Lord Of The Rings 54mm-65mm Game Adelaide

The following first photos just show the size and variety of Bob's army and the later ones are from three Lord of the Rings games.

Bob is not a big fan of fantasy - or that is what he usually says. Having bought, from Britain an immense large scale Lord of the Rings army (well large is relative - we usually mean GI Joe size for large and most wargamers would mean 28mm; we almost invariably play 54mm or 60mm - gigantic to most wargamers -  but many of the Lord of the Rings humans are 65mm, so it is slightly larger than what we usually use) that claim is starting to look tenuous.

One of the great things about this army is that the person Bob bought from has used Supreme playset knights and Russians, painted appropriately, to fill in the gaps in the human armies and, to some extent, in Sauron's army. The Supreme Crusaders have had their crosses removed and they have been painted in sinister black. They can represent the evil spirit knights or just Joe blow evil guys, which is what we used them for. The Supreme figures fit, size wise, well with the Lord of the Rings ones.

Getting back to Bob's view on fantasy; for him this is like smoking without actually inhaling as he still abhors magic! So it is fantasy without fantasy's most basic powers - sorcery and magic. However, he has got trolls and treemen. We did use the trolls in a battle. They were slow and not so effective, especially as we didn't employ them in big units.

For my part, I love fantasy but don't try to strictly follow a particular published magic world. I do occasionally include sorcerers and the like, although so far, in my current medieval fantasy campaign, have not used them. Also, although I watched the lord of the Rings movies some years ago I don't recall many of the names and story twists. My own use of orks follows Warhammer precedents more than Lord of the Rings. But I do love the Sauron flags red eye and I have been inspired to make more of them for my on bad guys.

The first such battle I was on the ork side with David and Tony and we fought the human enemies to a draw. My plan for Tony to roll up the flank didn't work and instead the slaughter was fairly mutual as Steve responded with usual sneaky ferocity. Larry pressured my own weaker left flank and gave me a hard time with his mounted archers.

The second ork battle was between me with orks versus Steve and Dave with their human army. Steve's imposing archery line was avoided by me and effectively neutralized when my cavalry left my right flank and headed to the left, as did much of my army. The pressure was put on Dave opposite my left flank. Steve pursued but was able, primarily, to engage my cavalry which effectively delayed his pursuit and caused plenty of destruction on his cavalry before being mostly destroyed. Eventually the humans failed their army morale roll and the orks were victorious

The third such battle was me with the orks versus Bob with his elf army. The elf archers were deadly but not deadly enough and when the orks closed they had the advantage of numbers. The ork cavalry, on their monstrous mounts rolled up the elves left flank.

Another ork victory. Waagh!

Below: Part of Bob's LOTR army

                                                    

                                      Jungle set elephants as humungous fantasy elephants

                                                   Battle commences - ork left flank

  Those pesky Russian mounted archers from Supreme mounted on Britains Detail medieval horses

                                                      Chomp chomp

                                                This unit as too tough even for these orks on their monstrous beasts. These Supreme Russian figures have been equipped with Roman shields - they look great.

                                             Tony's ork cavalry run in to a spot of bother.

                                          This flying beasty was Tony's ace in the sleave. It flew around and would land next to an enemy unit. Then each side would roll a dice with the beast on plus one. Highest roll lived and the opponent died. Tony eradicated about three whole units this way until the enemy heroes destroyed it.

      Even trolls can have artistic sensibilities as shown by this one's use of a giant moth as a head dress! He is, however, down to one wound.

                                                           The numbers count.

                          I love this bloke, with his trident and blond hair. Dig those mutton chops!

                                                                     The final battle  

                                    


                                          &%$#@ elf archers! Do we have ta go after 'em?

                Elf archers resisted to the end on my left flank, even seeing off some imposing cavalry

                                                          Bob's trap, left unsprung

               Goblin archers did better in this battle than the earlier ones, partly because they gave covering fire from a hill and were not targeted by Elf archers to busy dealing with advancing orks! They needed a one or two on a twelve sided dice to hit (much inferior to elf shooting). Then the target got its save.

Wot rules did ja use? Bobs rules of course. On one page of course. Twelve sided dice were used for firing and saves and these gave a wide range of ability and saves. Six sided dice were used for deciding on damage inflicted in melee and from firing. The pushback rule was used where winning melee units pushed back the enemy. On a couple of occasions elf units were pushed off the board, never to return.

That was one great holiday in Adelaide.