Best Wishes to All (version 2)

Ok this is the second time around for this post as the first time I managed to publish some code! Anyway here's the original post:

"I don’t believe in God”

What a weird way to open a post, but there you go I’ve said it. I don’t believe in God however I do celebrate Christmas. Isn’t that a bit of a dichotomy I hear you ask, well I suppose it is however I’ll elaborate further, you see I spent a good portion of my childhood in the Scouts and as such every third Sunday was spent at church as well as quite a few church parades and also bible studies. Now you would think that I would have developed a firm belief system after all this intensive exposure however just the opposite occurred. I started to see flaws in many of the arguments, in my teen years I read both the Bible, Koran and Hyperspace (by Prof Michio Kaku) and like many people agonised over my own personal beliefs and place in the world (being a teenager sucks sometimes).

Anyway to cut a long story short I ended up with the following personal view of Christmas and that is it’s a celebration of the good in people. If I can make the lives of both my family, friends, colleagues and people that I pass in the street just a little bit brighter then that’s what I’ll aspire to do. By assigning a particular date to something I give myself a personal goal, something to work towards and therefore Christmas is a target each year to be better! You could argue that we should be like this all the time however I think that for me I would lose focus without this deadline, after all I work better to deadlines.

I freely admit that faith in something (gods, science, people) can make humans excel and bring out the best in people and please don’t consider this to be an argument against anyone’s faith. We each have to reconcile our personal beliefs with the reality of living in a society of diverse beliefs and aim to negotiate our way through life without conflict negatively impacting others.

Anyway now that I’ve set the scene I have to say that I am thankful in this festive season for a number of things over the last twelve months:

1. That my children are happy and healthy.

2. That both my wife and I managed to move to the other side of the planet without any major hiccups. It’s been a mad year with a lot of upheaval however we’re still going strong and firmly putting down roots in a brand new country.

3. I’m amazed by the way that we have been accepted by Kiwi’s. Prior to the move I read a lot of horror stories about how ex-pats have made the move and felt excluded and marginalised however that has not been our experience. We have been included in peoples lives with open arms, and with our families being 12,000 miles away at this time of year we were at risk of feeling alone, however this is definitely not the case.

4. That people of have continued to read this blog. It sounds a bit silly but when your life is being turned upside down the fact that there are people out in the big wide world that are interested in what I’m doing in this crazy little hobby has helped to keep me grounded and sane (and connected to a wider community).

5. Big thanks to two gamers here in NZ, Scott and Ashley who have helped me restart my gaming, given me an understanding of the local gaming community and provided me with something familiar (rolling dice for fun!). They both have the same mindset as me and that is that life is too short not to have fun doing this hobby.

And so I wish all you lovely blog readers, bloggers, gamers, search engines and advertising robots that happen across this blog a very Merry Christmas!

Roadblock on Hells Highway

I’ve been buried in Lord of the Rings for quite a while now and felt the need for a little fresh air so when mate Ashley offered up a Sunday’s Flames of War gaming with his lovely collection I thought “Why not!”

I’ve been dallying with this ruleset for about 10 years now and never really bought in to it, I suspect because I’ve never had an opponent that wanted to play it for the same reasons as me (tell a story, re-enact a little history and to have fun!). So last Sunday I arranged a day pass from family duties and headed over to Ashley’s house for a little “dice time”. After shooting the breeze and having a cuppa (we’re both Yorkshiremen so there’s always going to be Tea!) we set to deciding what we’d play and which sides we were. As Ashley had found the old version 2 mission “Road Block” we decided on a Panzer Kampfgruppe vs an Armoured Guards Company. I tend to forget all the ratings etc so in essence I had:
Sherman CiC and 2iC
2x Shermans & a Firefly
2x Shermans & a Firefly
4x M10 17pdr
Allied US Para Platoon
Priority Air Support

Ashley had:
Panzer IV CiC & 2iC
3x Panzer IV H
3x Panther
2x Tiger
1x Walkure Platoon

I’m not going to explain in depth the mission as you can find it online, suffice to say the deployment was confusing (typical FoW wording!) with Ashley deploying his Panthers and Panzer IV’s on a road at one side of the board (it’s played length ways) and me ambushing with the Para’s and rushing up a Sherman platoon to support. Everything else was in reserve.

As you might expect the Para’s caused no damage to the Panzer IV’s however they were dug in 4” from the road and the Panzer’s were never going to dig them out on their own. The Panthers however decimated the Sherman’s, their front armour ensuring that the piddly little 75mm just bounced off while the lone Firefly was obviously suffering from some kind of middle ear infection and couldn’t hit a barn door from 10 yards.

Ahh but I have Air Support! Hmmmm, well it came in every turn and managed to only bail two Panthers throughout the entire game.
Then as my two remaining platoons came on they had to rush from the far board edge as fast as possible to get in to the game, the M10’s paper armour not really helping them that much against Panthers and the newly arrived Tigers.
Eventually the Firefly was the lone survivor from the starting Sherman platoon and in an amazing (and stupid) act of bravery drove to within spitting distance of a Tiger on the objective to get a side shot on one of those annoying Panthers, completely gutting it!

So in summary the M10’s were obliterated (as you’d expect), the first Sherman Platoon was obliterated (as I expected), the Para’s just hunkered down and took the pain (as you’d expect), the M10’s couldn’t go toe to toe with the pride of German armour and were obliterated (as you’d expect - they had nowhere to hide and no sneaky rules) and the Air Support did nothing (the Typhoon was actually a light summer breeze). So from that you would surmise that I won’t be touching FoW with a barge pole for the near future, however I’m happy to say that I will definitely be playing it again as the game was a blast, my opponent was fun to play against and the spirit of the game was the right one.

I’m still firmly bought in to LoTR/Hobbit gaming however I can at least have some variety on my painting table and, when diaries align can have some dice rolling fun with someone of the same mindset! So expect to see a little more FoW battle reports soon (ish!).

Oh and incidentally I should mention that all the models are Ashley's, painted by Ashley, the terrain is Ashley's and the pictures are Ashley's! Basically I just turned up, played and then buggered off!

Second Challenge Entry - Ships!

It turns out that this challenge lark is actually hard work. Oh no not the fun bit of painting up my toys, no it's the bit about writing my entry on time!

Anyway now that it's published on the challenge blog I've reproduced my entry for the bonus round "Cold" below. Be prepared to learn a bit of history!

The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a World War two naval battle fought between Germany and Britain on 24 May 1941. There were six ships involved, both German ships, the battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were attempting to break out of the confines of the Baltic sea into the Atlantic to raid allied convoys. Shadowing them were two cruisers, HMS Suffolk and Norfolk whilst the battlecruiser HMS Hood and newly commissioned battleship HMS Prince of Wales waited for the opportune moment to strike. However when the British ships finally did pounce HMS Hood, pride of the British fleet was catastrophically hit and sunk with the loss of 1415 lives,  only 3 of her crew surviving (Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas).Due to gunnery malfunctions the Prince of Wales then broke off the engagement however they did cause some damage to the Bismarck that forced her to flee toward a friendly port (Brest). And so was set a race against time for the Royal Navy to avenge their loss and regain their reputation as masters off the seas!
"How is this related to the bonus round theme of Cold" I hear your all ask. Well the battle I describe took place in mid May in some of the worst sea conditions the crew of the aforementioned ships have ever experienced. All three survivors of HMS Hood came close to death from the icy sea (Ted Briggs spent three hours in the water and was near dead from hypothermia before being rescued by HMS Electra).

So I present to you the protagonists of the Battle of the Denmark Strait!


All six ships are 1/3000 from the Davco range stocked by Skytrex. They're pretty good on detail but are no match for the GHQ equivalents. However as I'm only dipping my toe in the naval wargame genre I'm quite happy with how they turned out! The battle ensigns are just laser prints of images sourced online, the ships themselves being based on lollipop sticks.

Uruk Hai scouts

No I haven't disappeared, I've been concentrating. "On what " I hear you all ask. Well like some kind of demented masochist I've entered the analogue hobbies fifth painting challenge and as such have been busy beavering away painting like a madman to get stuff submitted in time!

My first entry to my first challenge are some of Games Workshops Uruk Hai scouts from their Lord of the Rings range. These are the metal versions that have been lingering about for ages on my painting table and, since I moved to NZ and have finally found both my painting mojo and an opponent who plays GW's LoTR game for fun rather than to win I thought it wise to use the challenge to get some focus into my painting activity.





And it's only good and proper that those pesky scouts have a leader who can not only fill them with cuddly warm thoughts on doing their (evil) duty but also provide lunch - Ugluk!






These boys should get their first outing soon against whatever Scott dreams up to kick my butt (I'm certainly not the tactical genius I pretend to be!). However I'm sure it will be fun.

The Hobbit – The Battle of Five Armies

If you don’t want to know anything about his yet look away now…………. 

POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS 

Now that’s out of the way I’ll continue. Way back in 2001 I managed to talk my better half to come to the cinema to watch a movie adaptation of a little known book – The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. Luckily she quite liked it and fast forward 13 years we now live in New Zealand where the films were made. With the release of the final Hobbit trilogy – The Battle of the Five Armies I was eager to finish off the run that started 13 years ago and 12,000 miles away.

So calling in a favour we arranged a babysitter (our good friend Vanessa) and hightailed it over to the local flicks just in time to miss the rubbish trailers and see the lovely thank you trailer that cast and crew and had made to finish off this last instalment of the Middle Earth story (what else can they adapt, The Silmarillion ????). I had chosen the cinema by the following very extensive criteria:
- It's close by
- The screening was in Higher Frame Rate 3d
- It's close by
So we settled into the very average comfort level seats and I tried to get the 3d glasses comfortably positioned on my normal glasses. Then we both settled down to watch the movie magic.

So what did I think?

Errrrrrr….

I was rather disappointed to be honest. For some reason I can’t get in to the flow of a film that starts straight away. I know that all three movies are an extension of the same story however it does kind of feel like you’re walking into a party that’s mid-way through and everyone expects you to laugh at a joke that you didn’t hear the start of (oh and they’re all drunk whilst you’re stone cold sober!). Now this is probably my issue regarding vibe but I like to get warmed up by a film so I can enjoy the subsequent climax (no rude pun intended), however this starts off with the big battle between Bard the Bowman and Smaug. It’s all too sudden and in your face. 

Then there’s the issue of Higher Frame Rate. Purely from a technology point of view I understand the benefit, the added realism from the quality of image transports you into the movie as though you are there. However, i know it’s a film, I kept expecting to turn my head and see Peter Jackson directing the acting and to see the sound guy handling the boom mike. It spoiled my experience of the journey into a fantastical storyline, I want to be transported away from reality for a few hours and just enjoy a good story however the realism made it less like an adventure and more like a fly on the wall documentary. 

But that’s my fault for seeing it in that format. CGI was rather conspicuous in its prevalence, there was rather a lot of it and at times it spoiled the experience however this view may simply be because I saw it in HFR. I remember seeing Desolation of Smaug and complaining about it, yet once I watched it through again on DVD I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe viewing the film in a traditional sense rather  than in an advanced format meant that I could connect with it better (does that make me an old fart?) 

Luckily the acting this time round was pretty darn good, I thoroughly enjoyed Thorin’s paranoia, Bard was enjoyable as the reluctant hero and Billy Connelly hamming it up as Dain. There were no obvious dramatic pauses whilst an actor waits for the blue screen to catch up or blatantly obvious lines.  However it didn’t distract from the fact that for a two and half hour film not much actually happens. There’s a big battle, some fighting, a bit of character acting, then some more fighting. In hindsight I would agree with the naysayers in that it should have been only two movies and not three.

I’m glad I saw it, my wife got to catch up on some sleep (“where did those Dwarves come from, I missed it as I was asleep”!) and the actors involved certainly didn’t embarrass themselves. It’s just a shame that it was dragged out in to three films for the sake of the movie studio making a few bucks. I guarantee that many of you that have now seen the movie thoroughly enjoyed it and this is not an argument against your enjoyment, just my view based on a lot of different aspects that I found difficult to reconcile. Will it stop me buying the Directors Cut limited edition Blueray special blah blah blah…..probably not!

Clearing The Decks

So as the start date of the painting challenge approaches I find myself tidying up my painting table by simply painting everything on it! This isn't as exciting as it sounds as I've managed to crank through a big chunk of the part painted stuff recently, thus leaving only half finished (and half realised) projects to complete.

"So what have you got to complete Ste" I hear you ask? Well I've got a shed-load of little terrain projects that just never seem to get done, the first of which I like to refer to as "bags of stuff". You know how when you find that annoying hole in a metal mini or the big gap when gluing models together and you go to fill it and end up mixing too much green stuff!. What do you do with it?

Well I've always tried to use my excess in useful ways, I've just not always been successful. Now just to put things into context let me say that my sculpting skills are pretty mediocre to say the least, I can just about get away with filling gaps and sculpting fur or the odd hair extension so when it comes to excess green stuff I’m not that imaginative. So in the interests of not dragging things out here are the results of said sculpting experiments that have been loitering on my painting table for the last 2 years!!!

Also loitering about and which falls into the “clearing the desk” category are these rather nice (naff) boxes which I picked up at Pudsey Recon 2012 from someone second hand (I forget who).
And last but not least a few of the Renedra barrels that I bought at my last UK Wargames show (Triples) before moving to NZ. They don’t fit together very well however as a bit of battlefield terrain they work ok.

And here's the fruits of my labours all crammed together and being defended by a rather grumpy dwarven pirate (for a sense of scale!)
Now then, I only have one more thing to finish off on the painting table and I'll be all set for the challenge!

Gondor & High Elves vs Mordor & Isengard

So last week a carefully chosen select few of New Zealand’s most able gamers gathered for an evening of LoTR/Hobbit gaming hosted by the redoubtable Scott of www.scottswargaming.blogspot.co.nz.

I didn’t take any photo’s or manage to keep track of the action very well as I was having too much fun however Scott has done a very nice report of the action, it was hosted by him in his “War Room” at Chez Bowman and therefore all bragging rights accrue to him accordingly!

So why not head on over and check it out - http://scottswargaming.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/to-death-lotr-four-player-doubles-fun.html

Oh and big thanks to both Roly (purveyor of the fine blog Dressing the Lines) and Brian (purveyor of some fine LoTR tactical knowledge!) for a fun evening’s gaming.

"Find the Halflings, find the Halflings"

That's right I've now completed everyone's favorite Middle Earth movie creation - Lurtz. I've got two of these models, this version and the one with the bow and I'm not sure which is my favorite.

In the game he's got no particular special rules, he's not even that good with the bow however he's nice and cheap, he's an Uruk (and therefore hard as nails) but more importantly he has 3 might points which makes him mighty useful (did you see what I did there?)

Anyway seeing as I was painting an Uruk I thought I'd better give him a warband to lead. Unfortunately I've still to source enough metal scouts so Lurtz will have to settle for some regular Uruk tanks. So now I've only to finish off some Warg riders and a few outstanding random models and bits I'd scenery and I've cleared the decks ready for the start of the painting challenge!

Arghhh the Apocalypse is Coming!

Before you all go running for the hills with your canned goods and firearms let me clarify that it’s only coming to the kitchen table in my house. You see I’ve been working on my significantly better half for a while on the idea of gaming. Now I know I will never (ever, ever, ever) get her into true tabletop wargaming and all that involves (list building, a lead/plastic mountain and the ridiculous pursuit of the ‘perfect’ ruleset) I have finally achieved some buy in and recently bought the below:

On a whim a few birthdays ago I requested the first season of The Walking Dead which someone duly provided (wrapped in nice shiny kids wrapping paper with lovely little toy cars on it!). My wife was a little perplexed as neither of us had seen any of it or heard anything about it however I was having a few apocalypse gaming urges and thought this may provide some much needed inspiration. So we popped on the first episode one night and settled down with a cup of tea and a biscuit (not those crazy Rich Tea ones though as they dissolve if you try and dunk them!). 15 minutes in and we were both riveted. 3 hours later we’d devoured the first disc and a full packet of Digestives and three cups of tea. And so the obsession began.

Unfortunately we also moved to the other side of the planet at the same time so have been unable to keep up with developments in the world of The Walking Dead and have only now acquired the season 4 box set and seen none of the currently airing season 5 (so keep your mouths shut!!!)

And so we arrive at Zombicide. I’ve played it a few times and really enjoyed the Prison Outbreak version, so a quick chat after a really brutal episode of Walking Dead and my wife says “hell yeah I’ll play a zombie game”.

So I called in to a local hobby shop and acquired a copy of said game and a few days later we cracked through the first scenario, my wife having her doubts. However within half an hour she was punching the air as we cut down a fattie and two walkers to clear the path to one of the objectives.

I’ve also ordered a copy of Across the Dead Earth as I’ve been watching the development quite closely (thanks Simon – brummieswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk) and like the mechanic as well as the setting (gun fights in a ruined Tesco – hell yeah!). I’m hoping they manage to get the zombie add on up and running and then I can pretend to be a British Rick Grimes charging about looking emotionally tortured whilst kicking butt!

“They’re taking the Hobbits to Isengard!”

Ah, poor Orlando Bloom, his part in the Lord of the Rings movies being encapsulated in a comedy song built solely around this phrase. Oh hang on, he’s managed to turn it to his advantage securing his place in two of the subsequent 3 Hobbit films (and there is an excellent clip of him mocking himself in full Legolas costume on YouTube).

Anyway this is my favourite model of Legolas that GW produced and is the second to last one of the Fellowship for me to complete (the last being Gandalf). I decided to keep the same style throughout and have done him in muted tones with a slightly grubby look, perhaps not in keeping with how an elf should look but I think it works.
Now I just need to get him on the tabletop in a suitably comedic scenario that involves shield surfing and Mumak trunk riding!

Gimli: Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with an Elf
Legolas: What about side by side with a friend
Gimli: Aye I could do that!

Oh no, I entered the fifth analogue hobbies painting challenge!

Image courtesy of Curts Blog!

Well I did it, I decided to join in with one of the most challenging blog events of the year - the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This is a yearly event hosted by Curt on his aforementioned blog and runs for roughly 4 months, commencing in December, with the only requirement for entry being submission of a painted miniature to Curt in the annual theme (this year being anti-heroes, rogues and ruffians). For every model completed Curt awards points, in addition there are themed bonus rounds, all of which contribute to your total, the winner being the participant with the most points (the only prize being bragging rights! After all you've painted a whole host of minis, what else do you need).

So “what will you be painting” I hear you cry. Well I’ve got a massive pile of LoTR mini’s to paint, the main one being my Isengard force so expect to see Uruk Hai, Orcs, Warg riders, Dunlendings (although I’ll be using some wargames factory Vikings and some spares from my bits box!) and other assorted nasties. Alongside this I’ve prepped my models for the first Bismarck encounter so they should appear pretty quickly (I’ve no idea how Curt will score them!). Also I have a renewed interest in 15mm WW2 and piles of Plastic Soldier kits so that should provide some variety. Then once I’ve exhausted all that I can move on to my Perry 28mm DAK and 8^th Army! So plenty to do in a short period of time. I’ve already picked a target of 700pts however that may be a little ambitious considering I’ve never taken part before however I keep saying that I work best to a deadline so hopefully I should make this self-imposed milestone with a minimal of stress!

In terms of the entry fee I’ve already decided on a suitable rogue/anti-hero model, the arch nemesis of Sherlock Holmes himself – Professor Moriarty! Maybe he’s more of a villain than a rogue/anti-hero however I think he’s kind of cool in a very villainous kind of way.

Anyway the point of the whole affair is to reduce your lead/plastic pile whilst engaging in good natured banter, the issuing of challenges and more importantly having fun. Many of the well-known names in hobby blogging are or have taken part at some point. If you're interested or would like to see the results if all this frenetic painting activity head on over to Curts blog:

http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/remember-remember-fifth-annual-analogue.html?m=1

And to all my readers who are also taking part, good luck and I'll see you across the bragging table!

The WRATH of Rohan

No, not the Wrath of Khan for all you trekkie or Shatters fans out there, but rather the very nice scenario in the Two Towers Journeybook for LoTR/Hobbit SBG. As my family and I are now firmly settled in a nice rental property here in NZ we finally have some free time, so in the interests of keeping my gaming skills up to scratch I’ve hooked up with Scott at the Kapiti Coast Wargamers a couple of times. Anyway as there’s a nice groundswell of support for LoTR/Hobbit SBG here in the Wellington area I’ve been able to focus my gaming and as such Scott and I agreed to play the above scenario, for two reasons mainly:

1. It makes me paint up my Uruk Hai a bit faster
2. It’s hilariously good fun and makes for a different game.

Anyway to cut a long story short we set up the table as below and got cracking. As Scott wanted to try out his Rohan Royal Guard we adjusted the forces to include 6 of these dashing handsome chappies, the result being that I ended up with a few less Orcs but some of the rather hard Uruk Hai Swordsmen in heavy armour and shield (affectionately referred to as “tanks”).
The game starts with the Uruks and Orcs in a 24” bubble in the middle of a 4x4 board, the hobbits being loose near the centre of this bubble. I win if I reduce the good force to 25% whilst also controlling the Hobbits (once they’re further than 6” from the centre the evil force realises they’re trying to escape goes and beats them up in combat and therefore controls them (until they’re beaten up themselves)).Good wins if it slays all the Uruks and the Hobbits escape into Fangorn forest the wooded board edge.

So what tactic am I going to use?Well having been a Rohan player for a while as well as having played against Scotts Rohan before I decided that I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of lots of bowfire while he continually danced away from combat with his greater move distance. Therefore I thought I’d force the issue and shove a whole bunch of Uruks down his throat as fast as possible!
Let battle commence!
As Scott had to deploy on two opposing board edges his force was split equally. Therefore as I dutifully stuck to my plan we were in combat by turn two, the Uruks and Orcs ably holding their own. I noticed that Scott had angled his attack therefore there was a little redeploying to be done which was actually beneficial as I then had a second wave to throw in.
By turn two we were both calling heroic moves to try and gain the upper hand (Scott kept winning the priority roll and therefore getting his cavalry bonus in almost every fight).
Ugluk and the Rohan Captain face off! Ugluk has a high Defence and 3 might points so can be a pretty effective fighter. He narrowly missed slaughtering the Captain and was a thorn in Scotts side for a number of turns.
Meanwhile Grishnak on the other flank found himself isolated against 3 enemies, one of which was the B##tard of the Riddermark himself, and in a spectacularly average display of fighting fell to their blows (Scott and I both made a suitably “Grishnaky” croak as he died).
Then suddenly the two Hobbits were off, as fast as their hirsute little feet could carry them. I launched their two Orc minders after them, who were obviously a little distracted by pretty butterflies or the nice daisies, which resulted in the brave little Pippin slaying one of them whilst Merry gave the other a good Brandybuck thrashing and fought him off.
“Balls” thinks I. Trying to rescue my now tarnished evil reputation in the next turn I order my Uruk scouts with bows to fire into a combat, as being evil I’m allowed to do that. Although this fight involved 2 Riders against one of my Tanks (Uruk Swordsman) I still managed to kill said tank leaving the Riders a little bemused as to what just happened (obviously the Scouts couldn’t shoot straight due to doubling up with laughter after what just happened with the Orcs and the Hobbits).
It’s not looking good for me, the casualties are mounting up and suddenly Scott and I realise that I now have to make a break test in the next turn. Cue some pretty poor dice rolls and off go the Uruks and Orcs, leaving the game to Scott. We played it out to the end, Scott achieving the victory conditions of clearing the field of evil whilst the Hobbits go on to their encounter with a giant talking tree!

A great game with some highs and lows, lots of laughter and a good story. We totted up Scotts losses and I was only 3 riders short of making his force take break tests, so it could have easily gone the other way. I’d probably play it the same way again and see how it went.

Uruk Hai – Ouch!

For anyone that has played a certain sci-fi wargame where in the future there is only WAR the next phrase will make a lot of sense:

Uruk Hai are the Space Marines© (1) of LoTR SBG

Let me elaborate.

With a high starting Defence value of 5 which can be bumped up to 6 with the addition of a shield
they are nigh on impossible to kill by most races basic trooper. They are also the only race (I think)

that has access to the pike. Therefore if you adopt the turtle approach of 3 swords men backed up by 2 pikemen each you have a rock hard infantry blob that has 3 dice for each duel. That puts the bejesus into most Hero’s, nevermind your regular Rohan militiaman that a week earlier was harvesting his crops and wondering where his sheep had wandered off to.

So to put it bluntly they’re hard! I have often been on the receiving end of these walking tanks and unfortunately Theoden doesn’t issue tin openers as standard to his Rohan warriors so I have usually come off worst in every encounter. Anyway I recently played a game against Scott up at Kapiti Coast Wargamers, for which you can find a fine write up on Scotts blog here (.........link.......) and suffice it to say the Uruks performed as expected, walking around in their impenetrable blob staring angrily at the Riders of Rohan, who quite rightly stayed out of charge range and chucked all manner of pointy stuff at them.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game however its now got me thinking about how to beat them with
my own Rohan force, therefore stay tuned as I may come up with some stunningly original tactic ......(yeah right).

Anyway on the painting front these guys are sooooooo easy to paint. Black undercoat, chainmail
drybrush, brown skin, highlight red, pick out a few fabric and belt details and then wash. Easy! After all you really aren't trying to get a really neat and tidy finish on these guys and I've got another 30 to paint, and thats not to mention the 20 or so scouts I want so I may as well develop a nice fast paint method that looks good (ish).
Oh and I decided to deviate from my tried and tested brown basing with flock as I wanted to give the idea of these guys spreading their "industrialise nature" attitude so went with the scorched grey earth look.

(1) For obvious reasons I don’t want to confuse people with the use of this copyright as you may think I’m referring to a children’s story! For those of you who are now even more confused google ‘Spot the Space Marine and GW’.

Painting again - LoTR Orcs

Now that I’m up and running with my paints and hobby supplies I’ve been able to actually produce
some painted figures and in keeping with my current Lord of the Rings theme I present some pretty
naff Orcs. The history around these is that they were part of my “Lord of the Rings on a Budget”
project prior to moving to NZ. I managed to source these through eBay for £3.50 for 35 which is a
pretty good deal. However much like many things found on eBay they weren’t very well described and it turns out that only 10 were actually undamaged, the remainder having various elements broken off (spears, swords, arms). As they were described as “Orcs for LoTR” in the description without any mention of damage I politely contacted the seller prior to giving feedback and pointed this out. I’m not sure they really cared what I thought however they did care about their positive seller rating and promptly refunded me £2.

Luckily for me I have a big pile of goblins that can be used for spare parts, the mix and match nature
of the models will definitely suit the imagery of an Orc. And even better it meets my “Lord of the
Rings on a Budget” requirement of costing me £0.042p per model!

In the game they have an average Fight value of 3, 5+ shoot which when coupled with the poor strength of an orc bow means you don’t tend to kill much when shooting. Strength 3 is average, Defence 4 isn’t too shabby however a Courage value of 2 means that these guys will probably leg it at the first sign of trouble (which is to be expected of an Orc!). However at 5 points basic you can have bucket-loads of the which is very useful!

Next up in the queue are the Uruk Hai who recently had an outing against Scotts Rohan
and all I can say is sorry Scott!

Woohoo our stuff arrived

Yes, after 3 months of living out of several suitcases our possessions have finally arrived in NZ. To say we're excited is an understatement, the boys have gone into overdrive and thrown toys all over the new house. We keep opening boxes and exclaiming "I'd forgotten we had that". It's hard not to start enjoying our stuff rather than actually finding a place for it. Otherwise we'll just end up surrounded by boxes.
So now we need to sort out some internet service and I can start blogging properly again, rather than writing gibberish on my phone!
Normal service shall resume shortly(ish).

I Got Older!

Apparently there’s this weird tradition of people celebrating the passage of time in relation to how long you’ve been alive. Now I’m not much for socialising or parties, especially if I’m the reason for the celebration however as I would be celebrating this rather significant birthday on the other side of the planet my relations decided to throw a bit of a going away / happy 40th party.

Now this was a month before the actual event and involved the usual cake, buffet food and gift giving which is all very nice and enjoyable. However then we had the adventure of getting to New Zealand, starting a new job and just generally restarting our lives so as you can probably appreciate I completely forgot about my impending 40th(ness).

However my wife being a kind and caring soul (unlike me!) arranged for a little birthday weekend for us all (all being the four of us), with a day out at the coast (Paraparaumu), cake, swimming and presents! Now she has known me for quite some time now so understands me better than I do myself most days, and accordingly got me two very nice presents, as shown below:

The WETA Collectibles Catalogue 2013.



No I don’t collect their range of statues/collectibles however there are some great pictures inside that are incredibly useful colour guides for painting models for LoTR/Hobbit SBG gaming. In fact I used their Boromir statues as a colour guide for painting Boromir from the Fellowship!

Also it isn’t solely restricted to WETA’s Lord of the Rings activity as they also show their range of Narnia (ugh), King Kong (average), Halo (interesting), District 9 (awesome!) and Dr. Grordborts Infallible Aether Oscillators (double awesome) collectibles.

Lord of the Rings Chainmail

Unfortunately our meagre budget couldn’t stretch to a full suit of chainmail however I am now the owner of a key ring holding several links of chainmail from the films. Obviously my key ring has chainmail cut directly from Aragorn’s armour during the Battle of Helms Deep and not some unknown extra who was on screen for 3 seconds at the Battle of Pelennor fields. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. Although that extra could have been one of the Perry’s, wouldn’t that be cool.

What a geek I am!