Middle Earth Moria Goblin Prowlers - BIG BUILD TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Moria Goblins for #MESBG I had seen three of these metal Prowlers on ebay at £4.50 or so for a while and I thought they could be a great bargain. I mentioned them to Otty but didn't hear anything back.

Naturally, come the end of the auction they shot up in price  but I still got a thrill at the end as my maximum bid of £12 won the auction for £11.50. Add on the £4.50 postage and I was quite pleased with myself.

Until Otty messaged me an hour later to say they are back in production on GW's website and you can get 6 for £18! More fool me. Still, they came and I got them glued into their bases, glued sand onto their bases and got them primed.

On went some rough and garish base colours ready for washes and highlights.

 I get a Great Big Big Build RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the build.

And a Great Big RUSTY Big Build Base Stamp of Approval for the basing!

Battle Report - Middle Earth Battle Companies - Chance Encounter

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity - I've been playing #MESBG [Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game] at Otty's again. After previous shambolic attempts to record my battles weeks after the event this time I made the effort to write the report soon after, which really helps. As he'd ousted me from my own Moria hex tile I was keen to recapture the caves and reclaim my 're-roll for climb/leap/jump'. That said two of my sergeants are injured so I was facing his Rohirrim with over 100pts less of my full warband. The points deficit between our warbands gave me 3 re-rolls and 3 extra influence points at the end of the game. We rolled Chance Encounter again - objectives is 'the leaders of both companies are looking for a quick victory, without taking too many casualties', however, the victory conditions are to reduce your opponent to 25% of it's starting models.

Luckily I got to deploy first and as I looked at my numerical disadvantage and the 6 heavy cavalry I was facing I was at a loss as to how I might overcome the odds stacked against me. I did the only thing I could and try to use the terrain to my advantage - setting up on the hill, with my faster Warg and Cave Troll on the far right flank, able to move through the trees without penalty because I hold Lothlorien. 

Otty won priority and sent his cavalry surging forward to 'the hill I was prepared to die upon'! Infantry, including a roaming spirit of the dead, a warrior and his hound went to come round the trees, while a small rearguard with the archers held back a bit. In response I drew further out of charge range on top of the hill - trying to create a choke point to face as few cavalry as possible. My Wargs headed through the trees and the Troll skirted the bottom of the hill behind the trees. 

Otty was able to snipe one of my Wargs with an archer - so much for roving ahead under the cover of the trees. I was beginning to doubt every tactical decision I was making. Having withdrawn my Goblins further along the hill I realise it was perhaps another mistake. It delayed Otty's cavalry charge for another turn, with another round of him using his throwing spears. Luckily, I think no one died in the delay but he made the charge with just 2 horse warriors. 2 remained on the hill as back up, while the last two fell back to support against the troll.

My Troll charged the ghostly Warrior of the dead, with a 12 on the Terror test. His rage managed to overcome it's incorporeal nature and he hurled it through the Warrior, hound and the cavalry. The hound and cavalry perished while the rest were knocked flat. My lone Warg had skirted the back of Otty's deployment zone, avoided a round of shooting and pounced on his rearguard archer, but cavalry was on the way and the Warg couldn't press its advantage. I snuck my Goblin Prowler past the main cavalry melee on top of the hill to tie up the secondary cavalry, somehow he survived. 2 more Rohirrim infantry broke through the trees to come up the back of the hill.

The Troll remained locked with the ghost but killed the warrior. My Prowler also kept two cavalry tied up and one of Goblin spears took down one of the horsemen, despite being attacked from behind by the two foot soldiers.

Otty managed to trap my Warg, but the dice gods were not with him! 🎲🎲🎲🎲

The combat on the hill just couldn't be broken. My Prowler continued to be a thorn in the cavalry's side. If I won the duel I failed to wound, if I lost the duel I somehow survived. This allowed my troll to finally kill the Ghost, he failed his Terror charge, but the host didn't fail its and paid the price for it's undead hubris. The Troll surged up the hill to try to break the deadlock.

One Rohirrim left the fight on the hill, his colleague  surged into the back of my lines but not far enough away to escape the Troll. I was losing Goblins and the fights were becoming more even numbered now.

Despite this I was lucky winning some duels but then my luck evaporated and I couldn't convert that opportunity into victory. 🎲🎲🎲

We were both losing the odd model here and there - Otty had the advantage on priority to cavalry charge but I just had numerical advantage to trap him, plus the Troll was unwounded and my Blackshields were as durable as Otty's Rohirrim. I used my last might point to move first, despite losing priority but prevent another cavalry charge. 

Despite the advantage I couldn't capitalise again, that last might point would have won me the duel against the green knight. Meanwhile the red knight threw all his attack on my Blackshield and suddenly those 1s became 6s. For a moment Otty thought he'd made a mistake not attacking the Troll, but he got double strikes on the Goblin, so wouldn't have had the dice to take out the Troll.

We were both approaching our 25% and Otty was struggling with his break rolls. He'd had a good round where only 1 Warrior fled out 5 or 6, but I think he lost 2 here and I may have lost 1. He may have reached 25% first but I followed shortly after but forgot to remove Mang [my little drummer boy] so it looked like I had 4 left and was in 33% and had won!

Of course I hadn't, it was a draw and I discovered hitting that Win button early on https://battle-companies-manager.com/ can be quite the inconvenience. I'm wasn't about to hit the 'back' button to try to fix the result and risk losing all the stats. I'd some how wrestled what I thought was inevitable defeat into almost victory! Luckily I could edit the extra experience and influence after the fact. I was really lucky with injuries though - Zit my leader was completely healed, including his leg wound! And, with +1 to my injury rolls, because I hold the Shire, I got two 'wounds of a hero' for an extra 8 Influence points. I ended the game with 22, enough to get me a second Troll. Nobody died, nobody missed a game and I have 6 Influence left to try to add a couple more Goblins and I got some heavy armour for my Leader.

This was an epic game, fun, tactical and although I still haven't recovered Moria I am absolutely ready to roll through everyone now, and reclaim what's mine!

Middle Earth Moria Goblin Durbûrz & Blackshield - TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Moria Goblins for #MESBG The last time I was at Otty's he'd got quite a large Moria Goblin auction and in there was a Durbûrz that he kindly let me have. He makes a much better Zit, the leader of my warband.

I think I'd already started to panic about available hobby time for AoP so rushed him and a Blackshield that had been promoted. I think one of my spear Goblins had made two kills in one game so he deserved the promotion.

I brought home one of the other Blackshields to ensure I kept things consistent. Most of my Warband is kept at Otty's now for convenience. But they make a cool little gang and all of the Defence 6 models are beginning to make things far more durable now.

If I'm honest he was a bit rushed and not quite as good as he could be. That said the pictures aren't bad and his green glowy eyes are far more effective than I thought they'd be.

As it was second hand some of the detail on the chainmail on the back was worn away, or filled in with some form of hobby coating. So, the final painting feels rough and ready because there wasn't really any detail to capture. On the plus side it makes me feel I did the best with what i had so the end result I'm pleased about.

I'm not sure what was the donor model for this but the head and shield are Moria, with a Milliput cloak.

So, another GREAT Big RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the 2022/23 Hobby Season.

  As time is short, I didn't actually take the BIG BUILD black and white pictures and rather than just add another post here's the WiPs.

 I get a Great Big Big Build RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the build.

And a Great Big RUSTY Big Build Base Stamp of Approval for the basing!

NOT Battle Reports - Middle Earth Battle Companies

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity - I've been playing #MESBG [Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game] again at Otty's. It was Ben & Otty's 50th birthday's recently so we decided to have a weekend gaming. We had some games of MEBG and Liam and Ben had a game of #AdeptusTitanicus as Liam managed to finish his Titans in a week of furious painting. Anyway, it was a good few weeks ago and I have no recollection of what happened against Scott's Khand.

I think I ended up forfeiting the game quite early as I was taking too many losses and couldn't seem to make a dent in his fast moving army.

I then faced Otty, this time it was a really important game for ownership of Moria itself. If I was to lose the hex I would lose my reroll for difficult terrain tests.

And for the life of me these pictures mean nothing, I can't recall any of what took place, sorry.

But I do know I forfeited the game again which was a huge loss in the long term.

Not only would I need to fight Otty again to reclaim my lost home hex but he expanded further into my realm meaning I would need to fight him for another hex that currently is giving me bonuses I can't afford to lose.

What's even more worrying is that I think that hex also has Liam's elves in too. So it could be a 3 way battle and knowing my luck that'll probably end up with the Rohirrim and elves joining forces to take me out first.

Yeah, not looking forward to that one when it happens.

Here's the Adeptus Titanicus game Liam and Ben played. My Titans still need finishing off. They may form part of my #DreadTober pledge, should I complete my Foetid Bloat Drone get finished early. 

The game was interesting but they may well have been playing wrong. The Cerastus Lancers were 50:50 - they managed to get in combat with the Warlord titan. He was trapped for a long time and because they were inside his void shields did significant damage to him... when they hit. So, although they were MVP for the damage they caused they didn't always manage to land their blows. Anyway, Liam got me the 2nd Cerastus Lancer I shared previously. He's been primed and I will paint his base alongside the Ravenwing bikes when I get round to them.

Anyway, sorry about the not so battle report, but we did have a really good weekend. Went out for breakfast, a curry in the evening a few beers, some toy soldiers and awesome company with my gaming crew.

Battle Report - Middle Earth Battle Companies - Baggage Train

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity - I've been playing #MESBG [Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game] again at Otty's. I appreciate this is rapidly making a mockery of blogs title of 40kaddict but I go where the fun is. This was an exciting game against Liam's Elves, We rolled the baggage train where I had 5 'pack horses' along my [southern] board edge. My aim was to have 3 pieces of cargo at the end of the game. I also got an influence point for each item moving off the board. Liam had to kill a pack train and steal it's cargo and then escape on the northern board edge.

Now we read the rules quite a few times as it felt like the victory conditions were the wrong way round. I just had to hold onto the cargo, but that promise of extra influence points was mighty tempting. So I headed off to the right side to try to make for the trees and cover

Unfortunately Liam's Elf bowmen had range, accuracy and proper deadly. I soon realised the long march up the board needed more cover.

So, I started to sneak behind the trees and then took full advantage of the slightly larger than your average pack horse - wagons and cattle to hide some of my units behind them. 

Liam could see me heading to the northeast board edge so reposition to cut me off. But my convoy continued on and I was beginning to struggle with congestion in some areas but still used the wagons for cover.

Things are beginning to get tense now, Liam closed off my escape and managed to get his foot troops and archers into the woods too. Priority is going to ne essential.

I move further up, with my cattle hoping to sneak off down the flank, the other items still as obstacles he has to get round, or kill. I have to say my heart was pounding at this stage. Numerous turns building up to this point.

I'm guessing I lost priority as it's all kicking off now. My pack train was both a boon and a curse, getting in the way, blocking charges but also trapping some of my own models. Sadly I missed a picture before this. I was in a very lucky position where the troll managed to pick up a knight on his horse and hurl it 6" through a wagon a 3 other infantry. Each warrior he hit managed to avoid injury but one of them clipped the knight as he crashed into them and he was injured in the final sprawl as he landed. It was an epic moment.

But Liam had quality fighters in his warband and started to pick off my Goblins, while my own success dwindled after the mighty thrown cavalry. He'd also misunderstood his objective in killing the back train and taking the cargo, so quickly set about destroying wagons and my herd of pigs But I think he was too bloodthirsty in his zeal and may have tipped me into 25%. I'd lost my force but I think I'd won the game. I still had 3 pieces of cargo and Liam had failed to steal those he'd taken from the damaged train.

A really tense and exciting game, plenty of suspense leading up to the first clash of battle. The combat itself was challenging and I was lucky with the outcome, but the victory conditions were really confusing, certainly moreso for me in control of the pack train and it didn't help that Liam hadn't understood he had to kill/destroy each pack horse and then steal away it's cargo. I'm sure he'll play it differently next time.

And there we have the map, I've started to make inroads to Scott's domain in the south. I'd thought to make a buffer between My red hexes of Moria and Lothlorien and Otty's green hexes, but thought if I'd put the marker I used in the south there Otty my see it as aggression. Instead he took those hexes and now I have him breathing down my door. That's what happens when you don't play to your faction!