Hobbiton Tour

Over the christmas break I traveled up to Matamata or as my ex boss liked to call it Matamatamata (don't know why but calling it Matamatamata got stuck in my head). While Peter Jackson was traversing around NZ in a helicopter he spotted a lovely spot in the country side of the metropolis which is Matamata (population 6000). After many visits to Matamata we decided as the whole family was together (which is no small feat due to them living all over the world) to fork out 75NZD each to see Hobbiton. I can't say I know for sure but I believe Hobbiton is just a name they came up with instead of The Shire. 

Hobbiton is what remains of the movie set from Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies. After the first films most of the set was destroyed however when they reconstructed it for the Hobbit they made it permanent for tourism purposes. Which is quite nice as it was a very cool tour seeing all the different hobbit holes all different shapes and sizes. Yes they are different sizes as we learnt that they used forced perspective in the film to make people look either bigger or smaller such as Gandalf and Frodo. Anyhow enough talking and some photos of some pretty neat modelling! 

Just incase you are tempted, the bread is made out of car tires. 

My wife and I playing Hobbits

Bagend 

At the top is bagend, the tree is also fake with leaves imported from China

A view of the Red Dragon Inn across the lake

Hobbit security is pretty advanced

The Red Dragon Inn, or was it Green Dragon...

My wife and I enjoying a free pint in the Red Dragon at the end of the tour. 

We discovered that the stout has an alcohol percentage of 1%. Critics tell us that it tastes like water, so we went with the ale which was aright.

All in all it was a fun trip although a little on the expensive side of things. I would recommend it if you are in the area and have a bit of cash to burn. Supposedly one of the tour guides is around 75 and does it for the love of the LOTR mythos. 

Stephen Fry miniature - a short interlude.

It has been a small while since I last wrote a post and I had planned to upload a post about a FOW game Dan and I had yesterday however somethings must come first, and the FOW post tomorrow.... It should come as no surprise really that Stephen Fry who plays the Master in The Hobbit Desolation of Smaug gets his own miniature. Admittedly an overpriced miniature being a games workshop product (note I am not responsible for my own words... Oh god please don't sue us GW for writing that).

Stephen Fry's Master of Lake-town

(Credit: Games Workshop)

A pretty neat figure really. Being a fan of Stephen Fry as a comedian and actor I thought this was noteworthy of a post. Oh and its our 101 post so doubly noteworthy.

To celebrate I will now share something else for your interest. My wife and I over the last few days have discovered an new TV show, its also French so if you don't like subtitles or the French don't read on. It is called The Returned and is about a small town where people who have died a number of years ago return from the dead seemingly just like they were before they died, There is also plenty of strange going ons in this town. It seems to fall into a drama / mystery / horror category and is reminiscent of shows such as the fabulous Twin Peaks. The Guardian rated it as the top show of 2013 and I think it is a 9/10. Don't take our word for it though, give it a shot!

Back to the regular programme tomorrow, perhaps. 

Gandalf and Escape from Goblin Town

I have now finished Gandalf, the last unpainted model from the Escape from Goblin Town set, which I had resolved to get done before the end of the year.  I used the Tale of Painters tutorial, but changed the order of things to suit me more.  See the link here.

I have added in picture of the Goblin Town set, showing the dwarves in particular as well.

Bifur, Bombur and Bob(?)

Balin and Dwalin

Goblin King

Oin and Gloin

Nori Ori and Dori

Fili and Kili

Break now until the New Year when I have a fair bit of accumulated Flames of War to paint.

Aragorn Kills a Spider!

When I went into my gaming room this morning I got rather a fright. There was a rather large spider impaled on Aragorn's sword!  Three possibilities presented themselves:

1) Said spider jumped from great height and impaled itself on sword (thereby accidentally killing itself)
2) Spider died and fell onto sword
3) My models come alive at night and get up to mischief.

You see the photos and decide:

Radagast the Brown

The last of two models from the Escape from Goblin Town set that has sat unpainted for a year now.  In the interests of completing things before the end of the year I have finished him off, and nearly done Gandalf, the last of the group.  I followed the very good Tale of Painters tutorials for the two of them, which are excellent, but follow a slightly different process than I would - finishing each item up to the final state before starting the next (I like to base coat all, then wash all, highlight etc).  See Radagast's here.  Here are the photos:

You might notice his staff looks a little different.  It snapped off while I was outside holding my one year old daughter (don't ask).  And it fell into a small pile of twigs and stuff.  All I can say is that my painting skills are obviously so superior that I had no chance of finding this model staff among real twigs and had to use an old Gandalf model from the fellowship instead.  Don't look too bad really.

Radagast from the first Hobbit film has had mixed reviews.  Not quite fitting the model of an Istari, who has been sent by the Valar, he has been compared more to Jar Jar Binks, than his illustrious companions.  He didn't irritate me too much, but I would like to see him made a bit more serious than he is.

All in all, a cool model and not too unhappy with the final product.

Revisiting the Hobbit SBG - Tactically Limited?

For the first time since around February this year, we got in a game of The Hobbit SBG (formally know as LOTR SBG).  The setting was somewhere in Mirkwood forest, and Thorin's company (without Gandalf) were coming up against some goblins, warg riders and some of Saruman's Uruk Hai (who had wandered unknowingly into the wrong movie).

We wanted to get a feel for the rules again and see what we thought of the mechanic.  I am deciding whether to pay the astronomical price for the new models (see Scott's post here) and wanted to see whether the game is worth it.  Here are some pictures of the game:

The Battle line and where the game was played out

Marauding Goblins a little lost in the forest

Are you sure we should be here?  Don't we appear in the next films?

The Dwarves about to be taken out by Goblins and Uruk Hai

My view of proceedings

Our thoughts after the game were that the SBG game is tactically limited.  All our games end up being focused on a small part of the table with combat roll offs, going across the line and picking out the casualties.  Once the forces lock into combat, that is really it until the end of the game.  Terrain and tactics seem to have little impact, from that point of first contact at least onwards.

This might have been due to a decision to choose few ranged weapons and not to play magic (for simplicity reasons), but even when we have played with magic and more ranged weapons, the same outcome occurs - a clumping at one point and an epic dice roll off to the death.

Might Will and fate do add to the game and these are nice tactical options to have, as are the heroic actions available, which have been expanded in the Hobbit.

Playing Thorin's company is also difficult with all the special rules applicable to each dwarf, so I accept we may not have been getting all we could have out of the game - but back when we were more on top of these things and playing normal warbands of one hero and 12 warriors, the same outcome eventuated.

I wouldn't mind seeing what other's thoughts are on this, and if our experience are the same as others.  Lovely models and all, but just not particularly challenging tactically at all.

The Hobbit Part 2

Monday night game night saw us play through scenarios 4 and 5 from the Hobbit, Escape from Goblin Town, set.  Chris and I were on goblins this week and Steve (who is a tree) and Matt got to play Thorin, Dwalin and Balin.  The scenario required the Dwarves to stop ten goblins exiting off their table edge.  Special rules allowed D6 goblins to arrive each turn.  Goblin King arrives first time you roll a 1.  Ten turns for the boys to hold out.  Here is the set up:

Set Up

First round was just positioning, with the Goblins charging Thorin's side and leaving Dwalin and Balin a little unloved on the other side.  Chris and I thought that if we swamped Thorin and killed him then the game could be ours:

Thorin Swamped 

Fourth round and we had started to move more goblins over to the Dwalin / Balin side, cause they got bored waiting in line for Thorin to kill them.  They scored a wound on Balin and we started to realise that he was the weak link.  We started pushing more Goblins onto their side, trying to tie Dwalin and Balin up while we jumped a few goblins across to try and get them to escape:

Jumping Across to Balin

Sneaking a Goblin Past Dwalin

By sixth round the pressure on Thorin was beginning to toll.  Goblins scored two wounds on him, as his might store started to dwindle and he didn't want to use them to increase his duel role.  On the other side, Chris and I were about to get our second Goblin off the table edge - if we could just break Thorin on this side then we could take it.  During round 7, Dwalin went to try and stop a goblin from getting away, leaving Balin to get hit by four goblins.  Two wounds and a failed fate roll later, the Goblins had Balin as their first casualty.

With three rounds to go, the question was whether Thorin could hold on with one wound and one might left.  Dwalin was chopping through the Goblins on the other side, but Thorin was tiring.  But hold on he did, with some stoic game play and staunch roling from Matt, and ultimately it was a good win for the goodies.

Thorin holding out staunchly

Close Up of Thorin Holding Out Staunchly

Run Forrest run...

The night was but young so we set up for the last scenario: the Wizard and the Burglar.  This involved Bilbo and Gandalf at opposing table edges, having to get to each other.  The Goblin King, Grinnah and six Goblins in their way with the prospect of reinforcements.  I say "prospect" because the game ended at round 3.  Round 1 Gandalf fails immobilise, uses a might to cast it, only for the Goblin King to resist it.  Round 2 Goblin King threw a goblin at Gandalf, knocked him prone and cost him a wound.  Round three he gets up, fails immobilise again (on a 1 and thinks better of using 2 might points).  He is then charged by the Goblin King and a Goblin, loses the duel, is trapped, and gets hit five times (out of seven to wound rolls).

The sun sets on Gandalf

Just Back off Alright Steve...

My reflection on the nights gaming is generally very positive.  We had lots of fun as always (good beer thanks Matt), and the first scenario was again well balanced and could have gone either way.  I was annoyed we didn't get the Goblin King on though, just to try him out in that first scenario.  We made a point of using the different weapon options (feint, piercing strike etc) and found that we could make it work well even with lots of Goblins with different weapons (though it didn't make too much difference what we used).

The sour point is of course Gandalf being nailed so early on in the second scenario.  I've never played magic well, and tactically it is my fault by leaving him against the table edge, but it just didn't seem right that he should have 1 attack against the Goblin King's three...  There is some trick with using more will as well, which only occured to me later.  The Goblin King got a limited run in the second game, and he looked lethal from the little we saw.  Keen to do more goblin hurling in the near future.

I would be keen to use the rules in a bigger battle scenario as well - though how big I don't know.  There were limited tactical options with both scenarios, and so it came down more to luck (with the exception of my Gandalf debacle).  A larger escape from Goblin Town board would be good, but I just don't have the time to make one of those.

Anyway, I do like these rules a lot.  I am glad we have integrated the special strikes in now and got used to them.  Feeling on top of LOTR rules and keen to keep playing a few scenarios.  So, as per usual, just as we build a bit of familiarity we will be moving to the Empire of the Dead Campaign next week! See you then.

The photos were taken with an iPad 3 using the blux camera app I (Steveisatree) wanted to try out. I feel like it took pretty good photos but due to only being 5mp you can't zoom in much on them.