Why Anotner Battle Company?
As part of my grand clear-cut, I've started looking at my Battle Games in Middle Earth collection. At one time I was collecting with the intention of playing The War of the Ring, so I amassed a lot for just about every army. I never really got on with WotR, and now if I want to play big battles I use Fantastic Battles. I do still like the Strategy Battle Game, especially Battle Companies, and my son, who is helping me sort the stuff out, suggested we run a campaign. This gives us a target of painting up a small collection and selling off the rest, (though I may keep a few more minis to play some of the story scenarios).
I've played Battle companies campaigns before, (you can see it twice on this blog, here and here) but I've always used a Mordor company. My very first Battle company was when I was teaching in Sheffield, and the school games club played a lot of the Strategy Battle Game. It seemed appropriate that, as a teacher, I played the evil side, and it's stuck ever since. But with all the stuff we are sorting out I thought it was time for a change.
Why Harad?
I chose Harad, partly because I've never painted any before. I have a reasonable collection of the plastic infantry, and somewhere a box of the cavalry. I've even got some metal command, but, alas, no Oliphant. Checking the lists, there aren't that many other minis required. Some 'Serpent Guard' and a sort of eunuch guard, which are still available from GW, albeit in resin*. Also, my son is collecting the Fiefdoms of Gondor, so we can imagine many skirmishes around the Battle of Pelenor Fields or raids into the Feifdoms by an ambitious Haradrim captain.
Recruiting the Warband
The starting Haradrim warband is four warriors with spears and four warriors with bows. Pretty achievable from my collection. A lot of my Haradrim warriors have already been assembled and undercoated, so time for a test mini methinks. But what colours to use?
What Colours for Harad?
Tolkien gives a few descriptions of the Haradrim;
"'More Men going to Mordor,' he [Gollum] said in a low voice. 'Dark faces. We have not seen Men like these before... They are fierce. They have black eyes, and long black hair, and gold rings in their ears... lots of beautiful gold. And some have red paint on their cheeks, and red cloaks and their flags are red, and the tips of their spears; and they have round shields, yellow and black with big spikes. Not nice; very cruel wicked Men they look. Almost as bad as Orcs, and much bigger. Sméagol thinks they have come out of the South beyond the Great River's end..."
"For a moment he caught a glimpse of swarthy men in red running down the slope some way off with green-clad warriors leaping after them... a man fell, crashing through the slender trees, nearly on top of them. He came to rest in the fern a few feet away, face downward, green arrow-feathers sticking from his neck below a golden collar. His scarlet robes were tattered, his corslet of overlapping brazen plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched with blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword."
...the main force of the Haradrim and there their horsemen were gathered about the standard of their chieftain. And he looked out, and in the growing light he saw the banner of the king [Théoden], and that it was far ahead of the battle with few men about it. Then he was filled with a red wrath and shouted aloud, and displaying his standard, black serpent upon scarlet, he came against the white horse and the green with great press of men; and the drawing of the scimitars of the Southrons was like a glitter of stars."
From this we can see that the film/game version differ quite a bit from Tolkien's vision. The minis all have turbans, and are armed with either spears or bows; no plaited hair or scimitars or shields.
I'd like to keep my LotR stuff as true to the books as possible. The movies provide some reference, and clearly influence the minis. (I try and avoid the extra bits made up just for the game), but until I get round to kit-bashing something I think matches the description, I'm stuck with the movie/game version. I can make sure that they wear red, and where they have cloaks these will be red. Any armour will be bronze/brass colour. I'd also like to reference their, supposed, desert origin (Tolkien suggested in an interview that south of Harad - which just means 'South' - was Africa, the hot countries, so the general assumption that Harad was vaguely North Africa isn't too far out). As a side note, Gollum's comment about them being much bigger than orcs definitely tells us that most minis of Middle Earth orcs are far too big.
Testing the Colour Scheme
To try this out I painted up a Haradrim archer. My choices were a dark red for the jacket, bronze for the armour, white for the trousers and shirt. The various cloth bindings were dark grey, and I used a lighter red and purple for the smaller detail cloths, such as round the waist.
For reference, the dark red/brown was a base coat of Vallejo Game Color Dark Fleshtone layerd up with VGC Gory Red. The white trousers and shirt were basecoated VGC Khaki and layered up with VGC Bonewhite and VGC Offwhite (I gave the turban an extra highlight of pure white). The armour was basecoated VGC Tinny Tin, then layered up with VGC Brazen Brass and Glorious Gold.
I should point out that all my Haradrim were bought in various lots on eBay, in many cases already assembled and undercoated black. I didn't check to see if they needed any mould line removal, which obviously they do. I'll try and get the remaining minis cleaned up before painting.
I do like the paint scheme I chose. I'll alter it a bit going forward as I see the Haradrim as not wearing a uniform, but what ever is practical. I've already got the rest of the starting warband prepared. I'll get on with them soon, and I suppose I should think about any reinforcements and advancements.
*The Serpent Guard are actually currently available in metal as part of GWs rolling program of reissuing classic models.
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