'One book to rule them all............'

I have managed to acquire via ebay an unused copy of the GW Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game for the princely sum of £10 versus the RRP of £35. This will have the virtue of enabling me to dispense with the seventy odd copies I have of the magazine! If previous GW rulebooks are anything to go by then I am sure at the very least the 'eye candy' will be inspiring, even if the rules are not quite what I want!

Lord of the Rings, HOTTs and Memoir 44

I had absolutely no idea that GW's take on the Lord of the Rings was so huge! There must be loads of figures, supplements, accessories and rules included in their range. I checked out their website and was gobsmacked at the selection available! The kit that I have thus far acquired seems like small beer by comparison. I am committed to cobbling together some HOTTs sized forces which should be easy on the logistical side as well as meaning that I will not need the great hordes of figures needed for a full scale Middle Earth epic. By using sabot bases (thanks to Steve Blease for the prompt in this regard) I will still be able to fight Tolkeinesque skirmish level games so the variety of games will be good methinks.

I am also planning to use a set of Battle Cry/Memoir 44 inspired fantasy rules found on the Te Wapen yahoo group which look like enormous fun and have the enormous advantage of using ordinary playing cards for the orders rather than the more usual Command and Colours system period specific types.

These rules look good fun and although the game Battlelore covers fantasy using the aforementioned Command and Colours system, Te Wapen has the inestimable advantage of being free!

The Lord of the Rings - Early Musings

I spent a little time last night sorting through the collection of GW Lord of the Rings figures I recently acquired. All told there are around 200 figures being a mix of plastic and metal. I was giving some thought as to the best way of using these and given the size of some of the forces I am thinking that something HOTTs based would be ideal - especially from a painting perspective. I will need to add some other bits and pieces from GW in order to finish off some of the forces but happily not too much - which is just as well given the prices we are talking about - £16.50 for 6 mounted figures is a little on the eye watering side methinks!

The biggest single lack appears to be mounted figures so by using HOTTs I should be able to get away without needing too many - probably the forces of Rohan will be the most expensive army in the collection.

I had best see what I can do via ebay then!