Barrow Wights

 For our Middle-earth games (see yesterday's battle reports), I knew we were going to need some barrow wights.  Fortunately I remembered to pick up a couple of candidates at the Imperial Hobbies Boxing Week sale!  After some very quick and dirty paint jobs, they were ready to take to the tabletop for the Fog on the Barrow Downs scenario.

Candidate number 1 is a Reaper metal miniature.  She's the one on the right with the whispy white dress and flowing grey locks.  Number 2 is Reaper resin.  He's the big burly fellow with all the armour.  And Number 3 is a Games Workshop Warhammer plastic banshee.  She was interesting to assemble: she's a multi-piece plastic model, went together like a charm and took the paint very nicely.

The big Reaper bruiser came with a fancy stone coffin thingie.  I gave it a quick basecoat and drybrush.  The little white-robed figures are official GW Middle-earth models from about 18 years ago, and represent the hobbits that have been captured and trussed up by the barrow-wights.  So in our latest game, they actually got to show up on the table as God and the Perry twins originally intended! 

Middle Earth Gaming - the Ringbearer sets out (but doesn't get very far)

Last weekend, Craig and Gord came over to join Arthur and me in a few scenarios from the Lord of the Rings 'Quest of the Ringbearer' narrative campaign for the GW Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game (M-eSBG).  I had not played much of the SBG since it had originally come out twenty or so years ago, concurrent with the Peter Jackson LotR movies.  To be fair, though, it was a refresher for Craig and Gord as well, especially as their (relatively) more recent experience had been with the Battle Companies variant, which used much less magic and special abilities than we encountered in the narrative scenarios!

We played three of the early scenarios in the game.  Arthur of course wanted to jump straight to the ambush at Amon Hen, but I overruled him, considering that we needed to start off with a smaller, simpler scenario to allow us to learn or relearn the rules!  We freely used proxy figures to fill out the numbers, so the board will have miniatures from many different sources, not just the 'official' GW figures.

The first scenario was a raid by the four hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin) on Farmer Maggot's Farm.  This is considered to have occurred before the start of the story in the book or the film, before Frodo was given the One Ring and sent on his way.  It is supposed to be light-hearted, with the hobbits trying to rob poor Farmer Maggot, and Maggot setting his dogs to chase off the raiders and protect his crop.

The game starts with Maggot's farm in the background, and his crops stored in a small compound in the centre of the table.  The farm is not particularly Hobbit-ish, as I proxied in my Sicilian buildings for the farm, and crates of goods from the market.

The four Hobbits are supposed to gather goods from the compound and return them to their stash (the gabions in front of Arthur).  Meanwhile, Maggot's hounds will try to intercept the thieves!

Hobbits make a dash for the compound, while the hounds move round to intercept them.

This is a barrow-wight standing on a small lid to demonstrate the concept of 'zone of control'!  Meanwhile, to the left all the hobbits have been frightened off by the hounds.  Maggot never even came on the table!

Second scenario - Buckleberry Ferry.  The four hobbits are trying to get through the woods, past the Ringwraiths to reach Buckleberry Ferry. 

The ringwraiths set up a line to block the hobbits' advance.  The first ringwraith attacks Frodo, weakening him. After this, the other three ensure that they stand between the wraiths and the ringbearer!

However, the hobbits' heroics are for naught, as the ringwraiths wear down the resistance and finally capture poor Frodo!

Third Scenario - Fog on the Barrow Downs.  Another scenario inspired by the book, as the whole sequence with Tom Bombadil, the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs didn't make the cut for Peter Jackson's films (and for that matter, didn't get into Ralph Bakshi's movie either!).  Frodo and company must cross the Barrow Downs on their way to Bree.  However a fog comes up, in which the wights come from their barrows to try to capture the hobbits who have intruded on their territory!

Here we have the wights carefully stalking the hobbits.

All the hobbits have been paralyzed by the wights, one of them is being dragged back to a barrow to be sacrificed!

After far too many failed attempts, Frodo regains consciousness and summons Tom Bombadil to come to their aid.  

        Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!

        By water, wood and hill, by the reed and willow,
        By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
        Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!

Actually, the hobbits tried this song many times, but the summons failed again and again!

So regrettably, despite Tom's valiant efforts, the four barrow wights succeeded in capturing and sacrificing the four hobbits!

Not a great day for the hobbits:  they went 0-3 in the three scenarios.  Still, fun was had by all, and we look forward to trying again soon.

Movember 2021 Colonel Blimp and Special Agent Rasputin

 Movember is an annual, month long campaign occurring in November, with a focus on men's health.  It originated in Australia, with a group of young men who decided it would be fun to grow a moustache (or 'mo') for the month of November, renamed Movember.  As the idea took hold, it was decided to tie the campaign to fundraising and awareness raising for men's health.  Movember is now an international phenomenon that supports important causes like mental health and prostate cancer research.

Bob Murch of Pulp Figures has supported Movember for many years, particularly through sculpting an annual Movember figure.  These figures can only be obtained by contributing to Movember. This year, the figure is Col 'Muzzy' Blunderboch.  Muzzy closely resembles the famous British cartoon figure, Col. Blimp. I chose to trim his moustache a bit.  He may become a part of my next project, an infantry platoon for early WWII, usable for the 1940 Battle of France, or the fictitious Very British Civil War or a hypothetical Operation Sealion, which was Hitler's never-executed plan to invade Britain in the aftermath of his victory in France.

I also found some time to finish up Special Agent Rasputin, who had been neglected for far too long in my unpainted miniatures pile.  Agent R is one of Stoessi's Heroes. 

Boromir rides again! And so does Richard III Updated 2022-01-10

 Arthur and I have been reading The Hobbit (refer to my recent battle report from Erebor), and we have now progressed on to the Lord of the Rings.  Arthur has been going through my collection of fantasy figures, including the Games Workshop Middle-earth figures that I've had since the Fellowship of the Ring movie was released 20 years ago.  It turns out that while I had multiple copies of most members of the Fellowship, the only painted figure of Boromir in my collection was the one affectionately known as 'Pin-Cushion' Boromir.  Fortunately, we found a pair of unpainted figures, one on foot and one riding a horse.

I followed the paint job from Pin Cushion (or PC) Boromir as close as I could.  So, here then are the now three Boromirs we can use for upcoming games!

The blue is a bit more brilliant, the flock is a different shade, but I daresay that they will do for our purposes.

I also managed to get some paint on Richard III.  He's got a horse, so no need to offer to swap a kingdom for a new one.  I again tried to match the paint job I did on a similar figure that I painted a few years ago: this time of the Perry Miniatures' Commemorative Figure of Richard III emerging from a carpark in Leicester.

This time, I think I was a bit closer in matching the previous paintjob.

Update:  as soon as Boromir was painted, Arthur decided that he needed to face the orc horde!

Merry Christmas!

 I have done very little painting over the past few months, but that hasn't stopped me from buying new miniatures!  Here is a brand new figure from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures, Santa Ralph!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Battle on the slopes of Erebor

Finally, after more months of shutdown than I can count, Trumpeter Gaming is back!  Of course, I missed the October game night, but on November 4th, I was able to take Arthur to his first wargaming night.  And much excitement was had by all!

With cooperation from Craig, who provided the dwarves, and from Gord, who although unable to attend himself, lent a small force of elves (also some eagles, who didn't make it on to the table), we set up a Dragon Rampant game.  I was happy to pull my BSC2021 boards out of storage, where they were re-purposed as the slopes of Erebor (also known as 'The Lonely Mountain').  Here, we find a small group of 13 dwarves have barricaded themselves behind makeshift walls to resist the encroachment of some elves of Mirkwood, and men of the Long Lake.

The men and elves attempt to parley with the leader of the dwarves, but he tells them (quite rudely) to be gone.  Just as the armies on both sides get ready to rumble, the Grey Wizard appears in their midst, and warns the men, elves and dwarves of the approaching army of orcs and goblins. 

Mobs of approaching orcs and goblins.

The Lakemen turn to face the orcs.

And so do the elves.

The first waves of orcs rush forward to break against the Lakemen shieldwall.

Laketown archers keep up a steady rain of arrows on their foes.

Arthur took to gaming like a fish to water!  Here he is getting some tactical advice from his ally, Doug.

On the right flank, the elves take advantage of the rough terrain to break up the orc advance.

The wizard and the hobbit decide that the safest place to observe the battle is from a hilltop far to the back!

Dwarves and elves cooperate to push back the orcs and goblins.

On the right, the lakemen stop the enemy's advance.

 I kept the scenario deliberately simple, as my main goal was to introduce Arthur to the rules and concepts, and also to ensure that we finished up the game in good time!  As the forces of good readily repulsed the baddies, there was no need for the eagles to show up as a deus ex machina.  It was a good, fast and fun game, and now Arthur is a new gamer, eagerly waiting the next outing!  The scenario was inspired by the book Arthur and I recently finished reading together.

Miniatures came from a variety of sources.  There was a good selection of Games Workshop Lord of the Rings figures, but also many from other sources.  The Lakemen were made up of a mix of various Dark Ages figures, including Late Romans from Foundry and Old Glory, Saxons from Eureka and Gripping Beast, El Cid-era Spanish from Crusader, and more. I hope Craig will jump into the comments with the pedigree of the dwarves!