Tweaking Lion Rampant Again

Over the weekend I played a little game of Lion Rampant with my son (his Father's Day gift to me, along with a cooked breakfast and an amusing card!). I set up a game in Middle Earth, pitching Rohan against invading orcs. My good forces are not huge, I have just 24 infantry and 8 cavalry available. Lion Rampant units are generally 12 infantry and 6 cavalry, so it could have been a very short game with just 3 units. I suppose I could have played half strength units, but instead I decided to tweak the unit sizes to two thirds. Now I had 2 units of four cavalry and 3 units of eight infantry, perfect for a small battle.

I also tweaked the mechanics a little, reducing the dice rolled from the usual 12 per unit to just 8 per unit (two thirds of course). This would mean less hits per combat, but with smaller units I was hoping it would even out. There were no units with an armour value of 4 so I figured it should all work out.

The game rattled along at a fine pace - the orcs stormed into the village and burnt down two of the three objectives, but then were unable to push back a shiltron defending the final prize. Arrow casualties and cavalry charges whittled away the orc numbers and a final desperate challenge by the Rohirrim saw the orc commander face down in the dirt. I didn't take any photos so a stock art picture will have to suffice.

The tweaks worked a treat. The combats and courage tests seemed to play out as they would in a typical full size game. The game mechanics were picked up quickly and we were able to concentrate on the action, not the rules. We did notice that the profiles in the standard game are possibly not well suited to a fantasy environment. With the exception of fierce foot, infantry are better in defence, which is not really what orcs are about. My son reckoned that it's far more random than other games he has played, which is a fair comment. We also noted the lack of differentiation between the two factions, something that Saga battleboards do better. The abstraction of Lion Rampant, while it certainly makes gameplay very fast and simple, comes with the price of all factions resembling each other. If we were to play again, I would make further tweaks to the profiles, to allow more aggresive infantry for the orcs. A really interesting experiment would be to pitch a modified Lion Rampant against home-brewed Saga battleboards, the battle of the tweaks! Tweaking Lion Rampant Again

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Rohan reinforcements

Eight Rohan infantry added to my small force. That brings them up to 24 infantry (8 with bows) and 8 cavalry, not a huge army by any means, but enough for small skirmish games. I was wondering about playing Lion Rampant, but rather than half strength units as some seem to suggest, go for two-thirds. This would mean units of eight infantry and four cavalry, giving me five units to put on the tabletop, about the average number for a Lion Rampant force. I wonder if anybody has tried it? Rohan reinforcements

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Warg Riders

Lion Rampant formation

I finally finished painting the warg riders. There's eight in total, though as they are mostly metal only six are unique. That's fine for Lion Rampant, when playing Saga there will be a couple of duplicates. I must dig out (or invent) a battle board and get some games with them.

When it came to the palette, I was struck by how much the beasts looked like hyenas rather than wolves. A quick google and I was sold on the pale brown fur. The muzzles are grey for a little contrast. The riders are pretty drab, to match in with my Mordor and Isengard collection. Another unit crossed off my painting list, a satisfying feeling. I have quite a large force of orcs now, so I need to switch my efforts to the good guys for a while - either paint more Rohan or Dwarfs.

Saga formation

Warg Riders

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Warg Riders, in a field

A quick snap of the very early stages of my next unit, eight warg riders for my Isengard/Mordor contingent. I picked up ten of the old metals on ebay as a joblot, but decided that eight was enough for a game of Saga (with six being sufficient for a Lion Rampant game). I had to strip some of them of paint and also had to greenstuff over some really bad joins. I removed them from the round plastic bases and have them mounted on mdf (from good old warbases of course). The next step is to add a bit of sand and then prime and paint them.

Hastings five-a-side squad out for a training session

I have also been quickly making some grassy fields, from a piece of teddy fur painted with green and yellow acrylic paint. I used a standard decorating brush, with really stiff bristles. This had the double benefit of simultaneously applying colour and brushing out the fluffy bits in the fur. When dried I cut it up into three large fields. Surrounded by fences and hedges it looks reasonably like a field of grass. My next terrain project will have to be some quick and easy hedges to surround these and the older "just planted" fields I made a while back. Warg Riders, in a field

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Dwarfs on the March

I am about to return to painting dwarfs. I have a small commission job which I will be starting soon, plus a selection of the bearded warriors to add to my own collection. I already have a sizeable Warhammer dwarf army which I may return to one day, but not yet. Instead, I will be expanding on my Lord of the Rings force. The first unit I painted was some Dwarf Rangers, about six months ago. I want to expand on this start with more warriors, command groups, maybe a war machine. I have also splashed out on a couple of the boxsets from The Hobbit range - funded by selling off my old Battle of Five Armies stock. I'm not really sure what games I will play with all these bearded folk, but that's not really the point for me, it's mostly about the painting. Having said that, there are plenty of dice rolling opportunities around - Lord of the Rings strategy game to start with, maybe War of the Ring as the force grows. There's also potential to mod other game systems, such as Saga, maybe even Lion Rampant.

To get myself in the mood I have been searching around for inspiring artwork and colour schemes. I came across this amazing paint job, on the Sergey Popovichenko blog. It's mostly historical figures of a larger scale, but they are absolutely incredible. Go take a look. I'm not even sure if the figure is a dwarf or maybe a viking, it's a fierce looking bearded warrior and that's good enough for me.

For a long time I preferred the more stylised Warhammer range, but these days I much prefer the more true to life figures of the Lord of the Rings series. I know dwarfs are mythical, obviously I refer to the more realistic proportions and the "historical" aesthetic. The figures are slightly smaller scale than Warhammer and the level of detail is sometimes lacking a little, but I reckon it's still possible to get a good looking force on the tabletop. And that's what I will be doing with the dwarfs in the next few weeks. I am hoping to tie in my new units with the exisiting Rangers, so there may well be more opportunities to practise my tartan painting.

I will also be revisiting another of my Warhammer armies, all part of my participation in the Lead Painters League on the Lead Adventure Forum, but more on that in future posts. Dwarfs on the March

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Radagast the Brown x2

I am struggling to get motivated to paint at the moment, so I have decided to look through my collection at some older paint jobs. This is the first version of Radagast the Brown, released in miniature form only. There was no appearance in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, though there is a fleeting mention in the book when Saruman describes him as a fool. In this version, he's sculpted as a fairly classic hedge wizard/druid/man of the woods. There's also a passing resemblance to Gandalf. I reckon the sculptors were obviously knowledgeable of the book lore, I'm pretty sure it's stated somewhere that they all look alike.

I cannot actually remember when I painted it, must have been at least five years ago. It was obviously part of my "rock period", when all my figures were mounted on a rocky outcrop made from the cork of a wine bottle.

The latest version of the sculpt, from the Hobbit film trilogy, pays much more attention to the fool reference. I quite like the sculpt, though I was less keen with the film version. I actually painted this as a xmas present for my wife last year, she has a thing about hedgehogs so it's one of her favourite sculpts.

The woodland setting is a simple backdrop made from a wooden box, a few twigs and a painted background. I got the idea from the rather wonderful Gardens of Hecate blog, one of the most interesting and inspiring in the blogosphere if you ask me. I should really have an inscription in the left hand side, maybe I could add one this xmas.

Radagast the Brown x2

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More thoughts on War of the Ring

I have posted recently on my impressions of the War of the Ring battle game. In my first post I talked about the overall flow and ease of the game, in the second post I pondered the addition of characters and magic. In summary, the game is quick and easy to play - the rules are simple and there's just one chart in the whole book. Crucially, the game interleaves all phases, so players are involved far more, there's very little downtime. The rules scale up to big battles too - this photo is a game we played at the weekend, pooling all our figures into one mighty conflict. There are around 50 companies on each side in this game, a company is either 8 infantry or 2 cavalry models. It's probably the biggest game I have ever played in, not a bad achievement for four nerds in a basement!

Of course, not everything is perfect. The game does have a few flaws, at least in my eyes. Combat resolution is an example. When combat is completed, the winner is determined purely by number of casualties. There are no other modifiers to this result. The loser rolls a single die - a 1 can lead to the unit being removed, a 2-5 can result in extra casualties and the unit is disordered, while a 6 means the unit fights on with no ill effects. There is no account taken of the margin of victory in this roll either, whether you lose by 1 casualty or 21 casualties, the roll is always the same. The net result is that invariably the loser sticks around for another round of combat, until he is wiped out. Opposing forces tend to meet in combat, fight for two or three rounds, until one grinds the other into the dirt. There's no fleeing and pursuing as per Warhammer. While this solves many rules problems (fleeing units seem to cause so many rules problems), it does feel a bit static and in need of some modification.

The other area of concern I have is morale. There are no rules for morale in the game. There's no panic tests, no psychology, the only concession is that when the final company of a formation falls to half strength, it is removed from the board. In a big game like the one we played, with formations of 6 or 9 companies, this can seem a bit unrealistic. There are terror causing beasts in the game (trolls, ents, etc) but a failed terror test merely results in the unit losing fighting capacity. Psychology/battle fatigue are not really represented in the game as it stands.

Overall, I like the game. The phases order and movement rules are particularly good, combat is easy to understand and resolve, while magic and heroes can subtly alter the dynamic. With a few tweaks to combat resolution and some kind of psychology rules, it would be an even better game. More thoughts on War of the Ring

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Another game of War of the Ring

It's been a few weeks, but I finally managed to get another game of WotR. This is my third attempt, I have read through the rules a couple of times and gaming buddy Matt has played a few extra games. Between us, we just about know the basic mechanics now. The rules are pretty simple and well laid out, so it's a good mass battle system to play if you like to spend your time moving units and rolling dice rather than poring through a rules book. It could easily be adapted to historical games if you skip the magic and tone down the heroic abilities. These are the two areas I am now trying to get my head round.

Heroes are split into two types - the generic unit leaders like captains of Gondor, and the individuals such as Boromir, Lurtz, Gandalf et al. They give a unit of troops a bonus in combat and a little courage boost, ensuring they stick around in combat for longer. All heroes have might points which they can use to modify dice rolls at a crucial point. The lesser heroes typically have just one or two might points to spend in this way. Greater (or so called epic) heroes have variable numbers of might points to spend, for example Saruman has three, while Boromir has six. Epic heroes also have more special rules available to them, more actions they can perform and greater boosts they can make, often to multiple units rather than just the one they accompany. Getting the best out of them is probably one of the key parts of playing the game, but I am still at an early learning stage for this aspect of the game.

Magic is simpler, though this player seems to be taking an age to decide which spell to cast! Wizards have a mastery level, 1 to 3, which determines how many spells they can attempt to cast in a turn (at the end of the movement phase). They have access to all spells in their lore, and some know spells from two lores. The spell is cast automatically, a single dice is rolled to determine the effect, with a roll of 1 being no effect, 2-5 average, 6 better. Once the spell is resolved, the caster can then try another if his mastery level allows it. To do this he must maintain his focus by rolling greater or equal than the focus level of the spell previously cast. The spells are subtle rather than spectacular, giving courage boosts or penalties, small bonuses in combat, shooting or such like. I played as Saruman and had a couple of turns casting three spells, but killed only a handful of Gondorians, though I did manage to shatter the shields of one unit, which would have been handy if I could have followed it up with a charge into them. As with the heroes special abilities, I suspect that getting the best out of the magic is to properly synergise with the troops on the field. More practise required I think. Another game of War of the Ring

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A fistful of uruk hai

Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy?

In preparation for an upcoming large War of the Ring battle, I have been painting a few uruk hai. These five are to be added to my existing three to make a unit big enough for the game. I realise the central figure has far too many clothes to be a berserker, but he does wield a decapitated head, so it's close enough. Note the white hand markings and the war paint, just to break up the large areas of flesh.

We're all the same inside

As you can see from this photo, the skin of the original three is a little lighter than the new additions. I didn't write down my original paint recipe, they were quite bright orange to start with, so I have glazed them with with chestnut and black to make them more equal. They are not exactly the same, but I reckon Saruman is an equal opportunities employer and won't be too upset.

Of course I'm in charge, I have the biggest hat and pointiest finger

I also painted up this ballista, which I was lucky enough to pick up quite cheaply in an ebay job lot. It's missing a couple of bits and a crew member, but a little improvisation with a plastic figure did the trick. I think I overdid the rust and toned it down with some purple glazing. In truth, it's a bit rushed, but certainly serviceable for tabletop gaming.

The main "engineer" is a nice sculpt, I will probably use him as a character in games when the ballista is not in action. The same goes for the clothed berseker, so the rapid painting session has yielded two characters to add to my uruk hai collection.

A fistful of uruk hai

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The Tolkien Trail

No, it's not another feeble advertising campaign from the New Zealand Tourism Board, this is the real thing. On a recent trip to Birmingham I picked up this leaflet. Tolkien spent the early years of his life in and around Birmingham and it may be that some of it ended up in Middle Earth, as this selection of photos shows.

It's quite common for a trip to trigger an idea. A few years ago I took a trip to Glasgow and saw a painting that sparked an idea for a wood elf army. More recently a trip to the coast triggered a desire to revisit my high elves. The trip to the real Middle Earth, you might think, would surely inspire me to paint some Lord of the Rings figures. The truth is, I already have a sizeable collection awaiting paint, and don't really need to be inspired. I just need more hours in every day. More painting coming in the next few days I hope.

  

The Tolkien Trail

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War of the Ring first impressions

It's been a long time coming, but I have finally played my first couple of games of War of the Ring. For a decent overview of the game, have a look at this article on BOLS. For a very detailed look at the rules, check out this article on RPGnet. As both reviews noted, the game plays like a hybrid of Warmaster and Warhammer. The rules are quite streamlined and quick to play, with just one table to memorise - ideal for the more mature gamer!

Everything you need is in just one book. The rules, army lists, modelling section and scenarios, all in one big blue book, which is no longer in print but can be picked up on ebay for around £10, quite a steal for a hardback book containing more than 300 pages of the usual GW quality content.

Here's  a shot of the first game, as you can see we are still working on the movement trays, but it gives a good idea of the look and feel of a typical game. Note the orcs on the right moving up in a column formation, when they charge they can fan out into a wider formation to maximise attack potential.

The game is played in turns, split into movement, shooting, charging and combat, but in an alternating sequence. Players roll at the start of the turn for initiative, then player1 moves his troops, then player2 moves his troops, then player1 shoots, then player2 shoots and so on. I prefer this system, there's far less down time waiting for your opponent to complete all phases. It makes the game feel more engaging, you only have to wait a couple of minutes before you are called on to do something.

Movement is a straight forward affair. All units have a move allowance measured in inches, formations are free to move in any way as long as the companies do not exceed the move allowed. So a formation could turn, or move into a column, or widen it's frontage, or just plain old move forward. Terrain and enemy proximity halve the movement distance. That's basically it, the rules for moving are covered in just four pages. It's neat and quick without loads of measuring and fiddling that some systems insist upon.

Charging is performed in a similar way. Pre-measuring is allowed, then there's a dice roll with an amount (dependent on unit type) added  to see if the charge reaches the enemy. If it does not, the charger simply remains where he started. If successful, the companies move up and fan out, not necessarily remaining in the same formation they started in. I find this to be quite realistic and satisfying, compared to the rigid charges of other systems.

One Chart to Rule Them All

Shooting and combat are very similar, both use the same mechanics. The attacker first calculates how many dice he will use, better fighters/shooters get more dice and there are other bonuses for things like charging, or penalties applied if attacked in the flank or rear. Once the number of dice is known, the player then looks up on a single chart the score required. For each success, a casualty is caused. Thus, both shooting and combat resolution is performed in just one dice roll - considerably speeding up the game. There's no roll to hit, roll to wound, roll armour save, roll parry save - it's all performed quickly and neatly in just one roll. Casualties from shooting might cause a formation to be pushed back. Casualties in combat might see the unit take even more casualties, or become disordered, or resolutely dig in and refuse to give ground.

At the basic level the game plays smoothly and quickly. The rules are simple and logical for the most part, though the shooting stat is an oddity. For some reason a higher shooting stat means poorer shooting - probably this was the old "to hit" value in the skirmish game. There's also very little in the way of morale. There's no panic when nearby units are butchered, or for other unsettling events. But for the most part, the basic rules give a very reasonable and satisfying wargaming experience.

Characters and magic add greater levels of complexity and strategic choices, but I need a few more games before I can properly comment on this part of the game. It's a bit like moving from draughts to chess, there are far more possibilities and combinations to ponder, so I will come back to this in a future post. So far, with a grand total of two games under my belt, I am really enjoying it and looking forward to delving deeper into Middle Earth. Who knows what will be awakened? War of the Ring first impressions

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Dwarf Rangers

The first set of dwarfs from my Lord of the Rings collection, ready for tabletop action. These are fine figures for the most part, I like the aesthetic probably more than their Warhammer cousins, though being one piece plastics there is the element of duplication and sometimes the details merge into one. But all in all, I would rank these highly in my collection. The photos below show them arranged in eights, as per the War of the Ring rules, though I am hoping to use them in Saga and other skirmish rulesets too.

The colour scheme came about in two ways. Firstly, they were sprayed brown and washed, I wanted to speed through the leather bits without too much actual painting. The kilts were a bit of whim on my part after a visit to Scotland, I had a hankering to paint up some tartan! I'm sure it will not be to all tastes, but I like them. With those two elements in place the rest of the palette just slotted into place.

I drew up a full set of step by step instructions on the painting, it will be useful to me in the future if nobody else. They can be found here - Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4.

These rangers are just the first wave of my dwarf force. I have more armoured warriors waiting to be prepped and painted, maybe even in the next few weeks. Dwarf Rangers

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Speedy Dwarfs Done

In the final straight now, the dwarfs are nearing completion. These last two stages should have the dwarfs sprinting over the completion line, in the way only dwarfs can sprint.

Faces and flowers

The flesh gets a wash of diluted coat d'arms Super Wash Light Brown. Once it's dry I will add a bit more in the eyes and mouth if necessary. The heather flowers are just stippled on to the dried flock bushes, using a magenta colour for the base and then a little pink added for the highlight. I also painted the edges of the bases with coat d'arms dark leather.

Beards

The beards are the final stage, probably the most significant feature of dwarf models. The basic principle is to paint the base colour, glaze it once or twice, then maybe retouch with the base colour and highlighting. Compared to the other stages (with the possible exception of the kilts), it's more time intensive and requires greater care, so I tackled the dwarfs eight at a time. I tend not to stick to rigid recipes for hair and beards, I want the variation that mixing paints brings. Earthy browns and yellows form the basis, washed with browns, then highlighted again until I am happy enough. And that's it - speedy dwarfs done! Except for the pesky bowmen, they have their weaponry outstanding too. And I will probably add a coat of varnish, not for protection, just to dull down the shine from the glazing. Better pictures of all three completed units coming soon, for some reason blogger seems to remove most of the colour when I post these.

Speedy Dwarfs Done

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Speedy Dwarfs WIP 3

Base coating flesh and sleeves

The dwarfs are plodding forward. This is a particularly boring phase, adding the base colours of the flesh and the sleeves. The latter I have gone with a dull yellow, I thought it would add a natural contrast to the blue of the kilts.  I also washed the bases with a brown and then stippled on the yellow sleeve colour. That's it, sounds like little but it takes a while on the skin.

Bases phase 1

In this step I have done the bulk of the basing work. I picked out the rocks and stones in a khaki colour and then drybrushed them and the base edges with a light grey. Then I tore up some flock and soaked it in diluted pva glue before adding it to the base. When it dries fully it will be rock hard and I can then add some flowers by dabbing paint on the top of the "bushes". Granite boulders and heather shrubs is the look I am aiming for. Speedy Dwarfs WIP 3

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Speedy Dwarfs WIP 2

More work in progress updates. I seem to get a real spurt of enthusiasm at this time of year, it feels like the start of the new year, guess it goes back to school days. While I wait for my Dystopian Legions starter set to arrive, I am keeping busy with dwarfs and the orc (one to satisfy my speed painting urge, one to satisfy my aspirational painting urge). So more pictures of brown lumps for the time being I'm afraid.

Cloaks and metals

I painted the cloaks in a very similar fashion to the leathers, by applying a thin coat of paint over the brown underlayer. I used muted greens, browns and chestnut for this stage. Once they were dry, I very gently highlighted the cloak edges and folds by lightly drybrushing with a slightly brighter version of the base colour. This took a good 90 minutes to do, so I decided I was near the end for this day's painting and applied the metal basecoat. I like to allow the metal paint a good overnight drying period before I apply washes.

Kilts

The next day, with the metals well and truly dry, I washed them with a mix of black paint and chestnut ink, my standard way with armour and weapons. If needed, I applied a further wash on a second pass. And then it was time for the most significant step to date, the one that will probably have most impact when they are lined up for gaming - painting the kilts. For this I turned to a scarf I had bought on a recent trip to Scotland, as inspiration for the colours and basic pattern. I started by applying a dark blue base, over the top of this I painted light blue stripes. Then I filled in every other dark blue stripe with chestnut. Then it was on to a finer brush to paint fine yellow lines on the light blue bits. Finally I painted white lines over the chestnut stripes and then horizontally across the whole kilt. The end result is quite bright, I glazed over it with a blue black mix. It still looks a bit bright, but that's because the rest of the palette is so muted. When the flesh and beards and bases are complete, I will review if the kilts need further toning down with a second glaze.

Speedy Dwarfs WIP 2

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Speedy Dwarfs WIP 1

Another little project I have on the go - speed paint some dwarfs for my Lord of the Rings collection. Having recently picked up some Bolt Action coloured primers, I wanted to try them out on some troops. Brown seems a good fit to dwarfs rangers, they are wearing leather jerkins and boots, if the primer plus wash can take care of those elements, it's a considerable time saving.

Primer and washes

As an experiment to see what could be achieved, I cleaned up 24 rangers and primed them brown. Then I put on a guiding wash, to provide some elementary shading and lining. I split the rangers into 3 batches and tried different washes. The first batch got army painter strong tone diluted with matt varnish, the idea being that it would remove the shine and soften the tone a little. The second batch got pure army painter strong tone, the third got pure army painter soft tone. In retrospect, I should have washed one batch with my usual mix of black and brown paint plus matt varnish, for a control group. Alas, I did not. All three groups were a little disappointing, the wash didn't really adhere as it usually does and pooled a bit more than normal. I don't know if this is due to the primer or the wash, which is where the control group would have been helpful. Anyway, moving on with the experiment, I gave all 24 a second coat of pure strong tone and it seemed to adhere much better, though still with a little more pooling that I am accustomed to.

Leather detailing

I was reasonably happy with the leathers, but felt that a little variation to break up the wall of brown would not go amiss. A very light drybrush with a leather brown colour added a little extra definition on the quivers, belts and jerkins. Again, in retrospect, this maybe should have been done all over the models prior to the wash. Then I mixed up a brown and black wash, with a spot of matt varnish, to pick out the boots and other leather areas. The idea here is to add some variation to the browns. On some models I painted the belts, on others the jerkins, and all the boots got this darker tone. It's a quick step that really pays off in adding some tonal variety, as hopefully the photo illustrates.

The next step is to decide on the colours of the remaining cloth areas - the sleeves, trousers,cloaks and kilts. Yes, kilts. After spending a few days break in Scotland, I was really inspired by the history and colours of highland warriors, so I will be browsing the web for inspiration. Speedy Dwarfs WIP 1

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Riders of Rohan Painted

Forth Eorlingas! These eight riders of Rohan are the first of many cavalry models I hope to paint up. I have always had a strangely irrational aversion to painting horses, so this time I set about devising a quick and painless method. I basically stuck with a base coat and wash, thinking it would look awful on the big areas of horse flesh, but it turned out quite reasonably. I added a few highlights and maybe a little stippling on the extra messy bits, but kept it minimal. For the riders I followed the recipe I had already devised when painting the foot troops. With these two short cuts, I was able to complete them in a decent time span.

Fans of the range will note that one of the riders is a metal figure, a Rohan royal guard - he's the one with the tallest spear and most ornate helmet. I have a couple more of these, though they are all single pose and have the same shield, so they might not look that good in one regiment. A few conversions may be called for to build a distinct royal contingent.

An interesting little factoid for you. When I was researching horse colours, I looked at my copy of The Two Towers to see if I could pick up any useful tips. The riders of Rohan are described as carrying spears of ash, with burnished (highly polished) coats of mail, riding horses with grey coats. That description does not really match the more grungy look they have in the film, but to me it sounded more elf like - pale horses and shiney armour always seems to suggest elves to my mind. Anyway, if I had followed that colour scheme, the regiment would look more like this. It certainly makes a difference when the horses have different coats.

These 8 riders and previously painted 16 foot troops gives me enough troops to fight small skirmishes using the LotR strategy battle rules. In Saga terms I could just about muster 4 points if I declared the cavalry to be elite units. In War of the Ring the two foot units are one company each, while the cavalry are a massive four companies. In the coming weeks I would like to add more cavalry, and a character or two to lead them into battle. Or I might just get distracted and paint up my small contingent of Durin's folk. Riders of Rohan Painted

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Rohan Archers

The second batch of eight figures for the Rohan force is a unit of archers. Without the shields to hide behind and suffering from a bad case of single poses, this is a less impressive unit than the first set of warriors. On the plus side they were very quick to paint up, just three sessions and they were pretty much done.

When it comes to gaming with the new figures I have a few ideas in mind. The obvious choice would be to use Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. It's a reasonable game and plays well at the smaller end, around 20 to 30 figures per side, so probably will be the first action seen by the forces of Rohan.

For slightly larger battles I will be tinkering around to produce Saga battle boards for both Rohan and Isengard. This is my goal, to provide enough troops to play six or eight point games, which means at least another 16 infantry and probably 16 cavalry, depending on how they are defined in the game. With the first two points painted, and another one or two points constructed, I am well on the way to gaming on the plains of Rohan. Rohan Archers

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Rohan Warriors

This small contingent of eight Rohan warriors was painted as a little experiment, to test a colour scheme. I think it works well so will continue with the rest of the force in this kind of palette.

I have had these figures (plus many more) lying around for some time, I picked them up in a Two Towers boxset along with some uruk hai. I thought it was about time I spent some time painting good guys.

I chose eight for a number of reasons. It's a good size unit to work on efficiently without it being too daunting. One or two figures is too few, you spend more time opening and closing paint pots than actually painting. Twenty or more is too many unless you are prepared to spend several sessions. Eight or ten is just about right for me, to get results in a few one hour or so sessions. Eight also just happens to be the number of figures required for a company in War of the Ring, and for a point of standard warriors in Saga.

As with dark ages figures, the most prominent feature is the shields, so I spent a little more time on them. I decided on a mix of reds, browns and greens as the basic colour, which ties in nicely with the rustic palette of the clothing. The bases are a bit lighter than I usually paint, I wanted to emulate the green pastures of Rohan, so a light earth and a mix of green and brown/straw static grass. Onward to the next eight! Rohan Warriors

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