The Knight Wot Go "BOING!"

It has been a while since I got to scratch the goblin itch (ewww, phrasing) but Warcry presented me with a chance to build the Squig rider kit I had stashed away since they were released. Got to say; that kit is a joy to put together. So many options and little details to be had and they look really dinamic when they're finished. See for yourself.

 The banner was just something I fancied doing. These guys have been done up with an old school, 90's look. Bright colours and green base rims seemed to be the highlights of the era.

 Finally, to round off the gang for Warcry.  What deranged Goblin knight on a quest would travel without his baggage train.

  I think of the whole group like the knights from Monty Python (I do plan to add a guy with coconuts)

The Battle 5 Armies, 4 Players, 3 Games, 2 Little Girls and FREAKIN' ELF!

This has been sitting on my "to do" list for a while. Not the games, that happened at the start of the month, but I kept forgetting to go through all the photos and sort out a post for the Battle of 5 Armies. Well I finally got around to it, unfortunately a LOT of stuff has been forgotten regarding order of events and missed photo opportunities. My own fault so my usual rambling will be briefer than normal.

A note regarding the models used. My group and I aren't prepared to remortgage a house to afford all the FW model needed to carry out these scenarios, so we took to using proxies (Dwarves, Elves and Orcs are all the same) or dropping models as needed. (Chariots are £!)

Game1
For this game we went BIG. Huge forces, lots of big beasties and named characters running around. The Orcs had to cause as much damage as possible before getting whittled down to 50% whilst the goodies had two objectives to complete; get Thranduil to the gates of Dale, get Thorin to Raven Hill. Easy right? All they have to do is chew threw a horde of Orcs.

Dain and his retinue make their battle lines ready.

Thranduil and his Wood Elf host prepare to advance on the city of Dale

 The Battle lines drawn and a ton of blood thirsty orcs and trolls ready to go. Game 1 was going tobe a brutal afair, but I was hoping for some cool moments of heroism.

Azog directs the battle from Raven Hill

 The front lines close and.......

 SMASH! Carnage erupts as the Trolls begin smashing the Dwarf lines apart.

 Thranduil takes the fight to the orcs.

 The dual between Thranduil and the Troll lasted ages.

Thorin's Company enter the fray!

 A truly epic fight, but an unexpected victor. The Troll finally best the Elven King and casts him to the ground before rampaging further into the Elven ranks (what were left of them anyway.)

With Thranduil out of the game and Thorin's company bogged down amongst the orcs. Game1 went to Azog's force. Eat that elf boy!!!!

GAME2
The Battle for Dale saw the Lake Town Survivors lead by Bard, defending themselves from the Orc onslaught. Thranduil and his elves would arrive as reinforcements mid battle behind the Orc lines. Though Elf King was present he would be arriving to the battle severely injured after his bout with the Troll.

The Lake Town survivors make a brave show of force against the charging Orcs.

The Orcs press deeper into the Lake town defenders, Bain is cut down in the scrum...

... as his sisters watch helplessly.

Gandalf was there too, I guess?

In an act of bestial cruelty, the Troll attempts do eat the remaining children of Bard.

The elves finally show up.

Along with Alfred, Bard's daughters make their escape as Bard fights back the rampaging Troll.

 With the Gundabad forces holding the majority of objectives, the City of Dale was taken. Azog's legion had claimed two victories.

GAME3
The final showdown! Thorin and the boys taken on Azog and Bolg. Both forces have extra help coming in, but we were expecting the heroes to do most of the heavy lifting. The Good guys had to kill both Orc Commanders, whilst Azog needed to take out ALL the Dwarves.

The Gundabad army on the march, we thought looked cool but it didn't do much as I recall.

Keron's fuzzy Beorn was worth a mention. Sooooo fluffy!!!

Early turns saw Fili(or Kili, I don't remember which) cornered in the ruins.

Whilst Bog went after Dwalin...

Thorin's hunt for Azog ended rather unexpectedly. Dying to a mob of berzerkers.

The final stages of the showdown were rather brutal, but I have no pictures unfortunatly. In short, Dwalin killed Bolg and Azog took out Kili/Fili only to have Turiel turn up and injure the big brute. She then got battered to death by Azog just as all the Eagles and bears turned up. It looked like Azog was going to carry the day as he began heading for the remaining Dwarf Noble; Kili?Fili who was still cornered in the ruins. That was until Legola showed up.

Azog was already wounded from his fight with Turiel but no-one would have bet on Legolas appearing last minute and snipping the Orc warleader in one shot. ONE SHOT! God damn *%£%^$"%%^£%^%*&*&&%^& Elves! Ruin my plans every time!

So with Azog and Bolg dead, the final battle went to the goodies and we closed the book on the Hobbit Trilogy. We're hoping to start playing some fellowship missions soon.