/mesbg/ Middle-earth Strategy Battle Games

Not the greatest pic but here's the start of my Harad battle company.

So with SBG moved to specialist game section should we expect all future releases being finecast or maybe the Blood Bowl treatment with mostly plastic stuff and heroes/boosters finecast?

Finecast never.
FW resin 99% of the time.
Plastic “when it makes sense”

>resin 99% of the time
Oh God, that's not good. Resin is fine for bigger models but it is a poor choice for basic troops

FW resin is great, FW prices though..

What are good paints to try to use to paint wicker on mahud tribesmen? I've tried to google it and just keep getting "how to paint wicker furniture" shit.

Seems like a zandri dust, shade (agrax or reikland) and a bright layering

They were actually 33% cheaper than what GWs core troops were prior to the move over to FW. A basic troop from tBotFA was 1,000% the cost of a basic troop in the RotK days. Its no real wonder the Hobbit didn’t take off the way LotR did

Haven't read the books but is it possible to run a Sharkey list with evil men amd hobbits?

No hobbits. Just men

MEN COME BEFORE ORCS

>we don't have the wicked Sharkey-aligned Hobbits as an option
>still no evil dwarves allied with the orcs from the Hobbit

Literally unplayable

Never worked with resin but was considering chinaman recasts, how bad would it be and should I just go with the metal sculpts from unreleased minis or keep scouring ebay?

Depends what you're after. I'm assuming Iron Hills? Chinaman generally gets fair reviews in 30/40k threads although that obviously depends on which one you go for.

High Elf Spearmen, Rivendell Knights. Nazgul on fell beast. It's Z's catalogue if that makes a difference.

>was considering chinaman recasts, how bad would it be
No idea - never bought any 3rd party models. On the other hand I'm not a fan of non-plastic GW and FW models

I'd scour eBay for metal High Elf spears. SBG isn't heroic scale so the weapons are all to scale. Spear shafts etc are easily broken

Oh yeah, I once wanted to buy that White Council box, Then I saw the pricetag. GW really blew it with the Hobbit prices.

Better than the awful first one they showed off but still way worse than the ones that GW designed back before the Hobbit movies were a thing.

Really nice generic "evil lieutenants" but not Nazgul.

Think of them more as the movie variant of pic related, rather than the LotR-era wraiths

That's a pretty good point.

And I guess even with the Hobbit Khamûl design can be passed off as him just going through his giant horns and copying Sauron's arms and weapon phase.

>those clownfeet

Look well. The basing lets them down a bit IMO. What you using at present?

Armageddon Dust I think it's called. I never used to base anything, so I'm trying to move away from that.

Thats what you are doing wrong, basing is 50% of the model's look. Atleast drybrush the bases and get some army painter tufts or some static grass

Question on Battle Companies; when it says your heroes may take "any wargear available to any member of their Battle Company" does that mean actual, current guys on your roster or does it mean members on the reinforcement table as well.

Basically does Rohan have to wait until a guy Advances to acquire horses

and in the same vein is there any way for the starting Rohan hero to get the Expert Rider skill that every other model in the army has

Is GW ever gonna start churning out the older stuff again?

Kind of wanted to do Harad Archers, Easterling Pikemen, Easterling Kataphrakts, the Betrayer, and Fleetmaster.

I like these minis, but I do not like that they're called Nazgul. What part of "Nine kings of Men" is remotely ambiguous?

I do really like the minis though. They've got a bit of a Dark Souls feel to em.

Lol.

I'd nose around ebay if I were you. With so much hype for new stuff, I wouldn't expect them to redo any of the older stuff for quite a while... If we're lucky, FW will be able to start putting the plastic boxes back into regular production, but only if there's enough demand.

>Is GW ever gonna start churning out the older stuff again?
Yea, but "when thematically appropriate". Look out for Pelennor themed stuff later this year.

>FW will be able to start putting the plastic boxes back into regular production
What plastic stuff is actually missing?
The only thing OOP on that list is the Fleetmaster so I'd just scour eBay if I were you. Bear in mind you're trying to combine two seperate armies

They're from the same sourcebook though. I thought that wouldn't be an issue. As long as I have a hero to lead each group.

I've heard about Pellenor on here before, is there any credibility to it?

Erm... No. That's like 3/4 of my army budget.

You understand correctly, but bow limits will be an issue. Taking two Pirates for every haradrim archer isn’t ideal. Especially if you’re looking Kataphracts and Pikemen on top of that.

It comes from GW so you can decide for yourself how much/little faith to put in it

Forgot the sodding bow limit...

Welp back to the drawing board.

Just use Easterlings or Khandish?

Im hoping for Halbarad with a banner

You reminded me Khandish mercs aren't a thing anymore. Why.

Yet another reason to play pre-Warband rules. As long as know your opponent and agree not to spring any ridiculous spam lists on each other you can take whatever you want.

But Harad Archers can hit on 3s, 4 if they move and reroll ones to wound. That to me seems pretty damn good. No?

Easterling archers don't seem to compare.

Easterling archers are D5 and have access to fury.

warhammer-community.com/2018/01/04/new-year-new-army-middle-earth/

Do you think it's something like "route to new rulebook" type of news?

I’d advise just getting Watchers of Karna instead if you’re willing to spend the points on the Warrior of Karna upgrade. A lot of bonuses for a single point.

>order moria goblins
>all 24 are in the box
>only 12 bases
Should I complain?

Can you even get boxes of 24 goblins anymore? The standard thats sold nowadays is only 12.

Oh wow, it looks like they're just not very good packers then.

Enjoy your extra goblins, maybe convert some into blackshields or something

How weird is it to see people do custom color schemes on Their Dudes? I was kinda thinking of doing Haradrim, but white/blue/silver instead of the normal black/red/gold. I've also seem some white and tan Harad that looked neat.

Alot of people do tend to go for basic colours, but I prefer the schemes ones that people have done themselves, I say go for it.

Harad is pretty much the only army you can go ballistic with colours, as the other armies tend to be quite muted in schemes. It's nice to see some bright coloured forces.

>2018
>using GW bases

>giving this much of a shit
shut up

That's not bad, still need filler towards the bow limit right? Any recommendations other than Haradrim?

Is Fury really that good? Auto pass Courage seems nice. Is the Fate "save" just one or multiples per model?

I was hoping for a spell that would let me loose more arrows per fella.

Well you get less bows if you go with something other than haradrim. Black Numenoreans can add some much needed defence to the list I suppose.
>Is Fury really that good?
yes

>Black Nu-Num-Number-Numenorean
Oh those guys seem pretty decent.

Dalamyr or Hasharin?

++List Concept++

Easterling Captain [Halberd or Shield?](50)
Easterling x6 with Pikes and Shields Black Dragon upgrade. (66)

Easterling War Priest (60)
Easterling x5 with Bows (40)
Easterling Kataphrakts x3 with Banner and Black Dragon upgrade. (72)

Easterling Dragon Knight (70)

Hasharin (90)
Black Numenorean x5 Venomblades (60)

498pts

Yay?

Maybe no Easterlings altogether and add more Harad with allied Mordor?

>Easterling army
>Should I add this unrelated character, or this unrelated character?
>Or should I just remove the Easterlings?
I don't get it, what's the army concept you're going with?

So it kinda morphed along the way from "let's do opposites (ie white with blue)" and ended up as "let's do tan/cream desert-y colors" but, WIP trying out the idea a little bit. I'm not sure if I want to switch the pants and the coat (darker outer layer vs lighter). I do kinda like the general look of it though, I might do more trial color schemes.

I'm running a main block of Easterlings, but want some Harad units in as well. I don't want to play a single army.

Dalamyr or Harashin is in relation to the choice I'm trying to make on leading the Black Numenorean as allies.

Each army by themselves seems kind of bland outside Mordor. So I wanted to cherry pick the units I liked/thought would be decent.

If you have access to a wraith, you'd be remiss to not take advantage of it. I'd try to squeeze the Betrayer in to lead the Harad contingent if possible

Then include some actual Haradrim and a Hasharin, or Dalamyr and some corsairs, depending on whose aesthetic you prefer. Black Numenoreans can also fit in but aren't really strongly associated with any faction, which makes Dalamyr/the Hasharin look out of place.

Tomorrow perhaps?

Drop Venomblade. Re-rolling ones is not worth a point.

Alrighty.
What does Mordor do that's better than Easterlings/Harad?

I keep reading here that Isengard is EZ mode.

Mordor has strength 4 and 5 troops, so they can ever kill the enemy
also access to a shitload more spells

Easterlings have no way to increase their own killing potential, lacking strength 4, two handers, or lances; they also have sub-par Heros that will fold under the slightest amount of magic.

In comparison, Morannon orcs are strength 4, can also be fury'd, and have access to the amazing support provided by ringwraiths

Easterlings have access to fury and a ringwraith, and everyone has access to axes.
Easterlings also have the option for f4 troops, rapid heavy cavalry (with a drum) and pikemen with shields (something unique to them).
Their downfall isn't a lack of killing power, it's a lack of variety in their list.

morannon orcs have access to fury and nine ringwraiths
mordor has better fight four troops, cavalry with lances
pike blocks in anything but small games are just asking to get surrounded, plus you've already trapped yourself

Pikemen with shields are objectively better than spearmen though, as they have much more flexibility
If you leverage that to your advantage, the only way you're getting surrounded is if you get outmaneuvered
Mordor has no access to f4 spear support, which is a huge disadvantage if you do get flanked
Don't get me wrong, Easterlings are pretty lacklustre and in need of some love, but they're certainly not a walkover.

true easterlings are more resistant to being flanked

But yea they give up so much that the answer to "What does Mordor do that's better than Easterlings" is "almost everything"

So whats the standard battle size modelwise? Most bat reps I've seen are 4-6 models per side

At least Khand gets some cool shit.
It's quite sad though when you compare Easterlings to the rest of the Fallen Realms and see just how much they pale in comparison.

Battle Companies is 4-15 (depending on how late in the campaign it is)
Regular games (around 500-800 pts is the norm) can be anywhere between 4 and 100 models, though the average is probably around 30-40.

khand has: lightly armored guys with two handers OR bows, lightly armored cavalry with a bow, and lightly armored huge base with a two hander that still only has one attack and dies just as easily as the cavalry when it loses combat

the only Khandish worth bringing is perhaps the King in a large battle

to further that, the Khandish rules still seem to think you can't have a bow and two hander at the same time and say you must abandon one (in the unlikely event that the enemy destroys your chariot instead of just killing the one wound defense 4 rider)

Cool, not effective
F4 cavalry with bows aren't bad at 13pts (and are hopefully going to get better when the ToS rules take effect and allow 100% bows) but given Harad gets Abrakan Guard at exactly the same price as a khandish warrior, a Khand army is mostly there to look pretty

>Cool, not effective
Ah, agreed then.

Your painting is neat, but I assume you havent finished the details and skin yet? Plus the basing. May as well show off my Harad...

I went for a brighter look. I only have dunlendings and harad right now with various allies but I dont have pics of anything else.

I enjoyed the wicker armour (GW has it gold but I did not like that choice)

last one I'll bother posting, but this was my first army for Lord of the Rings. I have expanded since.

what happened to the ringwraiths head

Knight of Umbar conversion (cheese I know) but I didn't have the parts at the time.

It is worth noting that pike formations as per the rules (please tell me I am wrong with real back up) is that they cannot back up out of a fight at full formation. So every fight you lose is a trapped result which probably will kill the formation fast. Ultimately spearmen and 2 attack model combo is the best I think as they have a similar result but without the auto trapped when lose a fight downside.

Some magic will also wreck the pike formation.

Azog’s hunters when?

what

Mordor Uruk-hai Captain or Caltain of the Black Guard?

Uruk