Fantastic Battles 500 point armies

I always like to have two opposing armies for any game, it helps when demonstrating a game to potential new players.  So it's time I got two forces ready for our 10mm Lord of the Rings Fantastic Battles project (Fantastic Battles in Middle Earth?).

The Gondor army was already nearly there, and I've shown it off before, I just needed an extra company of spearman and some characters. 

The whole 500 point force

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Warlord, Rogue and two Captains

The Rogue was one of the characters from the Heroes and Halflings pack.  The Rogue role in Fantastic Battle makes an ideal leader for a small unit, and I use the same idea with the Warg Chieftain in the Mordor army.  I give the army the Ambush strategy as well, so the rangers can set up in a wood or similar and harass the enemy from a forward position.

The Warlord and Captains (I made a spare) are simply taken from the Spearmen strips.  The new banners are made from the foil from wine bottles.

Mordor needed a little more painting, as I wanted to avoid using the Nazgul. Partly because I don't see The Nine taking part in every battle, and partly because we haven't quite worked out how to represent them in the game yet.

I've added another four companies of orc warriors, and another company of warg riders.  I also rebased some of the characters.

Many more troops for the Mordor 500

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The new warrior companies

The new warg rider company

I tried some new ideas with these minis.  The wargs are all grey, as Tolkien describes them.  Previously I decided against this, as I thought they would blend too much into the colours of the riders, when I look at them here, I really like the effect.  I also chose a slightly different shield design.  This one is a nod to the cover of my copy of the books, designed by Tolkien himself. Another success I feel.

I have ditched the previous red skin and replaced it with a base coat of Vallejo Model Color Mahogany with highlights of Vallejo Extra Opaque Dark Skintone.  I think it looks less garish, yet another win.  I've also replaced the yellow skin colour with, well, nothing.  I still want to have some yellowish skin, but I don't think the previous two versions really worked, so I'll continue to experiment.

Here are the stats we currently use, they may change as we develop our vision of Middle Earth further.

GONDOR CHARACTERS
CHARACTER/COMPANY	RES	MOV	MEL	SHT	DEF	TRAITS	PTS
Lord Astorgwest Warlord	2	4	1	-/-	6+	-	60
Captain of Gondor Captain	1	4	1	-/-	5+	-	25
Ranger Captain Rogue	1	4	1	-/-	6+	-	25

GONDOR COMPANIES
3 Men of Minas Tirith Formed company	4	2	3	-/-	5+	Reliable; Drilled, Long spears	37
	12						111
3 Men of Minas Tirith Formed company	4	2	3	-/-	5+	Reliable; Drilled, Long spears	37
	12						111
3 Archers Formed company	4	2	2	3/2	5+	Reliable; Shooting	38
	12						114
1 Rangers of Ithilien Formed company	4	2	2	3/3	5+	Reliable; Foresters, Shooting (skilled)	44
							44

The Gondorians have the Ambush strategy.

MORDOR CHARACTERS
CHARACTER	RES	MOV	MEL	SHT	DEF	NOTES	PTS
Boldog Warlord	2	4	2	-/-	6+	-	60
2 Orc Captains Captains	1	4	1	-/-	5+	-	25
							50
Warg Chieftain Rogue	1	4	1	-/-	6+	-	25

MORDOR COMPANIES
COMPANY	RES	MOV	MEL	SHT	DEF	TRAITS	PTS
1 Mordor Trolls Elite company	7	2	6	-/-	5+	Monstrous, Furious charge, Heavy melee weapons	54
4 Orc Warriors Irregular company	3	3	3	1/-	4+	Unreliable; Furious charge	21
	12						84
4 Orc Warriors Irregular company	3	3	3	1/-	4+	Unreliable; Furious charge	21
	12						84
2 Orc Archers Irregular company	3	3	2	3/2	4+	Unreliable; Shooting	23
	6						46
2 Warg Riders Irregular company	4	5	5	1/-	4+	Unreliable; Mounted, Furious charge	29
	8						58
1 Wild Wargs Fantastic beasts	5	4	4	-/-	4+	Berserk, Fast , Foresters	38