Hello,

This year I've started playing the Lord of the Rings campaign as found in the DeAgostini: Battle Games in Middle-earth magazine. I'm using the new 2018 rules and profiles. I'm playing solo both sides.

I've never played the full campaign (the farthest I got was The Forbidden Pool, second scenario in the Two Towers). This time I'll only play a scenario once I have all the correct miniatures and terrain, painted to satisfactory standards (for me), motivating me to stick with this till the very end.

I've created a blog specifically for showcasing my plays of this campaign, which can be found here:
https://aiwendil.net/

Here I will link to the specific scenarios:
Overview of everything:
https://aiwendil.net/deagostinilotrcampaign/

Fellowship of the Ring:
01 - Flight to Bucklebury Ferry (13-01-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... ury-ferry/
02 - Escape from Bree (21-01-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... from-bree/
03 - Attack at Weathertop (21-01-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... eathertop/
04 - The Watcher in the Water (04-02-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... the-water/
05 - Balin's Tomb (04-02-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... lins-tomb/
06 - The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm (11-02-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... hazad-dum/
07 - Crossing the Silverlode (09-03-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... ilverlode/
08 - Ambush at Amon Hen (22-04-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... -amon-hen/

Statistics & Discussion for the Fellowship of the Ring campaign:
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-fellows ... tatistics/

The Two Towers:
01 - Ambush in Ithilien (01-05-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... -ithilien/
02 - The Forbidden Pool (05-05-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... dden-pool/
03 - The Fords of Isen (14-07-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... s-of-isen/
04 - The Wrath of Rohan (19-07-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... -of-rohan/
05 - Message to Edoras (29-07-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... to-edoras/
06 - Hold the Fort (12-08-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... -the-fort/
07 - Restore the King (28-09-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... -the-king/
08 - Retreat from Edoras (05-10-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... om-edoras/
09 - The Deeping Wall (18-12-2019):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... ping-wall/
10 - Retreat to the Keep (01-01-2020):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... -the-keep/
11 - Breach the Dam (01-02-2020):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... h-the-dam/
12 - Escape from Osgiliath (19-02-2020):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... osgiliath/

Statistics & Discussion for the Two Towers campaign:
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-two ... iscussion/

The Return of the King:
01 - The Path to Mordor (20-02-2020):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... lobs-lair/
03 - River Assault (30-03-2020):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... r-assault/
04 - Siege of Minas Tirith (07-08-2021 & 08-08-2021):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... as-tirith/
05 - The End of All Things (19-09-2021):
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-lor ... ll-things/

Statistics & Discussion for the Return of the King campaign:
https://aiwendil.net/deagostini-the-ret ... iscussion/

I will update this post as I update my blog. It is now finished! I hope you'll enjoy!

Special thanks to Dave Townsend for inspiring me to do this because of his awesome battle reports (on this forum and at http://davetownsend.org/Battles/lotr.html)

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

It's a very worthy goal and you appear to be off to a good start! What is the DeAgostini: Battle Games in Middle-earth magazine campaign? How is it different than the scenarios that were published in the Games Workshop source books?

_________________
http://www.battlevault.com

Thanks, good question!

It was a magazine that ran from 2002 - 2006 in UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malta, South Africa, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Poland. Every magazine would come with a Games Workshop miniature (often a single hero or a single sprue of general warriors, such as 12 Moria Goblins or 10 Uruk-hai). It contained some lore, the rules and profiles, painting guides, terrain making guides as well as scenarios. I guess somewhat similar to the old White Dwarf magazine, but dedicated entirely to LotR SBG.

The scenarios are generally smaller scale than those found in White Dwarf, the old source books or the Journey books. They focus mostly on the events in the films, as well as 'what if' scenarios. For the participants they often take into account the miniatures you'd have based on previous issues in the series, which is why it's generally smaller scale. The GW Journey books focus more on the books I believe and feature miniatures that were new at the time (including GW creations such as Vraskû).

Personally I'm really hoping the Middle-earth team will redo the Journey books to match all the models that have been released so far as well as being balanced with the new rules and profiles.

One of the reasons I'm doing this DeAgostini campaign is because in this way I'm growing my (painted) collection step by step. As well as my collection of terrain. Once it's all done I want to move on to the GW Journey Books campaign and see how that plays.

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

Great job Voyager!
Wish I was near you, playing this campaign in proper scenery is a dream of mine

The only downside is that most scenarios are not really well balanced, more so, if you play them with a "competitive spirit". But they are very nice narrative wise and focus on the main plot.
Some were really awesome and played in really unique way (like the one that you try to escape osgiliath from the tunnels and random sections of the sewer appear each time).

Looking forward to the next battlereps!

_________________
My WIP: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=22962

Thanks Whatevier! I try to focus on narrative / thematic play first, but doing so as competitively as possible. For example I'll allow Evil to try and kill the most vulnerable hobbits first because I think that would be a sound tactic in real life and can actually be woven into the narrative.
Also when controlling the Ringwraiths in the first two scenarios as the Good player, I did not let them move backwards all the time. They moved to explore the first two houses in Bree and after that I did move them towards the Prancing Pony. If Evil had had priority they could have perhaps gone more with their gut feeling and headed straight towards the Prancing Pony. But I try to play in a way that makes thematic sense for both sides.

For now I think it's actually a good thing the scenarios so far aren't really balanced, with the Good player having the advantage, as I do hope to make it to the end of the campaign. To make it harder and more realistic all the heroes will only restore a Might, Will and/or Fate points on the roll of a 4+ after each scenario for each point lost. It seems weird to allow them to fully recover in between scenarios that follow in rapid succession. Once they reach a safe haven they will recover fully (such as Rivendell and Lothlorien).

The next battle report is up, The Watcher in the Water. It's very short and doesn't go into detail (played it about a month ago), but I am very happy with how the pictures turned out.

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

Thanks for the shout out and best of luck on the campaign. I haven't played many of the BGiME scenarios, but in general they give the impression of being crafted with more care than some of the journeybook efforts. Fortunately the latest books (starting with the There and Back Again reboot) seem to be given the same care.

The Fellowship of the Ring campaign is now finished. On to The Two Towers ...

Some statistics can be found here: https://aiwendil.video.blog/2019/04/22/ ... tatistics/

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

Really impressive. Great job on getting all the scenery together; that ain't trivial.

I look forward to seeing how Rohan holds out!

Thanks Dave, yeah making and painting the scenery for FotR was probably the most time consuming, even with the pre-made Weathertop and Balin's Tomb. Fortunately I can reuse a lot of the generic terrain such as hills, trees and rivers.

Now the real challenge will be painting all the miniatures required for the more massive battles. Fortunately for me the DeAgostini scenarios are generally smaller in scale than what Games Workshop generally suggests. Though there is still the matter of the 2400 points Pelennor Fields scenario in RotK...

At any rate, I am looking forward to playing scenarios where there's not just heroes on the Good side. It's fun to follow the journey and perils of the Fellowship, but it'd be nice if Evil would win some scenarios to make it a bit more interesting, without it having devastating consequences for the campaign.

I think the next scenario will be played and posted within two weeks.

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

Really great series of battles. Nice job! Looking forward to more.

_________________
--------------------------------------------------------
More LOTR content on my blog: https://tllw.blogspot.com/

The Two Towers campaign has kicked off today with Ambush in Ithilien:

https://aiwendil.video.blog/2019/05/01/ ... -ithilien/

The next scenario I will hopefully play this week, though the one after that may take a little longer because I still need to paint quite some miniatures for it and I'll have less time on my hands.

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

Left a comment on the blog. Looking forward to the next battle. Campaigns are the best.

_________________
--------------------------------------------------------
More LOTR content on my blog: https://tllw.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the support!


The orcs that survived the ambush in Ithilien have joined forces with a party of orcs attacking the secret ranger base at the Forbidden Pool by night. Can the rangers hold them off long enough for Frodo and Sam to escape?

https://aiwendil.video.blog/2019/05/05/ ... dden-pool/


As mentioned previously, the next scenario will probably take a while before I can play it. Hopefully somewhere next month.

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

I commented on your blog but I wanted to add here that I will be looking forward to the next battle report. I am about to need to do some serious hobbying myself to keep the battle reports coming so I can definitely relate!

_________________
You can find me at: https://KuribosPainting.com/ and on Instagram @kuribospainting.

left a comment on the blog as well. Nice terrain and game play,
looking forward to the next one. Hope that the goodside can get their act together.

_________________
--------------------------------------------------------
More LOTR content on my blog: https://tllw.blogspot.com/

Someone please send help already. I'm supposed to analyse restaurants for sale in Barcelona for a client so that I can tell him which one could be the most rentable, and I've been reading LotR wargame AARs for hours now.

... I'm fairly sure it's classified as an illness at this point.

We had it in Portugal also, but it stoped by number 65 lol

_________________
Aulë Dwarf Father

My Blog: http://www.middleearthminis.com

I am very happy to announce that the next scenario in the campaign has been played. Saruman has sent Orcs and Uruk-hai to take down Théodred, son of Théoden. It can be found here:

https://aiwendil.video.blog/2019/07/14/ ... s-of-isen/



This took a while to get to play, as expected, because I had to paint pretty much all miniatures that were needed. Because I like the efficiency of batch painting, I decided to not just paint the required 8 Rohan warriors, but paint all 48 that I own. Same for the Riders (37), Royal Guard (8 Mounted, 9 on Foot), Warg Riders (forgot how many) and a number of the named Heroes (including the new Forge World ones). I also build 6 burial mounds and 10 hedges. The next two scenarios can as a result be played much sooner, definitely this month. The next one I will probably play somewhere next week. As for painting, I am not really looking forward to painting over 100 Uruk-hai, but that is what I'll have to do.

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

Over 100 Uruks!? Wow, you do have your work cut out for you. I hope you're able to accomplish this feat and thanks for sharing the bat rep as well. It was a lot of fun to read!

_________________
You can find me at: https://KuribosPainting.com/ and on Instagram @kuribospainting.

Left a comment on the blog. Nice job!

_________________
--------------------------------------------------------
More LOTR content on my blog: https://tllw.blogspot.com/