Siege of Gondor - The vision

Inspired by the forthcoming Battle for Pelennor Fields starter set, I've decided to get a move on with my dream game. Assaulting the walls of Minas Tirith.

So, the plan is simple, recreate the whole of the Siege of Gondor in miniature form. It sounds simple, but when you start to sit down and plan, you realise that there are a quite a few hurdles to cross, such as how many models and what rules to use and perhaps the biggest, what to use as the walls of Mias Tirith, before you can get to the stage of putting the models down and playing.

Coming soon to a tabletop near me.

Thankfully, I work in Project Management, and so I can put my work skills into something a lot more useful. The first thing I need to do is define the vision or goal of the project. 

The goal is simple, play through the Seige of Gondor. I keep repeating this, as this is the goal.

Now that we've got the goal, we need to know what the game will look like and that means turning to the source material, the Return of the King book and movie.

The first thing we learn is that there are two distinct parts to Sauron's assault on Gondor.

First up, we've got Sauron's assault on the city of Osgiliath. Now, this is a lot of fun to wargame, a tabletop filled with winding streets, a large river, and lots of potential for ambush spots.

However, as fun as this, this is not what I want to do. I want to recreate the second phase, the siege of Minas Tirith. As I've alluded to earlier, I've recreated Helms Deep, in a large format and looking back at the photo's it's clear that it's this phase I want to do.

In fact, what drives me to do recreate the attack on Minas Tirith, and why I chose the above photo, is that I love the charges of the Rohan Something, that Peter Jackson captured perfectly in the films. Having got the goal, we need to define what events will happen in the battle.

For me, there are four distinct phases to this battle.

1) The assault on the walls of Minas Tirith

2) Ride of the Rohirrim

3) Charge of the Mumak

4) The arrival of the King.

 By defining these four phases, I have made my first miniature related decision. When we recreated the battle of Helms Deep, we did a blend of the Book and Movie. So, as an example, Haldir's Elves were found upon the walls, helping the weary defenders repel the unwanted attention of the Uruk Hai.

And as much as I like the moment where Aragorn jumps over the ship and charges the Orc horde, backed up by a horde of screaming ghosts, this is not in the book, and so the first decision made is that the Army of the Dead won't be seen upon this battle. Even if I'm getting more models in the new starter set.

So, I've got a vision, I want to play a game, where we have all four phases will happen. The next question is how do we do this practically. Phase one is a siege, which is not easy to recreate in a wargame. Phase 3 contains massive monster charging into the ranks of the horse lords, how will we use them. Well, in the next article, I'll be talking about what rules system we'll be using. However, next up a battle report or two. 

A quick update

So February is here and so it's time for a quick update. Well, there's been a lot of painting done, getting 104 models finished in the month. It's quite an achievement, especially as I've got them all based as well. :)

Plans for February are to carry on with the painting of the models I need to play through the Seige of Gondor. This is going well. I've now added Faramir into the mix. Thankfully the model was already painted, and so all I had to do was a quick touch up and he was then based up with the other 104 models. You can see a bad photo of him to the right.

In terms of this project. The remaining models I need to paint, for the forces of good, are excitingly painted up. This is Beregond, Citadel Guard, and the Warriors of Minas Tirith. Some of these are needed to be based, and this will happen later this month. I hope to be able to spend some time getting better photos of these in due course.

So I am now turning my attention to the forces of evil. I have decided to start with my Orc warriors with bows. This is because I picked five of these models just before Christmas last year and I would love to get them removed from the list of unpainted models. I also have two plastic models still to go. I've found these and they are now on my painting table.

In terms of gaming, I was hoping for another Armada game last week, but Ben never showed. Claiming to have homework to mark. Anyway, on Wednesday, we are planning another Saxons vs Vikings game. This battle report is to follow soon. This is a reminder game of how to play Hail Ceaser as we prepare for the start of our working our way through the Germanica book from Warlord.

Siege of Gondor - Part 1.

So, today is my first post in my new project, replaying the Siege of Gondor. Many years ago, I was able to take part in a large scale game of Helms Deep that looked like this

The forces of Isengard are unleashed

Forth Eorlings

This game was played over an entire Wednesday, between my regular gaming opponents Terry and John. It was a lot of fun, and ever since I've always wanted to do the next big battle in the Lord of the Rings, Minas Tirith. To do this, I want to use the Hail Caesar rules as they would allow us for more troops. Whether this game ever happens is another matter, but a man can use it to help paint through his lead mountain.

And so, I've found myself a good place to start. Back in 2004, just after the release of the Return of the King, Games Workshop brought out the Siege of Gondor source book. So, as I'm now only two models away from having the required amount to play each scenario I decided to start painting my way though this book to help me on my way.

But, to make it more challenging. Instead of just painting enough models to fulfil each scenario's requirements. I am going to paint every single model I have of that miniature. For example, scenario 1, requires me to have painted 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Sword and Shield. I will make sure that all 26, that I own, are painted and based. 

So where to begin. Well the first model, for scenario 1, is Boromir of the White Tower. I originally purchased the model upon it's release in 2004, and it was undercoated and started to be painted, but was never finished. Time to get that sorted. I dug through my pile of unpainted models, and found him. 

A good start. His armour had been painted, as well as the flesh. It wasn't in the best of conditions, but the flesh would be passable, and so I sat down to repaint him. I did a quick google search and hunted down my copy of White Dwarf 263 to find the original painting guide for Boromir and set off painting. and here is the finished result.

Sorry for the poor condition of the photo, but I'm happy with the model and it takes my completed models to 104 for the year. Having only brought 14 models, this is a good thing. This year, I'm aiming to paint enough models to have 4000 painted models, which i'm about 500 away from doing so. Easily doable.

Anyway, back to Boromir. This model painted quickly enough, taking about an hour to do from start to finish. It's not one of my favourite models produced for the range, I think this is due to the thickness of Boromir's banner, but it's now done and I can move onto the next subject. Faramir. It's not mentioned in the Siege of Gondor book which version of Faramir to use. The ranger or the armoured version. I think I have an armoured version to finish off, so that's the one to do.

Tonight, I should get another Star Wars Armada battle in, so keep an eye out for the battle report coming up soon.