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.

The Walls of Minas Tirith

I wanted one short side of the table to be book-ended by a representation of the outer wall of Minas Tirith but, with my ongoing illness driving my cash flow to near zero, buying pre-done I.E resin cast or laser cut MDF castle walls was out of the question. Technically we don't need the outer wall of Minas Tirith on the table, the table edge itself could suffice. But I wanted to enhance the appeal and look of this refight by showing them. So I looked around at what I had and whilst I didn't have any money I did have a lot of beer mats and some PVA glue.

This first shot is from the front. The wall section is five inches long.

Side view

Rear

Here is the gatehouse. It is the same height as the walls and will feature the two statues found in Gee Dub's Ruins of Osgiliath scenery set. The roof is large enough to hold a war machine of some kind, most likely a catapult as I already have a couple lying around.

As our refight starts Grond has already broken the iron gates down and the Witch King is confronting Gandalf. Suddenly the horns of the Rohirrim are heard and blam! It's Turn 1 of the battle! I have kept the cut out section of the entrance and will use it as the iron gate. I am also on the lookout for a 28mm wolf (I actually only need its head) to make Grond.

Then I built a tower

Here is what it all looks likes when put together. It is just over 36" in length which is perfect as I am planning on using a 3ft by 5ft table.

I have spent a couple of quid at Pendraken to get some doors and trapdoors from their dungeon furniture range to add a bit of "realism" to the model. The internal logic will be that the Gatehouse provides no way to get to the walls, that is done via the Tower, with the exception of the wall to the left of the Gatehouse for which I have built steps. This means that the model can be used in siege games.

I painted up the Gate Guardians, they were inspired by the Argonath

Something the entire internet and the films get wrong is that, according to JRRT, the outer wall is black, not white and made of the same impervious stone as the tower of Orthanc. My walls will therefore be black.

I was gifted a can of matt black non-cellulose spray paint. I've never used spary paint before but, realising I was getting nowhere with the black poster paint I took the walls outside, put my back to the wind and gave it a go. Triumph! Although I also sprayed my entire left hand (so good job I was wearing my partner's kitchen gloves ). The walls of Minas Tirith have finally come alive. All I can say is hurry up Pendraken then I can fit the doors and apply the final glorious coat of Hammerite!!!

I will ammend this post when the walls are finished.

Pelennor Scenery 1

So far we have not addressed the notion of scenery for Pelennor. Indeed you will be hard put to find any scenery in any online depiction of the battle, the same is true for the films. Yet here is a quote from RotK Chapter 6 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields' "And so in this place and that, by burned homestead or barn, upon hillock or mound, under wall or on field, still they gathered and rallied and fought until the day wore away."

The above quote is in reference to the defeat of the Southrons and Easterlings and their behavior once defeated. To me, as a wargamer, it is a list of potential scenery to found on the Pelennor. And also vaguely reminiscent of the defeated Anglo-Saxon huscarls at Hastings.

There is also the matter of the strategic hillock that Eomer gathers his men to having exhausted his charge and still not broken the enemy. The model pictured will be used to crown that hill. It is the "Forest Fort" by Magister Militum though "aquarium nik-nack" would suffice just as well. It is not particularly detailed, it has many bubble holes and was sort of expensive for what it is but, never-the-less, it has been bought so it has been painted so it will get used!

Front

Rear

Next to a unit for scale

Troops Arriving from Harlond

Levies of South Gondor: Light Infantry with Javelins. Morale Class B.

This is the first unit of four that make up Aragorn's contingent, that arrived at Harlond, of about 4500 men and at 32 figures strong it is also the largest.

Collectively referred to as levies of South Gondor in the scenario, according to JRRT they were "...the dour-handed Dunedain, Rangers of the North, leading a great valour of the folk of Lebennin and Lamedon and the fiefs of the South." To my mind that description gives us; a unit of Rangers, a unit from Lebennin, a unit from Lamedon and one of an amalgam of lesser fiefs - ergo four units.

As this unit is LI with javelin I have used Bidowers from "The Age of Knights" range by Magister Militum to represent it.

As for a colour scheme, I am going, on a whim, with green for the entire contingent. The white you see on the shields and banner is for the white tree of Gondor - a symbol of their allegiance.

The second unit of the levies of South Gondor are the Men of Lamedon. Medium Infantry Spearmen. Morale class B.

We hear most about Lamedon when Legolas and Gimli recount the tale, to Merry and Pippin, of how Aragorn and the Grey Host defeat the Corsairs of Umbar and arrive at Harlond.

The men of Lamedon, under their Lord, Angbor feature early in the tale as the Grey Host comes upon them defending the fords of the river Gilrain near the town of Linhir against Corsairs and men of Harad. So terrifying are the Dead Men of Dunharrow that both the enemy and the men of Lamedon flee as they approach. Only Angbor stands fast.

It is worth mentioning (in case confusion should arise) that JRRT refers to Aragorn and the Dunedain rangers as the Grey Company, but while they are joined by the Oath Breakers of Dunharrow he refers to them collectively as the Grey Host.

I have used the green and white colour scheme again, but the green is a slightly darker shade than that used before. The figures are amorphic medieval medium infantry from Magister Militum's 'Age of Knights' range.

Levies of South Gondor: Men of Lebennin. Heavy Infantry Spearmen. Morale Class B.

Here we come to the penultimate unit in Aragorn's contingent, the men of Lebennin. You may not remember Lebennin but I am sure you remember the destruction of the Corsairs of Umbar by the Dead Men of Dunharrow. Well, that takes place at the port city of Pelagir which is in the fiefdom of Lebennin.

As usual we see the green and white colours on the shields but to that I have added blue in reference to Pelagir. The port city (and its assumed wealth) is also why this, being HI Spear, is the best equipped unit in the contingent. The figures are (yet again) from Magister Militum and are generic "Heavy Infantry" from the 'Age of Knights' range. The command figures are from the MM generic AoK command pack - as are all the command figures in every infantry unit I have so far shown you.

Whilst I have mentioned the Dead Men of Dunharrow you won't see them in this collection. This is because I strongly object to the Peter Jackson interpretation (reinforced by Games Workshop) whereby they turn up on the Pelennor Fields themselves.

What Jackson seems incapable of grasping, which JRRT clearly understood, was that if Aragorn and the invincible army of ghosts could go anywhere then the LotR is a very short book indeed and goes something like this "Aragorn raises an invincible army of ghosts, leads them into Mordor and slays absolutely everything. The end".

Last up is the Grey Company. Light or medium infantry, bowmen. Morale Class A.

Here we come to the last unit in Aragorn's contingent, the Grey Company. According to JRRT comprising 30 Dunadan Rangers of the North led by Halbarad and accompanied by the sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir.

Halbarad carries Aragorn's standard which is the one Games Workshop and Peter Jackson incorrectly used as a general Gondor banner. It features the white tree, seven stars and a crown. In game terms this unit is described as Aragorn's bodyguard and the classification of LI or MI is up to the player.

As you can see, at eight figures strong it represents 500 troops rather than 30 but as Theoden says upon seeing them "...my lord Aragorn, thirty such knights will be a strength that cannot be counted by heads."

The banner bearer (Halbarad) is from the Age of Knights general command pack by Magister Militum and the rest of the company are Rangers from Copplestone. Halbarad's shield is painted black as a nod to the passage in RotK when Aragorn's standard is first unfurled and was said to be so black that no device could be seen upon it.

And finally, Heroes of the West: Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli

Heroes have three stats, minor heros have two stats and notable unit leaders get one stat:
CRT = when in melee the CRT number is an adjuster on the melee dice score and can be taken as a plus or minus.
Save = a destiny saving throw against any eliminated result in combat. +1 would save on a 6, +2 on a 5 or 6 etc to a maximum of +5.
LDR = when leading a unit this is the amount by which the units morale test throw can be adjusted by by the hero's presence.

Aragorn: +2 CRT, +5 Save, +3 LDR

Gandalf: +0 CRT, +5 Save, +0 LDR
Gandalf is an "event figure" which means that he is effectively an NPC.

Legolas and Gimli: On the day the player will roll 1d4 per hero and get that many points to place in the hero's stats. Legolas and Gimli will not get an LDR rating.

All figures are by Copplestone.

And that concludes the Gondorian factions of the Army of the West.

Troops from Minas Tirith

The first unit for the Pelennor Fields refight project is the Minas Tirith Citadel Guard: 16 x Heavy Infantry Spearmen. Morale Class B.

According to JRRT the Guard wore a black tabard over blackened chainmail. On the tabard was embroided the white tree of Gondor, however the standout item of the uniform was the bright silver mithril helmet - adorned with a pair of gull wings (it is open to speculation whether these were from actual seagulls or not). The Copplestone Miniatures "City Spearmen" lack only the gull wings but are otherwise excellent representations.

The shield devices are actually self-made stickers rather than transfers, the pdfs for which can be found at Toshach Miniatures, they are specifically designed for use with the Copplestone figures (and they are free).

You will notice that the unit's banner is white and does not feature the tree of Gondor. This is because only when Gondor has a king are the banners allowed to show the tree. Whilst the Stewards rule in their stead all banners are white. JRRT describes it as argent (a tincture of silver) so technically the banner could have been silver, however white appears far more in the descriptions so that's what I've gone with.

These guys were easy to paint: black undercoat, black ink wash then some detailing - armour in chainmail silver and helmet in mithril silver, skin in dwarf flesh. When I first looked at the figures I thought they were wearing gloves and have painted them appropriately, I'm not so sure now but that's something that can be corrected at a later date if need be.

The second unit from Minas Tirith are the City Archers: Light Infantry Bowmen. Morale Class B

The figures are Copplestone City Bowmen and I had to separate them as they were joined together in places. This is because they are designed for the Warmaster rules which has figures in strips. Fortunately the decoupling process was easy and you can't even tell it has taken place.

Again this unit is 16 figures strong. This is because the ratio is one figure equals sixty four men (in eight ranks of eight), thusly 16 figures is 1024 men.

The white bows are my own invention JRRT does not mention such a thing. But the figures don't come with a command element so the white is there to symbolise both the Steward's flag and the white tree of Gondor.

You will also note that despite being classed as light troops they are on the same base size as the heavy spear. This is a quirk of the rules that I approve of - men take up roughly the same amount of space but the weight of armour they wear determines their protection category.

The third unit from Minas Tirith are Dol Amroth men at arms: Heavy Infantry Spearmen. Morale Class A.

I chose the paint scheme of sky blue, white and silver because those are the classic Dol Amroth colours. Figures are the City Spearmen by Copplestone, the same as the Gondor foot, a deliberate choice to establish a commonality of design between the two units.

JRRT says that the banner of Dol Amroth was "...silver upon blue, a ship swan-prowed faring on the sea.". Being unable to paint such a motif I printed one out and stuck it in place with double sided tape.

The fourth and final unit from Minas Tirith are the The Knights of Dol Amroth: Heavy Cavalry. Morale Class A.
They are joined by Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth: +2 CRT, +2 LDR

Dark haired, riding grey horses, carrying banners of blue. With Elvish blood in their veins the Knights of Dol Amroth are the premier fighting cavalry in all of Gondor. The figures are Elven cavalry from Magister Militum, a little stumpy but serviceable never-the-less.

This unit is supposed to also contain the remnants of Faramir's Gondorian cavalry which were so roughly handled by Mordor when ordered to try and retake Osgiliath. However, I have preferred to interpret this unit as the "company" of knights JRRT wrote about.

I'm experimenting with a new style of painting here. Basically, it's block painting then applying a coat of "soft tone quick shade ink" from Army Painter. I really like the look of the end result and I managed to paint the entire unit in a single day from undercoated - which is a feat I have never done before in nearly 30 years of painting figures.

Prince Imrahil has had his mithril silver armour dry brushed with gold to make him stand out. +2 Combat Results Table (CRT) means he can adjust his combat outcomes by 2 columns either up or down as he sees fit, whilst +2 Leadership (LDR) means he adds 2 to the moral score of any unit he is personally leading.

This now completes the representation of the contingent of forces that sally from Minas Tirith to take part in the battle. Next up will be Aragorn's contingent.

Purpose of this Blog

The purpose of this blog is to document my attempt to create the forces and battlefield necessary to refight the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. This project was inspired by Doug Larsen's series of rules and army lists devoted to fighting battles in Middle Earth which can be found here. I will be using 10mm scale figures (not 28mm) as cost and space considerations place limits on the endeavor.