Battle Companies: Harad vs Dwarves pony express

Our next game was the one where one team has to lead five baggage ponies across the map.

My son was using his dwarves and I was using my Harad.

I had the ponies and thought, no worries, I can just outrun the stumpy legged dwarves!

First, though, I had to get across the river!

Here's the Hasharin taking on way too many dwarves and not doing so well!

Here's the two commanders facing off. I was using some horses without riders for some of the ponies and I also have some (shockingly unpainted) ponies somewhere too. I split the force in two, one heading towards each of the two fords across the river.

This was actually just a set-up shot as I forgot to take many photos during the game! So this bit never actually happened =) 

This half happened, the fight at the ford didn't occur, but the dwarf on the hill did a great job, you can see a treasure chest dropped where he shot one of the ponies (sounds cruel, doesn't it!!)

So in the actual game I managed to get my ponies across the fords, while tying up most of the dwarves in combat. However, his dwarves totally mashed my Harad troops, they almost all have throwing axes and wow did they destroy me!

In the end he managed to get my forces below a quarter before I got any ponies off the board, but he hadn't got any treasure either so it was a draw!

I had to roll injuries for all but one of my guys and I only knocked out one dwarf!

Battle Companies: Karna vs Wanderers in the Wild

We had a public holiday today, so found time to squeeze in another game! This was super evenly matched points-wise. The Karna list at 149 points, the Wanderers in the Wild with 150 points!

We set up a super terrain dense map so that my Wanderers couldn't just shoot everything to death!

With a river down the middle of the map, trees everywhere, some rocks, some ruins, couple of hills...

The Karna list has a Mirkwood Spider AND a spectral warrior in their midst!

The first few turns went really well for me, my shooting took out two of his commanders and another couple of troops! But then we hit some close combat! The spider took out my snipers, one of his commanders took out my leader and the spectral warrior slashed a dwarven ranger!

Then, just to be mean, one of his warriors won the fight against my other ranger and hobbit... and chose to take out the hobbit! Nooooo! My mission every game is to try and keep him alive and I thought he was pretty safe out of the way!

We were down to 3 guys each, the game would be over when either of us went down to two remaining!

In the very last turn, my elf sniped out his bowman, but then his spearman took out my hero! Two guys each - a tie!!!

This was a super fun match, so even the whole time, it kept swinging one way or the other! However, the post-game really sucked! 

My brother's team rolled terribly, one warrior dead, one hero with an arm wound and half his team are to miss the next match - giving them a rating of only 79!!!

I rolled much better and my rating is now up with an extra dwarven ranger joining the company!

If you've not played a game with tons of scenery, you really should try sometime, it's really fun having to break up groups of guys, really work to get archery shots in, jump tests etc. very different from battle lines and marching in formation!

Dwarf Battle Company Stuff

Today is just some battle company shot of dwarves =)

Here is my starting battle company for my "normal" dwarves. Boggle with his massive shield is the leader, Brynmor with his shovel is second in command and Bluey (the archer with red hair) is the third in command. Joining them are Rocky (two handed standing on a rock), Hornstriker (with the radioactive shield) and Loki Longshot with the bow.

These dwarves are great for a battle company, especially near the start as they have good defence and strength 3 bows. However, they are slow and miss out on cavalry, so some missions are harder than others.

Here's the battle company I made for my son, it's Thorin Oakenshield (the old Balin model, but I've added a piece of wood from the garden to his non-axe arm for a shield) and they're all wearing the colours that are indicated in the book (including Dwalin's blue beard!). It's not a proper out of the book battle company because they're rangers, but Thorin is a warrior and, of course, they have a hobbit =) My son likes the brighter colours and boy, the throwing axes are just nuts in battle companies! All of the heroes are given throwing axes and against some low defence armies in particular they can just be devastating given the low model count of battle companies.

I haven't unlocked any Iron Guard yet, but I've got the models ready to go! I plan on using the King's Champion model for any Iron Guard that become heroes in the making. Strength 4 with 2 attacks, defence 6 and throwing axes! Yes please! 

I've unlocked one Vault Warden team, we decided that they counted as two individuals, the spear guy worth 10 points and the shield guy worth 15 points (to keep the 25 total points). Defence 9 in battle companies is just nuts, and getting a spear in a dwarven battle company can be really useful. I'm not convinced of their use in battle companies yet, it's a lot of points for slow moving, low attack models, but they're strength 4 and high defence, so we'll wait and see how they go. 

The other guys I haven't got any of yet are the Khazad Guard. Automatically passing courage tests while the hero they're bodyguarding is alive when that hero is a dwarf hero with a shield is pretty fun, I reckon! Strength 4, defence 7 looks good too (particularly against pesky armies with strength 2 bows). Also, I love the models =) 

So those are some of the miniatures I'm hoping will hit the table with a bit more levelling up of my companies! Would love to hear any comments from more experienced players as to which options tend to work out better in the long run!

Harad Army

I finally finished my raiders and watchers of karna so put all my Harad army on the board for a happy snap or two (or ten)!

This post is just a whole lot of photos of the army, so bear with me =)

From a lower angle you can really see the height of the Mumak!

On this side we have all the normal foot soldiers.

Then there are the new raiders galloping along near the Mumak.

And the fell beast swoops over the lava near the Hasharin and Watchers.

And the blue dragon perched on the other flank.

Here I tried to get the raptor riding king more visible.

And looking down the line...

And from the other side...

So there you go, I started these guys years ago and wasn't going to have any cavalry, but then I got started on battle companies and these guys with their low defense really need the horses to help win!

I don't have any abrakhan guard, but do have some conversion ideas for them at some stage, maybe when I've finished my Far Harad battle company =)

One day I'll have to find enough time to do a bigger scale battle, I'm really pleased with how the colour scheme has matched and worked through all the miniatures. They look really nice on the table.

Just for fun (and probably not competitive, but just for ideas) here are some army lists I can do with these models:

300 Points:
Chieftain with horse and war spear accompanied by 6 raiders with war spear, 5 raiders with bow.
Chieftain accompanied by 4 warriors with spear, 4 with bow.

500 Points:
King with horse and war spear accompanied by 6 raiders with war spear, 6 with bow.
Chieftain accompanied by 12 warriors with spear.
Hasharin accompanied by 6 watchers of karna and 2 warriors with bow.

750 Points:
Chieftain with horse and war spear accompanied by 6 raiders with war spear, 2 with bow.
Hasharin accompanied by 4 watchers of karna and 8 warriors with spear.
War Mumak of Harad with Gnarled Hide, Rapelling Lines and Rocks and 12 warriors with bow.

Everything I have...
1156 Points:
King with horse and war spear accompanied by 6 raiders with war spear, 6 with bow
Hasharin accompanied by 6 watchers of karna, 7 warriors with spear, 1 warrior with banner
War Mumak with all upgrades and 12 warriors with bow
Betrayer on Fell Beast accompanied by 5 warriors with spear and 1 warrior with banner.

Note that when using the raiders I have to leave some of my miniatures off to one side to use as dismounts, hence there are more minis in the photos than in the lists.

And, of course, for just fun value you could add the dragon as a cave drake for 150 points or a dragon from 250-450 points depending on which upgrades you use!

Far Harad Battle Company vs Goblins vs Troll

With lots of painting my Far Harad battle company finally got member number 6 and was ready for the first mission against the pesky elves. Here they are charging into battle!

My melee guys charged in and I found out that spear support is really key against these elves with their pesky special rules =)

My two blowpipe guys hid behind very heavy cover and spat poison darts out at the elves.

It was actually a pretty short battle as the spears and blowpipes seemed to be rolling really well and i only suffered one casualty.

Next up we ran a goblin battle company... from 6 troops to 12 for the goblins! This was (again) helped a lot by some spear support, giving me a lot more dice to roll.

The goblins swarmed down and over the elves, with only three casualties.

And it was a lazy Saturday so we then played Far Harad vs. Goblins vs. Cave Troll + wargs (normally cave troll and goblins, but it would be too hard to tell them apart!)

While the wargs were dealt with, both battle companies advanced (the goblins were quicker as they completely dominated the wargs with 6v1 battles happening!

In the end it was a total mess, with everybody stacking up against the troll and against each other! Four goblins were slain, two Far Harad were slain and the troll took two wounds from the mahud first, then a goblin got the last hit in!

At the end of the two matches the Far Harad team expanded by two members and mounted the main hero on a war camel!

The goblins saved up all of their influence (including the lucky roll bonus from the first narrative mission) and convinced the cave troll they just beat to join their party! 12 goblins and a cave troll make for a pretty awesome Battle Company!

Far Harad

For Father's Day this year I requested a new Battle Company and got a nice batch of Far Harad!

First step was gluing, which I found to be an absolute pain! I couldn't get the glue to stick well at all. I tried three different types of superglue but none seemed to hold well.

In any case, I finally got them all together, though it took ages.

I'm keeping the colour scheme the same as my other Harad force so they'll look good together, but these have even darker skin.

Here's the king on foot. My colours are (so I can refer to them later):

Skin: Dryad Bark -> bit of a highlight of Gorthor Brown then a tiny highlight of Baneblade Brown followed by a few Agrax Earthshade washes.

Blue: Caledor Sky -> Drakenhof Nightshade wash -> Teclis Blue highlight -> small Lothern Blue highlight.

Red: (this is over a white undercoat so it's pretty easy) Evil Sunz Scarlet -> Baal Red wash (I think this is an old colour) -> highlight of Wild Rider Red.

Wicker and stuff: Zandri Dust first, then Agrax Earthshade for the darker areas. Otherwise a bit of either Karak Stone, Ushabti Bone for a drybrush followed by a bit of Screaming Skull (on the bone bits). Sometimes I did a Seraphim Sepia on the bone bits first. A drybrush of Praxeti White or Tyrant Skull too.

After all that there's a bit of sand on the base so that they look a bit more from the desert.

Anyways, here's a couple of pics and I'll let you know when they hit the table =)

Battle company Shire vs Dwarves vs Troll

Next on our list was the dreaded Cave Troll mission which, last time, saw most of my Harad battle company destroyed. 

Again, I got the idea for the slightly harder difficulty from the awesome guys in Ontario: OSGBL Cave Troll

I didn't take many photos, but at one point it looked like this:

And from the other side...

The hobbits lost a single model to a thrown boulder from the cave troll, meanwhile, they stood their distance and killed the troll with arrows and stones! Yes, the piddly little strength 1 stones. My son was in charge of the hobbits and he thought the troll was too scary to attack directly, so he just threw stone after stone!

Meanwhile, my dwarves took forever to break through the goblins, Brynmor was a casualty and although I killed the goblin captain and more than half of the goblins, it took me so long that the troll was dead before I even got to it! 

So not sure how it happened, but the Hobbits took the win! Four archers and ten stone-throwers a turn really adds up with a 3+ to hit. I guess with stones it was 3+ to hit, then a 6 followed by a 4+ to wound which is... I think... 1 in 18 chance to wound? And the archers 3+ then a 6, so 1 in 9 chance to wound. With three points of might among his troops to tip a few 5s into 6s. And given it took me five or six rounds to run up and kill the goblins that probably makes sense. Don't underestimate large numbers of hobbits with lots of stones!

Another good fun game with a very happy little boy bragging about killing a cave troll with a thrown stone!

Fortunately in the post game there were no permanent wounds taken, so all in all it was easy xp and influence =)

Hobbit Battle Company vs Ruffians

My son and I started up another two battle companies (so we now have quite a few) so that we can mix and match opponents with closer points scores a bit more easily. Also just because it's fun =)

Only having to have 15 (or so) miniatures of a particular type is so great for time-short people!

In any case, I forgot to take pictures of the first match, which was dwarves. But here's the after-shot. Can you believe that we rolled sixes for the reinforcements and got a Vault Warden team?!?! Here's Boggle's Beardies...

We don't have any ruffians (which are the opponents in the first mission) so we use some Haradrim - my son suggested we call them Ruffadrim. The only pictures I took were of the luckiest hobbit in the world. As they are so short and slow to move, the strategy here was for the archers to try and shoot for a round or two before attempting to tie up the Ruffadrim.

This one hobbit killed two Ruffadrim through shooting, before being mobbed by four guys. He survived the first round, beating them all back. And then he not only survived the second time, but actually killed a Ruffadrim!

The Ruffadrim are the white dice, the hobbit is the green one!

And here's a group shot of the plucky Shire horde after the match...

Lots of fun on a very wet and rainy afternoon!

Now we have:
Mirkwood (215 points)
Wanderers in the Wild (150 points)
Rangers of the North (178 points)
Harad (138 points)
Hobbits (137 points)
Dwarves (125 points)
Thorin's Company (145 points)

Harad Battle Company

My son is now 8 year old, can you believe it?!

As such he can play now though we have to limit our opportunities given the general busy lives we lead.

He's also not super patient and very scared of losing guys in battle so we've adjusted how we play slightly.

I no longer take notes or many pictures and his heroes can't die (they can be injured and if they roll the death roll we just play the rescue mission rather than have them actually die).

Anyway, I did take a couple pictures still.

The first mission was out of White Dwarf and involved my Harad battle company taking on five Mirkwood Rangers. Oh... my... goodness! That stupid knife fighter rule, coupled with their excellent archery meant that this was a really close game. This picture shows the elf who single handedly ended up killing 6 of my Haradrim!!!

The next mission was my Harad company against my son's dwarves and a cave troll!
Like on the very excellent OSBGL channel, which I super highly recommend: OSBGL Battle Company vs Troll we added some goblins to the mix to make it more of a challenge.

I charged right in, expecting lots of spear support to help carry the battle my way. I took out five goblins! Unfortunately, the cave troll just kept rolling at least one six in the fight to roll off and took out five of my Haradrim - including my leader!

I'll take a better shot at some stage, but my son is currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring and has read The Hobbit, so we made him a battle company of Dwarf Rangers coloured in the ways that they're told in the book - quite bright colours some of them! 

Anyway, he stood back and used throwing axes, dwarven longbows and one hobbit stone every turn and eventually he took down the troll that way! He was so very, very excited, it was really awesome, we had high-fives and he ran screaming out to tell my wife every time he scored a wound on the troll - very cute!

Post game he expanded his company further and I upgraded two leaders to ride - one on horse, one on raptor =) Balin was a casualty hit by a troll-thrown stone, but he fully recovered. My leader took an arm wound and two of my archers will be out for the next game!

Here the two companies are...

It's such a great, fun, quick game when you're not recording every move!

You may also spot some of the scenery I've put together, a couple of hills with rocky faces and a board with some ruined tiles on it to sit the osgiliath ruins on (they're not glued down, so can still be used elsewhere). Also some rough terrain templates with room for trees or rocks on them.

Anyway, that's it for now!

Serpent Rider - Haradrim on Raptor

Random post!

I've been doing a lot of scenery and miniature painting, but with time being so tight I haven't (obviously) been posting.

One conversion I just did was on a box of Haradrim Raiders that I got (I know, I know) last Christmas - still, better late than never!

You may recall the blue dragon I painted to match my Harad colour scheme? Well, I figured that the leader of that band of Haradrim would similarly need to have something reptilian to set him apart from the others. I toyed with banners, helmets and the like but when I was cleaning up an old box of miniatures I found some sort of elf sorceress or something riding a raptor that I'd obviously got from eBay or something just because it looked cool.

Well, a hack and slash later and my Serpent Rider is more like a Raptor Rider!

Here's the front view.

And he's leading 6 more raiders through the dangerous lava fields.

I also painted up a trio of Watchers of Karna. 

I've just purchased another 6 riders and another 3 watchers so that I'll be all set for some fun battle company action when they're painted up!