A blog about LOTR Warhammer and a custom RPG game: 2012

Friday, August 31, 2012

More ships

So after getting a bunch of good and neutral ships completed and/or started i realized i was completely forgetting my evil forces and that they needed to be included on the high seas adventures so we had someone to fight. And so i began making some forces of evil ships. I started out with uruk-hai

These are the mid sized Uruk-hai ships that i have made. They are about 18" from the end to the tip of the ramming spike. in the picture they are loaded with about 20 uruk soldiers each.

Here is the Uruk flagship, it is dual masted and has a large rear cabin. it is not quite complete. from the rear to the tip of the ramming spike is about 30". in the oictures it is loaded with about 50 uruk-hai.

I also made and painted the banners on the rear and front of the ship.

More post soon to follow with pictures of the other fleets i am making.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Warhammer Campaign Ships

So i realize it has been a long time since i blogged, but i have been up to a lot. finally got my camera back. Again.

My most recent project has been to make some Ships for out LOTR/Warhammer battles. We have a long extensive campaign going and have moved out to sea. And my dwarves and humans could not be left behind when the battles went to the great blue, so I decided i needed to make ships. I thought about it for a long time, and then while playing Assassin's Creed II (awesome game) and in game in the city of Venice, I was fulfilling an assassination contract on a ship in the harbor, and i saw the ships and had a great inspiration to base my ships for warhammer off of.

So after several hours of planning then several more getting what i needed i started. my first ship was quite small

But i am very happy whit the design and plan to make many more of this size and general shape and design. The hull is made of cardboard and held together by screws. the mast and rigging is a cut up tent pole, Knex rods, and an old t shirt. This design has a small "cabin" and would hold about 10 figures for a fight, but realistically only about four for a journey. the ship is about seven inches long from butt to end of the deck (not counting ramming spike)

My next design was a bit larger. It came to about 11 inches not counting rudder and bowsprit.

on this ship it is constructed of the same materials plus, a larger variety of Knex pieces, and some twine, a button, and super glue. It has a running line, crows nest, and a fully functioning sail hoist.

the hoist is made of various Knex pieces and held on by glue, it has a locking mechanism to hold the sail where you raised or lowered it to. The designing and prototyping of the sail hoist mechanism took over an hour, and over a dozen failed designs.but in the end it works and looks good. I also like this design and will probably make several more, though construction time will be greatly reduced.

After finishing this one i decided my little fleet would need a flagship. And so i made one. it is about 7.5 inches wide and over 20 inches long on the first deck, the second deck is over 26" long and same width. it will have a bowsprit, a fore mast and main mast, I plan to add another sail hoist. notices the size of the LOTR figure on the deck

The blue line is showing where the two decks are, top above and lower below. the lover deck is mostly for looks and the only way to access it is through an open spot i left at the butt so i could put figures and supplies inside.

and now a pitures of all completed or WIP ships!

After i finish with the largest one i plant to make more of the smaller two models and to make a couple rowboats for the larger, all ships will be painted to disguise the cardboard and various materials.

Monday, April 30, 2012

RPG Report

So since it is hard to get our group together we have been catching some of our new players up on the storyline, letting them play some backstory, since the main party has gotten about six months to a year and a half ahead. the character in the backstory timeline are

Andewien, a forest elf who has incredibly bad luck, who while on a pilgrimage was taken into captivity by pirates, then sold to slavers than spent nearly a month on a ship in a barrel. only to end up on the human continent. a long way from where he wanted to be.he was taking his fathers ashes to an elven shrine on the main elven land. now he is trying to get back on his way to finish his journey

Gur-broug, A large angry half ogre. He tends to get into lots of trouble but scowls his way out of it usually. he has no idea what he is doing or where he is.

and some felinid, who is a mage hunter that was imprisoned by cultists, but then escaped. he is now devoted to tracking down and purging the cult that imprisoned him and slaughtered his comrades. From having little to no social contact, especially with humans, he tends to be very rude or degrading without meaning it.

we are picking up their story in a good sized port city where Andewien came ashore. after a narrow escape from a warehouse where he left his barrell. He is hired to unload barrels and other cargo from the ships at dock to earn some cash to get on his journey, Gur-broug strolls into town and glares his way into the tavern and immediately get wasted. then acts as a bouncer for the night. Felinid dashes into town at a speed that could pass up a cheetah. startles a guard so bad he almost has a heart attack then gets in a barfight with a "merchant" (suspected pirate, but the local guards have no way to prove their suspicions). after figuring out they are all going to the same place they decide to travel together. after several days and several random wildlife encounters they find a small group of cultists which they quickly dispatch. Gur-broug ends up in a wrestling match with a full ogre, and after several intense minutes, beats him. the cultists were a small collection of Cynedryd (demoness of illusion and undead)

new figures

So i finally found some GW LOTR figures that were not outrageously priced. Thank you ebay and amazon.

My new figures include:
48 LOTR Dwarf Warriors (4 boxes of 12)
24 LOTR Dwarf Rangers (2 boxes of 12)
1 LOTR Gimli (metal, Ambush at Amon Hen pose)
6 LOTR Knights of Dol Amroth (2 blister packs of 3)
3 LOTR Men at arms of Dol Amroth (1 blister pack of 3)
1 LOTR Boromir (metal Fellowship pose)
3 LOTR Numenorian Archers (1 blister pack of 3)
3 LOTR Numenorian Spearmen (1 blister pack of 3)
3 LOTR Dwarf Khazad Guard (1 blister pack of 3)
6 LOTR Elven Spearmen (2 blister pack of 3)
3 LOTR Army of the Dead (loose plastic Figures)
6 LOTR Knights of Minas Tirith (loose plastic figures)
1 LOTR Kinght of Minas Tirith Banner Bearer (loose plastic figure)
1 LOTR Mounted Knight of Dol amroth (loose plastic figure)
1 LOTR Gandalf the White (Minas Tirith edition)
1 LOTR Aragorn (metal)
1 LOTR Legolas (metal)

currently half of the dwarf warriors are going to join "blue Company" and the other half will join "white Company, aka Durin's Children". The dwarf rangers are going to be their own group with a stony grey mottling on the cloaks. All Dol Amroth figures are painted, as are the knights of Minas Tirith. The three Khazad guard are going to join "white Company, aka Durin's Children". numenorian and elves will be painted my version of standard colors. all heroes will be painted as themselves, with the exception of gandalf as i already have one of him. Painting progress updates will be taken along the way.

Friday, April 20, 2012

RPG Report

So the other day my friends and i were playing our tabletop RPG again and started a quest campaign.

The players included: Timothy, a halfling who is submissively possessed by a demonic spirit for an Etherial plane, timothy is a semi powerful superficial mage. Titus Camarius, a Human from the human Imperial capitol who is a low level commander in the Imperial Legion who has a small number of imperial soldiers at his command. Mixl a mandermen (lizzardmen) guide hired by Timothy who is a tribal chieftan. Ra'Kasir Costas, a Felinid (comparable to Khajiit from The Elder Scrolls games) who is a sellsword assassin/ hitman, also hired originally by Timothy. And Vifur Redhammer a Dwarven warrior/elemental mage, who served in the dwarven military before coming to the Imperial continent.

The backstory for the quest is there have been reports of large organized goblin bands raiding sites of historical and/or religious importance, burning down farms and small villages looking for artifacts of power. The local legionary commander assigned Titus to assemble a group to take care of this growing problem. Later the players found out the goblins were trying to communicate with and be blessed by the chief god from their pantheon.

First Scenario
The players heard in a local tavern about goblin activity near the river. When the party gets to the scene the goblins have erected a "tower" in the river and are trying to hoist something from the riverbed. there is a shaman casting water breathing spells on goblins who are jumping in with ropes tied around their waist and digging on the river bottom. they have what appears to be a mobile wooden pedestal or receptacle on the far bank. as the players continue to watch and approach careful not to disturb the goblin horde, about 60 regular goblins, a large, ancient looking crystal is hoisted from the water and started to be moved in air towards the receptacle. The party attacks. Timothy and Vifur launch a salvo of spell rendering a good portion of the goblins dead or dying. Then Titus ,with his legionaries, and Vifur then charge the horde causing panic and frenzy among the survivors of the initial onslaught. The legion archers under titus's command begin to pick off the goblins crawling all over the rickety tower lifting the crystal. Vifur slays the goblins nearest him and launches a fire spell to consume the tower hopefull causing the crystal to crash onto the ground or back into the river. Sadly that plan fails, and the crystal is unloaded from the sling just prior to the tower crumbling to the river. Promptly upon the crystal being placed upon the receptacle four overgrown goblins (GW LOTR gundabad blackshields) begin carrying it away. Vifur and timothy, unable to cross the swift river, attempt to take out the carriers before they get away. Meanwhile Titus and company, Mixl included, mop up the remaining goblins. Vifur and timothy were unable to take out the goblin carriers. so after forging the river the company begins tracking the goblins.

Second Scenario
After about a day of tracking the party catches up with the goblins, they have aquired a new horde of goblin grunts. and there is what appears to be a ceremony going starting. they see the crystal being placed in a stone receptacle, near an ancient sacrificial altar. the players decide to use magic to disguise themselves as goblins and infiltrate the ceremony stopping it and reclaiming the unknown crystal. As the ceremony continues the goblin shaman chants some words and the entire horde joins in. and a light emanates from the crystal and the altar opens up to reveal a magic staff. The shaman Takes the staff and holds it above his head, screaming some gibberish in goblin, and then the horde goes into a frenzy jumping and screaming. the players move in to take the staff and crystal. Titus approaches the shaman and slices its head off and claims the staff. while Tim and Vifur begin to take out the bodyguards. Mixl is away from the ceremony with the legionaries when they hear the commotion and charge in. four of the eight overgrown goblins overpower tim in close combat and knock him out. leaving him lying unconscious for the rest of the scenario. while two rush Titus and clobber him to the ground and reclaim the staff. the four goblins who beat up tim start carrying off the crystal, The legion archers take out one of the crystal carriers and one of the staff carriers. leaving Vifur to take out his two attackers. While the Soldiers take out the panicked horde. So the scenario essentially failed as the goblins got away with both the power crystal and staff. After this the players head into town really quickly to restock on supplies and see about rounding up some more help. Tim hires Ra'Kasir Costas.

Third Scenario
The players decide to track the goblins that got away with the staff. So after following and tracking the goblins for about a day they reach an ancient fortress with a stone outer wall. Tim uses invisibility aand levitation spells to scout out the inner area. there are about 100 total goblins orcs and uruk-hai. and a large Pit beast. Tim then uses illusion magic to disguise himself, Ra'kasir and Vifur as goblins so they can infiltrate the fortress via a goblin tunnel, Tim noticed while floating through the air. Ra'kasir climbs over the rough stone wall and uses his throwing stars to hit the pit beast in the eye to enrage it and cause it to go on a rampage. Vifur and Tim then come out of the cave exit and Tim levitates Vifur to the top of a short nearby tower that the goblin shaman is in with the crystal from the first two scenarios. Vifur decapitates the goblin shaman and starts using the crystal to blast open the front gates and take out the remnants of the horde the pit beast did not trample/eat and the pit beast. Titus and his men arrive to slay the last remaining goblins. The Players captured a crystal and crude goblin drawn map of the remaining crystal locations and a ceremony site. the players then head over to the closest crystal excavation site.

Fourth Scenario
After a while of searching and trying to understand the goblin map the players arrive as a power crystal is being pulled from a deep looking pit. They also see a small cave nearby with a second power crystal outside it. there is a good sized clearing with large boulders in it between them and the excavation site. There is a large cave near that with a large group of uruk-hai. there appear to be orc and goblin camps on or near some of the boulder clusters including two large goblin camps on two hills. Tim stacks several fortify speed spells on vifur and sends him sprinting across the meadow to seal the uruk cave with a stone wall before any more come out. then everyone else charges across the flats taking out the goblins and orcs on their way to the site. the gundabad goblins start carrying the Crystal #1 off into the forest, while the second crystal is placed on a receptacle. Vifur speeds around the clearing engulfing the camps in flames. The remaining goblins try to start carrying off the crystal when vifur catches them and kills them. tim has started trying to fight a goblin shaman magic to magic. The shaman see's both the secone power crystal for the area and the power crystal the players have and teleports to one grabs ahold of it and teleports to the other, then attemps to teleport away from the scenario. and makes it to the map edge, Vifur Catches him just as the speed enhancement spels wore off and cuts him down. while vifur is off over there the uruk-hai come out of a second cave exit into the back of Titus's formation and archers. after a few rounds the uruks are dead and titus has lost one soldier and two archers, and everyone is badly battered. scenario result, the players captured a second power crystal but the goblins made it away with a third.

Fifth Scenario (finale)
As this scenario has not been done yet and we are in the process of preparing for it it will be a seperate post

Monday, March 26, 2012

Miniatures Characters

So i have acquired and customized a few character for the RPG we do thought i would share some pics of them

these first bunch are some i recently bought off ebay and painted.

This next one is of my three goblin characters, Wishbone Frimble and Snarky. Wishbone (center) is an intelligent Shaman who is extremely lucky (97 on a scale of 1 to 100, the higher the luckier). Frimble the leader of the trio (left). And Snarky is incredibly dumb even by goblin standards (right).