Distractions - Lord of the Rings

At some point, rebasing all the English Civil War, I kind of decided that I should rebase ALL of my Hordes of the Things. If been doing some of them here and there for some time - GW figures got rebased to, theoretically, use with Warcry or Age of Sigmar. Generally, I feel like they'll all be more useful on individual bases. On Hordes of the Things bases they can be used for Hordes of the Things. On individual bases they can be used for SO MANY OTHER games - Song of Blades and Heroes, Savage Worlds, Dragon Rampant (I know, they COULD be used in Dragon Rampant...), Frostgrave, assorted role-playing games... You get the idea... 

Where did I start...? The Lord of the Rings stuff!? 

Why?! I don't know... Maybe because those drawers are in the top right...? Because I was looking through them all and realized there were two full Dragon Rampant forces right there!?

WHY am I suddenly re-basing HotT fantasy armies when I was working on English Civil War stuff...!? I don't know... the ADHD happened, I guess. 

Technically, I'm NOT currently rebasing these. I've stopped. I have a moment of clarity and wondered what the fuck I was doing and finished up the last few I'd started and stopped for the time being! But I wasted spent so much time on this over the last week, I thought I'd share some of the progress/process.

Based individually, THESE, ones have an additional game they could be used in - the Middle-Earth™ Strategy Battle Game from Games Workshop - for which MOST of these were originally make. I have no great urge to buy or play the Middle-Earth™ Strategy Battle Game... but I COULD!? 

(Considering the Core Book is $75CAD and each of the Army Books are $75, that would be $150 just to get the rules and model stats to play... so... that is NOT going to happen... Y'know, unless I find a used copy at the Symphony Book and Music sale for $5... like I did for Warhammer 40K 6th Edition!) 

three drawers of Lord of the Rings miniatures. Most of these were bought over a decade ago... When I was still playing Hordes of the Things on the regular. The idea was to build Lord of the Rings armies for Hordes of the Things, and base extras individually to use in games of Savage Worlds. Also, around the time, I think I was reading the Hobbit and Lord of the rings with the kids and probably watched the Special Edition DVDs with them... 

ALL of the miniatures I picked up used off ebay (or... maybe a few I got in trade...?) and paid a fraction of the cost to buy them new. I looked up GW Middle Earth miniatures the other day - to see what they cost, y'know, just in case I NEEDED to get any to fill holes in the armies I was trying to build and - Sweet Jiminy! - they are not inexpensive! IF ever I need anything else, I will be turning to ebay again! 

(The packages of Characters/Heroes are $40-$70 for 2-4 heroes, generally half mounted, half on foot! I mean, that's kind of inline with the rest of GWs minature lines. The Generic plastic foot, on the other hand, are still some of the least expensive GW minis $55CAD for about 24 models) 

Primarily, while rebasing these, I was thinking of Dragon Rampant and how these figures could be cobbled together into units and fielded as a warband in that game. It is the only game I'd use these in with proscribed unit sizes - and the one I'll be discussing most here. 

ROHAN

Drawer #1 - Rohan

This one is MOSTLY re-based, but still needs a lot of miniatures to be painted to be fielded as a force in Dragon Rampant. 

I will have seven, more or less, useable units (once they're all painted) 

• 1-2x Elite Riders @6 points
• 3x Heavy Riders (+mounted missiles) @5 points
• 1x Heavy Foot @4 points
• 1x Light Missiles @4 points

A total of 35 points... HOW will I field them as a 24 point warband... not sure just yet..?

Possibly:

• 1 Elite Riders @6 points
• 3x Heavy Riders (+mounted missiles) @5 points
• 1x Scouts @2 points

That would be 23 points. Maybe I could add "Hatred" or "enchanted weapons" to one of the units to make it 24...? 

Elite Riders -  Théoden - King of Rohan, Éomer - Marshal of the Riddermark, Gamling - the Royal Standard Bearer and three Royal Guard knights. 

The second - unpainted - batch of Elite Riders contains Théodred, Prince of Rohan, Éowyn, and four more Royal Guard knights. 

When I get to painting any more of these, I'll probably focus on Théodred, Éowyn, and two more Royal Guard knights. As I'll probably only ever be fielding ONE unit of Elite Riders with one (or more) of the characters leading them. 

 

Stuff I didn't get to rebasing - largely because I didn't have enough 40mm round bases on hand. This will make one unit of Heavy Riders (+Mounted Missiles). I thought I'd call them such because they all have a fair bit of armour and shields with swords and/or spears/lances and every one of them has a bow and quiver... 

I had thought of separating them into Heavy Riders - the ones bearing their swords and spears, and Light Riders - the ones shooting their bows. Then noticed the ones bearing the swords and spears also had bows and quivers across their backs... so... calling them ALL heavy riders with missiles. 

Need to rebase these, and paint up two more such units. 

Archers. I have four more, and along with two spare warriors with spears, could make a unit of twelve and be called Light Missiles... but that likely won't easily fit into a warband... so I might just use the ones already painted as Scouts and not worry so much about EVER painting the rest of the Archers... unless I ever decided I NEEDED to do and entirely dismounted force for Rohan... Y'know... for the Battle of Helm's Deep or whatever... But that would require buying a few boxes of Rohan warriors. 

MAYBE someday if I EVER get all the stuff I have painted AND I get REALLY excited about Lord of the Rings again AND start playing a LOT of games with these... MAYBE then... 

More of the foot that are painted. I have enough for one unit of Heavy Foot. 

I have an assortment of characters that could lead the unit. Éowyn is painted (showen above), but I also have dismounted versions of Théoden, Éomer, and Gamling to paint up. I suppose, IF ever I was to put together a dismounted warband of Rohan Warriors, I could group a few of the heroes into a single unit together and call them Elite Foot (Reduced Model Unit - if there was, say, three of them... removed on for every two damage dealt to the unit...?)

ISENGARD

Opposing the warriors of Rohan, I have a force or warriors of the Uruk-Hai/White Hand from Isengard. 

You can see how the original Hordes of the Things army was organized here:

Last of the Uruk-Hai Foot

These are almost all painted and would just need rebasing (I know, I can play Dragon Rampant with them AS IS... buuuuuut....). IF (when? if we're trying to be more positive...?) I get back to working on Lord of the Rings stuff... I'll probably focus on PAINTING the warriors of Rohan to finish up THAT force, THEN rebase these... 

What these COULD be fielded as:

• 1x Elite Foot (Missiles) @8 points
• 3x Heavy Foot (offensive) @6 points
• 2x Heavy Foot @4 points
• 1x Bellicose Foot @3 points 
• 1x Light Missiles @4 points
• 1x Lesser Warbeasts (+ranged attack?) @6 points

For a total of 47 points (FORTY-SEVEN!)

Or possibly it could be fielded as:

• 5x Heavy Foot @4 points
• 1x Bellicose Foot @3 points

for 23 points... 

I'll discuss the options below... 

Somehow I have TWO Saruman miniatures!? 

(actually I know exactly why I have two... at the I was buying these, they were very cheap to pick up off ebay and I often got TWO of most characters - ONE that I could put on a Hordes of the Things base, and a second to base on a washer and use in skirmish games - Savage Worlds is what I would have been using then - or role-playing games, if ever the opportunity arose...) 

If Saruman were to lead his troops in battle, directly, I figured I could represent him as Elite Foot (with Missiles). Elite foot because he's wearing some pretty heavy Plot Armour and can deal some serious damage against anyone with MAGIC! Also the Missiles represents him being able to throw fireballs, or whatever... He could either be a single-model unit (on his own) or a Reduced Model Unit (of three with Gríma Wormtongue, and whoever that other guy is) or just a regular six model unit with the three spare Uruk-Hai warriors I have in the back, there... 

(I don't know if Saruman is that bad-ass in battle... see Notes on Lord of the Rings below...) 

Uruk-Hai Warriors with crazy pike-like-things. They were "Spear" in Hordes of the Things. I would call these Heavy Foot in Dragon Rampant. Heavy Foot have an ability called "Wall of Spears" where they basically form a shield wall with spears poking out increasing their armour against foot attacks (but not shooting?). I have two full units of twelve... plus another half of a unit. 

I may, when rebasing these, cut the pikes down a bit, so they fit in the drawer standing up. It's always irritated me having to lay models over on their side inside a drawer, where they can slide around and bash into other models. I coudl even shorted them up enough to look more like halberds (as I've done with the one in Saruman's unit, above)

Two and a half units of Uruk-Hai warriors with sword and shield. In Hordes of the Things, these were "Blade". I was thinking, for Dragon Rampant, I could call these Heavy Foot (offensive) - Offensive heavy foot lose the "Wall of Spears" rules and their attack value becomes 4+... but at a cost of +2 Points per unit! 

I had thought the six additional Pike could be have their pikes shortened to look like halberds and added to the half unit of sword and shield warriors above to make a third full unit of 12 Offensive Heavy Foot... or just mix them in amongst the three units...

THEN I got to thinking, maybe I could just mix them ALL together - Five units of twelve each with six pike and six sword and shield and just call ALL of them Heavy Foot! This is probably what I will do...

Uruk-Hai Scouts. In Hordes of the Things I called these Warband. In Dragon Rampant, they will be Bellicose Foot. 

Archers. They were "Bow" in Hordes of the Things. I don't have quite enough to field them as Light Missiles... I could try and track down four more of these, but that might mean getting them as part of a lot that has more than I really NEED...  Alternatively, GW sells packs of four Uruk-Hai with Crossbows that could be added to this unit to make it twelve... OR, for now (or, rahter, when I ever rebase them and start PLAYING with them) I can just use four of them and call them Scouts. 

Warg Riders. Only ever got two of them done and called them "riders"... or... Maybe "Beasts"...? Here, they could be Light Riders, or Lesser Warbeasts (with missiles). I kind of need three more... 

I do have these... This was the only time I really got burned on ebay. I was sure I checked the picture, and, though they were in rough shape, all the parts were there to assemble them back into a full unit of six... but when they arrived there were three of the riders arms and five of the wargs legs that were missing, AND when I went to complain, the listing had vanished as the seller had deleted their account!? I might try, at some point, to cobble some sort of warg legs and arms for the riders together - to make a unit of six warg riders... but that seems like a lot of work and is really, REALLY low on the priority scale.... 

GONDOR (and others) 

The third box is a mix of Warriors of Gondor and others from the Lord of the Rings, mostly "Good" guys.. 

Elements of The Fellowship... two of each... because... REASONS?!

(as I explained above, they were very cheap to pick up off ebay and I often got TWO of most characters - ONE that I could put on a Hordes of the Things base, and a second to base on a washer and use in skirmish games, if ever the opportunity arose...)

In Hordes of the things I had a base of Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas to use as "Hero" and Gandalf the White (with Perragrin Took trailing along behind in Faramir's old armour he wore as a kid) to use as a "Magician" element. 

As Saruman above, these could be mixed together in a variety of combinations to be used as Elite Foot (with Missiles - either to represend Gandalf blasting things with magic, and/or Legolas' bow!) 

MORE of the Fellowship - ANOTHER Gandlaf, Gimli and Legolas (and NEARLY finished Aragorn) and a swarm of the hobbits in various gear and poses!? 

I also have mounted versions of Aragorn and Gimli and Legolas - could be Elite Rider - Reduced Model Unit... WITH MISSILES (@8 points!) 

Oh, and a mounted version of Gandal the White... missing his staff... 

For Gondor, I really only have these... Aragon the King on foot and small groups or archers and foot warriors... This is from one frame of plastic Warriors or Minas Tirith. IF I bought a box of Warriors of Minas Tirith ($55CAD, currently), it comes with two such frames totalling 24 Warriors, which would give me eight more of each - making three units of twelve - One unit of twelve archers (light missile) and two units of heavy foot (with an even mix of spear and sword armed warriors)...

But that would only make three units totalling 12 points.... I'd probably need to pick up, at least a box of Knights - which would only be a fourth unit, for another $53, for 6 more points... I guess I could add in some of the fellowship above and just call them Elite Foot without the missiles... alternatively, If I really wanted them to shoot, I could call them Light Missile (Sharpshooters, Reduced Model Unit)? 

That force could look like:

• 1x Light Missile (Sharpshooters, Reduced Model Unit) - Gandalf and Pippin @6 points
• 1x Elite Riders - Knights of Minas Tirith @ 6 points
• 2x Heavy Foot - warriors of Minas Tirith @4 points
• 1x Light Missile - Archers of Minas Tirith @4 points

for 24 points.... 

How likely is this to happen? Not-so-likely-at-all... for one, I'd have to spend upwards of $100 (maybe less, if I found some used ones in not-so-bad shape on ebay)... but I don't really HAVE an opponent for them!? So... If I get to painting the rest of these, it will probably just be to use them in smaller skirmish games.

Also have these... Not sure if this is Gondor... or some earlier dudes...? 

and these - a broken captain and a catapult crew... with no catapult1?

Oh, and Boromir and Faramir on foot... I guess they could be fielded together as a Elite Foot - Reduced Model Unit...? 

MOUTNED Boromir and Faramir... well... TWO of Faramir... again could be fielded as Elite Rider - Reduced Model Unit... (hey, that would negate the need for a unit of knights!? If I wanted a small group of Minas Tirith foot warriors and ALL THE HEROES) 

(Nevermind that Boromir was dead before any of the rest of The Fellowship made it to Minas Tirith...) 

Oh, and mounted Aragorn the King... He could join the other two brothers above if we wanted to do some serious RETCONing or "What Ifs...?"

OTHER STUFF...

Dwarves. Could be organized into a unit of Elite Foot and a unit of Scouts... which is ridiculous to even think of, because I'm not about to run out and buy any MORE LOTR dwarves to fill out and entire warband. I guess they could be organized as those units to be ADDED to any of the forces of good above.. 

Elves of Middle-Earth. Galadriel, Eldron and one of his sons (Elladan or Elrohir, I'm not sure which it is...), and four Galadhrim archers... (one of which might be Haldir...?) 

Six of them could be cobbled together to make a unit of Elite Foot (with Missiles) for 8 points and added to any of the above forces of Good... There is next to NO chance I will ever put together a force of LOTR Elves... 

So these are fun... These are old, OLD Lord of the Rings miniatures that Citadel Miniatures (GW) produced back in the late 80s... Beorn, Boromir, Gandalf, Strider and an Elf. I had a handful of them, these are the original paint jobs from 30+ years ago! (Well, not Beorn! But he's still on his original square base!) Often I am tempted to strip and repaint these (as I've done with so many of the miniatures I still have from this era (and started to do with other Lord of Rings miniatures of the same vintage - see below)... but other times I feel like I should keep them as they are. 

At one point I also had a mounted version of the Elf and Beorn as a giant bear... and a foot and mounted version of an Easterling - that looked like a Mongol! No idea where those ever got to... 

These are a few of the models from teh same line that I did strip and prime and rebase to be painted anew... but haven't gotten to is. I think it's Gollem and Bilbo in the back and Sam and Frodo in the front. 

Also some rangers from the same line. These are some of my favourite minitures EVER! They were, at one point, used as scouts for a Brettonian army... 

Last one... NOT Citadel miniatures... But miniatures I thought I could use as Nazgûl - Ringwraiths. Two of them ARE Ringwraith miniatures - from Mithril Miniatures. The other, that I thought might be a good stand-in for the Witch-King of Angmar, is, I think, from Reaper Miniatures...? 

Notes on the Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings holds a weird place in my brain. For many, many years it was a source of great shame and embarrassment. As a teen-age fan of fantasy role-playing in the 1980s, the Lord of the Rings was, like, the starting point - required reading for all. A series ALL of my friends had read (some, multiple times) and... well.. I have NEVER read the entire series. 

I am not a good reader... In recent years, it has come to light that there are neurodevelopment reasons for this, but it's hard to let go of that feeling of not measuring up and feeling so stupid for s SO MANY years... decades... 

I did read the Hobbit as a teen, it was a struggle. Eventually I got through Fellowship of the Ring, too (but I had to skip the LOOOOONG preface in the copy I had) -but then just couldn't get going on Two Towers. I've ended up reading the Fellowship THREE TIMES!? I read it that first time as a teen. Then Amanda and I read it aloud to each other at one point - before having kids - it was a thing we did... I think we started reading it (and maybe the Hobbit...?) when we heard there was going to be a new movie series, and finished Fellowship (though I can't remember if we finished Fellowship before of after the movie came out!?), but then never got around to reading Two Towers... Finally I read it a THIRD TIME to my kids, aloud, when they were very young. That time I DID manage to read Two Towers... but that was a slog... and never got to finishing up the series by reading Return of the King... 

I also don't retain a LOT of details from what I've read... so most of what I know about Lord of the Rings is vague memories from the books, a bit from the movies, and stuff I've looked up online... 

(Hence, not really knowing if it's appropriate for Saruman or Gandalf to be running around the battlefield shooting stuff with MAGIC... I guess I'll worry about it if I ever get around to playing with these.) 

I've also never read Dune - another series that ALL my friends as a teen had read... 

AND I STILL haven't rewritten my 2023 Game Plan (Q1)... I could blame Keiran for hogging the computer for the last three days... but I've had time I COULD have been finishing it up... I just... did other stuff... (like deciding to rebase and reorganize the entire collection of Lord of the Rings miniatures to use with Dragon Rampant... for no real GOOD reason...)