Lord of the Rings SBG

Middle Earth SBG – Choosing My Army!

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Jumping back into Lord of the Rings meant once again picking an army to collect. I should point out before I continue that evil is my bag. It didnt even cross my mind that my main force would be a good one. I like my monsters and gribblies too much.

Back in the day I had a fairly sizable Dol Guldur army with a Necromancer led contingent and a Spider Queen force and before that a large Mordor force. I wasn’t looking to revisit any of these and wanted to try something new. I painted a lot for those armies and wanted to get a completely fresh start, although I may revisit these forces in a few months.

All this meant looking away from the Lord of the Rings forces and adventuring into the fairly unfamiliar territory of The Hobbit. I had not kept up with model or rules releases for this, so really had no idea what was out there for it. I had seen the films when they were released, but needed a refresher alongside a read of the Hobbit armies PDF. So got the extended editions out and got my geek on.

Following this epic viewing (I really enjoyed the trilogy. Flawed films but still an awesome adventure)and reading session, I knew exactly what I wanted to collect, both good and evil forces.

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I knew I wanted a hoard of orcs, gribblies and massive trolls, led by the big bad himself, Azog. Even though he doesn’t really stick to the Tolkein lore I loved this character. Just a good and proper villain. It really helped that he also came with a great selection of gribblies of all shapes and sizes. As I said earlier this is is right up my street.

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I also loved the Dol Guldur fight between the White Council and the Necromancer and fell in love with the White Council. I love this whole story line and the characters involved. It also meant a small collection of key characters, so not much to collect and a great opportunity to really give them some painting love.

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Not to mention a mate has a 1000pt army consisting of the Necromancer, the Nine and the Dungeon Master. It’s going to be an epic and beautifully themed game when we get a chance to play it.

I did expect it to take longer for me to get stuck into both forces, but I’ve already painted 800pts of Azog’s Legion alongside 2 members of the White Council. Check them out below…

Middle Earth SBG – A Return to Where it All Started!

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15 years ago I was sucked into the hobby vortex from whence I have yet to return. 15 years ago a friend urged me to have a game with his brand new The Two Towers boxed game. 15 years ago that I started my journey leading to where I am now!

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Following that game with a friend was a frenzy of collecting, hobbying and battling. The release fo the films alongside a massive influx of related materials just spurred me further into a love of the universe. The Lord of the Rings SBG gave me a creative outlet to focus this sudden interest and I dove right in. Converting my own characters, creating scenery and even building a massive cardboard Osgiliath in my living room. It eventually led to a job in Games Workshop and the other games, Warhammer and 40k. From there, as you can imagine, I fell right down the rabbit hole and have never looked back. I owe a lot to Lord of the Rings, the one game that started it all!

I continued to play Lord of the Rings for many years, but slowly started to drift away. Tyranids and Hordes of Chaos Warriors began to draw my attention. Not to mention the slowing releases and lessening excitement surrounding Lord of the Rings SBG. I spread my hobby seed far and wide, sampling a whole slew of games, never really finding one to settle on and in the last few years I’ve not really had any game were I could get my hobby fix. Playing games like X-wing that come pre painted and built led to a bit of a slump in my own hobby activity and enjoyment of the games I was playing. I hadn’t even realised it was the hobby itch that needed scratched.

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It wasn’t until an old friend started to get excited about the imminent release of The Battle of the Pelennor Fields box set that I even thought about what I thought was a defunct game. I hadn’t been following the game at all so was totally ignorant of the Hobbit releases, Forge World getting involved, nor of a new edition being launched. I wasn’t even aware that there was still a very active scene surrounding the game, but I still wasn’t sold. My love for the universe had faded with the buzz of the films and I wasn’t sure I could get into painting units I wasn’t keen on or had tackled plenty of times in the past.

That is until we all had a wee refresher game. As soon as the action started rules came flooding back. It was a half hour of gaming that started with me being as disinterested as they come and ending absolutely psyched for the game again.

I immediately began researching what was now available and what army I would be collecting. This opened up a whole host of possibilities that I had not seen until now. The Hobbit releases in particular caught my eye, as I was a big fan of a lot of the design elements in the films, particularly the monsters. I love some gribblies. This was it, this was when I knew that this was the game for me. It was a joy to feel so passionate again about the game that started it all, and from what I’ve experienced about it so far I know I’ll be playing for a while.

Come back soon as I’ll be taking a look at the armies I chose and why.