Fort on the Frontier

A Warmaster/Battle of Five Armies Battle

     The Master of Bows peered towards the western sky, watching the light fade behind the last foothill across the river. Clouds had been approaching from the north all day, a dark pall, low and thick, rolling over the mountain peaks in a way that made his neck prickle. Even the youngest of the men had noticed, and muttered about what it meant. But the archer knew. And the Warden of the Wild Reaches knew as well, setting the men and elves on the wall in full array, and the small cavalry detachment to saddling up in the courtyard below. But mysterious as the powers of their wizard commander were, the sign the Master of Bows set most store by had come when he found the garrison’s weapon’s master sharpening his axe in the armory.
     “So, there’s to be a battle, then?” the bowman had asked his taciturn dwarven friend.
     “Aye,” was the only answer, and it hadn’t been needed.

     

     The sound of a horn, high and sharp cracked through the cold air, and hope sprang in the archer’s heart.

     “Our brethren approach,” said his elven lieutenant, pointing south of the river’s ford, “and with them I see horsemen, bearing the banner of the royal house— and there are more of Durin’s folk as well, alas.”
     “Don’t look down upon our relief, woodland brother,” the bowman laughed, clapping his fair comrade on the shoulder.
     “How can I help but do so,” replied the elf, “if only because of their height?” But he smiled when he said it, for he, too, shared the gladness to see a sign of strength approaching.

     But then another horn broke through the darkening day, and it was harsh and rough and cold, like the crackle of dry bones, and behind it came the howls of wolves, a din beyond counting.

     “See now why the stars hide,” whispered the elf, and the Master of Bows stared northward in horror. The mountain slopes boiled with misshapen creatures and glittered with equally mis-made spearpoints, while down in the western valley wolves raced forward, all too many also bearing as riders the same creatures as the mountainsides.

     “Our brethren...” breathed the elf.

     “Had best not tarry,” finished the archer, “for I fear there is little we can do to help them.” And perhaps not even ourselves, he did not say aloud.

***

Yesterday I trotted out some of my 10mm fantasy collection and set up a little battle scenario. As I had yet to test out my fortress from Sally 4th (read about it here), I opted for a castle assault scenario, but to make it more than just a static pounding, I added the element of a relief force marching to supplement an under-manned garrison. As I also wanted to field my growing cavalry force, this gave an ideal setting for the two.

The Rules and Special Rules

Rules are the Battle of Five Armies (Warmaster) rules from Games Workshop (OOP, sadly). The castle assault rules are from the Warmaster rule book, but otherwise I stuck with the army lists, magic rules, and wording from the Bo5A rules, as these reflect corrections and additions to the core set.

A few special rules which might or might not be reflected in either rule book (but probably should be):

Archer units located in a fortress tower (but not a wall) can see and shoot in any direction. All stands are considered able to see and shoot, regardless of the unit’s physical orientation in the tower. Nor does anything at ground level (or any other level) block line of sight except for elements of the fortress itself (you can’t shoot through another tower, or at enemies obscured by the walls). So this means that a three-stand unit of elf archers will always roll three dice when shooting at a target in LOS of the tower. Range is unaffected, and is measure horizontally, not vertically.

Although wolf riders are technically shooting units, they can’t effectively attack units fortified behind castle walls (or in towers, of course). This reflects these units’ nature as skirmishing harassment troops. Cavalry also cannot charge units on fortress walls. (I’m pretty certain that’s in the Warmaster rules anyway, but if not, well, it is on my tabletop!)

The fortress has one small sally port located on the south edge of the westernmost tower. Friendly units may enter or exit from this sally port, provided no enemy units are assaulting the southwestern wall or the tower at that time (that is, engaged in combat with the wall’s defenders). As per standard rules, friendly units may enter or exit the main gate without penalty (but must accept an order to do so). Again, if the gate wall is under assault, the gate cannot be opened for either exit or entry (doing so would be immediately treated as a breach).

Any undefended wall can be immediately scaled by the enemy (note that the initial garrison is unable to man all of the walls and the towers as well). However, undefended towers are still unassailable (the scaling ladders aren’t long enough).

In this scenario, I decided that the hill slopes are “difficult” terrain— not dense or steep enough to offer defended status, and still passable to cavalry, but causing any troop upon them to move at half-pace. This is a bit of departure from the standard rules (and was probably a mistake on my part, but I wanted something to slow the initial onslaught of the goblin horde).
Troops on the top level of the hill can reach the lower levels by descending the two sloping passages sculpted into the hills.

The Forces

The Warden of the Wild Reaches is a wizard equipped with a Staff of Power (and, apparently, a pet bird and halfling manservant).

The Master of Bows has the same shooting bonus ability as Bard from Bo5A. The dwarven Weapons Master is a dwarf hero (+2 attack bonus), as is the dwarf captain in the relief column.

All others as per Bo5A rules, except the Orc Trebuchet, which uses the Warmaster Orc Rock Lobber stats.

I didn’t bother to calculate points, as I had no idea how to cost out the fortress itself (which, by the way, really made a big difference). But for comparison, the Goblin Horde had 113 units, including characters, and the Army of the Wild Reaches had only 55 units total— which I suspect on the points match up is grossly in favor of the goblins!

Good Guys

The Garrison of the Wild Reaches
Elf Spearmen (2 units)
Elf Archers (2 units)
Men Spearmen (1 unit)
Men Archers (2 units)
Horse Tribe Cavalry (1 unit): Attack 3 Hits 3 Armor 5+
Horse Tribes Archer Cavalry (1 unit): Attack 2/1, Hits 3, Armor 0. Can shoot 360°, 15cm

Heroes:
Master of Bows (Bard stats)
Dwarf Weapons Master (dwarf hero)
The Warden of the Wild Reaches (wizard general)

The Relief Column
Elf Spearmen (2 units)
Elf Archers (2 units)
Dwarf warriors (2 units)
Horse Tribe Cavalry (1 unit) “The Riders of the Westfold” (Red cloaks)
Horse Tribe Royal Cavalry (1 unit): Attacks 4 Hits 3 Armor 5+

Heroes:
The Lord of the Woodland Realm (Elf hero)
The Dwarf Captain (Dwarf hero)

All infantry from GW's Battle of Five Armies boxed sets.
Cavalry from Copplestone Casting's Horse Tribe line.

Bad Guys

The Goblin Horde
Goblins (16 units)
Wolf Riders (16 units)
Wargs (16 units)
Goblin Guard (1 unit)
Hill Trolls (1 unit)
Gigantic Bats (1 unit, flying monster)
Storm Giant (1 unit, monster)
Rock Lobber (1 unit, artillery)

Heroes:
The Goblin King (general)
Orc Chieftain (4)
Goblin Shaman (1)

For the record, the Horde forces consisted of two entire goblin armies (with wargs and riders) from two Battle of Five Armies sets, plus a unit of GW Bo5A Goblin Guard, a GW WM giant, a unit of GW Bo5A Hill Trolls, a Rock Lobber (Kallistra Orc Trebuchet) and a unit of Gigantic Bats (Splintered Light’s “Bat Swarm”).

The Set Up

Defender sets up first. The Garrison deployed in the fort, with the spearmen on the walls and the archers in the towers. The southernmost wall was left unmanned, as the threat was to the north, and assuming a detachment from the relief column reached the fort, manning it would not be an issue, In a pinch, however, a tower could be abandoned to protect the wall.

The Relief Column set up west of the river, on the southern edge of the map (for game purposes, “North” is at the top of the wide photos, along a long edge of the battlefield).
To make things move quicker, the column deployed into two temporary brigades— the elves all in one and the cavalry and dwarves in the other.

The Goblin Horde then set up on the northern edge of the battlefield. The evil cavalry and six infantry had to deploy west of the river. North of the river, the forces had to deploy either on the hill or immediately abutting the edge of the table.

Scenario Design
I conceived of this scenario as having two parts— the attempt by the relief column to reach the garrison, and the subsequent assault. It did play out that way, but not entirely as I expected (or planned).

The Goblin Horde appears to the north— can the tiny garrison
of the Wild Reaches survive?

And Now, The Battle!

The First Hour— The Race for the Ford

The dwarves and the riders of the Mark claim the Ford, but the elves tarry.

The Warden sends out the garrison cavalry to aid the relief column.

The Warden casts a spell, and throws the evil bats into disarray.

The Horde advances on the fort, but fails to press the column.

The forlorn hope— the goblins try to take the eastern wall!

The elves hold— the goblins are repulsed!

The Second Hour— Barbs, Blunders, Bats and Blood

The relief column advances, and connects with the garrison cavalry, but fails
to reach the fortress; the elves prepare to receive the charge of the vile wargs.

The elven archers and the bowmen unleash their barbed shafts, decimating the
 goblin forlorn hope...

Oops— "someone" has blundered.

Missed 'em by that much— the wargs' impetuous charge fails!
(Oh, I supposed I could have fudged in the dogs' favor. But this was funnier.)

The bats bite while the Giant and the Goblin Guard batter the relief column. 

On the right, the hill trolls withdraw from the archers in the towers.

The orc trebuchet (upper left center, by the river) and goblin arrows drive

the men of the Westfold and the elves from the ford in confusion (center).

The bats and dwarves fall back, but the Royal Guard of the Mark is lost!

Meanwhile, the giant slaughters the horse archers of the garrison.

The heavy cavalry takes casualties, but rebuffs the Goblin Guard.

(Cavalry retreats 1cm, but infantry cannot pursue, and loses a stand as well.)

The Third Hour— Monster Bashing, and an Orc Too Far

More death from above for the goblin forlorn hope.

The elves attack the wargs, the dwarves strike the center— and the giant is
confused (well, more than usual) by a hail of arrows from the tower!

Dwarves On a Roll, or Bye-Bye, Bat-birds!

The Horde Recoils (for now...)

On the left, the elves drive back the wargs and the warg riders with heavy losses.

In the center, the bats, the Goblin Guard and goblin infantry are destroyed.

The giant is forced to retreat in front of the garrison gate, and remains confused.

The garrison cavalry tries for the infantry near the Goblin King in hopes of an

early victory, but falls back when the goblins hold (combat draw— lucky devils!)

The Hour of the Wolves

The wargs and warg riders charge the elves, the goblins charge in the center,

and the Goblin King wisely retreats onto the mountain slopes.

The forlorn hope hopes forlornly. (Not a chance, bub.)

 The Last Stand of the Elves

The charge of the wargs.

The elves are overwhelmed.

The ford falls.

The End of the Third Hour

The ford is lost, the center is scattered, and there's a giant at the gates— time

to attack, obviously! (Oh, and the forlorn hope is down to one stand...)

 The Fourth Hour— Bold Action

When hard pressed— attack!

The Riders of the Westfold take a chance and charge the giant, and the dwarves

charge the goblins, aided by the garrison cavalry.

(The other dwarves were confused by the trebuchet on the previous turn.)

The Giant Falls!

 The spearmen of the garrison sally to aid the cavalry of the Westfold 

(and the dwarf captain lends his skill). Driven back against the tower,

the giant dies.

The spearmen withdraw back to the garrison, but the riders press on...

And utterly destroy the hill trolls!
(And the lone orc chieftain with nowhere to run...)

Meanwhile, the dwarves and cavalry slay the goblin front.

... and the cavalry charges into the reserves, threatening the Goblin King again!

The Goblin King survives, and the garrison cavalry falls back. On the far right,

the goblin forlorn hope assault has been driven back yet again. 

 ... and the Goblin King responds.

The Wargs Cross the River

The dwarves are in danger, and the goblin center charges the garrison cavalry,

aided by chieftain.

A lone warg tries for the central dwarves, but the orders fail. The Goblin King

scurries to the center left.

Oh, and the forlorn hope (unseen) tries for the wall. Again. (Guess who dies?)

 

The Fifth Hour— The Center Cannot Hold

With the dwarf left lost, the dwarf center falls back south to protect its flank

from the approaching wargs and warg riders. To the north, the combined

cavalry charges the remaining goblin center.

The warden sends archers to the southern tower, but fails to man the

southwestern wall.

The skirmish is won...

The lone wargs in the center are shot down by the Master of Bows and elves.

To the north, the riders destroy the goblins and fall back towards the garrison.

But the Horde is undaunted...

The wargs charge, eliminate garrison cavalry, but trade one for one with the

men of the Westfold.

The next wave of the Horde advances in the center and the left, reaching the ford.

Warg riders approach the dwarves in center south, but fail the order to charge.

The Warden surveys his losses, and realizes his army is hanging on by a thread—

a two unit thread! (26 units lost towards a breaking point of 28 units.)

 The Sixth Hour— Back to the Garrison!

Give them a volley!

The archers in the western and southern towers turn the warg riders into

porcupines, driving them back to the ford. The archers in the north tower drive

the lone wargs back.

With the way cleared, the dwarves and the Westfold cavalry advance to the

safety of the garrison—  the relief column (or what's left of it) has finally

arrived... just in time to fully man the walls!

Now useless, the horde cavalry moves out of the way as the infantry
closes for the grand assault.

The Seventh Hour— The Last Sortie

The Final Sally

The Warden takes a risk, seeing an opportunity to perhaps crack the Horde's resolve.

He orders the dwarves to sortie from the gate, striking the goblin assault before it

can reach the wall...

The dwarves hew their enemies down, advance, pursue and hew again!

But the Weapons Master fears to press further...

... and pulls his dwarves back to the garrison, sealing the gates a final time.

This battle will be won or lost on the walls.

Approaching the walls...

Having watched the deadliness of the archers, the Goblin King orders the
warg riders to screen the assault force from the towers.

 The Final Hour— The Grand Assault!

The Warden is content to man his walls and wait—

But first the archers send the warg riders into confusion.

The great assault begins.

The goblins pour across the ford, raising ladders against the gate wall and

the western wall— will they overwhelm the men and elves?

Hail the Valar— the assault is repulsed!

The Goblin King is seized with dismay— his army is broken!
(61 units lost, with a breaking point of 57)

The clouds break, and the horde flees in panic.

The Garrison Triumphant!

Closing Thoughts

 This battle turned out to be a lot of fun. I think a few things became clear to me—
one is that the goblin infantry really have little or chance of taking the walls. They never even managed to inflict a single hit.
The Goblin King (okay, me) erred in not sending the giant against the gate, and in pulling back the Hill Trolls. Both could have either taken a wall or (in the case of the giant) breached the gate early on. By the time the trebuchet was in range of the fortress, there was no time left in the battle (I always use the eight turn limit, and holding the garrison meant victory for the good guys, regardless of anything else.) Losing the bats early hurt, too.

On the other hand, the Warden (also me) nearly blew it by mucking around across the ford. The elves could inflict damage, yes, but there was no way they could stand against the wargs and goblin cavalry. Staying there was death— the elves should have crossed the ford and blocked it up rather than forming long lines that could be assaulted en masse. Also, not simply rushing the relief column into the garrison was another mistake— if the relief column had made it safely inside, the wargs and warg riders would have been able do nothing to anyone in the fortress! So fighting them in the open was silly, and almost cost the Warden the battle. (I had only been casually keeping track of casualties, and then I tallied up what was going on and realized the garrison was but a handful of stands from the breaking point! Yikes!)

But all in all, as a solo game this turned out to be quite satisfying. I look forward to trying a scenario like this one again, maybe against an opponent more worthy than myself!

--- Howard

The Royal Guard of the Golden Hall

Led by that bold warrior Hama, the Royal Guard ably defends King Theoden, body and soul (despite Hama’s gullibility regarding elderly gentlemen with walking sticks).

Summon the guard for arming day!

Now the paintbrush of yours truly has brought these brave men to life, in the form of Copplestone Castings’ “Horse Tribe Royal Cavalry,” another bit of excellent sculpting work from their 10mm fantasy “not Lord of the Rings” line.

I won’t go into a detailed account of painting these, as the process is essentially the same as the Horse Tribe Cavalry I painted in my last post, so I’ll just list the colors from this round and go straight to the pretty pictures.

Almost done— time to do the "washing", and then paint and flock the bases.

Horses: Bays (Burnt Sienna), Light Bays (Light Cinnamon), Brown (Milk Chocolate), Roan (Gray), Tan “Palomino” (Honey Brown).

Manes and Tails are Black, Dark Brown, and French Vanilla (Palomino) with a Dark Brown wash.

Tunics, Tackle and Scabbards: Russet (Wine)

Armor and Weapons: Gunmetal

Helms: Gunmetal and Bright Gold

Stirrups, Greaves (yes, they have greaves), Stirrups, Hilts, Shield Bosses, Shield Rims: Bright Gold

Cloaks & Shields: Hunter Green (“Evergreen”), with Golden Yellow cloak hems. (“King’s Gold”)

Gloves: Golden Brown

Hair: French Vanilla with a Dark Brown wash and Spice Brown.

Helm Crests: French Vanilla with a Dark Brown wash.

Hooves are Black, lance shafts are Dark Brown.

All minis have a black wash except over the French Vanilla portions, where black can produce a greenish tint (little known fact: “Black” pigment in paint is actually a very, very (very, very, very) dark blue. I learned this in my college Stage Design class, and now I plan my shading accordingly).

Guard to the right!
(Note: flag has artwork that got washed out by the flash.)

Guard, to the left, in echelon!
(Banner is from Toshach Miniatures' free Horse Tribes decals download.)

SOUND THE CHARGE!

That’s about it— again, this was a very quick project with roughly a two-day turn around. I’m getting faster!

More To Come...

The Rohirrim continue to muster...

The Horsemen of Rohan (so far).
L to R: Cavalry, Royal Cavalry, Cavalry, Horse Archers

The Muster of Rohan: Painting Copplestone Casting’s Horse Tribe Cavalry

Sound the Horn— It's Painting Season! 

My painting set up: Ikea tray, old mug, block of styrofoam to hold the brushes.
The blue and green stands are "photo holders" I found in Target's bargain aisle. 

This season has become catch-up time with a number of my projects, so I thought I’d share another one of my latest efforts. The figures are from my growing collection of 10mm fantasy figures for the Warmaster game system. The project in question is a long-term one of gaming battles from The Lord of the Rings, one of my favorites being the Battle of Helm’s Deep between the forces of the Rohirrim and Saruman’s fearsome Uruk-hai. Fortunately for fans of Tolkien’s works (and Peter Jackson’s films), Copplestone Castings in the UK has a terrific, if small, “generic” high fantasy line. His stand-ins for Rohan are the “Horse Tribes,” and like Tolkien and PJ, they’re very clearly based on a mix of Anglo-Saxon England with a dash of Post-Roman Britain (indeed, they’d be strong contenders for the latter).

In my earlier posts, I had images of one unit of Copplestone’s Horse Tribe Cavalry, and another of the Horse Archers, which represent the heavy cavalry and missile cavalry depicted in the books and films. Copplestone also has Horse Tribe Infantry and Foot Archer units, so the line offers a well-rounded selection for a Rohirrim army, including the infantry actions which dominate the Battle of Helm’s Deep in both novel and film. While the foot soldiers are in my painting pile, I had a unit of cavalry already primed, so I thought I’d give it a go one weekend and share the results with my readers.

Note: Click on the pictures to see a closeup!

Color Choice and Paints

I don’t go for the big name miniature paints. I’m certain they’re quite good, and worth every penny, but I don’t have a lot of pennies to put towards the hobby. Instead, I opt for the much cheaper craft paints sold at hobby chain stores like Michael’s and Jo Ann’s. They work for me, and I’ve found most of them cover even black primer with a single coat. Brighter colors like reds and yellows may take more coats, but as I said, this stuff is dirt cheap, especially with the coupons the retailers send out.

For Rohan, I take the movie images as my cue. While the most obvious choice is the very dominant hunter green used in the films, other colors also stand out, including a deep golden yellow and a burgundy or russet color. I like to have some differentiation in my units so it’s easier to define which is which in the midst of a battle— especially as Warmaster battles can quickly become mass melees involving multiple units! Also, as the Rohirrim are more of feudal militia or levy than a standing force, I feel their attire would not be a national uniform, but rather a reflection of each units home region (such as the Westfold, etc.). As my last cavalry unit was traditional Rohan hunter green, I decided to opt for a different “Rohan” color for this unit, and chose russet or deep maroon as the dominant hue. For the remaining bits, I decided to keep the hunter green in the mix for bits of tunic and/or saddle blankets, and left the rest as the metal or natural leather suited for these smaller details.

Getting Started

I operate on an in-to-out approach with painting 10mm figures, meaning I start with the “innermost” layer of a figure and work outward, rather like someone putting on clothes. So this meant painting skin, or in this case, faces. For this I use a very pale Coral craft paint. (I prefer to use this straight out of the bottle with elves; with men and dwarves I might actually paint a thin layer of red first, which will bleed through the lighter coral to produce a ruddier complexion. In this case, I knew so little of the flesh would be seen that I didn’t bother with that.)

With the units primed in black, it’s hard to pick out which details are face and which are beard or helmet. But as skin is the first layer, any overlaps would get covered by darker colors as the miniature “gets dressed,” so if my dabs got too big, it didn’t matter.

Grooming the Horses

Faces, horseflesh and metal finished (not counting touch-ups).

After the faces, I decided that the ponies needed some grooming, so I painted their skins next. Again, I like a little subtle variety in the look of the horses, and try to capture a natural color scheme. People often think of horses as being primarily brown, but in truth the dominant color is the classic “bay,” which tends towards a reddish tone. So my choices of color for the horses were Burnt Sienna (a deep reddish brown), Milk Chocolate (a mid-level brown) and Light Cinnamon (another mid-level brown hue, also with a slight red tint). I like the command horse to stand out a bit, and this time I opted for a “roan,” horse, which is a shade of grey with black elements rather than white.

Although in larger scales, horses are notoriously tricky to paint realistically, at the 10mm size a straight color works fine, especially if you follow up with a dark wash afterwards. So my little force got 5 bays, 4 chestnuts, 3 light browns, and the commander’s striking roan.

Arms and Armor (and Other Shiny Bits)

Closeup of horses: Light Brown, Grey Roan, Bay (Burnt Sienna).

After the horse flesh, I opted to arm and cloth the men. The chainmail is an easy paint, almost a dry-brush approach with a Gunmetal shade (a dark grey metallic paint). This is a very dark paint that is hard to see against the black, so it’s okay if you get a bit more than the typical dry-brushing expects, especially as 10mm is really meant for arms-length or birds-eye viewing— you want to see a block of metal; a black wash will help create the texture of it.

The Copplestone helms are terrifically detailed, with crest rims, nose guards, and chin guards. They also vary from figure to figure, which fits the levy nature of the Rohirrim’s muster. Just a dab of gold metallic paint on the various helm features creates a great look. 

I also hit the horse’s bridle rings and the stirrups with the gunmetal paint, except for the commander who got a bit of gold bling with his tackle. Spear points, sword blade and shield bosses are also Gunmetal, though again the commander gets the gold treatment on his shield boss. Sword hilts and scabbard tops get gold dabs as well.

Later, I realized that the horses also have headpieces above their foreheads, and these would eventually be gold as well (though gunmetal would have been fine. Maybe the commander of this regiment has a thing for shiny stuff...). I would also come back later and add spur bands of gold on the men’s boots (again, I hadn’t noticed this detail yet).

Tunics and Cloaks

Cloaks and banner.

With the metal done (mostly), I went with cloth next. Starting with the green, I painted tunics and/or saddle blankets. I decided not to give all the saddle blankets or tunics the same color, in part because some of the men don’t have cloaks, so I need to confine their tunics to the russet color, and again, I didn’t want a “uniform” feel.
Green done (two coats of Evergreen, as it’s very dark and needs to be built up so as not to appear black), I pulled out the russet, which was actually a Wine paint. This took three coats, especially on the wide cloaks.

Bit and Bridle (and Other Leather Stuff)

Closeup of cloaks, shields and tunics. Color is "Wine."
You can also see the tackle, gloves, scabbards and other bits.
Only the lance shafts, hooves, manes and touch-ups remain.

Next I hit the tackle, using a Golden Brown camel color. I also used this for the riders’ hands. Although this is a bright color, it makes for a good contrast against the darker horse flesh. While in a larger scale model that might seem odd, in 10mm scale you want as much contrast as you can get so that the details still “pop” out once the figures are moving about the tabletop. 10mm scale, after all, is about grand spectacle and immediate troop recognition rather than the subtleties of light and shadow. Plus, once a dark wash is done at the end, the tackle color subdues to a deeper tan, which looks nicely realistic, even up close. I did have some painting error here and there, but I always come back to the horseflesh with a touch up coat, so I knew I would cover these slips. I also hit the straps of the bedrolls with this color, as well as the stirrup straps and a few of the saddle blankets, the latter to again avoid the “uniform” effect.

Pulling out some Spice Brown (a mid-to-dark brown), I hit the blanket rolls, pants, scabbards, belts and boots of the riders. Dark Brown (only slightly darker than Spice) serves as the lance shafts.

Grooming the Men and Manes

Done with clothing and accoutrements, I hit the men’s hair and beards with either brown (I think spice in this case), or French Vanilla, which produces an easy bright “Scandinavian” blonde effect, fitting of Tolkien’s Rohirrim. The horse's manes and tails are either black or dark brown (the roanI painted black, but the others I varied, just as real horses vary in their coloring).

Final Touch-up and a Quick Wash

After that, it was all touch-up, covering up mistakes or picking out details that now could be seen. I also gave a few of the horses white "socks" and "blazes" for a little more character.

Main painting done. Painting the bases and preparing the wash.

After giving the bases a quick slap of flat black paint, I used the same paint to create a shading wash. Others may use a precise mix, but I confess to the quick and easy method— a just add drops of distilled water to the paint to make it thin and runny, then slap it on the figure. I used the same brush to gently flick away pools of paint (as on the shields and cloaks) and dabbed with a paper towel if too much watery paint puddled into the space in the chest and lap area of the riders. This method isn’t perfect, and I wound up not entirely happy with the cloaks (though from a distance they look fine), but it’s definitely easy, and the horse tackle, horse muscle and armor bits gained definition, while the overly vibrant tackle bits were muted. (I asked my lovely bride’s opinion, because I wasn’t happy with the cloaks. She’s not a gamer, and has no real opinion of my “little men” (except that she doesn’t like “the ugly ones,” meaning the orcs). But she had seen the figures before the wash, in their vibrant state, and felt the washed tones were more realistic. I’m not going to argue with her!)

Behold the Warriors of the Westfold!

All told, this project took me three days of painting, though only for a couple of hours each day (largely while half-watching football games). For me, that’s the fastest I’ve ever completed any single unit.

So there’s hope yet that I will reach my goal of a playable Helm’s Deep force in a reasonable time frame. And then, on to the Pelennor Fields. ;-).

--- Parzival of TMP