Painted Figures: Older Citadel and GW Miniatures, A Song of Ice and Fire TMG and more

Well got some of the first figures in from Ebay for the LOTR strategy battle game. They are a mixed bag and I am always amazed at how badly painted and prepared most of the figures are. It is as if no one has ever seen White Dwarf or the Games Workshop website and haven't a clue. Learn how to use a brush. The most overused and innacurate statement on Ebay for Games Workshop figures is Pro Painted! Anyway this is the first example, I am going to tackle, our little pointed ear friend Legolas Greenleaf, prince of Mirkwood and son to Tharanduil. He appears to have green hair in the figure that I have got, so much work to be done to turn him into a decent figure again. I got the whole Fellowship on their presentation stand as one of my first purchases and I will go through the reasons for which models I got in a future post.

Right, trying to understand the workings of Games Workshop in relation to their Strategy Battle Game is a bit tricky for an outsider. The current offering has the One Ring on the Cover and a box set called the Mines of Moria. This is the same turn based strategy based system. They then have the War of the Ring System, this takes your strategy models with their round bases and puts them on to trays, so that they are square. With a different set of rules, I presume, this allows you to play something similar to Warhammer with your LOTR figures. But there are also a number of sourcebooks for the Strategy Battle Game, this is unclear if for the Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and the Return of the King that you need the One Ring rulebook. Because these were also printed in the past as the films were being brought out it is unclear if older versions of these contain the rules to allow you a shortened or simpler form of the game. For example in the One Ring rulebook there are rules ...

Well, I don't get much time to paint these days but I thought I would give the LOTR strategy game from Games Workshop a try. I didn't get into this when the Peter Jackson films were out as it seemed such a work in progress. The Fellowship of the Ring wasn't really enough for a proper figures game and even by the Two Towers, the different powers of Middle Earth were not really developed enough, so it is only in hindsight that you can pick a decent army or two to play. Otherwise you are just ending up with the standard goblins and Minis Tirith men. In the early days then the boxed set seems to have included Eleves and Men from the Last Alliance, which is really that satisfying. Are you playing something from the end of the Second Age or from the Third Age and time of the Fellowship. Obviously not going to pay the outlandish prices of Games Workshop which also have to pay the pockets of New line Cinema. I don't mind paying the Tolkein Estate at least they have some link...