I started this blog with the goal of tracking my hobby progress, as well as keeping me accountable and active. This has had mixed success, but to be fair my life is completely different to what it was, and event such as house-moves and babies kinda take precedence over little toy soldiers.
So where have I gotten to? Let's start with Rohan.
For the Heroes, I've gotten Theoden (foot and mounted), Eomer (foot and mounted), Eowyn (foot-only) and Deorwine (mounted) complete and ready to play. Eomer and Theoden's foot model were completed most recently, owing to attending a local tournament with them (see here for the run down). I still need to get a hold of a mounted Eowyn, especially so I can use the Dernhelm profile, but Theoden and Eomer are a strong start.
(Oops, I forgot to include Grimbold... just like GW!)
If you didn't know, Deorwine has been removed in the new version of MESBG, so it's less of an issue that I don't have his foot model painted up. For now I suppose I can use him as a bog-standard Captain of Rohan, something I oddly don't have painted up either. Foot Deorwine goes onto the Paint Pile.
There is also Grimbold and the King's Hunstman, also removed in the new version. Awkwardly, neither translate into new profiles. I suppose the latter could be a Hama-proxy, but I already have both Hama and his brother thanks to the new starter box. These two, for now sadly, are relegated to the shelf.
Next the Warriors. Once again I got a few more painted recently, and I'm sitting on plenty of Royal Guard. The most awkward part of it was that all my Royal Guard were spear-armed (seven in total), and with the new Throwing Weapon limits this isn't really feasible, so another mounted Royal Guard got assembled with a sword and one guy got his spear replaced. My foot Guard are a 50/50 mix for the moment, and I will need to procure more, though one with a sword is on the Paint Pile.
A loss from the lists here is the banner bearer, and it could make a decent Gamling-proxy until I can procure his actual models, but I don't have a foot-model for it either.
Not a bad contigent, all things considered. Consider the Royals guarded!
The Riders are fairly small in number, with a few more waiting in the wings, including a long unpainted banner-bearer. They have been reinforced by the Outriders, since they've also been legacied (many such cases) once I remember to give them some spare shields. I also recently added three more in the form of my three Shieldmaidens, the mounted swordsmaiden still on the Paint pile however
This is a woefully low number of Riders for a professed Rohan Enjoyer.
A roadblock on the Riders is actually not having enought horses painted up, as I apparently nabbed at least two for uses elsewhere to saving on painting time.
The paint jobs on these guys is looking a little dated...
I have roughly an equal number of Warriors of Rohan (either for dismounts or for a shieldwall), though still largely archers as they were originally gonna be a full block of Outwalkers to accompany the Huntsman. The new box set has helped greatly for this, and at least five spear-armed Warriors are in the middle of being painted right now. I have 8 more warriors with an equal mix of bows and shields assembled at the ready too.
There was also the case of my Helmingas! With Grimbold gone for now, the upgrade he provided is also gone. However, the models are clearly still Warriors of Rohan so can fulfil that role without issue. War of the Rohirrim has provided another nice alternative in the form of Frealaf and his Warriors of Harrowdale, so I'll likely paint them in an alternate scheme to allow them to represent these guys. The hornblower is no longer legal, lacking a spear and shield for now, but that's also an easy fix.
Sad these beefy bois are gone, never even finished painting them.
So, I do have a large list of unpainted and partially assembled models for Rohan, but I'm shying away from aimless building and painting towards no end to instead build towards actual lists. With the Warriors of Rohan being painted at the moment, I'm building a 500pts Defenders of Helm's Deep list. This leaves me a focused list to paint of:
- Haldir
- 6 Galadhrim Archers
- Gimli
- 6 Warriors of Rohan with Spears
- Warrior of Rohan with Banner
- Royal Guard on foot
The list might not be the most competitive, but I think it's cool and it has Gimli, and it'll be nice to have a different option for running Rohan.
The Defenders of Helm's Deep... some of them anyway.
And the totals for Rohan are:
928pts playable (ie. assembled and on the paint bench)
37 models (51 with dismounts)
Paint Pile:
- Mounted Shieldmaiden (Rider of Rohan)
- 6 Warriors of Rohan (5 Spear, 1 Banner) - Half Painted
- 6 Warriors of Harrowdale (3 spear, 1 Banner)
- Deorwine on Foot (representing a Captain) - Half Painted
- Rider of Rohan with Banner
- Royal Guard - Primed
- Gimli, Haldir and the elves - Primed
Using the Kingdom of Rohan list provides all the relevant profiles, though this isn't a "legal" list as there's too many spears in it currently (15 with a maximum of 11). Still this is a good look forwards toward being able to field 1000points of Rohan, if not optimally, with very little extra effort. A nice easy goal.
Dunedain Rangers
These guys are a passion project of mine, I want to build a full 30 Rangers so I can have the full Grey Company resplendent at some point (even if they'll never see the table at over 1000pts). I am interested to see the new version of the list when it releases later this year though.
I have Aragorn and 9 Rangers built at the moment, and will get Gimli painted via the above, but there's still a long way to go here. The trick with this group is getting a hold of each unique version of the official models, and also sourcing enough GW models to be the base for a conversion. 3D Prints is just two easy (even though I have a pair of them already here).
470pts playable (Assuming Anduril and armour of the Rangers, though no available list atm)
10 models
Paint Pile:
- All of them!
Carn Dum
Originally I'd been building a Mordor list, with Kardush and a trio of mounted Orc Trackers. These are both legacied, and none of the current Mordor-flavoured armies are tickling my fancy, so I've leaned the other way into Angmar, and more specifically, 500pts of the Army of Carn Dum.
Now I don't like the official GW models for Carn Dum, though War in the North was a fun game. General Targg proved to spark inspiration and become the base for my Aldrac. An old Khazad-dum Gandalf works for Fraecht. The last model-in-progress is the Hill Troll, converted over from my old Pelennor box troll.
Aldrac and Fraecht, ready for the destruction of Arnor
I'm actually going to build a 200pts list first for this group, ready for another tournament in June.
I'm looking forwards to playing this list, Aldrac is a beast so it should be fun. The main thing missing here is the Warriors of Carn Dum, for which I just need a box of Northmen Warriors from FireForge. Like I did with Aldrac, I'll be incorporating the red sashes around the waist to clearly tie them close to the GW models, and I may do something similar with the shields also.
399pts playable (no Carn Dum Warriors, so numbers are all Orcs and Warg Riders)
18 models (20 with dismounts)
Paint Pile:
All of them, except 3 Warg Riders
Whilst I'd have always dabbled with the hobby, having access to a club and tournaments to plan for really helps to keep motivated and specifically painting models. I've always struggled to paint, it's just not my main jam, but it bridges the gap between assembling and playing, so is a necessary part of it.
Finally, my lovely supportive partner, who I'd already gateway'd into the LotR fandom, expressed the desire to learn to play and has enjoyed the first few games so far. I'm teaching her slowly, with her taking Warriors of Rohan against the Hill Tribes in simple warrior-on-warrior to-the-death combats so far. She's won both games (lotta high-rolls on those dice), so we'll be graduating to include banners and Captains next. If she continues to enjoy it, we'll get her Treebeard painted up and maybe even attend a doubles tournament.
I've already looked at themed "couples" armies like running Faramir and Eowyn, or Aragorn and Arwen, but that's for a later time.
We'll see.
Until next time!