Playing Lord of the Rings

GW's Lord of the Rings game has been totally reviled by the 'competitive' community (whatever that community is) and, curiously, by its own creator, GW, which has been forgetful and somewhat careless about it.

However, I want to stick up for this game. It is easy to apprehend (easier than both Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer 40,000) and, unless you are playing some special characters, you can be ready to battle in a few minutes. The minis are great (at least they were, before Peter Jackson begun his Hobbit extravaganza and weird designs) and... well, you can play damn Lord of the Rings! That alone is enough for me! Though I know some people are using SAGA ruleset or others and alternative manufacturers, GW's LotR works fine for me.

I played this game maybe a couple of weeks ago, but I have not been able to post it until now! As my memories of the game are kinda sloppy, I'll just touch upon it. I hope it will be enough for you to get a glimpse of how it works. Please excuse the poor brushwork on the minis, it was made about ten-twelve years ago and I have not repainted them :(

 

This will be our skirmish

 

20 Orcs, 20 Uruk-hai and a Nazgûl were the forces of the Darkness, and the good guys were 20 mounted Rohirrim, Éomer and Aragorn. Don't remember how many points by side, but it was more or less balanced. LotR works fine at this skirmish level. GW at some moment decided to 'warhammerize' the game and to set massive armies via 'War of the Ring' rulebook, but honestly I must say I have never played that way. I'm OK with these small battles which can be handled without players needing a PhD to understand all the complexities of the game.

At the beginning of each turn, both players roll a die to determine who has the Initiative. Then that player moves, the oppsite moves, the first one shoots his bows/whatever, then the other one...

Rohirrim bravely marched against the enemy:

Horns blowing. Forth Eorlingas!

 

 And then the bloodshed begun:

 

Banners are just for the show, didn't want to add more rules.

 

Uruks are not easily disbanded, so they stood still and tried to hold on their position:

 

Stop the humans!

Combats are quite easy: Each player rolls a dice per attack (as provided in each warrior's profile). The one with the higher result wins the combat and forces his enemy to fall back. Then he can try to hit him (rolling dice and checking charts, just as regular Warhammer). I pretty much like the concept of holding your position and keeping the enemy at bay. The most skilled warrior (or the outnumbering band) has more chances to win the combat, allowing that way to define the lines of the battle.

In the middle of the battlefield, we had the expected clash of the titans:

 

Movie moment, you know

 

Using special characters is the most complex thing of all the game, but even that is not a big deal. Characters have some special attributes regular warriors lack. They are 'Might', 'Will' and 'Fate'.
'Might' essentially allows the character to alter the results in die rolls; 'Will' enables him to throw or resist magical powers; and 'Fate' makes the character ignore a wound that would have normally killed him. So these special skills make the game experience more... cinematic.

So, while Rohirrim were knocking Uruks down...

Even if they don't kill the enemy, cavalry troops make the enemies to bite the dust

...Aragorn son of Arathorn just ended the Nazgûl's temporary form after an epic confrontation.

 

Insert Nazgûl scream here

But the surviving Uruks immediately went on Aragorn:

 

Besides, their companions killed some Rohirrim

 
And so the carnage went on and on...

 

General view. Child on top left corner added for dramatic purposes

 

 

What a carnage

 

The servants of the White Hand soon discovered that Aragorn was too badass for them.

He's the leading role, we're but mere extras

 

Having dispatched the Orcs of Mordor, the Rohirrim closed the pince on the Uruk-hai:

 

Rohan violin music, you know

Things were going insultingly easy for the good guys, so we decided to add some emotion:

I thought of taking the Mûmak, but this made a little more sense in this context

Things suddenly were quite more balanced. The Witch King is quite a rough enemy, with lots of 'Will' points (he is not idly called 'witch'), and the fell beast is also a dreadful creature.

 

All the battle is now reduced to this

I also like the close combat system because of its way of resolving combats. Not depending on the masse, as WHFB or even modern 40K, but on individual combat basis. It is always quite clear who makes what, not just an anonymous group.

In this case, the Witch King spelled some dark sorceries on Aragorn, but he evaded the results through a combination of 'Will' points and 'Might' modifiers. In return, he caused an injury to his terrible foe:

 

The Rohirim come from the back to take over the Uruks

 

In the most epic dice roll ever, Aragorn managed to kill the fell beast:

 

Seriously, what were the chances?

 

The Witch King fought then on foot, trying again to cast spells on the hero. Aragorn barely resisted, using and abusing all his Will and Might points, exhausting them. He made a last effort and finally killed the evil sorcerer (well, you know, not technically 'kill'; and not exactly a mere 'sorcerer'. But you know what I mean).

 

Epic, so epic music on the background

 

That was the end, a vibrant battle to the last man!

As you can see, the game is not balanced, it is just a translation of the movies to the board, with maybe excessive weight on the characters, specially Aragorn, which is some kind of unstoppable beast. Other characters are not so decisive and battles can be fought other way.

However, as I've said, I like the game system on the whole. Its simplicity compared with Warhammer allows me to play it with little preparation and the game itself is quite atmospheric. As I said at the beginning, it's a shame the creator of the game doesn't support its own creature. No need to say more.

Tomorrow I'm watching The Desolation of Smaug, so I'm currently on Middle Earth mood. Let's see what awaits us this time...

Namárië!

Of Red and Yellow

Back to WH40K after this zombie hiatus ;)

I've realized that the only thing the latest 40K minis I've been painting have in common is just the chromatic scheme. Not having any other excuse to show them, I've just decided to make colour an issue today. Let's see what we have over here...

 

GW's Master Blaster

 

Wow, pretty old one. Classic Champion of Khorne. It was missing the right hand weapon, so I added the mace from truly-cannot-remember-where, sorry. It just happened to be amongst my bits. Originally I had painted it in dark red and gold, but this time I tried a lighter base colour and some yellows for a change. As it is quite different now from the previous paintwork (which was awful), I declare myself satisfied.

More red. Hmmm. Another classic:

 

I'm not a friend of the guy in the previous pic

One of the Demon Hunters by Jes Goodwin (one day I'll show you the other one). I got this one recently and I also explored the use of yellows instead of gold. As the pose is quite annoying, I've taken another pic:

 

Light overexposure, kills the colours

Wow, I'm really bad at taking photos. But this was the only way to show his face. Well, his eyes, you know. Whatever.

As a matter of fact, as I am typing this, I've just taken another pic with my phone. Let's see if it is of any use:

 

Ok, I give up. I can't take a damn proper pic of this guy

The mini has much more colour variety, I promise. It just can't be seen in the pics, what a shame.

[Sigh]

The third one is special. It's simply a toy I've been keeping for over 25 years (most certainly even a few more), a plastic monster which suddenly appeared where I couldn't expect in some forgotten corner. As soon as I saw it again, I knew I had a perfect Ferrobeast for RT games:

 

Yup, go find it in your RT Rulebook

 

It is no more than a rough plastic piece wit a 'made in Hong Kong' carved on its tail, but it fits in the general purpose I have for it, so what else do I need.

I really need to find a place for all of them in future games!

Playing Zombicide

About time! You've been watching my zombie hordes for weeks, but no action at all! This has come to an end, as I finally had a game (I had played the game with unpainted minis pieces of plastic, but this has been the first one with painted minis!).

As it is a widely known game by now, I'll skip the most tedious parts of the rules and focus on the action.

We chose a scenario from the rulebook. This was the setting:

 

Modular board, multiple configurations. Triceratops not included

 

We chose the survivors (well, we did it sorta randomly):

 

The heroes

 

Despite what weapon the mini is carrying, that's just for the show. Any equipment the character is actually carrying is depicted through cards in a character sheet.

 

Let's just pretend she's carrying a chainsaw

 

Each character has action points. Special skills depend on the character (or the weapons everyone is using at the moment). Generally speaking, you can use each action point to move one section (delimited by crosswalks or rooms inside buildings), search for items or use a weapon. Each time you kill (re-kill?) a zombie, you get one experience point. This way you can upgrade your survivor. But beware, the higher experience level you get, the harder it may become! You may get new skills, but when any character goes to the next experience level (the chart above in your character sheet, marked with different colours), more and more zombies will get in at the end of each turn!

 

Though it is in Spanish, I hope you don't need further translation

 

So you draw a card from the deck at the end of each turn and, depending on the most skilled character's level, you will have to put the corresponding number of zombies on  the board. As you can see, at some time, they begin to appear and wander around:

 

A Fattie is always accompanied by two Walkers

Trying to escape from the giant Triceratops behind her

 

The objective in this game was getting into determined rooms and search for items in them. We split our group (maybe not a wise decision, but we are acting a zombie movie so who cares), Phil, Doug and Josh went searching one objective and Amy went opening doors in order to allow free movements to the rest (only determined weapons can... 'open' doors).

 

Exploring the city

This trio gets into the scene

 

Some actions (shooting, opening doors with an axe...) make noise. Z's will automatically walk straight towards the closest survivor they see and will also be attracted by noise, so you have to be careful with what you do!

 

Amy is making some noise!

Zombies incoming!!

Don't worry, Amy is a tough girl!

Josh scatters three Z's with his shotgun

 

But they keep coming!

 

The Triceratops is still kinda disturbing

Ehm, you think anyone heard us?

 

Guys, I could use some help here...

Guys? Hey, guuuuys!

No, not you!

Nothing to do here

 In the meantime, the guys were holding the position with the most effective lead curtain:

Blamm blamm dakka dakka

 

But as soon as the zombies are slain, new ones keep appearing!

That football game was boring to death

 

Amy got another objective marker:

 

5 extra experience points for her

But Doug finally got caught. Oh, no!

 

Yummm... grrrr... argm... nom nom nom

 

Phil avenged Doug's death and got into a building:

Makin' a lot of noise here...

 

But, with no one in sight, that drew a lot of attention...

This is getting crowded...

So that's the plan, making the Z's go to the corner and, by that sacrifice, allowing Josh and Amy to reach the last objective marker.

 

No easy decisions in this game. All for the survival of the group

 

So Phil kept on shooting and killing zombies...

 

You want my brains? Come get'em!

...and more zombies:

 

This is getting ugly...

 
Josh and Amy run towards the objective:

 

C'mon, we still can get it!

 
But it looks like Phil had a situation where he was:

 

Uh-oh

 

He tried his best, but he finally succumbed :(

 

This is an epic movie scene. Add epic music to taste

 

When it looked like Josh and Amy were going to do it, we drew a card from the deck and... oh no!

Extra turn for all Walkers! Oh no!

Josh was unexpectedly dismembered, eaten and digested, but again his sacrifice allowed Amy to achieve the goal and reach the last objective marker.

 

Phew!

So we barely won the game! Pyrrhic victory! This is it, just a quick example of how it works and what you can expect if you buy it. Just a final pic to get the overall sight:

 

Zombie rush hour

 

This took us about... 45 min? An hour? But it delivered us tremendous amounts of fun. The game is terribly simple to learn and totally recommendable for anyone, even if you haven't ever played this kind of games. Wives and non-gamers usually approve, so now you don't have any excuse for your Christmas gift! Go get it!