Project Log 4 - Forking Rivers

Our first game in the campaign, The Battle of the Last Alliance, already seems like an eternity ago, but i've been beavering away on bits and pieces over the last six weeks that will all, eventually, contribute to the campaign.

First bit of news was that a kick starter that I backed some months ago, Stormguard, providing files for 3D printing, has been completed.  The terrain pieces looked perfect for Arnor/Gondor so I took the leap and backed the full range at a cost of £75.  Fortunately I have a friend, Richard, who has a decent 3D printer and very grateful for him printing off the first two pieces which I am supremely happy with, here they are based coated grey:

I wanted to see how this new stuff stood up against the only official GW kit for Middle Earth scenery, the Osgiliath Ruins.  I put one kit together and based it on MDF and added in a cobble stone interior by using clay and the rolling pin I bought a few years ago.  It's a really nice kit and compliments the Stormguard stuff well. 

That did mean that I had five other identical ruins of Osgiliath kits and with Stormguard providing such a bountiful amount of differing kits I couldn't see a reason to keep these so I managed to sell them on the Facebook trade group for a fair price.  

Simultaneously to this going on I was still painting Erebor Dwarfs and I now have two full war bands painted.  However ive had to put these to one side because Mordor, like the lingering evil it is, has had to come back onto my painting table.  Why?  Read on.     

Straight after the BOTLA Olivia and I looked at the next scenario, The Disaster at the Gladden Fields, and realised it was a fairly large battle but essentially all we needed was a forking river that cut through the battlefield.  We had the painted models.  Not sure why this scenario has a forking river, Unfinished Tales does not mention this element in the battle as far as I can tell. 

I got to work cutting up MDF bits into the right shapes and perhaps my mind wandered as I did this because i started thinking about War of the Ring game system.  SBG is a great rules system but at 1000 points and over I really feel the wheels start to come off and it can become a chore moving that amount of individual models.  So we will be moving to using the War of the Rings rule system for some of the bigger battles in the campaign.  Gladden Fields is one of them.  There is a scenario for this in the back of the core rulebook.  But no forking river!  Damn it, back to the drawing board.

Also upon inspection I am still short of painted Morder forces for this large scenario.  So ive now got to make a straight river and paint up about 30 more Mordor orcs and, as mentioned, they are not the most exciting models in the world. 

This is going to mean the next game might not be for a few months, but we are in no rush and it will be worth it in the end as all of this terrain/model painting will pay off.   

Olivia is new to the War of the Ring system so we have played a practice game and will continue to play it so we have the rules down before the big game.  I also have a sheet of A4 with house rules which deals with some of the bigger issues in the WOTR rules system.

Lastly, shame not to give those newly painted Erebor Dwarfs a run out.  Here they are facing Moria, controlled by my son.  He was most happy to kill Thror via an enraged giant spider.  Oh the shame.