BGiME #4: “Elven Attack”

With my Uruk-hai painted and a force of High Elves already present in my LotR SBG collection, it was time to see how they fared against one another. My friend and regular The One Ring player, Tom, would command the elves while I led the savage Uruk-hai to victory (or so I hoped). We set the table up to vaguely resemble a roadway passing through a hilly, wooded region, one with hedgerows on both sides of the thoroughfare, and got down to fighting.

The Uruk-hai outnumber the elves in this scenario and wear heavy armor that should be able to shrug off their arrows. My plan was to concentrate on getting five or more Uruk-hai off the Good Force’s edge of the board while preventing the stinking Rivendell contingent from slaughtering enough of my troops to prevent that. The only way to do this was to cover ground quickly, both to reach my objective and to slay the weaker and less armored elves.

My brutal Uruk-hai advance on the elves.

Tom's elven archers got lucky as the Uruks closed, dropping one of my troops moments before the forces clashed. Tom, smartly, backed his forces up, forcing me to cross more ground and suffer additional arrow attacks before I managed to pin down a few Rivendell troops and draw them into a fight.

Stand and fight, you elves!!!

The eagle-view shot of the same stage of the battle. Notice I've not actually engaged any elves yet.

I finally managed to charge some of the elves, forcing them to commit to a stand-up slobber-nocker. The archers, however, continued their slow fade back, firing arrows at any Uruk-hai not yet engaged in battle. I lost another Uurk to elven arrows, but managed to finally bring down a Rivendell elf. There will be tears in Imladris tonight!

Elven blood is spilled on ground fouled with orc blood!

Unfortunately, my objective was not to kill elves, but get orcs off the board. With the elves harrying me with arrows at every step, it wasn't going to be easy. This was not helped by my hasty reading of the rules either! I missed the rule about the role cover--such as hedgerows--plays in resolving missile attacks. Had I known this, I would have advanced in a much different manner, placing the hedges between me and the elven archers who caused so much havok on my orcs.

Arrows have taken their toll and only seven Uurk-hai remain.

Once the two sides were engaged, the Uruk-hai rolled pretty poorly and the Rivendell troops were able to keep me in check long enough to whittle my forces down. Fittingly, it was an arrow that ended the game, slaying the last  Uruk-hai needed to ensure an elven victory.

Victory by an Arrow.

Despite my lose, this was an entertaining scenario. Tom played well and it was nice having two larger forces face off against one another after the previous small skirmish. The fact that we missed the rule about cover means we can play this one again and adjust our tactics accordingly, making a fresh go at things.

With four battles under my belt, I'm enjoying the game and the learning process. It's a shame the game doesn't have much support these days and that the player base in my area is more concentrated on other miniature wargames. Despite these discouragement, I remain committed to both playing more (and have made it an early 2016 resolution to play far more miniature and hex-and-chit wargames in the coming year) and continuing to work my way through the Battle Games in Middle-Earth series of magazines. Next up, we dive into issue #5 with new minis, new rules, and creating a dedicated wargame table.

BGiME #4: Making a Hill

I was overwhelmed this month completing work projects and putting the finishing touches on my long-delayed Stonehell Dungeon sequel and getting it released, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about miniature gaming and the various elements that comprise it. I continued painting my Grey Company army and I’m also finishing up a warband of British Infantry for Muskets & Tomahawks. The paint, she goes ever on.

So I don’t watch October slip by without any posts, let me finish up coverage of Battle Games in Middle-Earth #4. We’ll pick up with—say it with me—my favorite aspect of miniature wargaming: terrain building.

This issue’s project is a modest hill crafted from expanded polystyrene (the pink stuff) and flock. Hills are one of the simplest pieces of terrain to create and they make your battlefield both attractive and provide armies with strategic advantages. Although they are easy to assemble, that doesn’t mean there’s no chance of error as we’ll soon see.

I decided to construct a three-tiered hill that could be divided into separate components to form individual hills. To add a little detail to the hillock, I created a stone outcropping from rocks I found while walking, painted appropriate colors.

My three-tier hill. Note the Grey Company and British Infantry in the background.

A natural rocky outcrop or an ancient cairn?

As I mentioned in my post about making hedgerows, there were two issues I encountered in crafting the hills. The first was the choice of base color. The instructions in Battle Games state to use your green paint pot for base coloration. This shade of that green is lighter than the flock I used and it’s evident in the final result. This lends an unrealistic appearance to the hill. A darker base, such as GW Scorched Brown or a chocolate brown craft paint would be much better. That’s the approach I’ll use from now one regardless of a project’s instructions.

The base coat is visible, making for a patchy hill.

The second problem in assembling my hill was my choice of PVA glue. Again, as I learned in my hedgerow project, there’s a world of difference between white glue and wood glue when it comes to gluing flock down. The watered down white glue simply doesn’t have the strength and adhesive properties of wood PVA glue and I had to flock the hills several times to ensure a decent layer of green. In the end, the hills still show bare patches, especially along their bottom edges where the base paint is clearly visible. I’ve learned my lesson. Actually, I’ve learned it again because I once knew to use wood glue over white glue, but clearly forgot as my skills grew rusty. But that’s one of the reasons I embarked on this project: to improve my painting and crafting skills.

Note the lack of flocking along the bottom edge of the topmost tier.

Next up, we’ll see how my Uruk-hai faired against the Elves of Rivendell when the forces of Good and Evil collide in the “Elven Attack” scenario.

BGiME #4: Painting the Uruk-hai

Build me an army worthy of Mordor. -- Sauron

Evil now has a truly terrifying force to field against the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth: the Uruk-hair of Isengard. Painting these models was a breeze, and I had them table-ready in a day. If anyone is looking for a quick-to-prepare army for the SBG, a load of Uruk-hai is the way to go.

Painting was mostly dry-brushing the armor various shades of metallic silver and painting the flesh a dark brown. A quick basing of sand and autumn static grass and the forces of Evil were ready for the battlefield

First up are the pikemen--or pike-uruks to be precise. Their long-hafted weapons allow them to gang-up in battle, supporting an allied model from a distance.

Next are the sword-uruks who enjoy an increased Defense score against opponents thanks to their shields. There's no rules for hurling a Uruk-hai shield to pin a Ranger against a tree in the RAW, and as I'm fielding a Grey Company force, I'd glad at its absence!

Here are the assembled forces of Isengard marching on Helm's Deep. This force costs 100 points under the last edition of the SBG rules, making it the backbone of a 500 point Isengard army.

Next up, we'll see how the Uruk-hai do against the Elves of Rivendell when we play out the scenario, "Elven Attack." See you soon!

Battle Games in Middle-Earth #4 Overview

With our first metal miniature in our collection painted and a number of Good and Evil plastic models to war with one another, it’s time to expand our forces with some of the nastiest bad guys in Middle-Earth: the Uruk-hai. They are the focus of Battle Games in Middle-Earth #4.

As always, the magazine begins with “Guide to Middle-Earth.” This issue’s entry describes the origins and characteristics of the dreaded Uruk-hai. From their creation by Saruman to their unique ability among orcs to function well in daylight, we learn the role the Uruk-hai play in the machinations of Sauron and the Enemy’s plans for the Free People of Middle-Earth. The Guide postulates a scenario where a force of elven scouts from Rivendell encounter a band of Uruk-hai en route to Helm’s Deep and attempt to prevent them from bolstering Saruman’s forces. This hypothetical event will be further explored during the Battle Game chapter later in the issue.

Next up is “Playing the Game.” Last issue, we learned new rules regarding the Priority and Move phase and how they impact the basic game rules the magazine had taught us so far. Now it’s time to further delve into the Fight phase and see what complexities exist for when forces clash in close combat. This issue demonstrates the Wound Chart for the first time. In previous battle games, the scores models needed to roll to wound an enemy were presented for each figure. Here we now see the table used to determine these scores and are told the means to calculate such numbers for ourselves (the winner’s Strength cross-referenced with loser’s Defense). We learn that when these scores are widely divergent, an attack might need to roll the dice twice on a strike, achieving a 6 on the first die, than a 4, 5, or 6 on the second to cause a wound. This came into play in the previous issue’s scenario and it’s now clear exactly how bad Frodo was outclassed by the Ringwraiths.

The methodology of breaking up complex battles into bite-sized, easily-resolved combats is taught with clear photographs of models to demonstrate the intricacies of such divisions. The rule for trapped models is given; in situations where a model losing a fight cannot retreat the usual 2cm/1” required, the winner gains twice as many chances to inflict a wound. This situation occurred in our very first battle game so it’s nice to know how to handle it now.

All these new rules and modifications are grouped with the collected Fight phase rules presented in previous issues, giving the reader a “one-stop shopping” chapter to reference during SBG matches.

The “Battle Game” chapter in this issue concerns a class between a group of High Elves from Rivendell (the ones we assembled and painted in issue #2) and a band of Uruk-hai. As previously noted, this scenario, “Elven Attack,” is set shortly before the Battle of Helm’s Deep. It presents a possible event where Elrond dispatched scouts to buy the men of Rohan more time to rally their forces and these scouts engaged Uruk-hai headed to the battlefield. The winning conditions require Good to slay at least six of the ten Uruk-hai, while Evil needs to move five Uruk-hai off the opposite end of the board. The scenario is an interesting one: The elves are slightly outnumbered and the Uruk-hai are stronger, but the forces of Good are the only ones with missile weapons. How it all turned out when we played through this battle will be covered in a future post.

The “Painting Workshop” features techniques to paint our new Uruk-hai troops. We’ve come a long way from our efforts with the Moria Goblins back in Battle Games in Middle-Earth #1. By now, we’ve learned how to mix paints to achieve different colors aside from the seven paint pots we own (assuming we’ve been relying solely on those included with each issue of the magazine), how to drybrush models, and how to use flock or static grass as a simple basing technique. We add a new trick to our repertoire this time around: “silver edging.” This gives metal weapons and armor a sharp and menacing look, something no Uruk-hai should be without!

We now come to our final chapter, “Modelling Workshop.” This issue it’s time to rise above the tabletop as we learn how to fashion simple hills for our SBG and other miniature wargames. The steps to create polystyrene hills are presented in clear, easy-to-follow steps, allowing even the most ham-handed tabletop wargamer to make any number of grassy hills to adorn the battle board for a fraction of what commercially manufactured ones cost.

Looking to the back cover, we see that another metal model, the Uruk-hai captain, Lurtz, will be arriving in two weeks, providing us with another hero (albeit an Evil one) to add to our collection. With our squad of Uruk-hai awaiting his arrival and orders, what hope do the forces of Good have? We’ll see in the weeks ahead!

Next up, let’s paint some orc.