Fightin’ Uruk-Hai

Here’s a small batch of Fightin’ Uruk-Hai from Isengard. I picked them up off ebay recently (they arrived yesterday), so I have only these. I’d like to pick up some more. I like the figures and they paint up QUICK!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The two new stands are the ones in the front; Blades on the left (of the picture), Spears on the right. Once again, these are Lord of the Rings figures from Games Workshop.

So far I have:

2x Warband
2x Shooters
1x Blade
1x Spear

That’s half of an army for Hordes of the Things right there. I have one warg rider and another in the mail (metal ones) and I’d like to pick up a box of the plastic ones which would give me 4x Beasts (assuming only 2 will fit on a base…). At some point I’d like to pick up a box or two of Fighting Uruk-Hai to give myself some more options for foot. I also have a spare Saruman and Grima Wormtongue figures to make a Magician stand (If I ever wanted Saruman to come down from Orthanc and fight with his mob in the field…).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Normans… no, really…

More Orcsie-Nasties

I worked on a pile of Orcs for my Middle Earth Hordes of the Things Armies over the weekend. They are all Lord of the Rings figures from Games Workshop. The metal ones (if you can pick them out) I picked up off ebay over the last couple weeks, and the plastic ones I picked up Saturday afternoon from a local fellow blowing out his LOTR stuff (thanks Paz!).

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are Mordor Orcs. They’ll be another Warband – and sometimes a Warband General, at least until I have something better (or “worse”, depending on your point of view) to lead the armies of Mordor.

I have enough to make another four stands of warband and that should probably be enough… I also have a Mordor Troll and then I’d like to add something else… Hmmmmm… maybe an Aerial (anti-)Hero (the Witch-king on fell beast – if I can find one for a not-so-insane price)?


Some Uruk-hai from down Isengard way. Two stands of Shooters and…


…two stands of… uh… Blades…? Warbands…?

I’m definitely going to call the “Fighting Uruk-Hai” sword and shield guys “Blades”. Maybe these guys will be Warband…? They are supposed to be “Scouts” – well that’s what the figures are called… and they look different enough from the Fighting Uruk-Hai (the latter being more heavily armoured).

I was back and forth for a couple of hours in utter torment trying to decide how to base them! In the end I went with the big base as I like the LOOK of Hordes... even though these were going to be blades or warband… even though there’s only 6 guys on each of these bases… (I wanted to put on seven, but just didn’t have the figures – and I wasn’t about to run out and buy a pack of metal ones, or wait around for some to show up cheap-like on ebay, just to pack ‘em on a little more tightly...).

I was thinking when I get the Fighting Uruk-hai (which arrived this morning) I’d definitely put the Spear on some smaller bases (like the shooters above) as they will most often be “ranked up” – of course you can rank up Warbands to get a rear support factor… but I definitely like Warbands on the bigger bases… well… at least ORC warbands…

What about the blades though… probably the smaller bases… Ugh… I think about this too much….

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Alright… I got that out of my system… now to finish the Normans – Two more stands of infantry (Spears), then four more mounted (2x Knights, 1x Cavalry, 1x Light Horse) and to finish off the lot a stand or two of Crossbowmen….

…or maybe I’ll just quickly paint up these two stands of Fighting Uruk Hai…?!

Norman Infantry

The beginnings of some Norman Infantry for CVT. Two stands of Psiloi and a stand of spear (if you’re familiar with DBA and not so familiar with this blog… well… you’ll notice we do things a little different around here…).

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These Psiloi are all from Old Glory


The Spear are from Gripping Beast.

I have two more stands of Spear to do and a stand of two of crossbowmen (Bow/Shooters), then I have Two more stands of Knights and a stand of Cavalry and a stand of Light Horse and I’m DONE!!! Well… then there’s some other stuff he sent that I might paint… and then there’s MY Norman army to paint...

Before finishing up any of those, however, I’ll probably finish off a few more LOTR Orcs and/or Goblins. I got a Moria Goblin King and Drummers off ebay for a general stand for an army of Moria (just finished the drummers this evening) and some more Uruk-hai and Mordor Orcs off a local fellow (Thanks Paz!)… So I might do a stand or two of those before carrying on with the Normans… just to keep things… “fresh”…

Odds and Sods

Another stand of Warrior Womyn (or not-so-Warrior Womyn, in this case) for Amanda’s Saphistic League of Unity and Togetherness and some “horse-men” of a different sort.


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are Reaper Miniatures “classics”. Three Female Halfling Rogues (or something like that..) to be used here as “Sneakers”. WE haven’t used them yet (Sneakers that is) in a game. I was explaining to Amanda how they work and she thought the idea was pretty cool and is pretty stoked to use them. She’ll have to wait for a week, though, because she just left for a week in San Diego….


These are some Centaurs from Mega Miniatures. I’m really quite pleased with these. I picked them up because they were very reasonably priced and there just isn’t that many Centaurs out there (I’ve always dreamed of having an army of Centaurs!). I don’t think the pictures on Mega Minis site really does them justice. I was quite pleasantly surprised when they arrived. I imagined they would have been smallish and without a lot of detail – I was wrong on both accounts! I bought one pack of 8 – this will be a stand of riders, the rest (which are more heavily armoured and have hand weapons) are going on stands of three and I’ll call them Knights. It’ll probably be a while before I realize the dream of an entire army of centaurs… but these will be a cool allied contingent for many I’m sure and provide a mounted contingent for my Narnians….

More HOTT Chicks

Amanda has decided she’d like to play a “HOTT Chick” army – a Hordes of the Things army comprised entirely of Women. I have dubbed the force the Saphistic League of Unity and Togetherness (is that going a bit far…?)

So far she’d be able to use my HOTT Dwarf Chicks of which there are three stands – all “Blades” (the rest of them can be seen HERE). I suppose there’s also the Dryads she could use as Lurkers. And she has a couple of options for wizards (both Elf and Human varieties – though I’d have to make new bases for both).

Now I’ve finished up a stand of elfie shooters for her:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a slightly bigger version)


I think these are WOTC/D&D figures…? Picked them up in a bargain bin. Wish I could have gotten a few more. Ah well…

I’d like to add some Shadowforge stuff at some point – especially some of the Dark Temple Centaurs!!

I am working on a Narnian White Witch which could also be used…

I’m trying to convince here she needs a Hero General from Hasstlefree Miniatures…

The Battle of Woozle Wood

Due to an unfortunate combination of bad spelling, atrocious grammer, poorly chosen words and even worse translation the Dwarf King Krizden thought King Darrin of Dondunald had referred to his daughter Princess Maeve as being “fat”. Truly there was never a skinnier Dwarf that ever lived. King Krizden immediately demanded an apology. King Darrin not sure what he was supposed to apologize about refused and the Dwarves marched down from the hills to defend the honour of their young princess!

The Dwarves brought with them the wildmen of the north and, as luck would have it, King Darrin’s Brother-in-law Duke Huntingdon just happen to be in town… with his entire mounted field army…?!

The Battle took place around Woozle Wood.

FORCES

Jarl Timbur – humans, etc.
1x Blade General
4x Blade (Huscarls)
3x Warband (Berserkers)
2x Beast (Wolves)
1x Behemoth (Trolls)

King Krizden – Dwarves
1x Hero General
1x Dragon
8x Blade

King Darrin – More Humans
1x Blade General
2x Blade (Huscarls)
1x Magician (Witch!) (if their side had won she’d have been referred to as a “priestess”…)
1x Shooter
6x Spear

Duke Huntingdon – Still more humans… on horses…
1x Knight General
1x Hero
6x Knights
1x Rider
1x Magician


THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Lady Huntingdon (Amanda) and her army of Horsies (girls like horsies…). She's having a good laugh because just as I was about to take the picture she unzipped her jacket and someone said "Alright! going to show us a little cleavage!"... What? It wasn't ME?!!


King Darrin (Darrin) and shi army of sturdy foot.


King Krizden (Christian) and his Dwafish army.


Jarl Timbur (some funny-looking, smelly, half-wit that wandered in off the street…) and his Viking-ish army.


Duke (or Lady) Huntingdons Horse charge down off the hill to meet the Dwarvish invaders! HUZZAH!!


Things are a little more poderish on the southern end of the woods. Darrin deciding (wisely) to stay on the defence was blessed with the ability to only roll fives and sixes for his PIPs… most of which he never used… I on the other hand… moved a little slower…


The Beautiful and charming Lady Huntingdon surveying the battlefield.


Huntingdon’s Horse was plagued with poor rolls all evening. After their initial gallop they sort of tumbled toward the dwarves in slowmotion…


…almost there…


Jarl Timbur’s men slowly making their way toward King Darrin’s lines…


Wolves making their charge around the flank hoping to harass their rear or og for the stronghold.


CRUNCH!! The Horse finally made contact…


…and broke upon the sturdy Dwarven shield wall as water on a wall of stone!


Back and forth they went for some turns. The horse slowly being whittled away.


Bit by bit the Dwarves just took the horse apart. Lord Huntingdon fell – but the horse did not panic


The main force of Jarl Timbur makes contact with King Darrin’s line. It is an inconclusive shoving match.


The wolves try to make their crossing a little further down river where they won’t be menaced by the Spear dispatched to deal with them.


The battle was won on the north end of Woozle Wood where Huntingdon’s Horse was utterly obliterated…

So King Darrin was obliged to appologise and peace returned to the two kingdoms – Though Duke Huntingdon was some peeved at the King for simply giving up the field with minimal loss to his own army after Huntingdon’s force was sacrificed.

LOSSES

Jarl Timbur’s Vikingish Army
-none!

King Darrin’s Army
1x Spear

King Krizden’s Dwarves
2x Blade
(Dragon never arrived… after being paid all that gold, too… Revenge will be taken!!)

Duke Huntingdon’s Horse
(before the last of the last deserted the field)
1x Knight General
4x Knights
1x Rider

More Knights (and a wizard)

Here are a few more Knights for Chris’ Norman Army… I know… they have surcoats… He bought them. They were probably “crusaders” and he thought they were “close enough”. I pointed out that Normans are usually depicted as not wearing surcoats. He pointed out that really we have very little idea when Normans actually wore and maybe they DID wear surcoats and I said fair enough! Who am I to argue with that? I’m no historian!? If you think it’s “wrong” tell Chris about it - and tell him to his face so he can poke you in the eye with a pointy stick!

I did at least replace their shorter more medieval-ish shields with the longer Norman kite shields…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


I think these are all from Old Glory…


Saruman – another Lord of the Rings figures from Games Workshop.

The Fords of Robaart

On Thursday evening the Orcish hordes of Timmillur the Clean descended on border post near of the Fords of Robaart on the Rumbeer river – the border between Civilized Lands and the Dark Wilderness…. Waiting for them was the Army of King Timm II (also known as Timm the Brown – or Timm the Unclean…).

FORCES

Army of Timmillur the Clean
1x Knight General (big, mean, nasty, heavily-armoured orcs of poor overloaded and meaner for it wolves…)
2x Behemoths (Giants, Trolls)
3x Beasts (Wolves sans riders)
1x Warband (Orcs)
6x Hordes (Goblins)

The Army of King Timm II
1x Hero General
1x Knight
1x Rider
1x Warband
7x Blade

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The army of King Timm II ready to meet the hordes descending form the wilderness…


The Hordes of Timmillur the Clean


The Moutned element peel away to deal with the beasts that have cross the river further to the west…


… While the line of infantry advance to hold the south bank of the Rumbeer River


Uh… who rolled that one…?

The Heroic King Timm II rashly charges in to head off the beasts making for the rear…. His Knights following a bit too close behind. The ferociousness of the wolves took King Timm a bit off guard and forced them to recoil into the knights which caused chaos and confusion – rumours quicly spread that the King had been killed and the army abandoned the field in panic and disorder!

Game Over.

I was a bit of a dumbass and could have set that up better. Heck, I could have waited another turn before making contact – waiting for the knights to move up and support with an overlap… Ah well…

LOSSES:

Humans
1x Hero General

As that was over in a hurry we played another game…


GAME TWO

The forces remained the same as the orc army poured across the northern ford onto the Isle of Robaart (an Island caused by a split in the river).

When the route of King Timm’s army slowed and the forces gathered back and assured that the King was in fact not dead they rallied ans tried to retake the fords… attacking the south ford…


The Army of King Timm II advancing on the South Ford… from the South…


The army of Timmillur the Clean holding the border fortress on the Isle of Robaart.


Both Generals seemed to have the same plan – hold the river… flank on the right…


King Timm and his knights try to force their way across and toll up the flank of Goblin Horde!


Timmillur and the beasts attack the east end of King Timm’s line.


The Berseks and Blades at that end of the line did sterling service holding off relentless attacks by the ferocious wolves – against all odds…!


Time and again the wolves attacked and were repulsed!


…despite their lack of communication with the King at the far end of the line…


Finally the Day was won much the same way The Orcs had won the previous day – Genearl Timmillur found himself in a tight position and was forced back into the river by the fury of the Human Berserks. While Timmillur was okay his favouite Dire Wolf mount ("Fluffy") was drowned and floated down the river past the Horde holding the bank. Thinking their General was himself lost, chaos and confusion ensued and the Orc army fled the field…

They will likely regroup in the wilderness and return… but King Timm II will be ready for them!

From that day forward Timmillur was known as Timmillur the Unlucky… (or sometimes Timmillur the Soggy or Timmillur the Moistened – but never to his face!)

LOSSES:

Orcs
1x Knight General
1x Horde? I might have knocked out one or two… maybe three… I know at least one was returned to the tabletop… Whatever.. they’re hordes they don’t really even count.

Humans
1x Blade

The Rohirrim

I finally finished off the Knight General stand for my Hordes of the Things Army of Rohan. Here’s a couple pics:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are Lord of the Rings figures from Games Workshop. King Theoden is in the Center there flanked by Gamiling/Royal Standard Bearer and a Mounted Royal Guardsman.


Another shot of the same


and again…


Here he is commanding the rest of the Rohirrim thus far mustered – a stand of riders and another stand of Knights.

I am going to have one more stand of Knights, the rest will be riders. One of the stands of knights I might occasionally field as a “Hero”. Eventually I’ll pick up some Warriors of Rohan and have some foot options – blades, spears shooters, etc.

I have two more stands worth of riders to paint at the moment, and another three stands worth on the way… I’ll just need one more box to finish off the riders and then two more mounted guardsmen and a character of sorts (Theodred or Erkenbrand – whichever I can pick up off ebay for 50% off or more – which is what I’ve done with the other character models I’ve picked up - there’s no way I’d pay the absurd suggested retail!?)

I've been playing too many games this week... it's slowing down my painting productivity level...

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Normans…. no, really…

Monday Night Hordes of the Things

Usually my friend Mr. Miller stops by one evening a week to hang out and paint toys. I’ve got him interested in Hordes of the Things now though, and as the games are quick we can get in a quick game AND still do some painting. Mr. Knudsen also had a free evening so he joined us for a game as well!

Mr. Knudesen showed up a bit early so I played a quick game with him first

FORCES

Tim B. – Orcses
1x Warband General – big nasty Orcs
3x Warband – Orcs
6x Horde – Goblins
1x Behemoth – Trolls
3x Beast – Wolves

Chris K – Vikingish
1x Blade General
8x Blade
1x Hero
1x Rider

THE GAME

The Vikings were attacking an Orc stronghold which had been sending out raids into the viking border areas… terrain and forces were deployed…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The Orc defenders…


The Vikngs advancing with a sneaky reserve of to the rear…


The wolves flanked around through the woods and ate some Vikings on the falnk before the reserve could be deployed…


Then the reserve moved up and that was the end of that pack of wolves.


The battle lines meet! CRUNCH!! Steel shattered bone! Blood spattered about and soaked the earth…


The Generals warband punched a hole through the Viking lines! The goblin hordes vapourized!? GAH!!


Mr. Knudsen making so clever tactical maneuver that likely spelled my DOOM! DOOM! I tell you!!


The General that punshed through the lines was quickly surrounded, cut off…


… and destroyed… The rest of the gobliny-orcish army fled back into the wilderness in panic and disarray!

Jarl Knudsen orc-slayer was made a hero in many Vikingish songs and epics.

Losses

Vikings
2x Blade

Orcs
4x Horde
1x Beast
1x Warband General


GAME #2

Mr. Knudsen and I finished out game just before Mr. Miller showed up. Chris decided to try out the orcs but wasn’t so interested in Hordes…

FORCES

Chris K – Orcses
1x Hero General – big nasty Orcs
4x Warband – Orcs
1x Horde – Goblins
1x Behemoth – Trolls
2x Beast – Wolves
1x Artillery - Catapult

Tim M.– Elfsies
1x Blade General – Elfie axemans
2x Blade – Elfie axemans
1x Hero – Elvish knights
2x Riders – Elvish outriders
4x Shooters – Elf Archers
2x Lurkers – Dryads and Leprechauns

THE GAME

This time Elves were making a foray into Orcland to punish them further. Isn’t that just like an elf to kick a guy when he’s down… Turn him into a pincushion by filling his back full of arrows as he flees…


The forces deployed… What is with those elves…? They got somethgn tricky up their sleeve…?


Hmmmmmm…. maybe they're "hiding" behind the woods and going to launch a sneak attack...?


Once again wolves head for the woods, but things turn out a little differently here. With his single pip Mr. Miller marched the column of Elf archers into the woods – I was beginning to wonder if the elvish commanders name was Braddockadyll..?


GRAAAARRR! The wolves descend upon the elves in the woods. The elves send then scurrying away with their tails between their legs.


The with a blocking force of Dryads and Leprachauns(!?) The wolves are cut off and…


...utterly annihilated… Those sneaky bastards…


Most of the battle turned into a fight for the woods as two of the orc warbands were thrown in there and the Orcish “hero” general also made a foray into the woods…


The Orc “Hero” didn’t like fighting in the woods so much so he went out to chase down some Elfie horse riders…

Hmmm that seems to be it for pics. I think what ended the game was the elvish hero pulling out of line and wheeling around on his own to flank the trolls and wipe them out .

Losses

Elves
1x Lurker
2x Shooters

Orcs
2x Beast
2x Warband
1x Behemoth

Then we put all the toys away and did some painting. I worked on Gamling – the army standard-bearer for my HOTT Rohirim and some other figures sitting at the front edge of the workbench. Mr. Miller painted some Space Marines. Christian just hung out for a bit and read some rules and yapped with us.

These gaming-painting combo nights are really working out for me… We should do this more often!