Rohan First Stage Complete!

Well it's been a hot minute since I've been on here. And that's really cos it's taken me a hot minute to finish painting the Rohirrim. Painting was never my favourite part of the hobby, I definitely enjoy building and playing more, so motivation is tricky to get sometimes.

That said, Theoden rides again!

 

This was the original 300 points I planned for, and was entirely built from the Pelennor Fields box with the exception of the King's Huntsman. I'm incredibly proud of the Royal Guardsman conversions.

I've already got the expansion to 500pts prepared as well:

 (Didn't even notice I'd knocked Theoden aside).

This expansion will be a lot quicker to prepare, as I'm using official guardsmen and had already painted one of the additional Outriders. The Deorwine sculpt is fantastic too. In fact, the only work required will be to add a banner to the additional Guard in Theoden's group.

Future expansions will almost definitely be Eomer and some Riders and a decent unit of Grimbold's Helmingas. The inclusion of my Huntsman and unmounted Outriders show it clearly that I did not want to stick to pure cavalry. As I've already planned to get a detachment from Minas Tirith, I felt the Helmingas would form a good hammer to a Gondorian Shieldwall.

HOWEVER!

This series of posts was supposed to detail the build up of two equal forces, and Mordor has been greatly neglected.

Despite finishing the Kardush conversion and basing and priming the front line Orcs, that remains the full extent of the work. The Troll Chief is still missing an arm! Green Stuff will be employed to finish him up however, as I want him to look as unique as possible.

I have turned an eye to expansion here too:

 

I've made one and a half Black Numenorians, but I think the first expansion will go to the Ringwraith (a spare Rohan horse and the extra wraith body from the Witch King sprue), and a retinue of Warg Riders. I'm using the Fell Wargs from the Hobbit range here, which are probably amongst the best of that range and I prefer them to the LOTR plastic Wargs (the metal ones are good, but that would be expensive).

The Wargs give the force much needed mobility and ranged power, and a Wraith is always powerful, and synergises well with Kardush.

Let's hope my next update comes along quicker!

The First Army Lists of 2020

So for both Rohan and Mordor, with the contents of the Starter box (see my previous post), I could just assemble the lot a call it a start. It would look something like this:

Rohan - Total: 456pts*

• Theoden, with Armoured Horse, Heavy Armour and Shield - 100pts
• 8 Riders of Rohan - 112pts
• 4 Riders of Rohan, with Throwing Spears - 64pts
• 6 Warriors of the Dead, with Shields - 90pts
• 6 Warriors of the Dead, with Spears - 90pts

Mordor - Total: 496pts

• The Witch King, with Armoured Fell Beast - 140pts**
• Mordor Troll - 100pts
• 16 Morannon Orcs, with Shields - 128pts
• 16 Morannon Orcs, with Spears - 128pts

* The Warriors included in the box are not in the list as they would be required should the Riders get unhorsed.

**This is the minimum points version of the Witch King for simplicity, he has a tonne of upgrades in reality.

Now these lists are fine enough, at least for casual games, or narrative games like recreating the Pelennor Fields. However, these lists are imbalanced, come to odd points values in the case of Rohan, and in the current set of rules, illegal. The new rules are built around Hero-led Warbands, with hard limits on the maximum number of standard warriors that can accompany each hero (varying between heroes). Additionally, the Warriors of the Dead are not part of the Rohan Army list, and could only ally in with one of their own Heroes leading them, in this case The King of the Dead, and both forces would lose their army bonuses unless Aragorn was present also, as they would count as "Impossible Allies".

Of course, I could fluff it. Proxy in some of the Warriors or Orcs to act as the King or Orc Captains...

That would be the boring way to do it.

I need customisation, I need to cut up some plastic and bend it to my will... also, I could probably do with some structure. To this end, I've decided to put together simple 300pt value lists that will force me to do a little remodelling, include some new stuff I've never used before, and importantly give me an achievable goal that doesn't require me assembling and painting nearly 100 models. Once this batch is complete, I will up the points value to 500, and build upon each force. But here are what I've decided on for now.