LoTR: Eastering Warriors (HW/S x8-1)

[caption id="attachment_422" align="alignleft" width="58" caption="Fallen Realms"][/caption]

With having like the way my sample model came out for the Easterling Warriors, I moved on yesterday to complete the remaining 7 models to finish up the first company.  I have roughly about 100 models I need to paint up in Easterlings, 55 of those will be needed for my 600 point LoTR army.  I decided that I will be painting them up in blocks of 8 for two reasons.  One, 8 is a good number to quickly get them done (not too many to handle, and not too few).  Second, in WoTR, Companies are in models of 8.  So by finishing 8 at a time, I will be finishing 1 Company at a time for WoTR.

I decided to start with the Easterling Warriors with Hand weapon/Shield, I will then paint the next 8 with Spear/Shield.  When these 16 models are done, list "B" for Gathering in the Desert will also be completed.  Again my goal is to have list "C" completed which is all 55 models.

Here are the first of my Easterling Warriors completed.

[caption id="attachment_455" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Easterling Warriors: Hand weapon/Shield"][/caption]

Painting Points: 8

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LoTR: Easterling Warrior Sample

[caption id="attachment_422" align="alignleft" width="58" caption="Fallen Realms"][/caption]

Now that my Morannon Orcs are done, it was time to move on to painting a new army for Gathering in the Desert 2011.  I decided I wanted go with an Easterling army.  I had purchased 2 of the army boxes a few years ago at Games Day, it was time to finally start painting them.  At the same time I am also working on my WotR army "Fallen Realms".  The nice thing about LoTR SBG models is, it can be used for two games.  As I mentioned the other day, this army is what I am shooting for to complete.  I also have a two backup lists I can go with if this army does not get completed in time.

With the Easterlings, I've been debateing if I am going to wash the models with Games Workshop wash, or dip the models with Min-wax.  The Orcs I wanted to look "dirty" so I went with the "dip" method.  This army I was unsure about, so I painted a test model.  For the test model, I decided to go with the GW wash "Devlan Mud" (they use this wash as an example in the WoTR rulebook).  After I applied the wash, I went back over the model with some "Chainmail" highlights over the "Gold".  The benefit of using the wash over the dip is, I do not have to wait 24 hours to finish up the model.  The wash dries much quicker and I can move onto finishing the bases then.  I was quite happy on the sample model, that I decided that I will finish the army using the washes.

Below is my test model I used.  Obviously the base is not done yet, nor has the matte spray been applied.

[caption id="attachment_445" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Easterling Warrior"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_446" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Easterling Warrior"][/caption]

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LoTR: Morannon Orcs

[caption id="attachment_407" align="alignleft" width="50" caption="Mordor"][/caption]

More, More, Morannon Orcs.  This past weekend I was able to finish up the remaining 12 Morannon Orcs.  With the Orcs done, my list "C" for Gathering in the Desert 2011 is now complete.  List "C" is my fail safe army just in case my other two choices do not get completed in time.  List "A" has 54 models I need to paint up.  List "B" has 17 models I still need to paint.  I'm shooting for list "A" which will be a new army for me.  Hopefully they will get completed in time.  I did manage to paint up a test model for list "A" and so far I am happy with the results.  I still have the wash/dip to apply to the model, but I'll wait on that step for now.

Anyways, here's  a picture of the 12 Morannon Orcs I completed.

[caption id="attachment_440" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Morannon Orcs"][/caption]

Painting Points: 12

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LoTR: Khamul

[caption id="attachment_422" align="alignleft" width="58" caption="Fallen Realms"][/caption]

Friday night I decided to add another model to my LotR collection. 'Khamul'.  Since my son and I are going to be playing a little bit more of WotR and LotR, I choose to go with The Fallen Realms for my WotR force.  I already had 2 army boxes of the "Eastern Invaders" (the Easterlings) some Harad and Corsair models and I thought the Fallen Realms would be a good start for me.

Last week we had also picked up the new Battlehosts Expansion for WotR and I choose to build my army around 'Khamul's Easterlings'.  After reading what is required for the Battlehost I already had all the models minus Khamul.  We already have 5 Ringwraiths and I could have used one of them as Khamul, but I decided to actually purchase the model since my local store had him in stock.

Purchased Khamul Friday night, had him primed and painted yesterday.  Boy I love painting the easy models.

[caption id="attachment_423" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Khamul"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_424" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Khamul"][/caption]

Painting Points: 1

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LoTR: Morannon Orcs & Sauron

[caption id="attachment_407" align="alignleft" width="50" caption="Mordor"][/caption]

Well yesterday I was able to complete the remaining 6 Morannon Orcs with HW/Shield.  Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of them, I played a game of LotR last night and had to use these Orcs in my list.  I still have 12 more Morannon Orcs with Spear/Shield to complete and these will be done.

I also was able to quickly paint up Sauron.  I wanted to actually try him out for awhile......  he was well worth it......  (Battle Report to come later).

[caption id="attachment_410" align="aligncenter" width="229" caption="Sauron"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_411" align="aligncenter" width="223" caption="Sauron"][/caption]

Painting Points: 8

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LoTR: Morannon Orcs

[caption id="attachment_407" align="alignleft" width="50" caption="Mordor"][/caption]

As mentioned earlier today in my "Daily Chronicle" I decided to break out some of my Lord of the Rings models and start painting these.  For some reason this past week I had the urge to re-open my War of the Ring rulebook.  I only played 1 or 2 demo games early on, but I think I may give it another shot for some fun/friendly games.

When War of the Ring first came out last year I purchased a box of Morannon Orcs, got them assembled and played the 'Quick Start Rules' for WotR with them.  Since then they have been sitting in the box.  Well the other day I broke the box open and got the models primed.  There are 24 models in the box (LotR is still the best value of all the Games Workshop games) and I decided to start on 6 of them to get a feel for the color scheme.  These guys were painted really really fast.  They are Orcs and I wanted to keep them looking dirty.

Here are the first 6 Morannon Orcs:

[caption id="attachment_404" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Morannon Orcs"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_405" align="aligncenter" width="285" caption="Morannon Orcs"][/caption]

Our vacation starts this weekend, so I'm not sure how many more will be done beforehand.  I'm hoping to get at least another 6 painted before we leave.  Then when we get back, we'll play-test WotR again.

Painting Points: 6

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WotR: Quick Start Game

So yesterday my son and I headed to the Chicago Battle Bunker with models in tow to try out the new Quick Start Rules and sample Scenario for War of the Ring.

We played the following armies based on the Scenario that was given.

Gondor:

2 companies of Minas Tirith Warriors

1 company of Minas Tirith Archers

3 companies of Minas Tirith Knights

3 companies of Rangers of Gondor

Mordor:

3 companies of Morannon Orc Warband (with shields)

3 companies of Warg Riders

2 companies of Orc Warriors (with shields)

1 Mordor Troll

I played the Evil Force, while my son played the Good Force.

Deployment:

Victory Condition:

To win this scenario, the forces of Evil need to get

at least a quarter of their companies off the board

via the eastern board edge, whereas Good need to

destroy enough of the Evil force to prevent this.

Note that monsters, such as the Mordor Troll, are a

single company.

The Good Forces ended up defeating the Evil Forces as I was not able to get any one off the table edge.

WotR seems like a fun game, but I did not care too much for the QSR. It does not include a lot of charts for Shooting and Charging which I think could have possibly changed the game.

I also do not think WotR is for these type of scenarios. I can see myself playing WotR with more of a Pitched Battle type of game.

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