Be Glorious!

Yes folks, here is the mid-week update that I promised, and to keep with my painting theme we have titled this post with the battle cry of the Knights Templar “Beau Seant” – Be Glorious!

Behold Philip of Milly, the Battle Standard Bearer of my Knights Templar that have found themselves thrown into the Chaotic Warhammer world. Were he to remain on earth, he would go on to become the 7^th Grand Master of the Templar order, after Bertrand de Blanchefort (my army’s general) but in this new world there is no telling what his ultimate fate will be.

Obviously there is much work to be done before I turn him in for the painting contest on Saturday, but I promised to give some shots of what I was working on (and this way I could also prove that I really do have this many projects on my burner). Once I get the main colors completed, I would like to go back and do some free hand work with patterning, at least on the banner, but eventually on the blanket (caparison I believe) and tabard as well.

I absolutely love the Knights Templar, (which originally drew me to the Black Templar for Warhammer 40k), and I do look forward to playing against an army of Chaos Daemons and setting about smiting them with my religious warriors of Awesome!

In other news, I received a parcel slip in the mail sent from Cool Mini or Not (supposedly the package was too big to deliver to my door… thanks USPS!)… so that means that by tomorrow afternoon my copy of Super Dungeon Explorer will be in my hands! Huzzah!

They have a Cave Troll!

Greetings folks, it’s another week, and well past time for another post. Sadly it was a busy week in real life, so I was late in posting new content, but we are remedying it now! In real world news my eldest son started swim team again, and we both started Kung Fu as well (Wu Ying Tao with sensei Blain Cort) so that has been keeping us busy, but I have made a lot of progress, especially with my Lord of the Rings project.

Which brings me to the hobby side of my week. Painting-wise this week was actually very fruitful. First, a shout out to all of my paint-night homies! It was a successful night and I really enjoyed getting together and hanging out while trying to motivate each other to get our figures looking great. In fact, this week’s paint night was the catalyst for finishing my 750 points of Isengard for Lord of the Rings. That’s right, four warbands with leaders fully painted and flocked.

And we begin with the leader of my force, Braagash. He’s an Uruk-Hai captain armed with Heavy Armor and Shield to make him a hardy beast and a tough one to take down (Defense 7). He was also created from a basic Uruk-Hai warrior though I shaved off the smaller helmet crest, and built the full sized one you see above out of plastic card and a little greenstuff.

Next we have Ugluk, though in my force I am using him as another Uruk-Hai captain equipped just like Braagash above. I would love to use Ugluk in my army (as he has Might 3!) but his special rule is difficult to use with the expensive Uruk-Hai in my force, and he only has a Defense of 5…which is actually one of the lower in my force. Since he leads a block of warriors with pikes and shields, I need him to be able to take a few hits in combat, hence the more armored setup I run when he is generic.

We’ve already mentioned Mauhur, and though he only has 2 Might, he is still perhaps my favorite named Uruk-Hai character. He continues to make me proud with his 3 attacks, and his ability to upgrade Uruk-Hai scouts to Marauders.

Finally rounding out my characters in the 750 force is Vrasku, another named Uruk-Hai. With 3 Might and a crossbow that can fire twice each round, what is not to like about this plucky commander. He is always deployed slightly behind my main line, and leads my crossbow armed warriors. Still, I often try to keep him in range of other Uruk-Hai as his 3 Might has plenty of uses in my force. I’m still waiting to be amazed by my missile troops each game, but thankfully Vrasku usually does fairly well for himself, and I know a few dwarves are still recovering from his lucky shots.

Now this last Friday I got to play through 2 battles: the first at 750pts vs. Sensei Cort’s Ent/Eagle army; and the second a 1000pt battle against Joe’s Grey Company with The Hunters. The first game was an eye opener. Even though my opponent only had 6 figures on the field, each had Fight 7, Defense 8, 3 Attacks, 3 Wounds, and caused Terror. Aside from the struggle of actually getting into combat (Terror tests in Lotr SBG suck) my main frustration was the Fight 7! This meant that if the opponent rolled a single six (on three dice) then there was no way I could win the battle, and with a Strength of 8, it usually meant 2-3 dead Uruk-Hai in each exchange. I did some wounds, but not enough to bring the mighty forest spirits down. Now I am set with my current 750 list, so I need to take some time thinking up tactics to use against this foe. My current thought is to set up further back and trust in some lucky crossbow shots… see if I can bait the eagles forward into a confrontation away from the Ent battleline. Otherwise, it truly depends on the scenario. The one we played was “kill the other guy”, but I think he would have been hard-pressed to win one of the objective scenarios… We will just have to see! Next time good sir, next time!

And here is the newest member of my growing army. Of course I am still working on him- his shield is being painted, his base needs flocking, and I will need to add some white hands to his armor as well (I am thinking of adding a big three fingered troll hand as well… I think he would be jealous if only the Uruk-Hai got to finger paint!) The troll was a treat, purchased with my Gift Certificate I won from the Warcaster Attachment painting competition from February. He currently does not have a place in my 750 force, but I made room in the 1000pt. I’m just happy to have the figure, and remember when it first came out how much I wanted to paint it even though I did not play LOTR back then.

Well the 1000pt game went better for the forces of Saruman, and we took to the field against rangers and elves in a Grey Company list. To make the battle more epic and appropriate, my opponent Joe included the Three Hunters: Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. The battle was objective based, and I believe that this actually played to my army’s strengths. The battle was supposed to be fought over 5 objectives, one placed in the center of the board, and the other 4 placed by the two players, I placed both fairly close to the center line, and Joe placed his further back (playing to the strengths of a missile heavy force). Thankfully I have played plenty of Warhammer 40k which is often objective based, so taking a look at the field I knew that I had to hold 3 objectives, and could forget about the others. Therefore, I set up to defend the central objective and the two that I had placed, as the three could be supported by each other.

The battle was Epic! To be fair, my force was broken first, though the good guys soon followed, and there were some heroic battles to keep everyone entertained. Highlights for me began when the ever troublesome Gimli was finally laid low by my stalwart Uruk-Hai. For once I Yahtzee’d on my dice, and sent Gimli deep into the dirt (isn’t that where dwarves like to be anyways?) Next I had an ongoing engagement with one of my Uruk Hai captains (with pike support) and my cave troll against Aragorn. We ran through his Fate, ground him down to 1 wound, and then he got away, running from us and staying just out of our reach. Finally (seeing Legolas within striking range) my captain gave up the chase, and turned his attention on the Prince of Mirkwood, and my troll pulled a Fezig… The moment Aragorn head came into view… I hit it with a ROCK! (I know, I know, my way is not very sportsman like). Sure it was a lucky throw, but it was nice to see the hope of all of the Free People ended with a rock smashed to the skull… moral victory for evil! TO add insult to injury Legolas went down as well, and when the mission finally ended (because my forces had been reduced to only 25% of our starting numbers, my Uruk Hai were sitting on four objectives, uncontested. Victory Isengard!

Alright, and now for a change of game systems, this week will be all about Warhammer Fantasy. This Saturday (at 1:30pm) the Armory is hosting a 2500pt Warhammer Fantasy Tournament, and I will be leading the hosts of Athel Loren with my wood elves.

There is an image of the “free wood” my army gets to place before deployment. Many of the locals have seen it, but I am fairly proud of the piece, and wanted to give it as an example to other wood elf players of what we can do.

Along with the Tournament, there is a painting competition that Chris mentioned. He said “Paint a fantasy figure from Warhammer Fantasy”… well, with that said I have to put something forward. It doesn’t have to be from the army that I am playing at the Tourney, so I have decided to put some attention into a Bretonnian Knight. So I have less than a week to assemble and paint a Bretonnian knight in the Knights Templar color scheme that I am going for. Wish me luck. My hope is to put up another blog entry before the week is over showing any work that I have done on the figure.

Well, it was a bit long winded, but I am done for the time being. Off to paint some Knights Templar and get myself ready for a weekend of Warhammer Fantasy… playing so many different war games means that you really need the time to get your brain thinking under the right rule set!

Its Alive!

Greetings folks, bit of an exciting week, though little in the way of modeling and painting. I can however tick off one of our works in progress (though all of the credit goes to my wife actually):my daughter Elizabeth Gloriana was born on Thursday, March 1^st at 4:15 am.

That said, my Games Workshop Direct Order shipment finally came in, completing my 750 point Isengard force for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Its seems like the highly sought after Finecast models are hard to come by, but I finally have my 8 Uruk Hai Crossbowman (though I haven’t taken a look inside the blisters to see if they are truly Fine or Fail cast). Alongside this much needed addition of ranged support, I also picked up all of the Uruk Hai special characters (hence the Direct Order) so we have plenty of evil options for leading the army of the white hand.

As you can see, they are mostly one piece metal models (Mauhur’s blades and Vrasku’s crossbow being the only extra bits), so they were easy to assemble. As you can see by the image above, I like to add sand to my model bases before priming. I use Elmer’s wood glue to add the sand, and figure that the primer just adds an additional layer to hold it down before adding the paint and dry-brushing later.

As I mentioned, the Lord of the Rings force is basically going for tabletop quality, so I am keeping it simple. Prime Black; dry-brush Bolt Gun Metal on all armor and weapon bits; flesh areas are painted Dark Flesh; finally clean up the cloth and leather portions with black or various browns. After this a healthy bath of Delvan Mud will be liberally applied, and then some basic layering to highlight will be added. Being that these four figures , Lurtz, Vrasku, Ugluk, and Mauhur , are special characters, I will take some extra time with the later stages, and try to clean them up, but we are still going to keep it fairly brief.

At the moment my 750 point Isengard force looks like this:

Uruk Hai Captain with Heavy Armor and Shield

5 x Uruk Hai warriors with pike

5 x Uruk Hai warriors with shield

2 x Uruk Hai Berserkers

Uruk Hai Captain with Heavy Armor and Shield

5 x Uruk Hai warriors with pike

5 x Uruk Hai warriors with shield

2 x Uruk Hai Berserkers

Mauhur

12 x Uruk Hai scouts with shields (upgraded to Mauraders)

Vraska

8 x Uruk Hai warriors with crossbows

2 x Uruk Hai warriors with pike

2 x Uruk Hai warriors with shield

This gives me Lurtz, Saruman, 8 x Uruk Hai Scouts with orc bows, and an Uruk Hai warrior with a banner as extra figures, a side board, or models to push me towards a higher point game (I can field over 1000 pts)… and I received a pair of large wings for another (secret) project for Lord of the Rings that has yet to be unveiled…

So far I have been enjoying Lord of the Rings SBG (Strategy Battle Game) though I have only played a handful of games. Some things that I have learned are: (1) Gimli is a murdering beast and I hate him. Don’t get me wrong, I love that he is “in” the games, as it makes everything feel cinematic and epic – but I have yet to put the plucky dwarf down, usually just feeding him a victim each round and praying for lucky crossbow shots. (2) Uruk Hai warriors are awesome! Their high defense and fight make them a very brutal force to deal with, and they shock me over and over with how resilient they are. (3) Mauhur is a beast! With 3 attacks and the ability to upgrade Uruk Hai scouts to movement 8 opens up all sorts of options on the battlefield.

Well folks, that does it for now. Just brainstorming my projects that I have claimed I will finish we are staring down the following:

Dystopian War – Federated States of America Fleet [by Norcon 7/28/12]

Lord of the Rings (SBG) – Isengard Force complete (750pt list)

Warhammer 40K – Scratch built Thunderhawk constructed and painted [by Norcon 7/28/12]

Warhammer 40k – Horus Heresy Emperor’s Children (500pts minimum, 1000pts if possible) [by Norcon 7/28/12]

Infinity- Caledonian Force fully painted [by Norcon 7/28/12]