Mae govannen, mellyn nín!
Many years ago I got swept up in
wargaming universe that wasn't Middle Earth. Whilst I did dabble in a
few Lord of the Rings inspired conversions from that range, it wasn't
until the films release many years later that the idea of wargaming in
Middle Earth crossed my mind again.
With models being released
via a magazine partworks, I went to pick up a copy of the first issue.
Where on arrival to the store, I was told that this new range of minis
was a smaller scale and we'd not be allowed to use models from across
the ranges to play either game. Which promoted me to not buy anything
from the new range at all. It already took long enough to paint an army
of miniatures, why on earth would I spend time working on a project that
was almost identical to what I already owned and collected, but not
able to combine with what I was already working on.
Over
the following years, mainly due to commercial practices and attitudes, I
lost interest in using any single wargaming company as a 'one stop
shop' and I started seeking out new models and being able to play at
home allowed me to drop the burden of obeying the 'official products
only' tag that came with playing within this other universe.
I
then spent a lot of years painting 6mm scale projects. But once the
oathmark rules were announced and the first sets of models were released
I was instantly hooked. Oathmark felt both like it could have been a
game I'd have grown up with and it also felt fresh and original in a
market flooded with FOMO style releases.
I quickly started
painting up new forces for oathmark, but setting my narrative in that
other universe. But there was more and more kits coming out I was
desperate to get my hands on and didn't really have a reason to paint
(as they didn't fit the aesthetic of the other universe) and so I
decided that it would be time to finally indulge in Middle Earth gaming.
Lockdown hit and I wasn't able to carry on with any of my
then-planned games so instead I started collecting miniatures for Middle
Earth. I picked up almost every kit Northstar had put out for Oathmark.
I brought a ton of stuff from Victrix and lots of orcs from Warlord
games. Then I spotted a really, really good deal on some MESBG stuff and
it was too good to pass up. Whilst I intend to stick closer to the
narrative and feel of the books, I don't mind most of the imagery from
the movies (and games). Its just the rules and cost in keeping up with
the game I don't care for.
This carried on during lockdown and I
ended up with way, way too much stuff needed to be painted, and coupled
with an eye injury last year this project has now become quite the
beast of burden. So now I need to start organising and getting work
completed.
The plan is to eventually play a huge game set at the
battle under the trees. This battle gives me the chance to paint up
many of my favourite forces (Orcs, Elves) in my favourite location(s) of
Middle Earth (Dol Guldur, Mirkwood). Very little official information
was ever made on this battle, which leaves me plenty of room to
embellish anything extra I might wish too.
If
its possible, I'd like to run the main battle on one large table with
other key locations built on smaller sub tables and played
simultaneously.
This also lets me build and paint a good
sizeable set of forces which can then also be used for many other eras
or battles within Middle Earth.
This blog will (hopefully)
catalogue the project (mostly for my own reference) as I'd like to see
something of it completed. However much remains to be seen!
[https://orcmischief.blogspot.com/ Repost]
Comments
Post a Comment