The Mordor Uruk-Hai will be defense 4 or 5. The Orcs will be defense 5 and the Trackers are defense 3. This is a bit on the low side. Could turn ugly if I start losing a lot of fights.
I am sure there are other weaknesses but they probably won't be apparent until I get the army assembled and play a few games.

The army list was created with Army Builder.

Next Sunday: Eagles of the Misty Mountains Army List

Also coming soon on the blog: Painting Minas Tirath Knights, more Gondor Units, MERCS maybe?

Minas Morgul 600 Point Army List

2011-11-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

This army list was my first Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game army list. It is a Mordor list using the Minas Morgul roster. I played this list at Mayhem in the Mountains in 2010 and for about a year before that. This army list was created with Army Builder.

This picture is of alot of Mordor figures, but not the exact army list described.

600 Pts - Minas Morgul Roster - Terror of Minas Morgul

The Nine are Abroad (2#, 200 pts)
1 Nazgul, 100 pts (Harbringer of Evil; Terror; Will of Evil; Black Dart; Compel; Drain Courage; Sap Will; Transfix; Hand Weapon)
1 Nazgul, 100 pts (Harbringer of Evil; Terror; Will of Evil; Black Dart; Compel; Drain Courage; Sap Will; Transfix; Hand Weapon)

Black Númenóreans (12#, 108 pts)
12 Black Númenórean Warriors, 108 pts (Terror; Hand Weapon; Shield; Heavy Armour)

Dead Marsh Spectre (2#, 30 pts)
2 Spectres, 30 pts (A Fell Light is in them; Terror; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour)

Mordor Orcs (37#, 262 pts)
Grishnakh, 50 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield)

8 Orc Swordsmen, 48 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield)

12 Orc Spearmen, 84 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Armour; Shield)
16 Orc Tracker, 80 pts (Hand Weapon; Orc Bow; Armour)

Heroes: 3
Warriors: 50
Total Model Count: 53
Total Roster Cost: 600

Army Strengths:

Terror - the Nazgul, Spectres and Black Numenoreans all cause Terror. This can disrupt your opponents ability to charge, allowing you to pick match ups to your advantage. The Nazgul's rule "Harbinger of Evil" drops your opponents courage by 1, making Terror even more effective.
The Spectres have a rule call "A Fell Light is in Them" that can allow you to move some of your opponents key models out of position. I like to use this on banner bearers or heroes.
Two Nazgul gives you quite a lot of spell casting.
High model count at 53 makes the army hard to break.
16 orc trackers that hit on 4+ give the army decent archery, something a lot of Mordor armies lack.

Army Weaknesses:

The entire army, except for the heroes is Strength 3. This means killing defense 6 or higher models requires a roll of a 6.
Orc Trackers have defense 3, if the enemy gets them in melee they almost always die.
Learning to use the Nazgul's spells effectively can be a bit of a learning curve.
The Spectres can be highly annoying to some opponents, and can lead to reduced sportsmanship scores in extreme cases.

Rangers of Ithillian 600 Point Army List

2011-10-30T03:13:00.000-06:00

This is my Rangers of Ithillian Army list for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. I have been working on painting these guys since about January and finally finished them before the Mayhem in the Mountains 2011 tournament in September. The army list was made with Army Builder.

600 Pts - The Rangers of Ithilien Roster - Faramir's Rangers

Faramir's Troupe (17#, 214 pts)
Faramir, 70 pts (Hand Weapon; Armour)
8 Osgiliath Veteran Swordsmen, 72 pts (Loyal to the Captains; Hand Weapon; Shield; Heavy Armour)
8 Minas Tirith Spearmen, 72 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Shield; Heavy Armour)

Cirion's Guard (7#, 103 pts)
Cirion, Lieutenant of Amon Barad, 55 pts (Boldest of the Bold; Hand Weapon; Armour; Shield)
6 Citadel Guard, 48 pts (Bodyguard; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour)

Minas Tirith Company (10#, 155 pts)
Davion, Captain of Minas Tirith, 55 pts (Hand Weapon; Shield; Heavy Armour)
1 Banner Bearer, 32 pts (Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Banner)
4 Minas Tirith Swordsmen, 32 pts (Hand Weapon; Shield; Heavy Armour)
4 Minas Tirith Spearmen, 36 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Shield; Heavy Armour)

Rangers of Ithillian (13#, 128 pts)
Damrod, 20 pts (Hand Weapon; Bow; Armour)
12 Rangers w/Spears, 108 pts (Hand Weapon; Spear; Bow; Armour)

Heroes: 4
Warriors: 43
Total Model Count: 47
Total Roster Cost: 600

Army Strengths:

High Model Count
Lots of Might, 9 points between the 4 heroes
Lots of high defense (6) models in the Minas Tirath Warriors and Osgilliath Veterans
Osgilliath Veterans and Rangers provide a good number of Fight 4 models
Rangers' Archery hitting on 3+ is always dangerous
Citadel Guard always pass courage checks as long as Cirion is alive

Army Weaknesses:

Biggest weakness is that nothing except the heroes has higher than a 3 strength. This means killing defense 6 or higher models requires a roll of a 6.
Rangers are only defense 4, they die easily if they lose a fight.
Citadel guard cannot take shields so they are only defense 5, also die easily.
Faramir is defense 5, too easy to wound even though he has 2 fate and 2 wounds.

Coming Soon: Gondor units, Gondor conversions, additional Lord of the Rings Army Lists.

Rules for LotR League

2011-10-22T12:36:00.000-06:00

Recently, Thorak the founder of the Adeptus Mile High website and I have been trying to get local Lord of the Rings SBG players meeting and playing games on a more regular basis. To this end, we have been trying to organize weekly club meetings at our favorite local game store, Collectormania.

So in order to encourage people to play more games, I have written a set of rules for running a LotR league. The league is competitive but fun and is organized on a good vs evil theme. Here is a link to a PDF of the rules.

Battle for Middle Earth League.pdf

Please feel free to download the rules and test them out.

I have also written one of the scenarios from scratch - #5 Ambush the Column. If anyone plays this scenario and has any feedback, please let me know.

Eagles Army Work in Progress

2011-10-15T16:07:00.000-06:00

So I have received all the models for my Eagles of the Misty Mountains army for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. I have written about this eagles army once before in this post, if you want to catch up.

I have begun assembling and painting the eagles. Since this army will only be six models at the 600 points level, I wanted to put some extra work into the bases to make them really stand out. I ordered one of Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings Terrain Packs to use to fancy up the bases.

Reaper Giant Eagle on Statue Base

Side View of Reaper Giant Eagle

The first eagle here is the Giant Eagle from Reaper Miniatures. He is the biggest of the Eagles by a significant margin, so he will make an impressive Gwaihir I think. This figure is a giant hunk of metal, so I decided to mount him on a piece of brass rod instead of plastic. I did the same for the other eagles as well, although plastic would probably have worked for them. The statue on the base is from the GW terrain pack.

Gamezone Great Eagle mounted on the Dead Troll base from Micro Art Studios

The above figure is Great Eagle I from Gamezone Miniatures. I have mounted him atop a piece of brass rod on the Dead Troll base from Micro Arts Studio.

Games Workshop Giant Eagle on Fallen Trees base from EBob Miniatures

Here is the GW Giant Eagle figure. I painted this figure about a year ago. However I have placed it on a new base to better match the other eagles. The base is the Fallen Trees base from Ebob Miniatures. I would caution anyone ordering this that the actual base I received was plaster rather than resin and therefore much more fragile and not really suited for gaming. I mounted it on a plastic base for added durability.

Gamezone Great Eagle

This is the Great Eagle III figure from Gamezone. The base is made from half of one of the fallen column pieces from the GW terrain pack.

Giant Eagle and Fallen Tree base from Ebob Miniatures

This is the Giant Eagle figure and Fallen Tree base, both from Ebob Miniatures.

Gamezone Great Eagle

The last of the army is the Great Eagle II from Gamezone. The base is made from one of the fallen column pieces from the GW terrain pack.

I am working on getting these guys painted now, so I hope to have another post soon. Also coming down the blog pipe; the Eagles Aerie display board, more Lord of the Rings Stuff, Firestorm Armada, and hopefully not too far away - Warhammer 40K Eldar!

Mayhem in the Mountains Army Roundup

2011-09-25T00:39:00.003-06:00

Here is another post with pictures from Mayhem in the Mountains. This time I will be posting shots of the armies.

Rob Kruse's Gondor Army

Rob K's army is lead by both Boromir and Faramir.

Craig Brooks's Grey Company and Army of the Dead

Craig's Army was Grey company and Army of the Dead with the King of the Dead and Legolas.

Chris Langland's Cirith Ungol Army

Chris L's Cirith Ungol army is led by the Witch King.

Tim McKnight's Black Gate Army

Tim's Mordor Army is led by the Witch King on fell beast and the Mouth of Sauron with a Mordor Troll Chieftan.

Will Foster's Ice Dwarves with Snowman Marker

Will has two balistas in this small dwarf army.

Rob Farallo's Easterlings

Rob F's Easterlings are led by the Master of blades and a Dragon Knight.

Rob Graham's Dwarf Army

Frank Brown's Goblin Army

Chris Ward's Isengard force led by Saruman

Chris W's Isengard force is led by Saruman.

Chris Cole's scratch built Ents

Chris C's ent force is led by Treebeard.

My Rangers of Ithillian Army led by Faramir

My Rangers of Ithillian army is lead by Faramir, Damrod, Cirion and "Dave", Captain of Gondor.

Coming soon: Mayhem in the Mountains battle reports.

Mayhem in the Mountains Table Roundup

2011-09-17T23:42:00.000-06:00

Here is just a quick post to show the tables for Mayhem in the Mountains 2011. There will not be a Best Table Category this Year since these are all versions of tables that appeared last year.

Edit 9/20/11: added pictures of the Shire and Ithillian Tables.

Shire Table By Tim McKnight

Beacon of Gondor Table by Eric Autret

Osgilliath Table by Various Collectormania Patrons

Isengard Table by Chris and Eric Ward

Easterlings Camp Table by Rob Farallo

Mordor Lava Table by Russ Brown

On Sunday Keith, the tournament organizer, asked me to put together a second table from my terrain collection so people were less likely to have to play on the same table twice. This is my "Ithillian" Table that I came up with.

Ithillian Table by Russ Brown

The Eagles are Coming

2011-08-29T16:00:00.015-06:00

Okay, last Friday I just got my annual bonus from work, so for the next week or so I probably have more money than sense. Having said that, I just ordered a 600 point all Eagle army for Lord of the Rings SBG. Why I did this when I am about cross-eyed from painting so much Gondor stuff recently I have no good answer for.

I already have one eagle that I painted up for use with my Rangers of Ithillian (Gondor) army. Unfortunately due to the allies rules I have to use him as Gwaihir, the King of Eagles. This is not such a great choice for the Rangers List, so I have not used him much.

My Giant Eagle Figure

Above is a pic of my eagle figure that I have painted up. Below is a shot of the same figure from the Games Workshop website (shhh!) that shows the whole figure.

Games Workshop Giant Eagle, photo copyright Games Workshop

Here is the entire army list

600 Pts - The Eagles of the Misty Mountains Roster

Hero (1#, 125 pts)

1 Gwaihir, 125 pts (Fly; Lord of The Eagles; Terror)

Giant Eagle (5#, 450 pts)

5 Giant Eagle, 450 pts (Fly; Terror)

Total Roster Cost: 575

So I didn't want an army made up of the same six models. Especially when that model costs $30 USD. So I put my google-fu to the test and went looking for some alternatives. I found some nice alternatives. Unfortunately they are still in the same price range, but at least I will get some variety in the army.

Here is what I found. I placed some online orders so the eagles really are coming! Once I have all the models in hand, I will have to see which is the most impressive and that one will be Gwaihir.

Giant Eagle by Reaper Miniatures, photo copyright Reaper Miniatures

The first one is from Reaper Miniatures. I am a big fan of Reaper, they always have good stuff.

Great Eagle I by Gamezone Miniatures, photo copyright by Gamezone Miniatures

The next ones I found were from Gamezone Miniatures. Gamezone is a European company that I had not heard of before, but I found this german based website. I have linked to the english version.

The above pose is my favorite one from Gamezone, possibly of all of the figures I found.

Great Eagle II by Gamezone Miniatures, photo copyright Gamezone Miniatures

This is another great pose, with one wingtip just brushing the ground.

Great Eagle III by Gamezone, photo copyright by Gamezone Miniatures

The third of the Gamezone Eagles, this one is nice too. I am glad that I found these minis.

Giant Eagle by Ebob Miniatures, photo copyright by Ebob Miniatures

This last miniature is from Ebob Miniatures. This one is interesting because it is a landed pose. Since it does not include the base I am interested in see how much of that rock outcropping may or may not come attached to the Eagle.

Well I will post more on the eagles once they are all in hand. I guess that means there will be more Lord of the Rings stuff coming down the blog pipe. However I have Eldar in the works as well.

Read more on the eagles here. - update 10/15/11

Lord of the Rings: Gondor vs Easterlings

2011-08-29T00:34:00.004-06:00

This Saturday I had a chance to play a test game against my friend Rob. I was using the list that I plan to use for the Mayhem in the Mountains tournament next month. We were also play testing a modified version of the "A Clash of Picquets" scenario that may be one of the scenarios for the tournament. I really hope it is not though, because in my opinion the modifications to the scenario made it confusing and overly complicated. Despite the fact that I ended up winning the game, it wasn't really that fun. If this scenario shows up at the tournament I hope the rules have been cleaned up - alot.

We played the game on my Mordor table. Below is a shot of the table at about the end of turn 1. Faramir and his veterans are over by the tree on the right. The rest of my army is scattered randomly about the board due to the messed up deployment rules of the scenario. My captain of Gondor and about six or eight more figures are just out of the picture to the left of the rangers guarding the lava trench.

Gondor vs Easterlings on the Mordor Table.

You can see the new trees that I recently made. I think they look pretty decent on the table.

After turn 1 I forgot to take any more pictures, but the game progressed pretty evenly until about turn 7 or 8 when I had a pretty good turn of combat and broke Rob's army. The scenario then dictated that the game ended on a die roll of 1 or 2. Which Rob promptly rolled a 2 on the first try. I am pretty happy with how the army performed despite a couple of setbacks. First, Cirion, one of my heroes, kept rolling 1s and 2s and did not come onto the table until turn 6. Yeah, turn 6! Also Rob smartly placed a group of low defense rangers and citadel guard in position to be charged by his cavalry. They all promptly died except for 1 ranger that fought off a cataphract for the entire game.

So a decent game despite a terrible scenario. I look forward to trying to get a few more games in before the tournament.

~R

Rangers of Gondor

2011-08-19T00:13:00.000-06:00

So the last models that I need to finish painting for Mayhem in the Mountains are my Rangers of Gondor. I had been assembly line painting them, but now I am close enough to finished that I switched to completing one model at a time.

Three Rangers of Gondor

Painting them the other night I was able to finish six of them. These guys still need to be sprayed with matte varnish and have their bases completed. The first three above have cloaks in dark angels green and robes in catachan green. You may notice that the guy on the left has a spear added across his back. Since some of the spears on both my rangers and warriors of Minas Tirath had broken, I went looking for some replacements. I found these replacement spears - actually Javelins at Old Glory Miniatures. They are a pretty good deal, you get 30 in a pack for $6.00 USD.

A second trio of rangers

The next trio of rangers are a bit different. They have dark angels green cloaks again, but camo green on the robes. I wanted o mix up the color scheme on the 24 rangers a bit. So I picked four colors of green and broke them up into eight groups of three. Each group has a different combination of greens on their cloaks and robes. Hopefully this way they will look varied but still cohesive enough to all look like part of the same force.

Coming Soon: paint scheme guide for the rangers, more rangers. Also I will break out the Mordor table and see what touch ups it may need before MitM.

Dead? Trees for Mordor

2011-08-18T03:05:00.002-06:00

As some of you may know, I have been planning on making some dead trees to add to my Mordor Table for this year's Mayhem in the Mountains. I started the trees last year, but didn't have time to finish them before the tournament. Well, I finally got around to finishing them and I am pretty happy with how they turned out. Although with the fall colored foliage that I used, I don't know how dead the trees really look. Apparently, Mordor is beautiful in the autumn!

The Trees turned out more Autumn-like than dead.

Two of the Trees

Unfortunately I don't have any work in progress pictures but I will do a quick How-To guide.

Create the tree armatures from Floral Wire. Twist two or three of the 18 inch pieces together to get the basic shape of the tree. I used two pairs of needle nose pliers to get a tight twist.
Create the bark by using homemade "paper mache". Tear newspaper in 1/4 inch wide strips and soak in white glue. Then wrap around the tree armature. be sure to cover all of the wire.
Cut bases from thick non-corrugated cardboard. The back of a legal pad is about the right thickness.
Glue tree to base and add some basing material of your choice for texture.
Spray the whole thing with black primer.
Paint the tree bark to your desired color. Paint the base as well.
Glue some foliage to the tree or leave it bare if you choose. I used the the Gale Force 9 Clump Foliage: Autumn. It took 3 packages to do the five trees. I am sure that Woodland Scenics makes a comparable product in a much larger container, but the GF9 stuff was handy.

A second pair of trees

The last and tallest tree

Here is a shot with a few rangers to give you the scale of the trees.

Tree with some LotR Rangers for Scale

Coming soon: Rangers of Gondor. Also pictures of the rest of my Gondor force and the Mordor table before MitM next month.

Imperial Fist Color Scheme - Tactical Squads

2011-08-15T01:50:00.000-06:00

I was playing around with the Space Marine Painter over at The Bolter & Chainsword the other day and I decided to produce some examples of my Imperial Fist color scheme. This color scheme is similar to but varies somewhat from the Ultramarines Heraldry laid out in the Codex Astartes (or Codex: Space Marines to you and me).

The basic color of the Imperial Fist's armor is a deep golden yellow with the chest eagle picked out in a brighter yellow. The soft armor showing at the joints is a dark gray verging on black. The left hand is painted black in deference to the chapter symbol. The boots are also black. The standard issue bolter is a utilitarian gun metal with black casing.

The Imperial Fist chapter symbol is displayed on the left shoulder pad. The right shoulder pad displays the marine's squad markings.

Imperial Fist Tactical Marine, 3rd Company

Above is shown the color scheme of a space marine from a Tactical Squad of the Imperial Fists 3rd Company. The company color of the 3rd Company, is a bright blood red which is displayed on the marine's right knee pad and shoulder pad trim. The gothic numeral 3 is also displayed on the right knee pad. The tactical squad marking of the upward pointing arrow can be displayed in either black or the company color depending on the preferences and traditions of the individual squad. The squad markings also often include the squad number in either gothic or roman numerals.

Imperial Fist Tactical Squad Veteran Sergeant, 3rd Company

Next is shown the color scheme of a veteran sergeant of the same squad. The bolt pistol of the sergeant is the same utilitarian black and gun metal as the marine's bolters. The casing of his chain sword is the blood red of the 3rd Company. His veteran status, like all Imperial Fist veterans, is denoted by his blood red helmet. Of course to attain the rank of sergeant an Imperial Fist must first be recognized as a veteran of numerous campaigns, so all Imperial Fist sergeants are by definition veterans.

Imperial Fist Tactical Marine, Heavy Weapon Specialist, 3rd Company

Of course all Imperial Fists are trained in a wide variety of personal and heavy armaments. However, those that excel in the heavy weapons class are given advanced training in the use and maintenance of these weapons. These specialists are allowed special recognition by painting the inner fields of their shoulder pads black. The shoulder pad trim is still painted in the company color. Many of these specialists are assigned to Devastator Squads or as vehicle crews, but one such specialist is assigned to every tactical squad.

Imperial Fist Tactical Marine, Assault Weapon Specialist, 3rd Company

Similar to the heavy weapon specialists, some marines also specialize in the use of flamers, plasma guns or other Squad Assault Weapons (SAWs). These specialists paint the inner fields of their shoulder pads a fiery orange. The shoulder pad trim is still painted in the company color. There is one assault weapons specialist assigned to every tactical squad.

Miniatures Photo Studio, Part 1: Materials List

2011-04-02T09:45:00.003-06:00

Okay so alot of times you see photos online of painted minis on someone's computer desk or hobby table with a bunch of clutter or computer keyboard and printer in the background. I have posted my fair share of those myself. So I had an idea to create a way to always have a handy place to snap a quick photo of my current painting or conversion project.

I have decided to make a miniatures photo studio. I will cover this project in several blog posts. Today I will list all of the Materials that I will use along with links to where I got them in case you want to make your own studio.

Materials Needed:
In addition to the items listed below I will be using some common hobby tools and materials like white glue, a foam cutter, and x-acto knife.

Project Base
First up is the Scene-A-Rama Large Project Base from Woodland Scenics. The Scene-A-Rama line is marketed from Woodland Scenics for school projects for kids, but it has a lot of small kits that give you everything you need to try a certain technique such as making paster rocks or water effects. I purchased the project base from Hobby Lobby.

Scene-A-Rama Project Base

Sand Textured Paper
Also part of the Scene-A-Rama line from Woodland Scenics, the desert sand paper is pre-cut to fit the Large Project base. I purchased this from Hobby Lobby as well. The same effect could be achieved by gluing sand or ballast directly to the plastic base as well.

Scene-A-Rama Desert Sand

Insulation Foam
The next item is insulation foam. This will be no surprise to veteran terrain makers. Commonly known as "blue foam" or "pink foam" because of the two most common colors that in comes in, insulation foam has been used by hobbyists to make terrain for years. I got mine at Lowe's but it should be available at any home improvement store.

Blue Insulation Foam

Model Trees
We will also use some model trees. These are the kind used for model railroading. I bought Woodland Scenics brand from Hobby Lobby, but any model trees will work. Feel free use any of the numerous How to Make Model Trees tutorials that this simple google search turned up if you are more ambitious than me!

Woodland Classics Waters Edge Trees

Flocking & Static Grass
Another terrain makers standby, we will use some flocking and static grass to create some grassy areas on the studio platform. I have a bunch from previous projects. Various companies all make flocking that will work, I happened have a big shaker of Woodland Scenics flocking that I am using.

Woodland Scenics Ground Cover

Light
We will need a light for our studio. LEDs are a good choice since they are small and light weight but put out a good amount of light. I got this one from Wal-Mart online.

10 LED Slim Light

Camera Tripod
The last item is a table top camera tripod. While we will not be physically incorporating this as part of the studio, since we are going to all this trouble to make the studio, why not use a tripod to help us get the steadiest shots possible? I got this one from Wal-Mart online.

Digipower Mini Tripod

That covers all of the items that we will need. Next time I will begin showing step-by-step how to assemble the studio.

Godric the Unkillable

2011-03-17T16:00:00.002-06:00

Godric the Unkillable

Okay so I needed a figure for my Pathfinder Society character Godric. When I need a mini for an RPG character the first place I go to look is Reaper Miniatures because they have literally thousands of great figures for RPG characters. The easiest way to find what you are looking for is to use the Reaper Figure Finder. If you have never used it, it is actually kind of fun. Go ahead I'll wait.

You back? Good. So I found a bunch of cool figures but managed to narrow the field down to two candidates for Godric. Those were "Bertok, Barbarian" and "Amon, Viking Warrior". Both of these figures are from Reaper's Dark Haven Legends line.

Bertok, Barbarian

Amon, Viking Warrior

After seeing the minis in person, Amon was just to unwieldy perched up on his wall like that, so Bertok got the nod and became Godric! (cue trumpets!) However Godric specializes in fighting with his axe and shield so to add insult to injury he also swiped poor Amon's shield. Now as you can probably tell from this post I am a fan of Reaper's figures. I am not, however, a fan of the integrated bases on the Dark Haven Legends line. I prefer the uniform shape of either square or round plastic bases. So I set about cutting off the metal base from around Godric's feet. This is kind of a pain, but worth it in my opinion. After that I added the figure to one of the green stuff bases that I made recently. Read more about that in this post.

So here are some pics of the completed Godric figure, after I spent a few hours quality time with my paint brushes.

Godric the Unkillable

The figure has an eye patch. So far Godric still has both of his peepers, but if something cool comes up in game I am not adverse to having him lose an eye to match the figure!

These last two pics show more of the tribal style tattoos that I painted on the figure. The drawing at the top has tattoos and I wanted to replicate that on the the figure.

That is all for now. Coming up I have also painted a figure for my cleric and a cool little monster to use as an eidolon for a summoner character I am working on.

Back to Base-ics

2011-03-16T21:29:00.002-06:00

The blog is back! And what better way to celebrate that fact than with a terrible pun? None that's what!

Anyway for my first post in a couple of months, I am going to talk about the very foundation of miniature gaming, that's right bases! I have been getting ready to work on some individual character minis for my RPG games and I wanted to do something different than the normal sand and grass bases that are so common on a lot of armies. Since these are individual characters I don't mind spending a bit more time on each base, so I thought I would try my hand at doing some "green stuff" work on the bases.

For those that don't know, Kneadatite, aka green stuff is a two part epoxy putty that is widely used in the gaming and hobby industry for sculpting miniatures. Follow the link for more info.

The particular bases that I am using are the 1 inch square beveled bases from Reaper. Here is a picture of one unmodified base. I like these bases because, unlike most other square bases, they have a raised rim around the outer edge.

1 Inch Square Beveled Base from Reaper Miniatures

I started writing about what I did and realized I should spend a minute talking about the tools I used. I have a set of sculpting tools from Privateer Press (shown below). Other companies, like Army Painter, Games Workshop and Gale Force 9 all make similar sets that will do the job just fine.

P3 Sculpting Tools by Privateer Press

So here are a few pics of what I have done so far. The first is of two wooden plank bases that I sculpted, one oriented diagonally and one straight across. For all of these bases I started by just mixing up some green stuff and putting flat layer down inside the raised edge of the base. After smoothing out the surface it is pretty easy to use one of the "spatula" shaped ends to mark in the edges of the wooden planks. On these I made four planks across the base, so they are approximately 1/4 inch wide. After the board edges are marked then I just used the pointy tool, to make some nail holes and lightly trace in the wood grain.

Diagonal wood plank and straight wood plank bases.

Here is another picture. I did two more wood plank bases and a paving stone base. The paving stone stone base was also pretty easy. I just didn't smooth out the surface quite as much and then made the seams between the stones a bit wider and rounded the edges of the stones.

Diagonal wood plank, straight wood plank and paving stone bases.

Okay with a little bit of confidence I was ready to try something a bit trickier. The first of these next bases is another wood plank, but with narrower planks. This one has six planks across instead of four and I think looks a bit nicer and more detailed without really being any harder. The next base is for a monk/martial artist figure that I want to paint soon. I figured a nice yin-yang symbol from the center of the dojo floor would make a nice base. It is a bit off center but it still turned out better than I expected it to. I will go ahead and use this one - once the figure is placed on top the off center-ness will be less obvious. I have some other monk figures though, so I might give this design another try.

Narrow wood plank base and decorative yin-yang base.

Well there are the bases that I have been working on recently. There are some other designs that I want to try like flagstones and eventually some natural rocks and logs. Also I have already put a few figures on these bases and painted them up, so I should have some posts on that soon as well.

RPG Superstar 2011

2011-01-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Paizo Publishing, the publisher of the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game, is hosting the fourth annual RPG Superstar Contest. The contest is an open call to find new RPG designers. The first round is an open submission to design a wondrous magic item, from which the judges select the top 32 entrants to compete in the contest. The top 32 for this year's contest will be announced tomorrow January 18th. So if you are interested in Pathfinder or Game Design go to the Paizo site and check out the Top 32!

Mayhem in the Mountains Recap - Part 3 - The Games

2010-11-07T17:08:00.006-07:00

Okay, this post falls into the category of "Better Late Than Never". Since it has been over a month since the MitM tournament, the recap for each game is going to be pretty quick. Read this post to see my army list.

Round 1

Opponent: Tim Kulinski
Army: Spiders of Dol Guldur

1 Spider Queen
10 Giant Spiders
2 Bat Swarms

1 Goblin Captain
10 Goblin Bowmen
11 Goblin Warriors with Shields
10 Goblin Warriors with Shields & Spears

Result: Major Loss

Recap: I pretty much lost this game during deployment. The scenario featured split deployment and night fighting rules. I choose to place my orc warriors and trackers up front near the enemy instead of placing a wall of terror causing Black Numenoreans up front. Tim quickly swarmed the hapless orcs with his spiders and bat swarms. It was an uphill battle trying to kill off the multi-would spiders and bats while Tim's goblins roamed around unimpeded on his half of the table while my whole army was killing spiders. Still, Tim was a fun opponent, and I think I learned alot from facing this type of army for the first time.

Round 2

Opponent: Tim McKnight
Army: Black Gate & Nazgul

Witch-King on Fellbeast
Mouth of Sauron
Troll Chieftian
12 Morannon Orcs
12 Morannon Orcs with Spears

Result: Major Victory

Recap: This game turned out to be a battle of the Nazgul. First Tim tried to Sap will on my Undying but I was able to dispell the spell with my will points. The next turn the Undying returned the favor and successfully Sapped Will on the Witch King, removing him from the table. With the expensive Witch King and Fellbeast removed from the game, my numeric superiority allowed me to wear down the rest of Tim's army until it broke and eventually fled off the table. I have played probably half my LotR games against Tim, and as always he was a great sport and fun opponent to play against.

Round 3

Player: Chris Ward
Army: Legions of the White Hand

Saruman
Uruk-Hai Captian
3 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
14 Uruk-Hai Warriors
13 Uruk-Hai Warriors with Pikes
5 Uruk-Hai Warriors with Crossbows

Result: Minor Loss

Recap: This scenario was "Domination" which involved controlling three objective points spread across the table. I felt pretty confident going into this game since I had played this same scenario on the same table against Rob F's Easterling army at Taciticon two weeks eariler. Three turns in, everything looked good. I had a line of Terror causing Black Numenoreans between all three objectives and Chris' Uruk-hai. Once we started rolling dice everything went to hell. To say that I had trouble killing Uruk-hai during this game would be the understatement of the year. At the end of the game I had killed a grand total of 5 models from Chris' army - 4 of them with Black Darts from the Nazgul! The only reason that I held on to a minor loss (instead of major) is that I had about 4 or 5 models clustered around one objective when time was called for the round. This was a rough game, but not because anything Chris did - he was a great opponent and this was our first game - my dice just betrayed me this game.

Round 4

Player: Bryce Stevenson
Army: Galadhrim & Rivendell

Rumil
Elladan & Elrohir
1 Galadhrim Warrior with Banner
7 Galadhrim Warriors
8 Galadhrim Warriors with Spears
8 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf Bows
4 Galadhrim Knights
2 Galadhrim Knights wth Elf Bows

Result: Draw

Recap: This was probably the closest game that I played during the whole tournament. The scenarios was "Sieze the Prize" where we had to dig up an artifact and then escape with it off of our opponents board edge. The game was very close, despite Bryce calling 3 heroic combats and burning through about 6 might in one turn. The efftect was pretty devastating on my line and a lead to us battling for about three more turns with out being able to dig up the artifact. Eventually after digging up the artifact and repeatedly transfixing Bryce's heroes, Grisnakh was able to get the prize and start moving towards Bryce's Board edge. As I said, this was a close game and both of our armies broke on the same turn. I was able to cover most of my orcs with the Stand Fasts of the two Nazgul, but being a "hero" Grisnakh had to make his own roll - which of course he failed, dropping the artifact and fleeing off the table. On the upside for ole Grisnakh - this was the first game I played him in where he was not killed in combat! The few remaining turns consisted of Bryce and I scrambling to get control of the loose artifact. Bryce had it when we finally ran out of time - giving him one bonus point but ending the game in a draw.

Round 5

Player: Rob Brightwell
Army: Cirith Ungol

Shelob
Gorbag with Shield
Orc Captian with Shield
Mordor Troll
1 Orc with Banner
10 Orcs with Shields
10 Orcs with Spears
5 Orcs with 2 Handed Weapons
4 Orcs with Bows
6 Orc Trackers
2 Warg Riders with Shields
2 Warg Riders with Bows
2 Warg Riders with Spear and Shield

Result: Draw

Recap: Rob's army boasted both a Troll and Shelob two serious threats that I had to be wary of. We were playing on the Isengard table with two large pits in the middle of the table. Our main forces both headed up the middle but Rob sent his warg riders around the side of one of the pits in a flanking action. I sent a small contingent of black numenoreans backed up by orc spearmen to deal with them. In the center, I used transfix and my spectres to keep Shelob and the troll out of the fight as much as possible - which seemed to work and left us fighting orc vs orc & a few black numenoreans. On the flank I was able to surround and kill all but one warg rider which eventually fled back to the main army. I was trying to bring the flanking force around the pit into the rear of Robs army when time was called. There were alot of fights but neither army was broken leaving the game as a draw.

Mayhem in the Mountains Recap - Part 2

2010-09-26T23:56:00.002-06:00

Instead of going to the battle reports next (which are a lot of work to type up!), I am going to skip ahead to a few of the awards. The Two Awards as it were - the ones that I won. :)

First Up - I won Best Table for the Mordor Lava Board

Here is a shot of it set up in my dining room. This is basically how it looked at the tournament. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures at the tournament. However, there are a bunch more pictures of both the finished board and works in progress in my Wargames Terrain Slideshow on Flickr.

Secondly - I won Best Calvary Sized Model in the Durin's Axe painting competition for my Giant Eagle model. I painted this a while ago, but it is the only good model that I have finished. I have been concentrating on Mordor - both the terrain and my army for a while now.

So each of these awards came with a nice plaque and a LotR box set. I ended up getting an Army of the Dead box set and an Uruk-hai Scouts box set. Getting free mini is awesome - but it doesn't get me any closer to actually reducing the number of minis that I need to paint!

Russ

Mayhem in the Mountains Recap - Part 1

2010-09-26T17:19:00.005-06:00

Last weekend 9/18 & 9/19 was the 1st ever Mayhem in the Mountains Tournament. Mayhem in the Mountains is an independent tournament for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, sponsored by Adeptus Mile High and Collectormania. The tournament is a five round, two day event. There were 16 players signed up, mostly locals but with players coming from Florida, Chicago, Phoenix, & southern California.

Personally I was excited for the tournament, but a little zombified since I ended up staying up all night Friday in order to finish the Mordor Table and to paint the last few models for my army.

Here is the army list that I used for the tournament.

Terror of Minas Morgul

Heroes
Nazgul (2/12/2) 100 points
The Undying (2/20/0) 120 points
Grishnakh w/shield 50 points

Warriors
12 Black Numenoreans 108 points
8 Orc Warriors w/shields 48 points
12 Orc Warriors w/spears & shields 84 points
2 Spectres 30 points
12 Orc Trackers 60 points

600 points
Model Count: 49
Bows: 16/48

Pathfinder Society

2010-09-06T05:01:00.002-06:00

Godric Skarsgard

So over this labor day weekend there was a local game convention here in Denver called Tacticon. I attended the convention and was able to play my first Pathfinder Society living campaign games. I had a great time and now plan on getting in some more Pathfinder Society games whenever I have the opportunity.

Anyway my first and so far only character is a Human Fighter named Godric Skarsgard. He is an Ulfen (think Viking) warrior who as raised in the far of land of Osirion (think Egypt). I am posting his stats for now and will add a full character background soon.

GODRIC SKARSGARD CR 1/2
Male Human Fighter 1
LN Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +0

DEFENSE

AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 18 (+4 armor, +4 shield, +2 Dex)
hp 14 (1d10+3)
Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +0

OFFENSE

Spd 30 ft.
Melee Axe, Throwing +4 (1d6+3/20/x2) and
   Battleaxe +4 (1d8+3/20/x3) and
   Dagger +4 (1d4+3/19-20/x2) and
   Shield, Heavy Wooden +4 (1d6+3/20/x2) and
   Unarmed Strike +4 (1d3+3/20/x2)

STATISTICS

Str 16, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Improved Shield Bash, Power Attack +2/-1, Shield Focus
Traits Killer, Mummy-Touched
Skills Acrobatics +1, Climb +2, Escape Artist +1, Fly +1, Linguistics +2, Ride +5, Stealth +1, Survival +4, Swim +6
Languages Common, Giant, Osiriani
Combat Gear Battleaxe, Axe, Throwing, Dagger, Masterwork Chain Shirt, +1 Hvy Spiked Darkwood Shield; Other Gear Backpack (2 @ 14.5 lbs), Blanket, winter, Candle (5), Potion of Cure Light Wounds (3), Pouch, belt (1 @ 0 lbs), Pouch, belt (1 @ 4.4 lbs), Pouch, belt (4 @ 3 lbs), Rations, trail (per day) (10), Sack (1 @ 10 lbs), Sunrod (2), Tindertwig (2), Waterskin, Whetstone

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Improved Shield Bash You still get your shield bonus while using Shield Bash.
Killer Add weapon's critical modifier to its critical bonus damage.
Mummy-Touched +2 save. vs. diseases and curses.
Power Attack +2/-1 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Shield Focus +1 Shield AC

Created With Hero Lab® - try it for free at http://www.wolflair.com!

Soldiers of Fortune - a quick review of MERCS

2010-08-28T10:13:00.003-06:00

Merc Heavy Gunner

While browsing miniature game websites, I recently discovered a little game called MERCS. MERCS is a skirmish level game with a near future sci-fi theme. There are a few things that caught my interest about the game. The first is the miniatures, they look absolutely fantastic. They are 28mm scale so they are about the same size as 40k or Warmachine figures. Second, when they say skirmish, they mean it. Rather than being point based, your merc team will consist of exactly five miniatures. Last the game is d10 based instead of d6, so that will distinguish it from other games as well.

Now, MERCS is a relatively new game, they don't even have a rulebook out yet. However, they do have their basic rules available via a free PDF download from their website. Hey, free is always good in my book. Now there are four factions to choose your team from and according to the website they are planning six different minis for each faction so there can be some variations in team choice. Currently however not all of the miniatures are available.

I am considering buying into this game. Since you only need 5 minis and they are priced $9.99 each, this game is playable with about a $50 investment. As miniatures games go, that is pretty affordable. Look for more on this game once some of my current projects are completed. Here is the url for the MERCS website so you can check it out on your own: Mercs Minis - Dynamic Gaming Miniature

Buh-bye Blue

2010-08-15T01:42:00.002-06:00

Okay so I have been working on the Mordor board and have the basecoat down. So it is buh-bye to the foamtastic blue and hello to colors. Well black and brown anyways Mordor is not exactly a vacation paradise. Here is a shot of the board as it stands now.

Mordor Board with base colors

Rob and Ian also played a game using the board on Friday. It was Rob's Easterlings vs Ian's Moria Goblins and Balrog battling for supremacy on the cracked lava fields of Mordor. Ultimately the Easterlings emerged victorious while only taking a handful of casualties from the goblins. Here are a few shots of the action.

Easterlings vs Moria Goblins & Balrog

Mt. Evil

2010-08-05T00:31:00.007-06:00

Last night I put the first coat of textured paint on the board. It is begining to look like something other than a gigantic blue ice flow. Unfortunately forgot to take any pictures.

Tonight, it was a little crowded at the shop, so instead of putting a second coat of paint on all the board sections (since that takes up alot of table space as they dry), I worked on the volcano a bit.

I got the basic shape of the thing down and then went to work on the idea I had for the ledges. There is now a stone stair bridge from each half of the board that leads to the main landing area. from there stairs wind up to the top of the volcano should anyone care to climb to such a lofty perch. Each stair can hold one mini and the volcano's rim can hold minis as well. I borrowed a couple of Tim's goblin's to test the stability of the steps.

Time for pictures - is now!

A wide shot of the table with the grey texture paint

All in all, not a bad night for the project.

For more go to Buh-bye Blue --edit 8/18/11

Twilight Awesomeness

2010-08-01T20:42:00.000-06:00

No, not that Twilight. I said "Awesomeness" didn't I?

No, I am talking about Twilight Ringwraiths, or the Nazgul, as they appeared to Frodo when he wore the One Ring. Check them out below in their movie incarnation.

Twilight Ringwraiths from the Fellowship of the Ring Movie

Since I am playing in some Lord of the Rings tournaments coming up in September, today I painted a Twilight Ringwraith miniature for use with my Minas Morgul army.

Twilight Ringwraith Miniature from Games Workshop

Here is a view of the back of the mini.

Rear View of Twilight Ringwraith miniature

Since the miniatures I normally use for my Nazgul are actually made by another company (Reaper Miniatures) they are not legal to use in the tournament. Although I still think they are great minis.

Spectre miniatures from Reaper are my normal Nazgul

The Twilight Ringwraith will give me one legal Nazgul mini to use in the Tacticon tournament at 350 points, but I am going to have to paint up another figure for the Mayhem in the Mountains tournament later in the month since it is 600 points and includes 2 Nazgul in the armylist.

Saturday in Mordor

2010-08-01T12:38:00.001-06:00

Saturday was a pretty good day project wise. I was able to get a ton of work done on the Mordor terrain board. Here is the first picture of the last table quarter to have the lava sections cut away. This one will feature the volcano in the corner. This picture, like all of the Mordor board pictures so far, was taken with my blackberry.

For the rest of these pictures, I got my actual camera out, so hopefully these are a little better quality. Here is a shot of all four board sections back together with the lava sections cut away. At this point they have also been glued to the MDF bases, so once the glue sets the real terraforming (mordorforming?) can begin.

Here are two more shots with a couple of the movable terrain pieces placed around the board. The volcano is still very rough and needs to be more cone-like.

And another view from around the side.

For more go to Mt. Evil -- edit 8/18/11

Fiery Chasms of Fire

2010-07-30T01:32:00.001-06:00

I worked on the Mordor Terrain board some more tonight. Lots of foam cutting, but I think the result was worth it.

For more go to Saturday in Mordor --edit 8/18/11

The Lava Lake

2010-07-29T00:17:00.001-06:00

So work is progressing on the Mordor terrain board. Tonight I worked on cutting away the lava chasm areas on one quarter of the board that I am calling the Lava Lake. This is due to the large lake-like area of lava (clever, eh?) on this portion of the board. There are three islands in the lake in case any daring generals want to have their minions attempt to hop across the fiery lava. Personally, I don't know if I would tempt fate like that, 1s are too easy to roll.

I added surface cracks spreading out from the lava areas. Think they look pretty good and I am toying with the idea of adding more, but I don't want to go overboard.

For more go to Fiery Chasms of Fire --edit 8/18/11

Beyond the Black Gate pt 2

2010-07-28T00:58:00.001-06:00

I have been working on the layout of the Mordor terrain board. It will be rocky terrain with a volcano and deep lava filled chasms. The board is 4ft by 4ft and made up of 4 2ft by 2ft squares. The base is quarter inch MDF and it will be topped with 2 inch thick styrofoam insulation board. This will allow the lava chasms to be cut down into the surface of the board. The picture below shows the basic layout of the lava chasms drawn onto the foam insulation.

For more go to The Lava Lake -- edit 8/18/11

Beyond the Black Gate

2010-07-24T16:16:00.005-06:00

Then with searing suddenness there came a great red flash. Far beyond the eastern mountain it leapt into the sky and splashed the lowering clouds with crimson. In that valley of shadow and cold deathly lit it seemed unbearably violent and fierce. Peaks of stone and ridges like notched knives sprang out in staring black against the uprushing flame in Gorgoroth. Then came a great crack of thunder. - J.R.R. Tolkien

Okay So I am going to create a Mordor terrain board for Lord of the Rings. This is for the Mayhem in the Mountains tournament sponsored by Adeptus Mile High and Collectormania. The tournament is the weekend of September 18th, so that gives me just about two months to get the 4'x4' table done.

I need to get a few supplies from the store to start. More as things progress.

For more go to Beyond the Black Gate pt 2 --edit 8/18/11

Terran Escort

2010-07-06T00:18:00.002-06:00

Terran Escort, originally uploaded by r.t.brown.

Here is a shot of an Escort ship. These little guys are fielded as improved point defense platforms for Terran Capital Ships. I have painted six so far and have six more to go to finish up all the escorts in my fleet.

Firestorm Armada Terran Fleet

2010-06-27T21:01:00.010-06:00

Okay I have been working on a Terran Fleet for the spaceship combat game Firestorm Armada.

Here are some of the ships that I have finished painting so far.

Terran Cruiser

Terran Cruiser Rear View

Terran Cruiser with Escorts

Terran Frigate

There are some more pics on my Firestorm Armada Set on Flickr.

Last Day of April!

2010-04-30T11:27:00.001-06:00

Well its the last day of April and just realized that I have not posted anything this month! That does not mean that I have not been working on anything though! I have been working on the space marines, both Imperial Fists and the Sons of Medusa! I made up a 1750 list for the Sons of Medusa and got all the models together for that army. I am currently working on base coating the entire army in scorpion green. I have also reassembled (after stripping them a while ago) some of the specialty squads like my Deathwatch Kill Team and my Legion of the Damned squad. So I will be working on that stuff as well as trying to finish up the Tyranids next month! More posts and pictures to come.

Forge World Tanks

2010-03-28T20:51:00.005-06:00

I just finished building some goodies from Forge World. Namely a Pre-Heresy Land Raider and a Predator Tank with reinforced armor. Both are for my Imperial Fists army. Here are a few pictures.

Imperial Fist Pre-Heresy Land Raider

Imperial Fist Predator with Extra Armor

I also got a couple of things for the Tau, I will post pictures when I have them assembled.

Kill Team Tryouts

2010-03-07T14:17:00.008-07:00

Okay so the local store is going to Start a Warhammer 40K league as well as the Warhammer Fantasy Warbands league we have been doing recently. For the first month it will be 200 points and use the new Kill Team rules/scenario from the back of the new Battle Missions book.

Reading those rules, I did not think a Tyranid Kill Team would really be viable, so I go thinking about some other options. I decided to try out a Witch Hunters list. Last Friday, 3/5, I got a chance to try out the Kill Team rules against a few folks at the store.

Here is a quick run down of my Witch Hunters Kill Team:
Inquistor (elite) with 6 henchmen
- Gun Servitor w/heavy bolter (relentless)
- Crusader (feel no pain)
- Crusader (countercharge)
- Acolyte w/Brazier of Hoy Fire
- Chiurgeon
- Penitent Psyker
Inquisitorial Storm Troopers
- 3 with Hellguns
- 1 with Grenade Launcher
- 1 with Flamer
12 models total

Game 1: Witch Hunters vs Ian with Tau
Ian's Kill team included 1 Crisis Suit and 6 Fire Warriors and 4 Vespids. 11 models total.

We each needed to kill 6 models to break the other guy. This one was short and brutal. Ian crushed me in about 4 turns. Since the Kill Team rules state you will need a lot of terrain, we set the board up with what we thought would be enough, it would have been very heavy for a normal 40k game. It was not enough though, we both lost 4 models (1/3 of our teams) on turn 1.

Game 2: Witch Hunters vs Ian with Tau (again)
We played the same rosters again with about 20% more terrain added to the table. The same result in the end, Ian won hands down. The Crisis suit was a terror, its weapons inflicted AP and Instant Kill on every model in my list.

Game 3: Witch Hunters vs Ian with Kroot
For game 3 we felt we had the terrain mix right but wanted to tweak our lists a bit.

I dropped the Chiurgeon and Penitient Psyker from my list since they had been pretty useless so far. I added two more Acolytes in their place and armed all three Acolytes with a bolt pistol and close combat weapon.I was also able to add an additional Storm Trooper to kick my model count to 13. Ian would now have to kill 7 models to break my Kill Team.

Ian changed to an entirely new list of Kroot. It 1 Krootox, about 5 or 6 Kroot hounds and a whole mess of Kroot with a Shaper. 20 Models Total. I would need to kill 10 models to break this list.

I was able to win this one in about 5 or 6 turns. I think the changes I made helped but mostly the Kroot list just was not as good as Ian's Tau list.

Game 4: Tyranids vs Kroot vs Necrons vs Orks
Okay so for the last game of the night we tried a 4 player free-for-all game. We decided to put an objective in the center of the table. If anyone could take the objective and hold it for one round until their next turn, they would win.

Tyranids (me)
2 Lictors, 5 Genestealers. The Lictors are always in resever and I decide to hold the genestealer to outflank. There were going to be too many guns on the table at the start of the game for a list with virtually no shooting.

Kroot (Ian)
The same list from the last game.

Necrons (Chris)
10 Necron Warriors

Orks (Lars)
4 Lootas with 1 Mekboy
20 Ork boys with one Big Shoota

Deep Striking with the Lictors and outflanking with the Genestealers worked well in a four player game where the other players had multiple targets to worry about, but I don't think this list would have done well in a two player game. Ian's Kroot broke first and then the next turn the orks were at the the objective. I had to charge the orks holding the objective with both lictors to keep lars from wining the next turn. It work, but on his next turn Lars shot down both Lictors and reclaimed the objective and went on to win.

Stuff I learned:

You need a ton of terrain for kill team
Kill Team is best left at 2 Players
I will definitely not be playing Tyranids in Kill Team
The Witch Hunters list still needs some work
I should look at Space Marine or Imperial Guard options for Kill Team
I hate Crisis Suits even more in Kill Team
Kroot are squishy when you get at chance to shoot them
Ian should play more Kroot, less Crisis Suits

Battle Report: Tyranids vs Tau

2010-03-07T13:20:00.003-07:00

Okay so last Saturday, 2/27, I had a chance to try the new Tyranid Army out against my friend Ian. Since the store had a preview copy of the new Battle Missions book, we got to try out one of the missions from that book. We randomly determined to use the Tau mission called Vertical Envelopment which uses Kill Points as the victory condition.

I wanted to do a full battle report, but I realize now that I should have taken pictures at the end of each players turn. Unfortunately I only took pictures after the full round. Since the Tau went first this makes it hard to see what occurred during their turn. Anyways I am just going to post the Army lists and pictures for this game. Next time I will get pictures after every turn and try to do a full battle report.

The final score ended up being Tyranids 14 to Tau 5 Kill Points.

Hive Fleet Scorpius Army List 1750 Points
Head Quarters
Hive Tyrant w/Bonesword, Lashwhip & Twin-Linked Devourers.
2 Tyrant Guards with Scything Talons & Rending Claws

Head Quarters
Tyranid Prime w/2 Boneswords, Scything Talons.

Troops
4 Tyranid Warriors w/Scything Talons & Rending Claws
1 Tyranid Warriors w/Scything Talons & Barbed Strangler

Troops
24 Hormagaunts

Troops
20 Termagaunts w/Fleshborers

Troops
8 Genestealers w/Rending Claws

Elites
Zoanthrope

Elites
2 Lictors

Fast Attack
6 Raveners w/Two Sets of Scything Talons

Fast Attack
10 Gargoyles

Heavy Support
1 Carnifex w/Crusthing Claws & Scything Talons

Elites
8 Ymgarl Genestealers

This is an approximation of Ian's list made from my memory of what he fielded.
Ian's Tau Army List 1750
Head Quarters
Commander Farsight

Troops
12 Fire Warriors
Devilfish w/Burst Cannon, Gun Drones

Troops

12 Fire Warriors

Devilfish w/Burst Cannon, Gun Drones

Troops

12 Fire Warriors

Devilfish w/Burst Cannon, Gun Drones

Elites
1 Crisis Suit Team Leader w/Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Flamer, 2 Shield Drones
2 Crisis Suits w/Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Flamer

Elites

1 Crisis Suit Team Leader w/Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Plasma Rifle, 2 Gun Drones

2 Crisis Suits w/Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Plasma Rifle

Elites

4 Stealth Suits w/Burst Cannons

1 Stealth Suit w/Fusion Blaster

Heavy Support
2 Broadside Suits w/Twin-Linked Railguns, Smart Missiles, 2 Shield Drones

Heavy Support
1 Hammerhead w/Railgun and Burst Cannons

Initial Deployment

Turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 4

Turn 5

Turn 6

Turn 7

Tyranids Roster for Saturday

2010-02-25T23:48:00.001-07:00

Here is my roster for Saturday's game against Ian.

Hive Tryrant and Guard (3#, 315 pts)

Hive Tyrant

195

Unit Type: Monstrous Creature; Bonded Exoskeleton; Lash Whip & Bonesword; Synapse Creature; Psyker; Shadow in the Warp; Twin-linked Deathspitter (x1); Adrenal Glands; Leech Essence; Psychic Scream

Tyrant Guard Brood

Blank

120

Unit Type: Infantry; Bonded Exoskeleton; Rending Claws; Scything Talons; Instinctive Behaviour - Feed; Blind Rampage; Shieldwall

Tyranid Prime and Warrior Brood (6#, 285 pts)

Tyranid Prime

100

Unit Type: Infantry; Bonded Exoskeleton; Synapse Creature; Alpha Warrior; Independent Character; Shadow in the Warp; Boneswords (x2); Scything Talons; Adrenal Glands

Tyranid Warrior Brood

Troops

185

Unit Type: Infantry; Hardened Carapace; Scything Talons; Synapse Creature; Shadow in the Warp; Rending Claws; Adrenal Glands

Tyranid Warrior

[45]

Barbed Strangler; Scything Talons; Adrenal Glands

Elite: Zoanthrope (1#, 60 pts)

Zoanthrope

Elite

5+/3(i)

Unit Type: Infantry; Claws & Teeth; Reinforced Chitin; Synapse Creature; Psyker; Shadow in the Warp; Warp Field; Warp Blast; Warp Lance

Elite: Lictor Brood (2#, 130 pts)

Lictor Brood

Elite

130

Unit Type: Infantry; Chameleonic Skin; Flesh Hooks; Reinforced Chitin; Rending Claws; Scything Talons; Instinctive Behaviour - Lurk; Fleet; Hit & Run; Move Through Cover; Pheromone Trail; Stealth

Elite: Ymgarl Genestealer Brood (8#, 184 pts)

Ymgarl Genestealer Brood

Elite

184

Unit Type: Infantry; Hardened Carapace; Rending Claws; Alter Form; Brood Telepathy; Dormant; Fleet; Move Through Cover

Troops: Tyranid Warrior Brood (3#, 110 pts)

Tyranid Warrior Brood

Troops

110

Unit Type: Infantry; Hardened Carapace; Scything Talons; Synapse Creature; Shadow in the Warp; Deathspitter

Tyranid Warrior

[40]

Barbed Strangler; Scything Talons

Troops: Hormagaunt Brood (24#, 144 pts)

Hormagaunt Brood

Troops

144

Unit Type: Infantry; Chitin; Scything Talons; Instinctive Behaviour - Feed; Bounding Leap; Fleet; Move Through Cover

Troops: Termagant Brood (20#, 100 pts)

Termagant Brood

Troops

100

Unit Type: Infantry; Chitin; Claws & Teeth; Fleshborer; Instinctive Behaviour - Lurk; Move Through Cover

Troops: Termagant Brood (12#, 72 pts)

Termagant Brood

Troops

Unit Type: Infantry; Chitin; Claws & Teeth; Instinctive Behaviour - Lurk; Move Through Cover; Spike Rifle

Fast Attack: Gargoyle Brood (10#, 60 pts)

Gargoyle Brood

Fast

Unit Type: Jump Infantry; Blinding Venom; Chitin; Claws & Teeth; Fleshborer; Wings; Instinctive Behaviour - Lurk

Fast Attack: Ravener Brood (6#, 240 pts)

Ravener Brood

Fast

240

Unit Type: Beasts; Reinforced Chitin; Scything Talons (x1); Instinctive Behaviour - Feed; Acute Senses; Deep Strike; Move Through Cover; Rending Claws; Spinefists

Heavy Support: Carnifex (1#, 185 pts)

Carnifex

Heavy

4+D3

185

Unit Type: Monstrous Creature; Bonded Exoskeleton; Scything Talons (x1); Instinctive Behaviour - Feed; Fearless; Living Battering Ram; Crushing Claws

Troops: Genestealer Brood (8#, 112 pts)

Genestealer Brood

Troops

112

Unit Type: Infantry; Reinforced Chitin; Rending Claws; Brood Telepathy; Fleet; Infiltrate; Move Through Cover

Total Cost:

1997

Validation Report

d-1. Formatting: for AB 3.2; c-1. File Version: 1.06a For Bug Reports/www.ab40k.org; b-1. Roster Options: Special Characters; a-1. Scenario: Normal Mission

Roster satisfies all enforced validation rules

Roster Statistics
% Elite: 18.7
% Fast: 15.0
% Heavy: 9.3
% HQ: 14.8
Model Count: 104
% Troops: 36.2
% Wargear: 0.0
Files version: 1.06

Tyranids, Ongoing

2010-02-25T22:29:00.002-07:00

Well, I am still working on getting my Tyranid army finished. As you may have noticed this means that I did not make my initial goal of getting the entire army completed in 3 weeks. I am a little disappointed, but I am more excited about having a playable Tyranid army that is almost completely painted. I started with the HQ choices, the Hive Tyrant, the Tyranid Prime and the Genestealer Broodlord are all completely painted and ready for basing. A few other models, like the Carnifex and the Venomthrope are just a few details away from being finished as well. As for the rest of the army, I would say that every model is at least 75% done. I will get some pictures up soon, hopefully tomorrow. Now I need to go make a 2000 point army list. Hive Fleet Scorpius has a Saturday Morning brunch with the Tau scheduled! (They are coming for you Ian!)

King of the Hive

2010-02-18T01:21:00.002-07:00

Hive Tyrant WIP, originally uploaded by r.t.brown.

I worked on the Hive Tyrant for Hive Fleet Scorpius tonight. Got pretty far, so I am happy. I think it just needs some more blending of lighter greens on certain parts of the carapace and then I need to figure out what to do with the figures base.

Elbow Room!

2010-02-16T02:33:00.001-07:00

So with the stock template I picked for the blog, there was alot of wasted space on the sides of the screen. I decided to put that computer science degree to work and BAM! 20 minutes later we have "Russ' Hobby Blog - Wide Load Edition"

Let me know if this is an improvement or if there is some weird standard that says blogs should only be 682 pixels wide. :]

Tyranid Status Report

2010-02-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

Here is a complete list of models that I am working on for my Tyranid Army Project. See this post for the paint scheme details.

1x Hive Tyrant Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
2x Tyrant Guard Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
1x Tyranid Prime Conversion: Status: Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
8x Tyranid Warriors   Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
3x Tyranid Shrike (Winged Warriors) Conversions Status: Being Assembled
1x Venomthrope Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
1x Zoanthrope   Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
2x Lictors Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
1x Biovore Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
1x Carnifex Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
8x Ymgarl Genestealers Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Blue
18x Genestealers Status: Assembled, & Primed
1x Genestealer Broodlord Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
9x Ripper Swarms Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
24x Hormagaunts   Status: Assembled & Primed
20x Termagaunts w/Fleshborers Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
16x Termagaunts w/Spinefists   Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
12x Termagaunts (old style) Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
10x Gargoyles Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green
13x Spore Mines Status: Assembled, Primed & Washed Green

152 models total. Yikes!

Hive Fleet Scorpius Paint Scheme

2010-02-14T19:04:00.001-07:00

Here is my Step-by-Step process for painting my Tyranids, which I have dubbed Hive Fleet Scorpius. Unless otherwise noted all paint colors are Citadel brand.

Spray with Army Painter Necrotic Flesh spray primer. This matches the Citadel paint color Rotting Flesh.
Apply Thraka Green wash to all skin areas.
Paint the carapace areas with the following paint colors.

Base coat with Orkhide Shade foundation paint.
Apply Dark Angels Green to entire carapace.
Highlight carapace with 50/50 Dark Angels Green and Snot Green.
Highlight carapace with Snot Green.
If there are any especially long spikes or crests on the carapace, highlight with 50/50 Snot Green and Scorpion Green.

Paint all claws, talons and teeth with Bleached Bone.
Paint remaining details with Scorpion Green or Golden Yellow.

Paint Colors


Rotting Flesh	Orkhide Shade	Dark Angels Green	Snot Green	Scorpion Green	Golden Yellow	Bleached Bone

Tyranid Gargoyle

2010-02-14T12:58:00.001-07:00

This is the little guy that started it all. The first gargoyle that I tested my paint scheme on.

Tyranids: 3000 Points in 3 Weeks!

2010-02-14T01:40:00.001-07:00

Okay so my current hobby project is a Tyranids army for Warhammer 40K. I have had Tyranids for a while (Okay since the 4th edition codex came out) but only had a few models put together. So a couple of weeks ago after the new 'Nids codex came out I bought a box of the new plastic Gargoyles and seeking an excuse to try the new (to me at least) Army Painter colored spray primer, I painted a few of them up. They looked good and it was a very quick paint scheme, so I got the crazy idea to do my entire army - in 3 weeks! Little did I realize that I had nearly 3000 points worth of Tyranids at home.

Anyway I am now two weeks into this project and I have made some good progress with the exception of three warriors who will be converted to shrikes (winged warriors), I now have everything assembled and sprayed with Necrotic Flesh and I am working my way through the horde.

My Hobby on Flickr

2010-02-14T00:43:00.000-07:00

I have a ton of pictures (600+) on Flickr, most of them hobby related. Here is my collection of Hobby & Game photos.

First Post

2010-02-14T00:23:00.000-07:00

So I created this blog to post info about what hobby stuff I am currently working on. What do I mean by hobby? I mean building and painting miniatures and terrain for tabletop war games. The games I play are Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40,000, Warmachine, Hordes, Lord of the Rings and a few others. Got it? Good so I will get on with hobby related stuff now.

Russ' Hobby Blog

Eagles: Throndil

Terrain Time

Gondor Warriors: Converted Citadel Guard

Eagles: Westrilan

Gondor Warriors: Converted Osgilliath Veterans

Minas Tirith 600 Point Army List (Updated)

Isengard / Dunland Raiders 600 Point Army List

Eagles: Evandor

Eagles: Gwaihir

Eagles: Landroval

Space Marine 200 Point Kill Team Army List

Eagles: Meneldor

2012 New Years Gaming Resolutions

Cirith Ungol 600 Point Army List

Minas Morgul 600 Point Army List

Rangers of Ithillian 600 Point Army List

Rules for LotR League

Eagles Army Work in Progress

Mayhem in the Mountains Army Roundup

Mayhem in the Mountains Table Roundup

The Eagles are Coming

Lord of the Rings: Gondor vs Easterlings

Rangers of Gondor

Dead? Trees for Mordor

Imperial Fist Color Scheme - Tactical Squads

Miniatures Photo Studio, Part 1: Materials List

Godric the Unkillable

Back to Base-ics

RPG Superstar 2011

Mayhem in the Mountains Recap - Part 3 - The Games

Mayhem in the Mountains Recap - Part 2

Mayhem in the Mountains Recap - Part 1

Pathfinder Society

Soldiers of Fortune - a quick review of MERCS

Buh-bye Blue

Mt. Evil

Twilight Awesomeness

Saturday in Mordor

Fiery Chasms of Fire

The Lava Lake

Beyond the Black Gate pt 2

Beyond the Black Gate

Terran Escort

Firestorm Armada Terran Fleet

Last Day of April!

Forge World Tanks

Kill Team Tryouts

Battle Report: Tyranids vs Tau

Tyranids Roster for Saturday

2000 Pts - Tyranids - Hive Fleet Scorpius 2000

Tyranids, Ongoing

King of the Hive

Elbow Room!

Tyranid Status Report

Hive Fleet Scorpius Paint Scheme

Tyranid Gargoyle

Tyranids: 3000 Points in 3 Weeks!

My Hobby on Flickr

First Post