How do you solve a problem like Maria...errr...the Mumakil.

You haven't had an update for a while because the heat of high summer plays merry hell with my health and has precluded me from doing any painting. Fortunately as the temperature drops things will get going again, soon.

Now, you may recall that I was on the horns of a dilemma with regards to the Mumakil. 10mm elephants simply wouldn't cut the mustard being as they are too small. 15mm elephants were beyond my meager cash flow given the cost to play ratio. But now a solution has presented itself in the form of Zvezda plastic 1:72 scale war elephants!

You get two to a box and a box, via Amazon, will set you back approx £9. Read this review, which is highly critical of their worth as "historical" figures which clearly makes them just right for fantasy. Today there is much happy wombling ;)

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/review.aspx?id=349

Mordor Marches - 32 Orcs

32 Orcs. Medium Infantry Spearmen. Morale Class D.

Having taken a look at the Mordor Uruks we now turn our attention to their lesser brethren the common Orc. Weaker than the Uruk and with a great fear of sunlight the primary attribute of these craven creatures is their vast numbers. As Stalin is once reputed to have said "Quantity has a quality all of its own".

I have also included my Bakshi reference picture which you can see shows Orcs in a brownish (almost orange) hue with yellow eyes and fangs. This will be my cipher colour scheme for the common Orc so that we can tell them apart from the Uruks. Note however that Bakshi did not differentiate his Orcs based on colour, I think he coloured them according to the mood of the scene. This is just something I am doing for ease of reference.

Speaking of Uruks you will notice that the front rank of this unit has six Uruks (three either side the command group) in it. Hopefully you will remember the Uruk ability to stiffen Orc units if they are sufficient in number (I.E. at least one eighth of the units total number) and on the front rank, which they are. This Orc unit therefore gains the advantage of not having to take a morale test when being charged by cavalry.

Sauron Wills It - Mordor Command

Although JRRT gives us the name of every hero of the West that fights against the forces of the Dark Lord he leaves the enemy commanders almost without mention. This is non too problematic as they can just be invented because they must surely have existed as Orcs in particularly are known to require strong leadership to be effective.

On the left we have the Witch King of Angmar on Winged Beast, referred to interchangeably in the Pelennor chapter of RotK as the 'Lord of the Nazgul' and the 'Black Captain'. In games terms he is a semi-autonomous character as he can be controlled by a player, but at the same time he has a part to play in the story of the battle and as such will at times find his actions dictated to him by circumstance (in this context player wishes will be over-ridden).

Next to him is the same character on horseback. In this guise he leads the siege of Minas Tirth and oversees the breaking of the main gate by the mighty battering ram Grond, shortly after to flee from Gandalf as the horns of the Rohirrim are heard in the distance. We may not need this model but I have made it available just in case. Whether on beast or horse the Black Captain has +1CRT and LDR+2 among a couple of other abilities I'm not going to give away here.

Both figures are from Copplestone (as are the other two) from the 'Evil Heroes' pack. I have gone for the pure black paint scheme which, I realise, gives them an undercoated look but I just couldn't bring myself to put colour on a Nazgul!

The only other named Mordor commander we are told about is Gothmog, who leads the reserves held in Osgiliath. Was he man or Orc or some other kind of foul servant? We are not told. What was his fate? We are not told. I used the Warg mounted figure as a nod to the Peter Jackson version of this character.

Finally we have "random Uruk Hai Captain number 1" or Uruk Captain for short. Here I am following JRRTs lead, if he thought such individuals unworthy of a name then I shall not give them one either. His stats will be randomly determined on the day in the same manner as the lesser heroes of the West.

If this seems like very few commanders remember that we haven't got to the great press of Southrons and their leaders yet. So there should be enough here to provide one leader for each Mordor contingent (I'll provide more if this turns out to be not the case).

Mordor Marches - Uruk Archers

Mordor Uruk Archers. Bowmen. Morale Class C.

This is the second and final Uruk Hai unit that the Orc contingent gets. Uruks afterall should not be commonplace. These troops are armed with bows and fire them on the same accuracy table as Gondorian bowmen, so woe-betide the commander that treats them lightly.

Again, for reasons I already stated in my previous post, this unit features a Ralph Bakshi inspired paint job, hence the odd at first glance colour choices.

Mordor Marches - The Uruk Hai

Mordor Uruks. Heavy Infantry Spearmen. Morale Class C.

Larger, stronger and tougher than normal Orcs the Uruk Hai are unafraid of sunlight and are arguably Sauron's best foot troops. To reflect this Uruks get a number of advantages over their lesser brethren.

Of the 30 figures you see here only 16 will be deployed as an Uruk unit, the rest will be used to "stiffen" other Orc units. When a normal Orc unit is stiffened it does not need to test morale when being charged by cavalry. In order to do this the Uruks must be on the front rank of the unit and must make up at least one eighth of total unit numbers.

Now, I am unashamedly a fan of Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of the LotR, so when it came to painting this unit I have tried to replicate Bakshi's style. I include my reference photos here so you can judge for yourselves how well I did. But, let me say that this is the first time I have tried such a thing.

I have been deliberately crude when painting these figures, taking far less care than I normally would. You see, I don't see the average Orc as being some kind of artisan craftsman carefully painting a beautiful eye of Sauron on his shield while he grooms himself in front of a mirror. I see foul, rank, debased creatures that love torment and war, accordingly I have done my best to try and capture that notion on the model.

The figures are from Magister Militum and are the Greater Orcs with Pikes. Though in truth calling their long spear a pike is a bit of stretch. I did not go with Copplestone because although their Uruks are fine (being based on Sauraman's Uruks from the PJ films) their normal Orcs are too much in the comical Gee Dub style that has, IMO, blighted Orc figure ranges for far too long.

Mordor Marches - The Olog Hai

Olog Hai Trolls. Morale Class C.

And so, having almost completed the Men of the West (only a couple of Rohan units to go - I hate painting horses!), we begin to fill out the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron.

Our first unit are the Olog Hai, recognisable by their black shields and mighty war hammers. There are many different kinds of Troll in Middle Earth such as Hill Trolls, Cave Trolls and Snow Trolls, but the rules recognise only three types; Mountain Trolls, Stone Trolls and Troll-Men (From Far Harad). I am classing the Ologs as Stone Trolls.

According to the army lists you only field three Trolls and three Troll-Men (remember the scale, that's 300 of these brutes), but I am having difficulty finding suitable figures in 10mm for the Troll-Men. From JRRT's description you could possibly get away with 15mm Zulus, if you chopped them around a bit. But at the moment I have gone for six Trolls and will add the Troll-Men in if/when I find something that looks the part.

The figures are Copplestone and you will note that they and their bases have been washed with Nuln Oil from Gee Dub. This is because I wanted the foul servants of the enemy to literally darken the very earth they stood upon, adding just a little bit more atmosphere to the unit. You will also note that they are so big they won't stand together and that their bases have to be staggered as a result.

Oh and one last thing, Trolls have a couple of tricks up their sleeve that I am not telling you about here, that more than compensates for their morale rating of C.

The Riders of Rohan

Eored of Theoden: Heavy Cavalry. Light Cavalry with bows. Morale Class B

Here we have the first Eored of four that make up the great muster of the Riders of Rohan. Each Eored has a heavy and a light cavalry component. Unfortunately it is at this point that we deviate a little from the guideline army list in the rules. This is because the Copplestone range of Riders was not available when the article was written so it posits access only to generic Dark Age/Medieval stand ins rather than specialised figures.

With the colour scheme I was trying to capture a feel of the Saxon horse lords, inspired by some of the garnet (red) and gold jewelry pieces found at the Sutton Hoo burial. As I believe that JRRT may have had such people in mind when he crafted the Rohirrim. Green is prevalent as Theoden's banner was a white horse upon a field of green.

The banner itself is one of my own and was made by taking a scan of a drawing of Theoden's banner from the old "Lidless Eye" army lists for WRG 6th Edition (remember them anyone? Because they are available as a free pdf online now). This was then printed out, coloured in by hand and re-scanned back into the computer. After which it was manipulated in Photosuite, put in a word document, resized to fit the banner bearer figure and then printed out again. This was no way near as complicated as that sounds.

In order to give a slightly different tonal look to these figures they have been washed with Agrax Earthshade from Gee Dub rather than the Army Painter shade I used on Gondor.

 Theoden

Royal Guard Heavy Cavalry

Royal Guard Archers

Group Shot

I will amend this post as when I get the rest of the Riders painted.