From The Ashes

Back to Middle Earth for another week of Battle Company carnage. This week the warbands are attempting hold separate objectives whilst their forces arrive on the board in stages rather than all at once. Further more, My Goblin crew has a secondary objective: Save the lost archer! Last week I was unfortunate as to lose one of my heroes to the wilds and this game will be my ONLY chance to save him from certain death. A huge blow to my already struggling band of goblin hooligans. The Alliance of Men and Elves are very much the dominant force of the campaign and this could be a good chance for the Dwarves to give them a bloody nose if they play their cards right. The Orcs of Cirith Ungol are away again this week (Corporate team building seminar at head office or something) So that leave the Dwarves and the Alliance to play for glory and the Goblins to play a desperate rescue mission in the background before they get noticed.

The Goblins rush to grab their wounded comrade before the goodies can secure the area. The Goblins will need to drag the unconscious Hero off the board to assure his survival.

The Men of Numenor ford the river to claim the objective by the crossing.

The Dwarves, likewise take the bridge, the only other river crossing.

The Dwarf Leader spies the Goblin mob and bravely steps out to meet them in battle before they can flee with their wounded gang mate.

Alas his efforts prove fool hardy indeed as the Goblin assassin reveals his lethal skills and fells the Dwarf Leader in a single round of Combat. Shockingly, the Goblins are the first warband to score a VP.

The Dwarf reinforcements arrive and march on the Numenorians at the ford.

The rest of the Dwarves, enraged by the death of their Leader, make their way back across the bridge to attack the Goblins.

The skirmish at the river goes ill for the Dwarves. The Alliance reinforcements have yet to arrive, but it will spell doom for the Dwarves if they can't pull back from their dire situation.

Meanwhile, the Goblins continue to rush their comrade to the board's edge just as their own reinforcements arrive.

The ford remains contested ground as another Dwarf joins the fray.

With their lost comrade carried to safety, the Goblins regroup and take the fight to the Dwarves. The Goblins have massed their numbers and the Dwarves are spread out fighting a battle on two fronts.

The Goblin Leader sneaks away from the main battle and takes the objective within the ruins.

Finally the Elves arrive just in time to see the Numenorians drive off the Dwarves at the ford. The Elven Sorcerer holds the objective by the well as his kin march on the center of the field.

The fight at the bridge escalates as more goblins pile on the remaining Dwarves.

But there is a change in the wind. The Dwaf warband is broken and the survivors take cover as the Alliance forms up and marches up the field. The Goblins spot the greater danger of the Alliance from their vantage point on the bridge and chose to ignore the broken Dwarves.

The Alliance bares down on the thin line of Goblins, but not before a lucky shot fells an elf. The Goblin are clearly looking for some petty revenge for past wrongs.

The sole remaining Dwarf takes a chance to enter the combat as the Goblin assassin claims another enemy hero before being dispatched himself by the Numenorian Leader.

Both the Alliance and the Goblin forces break on the same turn, but the game ends their. The centre of the field remains contested and the Elf Sorcerer holds only a single objective for the Alliance to score 1 VP. Smirking from the shadows of the ruins, the Goblin Leader holds an objective of his own. With the Dwarf Leader killed earlier and the ruins in Goblin hands, the Goblins (by an outside chance) win the game 2-1.

Well there you have it. I aimed to save my missing hero and leg it before things got nasty. I was going into this game as the weakest warband due to casualties and lack of progress, but I will take any victory. No matter how jammy. To be fair I was helped by the Dwarves decision to split their forces. This kept the Alliance away from me long enough for me to get my forces together otherwise I think it would be a different story.

Next week we should have the return of the Cirith Ungol Orcs, but in a further twist of fate, the Numenorians have lost their Warrior Hero. Like my lost Goblin, they'll have a chance to reclaim him next week, but as drama goes, it does make things very interesting!

Heroes Have Entered The Arena!

This week I've finished off the last of our Battle Company Heroes of note (Any hero that's gained a level). Namely some extra clout for the Dwarves and the Goblins. The Dwarves were pretty easy to create as one was being skilled up to be an archer hero and the other a tank. A little greenstuff to make them stand out from the crowd and they were good to go.

The Goblins, especially the Leader, were a bit more involved. As I was working on the Goblin Boss he ended up growing more dramatic and impressive so to finish him off I built him a crown and gave him a raggedy cape. In normal games he'll be filling in for Gorblog in my Moria army as I am not a fan of the GW one. The second Goblin gained the "Hero killer" rule after the last game. In homour of that I decided to kit him out as an assassin. I had some spare Prowlers in a box so I clipped off the weapons and most of the right arm, added a replacement and a shield. He was also given a raggedy cape to complete the look.

And now for the finished paint jobs. I was able to paint and varnish all four model on the day they were needed, even had an hour or two to spare.

Let's hope they were worth the effort. Tune in for my next post to see how these and the other heroes faired in this weeks game.

Dramatis Personae

As promised, the finished versions of the leveled up heroes from out Battle Companies Campaign. First the Alliance of Men and Elves.

Next. the Orcs of Cirith Ungol

Finally, the Dwarves and the Goblins were able to get some level ups, after the last game. So these fine fellows will be seeing the table rather soon too. From left to right; Goblin Hero Killer (Warrior), Goblin Brute Boss(General), Dwarf Adventurer and Dwarf Huntsman (Ranger) Still very WIP at this stage. The Goblin Leader needs quite a bit of GS to finish.

Rampant Heroism

Week 3 of our Battle Companies campaign here at Loon Towers and with the local government giving pubs the go-ahead to open next month, it looks like the campaign could be ending sooner than intended. We'll hop e to get a few more games in before then though as a chance to have one last hooray before returning to the day-to-day.

This week, the forces of Cirith Ungol were else where, so that left me and the Goblins facing down the, currently top rated, Last Alliance warband and the hard as nails Dwarfs. For this game, points were scored for holding table quarters and the center objective, bonus points for killing enemy leaders and remaining unbroken until the end. The Goblins would have to rely on numbers to win this one as they were going to be out classed in every other area. Let's get in to it!

The Dwafs advance beneath the Goblin archers' perch towards the statue at the center of the board. the Alliance holds it's ground near the tavern, waiting to see who prevails between the Dwarves and the Goblins.

The Goblins pounce on the Dwarves, hoping superior numbers will trump Dwarf resilience before the stunty reinforcements can help.

 The Goblin archers make little impact on the battle, but one gains a lucky shot, forcing fate to save a Dwarf sergeant. The Goblin masses force the Dwarf lines back towards the waiting Numenorians, but their shields prove stronger than the Goblins can deal with.

The Dwarfs throw their full might at the Goblins, forcing the archers to abandon their vantage point on the tower and aid their comrades.

Trapped by angry Dwarves, the Goblin leader is forced to fight for his life. The timely arrival of the archers provides a means of escape, but it is a costly affair. The Goblins are almost broken with only a single dead dwarf to show for their efforts.

Whilst the Goblins make a hasty withdrawal, the Numenorians and the elves charge the destracted Dwarves.

Despite their ancient grudges with the elves, the Dwarves pursue the Goblins attempting to break the force before they have a chance to regroup. The Alliance has no such reservations and once more charges the Dwarves.

Fleeing for his life, the Goblin Leader desperately makes for the safety of the tower as a lone Dwarf tracks him down for one last attempt at a kill.

Quickly realising just how strong Numenorians are, the Dwarves are forced to defend the balcony. Hoping their foes will attack them single file.

With the Goblins abandoning the field, the lone Dwarf hunter is cornered by the Warrior Hero of Numenor. The fight proves ill fated for the Numenorian as his strength was spent earlier slaying a fleeing Goblin. The Dwarves have found a new foe to test their metal!

The battle devolves into an uncertain war of attrition. The Alliance numbers were limited at the beginning of the battle, time and Dwarf armour is proving to be their undoing as they are forced to hold what ground they can.

 The Dwarfs are broken, but are far from done. Holding their nerve, the Dwarves charge back into the Alliance warriors again and again. Only a single victory point separates the two forces from a draw, the Alliance having killed the Dwarf Leader earlier awarding them the advantage.

As a final desperate act, the Elf is forced enter the fray. Only two Dwarves remain, but a single casualty will break the Numenorians and hand the Dwarves a draw.

But it is not to be. The game ends and both warbands withdraw to lick their wounds. The Alliance claims the victory by a single point.

Once again the Alliance's victory has granted there heroes greater skills and influence, advancing them further up the ratings. The Dwarves were lucky to save there Heroes from injury and gain some extra income for their troubles, heavy armour all round! The Goblins were less well reserved by their masters. Though most of the Goblins survived the injuries, two are going to miss the next game and the archer hero was lost. With only two heroes and no real income, the Goblins will have to work VERY hard to save their lost comrade in the next game. Hopefully I can forge an alliance with Cirith Ungol to get some much needed muscle to help me out.

Bits Box Heroes

With the house hold Battle Companies Campaign moving into its third week, I felt it would be cool build some hero models that matched the characters that were developing within the campaign. As a rule, I'll only create new models for those heroes that have gain advancements. That way it keeps my work load manageable and will give me an idea on how the hero should look going forward.

First up is these fine fellows. Before I got hold of them, these models were in a very sorry state; the Beregond model had lost his bow and right foot and the model in the center was missing his sword and had had his shield utterly mangled. So I broke out the hack saw and some green stuff and got to work. The 2 humans represent a General and a Warrior path, The Orc is on the Scout path. we discussed what my player had in mind for this guy and he's hoping to build him into an assassin type; the sort of Orc he can send off to claim objectives and murder lone enemies.

Next up, the Elven mage and the Orc Brute. The Elf used to be a Galadhrim Banner, but had been badly mauled by his previuos owner. The left arm and a chunk of the banner pole had been hacked off and his head was pretty scarred up too. Bring on a quick head transplant to bring him into line with his new High Elf brothers, some GS repairs to the staff and a newly sculpted arm revives this guy nicely. The Orc is a real Frankenstein piece. The main body is from a set of Orc minis I sculpted and got cast ages ago (not sure if the guy I sold them to is even still going) the arms are re sculpted over some Goblin arms I made with the weapon hand from a Gundabad Berserker. The Orc's head is also from a Gundy Berserker and his little friend is from the Mordor Troll kit....I think. In addition to the extra GS armour and muscles I gave the Orc some leather armour around the waist, similar to Uruk-hai scouts. This is just printer paper soften with PVA and then glued into place. It's basically papier-mache.

Here's a group shot ready to be painted. After the next game, I'll be  making a few of my own heroes if I can get some kills next game. More Goblin shenanigans!!!