Now For Wrath

As you well know, dear reader, I am a huge Rivendell fan. We can run just about anything from the list in the collection with few exceptions so... what's the obvious next facet for exploration? Allies. What better way to ally than the Last Alliance of Elves and Men?!

I'm a data guy, so its no surprise I track a lot about my hobby time. I first purchased the Pelennor Fields starter set on May 5th, 2022. Now, just a little bit over a year later it was a fun time to take a look back over my armies and a look back at the blog so far!

I've finally gotten enough points of Isengard to give them a shot, and Andrew was happy to oblige. I was pretty excited to get Saruman on the board! I veto'd Clash by Moonlight, and Andrew nixed Command the Battlefield leaving us with Destroy the Supplies.

Just a brief post today! Still cracking through my Isengard backlog. With these 8 crossbows, the 20 Uruks , the Crebain , and the Captains I'm pretty ready to get the army of the white hand on the table!

Our local season 3 league is officially begun, and Andrew and I are up first! So, our lists are a rematch of a few days ago , but this time "for real". This time we rolled for Contest of Champions (hmm Gwaihir vs the Witch King? I veto'd), Domination (Andrew Veto'd) and Lords of Battle. I felt on my backfoot with Lords of Battle, but figured the Great Beast could maybe keep me caught up... the game did not go how I expected. Gandalf's in the Danger Zone

Continuing on my Isengard trek , I just completed 4 captains and an Uruk-Hai banner bearer! Each of these are reasonably priced, decent heroes... and are frankly about the best non-Dunland Isengard heroes have to offer outside of Saruman.

Well, this was a doozy! With two really cool new models done ( Gwaihir and the Great Beast ), Andrew and I were keen to see them on the table. We did the veto system, with Andrew nixing Domination and me killing Fog of War, which left Hold Ground.

What a fantastically fun model to paint! A little bit on the pricier side, but my homeboy Andrew was so keen to get it on the table, he bought it outright to add to the collection. Given our next league starts ASAP, I rushed to get it painted up for him. I have to say, I am quite happy with the result!

Quick painting update today! These started life as my friend Dan's models who got started on them, but they passed hands to me and I was able to get them across the finish line. I am quite happy with the result, and I'm getting pretty excited to put Isengard on the board. With my robust forces of Mordor, Minas Tirith, and Rohan I'll have completed armies for the "big 4".

Whoa! Two posts in one day? This one is time-sensitive, so I figured I'd post it ASAP. At time of publishing, there's less than three days left on the Kingdom of Durak Deep kickstarter by Conquest Creations . I'm a really big fan of these and went all in on this. He's post a sample STL, so I decided to print two to test my paint scheme and get a head start on a new Dwarf board.

It had been quite a while since the Dark Lord Sauron saw the tabletop, and he has yet to make an in-game appearance on this blog so I was happy to play him! Andrew and I rolled randomly for armies, and he came up with The Grey Company. 

I've been a Patreon supporter of Davale Games for quite some time, and a few months back I got this sweet Elven Tower . Well, I finally replaced my old FDM printer with a brand spankin' new one and this was my first print!

After my first game at the Richmond Open , I couldn't wait to come home and paint this wonderful model that's been sitting primed for a few months. I'm going to play quite a few games with it in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to find out if it's really a GREAT beast of Gorgoroth or if it's just an okay beast of Gorgoroth.

That's it. That's the post. Real quick update today! Starting on Isengard, and remembered I had some of these Reaper Miniatures Murder of Crows models already painted for D&D so... I just quickly rebased them and voila! Spy birds. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.  

  After getting a good night's sleep, I was primed and ready for day two! Day one was not horrible - 2 wins and a minor loss with 2 games left. Could still have a shot! Navigate back to part one if you'd like to see my list; otherwise without further ado, let's jump right in.

This past weekend I had the privilege of playing in the Richmond Open Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game Grand Tournament! This was especially awesome because Richmond is my home town- pretty rare that I can hit a big event and sleep in my own bed! There were just shy of 30 players over a 5 game event.  Before I get into it, a HUGE thanks to Robert for running the event. His tireless dedication is a real driving force in our local community. Big thanks also to Chris who was his XO, and a friend of mine who really helped cement Andrew and I getting into the game. Thanks also to Josh who volunteered his time to help run the event as well; ditto to all the folks who brought terrain tables.

  Having recently completed a good bit of Iron Hills ; and ahead of the Richmond Open, Andrew and I wanted to throw down with two 800 point lists to warmup for the coming weekend tournament. Andrew is running Minas Tirith with Gandalf at the event. I am opting to revisit Rivendell , but decided I didn't need much practice with them so was excited to put the dwarves on the table for the first time!

I've been really enjoying painting Iron Hills lately, but I've loved no models more than these awesome Goat Riders from Davale Games . 

I was really excited to see Connor's Last Alliance coming together. The last time he and I faced off, it was pure Numenor and it was a heck of a great game ! Connor had since added Elendil to his army, and as I am working on an Elendil model myself, I was so stoked to see him in action. 

On the last day of April, I managed to get my 650 point league games in vs Connor and Erin. Connor and I previously faced off at 300  while Erin and I last battled it out at 500 . Erin was up first, and made the trek to my place to play... hilariously, just before she got here, my whole block inexplicably lost power. But, the game must go on!