Lord of the Rings Indy GT - Results

This last weekend was the first ever Indy GT for the Lord of the Rings. It was a blast; the organizers (Tim and Dean) did a great job and provided for a great time. I'm really liking this game, I just wish there was a group that played it down here.

Edit - Here's the list I took:

• Easterling Captain (HW/Shield)
• Easterling Captain (HW/Shield)
• Easterling Captain (HW/Shield, Armored Horse)
• Easterling Warrior x14 (HW/Shield)
• Easterling Warrior x11 (Bow)
• Easterling Warrior x8 (Spear/Shield)
• Easterling Kataphrakts x10
  

The Results

I wound up placing 3rd overall, and took home 2nd place for Best General. I was really pleased with how I did. Anthony, whose Uruk-Hai I painted and whom I convinced to play this game in the first place a couple of months ago, came in second and won Best General.

1st Game

I played John Long and his Grey Company led by Aragorn. The mission was Reconnoiter, which requires you to get more models off your opponent's deployment zone than he can get off of yours. The cavalry on my right flank dealt with the detachment ahead. My right detachment dealt with what was in front of them. My middle detachment acted as free safeties who eventually slowed down Aragorn down when his body guard were shot down. I got one model off (a dismounted cavalry) and managed to break the Grey Company (at 50% of starting strength - triggered this particular scenario's end) before Aragorn could get off the board.

Result: Major Victory

Game 2

This game was Storm the Camp, which ends when you have more models than your opponent within 12" of your opponent's deployment corner. If you do this and are not broken, its a major victory. I played Mike's Uruk-Hai.

I sacrificed my infantry to go toe-to-toe with his block of Uruks. This took pressure off of my infantry who only had to deal with some crossbow uruks and a handful of swords- and pikemen. In what turned out to be the final turn of the game I managed to get one of my cavalry to charge one of his pikemen in his deployment zone. His pikemen was in his deployment zone by about 1/2 an inch. I charged in such a way that if I won the fight (regardless if I killed the model) I would push the Uruk out of the 12" zone. I won the fight and won the game. It was kind of a phyrric victory considering I killed about 6 models and he killed about 18.

Result: Major Victory

3rd Game

This last game of Saturday was against Eric Carlson's Haradrim. He had three Hasharim (crazy Assassins) and the Witch King on Fellbeast - Yikes! The mission was Meeting engagement, where you have to get your opponent to 25% of their starting size. I thought I would have this game pretty handily since I almost outnumbered him 2-1, and he has a bunch of Defense 4 dudes. What I didn't count on was his ability to roll 6's to kill my cavalry like a champ. Once I closed with him, I had 3 out of 11 cavalry left.

That evened the odds quite a bit. I broke his force first but no one ran. Next turn he broke me, and his Witchking throws out a -1 Courage aura, which forced plenty of my models to run. On our last turn enough of his models and enough of mine ran away that we were both reduced to 25% at the same time.

Result: Draw

Game 4

No pic for this one. It was over before it started. This was against Anthony and his Uruk-Hai. The mission was Treasure Hunt. There's a marker in the middle of the table. You have to get a model in base with it, and on a 4+ the model uncovers the treasure. To win you have to carry the treasure off the board.

This game was over in 22 minutes. My cavalry reached the marker in two turns, my Captain on horse picked it up right away. Although he had to dismount to dig it up, and lost his horse from then on. I then won priority the next two turns and moved all of my forces back, Anthony conceded at that point, because no matter what happened in the next two turns I would be able to get the treasure off the table, and he would be unable to break my force.

Result: Major Victory

Game 5

This game was against the "Ringer." Frank flew in from Tampa and is a major player on the LotR tournament circuit; he brought his Mordor force. The mission was Contest of Champions, where you nominate a character who has to kill more models than your opponent's character does.

It was a great game, and Frank used his placement in the terrain to draw me in to some unfavorable positions. As the battle lines finally met I felt pretty good about the standup fight that would ensue had my Captain not been killed, but alas... His Wringwraith more than earned his points transfixing my captain (basically nerfing his combat effectiveness - allowing him to be easily surrounded and cut down). My captain died without killing a single model, and as soon as Shagrat (his nominated character) killed one Easterling, that ended the game.

I asked for some advice after the game, and got some good tips about how to better use my archers (I've known that I haven't been using to their full effectiveness for quite a while), and being more patient with my cavalry captain in the scenario. All in all, I think I learned a lot from that game and am hopefully walking away a better player.

Seriously... consider giving Lord of the Rings a chance. I consider myself a pretty hardcore 40k and Fantasy gamer, and LotR is really worth getting into.

I need to get back to working on my guardsmen. I'm visiting my family in Albuquerque right now, so I've planned to get behind schedule. I brought some stuff with me to build at least. I'll post some pics of my officers who I built the other night, but still need to be painted.

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Uruk-Hai Project Almost Done

Well, this project is nearing completion; above is a shot of all the models in the army. I've put in a lot of time since I started this last Wednesday (06/04), and I'm pretty sick and tired of Uruk-Hai. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow I have 6 more Uruk swordsmen planned, and then all that will be left are the five extra crossbow Uruks, once Anthony gets the missing pieces to me.

I've been at home painting furiously painitng. What have I been doing while painting? Well, watching a lot of television and DVD's. Here's what's been keeping me entertained.

• Jericho (Season 1) - I just finished all 22 episodes yesterday, and I loved it. I can't wait to get my Season 2 DVD's in the mail
• Freaks and Geeks - I'd been planning to watch this for some time, I highly recommend this critically acclaimed show
• The Classic Romero Trilogy: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead - I had never seen any of these originals. I was very impressed with the first two, Day was a disappointment
• Dawn of the Dead (2007) - This was probably my 4th time watching this, what a great flick. I also re-watched all of the special features. There's a great news broadcast extra where the late Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin from Babylon 5) is the anchor, and Bruce Boxleitner provides the voice of the President.
• American Me - Great movie, directed by and starring Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama from the new Battlestar Galactica). Really good movie about gangs in East L.A.
  
• My Family, Mi Familia - This was also really good with Jimmy Smits and Edward James Olmos. It follows three generations of a Mexican-American family in East L.A. It reminded me a lot of stories of my family on my father's side.
  
• 8 Films to Die For: Mulberry St. - This was one of the yearly Horrorfest Selections. It includes both Rat Zombies and Zombie Rats... yes, there is a distinction. In some ways I was really impressed. There was a lot of character development and it was very well presented. The movie fell apart when the Zombies showed up - not a good sign for a zombie movie.
• 8 Films to Die For: The Deaths of Ian Stone - This was a great movie, I liked it a lot. It was kind of like a horror version of Quantum Leap. Well done, with great special effects.
• This weeks episode of Battlestar Galactica - I watched this twice already (in fact I've watched every episode of the season at least twice so far). It's some of the best sci-fi on television ever, and it's one of the best dramas on television... period. This was a great episode. I'm both excited and sad for the ending. 11 episodes to go!
• Today's Meet the Press - God, I love politics. This show comes on so ungodly early on Sunday's, good thing for Tivo. Great roundtable today discussing the wrap-up of the democratic campaign, and the outlook for the general election. It looks like this year is an open field, unlike the last 2 presidential elections, where it basically came down to one state.
  

I'm actually looking forward to going to my internship tomorrow, just to get out of the house.

I'll probably post some thoughts later this week on army painting - how to plan, how to stay motivated and stick the plan, and how to get the army finished. That's all for now.
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New Project: The Fighting Uruk-Hai

With my Easterlings temporarily on hold until I get the models I need, I've started working on a commission of Uruk-Hai for Anthony. Originally, the plan was to be done with the Uruk-Hai by the beginning of June, but life happens. Slated for the painting board is the following:

2 Uruk-Hai Captains
14 Uruk-Hai w/ Sword and Shield
16 Uruk-Hai w/ Pikes
11 Uruk-Hai w/ Crossbows
5 Uruk-Hai Berzerkers

Over the last two nights I finished the Captains, the Berzerkers and 7 of the Sword/Shield Uruks. All of them are done using the same basic steps.

Armor / Weapons / Shields:
Over a black base coat
Tin Bitz (Drybrush)
Boltgun (Drybrush - light coverage, except on the edges)
Mithril (Drybrush - edges only)

Flesh:
Dark Flesh
1:1 Dark Flesh:Tanned Flesh
Tanned Flesh

Loincloth / Straps:
Scorched Brown
Bestial Brown

Misc:
Teeth - Rotting Flesh
Painted "Hands" - Wattered down Skull White
Hair - Chaos Black; 1:1 Black:Codex Grey; Codex Grey

Uruks with Sword and Shield

Uruk Captains

These were done a little differently from the other Uruks. To denote that these two are Captains, I used Shining Gold on the armor at the step I would normally have used Boltgun. These are also the only non-Berzerkers to have the White Hand of Saruman painted on their helmets.

Berzerkers

Tomorrow, I'll get to work on 6 of the Crossbowmen (I'm currently missing arms for 5 of them). The plan is to have everything done (minus the 5 crossbowmen) by day's end Monday.
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Easterling Project Finished... Sort of

In the last week, I finished painting all of the Easterlings that I need among those models I already own. This includes 5 more archers, 5 Kataphrakts, 1 Standard Bearer, 2 Captains on foot and 1 Captain on Horse.



I didn't take pictures of the archers, since they're more of the same as the others I did before.

So what I have painted is:
16 Swordsmen
11 Archers
8 Spearmen
5 Kataphrakts
2 Captains on Foot
1 Captain on Armored Horse
1 Standard Bearer

I still need to paint a Captain on foot to represent my mounted captain in case his horse gets shot, another 4 swordsmen or so for dismounted Kataphrakts and another 5 Kataphrakts.

Unfortunately, I had some problems getting the models I needed from my shop down here in Tucson, so I'm hoping to get them from Imperial Outpost, brought to me by Anthony when he comes down.

So for now, I'm moving on. Next up are Anthony's Uruk-hai. I'm currently 9 days behind schedule in my summer painting plan, I hope to make up two of those days this week, we'll see.
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More Easterlings Finished (Bowmen and Swordsmen)

With school over for the year, I've begun putting more time in on my summer projects. The first project is my Lord of the Rings Easterlings, the majority of which I hope to have finished by the end of the weekend.

Tuesday night I finished 8 swordsmen, and just now I finished 6 Bowmen.



You can find steps on how I painted these here.

I still have the following left to do:
6x Bowmen
6x Kataphrakts
4x Spearmen
2x Captains on foot
1x Banner
12x Swordsmen

Well, just looking at this list, I'm not very optimistic I can get this all done this weekend, especially since I will be playing in a 40k tournament on Saturday. I'll more than likely need next week to complete these as well. Then I'll have to try and make up some time while working on Anthony's Uruk-Hai.
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New Project: Lord of the Rings - Easterlings

On July 5th and 6th, Adeptus Arizona will be hosting the first ever Lord of the Rings Indy GT (click here for more info) at Imperial Outpost Games in Phoenix, AZ. I decided to do the Easterlings, as I've wanted to do them when they first came out while I was working for GW years and years ago.

So, I have my new project: Easterlings.

I need to paint the following:

• 8 Spearmen (Done)
• 16 Sword and Shield
• 16 Bowmen
• 1 Banner Bearer
• 2 Captains on Foot
• 1 Captain on Horse
• 5 Kataphrakts
• 1 Khamul the Easterling

I won't need everything for the GT, but I want to have various options painted as a develop tactics and strategies for running the Easterlings.

I forgot how quick painting Lord of the Rings models can be compared to 40k or Fantasy. I was able to paint these 8 spearmen fairly quickly.

I based them with the Fine Slate and Medium Slate from the GW's Urban basing kit, to give the impression of the Easterlings marching through the ruins of some city of Gondor. I always base my models before I prime them, so that the priming can help seal the material. I also paint the texture of the base, before I paint the model. I use watered down Codex Grey, then drybrush with Fortress Gray and finally Skull White. I use the straw from GW's Hero Basing Kit.



Painting Steps:

Base Coat
1. Painted the cloth with Scab Red (I could be messy at this step).
2. Painted armor with Shining Gold
3. Painted the square on the shield, the belt and the boots with Bestial Brown
4. Washed everything with 3:2 Flesh Wash:Water

Cloth
1. Highlight with Red Gore
2. Final highlight with Red Gore/Bleached Bone

Armor
1. Drybrush with Shining Gold
2. Drybrush with Mithril Silver
3. Square on the shield is highlighted with Bestial Brown

Black Cloth / Spear Shaft
1. Touched up with Chaos Black
2. Highlight with Vallejo German Grey
3. Highlight with Vallejo Dark Grey

Spear Tip
1. Boltgun Metal
2. Chaos Black Wash
3. Highlight with Mithril Silver
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Headless Easterlings - First Games of The Lord of the Rings

Earlier this weekend I played my first three games of The Lord of the Rings. I arrived at Imperial Outpost Games (in Phoenix) about two hours later than I had planned. I quickly put together enough models to play games of around 400 points. I didn't bother with heads, which is why I currently have an army of headless Easterlings. About every third person would make some comment how my Easterlings shouldn't be at some disadvantage, since they couldn't see without a head. Very "clever"... I would just sigh and roll my eyes at their "cleverness" (you people know who you are).

Game 1:
My first game was against Anthony's High Elves. I made a mistake and tried to sit back and exchange missile fire with his elves. Standard human bowfire has nothing on the Elves, who are the best in the game when it comes to bows. After several turns of losing 3:1 men to elves, I decided to move on his position. I managed to outflank him with Khamul the Easterling on warhorse on one flank and my Kataphraks on the other. Things were going well until I lost Khamul (I've been warned that he's really tricky to get a handle on). Soon my force broke, and eventually I lost.

Lessons learned: Khamul requires more finesse; spears would have been really helpful (for both sides).

Game 2:
Next day I played Dusty's Haradrim. We played Storm the Camp, where you have to capture the enemy deployment zone while protecting your own. I split my force in three: 1) Cavalry 2) Swordmen/Spearmen 3) Swordsmen/Bowmen. The Cavalry tried to advance on a flank. Group 2 went up the middle and Group 3 watched the camp. I didn't use Khamul this game, and opted for a cheap Captain. Long story, short: my cavalry got decimated by a phalanx of spearmen, and Group 2 got overwhelmed by Haradrim. I was broken, and lost.

Lessons learned: Cavalry require more finesse, and should not necessarily charge into a phalanx of spear men; my particular cavalry don't pack a lot of punch, and are better suited in a support role for the infantry; a combined arms approach to the formations works better than keeping all the archers together (unless you plan on volley firing); elements of the force need to be in positions to support one another.

Game 3:
Dusty and I upped the point value to 450, and I threw Khamul back in. Dusty added some Warg Riders as allies. We played Kill the King, where you have to kill the enemy general. For deployment, I created three lines of troops. A line consisted of swordsmen in the front, supported by a couple of spears, with a couple of bowmen, able to fire over their shoulders. I Had one line down the center, with the others on either side. I used terrain to anchor my flanks. My cavalry was in the back, with Khamul.

I spent the first several turns advancing at half speed, so my archers could get some shots off. I also took Khamul down one flank, and my cavalry down the other, trying to draw his warg riders to the flank. When they came after me, I ran them back behind my lines, ready to support the lines against any breakthroughs. My left line and Khamul dispatched with his mounted Haradrim Raiders, while my right line dealt with the warg riders, support by my cavalry. My middle line dealt with a phalanx of pikemen, which I had whittled down with my very deadly bow fire. Eventually I broke him, and after a while I caused his General to run (using Khamul's -1 Courage Area of Effect).

Lessons learned: I used Khamul more effectively, but he is still difficult to use efficiently; the combined arms approach does seem to work; when you have numerical superiority, do your best to try to "trap" enemy models to get extra swings at them (Dusty was gracious enough to keep reminding me of that tactic, when I failed to employ it).

I really enjoyed the system. It is a very simple and elegant system. What I really like about it, is that artificial tactical bonuses are minimized. Tactical advantages are conveyed through maneuvering, positioning, fighting the enemy with the right type of unit, and supporting your units. The priority system is really interested. It dispenses with the YouGoIGo system, and gives the game a more dynamic and fluid feel. I'm very excited to get some more games in, and to paint my headless Easterlings.
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