Gifted Scientist

It feels like I keep returning to painting scientists, and my Faculty of Cryptobiology and Pseudoscience for 7TV: Pulp, just keeps growing.

The latest addition to the team is apparently called Dr Friedman, and is a 'mad' scientist (apparently specialising in chemistry) from the Reaper Chronoscope range.

He was given to me as part of the annual 7TV Secret Santa on the 7TV Productions Facebook group, where willing participants are paired up and exchanged unwanted miniatures from their lead pile as gifts. It's a nice little tradition I've taken part in for several years.

This year I sent off and eclectic group of Grenadier Sci-Fi cops, a suited pulp thug, a mummy and a dog. In return I received three Artizan Designs field agents from their Kiss Kiss Bang Bang range, and the esteemed Dr Friedman. 

As with all Reaper Miniatures, Dr Friedman is I really crisp and clean sculpt which needed minimal cleaning. The model lacks extraneous detail and so was quite quick to paint, especially as I mainly used contrast paints as my base coats and highlighted up.The bottles were hit with a touch of gloss varnish to give them an appropriate shine.

I used to really worry about large expanses of white, but I've become a lot more calm about the whole thing. Yes, the pain could be smoother, but this isn't a dress uniform or a superheros cape, it's a lab coat. It's going to be a bit worn.

All in all I'm happy with this one. And unexpected arrival, but pleasing nonetheless.

Acquired: -58
Painted: 390
Lead Mountain: 626

Art Imitating Life

This post is somewhat meta.

I'm a painter whose painted a painter whose painted a painting which has created two more paintings that I, a painter, have painted.

Still with me.

I've written before about my appreciation of games that make their rules and profiles freely available and then trust the quality of their game and miniatures to sell themselves.

Carnevale is one such game.

I find that this approach not only gives you a chance to try before you buy, but also leaves some room for creativity involving the bits box and lead pile.

So, although the miniatures for the artist Maria Fioritura and her painted protectors are great, when Matt, who had been doing some printing for JP, gave me a spare artist model, I saw an opportunity to do something for Carnevale.

I don't see this as problematic because I'm not currently collecting the Gifted faction (although they can be used as, for want of a better term, hired guns) and so Maria wasn't on any future shopping list.

My artist, Mario Fioritura, was painted mainly using contrast paints, which responded well to the surprisingly detailed miniature. I was a little worried that the colours I'd used on him were too one-note, but the yellow-brown pallette allows the colours on his pallete and the glowing green of his rent-infused eyes to pop, and I like the finished effect.

He came with an easel and canvas, something the original model doesn't have, and so I saw an opportunity to clarify the narrative of these miniatures by adding a carefully cut printout of an image of one of the Painted Protectors to the canvas.

In Carnevale, the Gifted are those inhabitants of Venice who the rent in the sky has imbued with supernatural or magical abilities. They can join other factions or work as a separate faction by themselves.

The Artist has the ability to make images in their paintings come to life as defensive duplicates, which is why I opted to use two monopose Wizkids Dungeons & Dragons miniatures to represent them. I did give them a weapon swap as their original sword were laughably flimsy. They are a little short, but they aren't meant to real people, so it doesn't bother me.

I've not tried anything special within the painting to make them seem specifically like they are artistic creations, but instead opted to use the canvas on the easel to reinforce the protectors relationship to the artist.

All in all, I've very happy with the Artist, and happy enough about the Painted Protectors. It means that I have my first Gifted option for games of Carnevale and it's a character I wasn't ever likely to pick up first.

Acquired: -57
Painted: 389
Lead Mountain: 627

Purge the Xenos!

My Blood Angels have never had the best of times when I playing Pete. He has a much more focussed mindset when it comes to building armies than I do and so I have often found myself somewhat behind in the arms race that is Warhammer.

My Blood Angels are meant to be a close combat army, but I've never really invested in going all in on assault troops to cross ground quickly and smash face.

Whether it's Horus Heresy or 40k 2nd, 9th or 10th edition against his Alpha Legion, Space Wolves, Imperial Guard or Eldar, I have laboured across the board to get to grips with him and taken so many casualties on the way that I've lacked punch when I got there.

This time would be different...honest!

Now, don't get me wrong, I've not been spending money. Instead I sat down and looked at my army and focussed on a force that could get across the table as fast as possible.

Built around the same list I fought Matt with, I'd already jettisoned the expensive and slow Terminators, but now I also dropped the expensive Honour Guard in favour of another Tactical Squad (better for nabbing objectives) and swapped out the Razorback for a much more direct Rhino. Finally I used the saved points to add bodies to my Death Company and Assault Squad and littered a few Melta Bombs around the army.

This was now an army that was built, as much as my collection would allow, to cross the board quickly and get in close.

• Librarian (Shield of Sanguinius, The Blood Lance)
• Chaplain (Jump Pack, Melta Bombs)
• Sanguinary Priest (Jump Pack, Melta Bombs)
• 10 Tactical Marines (Power Sword, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher) & Rhino
• 10 Tactical Marines (Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Flamer, Heavy Bolter) & Rhino
• 6 Assault Marines (Power Fist)
• 6 Death Company (Power Fist)
• 2 Attack Bikes (Multi-Meltas)
• Land Speeder (Multi-Melta, Assault Cannon)
• Dreadnought (Blood Claw, Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta)
• Dreadnought (Lascannon, Missile Launcher)

All that remained was to see what manner of heavily armoured awfulness would be killing me today.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. 

Infantry. Lots of Infantry. To be fair, part of this was because Pete is still working on his Wave Serpent and Falcon Grav Tank, but this was going to be a very different beast.

• Avatar
• Farseer (Guide & Doom)
• Warlock
• Exarch & 4 Warp Spiders
• Exarch & 9 Dire Avengers
• 15 Guardians (Shuriken Catapults) & Star Cannon
• 10 Guardians (Shuriken Pistols, 2 Flamers)
• 8 Wraithguard (Wrathcannons?)
• 4 Guardian Jetbikes
• Wraithlord (Bright Lance & 2 Fists)
• Fire Prism

I was facing a force that was not going to pound me with heavy weapons, but seemed set to wear me down with small arms fire, and had elements that would seek me out.

I was most concerned by the Avatar, who I learned, to my dismay, was immune to Flamer and Melta weapons, making it invulnerable to most of my heavy weapons. What's more, it was significantly better in close combat than everything in my close combat army.

Excellent.

DEPLOYMENT 

We rolled up the exact same scenario as last week: Seize Ground with Dawn of War deployment. In setting this up I learned we'd got it completely wrong last week, which doesn't render my victory void because Matt was doing the reading.

Pete deployed first and put his Wraithguard and ok larger Guardian Squad almost at the halfway line. This not only got him on two objectives straight away, but also pushed my deployment back.

His Avatar loitered in the centre, ready to be thrown straight down my throat.

I opted to started with just my two combat squads with heavy weapons in cover. My Librarian stood with the Heavy Bolter squad on the left, aiming to add some punch if they were charged by the Avatar.

That squad and the Flamer squad off table succumbed to the Red Thirst and would benefit from the Fearless and Furious Charge rules.

TURN ONE

With Night Fighting in play, there wasn't much for the Eldar to do but move onto the board. However, the Avatar and Wraithguard made rapid headway towards my lines, and the Guardians' Star Cannon managed to infect casualties on the Librarian's unit.

The Blood Angels arrived and loaded the flanks. This was definitely a tactical decision and nothing at all to do with the Avatar in the centre.

On my right, concentrated firepower surprised me and took out about half of the Wraithguard, despite the cover saved provided by the Warlock.

On my left, a similar strategy managed to whittle away two of the Avatar's four wounds. I was also poised for the Assault Marines to pounce on the Guardians in the next turn.

Things had started well.

TURN TWO

Given that my plan for the Assault Marines was telegraphed quite obviously, Pete took steps to deal with it.

The Fire Prism's cannon turned ominously towards them whilst the Guardians and Jetbikes positioned themselves to strike, and when the smoke cleared only the Sanguinary Priest was still standing.

The Jetbikes then swooped in to finish the job, but it seemed that the Angel himself was watching over the Priest, who won the fight and then cut down the rest of the squad as they fled before ploughing into Guardians in the hope of tying them up.

Meanwhile, the Avatar continued it's rampage and destroyed the Rhino facing it. Leaving the Marines inside exposed. They bravely opted to stand and fire in an attempt to bring the burning god down but failed, sealing their fate on the following turn.

On the other flank, the Wraithguard managed to destroy the Dreadnoughts Multi-Melta but could do nothing else to avert their appointed doom.

They were wreathed in flames and Bolter shells before the Death Company struck, hacking down the last of the Wraithguard and consolidating towards the Eldar lines.

In other unphotographed news, the Land Speeder immobilised the Fire Prism and the second Dreadnought began a long and embarrassing series of failed shots against the Eldar god with both it's twin-linked Lascannon and Missile Launcher.

TURN THREE

Which the Death Company sweeping down the flank, the Farseer plucked at the strands of fate to attempt to avert catastrophe by casting both Guide and Doom whilst the Warp Spiders jumped behind them to clear the path of fire for the Guardians.

However, the unfettered fury of the Death Company allowed them to defy fate and carve their way through, even after the Warp Spiders charged in, their Exarch armed with twin Power Swords.

The Avatar ploughed into the Tactical Marines that had been disgorged from the Rhino, and despite their heroism, they were cut down. another wound was chipped off the Avatar, by the Marine with the Heavy Bolter in the squad that was next on the chopping block.

Meanwhile, the Death Company continued their rampage, supported by the rest of the flank, whose firepower cut down the Farseer allowing the Death Company to charge into and destroy the Guardians.

There was more misfortune for the Eldar as their other Guardian unit finally broke it's ongoing battle with the enraged Sanguinary Priest, broke and we're cut down.

This left the Eldar with a single Troops unit, the Dire Avengers in the centre, whilst the Blood Angels had three Combat Squads. One of which, the Missile Launcher squad, had begun its run through cover to secure the objective on my right flank. The Eldar's only hope for a draw lay in funding a way to finish off two of those distant squads.

TURNS FOUR & FIVE

With limited tools, the Eldar set about their mission. The Avatar finished off the Librarian's squad, taking out one of the scoring units.

The Wraithlord hunted down the heroic Sanguinary Priest out of little more than spite, giving him an ignoble death suited to one who had stormed a flank by himself.

The Fire Prism had a very slim chance of securing victory for the Eldar. If a scattered shot could hit the Plasma Gun Combat Squad, then an additional turn might allow it to do the same to the Missile Launcher squad in the event of a sixth turn.

As I said, very slim.

Especially when the scattered shot went the wrong direction. It immobilised the Rhino, but guaranteed that the Eldar couldn't win.

Victory was sealed for the Blood Angels when the Attack Bikes raced forward and managed to pierce its hull with a Multi-Melta shot removing any chance of the Tactical Marines being hurt.

The Land Speeder swooped in to begin chipping away at the Dire Avengers whilst the remaining Death Company raced to join in.

The Dreadnought finally managed to disengage the safety on its Lascannon and blasted the Avatar to smithereens, leaving only the Wraithlord to oppose the destruction of the Dire Avengers.

At this point we opted to end the game as the result was now a foregone conclusion.

BLOOD ANGELS 2 - 1 ELDAR

That was a really good game with swings of luck on both sides. Pete's weight of fire strategy really hit a stick point in trying to deal with the Feel No Pain rule of the Death Company.

My failure to finish off the Avatar in the early part of the game, almost cost me dearly and I really need to stop hanging my Assault Squad out to be shot at in the early game.

I think this might be the first time my Blood Angels have won against Pete, and it might also be the first time they have won back to back games. However, I am very aware that not only do I seem to benefit from the Seize Ground scenario, but also Pete will rethink and there will be new horrors awaiting me next time.

Military Exercises

Matt and I got a chance to play a game this weekend and given that we've committed to a 40k 5th edition Apocalypse game for Christmas this year, we decided that we'd probably get out heads round the rules before dialling things up to eleven.

We both took the armies we are intending to use on the big day, Blood Angels for me, Imperial Guard for Matt, only limited ourselves to just 1500 points - mainly so we could get the game done in an evening.

My Blood Angels force was as follows:

• Librarian with 5 Honor Guard in a Razorback
• 10 Tactical Marines in a Rhino
• 5 Assault Marines with a Sanguinary Priest
• 5 Death Company with a Chaplain
• 2 Attack Bikes
• Land Speeder
• 2 Dreadnoughts

Matt's Imperial Guard detachment looked like this:

• Lord Commissar
• Officer with 5 Veteran Guardsmen
• Sanctioned Psyker
• 10 Guardsmen with Chimera
• 10 Guardsmen
• 8 Stormtroopers 
• 3 Sentinels
• Leman Russ Squadron (Executioner & Vanilla)
• Leman Russ Annihilator
• Valkyrie

I will admit to being a touch intimidated by the armoured fust facing me, as barring a smattering if Multi-Meltas, I didn't have much that could threaten the Leman Russ column.

However, we rolled up the Seize Ground scenario, which was all about grabbing objectives with scoring units. Matt had only two of these and I, after cleverly dividing my Tactical Squad up, had three.

Importantly, I didn't have to destroy the tanks, just survive them.

TURN ONE

Matt got the first turn, but very little happened as neither of us had much on the board. There were two squads of Guardsmen, a Chimera and the Officer with his Veterans, all clinging to cover and objectives. Facing them were two combat squads of Tactical Marines, one of which was in a Rhino.

A smattering of shots snapped back and forth killing one man on each side, but not much else was achieved.

TURN TWO

Reinforcements began to rumble onto the board for the Imperial Guard. Two Leman Russ battle tanks lumbered up in the centre of the battle line, not sure where the threat would emerge from, whilst a squad of Stormtroopers managed to deep strike their way across half of the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the Lord Commissar and Psyker ran on behind the lines shouting encouragement to their troops.

Blood Angels reserves also arrived in force. Assault Marines and a Land Speeder dropped from the sky on wings of fire, stunning the crew of the Chimera and killing two of the Stormtroopers, forcing them to retreat.

These were backed up by a pair of Attack Bikes, and the combat squad in the Rhino disembarked to unleash the worst volley in 40,000 years to do absolutely no damage to them men stood totally in the open.

Meanwhile, a Dreadnought armed with a Lascannon and a Missile Launcher moved up in support of the other combat squad and between them they managed to remove most of the threat from the Veteran Guardsmen.

TURN THREE

As the rest of the Imperial Guard forces except the Sentinels arrived, targets were acquired and firing solutions prepared.

The Leman Russ Executioner lived up to its name by targeting the Assault Marines  which were foolishly in the open and clumped together. Superheated plasma rained from the sky on the transhuman warriors. The presence of the Sanguinary Priest might have made them 'feel no pain' but he could do nothing to stop them from all dying.

Somehow the Land Speeder avoided being destroyed by the Valkyrie, which I was to learn was significantly less worrying than it looked.

Unfazed by the obliteration of the Assault Squad, the Blood Angels pressed the attack.

The Land Speeder swung round the Chimera and unleashed it's Assault Cannon on the cowering Guardsmen, but to no real effect, whilst the Attack Bikes only managed to shaken the crew of the Chimera again.

The Death Company and a second Dreadnought arrived in the centre of the line, ready to go where they were needed.

Meanwhile, turning their attention to the mission objective, one combat squad took a leak out of the Imperial Guard handbook and hunkered down behind cover, whilst the other advanced towards an objective using their own transport to shield them.

TURN FOUR

The Leman Russ squadron continued to dominate everything it could see and demolished the Rhino, with the resulting explosion killing two of the Tactical Marines sheltering behind it whilst the Stormtroopers polished off another one.

The Valkyrie proved ineffective against the Death Company whilst the limited anti-tank capabilities if the Guardsmen only managed to stun the Land Speeder.

The Sentinels finally turned up and began the long walk to hopefully achieve something by contesting the objective held by the Blood Angels Missile Launcher.

The Death Company leapt into action, and, doing what they do best, hacked the Stormtroopers and Lord Commissar to shreds before consolidating towards certain death...erm, I mean the Leman Russ squadron.

Meanwhile, the Dreadnought in the centre bathed the Guardsmen in flames before charging into the undergrowth after them. The poor bloody infantry were outmatched, fled and were cut down, denying Matt the objective they had been holding.

Once again, the Attack Bikes failed to land a telling blow on the Chimera, this time only shaking the crew, however, Blood Angels shooting on the other flank was much more effective as two Sentinels were brought down by a sharp-shooting Dreadnought.

The Librarian and his Honour Guard arrived in their Razorback, too late to achieve anything meaningful with the melee weapons they carried.

TURN FIVE

Unable to win a game that ended on turn five, Matt opted to go for broke and inflict damage in the hope of getting another turn.

The Leman Russ squadron continued their habit of utterly eradicating whatever they shot at and the Death Company died. The Annihilator tried to follow suit, but was only able to drop the Dreadnought threatening the last Sentinel to one wound, whilst the remaining Guardsmen once again shook the Land Speeder, neutralising it's threat.

The Valkyrie had the option of using it's Lascannon to kill a Tactical Marine and hope the other one broke, or go for a glory shot and try to take out the Razorback full of over-priced and ineffectual HQ units.

Matt being Matt chose the latter, but his missile was evaded by the Shield of Sanguinius negating its impact.

There was very little for the Blood Angels to do except try to hold the lead they had gained.

The Tactical Marines hugged cover, the Attack Bikes fired ineffectually at the Valkyrie and the Librarian and Honour Guard disembarked to pose for photos.

Once again it was the Dreadnoughts that did the work, one of the finishing off the final Sentinel and and hope Matt have of contesting the objective id held all game, whilst the other one finally managed to hurt a Leman Russ, immobilising it.

When the time came to roll to see if we had another turn, the result was that the game was over and the Blood Angels had secured a crushing 2-1 pyrrhic victory.

AFTERMATH

This was a really good learning experience as we got our heads round what to do (move faster) and not do (deep strike). 

My major concern remains that my Blood Angels still struggle against armour and firepower until they are up close, something which is quite concerning given that they are likely to be facing a Baneblade and a Warhound Titan in the not too distant future.

I'm also sure that the Honor Guard is a hideous points sink at this scale, and I'll probably swap then out for a second Tactical Squad and some extra jump troops in future.

The game itself is significantly simpler than both Horus Heresy and 2nd edition, whilst being more granular and less 'gamey' than 9th or 10th edition.

I'm glad we've settled on 5th edition as our 40k standard, as it's the first iteration I started playing 'properly'.

1st Company Veterans

Progress continues on my Astral Claws/Tyrant's Legion force for the Tale of Four Gamers: Badab War series being run by Arbitor Ian's YouTube channel.

Being ahead of the curve, having already completed my Combat Patrol force, I've turned my attention to what is likely the next step, Boarding Actions.

And if your going to launch an assault on the close confined of an enemy vessel, you're going to want some Terminators.

Fortunately, I have most of the contents of the 2nd Edition Space Hulk box (I'm one Terminator short) that have sat untouched for 25 years, and the Astral Claws are the ideal home for unloved and underappreciated Space Marines.

These extremely old plastic models are actually surprisingly good for their age. The detail is crisp and the separate arms and legs provide a decent amount of variation in their poses.

This goes some way to counter the fact that these are fundamentally the same model. A little bit of difference in arm position or body rotation breaks up the uniformity of the shape just enough.

Perhaps the only issue with the sculpts is the fact that they are a bit small.

In comparison with the next generation of plastic Terminators that feature in my Blood Angels you can see that I've needed to raise the base to make the older models of a similar height - something I did for both aesthetic reasons and for fairness in terms of line of sight.

However, if they are ever on the same table as the newest plastic Terminators, my boys will look a bit ridiculous as those are some chonky boys.

Another slight problem I've discovered since finished them is the fact that as I'm planning to use the Chaos Space Marine rules for the army, there's apparently a limit of only three power fists per unit. I have four, including the guy with the heavy flamer.

I'm going to look at how I might convert one of them to have either a chainfist or a lightning claw to count as an accursed weapon.

Being from the early days of Warhammer 40k means that the Sergeant comes modelled with a HUGE banner pole for some serious flag action.

I was left thanking my dad, who was always much more practical than me, as amongst the modelling supplies I inherited from him was a small sheet of flattened metal (taken from a tomato puree tube) Ideal for using as a flag.

I went for a combination of transfers and a freehanded star field. I like what I've done, but there's something about it that just doesn't sit right, and I'm not sure what it is (suggestions welcome).

My overall force is now at 850 points. I was intending to paint some bikes next and I've worked out the six of them would take me to about 1000, which is an excellent milestone to reach.

Alternatively, I might see if I can source a suitable model for Lugft Huron himself, the Tyrant of Badab, as technically the Tyrant's Legion can only field Terminators if Huron is present.

Acquired: -57

Painted: 386

Lead Mountain: 630

Trial by Fire

When me nephew asked me if he could try a game of 'Warhammer', I resisted the urge to launch into a tirade about how 'Warhammer' is a brand name and not the hobby and went about setting up a game for him to try.

I settled on having a go at 10th edition 40k, which I'm no expert at, for several reasons:

• I'm slowly turning my attention back towards the newest version of the game thanks to taking part in the Tale of Four Gamers Badab War campaign run by Arbitor Ian's YouTube channel and there's a possibility I might even play in an event,
• I had two fully painted armies in easy reach along with reference cards taken from the free pdfs released at the launch of the new edition,
• He has some Age of Sigmar models and so the mechanics would be similar to what he might play with friends.

I picked two vaguely even (in theory) forces of Astral Claws and Tzeentch Daemons and set a very rudimentary battlefield using the mat I got with an issue of Mortal Realms magazine I'd picked up at some point.

My nephew took control of a Astral Claws patrol which included:

• Librarian (not the right model, but what I had a card for)
• Tactical Squad (with Flamer and Missile Launcher)
• Dreadnought (with Assault Cannon)

Meanwhile, I unleashed a swarm of Tzeentchian Daemons in the form of:

• Changecaster
• Exalted Flamer
• Pink Horrors
• Flamers

I got the initiative (which was useful for teaching him the sequence of events) and took the first turn, advancing my whole force and unleashing a veritable conflagration of magical flames to engulf the stalwart defenders of the Imperium.

It was at this point I remembered just how much more resilient a Librarian makes a Tactical Squad against pretty much everything in Tzeentch's arsenal.

However, the Librarian couldn't be everywhere, and so the Flamers were able to kill a Marine in the other combat squad.

An interesting element of this part of the game was recognising all the terms and concepts used around dice-rolling that needed explaining to someone who had zero experience of wargaming.

In my nephew's first turn he chose to advance and open fire. Sadly, both the Missile Launcher and the Dreadnought's Assault Cannon were ineffectual.

However, the Librarian's squad made up for this by blasting a chunk out of the Pink Horrors, and my nephew was somewhat shocked to see them turn into even more Blue Horrors.

On my second turn, I opted to charge in to hand to hand combat for three reasons:

1. I wanted him to see how that area of the game mechanics worked.
2. We were running out of time before we had to go out for dinner and this seemed a good way to speed things up.
3. I had forgotten just how rubbish Pink Horrors are in hand-to-hand combat.

The fight went about as well as you'd expect and by the end of it there was only a single Pink Horrors left standing, and quite a few more Blue Horrors.

Once again, the other flank was much more successful for the Daemons, with the Flamers killing another two Marines, although the ominous shape of the Dreadnought was lumbering in to view.

The fights continued, and despite the MN stones not rolling particularly well, the Horrors kept dying in droves.

And despite the Flamers finishing off the other combat squad, the Dreadnought charged into combat and began to chew his way through the Daemons.

At that point we had to leave it, but it was clear that the Marines had the edge as not only was the Librarian's squad pretty much immune to my army, there was very little chance of the Flamers hurting the Dreadnought.

My nephew had a fun game and asked if he could play again next time he visits, which is a success, and he is now looking up YouTube videos to learn the rules for himself. I'm tempted to give Age of Sigmar a try to get him to open up the models he acquired a couple of years ago.

Mission accomplished!

It's all gone Sau-wrong

I fear the title of this post might have given the game away on what's about to happen, but let's pretend that it hasn't.

Anyway, after last week's Amon Hen debacle, Matt and I returned to the Quest of the Ringbearer, playing two scenarios following Frodo and Sam as they pass through the Emyn Muil, encountering  Gollum, and into the Dead Marshes.

The first scenario was a very simple affair of Gollum trying to sneak up on the sleeping Hobbits in a bid to regain the Ring.

Unfortunately, Gollum woke the Hobbits almost immediately, which led to a strange game of cat and mouse as he tried to get the drop on one of them with his slightly larger movement.

Meanwhile, the Hobbits chucked stones at him to minimal effect.

Ultimately, both of these strategies came to naught and the two sides closed and combat was joined.

Gollum was the superior combatant, but the Hobbits had a larger store of Might and Fate points to tip the balance.

Unfortunately for the Hobbits, a slight flaw in the game is that Might points can do nothing if your opponent keeps rolling sixes and has a higher Fight value, and Fate points run out quickly, even if you pass the roll.

Sam fell first, shortly followed by Frodo.

Technically, this should have ended the campaign there and then, but in desperate bid to keep things alive (quite literally) we decided that Gollum was 'tamed' despite winning the scenario, and would now lead the group into the Dead Marshes.

Unfortunately for them, the Dead Marshes were being patrolled by a Ringwraith on a Fell Beast, and numerous undead spirits of those killed in the War of the Last Alliance.

The only thing the Hobbits had going for them was the fact that they had control over their actions, whilst the forces of evil were utilising the sentries rules, meaning that they would only head in the right direction 50% of the time.

The Hobbits had a long way to travel on very little legs and made for the biggest gap in the enemy lines caused by random movement.

However, risks needed to be taken and soon some of the Dead Marsh Spectres were heading right for them.

Gollum and Sam both competed to prove themselves most loyal to the master, and ran interference for Frodo, driving off the spirits.

The Hobbits also found that through combining their efforts they could bring down the Spectres one at a time.

However, whilst Frodo and Sam were largely resistant to the lure of the Spectres' ghost lights, Gollum was less resolute and was drawn away from protecting Frodo, leaving the Hobbits in trouble.

As the Ringwraith finally located the Ring and closed in, Sam was brought down by a Spectre and Frodo succumbed to the Rings power and was drawn to his death in the marsh.

The Ring is either lost in the depths of the swamp, found by the Nazgul and returned to Sauron, or possibly, and this is my favourite outcome, Gollum managed to get away with it and takes it back beneath the Misty Mountains.

Either way, Middle Earth is screwed.

Thanks Matt!

What now for the Quest?

I think I have to declare the Quest over. There's only so far creative rewriting can take you.

However, I have enjoyed playing the scenarios and using them as an impetus to paint miniatures from the range. Therefore, as long as Matt is willing, I think I'd like to keep playing but no longer track points, also that each scenario is just played as written.

On top of this, we can still play Gondor at War and War in Rohan as standalone campaigns.

One day I'll return for another shot at the grand campaign, but not right now...

...it's too soon.