It's been a little over six months since I last wrote of my adventures in Middle Earth which is far longer than I'd originally anticipated, but once the new edition of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game was announced in August, I decided to hit the pause button until there was more info on how army building would work going forward.
My thinking was that while of course no one from Games Workshop would come round to my house and tell me how I could use my models, I didn't want to end up working on stuff which might be rendered invalid in the new edition as hobby time is precious. The upshot of this being that Hurin and Ingold have languished unattended upon my painting desk for the latter half of this year (though, I did paint their bases at least!). Having taken delivery of a shiny new copy of the Battle for Edoras set and the revised Armies of Middle Earth book last weekend, it turns out that there are no profiles for them thus far, so I think I made the right choice in holding off on them.
Before you worry too much, this post isn't going to descend into a diatribe of bitterness and entitlement at the Development Studio's decision to withdraw characters and models from the game. Actually it's rather the opposite, because after taking a little time to look through the Army Lists in the new book, I was able to quickly revise my paused plans and then crack on with a little end of the year painting to finish off a model that had been sat unattended on my desk alongside the Wardens of Gondor though more on that in a mo!
In my previous post, I laid out the army I'd collected and painted so far thusly:
Faramir’s Warband - 225 Points
Faramir, Captain of Gondor, 4 Knights of Minas Tirith, 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith, 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with spears, 2 Warrior of Minas Tirith with bows
Madril’s Warband - 79 Points
Madril, Captain of Ithilien, 3 Rangers of Gondor
Minor Heroes - 95 points
Anborn, Ranger of Ithilien, Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien, Mablung, Ranger of Ithilien
So one of the first things I did this week with the new Armies of... book in hand was to set about recalculating the points values and composition of the army based on the new profiles and army lists. Right of the bat, I knew that Anborn and Mablug had not made the transition, which is a shame as they're absolutely gorgeous miniatures, but I figure I can give them a second life as regular Rangers of Gondor so they're not going to go to waste by any means. Of slight concern, I noted that Warriors of Minas Tirith can no longer carry a banner and a shield as my kitbashed banner bearer has both - but as I'm most likely to play casual games, I can't see that being something that isn't solved by a quick conversation with my opponent before hand to make it clear that that guy with the flag and the shield, well he has a flag but not a shield.
After reviewing the options available in the Minas Tirith section of the Army Lists, I settled on the Garrison of Ithilien as the most appropriate base list because it's the most fitting of the Gondor options for how I originally envisaged the army. With this choice made, I set about working out what everything costs in new money, with the totals coming to:
Faramir’s Warband - 321 Points
Faramir, Captain of Gondor, 4 Knights of Minas Tirith, 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield, 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with spear and shield, 2 Warrior of Minas Tirith with bows, 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with banner, 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with war horn and shield
Madril’s Warband - 100 Points
Madril, Captain of Ithilien, 5 Rangers of Gondor
Minor Heroes - 40 points
Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien,
Totalling this little lot up comes to 461 points and everything that I've painted has a place in the army, including the model I mentioned at the top of the post: a Warrior of Minas Tirith with warhorn that I kitbashed over the summer.
While he's not as dynamically posed as the official miniature, I'm still pleased with how he's come out and that I've been able to fulfil an aspiration I had when I began collecting the army which was to avoid using metal miniatures if possible. I've lamented metal minis at length elsewhere on the blog, so I shall refrain from saying too much more here, but suffice it to say that it makes a real difference to me having the whole collection in plastic and resin and getting to do that with a wee kitbash makes it feel a bit more an achievement to boot!
So what's next for my adventures in Middle Earth then?
Well, a 'quick win' would be to paint up another couple of Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows as this will round up the army to just shy of 500 points. As this seems to be the recommended level for small games in the new edition, this seems like an especially good idea as I would like to play more games of MESBG and having an army that's if not competitive, at least hitting the lower boundary for being useble from a points perspective will make that much easier.
In fact, around wrapping some presents, writing cards and trying not to complain too much about being sore from my Flu and Covid vaccinations, I actually cleaned up and based a pair bowmen this evening!
Beyond that though, I have a big pile of sprues from the Battle for Edoras set to get stuck into and while I think the designers have done a fantastic job on both factions, aligning myself with Rohan would be the perfect excuse to paint up the Helm Hammerhand minis I picked up a couple of years ago. I'm quite looking forward to having a go at the Longhouses and terrain in the set too.
I've a couple of weeks off over the Christmas break, so between the mince pies and turkey, I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze in some MESBG-themed hobbying so with a little luck, my next Missive from Middle Earth won't be quite as long coming as this one was.
As always, thanks for reading and happy hobbying. I'd also like to take this opportunity to wish readers a peaceful and relaxed festive period. Whatever you've planned and whoever you're spending it with, I hope you have a wonderful time and that Hobby Santa is good to you.
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