Where's Bombur?

 The Company Grows

I have managed to find a bit of pace with these dwarves and now I might actually finish Thorin's company. The latest two done were Fili and Kili. I did go a bit off script on the colour schemes, but I am happy with the final look. 

I had originally planned to paint them in their little groups and Bifur& Bofur have been my favourites so far. But Bombur had other plans (So Fili & Kill jumped the queue) and I just couldn't get the beard right and this is his most distinctive feature. So, after several attempts at salvaging the paint job he went in the IPA. 

Bifur, Bofur & ?

Fili & Kili

The Company of Thorin Oakenshield  so far...

Regular readers of my blog will know that I have struggled to get a satisfactory finished look for these dwarves, and it has taken me until about halfway through the set before I have been ok with the look of the completed figures.  But now I am starting to get the right finished look, I am starting to look at the early figures and thinking. That maybe I should go back and do a bit of touching up on the first three or four. So, Gloin was the first have a 30-minute 'improvement' session. 

Found Him!

Something a Bit Different

It's nice to paint up something that looks like an interesting to paint rather than just to complete a squad or fill in that missing gap in the collection. And this figure definitely slotted into this role. I have no real plans for her except that she was fun to paint.

Napoleonic Alternia

Rob 

12 Props in 12 Hours - Part 2

 And it Was All Going So Well

So, at the halfway stage, I had 38 minutes in hand, but I wanted to tackle some more difficult props. 

Prop 7 - Elemental Stone (The Fifth Element) 

Here's what it should have looked like

Maybe I should have gone for a Multipass

Ok so somehow this took nearly two hours, and it is just a triangular bloc. And I made the mistake of using a black undercoat and then just going for a series of dry brushing. If it hadn't taken so long, I would probably have gone back and given it a mid-brown undercoat. 

Prop 7 - 117 minutes

Prop 8 - Samaritan Bullets & Storage Box (Hellboy)

While I really would have liked to make a Samaritan that was never going to happen in 60 minutes, so I settled for some bullets instead. Conveniently you can get copper pipe in 22mm. In fact, I spent more time on the box art than on the bullets as I did logo on MS paint. 

The main man (demon)? 

Rough build stage

Prop 8 - 53 minutes

Prop 9 - Howler (Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets)

Time to fit in another relatively quick paper-based prop. I did cheat a bit on this one as the text was pulled off the internet. 

Prop 9 - 33 minutes

Prop 10 - Katana's Mask (Suicide Squad) 

When I saw this cheap paper mask, I immediately thought of Katana's mask and so this was a very easy build. Plus, it was only a pound!

Prop 11 - Liberator Teleporter Bracelet (Blakes 7)

Another really classic TV show with a really dramatic ending. I spent a bit of time trying to decide what was the best way of getting the very shiny markings around the outside. Including using silver foil but in the end, it was just easier to mask off the shapes and spray with chrome paint. Again, I am not quite sure why this took so long. 

Avon calling

Prop 11 - 111 minutes

Prop 12 - Gandalf's Pipe (Lord of the Rings)

I couldn't finish this challenge without something from Lord of the Rings, so Gandalf's pipe seemed like a good choice. And I even had time to make a quick stand. 

Prop 12- 38 minutes

Rounding it all Off

Ok, so twelve props done in twelve hours.  And a couple of the builds took nearly two hours each. Ironically neither of the slow builds are my favourites and I don't think they are the best looking of the props. My favourite is the Copper Bones key, but I enjoyed making all of them. Even if some of them were a right pain. 

How the timings worked out

Finished

Rob 

The Tangerine Marine

 Turns Into a Blood Angel

Looked more orange than in the photos...

With the terminator I decided to do a zenithal highlight (slap chop?) with orange and white mixes. To try and avoid the grey coming through and I think it has largely worked.   he did look like a tangerine marine until the contrast paint went on and then suddenly the Blood Angel appeared. The chapter was sorted decided when I realised, I had bought Blood Angels red contrast paint. 

The Ruffians Arrive

Outcome: An odd hobbit win! 

After a couple of very successful turns at the beginning with the hobbits winning both fights on the bridge. The ruffians steadily worked their way through halflings. With the ruffians being able to out flank them by jumping the river. Once again, the hobbits suffered from being out gunned in both the shooting and melee. And once again Bill got killed this time by Robin Small Burrow on the battle for the bridge. 

But the halflings did run out the clock because the chief shirriff – Holfoot Bracegridle managed to fight off the ruffians until turn eleven and the ruffians had no time left (twelve turn game limit) to get two hobbits off the table. So, it didn’t feel a win for the hobbits as all of them were either killed or captured. But according to the scenario rules, the hobbits had won. 

Holding the bridge

Last hobbit standing

The Old Mill

Outcome: Ruffian easy victory

I didn’t have high hopes for this scenario, and I wasn’t disappointed. As there are equal numbers of hobbit militia (twelve) and ruffians (twelve plus Ted Sandyman), the fight was really going only to go one way. And as expected this provided to be an easy ruffian win (GW really don’t play test their scenarios). The ruffians beat up the militia in a couple of turns, making this scenario was no fun to play really. I can only hope the campaign balances out!

Guarding the mill

The melee begins

The Mayor's Arrest

Outcome: Ruffian victory, as the mayor nearly Escapes!

I also, played The Mayor's Arrest, which was a dramatic game with Mayor Whitfoot almost escaping only to be caught by Sid Briarthorn at the edge of the board and bundled off for an evil victory. However, this would have been a much less interesting game if the hobbits hadn't won an earlier game allowing the mayor to move on the first turn. But again, the game seems totally unbalanced with the ruffians having 101 points against the hobbits 70 points giving the ruffians over a 40% advantage. And again, with no missile weapons*, so the hobbits can't even soften the ruffians up before they arrive.

The mayor's ability to use Will to act as a banner for turn certainly helped, but since Sid also acts as a banner it sorted cancelled out in this scenario. 

The mayor dashes to escape using his only point of might

*Yes, technically the hobbits can throw stones, but they have to remain stationary and for a scenario which relies on the hobbits moving, this doesn't seem of an advantage. Plus, it is only a strength one weapon, so not many (any) ruffians will go down on with a full volley. 

Sid grabs the mayor and exits the table. 

Grrrrrr…

Honestly, I am trying to let this go. 

Again, simple mathematics predicts that the ruffians will win the majority of combats due to their higher fight value (plus another bonus for whip armed ruffians) and will wound more often due to their higher strength.  Adding this up gives the ruffians a kill 29% of the time in a melee against hobbit getting a kill only in 14% of melee fights. Add in the additional advantages for using whips and heroes, then these combats are always going to go to the ruffians. 

Then factor in that because the ruffians win over twice as many combats, they will quickly outnumber the hobbits further accelerating the imbalance between the two sides. Making it even less balanced. But GW seem have completely missed this point in the design of most of their scenarios. 

And finally giving equal number of the figures on each side, the ruffians are able to mark every hobbit on the board and then given that they have a much better chance of winning in both combat and usually with better missile weapons. Means they don't have to tactically think very hard about how to win the game. Surely by reducing the ruffians by a few figures in each game will mean that the ruffian player has to be much more tactical with how they place their figures to avoid being locally overwhelmed and give the hobbit player a better game. Even a couple of archers for the hobbits would force the ruffian player to work much harder because they can't hang back.  

The Campaign So Far

The Ruffians are starting to rack up a string of victories, so can the hobbits turn the tide?

Rob 

Sharkey's Rogues Finished

 Sharkey's Rogues Finished

So, I can call this project done. Which started as a spin off from making the townscape scenery board which led to redoing the ruffian huts which turn led me to think about finishing off the ruffians and playing the new Scouring of the Shire campaign. I managed to paint up Sharkey's rogues without buying any new figures (except a hobbit). Just had to finish off the original Frostgrave plastic figures and convert a few Grenadier barbarians into wild men and ruffians. The Grenadier barbarians make great wild men of Dunland except they are bit under dressed. So, they were given some rough clothes with green stuff. 

The whole mob

Not many points for a fair number of figures. Never liked the Worm miniature, so i have continued to use my Grima model instead. 

Sharkey & his bosses

Hobbit lackey's

The Grenadier Converts

Bree Refought

We refought the Skirmish in Bree scenario. Which worked much better once the villagers didn’t have a -1 on their attack dice. The ruffians did win (and lost Bill) but it was probably down to the villagers failing to wound once or twice at key moments rather the scenario being completely geared against them. I also kept reserves (three from both sides) off the table from the start of the battle and rolled to see when and where they appeared (On a 5+). I also gave the villagers a couple of archers but in the end, this didn't make much different as both sides had to use their archers in the melee to plug some gaps very quickly. 

The new starting line-up - villagers

Diann the very vintage Citadel thief (lady in green) also, managed to survive to the end. 

The new starting line-up - ruffians

In fact, the melee lasted four to five turns with both sides gaining small advantages until ruffians slowly turned the tide. It also, helped that the ruffians got a couple of their reinforcements one or two turns before the villagers. But arrival of the reinforcements was random so in another game the villagers could have arrived first.  In the end the ruffians lost five of their number including Bill before reducing the villagers below 25%. 

Start of combat

Technical Note: Also, found out in the new edition of the rules that there is no longer a -1 for using a knife which gives a subtle bonus to troops like the halfling archers and Tookish hunters as they are supposed to only carry long knives as a close combat weapon.  So, are no longer penalised in close combat. 

The battle rages. 

All this leads me to conclude that my earlier conclusion as right either GW didn’t playtest this scenario properly or deliberately made it one sided to balance the campaign. Without considering it as a standard alone game. 

First of the ruffian reinforcements (top right)

End game. 

Rob