Gosh, that really is long term planning game wise, but if you are ambitious and serious about the Hobby, that's going to happen.

It would seem that my estimate for the date for the next game was hasty - work schedule will force us to postpone the planned gameplay this coming weekend. Well, perhaps we'll have better luck during the following week. I guess this teaches me - instead of giving a date, I'd better paraphrase Gandalf: expect a new battle report when you see a new battle report...

Looking forward to it! I joined the one ring to be able to comment on your progress because I liked how great you've done on this campaign.

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Who ever said swimming was easier then running never swam a 400 I.M.

Not trying to push you, but when is the next report coming out?

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Ours is the fury!

I'm afraid I have to ask for a bit more patience... it will appear in due time, rest assured. I have two good reasons for the delay - the first is the same that caused the delay in August: my friend works on most weekends now, so we have far less time for gaming. The second reason is, I hope, even better - I got tired of poor old Sam always having to fight with a frying pan! Now that the Fellowship will be the main protagonist for the next six scenarios, I thought it would yield far better pictures to go with the battle reports if we had more character poses available. Hence, I've been sourcing alternate poses for just about all the Fellowship members, and will paint them before the next campaign game. That painting, however, is only the second on my list of urgent things to do - the first is to get the Isengard and Rohan armies to the stage where I can basecoat them outside. I'm racing against time here because the autumn is progressing fast and weather is getting cooler. Come late October, it may be too late to work outside with spray cans... but definitely not too late to play games inside!

I hope you'll agree with me that prioritizing the mass basecoating outside and painting the alternate hero miniatures justifies the delay in gaming. There is a lot going on right now behind the scenes of our campaign, and I will post a WIP update soon. I will also post an updated third campaign chart - I sourced some woses, and thanks to that, we will add a suitable SBG scenario before the Pelennor Field battle. Stay tuned!

Mate there's no need to feel apologetic for it, I'm eagerly awaiting your next report as well, but you have a life and you have priorities too so you should always be willing to do what you want or need to do before anything about this thread. We'll still be here waiting to read the reports and see the awesome pictures of your journey!

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Who ever said swimming was easier then running never swam a 400 I.M.

I totally agree, you should play the games when you want to play them

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Ours is the fury!

Oh, believe me, I do want to play more often, but this campaign will take its time due to its scale (and our ambitions), as well as external factors like work.

In any case, as promised, here is an updated part three of the campaign chart – there is now an added SBG scenario “Ride of the Rohirrim” before the Pelennor Field battle.



Earlier I said that the campaign may last until mid-2019… you may wonder how we came up with that date – here is the logic behind it: a rough schedule of the scenarios, assuming that all will be played, including the major tasks to be completed before the scenario can be played:
- Hounds of Sauron: October 2013 (alternate hero figures to be painted)
- Watcher in the water: November 2013
- Balin’s tomb: December 2013
- Escape from Dwarrowdelf & Bridge of Khazad-dûm: January 2014
- Fords of Isen: March 2014 (a few Rohan-y hills to be constructed)
- Amon Hen: April 2014 (Amon Hen & Parth Galen terrain to be constructed)
- Uglúk’s Last Stand: May 2014
- Duel at Zirak-zigil: June 2014 (specific terrain to be made)
- Taming of Sméagol: July 2014 (Emyn Muil terrain pieces to be made)
- Restore the King: September 2014 (Meduseld to be constructed)
- Warg attack: October 2014
- Helm’s Deep: November 2014 (work ongoing for the terrain piece & forces)
- Alone in Fangorn: December 2014 (Treebeard)
- Fall of Isengard: February 2015 (the rest of the ents to paint & Isengard terrain to be built)
- Passage of the marshes: April 2015 (Dead Marshes terrain to be constructed)
- Ambush in Ithilien: June 2015 (Ithilien terrain pieces needed + a Mûmak & Haradrim models)
- Battle for Osgiliath: December 2015 (really lots of models to paint – most of the Gondor & Mordor forces, and also plenty of terrain to build: ruined houses, bridge across Anduin)
- Battle for Pelargir: June 2016 (again, lots of models to paint – army of the Dead, Corsairs, Fiefdom forces etc, and a couple of Corsair ships to be built; can reuse many of the buildings from Osgiliath)
- Shelob’s lair: August 2016 (Shelob + terrain – either specifically made or adapted from Emyn Muil)
- Battle of Rivendell: November 2016 (Rivendell Guardians battlehost, a few more Misty Mountains troops)
- Dáin’s Last Stand: May 2017 (Dwarf force, warriors of Dale, Easterlings & Erebor terrain)
- Battle of Mirkwood: October 2017 (Thranduil’s battlehost & Dol Guldur forces, also some suitable Mirkwood terrain pieces)
- Siege of Lothlórien: February 2018 (Lothlórien Battlehost & terrain pieces including a few large Mallorn trees)
- Ride of the Rohirrim: May 2018 (just the woses to paint)
- Pelennor Fields: September 2018 (The rest of the Gondor, Mordor and Fallen Realms forces; Minas Tirith terrain & siege engines on both sides – the construction of the terrain will probably start as early as mid-2015 alongside Osgiliath)
- Tower of Cirith Ungol: December 2018 (fortress terrain to be built)
- Black Gate / Crack of Doom: June 2019 (large Gate terrain piece needed as well as a smaller Sammath Naur board)

So, there you have it – it’s a very long project, but then again, I’ve tackled long modeling projects before (10+ years for a model of an aircraft carrier), and have another long project with the model railroad. It’s like climbing the Mount Improbable – one small step / scenario at a time, and a reasonable painting quality level throughout… no model-contest quality, but good tabletop standard, with heroes getting an extra layer of highlights. Stay tuned, and do remember to drop by at the Behind-the-scenes thread in the WIP section of the forum – I’ve posted a big update there about the Isengard & Rohan forces.

Good luck. Amazing forward planning, I must say.

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"Mickey, my friend!"

Have you thought about posting some videos (WIP/battle reports) on YouTube? Especially for Helm’s Deep and Pelennor fields.

This campaign needs the attention it deserves. Let’s not forget about the number of non-hobbyists who might potentially develop a will to get involved with the hobby after witnessing such awesome scenery/minis.

(Sorry if this inquiry has been asked before).

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“There's a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.”

At least video WIP / tutorials have been requested, and I've been thinking about the possibility of doing videos - at the moment I lack suitable equipment, however, so this is not something I'd do in the near future. But a video battle report is a fun idea - I'll certainly want to try that at some point during the campaign.

The painting of the alternate hero poses continues behind the scenes, but we've also amended the campaign structure with added scenarios. The flow chart had an inconsistency after the Duel at Zirak-Zigil; Gandalf will obviously continue to "Restore the King" instead of directly to Helm's Deep. Here is an updated second part of the campaign flowchart:



There are several additions to the third part, inspired by old White Dwarf and Battle Games in Middle-Earth magazines. Firstly, if the Ringbearer is still alive and well after the "Ambush in Ithilien", we'll do a quick detour to Osgiliath with "They're here". Shortly thereafter, we'll have two scenarios dealing with Faramir's fate - if he survives beyond the "Battle for Osgiliath", there will be "Faramir's rescue" (in fact, that scenario is played even without Faramir to assist the retreat from Osgiliath), and after that, "Doomed charge" commanded by Denethor. "Plateau of Gorgoroth" has been added before the Ringbearer reaches Mt Doom. We also have a much better Crack of Doom scenario than originally planned thanks to the BGiME magazine's "End of all things" scenario. Finally, there is an epilogue containing the Scouring of the Shire scenarios. Here's an up-to-date third part of the campaign flowchart:



We've divided the gameplay into eight sets of scenarios, called "seasons" - just like in a TV series. The scenarios within a season are played usually about once per month, followed by a longer break in between seasons to allow for painting and terrain building for the upcoming battles. There is a loose theme for all games within a scenario, allowing us to give an overall name to the seasons. The first season, "The Shadow of the Past", contained eight games and ended in Rivendell. Here are the remaining seven:



As to the actual schedule - I shall not give you a firm date for the start of season two; it may be in December, but it may just as well slip to the other side of New Year. But be assured that the campaign keeps on going, and once a season starts, it usually means that the scenarios within that season should appear relatively regularly. Stay tuned, and do pop over to the behind the scenes thread as well - finishing the alternate pose Gandalf's is a good sign that the next battle report is near...

You are a very well organised man, I could not even dare to attempt what you are doing
Keep it up

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'You would die before your stroke fell!' ~Legolas

Check out my WIP!

Cant wait to see the hounds of sauron scenario play out. Dont wanna be one of those guys, but are you playing it soon? Should be a good game either way

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My work in progress thread: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=27503

Hope I'm not jinxing it if I say that we should be able to play the next scenario within two weeks. We want to finish the game Beyond: Two Souls first, and need to spend a few more hours with Playstation 3 before returning to Middle-Earth...

Waiting with baited breath!

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Available for Commissions!

Check out my blog: http://yggdrasilpainting.wix.com/yggdrasilpainting

just read the entire campaign so far in one sitting. . .wow. Beautiful scenery, if I had the scenery from just one of those game I would be overjoyed. the writing in this is fantastic, I am already emotionally invested in these little guys. When Pippin died I squealed pathetically, and that tragic line "I hope Merry saw that" broke my heart. eagerly awaiting the next season!

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Awesome Battle Reports, scenery, miniatures and planning. Can't wait for next battle report. Great job!! :p

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"Is it tasty, is it scruummptious, is it crunchable!?"
-Gollum, The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey

maybe i missed it but what did gandalf do after he defeated saruman? did he go straight to bree or did he first go to edoras to get shadowfax? most likely to bree right? What are you gonna do with shadowfax then?

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My WIP topic! Erebor & Moria!
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=27620

@Isilduhrr & GreenWyvern, thanks for the praise! We are but an hour away from completing Beyond, and quite likely can play the next scenario within a week or so.

@Éomund, we didn't really think about that particular detail after the Duel of Wizards scenario. I don't know if you asked this because I painted Gandalf the Grey with a steed that looks a lot like Shadowfax? The way I would think this is that Gandalf would have warned Théoden about Saruman's treachery, and would have gained Shadowfax anyway in order to reach Frodo as soon as possible. He would then have let Shadowfax go, as he did canonically, too.

Now, this actually illustrates an interesting point for a campaign - how does Gandalf the Grey transform into Gandalf the White? Obviously, if Gandalf the Grey dies in any scenario (and we fail any saving dice throws), he would return as Gandalf the White... but what if he beats the Balrog and lives? And if he dies, at what point does he return? We'll probably worry about that when we see how the Bridge of Khazad-dûm plays out...but any ideas and suggestions are welcome!

I panted the mounted Gandalf for the contingency that Gandalf the Grey does not die before he reaches Rohan - then we'd have Gandalf the Grey again riding Shadowfax.