Now For Wrath

  Andrew and I wanted to see some more Angmar on the board- but chose to leave Gulavhar at home . Having just seen Theodred's Guard do its thing against Mordor , I was pretty nervous that their throwing spears would just wreck my regular orcs! 

  Chris was generous enough to let me try his Host of the Dragon Emperor (which I faced in the last escalation tournament). We made a few different lists and rolled randomly to see what we'd face off against and, lo and behold, the King himself. The King vs the Emperor!

  Chris and I managed to squeeze in not one, but two games today! Our first matchup was Theodred's Guard vs Mordor with Chris controlling the forces of evil. We rolled for three scenarios and used the veto system to settle on Assassination.

  I am continuing to chip away at my Minas Tirith forces, this time adding Madril and 8 more Warriors. Now Madril joins Ingold , Hurin , and Boromir of the White Tower ! With some Rangers of Gondor on the paint table now, the force is starting to take shape. 

Editor's Note- this tournament occurred in the summer of 2022 and was the first in the To War! Escalation series. I've since posted the 500, 700, and 800 point tournament reports, but wanted to make sure this was captured here! I previously posted this elsewhere, before this blog was borne. So! Enjoy this blast from the past! To read the rest of the reports in the series, check out my Battle Reports page .

  Since I have Gandalf the White and a ton of Rohan stuff painted, I've been itching to give Riders of Eomer a try. To be honest, I don't really rate the Legendary Legion as super competitive, but c'mon... everyone loves the scene. Now that our next tournament is a ways away on the Horizon, Andrew and I figured it was time to get back to some experimenting with lists off the beaten path.

  Just a quick post today highlighting some Warg Riders! Definitely not my best work, but I am often comforted with the thought that "done" is better than "in progress", so I'll take it. Besides, I was on a bit of a time crunch as Andrew wanted to incorporate some Warg Riders in his final Mordor list for the Escalation tournament finale.

Following on from my previous post - here I will share how my third game went, how the overall Escalation series went, and finally just some general thoughts about MESBG after having played for 6 months or so.

  I was really excited to head into the 4th and final To War! Escalation tournament round at Your Hobby Place in Fredericksburg, VA . Up to now, I had done very well and really couldn't believe that I was heading into the final round in first place! I scored third in the 300 point round, and first in each of the 500 and 700 point rounds . 

  Hobby Bingo is fun! I'll keep up with this throughout the year. For the most part I'll grade pretty much "by the book". So far I've accomplished (or will have accomplished by this time tomorrow!) three. -Start a New Army. While I obtained Minas Tirith in 2022, I didn't put paint to brush on the majority of the troops until this year . We also saw Gondor on the table for the first time, with Andrew driving them to victory . -Attend a Middle Earth Gaming event. Well, tomorrow is the final round of "To War!" an awesome escalation tournament series of which I've written several tournament reports . So, pending life getting in the way, I will be rolling dice within 24 hours of this being published! This should also satisfy "Play a game against an opponent you have never played before" unless all of my opponents are repeats. -Read or Listen to the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings. I actually finished reading the Two Towers last night, and started o...

 Andrew and I wanted to play  one more  tournament warmup. Andrew's Mordor list is very well honed, but after Glorfindel got away with the football last game , he wanted to try out some Warg Riders. I apologize for the unpainted miniatures- that will not be a regular occurrence on this blog, I promise!

  After a frustratingly short game , Andrew and I had  bit more time and decided to very quickly whip up two lists mostly to showcase some newly painted models including Shelob and Ingold and company .

 Just a short painting post today! I knocked out some Warriors of Minas Tirith to add to my previous Gondor Heroes.

  Kardush is amazing. I really want one, but I am just not paying that much for a single hunk of metal for a game. So, this is "Not Kardush". Andrew designed 90% of it in Hero Forge and I tweaked a few things, bought the STL for $8 and printed and painted it in an evening.

Hot on the heels of not one , but two defeats at the hands of Andrew's Mordor list in the last few weeks, I was once again ready to bang my head against the wall of Morannon Orcs. This time, however, we rolled Seize the Prize- Andrew's wall of Morannons doesn't have a ton of mobility aside from Guritz's Marches so I was eager to save the priceless elven relic from falling into the hands of evil.

  We have quite a doozy for you today! First, I should mention, I intend to give this Rivendell list a break soon. There has been the ongoing escalation league and this has been my list- but the final for that is coming up soon so there should be a bit more variety around these parts!