Battle of Helm's Deep

These are some shots of a Helm's Deep game at the club earlier in the year.  They were taken and edited by my club mate Dean.

They're very atmospheric, I can almost hear the rain pouring down.

The fall of the Elves

This is our first try at using Dragon Rampant for larger Middle Earth skirmishes. Many years ago the forces of the Dark Lord swept down from the north to assault the Elven homelands.  

The battle was fought amdist the ruins of a long lost city now barely remembered by men.  

Elven Forces

The elves were one strength point per figure as normal.

Fenmenor, Prince of Harlond and his retainers (Elite Riders, Level Headed, Fear) - 10pts

Elves of Harlord (Heavy Foot) - 4 pts

Elves of Forlond (Heavy Foot) - 4 pts

Elves of Mithlond (Light Missiles) - 4pts

Marchwardens (Scouts) - 2 pts

Total: 24pts

Forces of the Dark Lord

All the orcs are half a strength point per figure to give them the hordes that look right.

Tarkrip, a great orc chieftain, and his largest Uruks (Heavy Foot) - 4pts

Warg Riders of Angmar (Light Riders) - 4 pts

Warg Riders of Gundabad (Light Riders) - 4 pts

Uruks of Angmar (Bellicose Foot) - 4pts

Uruks of Gundabad (Bellicose Foot) - 4pts

Misty Mountains Goblin Archers (Light Missiles) - 4pts

Total: 24pts

By the dark lord's will the orcs massed their snarling warg riders on their left and their uruks on their right.  In the centre came their chieftain and his bodgyguards proceeded by many goblin archers, come down from the misty mountains.

The prince placed his brightest spears against the Uruks facing his left wing and the Marchwardens scouted before them.  The archers of Mithlond watched the right flank warily while Fenmenor and his household waited in the centre to strike.

The Orcs rush forward to meet their foes at close quarters.  Hopping over broken stones and across cobbles worn by the ages of the world.

Fenmenor leads forward his most trusted companions and drives Tarkrip and his great Uruks into panicked flight.

The Dark Lord's will is still strong and his forces are far from beaten as the battlelines redraw.  

The Orcs come on for a second attack and sweep in from both flanks as the Elves fall back.

  

With his lines overrun Fenmenor tries desperately to win the battle with only a handful of his trusty companions.

As the stars fade, the battlefield lies strewn with the corpses of fair elves and foul goblins.  Fenmenor unable to break the Orcs with so few remainly soldiers falls back to regroup.  

The Orcs hold the field this time.  Can the Elven homeland be saved from a terrible fate?

We made some msitakes with the rules but the game went pretty well.  We may try some games using Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles as these rules are quite generic and little different from Lion Rampant but I think they will be needed for very large games as they are not card based.  We have a lot more troops we could add.

The Battle of Lothlórien

The Goblin hordes from Moria and Gundabad invade Lothlórien.  This was the first great battle in our Middle Earth campaign.

Another pic of the Goblin army.  The Goblins couldn't match the Elves alone, so brought along a great many Warg Riders, Trolls and other dark creatures.

Here is a chained Wyrm that the Goblins had to try to free. 

The Elven army included all my figures and some allies from other members of SSWG.  It was an host worthy of eldar days but lacking in powerful creatures other than the characters. 

If you go down to the woods today...

One short clip from the extended version is all the battle gets in the movies but the attacks on Lorien are hardly mentioned in the books either.  This is a still from the movie.

Galadriel was well guarded on a hill deep in the forest.  With hindsight she probably should have been further forward from the start.

These last few pictures were taken later in the battle.  That troll did a lot of damage, killing many of the elves it is seen charging here.

On the Goblin left flank the Galadhrim Knights put in an impressive charge but couldn't stop the Goblins breaking through and freeing the Drake.

On the Elven left Galadiel and Celeborn slaughtered a mixed force of Gundadbad orcs, wargs and trolls.  It wasn't enough though as too many lives had been lost elsewhere.

The battle was a minor victory for the Goblins and the Galadhrim retreated deeper into the forest to sing sad songs of lamentation for the fallen.

Galadhrim Elven Army

Here are some quick photos of my completed Galadhrim Host.  Once again exhibiting my mediocre painting and photography skills but as Stalin, and no doubt Sauron, would say, quantity has a quality of its own.

First is Galadriel in her scary war aspect.  The Eldar Lady of the Golden Wood revealed in her wrath, to paraphrase Gandalf's description of Glorfindel.

I love this Galadriel figure.  It's better than the more passive one and seems more appropriate for a sorceress taking the field of battle.

Next are the other major characters from the army.  The elf Captain Haldir in his armoured version, the army standard bearer and a Galadhrim captain I have painted up to my Celeborn.  Haldir is great as your leader in smaller games of the Middle Earth rules and this is a great figure so he's seen a lot of combat.  I'm not keen on the official Celeborn figure's pose and he wears High Elf Armour too.  This figure makes a great alternative and is wearing Galadhrim armour, so it seems more fitting for a Sindar Elf lord and matches the the rest of the army.  He's in distinctive white to show he's a Lord of the West.

What would a wood elf army be without a wall of archers?  Sadly the Middle Earth rules only allow a third of the warriors to have bows but with the metal sword armed Galadhrim warriors and spear armed High Elves I can use them all.  I use a spare Haldir figure painted with dark hair and the other metal Elf Captain as leaders.

This detachment of sword armed Elves look like they mean business charging into battle.  In the rules these guys are no better at fighting hand-to-hand than the archers but the models are nice.  They are good at backing up a hero and piling on his winning fight with two handed blows.

The plastic Galadhrim elves are not quite as good as the old metal figures but they're still pretty nice and the the variety is great.  I bought a job lot from one of my club mates.  The guys in red cloaks are supposed to be the Galadhrim Captains.

Lastly the army has these Galadhrim Knights for its mounted troops.  I forgot to paint the captain with a red cloak but technically I need twelve warriors to have four archers, so I may look for a mounted hero to lead them or pick up an odd extra sword armed Knight if I find one.

I have some more High Elves and Saraman's orcs still in the grey and silver that I might get to one day.