The new phonebooks are here! The new phonebooks are here! I am so glad this day has finally come. Today you can march into your friendly local gaming store and demand that they sell you a copy of LORD OF THE RINGS: WAR OF THE RING. I’ve already written about how hard this game rocks both here and more extensively here. Also out is the new plastic Ent (which is pretty cool, not only in terms of its sculpt but also in its rules), plastic Army of the Dead (which are cool as hell but in a mystifying 20 per box rather than 24, giving you only 5 Companies per 2 boxes), and a slew of new captains, banner bearers, musicians and casters.
Needless to say I’ve become obsessed with the game and have spent the better part of the last month and a half painting up a sizable Mordor army and collecting roughly 10,000 points of miniatures (spread out across all 5 evil armies.) The idea is to have a good solid 5,000 pts so I can fill out one half of the battle of Pelennor Fields as well as have 1000 or so points of every other army to sub in as allies when the scenario warrants it. Thus far I’ve managed to get a few games a week in and I’m really digging on the strategic nature of it. There’s a lot of nuance to it that we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of and frankly that’s my favorite part of learning a new game.
Here in Austin we’re starting an escalation league that goes in three week cycles, each cycle upping the points per game by 500. We start in a week at 500pts, move to 1000, then 1500 on up until 2000 (maybe further if people so will it.) And once enough folks have substantial forces, I’m organizing a nine man league (one man per army) to work together in teams to play through the entire cinematic campaign. It’s gonna be pretty damned cool once everything gets rolling. And today, you finally get to get started yourselves. Feel free to comment on your experiences below.
ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY WALK INTO MORDOR
Okay, so many of you have complained that I don’t take enough pictures while others have written me asking to post pictures of my own armies – so in honor of the WotR release, I figured I’d share with you my current painted army of Mordor. Below is the core of my army – Commanders Sauron, The Nine Are Abroad, A Ringwraith on Fellbeast, Khamul the Easterling, Gothmag, and Lurtz – leading a group of 42 Warg Riders, 6 Morgul Knights, 2 Trolls and a company of Uruk Hai. Next up on my painting table are 40 More Uruk Hai, 7 more trolls (which include 2 drummers, a Chieftain, a Cave Troll, one more Mordor troll and Burdhur), 6 seige bows and a catapult. These components will in one way or another serve as the bulk of my core army – with Mordor Orc fodder, Morannan Orcs and Orc Trackers soon to follow.
Enjoy, and feel free to share pics of your WotR armies.
