From ship to shore

My plans to build Osgiliath have altered slightly. Osgiliath will now be incorporated into a more ambitious project - a modular city. A city that includes intact and ruined Osgiliath, an imperial sector, and a harbour/dock section. My intention is to use this project as a battlefield source for a variety of games. Warmachine/Hordes, Warhammer, 40K, Necromunda, and Lord of the Rings/War of the Ring.

I've looked at starting this project several times since I got some tiles cut for it (63 so far), but had no clear idea of where to start. After providing a friend with the materials to build the Worldworks kit Maiden of the High Seas, and having visions of Necromunda Gangers running riot below decks I had the starting point. Sea tiles, and the dock for the maiden. Of course this also works well for Warmachine, with either Cryx or pirates raiding a port.

All tiles are 1 foot square for this undertaking, and I began with 8 of them. 4 were painted with a blue poster paint that I've used for water before, as it tends to run to slightly different shades of blue depending on the thickness brushed on. I deepened the blue by adding a wash of Tamiya Smoke (X19).

The other 4, I didn't give a full coat, but left 1 edge unpainted. These tiles will form the dock frontage. To build up the dock I trimmed popsicle sticks for planks and glued them in place. I still need to add an edge to the dock, which will probably be made from balsa, and sit slightly higher than the planks. And of course I still have to come up with something for bollards

For those who are interested, I'll add a link for Worldworks in the side bar.

War of the Ring

I recently bought GW's War of the Ring rulebook, and after reading through it I think it makes a better game than the strategy game. Of course, I don't need to buy much to get a reasonable army ( or two) together. In fact, for the time being I don't need to buy any new figures for this.

After sorting my LOTR figures I've decided to focus on two armies, with possible allies for each (up to 25% of the an army's points may be spent on allies). Continuing my theme from TAGCon 2009, I'm going to make an Isengard army, with Haradrim allies (no Mumak). And after a thorough check over of my forces of good, I'm building a Rohirrim army with Gondor and Elf allies.

Since Saturday I've put in a few hours on the first two formations of Rohirrim I'm building. These are both common formations, from the same sprues. Oathsworn militia, which come in two types - archers, and infantry. After about six hours of work on the 30 something miniatures I have available, They now stand at weapons and armour completed, along with the clothing. In all, 10 coats of paint across the various parts of the minis. I'm happy with the progress so far, but they still have a long way to go to be completed.

Finally back to this

It's been a while.
In the time between this post and the last I have ventured into TAGCon with my uruk-hai.

My best result in that was a draw (due to time) trying to break into Helm's Deep. Despite all the losses I still walked out with two prizes from the LoTR tournament - Sportsmanship, and (big surprise to me) Painting.

Both prizes were $20 gift certificates from Comics Compulsion in Christchurch, and I spent them recently, expanding my Menoth army by a Reckoner, a Devout, and Amon Ad-Raza.

Just over a week ago I started a new terrain project, which can be applied to most of my heroic 28mm armies. From the LoTR magazines I am building Osgiliath, with a mix of ruins and intact buildings. The way I see this, it serves as - Osgiliath for LoTR and the War of the Ring (if I decide to get into that), - 40K as a ruined Imperial City, - Fantasy as a ruined city (if I continue my VC army and fantasy becomes a game at TAG, and finally - Necromunda, as part of my own campaign setting (Cutters Canyon)

Steady Progress

My Uruk's are coming along nicely, and should be ready by TAGcon. Scouts are finished, most of the Uruk infantry also. The Crossbows have had their first coat of paint, and the last of the Wargs and riders are based and ready to begin. I just have one more figure to make - a Warg Rider standard bearer.
My LoTR terrain hasn't moved much in the last couple of weeks, but I will get back to that after the minis are painted.

Uruk forces are growing

After a slack month, where I've just been touching up the already painted Isengard forces I have I've finally begun to paint the other pieces I own. After my first game of LoTR I came to the conclusion that what my Uruks really need are more ranged weapons.
One trip to toyworld later, and just getting in before they sent their order to GW, I was waiting for 3 packs of uruks with crossbows. Two weeks later, and the order arrives from GW australia, with everything but my uruks. Another two weeks, and my uruks are now at toyworld, waiting for me to pay for them.
In the meantime, I went browsing though trademe, looking at LoTR auctions, and found a load of Uruk scouts going cheap. $26.50 inc. postage, and I have 38 scouts in my possession. Hmmmm, crossbows and bows with my uruks?, and uruks hit on a 4+ instead of the 5+ of normal orcs? Might just have to stand back, and see if my ranged attacks can take those pesky Elves, Men and Dwarves down before committing my melee troops to action.
Of course, half the scouts were already painted, which means I need to get them stripped down to restart the painting, and have them match the rest of my uruks. They've been sitting in simple green for just over a day, and I've tested one them with an old toothbrush. Some of the paint is coming off, but not all, so I'll leave them for another day and revisit them. If that doesn't work, I'll leave them over the weekend, and take them out on monday.
I'm also planning on providing terrain for three or four tables at TAGcon, and currently have enough for two, with two more being worked on. I dug out the Mines of Moria terrain I started along time ago, and began to rework that, adding more workings, and raised mounds.
And just to prove that my insanity streak is growing, I began working on a Weathertop terrain piece, which, when it's finished, will be almost enough to be a 4*4 table in itself.

I'm back

It's been over a month since I posted anything, due to various things, mostly work taking up my time.
Anyway, at Timaru Armchair Generals we announced our tournament date at the start of april, and listed what games we are planning on running. The competitions planned are :- WH40k, Warmachine, LOTR, and Bloodbowl. It's taken me most of the time since then to decide what i wanted to play, finally settling on LOTR.
I've decided it's to be LOTR because - 1. I can't be bothered learning to play 40k again (5th edition), 2. The chances of my Menoth army being ready lie somewhere between slim and no chance, and 3. I had enough of bloodbowl many years ago, and I don't like some of the changes to rules as they now stand.
At least with LOTR I have about half of my minis painted, and the scheme for the army I'm planning on fielding is reasonably straightforward to paint. I have very little experience playing, but the rules are simple , and it shouldn't take long to pick up, (even if my tactical skill doesn't). And the best thing is, it gives me the motivation I've been lacking to get back to painting. So expect a few articles on LOTR, and Isengard forces over the next couple of months.
Another note on tournaments came up last night at the club. Owen (Payne), has decided to run a Warmachine Battlebox tournament in January. Very simple in idea. No need to build a big army to x points, all you need is a starter box for any particular army. And the prize? a battlebox.

Update

I've been quiet for the last couple of weeks, as I haven't really got too much done with my backlog lately. Fortunately that changed today, when I finally finished my Haradrim Raiders, for LoTR. I don't play LoTR yet, but I did collect the magazine set, and am currently working through them, in addition to everything else I still have to paint.

One of the players at my local wargaming club(Timaru Armchair Generals) does play, and at some pointI'll ask him for a demo. After reading the magazines, I found that the aspect that interested me most was the warband style of play, where you have a small force, and can advance your troops so they become stronger, sort of Necromunda for Middle Earth.

On another subject, my mind started wandering to Battletech a couple of days ago. I'm not sure what prompted this, but it may have had something to do with my game of Epic Armageddon acouple of weeks ago, and the idea of using Titans. Anyway, I hunted up Battletech on the net, and found that classic Battletech, which I have, is now owned by a company called Catalyst Game Lab, and they have a number of downloads available for those who want to get started, but don't own a copy of Battletech. They can be found at this address on the net - http://www.classicbattletech.com/