Well the subject says it all. Over the next few days Myself, Muppetslayer and Knightyknight are literally pooling
all of our collections to wage war over middle earth. And yes folks, we are playing this SBG style. No poncy movement trays for us.
Now when I say all, I mean all. Every warrior, every hero, every monster will be on the battlefield. I think out of all the named heroes across the 5 sourcebooks and the hobbit book, we are missing 5.
And yes, Aragorn the King will be fighting alongside Elendil and Bandorbras will be fighting alongside Frodo. Why? ... Because wibbley wobbley timey wimey thats why.
Now a battle of this scale (min 10k ea) would get boring very quickly and probably lead to WW3 so we divised some special rules to spice things up.
Click to see Special Rules
Generic Special Rules:
1. Continuous Bombardment of the Enemy special rule (See ORB)
2. Volley Fire from Bows.
Evil:
Cowardly Beasts: All large base evil models have the Survival Instinct special rule.
Cry of the Nazgul: Once per game, the evil player may choose to unleash the cry of the nazgul, striking fear into the defenders. All good models have -2 courage for that turn.
Wrath of Sauron: The evil side are held together by the will of sauron and his lieutenants. The Evil side do not break while Sauron and the nine wraiths are alive on the board.
Good:
They only come in the hour of need: All eagles arrive from random board edges from turn 2 onwards.
No Surrender: The good side have resigned themselves to a glorious death. Good models do not break.
Unexpected Reinforcements: From turn 6 onwards, there is a chance (however unlikely) that other kingdoms in middle earth have sent aid to the defenders. At the end of each turn (after T6) roll a D6. On a 6 reinforcements have arrived and the Witchking immediately leaves the board to deal with this new threat. Remove him as if he was a casualty.
Evolution of the King: At the start of the game Aragorn is but a dunedain. He begins the game armed with a bow, armour and a horse. If he manages to get 15 kills, he evolves instantly into King Elessar, regaining all lost might, will, fate points and wounds.
The White Wizard Pt 1: At the start of the game, Saruman is wise and fights for the free peoples. However, if the Dark Lord Sauron is able to cast a successful compel spell on Saruman, he will switch allegiance. Remove Saruman from play and put him in the evil players deployment zone.
The White Wizard Pt 2: Gandalf starts the game in his grey incarnation. If he should be slain, roll a D6. On a 6 Gandalf the white (w/ shadowfax) arrives anywhere in the controlling players deployment zone. Add the following modifers to the dice roll (stackable)
Saruman is still on the good side -1
Saruman has turned to darkness +1
Slain by the Balrog +1
The Continuous Bombardment special rule is from Pg 225 of the ORB. Basically the player who loses priority gets to make a trebuchet shot in the shoot phase. Seeing as there will over well over 1000 models on the board, we figured it'd be a good way to kill some of them.
We also decided to put back in volley fire so the bowman actually had a chance to do something.
We also devised a series of grudge matches based on the films and books. Basically if the two heroes get within charge range, they must charge only each other and no other models may help.
Boromir V Lurtz
Aragorn V Lurtz
Durin V Balrog
Gandalf V Balrog
Faramir V Gothmog (?)
Thorin V Azog
Arvedui V Gulahvar
Arathorn V Burdhur
Glorfindel V Witchking
Dain V Khamul
Elendil & Gil-Galad V Sauron
Elrond & Isildur V Sauron
Sam V Shelob
Theoden V Witcking
Frodo V Gollum
Imrahil V Suladan
Eomer V Ugluk
Aragorn V Sharku
Aragorn V Gothmog
Aragorn V Mouth of Sauron
Aragorn V Troll Chieftain
Treebeard V Saruman
Merry & Pippin V Grisnakh
Galadriel ( & Celeborn) V Khamul
We also (because we can) made profiles and converted models to represent us in game. We took a Ranger in the North profile and then assigned points values to various stats. We were also allowed to choose one special rule from the Spec Rule section in the Hobbit book for free (except fly). Hopefully later I'll be able to post some pictures of the 3 models.
Name FV S D A W C M W F
Sam 5/2+ 4 5 2 2 5 2 3 2
Louis 5/3+ 4 7 2 2 5 3 2 2
Mark 5/3+ 4 7 2 2 5 3 1 3
Equipment Heavy Armour 10
Shield Swap for Bow
Horse 10
Might 5
will 5
fate 5
FV 10
Attacks 10
Shoot Value 10
Stats to a max of 3+
50 points to spend in total
One free special rule from the Hobbit Section except Fly
Special Rules
Sam Expert Shot, Elf bow, Contest of Champions
Louis Bane of Kings, Shield, Contest of Champions
Mark Resistant to Magic, Heavy Armour, Shield, Horse Contest of Champions
The contest of champions special rule is the one from the Lords of Battle scenario. Kill a hero, get a might point back.
Finally, as the battle is predicted to last until tuesday, I will be updating this thread with daily reports and photos. We had made a pledge to get as much painted as possible but real life (as it often does) got in the way. It'll look cool none the less.
Thanks for reading.
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But even so, I've certainly brought a large portion of it; roughly 3000 points per side.
