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. 

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.

My New Games Room

With the arrival of the new Empire of the Dead miniatures motivating me, I finally finished off setting up my games room.  The big job was constructing a 6x4 table over the top of the smaller table I have.  The room houses a few of my other hobbies as well (beer brewing, guitar), and I am pretty happy with the space I have created.

Painting desk and table:

Note I did not choose the curtains

Evidence of an English degree, models and wargaming books:

The guitar collection, and my daughter's cello:

Close up of the models, FOW on top, Isengard army below with EOTD and then Rohan and the Escape from Goblin Town figures:

Looking forward to spending a bit of time in here.  You don't see the storage cupboard for the terrain pieces as well, by the way and the stereo to keep me occupied.  I have a bit of 28mm steampunk to paint up now!

The Kingdom of Rohan Army

I have now completed* my Rohan army.  Much of the hard work was done over a year ago, but true to form I had not quite finished it off.  The last few weeks have seen me get out the heroes and paint them up, complete the Royal Banner and finish a few troops needed to fill out the ranks.

*subject to one more banner bearer

The assembled army

There is still one more piece I need though, and that is a banner bearer to accompany Erkenbrand.  I had originally made this formation with Gandalf beside Erkenbrand, with an eye on a Helms Deep scenario.  But that only goes so far, and also magic in WOTR is a bit of a pain in my view.  Thus a space beside Erkenbrand for a banner bearer.  In the photos Erkenbrand has Eomer's banner bearer and Eomer has Gamling with Royal Banner (even though he is also in the Royal Guard formation).  

When I get around to a new painted banner bearer it will go to Erkenbrand's riders and Eomer will get his back.

The army is made up of:

1. Two companies of Royal Guard on foot, with banner, Hama, Gamling and Theoden.  See link and here.
2. Six companies of Erkenbrand's riders with banner.  See link here.
3. Four copanies of Grimbold's Helmingas
4. Two companies of archers.
5. Four companies of Riders led by Eomer.
6. Treebeard.
7. On the subs bench: Theoden mounted, Erkenbrand and Eomer on foot.

Grimbold's Helmingas I often put in the center with the Royal Guard to hold the middle:

Grimbold's Helmingas

Close up of Grimbold (center) Banner and Hornblower

 The archers pick somewhere with a vantage point and some cover:

The Captain of the Archers, who forgot his bow but brough his pet orc

Eomer on the right flank with his riders:

Eomer and his Rohirrim

Treebeard roams around making a mess:

Treebeard in mid battle contemplation pose

A couple more army shots:

Theres 80 foot and 20 mounted models + Treebeard there