SBG Variant?

 

One of the things I've never liked about SBG was the way they handled wizards like Gandalf they were reduced to a couple of special rules. I hated that. Llama of Llama's War of the Ring has been talking about his house rule changes to that long defunct GW product War of the Ring this got me into reading those rules. I only really skimmed them when the first came out. I've fallen in love with the magic system in WOR. Wait everyone says they are too powerful, yes they certainly are in WOR because of how WOR plays. Like all mass combat systems WOR armies boil down to 4 or 5 large units grouped into companies so one spell can affect 60 models or even more that's just too much. But with SBG and its warband groupings of 12 or 1 figure this issue can be avoided that's my theory anyway. Consider a classic evil army with warbands of orcs, warg riders and trolls every evil SBG army will have more than one warband of orcs so only some not all of the orcs can be targeted with any one spell at a given turn and each troll/eagle/ent is its own warband so only one can be targeted at a time. I think using the WOR magic system in SBG will really invigorate spell cast characters.

You may notice that there are two links to Llama's War of the Ring that's because he has a Wordpress and Blogger blog. He has moved back to blogger for blogging and this will be the blog he updates now but he has a lot of great sculpted miniature stuff on his Wordpress blog so check that out too.

Frostgrave

Joe5mc of The Renaissance Troll is the author of Osprey's new fantasy skirmish game Frostgrave. The wargaming community has been looking for a good fantasy skirmish game (at least I have) for some time now this could be it. The frozen city setting takes this away from a run of the mill D&D clone. Northstar is producing a line of figures for Frostgrave the first figure sculpted by Mark Copplestone is pictured above.

Celtic Medieval Designs

 

All of these images came from the Dover clip art book Medieval Ornament. The first two are Mediveval Celtic designs and the one below is the only banner to be found in this particular clip art book. Most of these books like this one includes a cd of all the designs. These can be used to make banners you can find Dover Clip Art at the link.

The Beornings

By Greg & Tim Hildebrant

The Beorning's take their name from their patriarch Beorn who along with his son Grimbeorn are the only know leaders of this race of men. The origins of Beornings are not known, Gandalf believed that the Beorn was either a descendant of the bears who had lived in the Misty Mountains before the arrival of the giants, or was a descendant of the men who had lived in the region before the arrival of the dragons or Orcs from the north. They dwelt in the Vales of Anduin during the Third Age were they guarded the Carrock pass keeping it free of orcs, whom they hated, and levied tolls on travelers. In The Lord of The Rings, Gloin complained that their tolls were high. Beorn carved the stone stairway that leads to the top of Carrock himself.

 By Alan Lee

The Beornings are very large men while not giants they are taller than Gandalf who was a tall man. Beorn in particular was described as being 12 feet or so in height. Beorn could turn into a huge bear when he was angered but it seems that this was a particular trait of his rather than of all Beornings.

The Beornings had an affinity for bears and animals in general they were vegetarians neither eating nor hunting bird nor beast. Beorn's household is served by a staff of talking animals. They are considered excellent bakers, Gimli considered the Beornings the best bakers he knew. The Beornings were well known for their honey-cakes, which they likely made in their bee farms and sold openly to others, at least until the return of Sauron, for then the Beornings no longer trusted strangers and their trade stopped.

Dollar Store Monster

I was in a dollar store the other day and I spied this bag of plastic animals so naturally I had to give it a once over. Yes you guessed it I bought a bag why you ask? There was a nice bear in the bag and I need a giant were bear, one of Beorn's cousins, for my elf army. He's not to bad looking.

Here he is next to my werewolf monster he is bigger than the werewolf but I like it and I got 2 for $1.29. Not bad for a dollar store find.

Here he is next to the RISK black rider.

The bag came with 2 elephants too but I think they are too small to use what do you think?

RISK Lord of the Rings

Way back in 2002 Parker Bros. put out a Lord of the Rings edition of the classic boardgame RISK. I bought the game it was an interesting version of RISK but the best part is the game components.

RISK black Rider

RISK black rider Eureka warg rider

The game has 4 armies 2 good green & blue and 2 evil red & black I'm only going to talk about the evil armies today. Each evil army has 40 moria goblins, 12 black riders (pictured above) and 6 cave trolls. It was the cave trolls that got me thinking about using the these components in my games.

Here are the RISK cave trolls mounted on a warmaster base next to my Eureka man orcs infantry test base. They are of a good size, look great and best of all they are made of hard plastic! That means they are easy to glue and easy to paint. There are a total of 12 cave trolls in one Risk box enough to make 2 cave troll units. I already had the game in my closet so this is a super cheap troll option for me. I have seen the individual army bags selling on ebay for $7 that's one troll unit for $7 still much cheaper than any metal troll options.

The goblins are a good size for my game too but there is only one pose and I want my orc stands to look like undisciplined mobs not regimented units so I'm not sure if I'll use them.

Litko Bases

As you know I'm using the Warmaster system to play my 2nd Age LOTR game. Warmaster was discontinued by GW in 2013. That's ok as I'm not using GW figures or even using 10mm figures. I'm using 15-20mm figures from all sorts of sources. But I am basing all my units on the standard warmaster 40mm x 20mm base so I needed a source for those. I chose Litko where I can get bags of 50 laser cut plywood 40mm x 20mm bases and 30mm round bases to base my generals & heroes on.

And We're Back

After a hard winter I'm returning to this blog and my Lord of the Rings 2nd Age project. After careful scrutiny of the now impossible to get BOFA (Battle of the Five Armies) rulebook I realize that this will have to be gamed with the Warmaster rules by Rick Priestly. What! that's out of print too! Well actually yes and no the Living (as in further updated) Warmaster rulebook is free to download here. I suggest you also check out Rick's Warmaster page for more goodies. So ladies and Gents you can follow my little project complete with rules and at some point LOTR style army lists. I'll have to make those up in good time I'm afraid.

I will be updating this blog every Sunday from now on thanks for reading.

SBG still alive in the USA!

Hi guys my hobby time has been very limited of late and what time I have had has been devoted to my primary blog fiends in waistcoats. However I will make an effort to to keep this blog alive with bi-weekly postings. LOTR gaming and SBG in particular has been hit hard by corporate lack of interest but I am aware of a few hardy souls who are keeping SBG alive most notably Scott of Scotts wargaming blog and Ste who game SBG in New Zealand. Well guys I'm happy to say you're not alone anymore deep in the Rocky Mountains of America where the wolves (yup real wolves) roam a fellowship of gamers have pleaded their hearts to SBG. They even put out YouTube bat-rep videos here is there channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOekNA2hfYDGohEPHZ9eP4w
But the really big new is that these hardy souls have put together an old school GW style tournament exclusively for SBG call Madness in the Mountains! Here is their awards video:

Prospective Giant

I found this ogre from Reaper Miniatures he is 40mm tall I think by removing the bone at back and the teeth necklace he would make a great Storm Giant.

Khurasan Miniatures Lord of Werewolves

I purchased Khurasan's Sauron figure called "Lord of Werewolves" on their site to lead my evil army. In the above picture he is next to the Eureka 18mm wizard for height comparison he's nice and big like in the LOTR movies. He's not even dwarfed by the huge Khurasan trolls.

 This figure comes with two weapon arms and two heads the crowned helmet...

And this werewolf head.

I really like this flaming sword but I've decided to go for the more traditional weapon.

Sauron the Dark Lord of Middle Earth.

The Order Arrives!

My Khurasan Miniatures order has arrived and I'm eager to get stuck in but can't seem to find the time.

Here you can seem my order in all it's glory, 4 infantry units of orcs, 1 unit of armored trolls, 3 orc heroes and Sauron himself.

Here are the 15mm orc warriors on the far left followed by the orc general next to the Eureka wizard. I love the fact that the orc general is so much larger than his troops but still shorter than the wizard. The armored trolls are significantly larger than I expected but they are beautiful if a troll can be called that. They will be mounted one per base so that will be three trolls per unit.

The Werewolf being a monster is based with the 20mm base side forward, the troll who is classed as infantry will be based on the 40mm side. This troll looks like he can ride the Werewolf doesn't he?

Sorry for the Intermission

Sorry guys I've been having a lot of work craziness the past two weeks and haven been able to post on here. My large Khursan Miniatures order arrived last week save for the Warg Riders which are still on back order from the caster. So my order consisted of 4 regiments of orc infantry, 1 regiment of armor trolls, 2 orc heroes and Khursan's fantastic The Dark Lord Sauron figure. The Dark Lord towers over his orcs, hes twice their height but not a bulky as the trolls he's bad ass! So with the wolves & Werewolf I have a 1,000 pt army for Sauron. I hope to have some pics of the unpainted figures up this week.

McBride Orcs

When I said some companies where making McBride style figures I was referring to his distinctive orcs. Khurasan miniatures Khurasan Miniatures makes them those figures are the main reason why I'm trying to emulate the McBriade style I place a large order ($60) worth and was told it would take a few weeks to fill. Khurasan is a part time one man operation so ladies and gentlemen please stand by regularly scheduled 15mm evilness will resume in a week or so. If you need something to look at you can check out my other blog here.

Were oh were has my werewolf gone...

 Ral Partha 15mm wolf Ral partha 25mm wolf

Sauron had a completely different title in the first age than his "Dark Lord" title the one he holds in the 2nd & 3rd ages the first age title was "Lord of Werewolves". So I felt I couldn't properly represent Sauron's first army without including one of his signature monsters, but how could they be represented in the game? Well in the stories werewolves a depicted as giant intelligent wolves so I dug around in the lead pile and came up with this wonderfully characterful OOP Ral Parha 25mm wolf from one of their 1990s RPG lines. So with this beastie and the giant I have all the gigantic monsters I would need for Sauron's army.

Eureka 18mm wizard, Ral Parha 15mm wolves, Ral Partha 25mm wolf

Go forth and get the boot in...

Tune in next Sunday for another update.

On the Workbench 2 Some Forces of Sauron

Here are some of the forces of Sauron I'm working on. As you can see they consist of wolves and a giant.

These are the wargs that come with the GW BOFA boxed set they are supposedly 10mm but here you see them next to Eureka's 18mm wizard figure. They look just the right size to me here I'm comparing them with a Ral Partha 15mm wolf. They look the same size to me.

The Ral Parha wolf is a much nicer figure but it like all of Ral Partha's old 15mm stuff is now OOP and expensive when they turn up on ebay. I have 2 of them from out of a "hounds" pack these 2 figures were obviously wolves not hounds. They have great detail so I'll use the Ral Partha figures as wolf chieftain command figures. I've dug out of the bins 4 full units (3 stands each) of the GW BOFA wolves so that will put me at 4 units and a command so Sauron's wolf cavarly is well underway. When the Khurasan Miniatures wolf riders I ordered arrive I'll compare them to these figures in a future post.

The last figure is a hill giant from Eureka Miniatures 18mm fantasy line. The picture on their website is not if this figure but of a figure waving a club over his head this one is a variant. You can never really tell with Eureka which variant you're going to get but I like this one. He is wild and elemental without going for that stupid rock monster look used in The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey film.

As you can see with the Eureka 18mm wizard from the same line he is smaller than I'd expect a giant to be but if he stood to his full height he would be 3 times the height of the wizard not 2 times. I plan to use him anyway how can you say no to a face like his?

A Quick Update

Here is a quick update on where my 18/15mm Age project is right now. Truth be told 18/15mm is a brand new scale for me and I have very few figures in that scale a present. But I've just ordered armored trolls, pitwolf riders, orcs and Sauron from Khurasan Miniature's Great Enemy line their McBride style Lord of the Rings line of Sauron's forces. You can see the whole current line through this link. I'll be posting up comparisons with the Eureka 18mm figures I have next week.

The Last Great Kingdom of the Noldor

 Queen Galadriel painting by Angus McBride

The Noldor where the elves who followed Finwe on the long march to Valinor the Undying Lands they are also call the Deep Elves because they where the wisest in smith craft and lore. Feanor the creator of the Silmarils was of the Noldor and when Meklor stole the Silmarils the Noldor traveled to middle Earth to wage war upon him.  At the beginning of the second age after the fall of Beleriand the elven survivors traveled east to a far land know in the LOTR as Eregion on the western side of the Misty Mountains. There they established Ost-in-Edhil the last great city of the Noldor near Khazad-dum (the Mines of Moria) the great dwarven city. The gate Gandalf opens in the Fellowship of the Ring was the gateway elves used to enter Moria as the Noldor and the dwarves of Moria had a great friendship between them. Many of the great elf lords named in the Lord of the Rings lived in Eregion during this time. Queen Galaderiel and her consort Celeborn founded and ruled the kingdom of Eregion, Elrond dwelt there as did Thrunduil father of Legolas.

 Celebrimbor forging the three rings for the elves painting by Angus McBride

Sauron came to Eregion in a fair disguise calling himself Annatar Lord of Gifts. Galaderiel would not see him she had a foreboding about him but Celebrimbor would. Celebrimbor was the greatest elven smith after Feanor and he lead the Gwaith-i-Mirdain the guild of smiths. Sauron convinced him that he should rule Eregion not Galaderiel and he lead a bloodless coup against her. She seeing a glimpse of the future abdicated her throne peacefully and passed through the dwarf road under the mountain into Lothlorien. Then Sauron and Celebrimbor together forged the Rings of Power. For you see in order to forge the Rings of Power they had to teach each other secret lore that only they knew so that together their collective knowledge was equal to the task. Sauron then returned to Mordor to forge the One Ring alone. When Sauron left Celebrimbor forged the three rings for the elves. When Sauron put the One Ring on his finger both of them discovered they had been deceived thus the War of the Elves and Sauron began.

Who is Sauron?

Painting by Angus McBride

Sauron is a spirit a Maiar one of the lesser spirits that followed the fourteen Valar to Arda (the world) after it was created to give it order and combat the evils of Melkor. The Maiar where also call "the people of" as each of the fourteen Valar had a host of lesser spirits "their people" through which to work their will. Though these creatures were spirits many of them had the ability to take a physical form or had a permeate physical form.

  Painting by Angus McBride

Sauron was the mightiest of the people of Aule the Smith, the Valar of rock and metal who was also the creator of the Dwarves. Melkor did not have a host of spirits who followed him so he recruited followers from the peoples of the other Valar. Sauron became Melkor's greatest follower and chief lieutenant greater even than Gothmog Lord of Balrogs cheif of Melkor's bodyguard. Sauron as the mightiest of the Maiar had the ability to change his shape the shapes he took in the stories were of the forms of a great serpent, a werewolf, a vampire during his titanic battle with Huan the hound of Valinor in the First Age and a fair seeming elf to fool the elves of Eregion during the Second Age. In the Third Age he had lost  his ability to change forms due to the power he lost when he lost the One Ring. The only shape he could muster was that of a great lidless eye. That is the  shape he has during the War of the Ring. As greatest of the people of Aule he had the ability to make things of great power like the Rings of Power and the mighty fortress of Barad-dûr. As the greatest of the followers of Melkor he had the ability fashion creatures of evil he created or improved upon many of the evil creatures that appear in the LOTR trilogy such as, werewolves, half-trolls, Olog-hai, Uruk-hai and the Nazgul. 

Finding the right figure to represent him may seem at first to be a difficult task but he still has his shape shifting ability during the Second Age and his most common shape was that of a "Dark Wizard" so a suitable 15mm figure shouldn't be impossible. Who knows I might even get several different Sauron figures for this game just for the Hell of it.

The Dark Years

Painting by Angus McBride

The 2nd Age was also know as the Dark Years because this is the Age when Sauron extended his rule over nearly all of Middle Earth. Many nations of men became corrupted and began to worship Sauron as a god. Like the men of the mountain who where cursed for oath breakers for failing to fight for Isuldur as promised. Before they swore friendship with the Numenorians they worshiped Sauron. 

 

 Painting by Angus McBride

 He raised Barad-dur in Mordor, forged the one ring, subjugated the south lands,

  Painting by Angus McBride

destroyed the garden of the Ent Wives and overran the kingdom of Eregion. 

 During this time men began to refer to him as "The Dark Lord of Mordor". So this then is the time period I wish to game with my 18mm armies, more specifically the War of the Elves and Sauron where Sauron tries to wipe out the elves for making the 3 elf rings in secret there by marring his master plan to rule all of Middle Earth.

Next week I'll start detailing the various creatures and peoples who are involved in this war.