So, since my last post was detailing the rules, I thought I would start assembling my Moria Army and give you some thoughts.

Well as I said, this army will be based off of the Moria army list and since I only have 175 points to spend, I thought why not go with the Durburz, the Goblin King of Moria.

(Sorry for the blurry picture, but my cameras batteries died after taking these pictures!)

At 60 points, that took my points down to 115 points to spend. So what better way than to take some elite Goblins, so I opted for 8 Goblin Prowler at 7 points a piece. Prowlers fit the fluff since Goblin kings take these guys since they are loyal and the fact that they have two-handed weapons was a plus. Add the Backstabber rule which gives them a +1 to wound added on top of the +1 for having two handed weapons, and you have some scary goblins that can dish out damage. So eight of these guys come in at 56 points, leaving me with 59 points to spend.


So I spent 30 points to pick up 6 Goblins with shields for 30 points. Now these goblins have left over shields from other kits, I figured that I wanted some variety in my goblin force and these guys sure add that.
So that left me with 29 points out of the 175, so I went with 5 Goblins with spear leaving me with 4 points left over. I decided that I wanted to go with spear over bows since at this lower level game, there would not be too many bows (although with Jerry Playing Elves that could be a problem!).

So there you go, 171 points spent, that leaves me with an extra 4 points to add to next months points. (Yes guys, if you don't spend all your points you can bank them until next month!) So now with the army picked, now to get painting!

TK

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers

So, well over 13 years ago, Games Workshop had an article in White Dwarf called "A Tale of Four Gamers" that focused on four Staff members while they built 4 separate Warhammer Fantasy armies. The article was a huge success and it even caused White Dwarf to re-run the article but with four staffers that would build four Warhammer 40K armies, which once again was a huge success.

Well that got me thinking, hey why not do one for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Well that's what I am going to do, so in the next few months you will see a few articles that are going to follow me building a LotR army. Now in order for this to work, I needed three other folks to join me on this little crazy quest. So who did I con..I mean convince, well here are the other three suckers that will be joining me.

DrunkenSamurai (aka Robert) from Drunken Samurai Painting Blog. It is no surprise that Robert would be one of the folks I invited, he has been itching to start on a Dwarf force, but I will let him talk about that.

Next up is Jerry of Jerry's Big Picture. Jerry is a great guy and had been hounding me for about a year to buy my Elf army from me, so about a month ago I broke down sold it to him. So that should be his army.

We also have Mike from Da Green Skins. Mike has been a recent addition to our little game group and has jumped in to the LotR gaming all the way. His army was outstanding at GitD this year and he is planning on building a Uruk-hai army.

Now as for me, well I have decided to build a Moria Goblin army. I figure I have about 100+ goblins waiting to get painted and it is about time that they see some paint.

So with that here are the rules that are self imposed.

This little quest will last for the next 4 months and we will start out with 175 points and each month we will increase it by 175 points to a grand total of 700 points.

Each person will be responsible for getting an update out of there progress by the first of the next month. So the May month will be posted June 1st and so on with the final update being on September 1st. Each person can do more updates but they must have one showing what they got done for that month.

We will also be using the point system that was in the 2008 White Dwarf article of the following:

Models painted on time +5pts
Models painted late +3pts
Models Not painted +0pts.

So, you may be asking what is the winner going to get? What are the stakes? Well the losers will have to take the winner out to dinner at his favorite eatery and they will have to pick up the tab for him.

So stay tuned to this and the other blogs as we do brief introductions and what we are planning on doing...

TK

Adepticon 2011 or bust...Well bust for me!

No this is not a rant or prediction of Adepticon 2011, it is a post about how I will not be able to attend this awesome event this year. For those regular viewers here at Cursed Treasures, you know that I have attended Adepticon for the past 3 years and have posted coverage about my travels to the Windy City.

But alas, this year I will have to sit on the sidelines and watch get my Adepticon fix like many people from other folks. You see, it has been a rather tough 2 years for me (out of work for almost that entire time) and the "play budget" for traveling has been used for more important things that real life throws at you (like keeping my house and paying my bills!). So I had too make a rather easy decision and tell my good friend Hank, that I would not be able to attend this year.

Well as luck would have it, I found a new job (yeah!!!) but do not have the time saved up for any sort of vacation trip to the Windy City. As a side note, my good friend Hank, kept sending me e-mails about cheap airfares that he found on some airlines even days before this event. But it still comes back to being responsible and doing the grown up thing and pay my bills. You see there are a few reasons why I am depressed that I do not get to go this year.

First up, as some know, I was the guy that helped get the Warhammer Ancient Battles tournament (Singles and Doubles) event off the ground in Chicago. The guys playing WAB are some of the nicest guys and the event is growing. When I had to bow out, I turned over the event to Rich Nelson of the Chicago Terrain Factory blog. Last year Rich and I (well Rich really) launched a successful WAB Campaign at the event for the singles event. Well Last year after years of belly aching, I got them to do a Dark Age Campaign (my favorite era) for this year. So the year I can't make it, there will be more than a few players playing Dark Age Armies!

Secondly, my other good friend John over at Plastic Legions is running a Legends of the High Seas Campaign event at Adepticon this year!

(Picture from Plastic Legions Blog)

John ran a successful Legends of the High Seas Campaign a few years ago for his local gaming buddies. Last year while John and I had down time in between events, I talked him into co-running a LotHS event for this year. But once again the bad economy laid to waste my plans to attend. I had hoped to support John by painting up my Old Glory ship and shipping it out to him to use for the Boarding action scenario. But once again best made plans sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Time and an issue with my Old Glory ship kept me from sending the model to him to use. So another cool event that I will not get to participate in.

Thirdly, I will be missing the awesome Lord of the Rings event run By Jamie from the Blog of Five Armies Jamie is one of the reasons why Gathering in the Desert happened 4 years ago. It was because of his love for Lord of the Rings game that inspired me to run my event. So once again I am going to miss one of the coolest LotR events in the country!

And lastly and probably the biggest one really, is I will miss out on hanging out with all the friends that I have made over the years while attending Adepticon. The main reason why I play games is for the social aspect of it. And Adepticon is the peek of social gaming, yes there are hard core gamers there doing the tourney thing, but a lot of guys go year after year because of the same reason I go, to hang out with friends once a year. So I will not get to hang out with some great friends.

So there you go, as I stated above, I will be like everyone else that can't make Adepticon this year and following all the coverage from other folks that got to go to one of the coolest game events on the planet!

TK

Hello...Anyone Home?

Well,

What have I been up to since Gathering in the Desert you might be asking (or maybe not)? Well I have been pretty busy. Saguaro Painting Services is keeping me very busy, which is a good thing. Only down side is that I do not have time for my own models!

Also, for those who have not heard, I got an invite to the Throne of Skulls Games Workshop Event in June. It seems that they kept a few places open for Tournament Organizers as a way to say thanks for all the hard work we do. Well the wife and I will be going, I will be playing with toy soldiers, while she will be playing the slots!

As for the army I am taking, well it was a toss up and I actually lost sleep over it. I finally decided that I would take a 62 figure Mirkwood Wood Elf list. The only issue is I have to paint them and God knows when I will have time!

Also been busy tinkering around with 40K and had a few friends over last Friday for some Combat Patrol action. It looks like I will be planning a Combat Patrol event in September with a buddy of mine.

Also this weekend I am suppose to make a trip out to another friends place for some LotOW. I will have a small write up after this weekend.

The only problem with being so busy, is that I don't have time to write it up here. And to bust out the camera is a chore! I will need to step it up from here out, so stay tuned...

TK

State of Lord of the Rings Game in Phoenix

So,

If you have not guessed yet I have been a bit busy this month, hence the lack of posts.

So lets see, if you have not heard, Gathering in the Desert 2011 happened last weekend. We had 22 players signed up this year with only 2 not being able to make it and it was a blast. Gathering in the Desert is a Lord of the Rings Independent Grand Tournament that is on the Games Workshop Circuit.

As readers of this blog know, I am a big fan and champion of this game and have been running this GT for the last 4 years. Wow, 4 years now and I am pleased to announce that Gathering in the Desert will be back next year in 2012.

And that fact got me thinking about the local tournament scene here in Phoenix AZ. A friend pointed out that this is in his recollection, the longest running tournament and to boot it is the Lord of the Rings game! Now granted, I am not sure if this is the longest running tournament here in the valley, but ever since I have been here in the valley, it is. I could be wrong and if you know of another event here in Phoenix let me know. I know for sure that this is the longest running LotR tournament here in the valley (in fact the only one!).

So I was wondering why is that? Maybe it is because LotR is such a small part of the GW family. I know that most folks either play Warhammer Fantasy Battle or Warhammer 40K but it has been hard to find LotR players here in the valley. This year at GitD, we had a equal split of players being local and from out of state. It seems that Phoenix is not much different from other parts of the country in the fact that there is not a lot of LotR players. That is why most folks travel all over the country to play LotR. I am hopefully that the Hobbit movies will breath a new breath of life into the LotR game, in fact Games Workshop signed a 6 year deal to produce miniatures for the game, which is a great sign for the game.

So with that being said, it is time for the LotRSBG community to start to stepping it up. If we want more players to play this awesome game, we need to get out there and start playing the game. I will admit that I have been bad at this. In fact I have not really done a very good job of promoting LotR SBG in Phoenix. My good buddy Drunkensamurai and I were talking about this just today. We need to do a better job at this and if I want to see LotR grow (as well as GitD) I need to do more. Hell I even did a post on this, but I have not really done anything except run a practice event as well as GitD.

Now I heard that there was a LotR league being run out of Empire Games, but sadly the person running it has lost interest in LotR. From what I have heard, there was something like 14 players in the league and most lived in the east side of the valley. So it seems that there are more LotR players here in the valley, it just means that someone needs to rally them all together.

So I guess that means I need to get off of my butt and start doing more things for LotR here in the valley. I have tried (and failed miserably) at running a map based campaign (don't remind me Howard!). I have also talked about doing something with the Battle Companies stuff that GW put out for LotR, but once again it was nothing but talk.

So where does this leave me? Well it means I need to step up and do more for the game I love. So my plan is to try to get something going like my buddy Keith is doing up in Colorado. He is running a quarterly series of mini one day events that will track the best player and eventually will crown one person as the Champion of the series. So I am planning to get this going within the next few weeks, with GitD being the one for the first quarter with three others happening throughout the year.

So there you have it, stay tuned for more info on the Phoenix LotR Championship...

TK

Moria Table Done!

So,

Khazad - Dum, 'the Dwarrowdelf or Mines of Moria, this is the second new board for Gathering in the Desert 2011. Here is an overall shot of the new board.


It may seem that the board is pretty open and lite on terrain, but it is rather a tough board to play on. First up is the main road that runs down the middle of the board. It has no few than 12 pillars running down each side of the road, giving you 24 total pillars. Were this may seem like a no big deal, if you try to get line of sight for shooting it starts to become a mess. Also would like to thank Mike from Da Green Skins blog for helping me lay all the tiles on the road and gluing down the pillars.


I also include this hallway that has dwarven doors on both ends of it, which once again creates either a great place to hide or chock points to defend. Nice things is that I it is removable and I can use it for other projects.


On the other side of the board is Balins Tomb, which I followed the plans loosely from the Fellowship of the Rings Journey book. The pillars have enough room for a single 25mm based figure to hid behind (from a troll perhaps?) as well as having a ledge that runs around the inside of the tomb. The only thing that is different came from Drunkensamurai, that there is no back door to get out. In the journey book there is a collapsed exit that you can leave from. But in the movie I swore that the Fellowship leaves from the main door! Anyway, this will make an interesting feature on the board with only one way in. Do you hold up and defend or pass it by, hmm the decisions.


Also on the board are a few rock castings from a Woodland Scenic mold set that I have. Once again Mike from Da Green Skins stepped up to help me cast these bad boys. The are made with dental plaster castings and blue foam for the backing. Than they are mounted on Masonite and painted, so that means they have a pretty good weight to them.


I also made them to go in he corners and the edge of the table. This was done to give the feeling of being in an underground environment like in the movie.


So there you have it, another board for GitD 2011, if you are in town, stop by to see these in person...

TK

Isengard Finished

Well,

It has been a few days since the last post, been busy working on two new tables for Gathering in the Desert. You may remember the an older post that showed the basic construction of the new boards.

Well as of today one board is just about ready to go, here is a overall shot of the board. This board was inspired by a board that one of the local guys did up in Colorado. I had a chance to play on it and it was a blast, so I molded it after that one.

I did two towers or scaffolding's but i wanted one to extend out into one of the pits. It is a separate piece and gives more playability to the board.

Besides the pits and the scaffolding's I also did a few pieces to block line of sight. So there is a few lumber piles, a Loose dirt pile, as well as a pile of boulders. I am also finishing up three rock piles to throw onto the board.



Here is a shot to show you just how much the lumber piles block line of sight. This is a standard two handed orc hiding behind the lumber pile.

Also with the pits there is a inner ledge that models can stand on to get more cover, here you see a two handed orc standing on the lower edge. An just an FYI, one of the pits has a ledge big enough for at least a 40mm base, so that means mounted models will fit.

The only thing missing are the smoke plumes that DrunkenSamurai built, so those will add to the line of sight blockage. So there you go, a new board for Gathering in the Desert 2011...

TK

Small is Big This year

So,

It's about the ninth of January now and I have been thinking about what 2011 will hold for me in the new year for gaming. Well after some thought I think I may have narrowed down what I will be working on. As some may know, I am still searching for regular work, so finances are tight and there is no room for any expenses on the gaming front.

So with that I have decided that this year will be the Year of the Skirmish game. You see my interest in gaming has always been in skirmishing style games (Necromunda, Mordheim, LotR SBG, LotOW, LotHS). The nice thing about skirmish games is that you do not need a ton of figures to play and I happen to have more than enough figures for this sort of gaming.

So here are the games I am thinking about focusing on this year.

Lord of the Rings SBG
Well this one is a no brainer, with Gathering in the Desert just around the corner, the next month will be focused on finishing up terrain and models. I have decided that I will be giving away an 600 point Easterling army to on of my friends son. He has taken an interest in gaming and he played in the practice LotR event and had a great time. So that means that I need to finish up painting the army, it is currently around 500 points and I have about 500 more points to paint up.

Legends of the Old West
As with DrunkenSamurai, I played a few games of LotOW at a friends house. It was a good time and really made me miss this game. So I think it is about time to bust out all the Old West terrain I have sitting in the closet and get to making a proper town. Also DrunkenSamurai has peeked my interest with the idea of doing the Wild Bunch idea based on the movie. So I think I will be joining DrunkenSamurai on this venture.

Warhammer 40Kmunda
Well, I have had this idea floating around my head for awhile now about playing smaller games of 40K. Last year I found a few guys doing ]I[munda stuff on the web and DrunkenSamurai and I found it very interesting. Well this year I would like to get back to playing smaller games of 40K and blending it with the Necromunda campaign stuff. I am talking about doing Kill teams, Kill Zone and 40K in 40 minutes (or Combat Patrol) stuff with 40K. Another friend is trying to talk me into running a 40K Combat/Kill Mission tourney and this may happen with a select set of people. I also started acquiring 40K Orks and would love to try out some old Gorka Morka stuff for this game.

Legends of the High Seas
Well, I have not had much interest in my own game of late, but after seeing the trailer to the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, the pirate spark is back in me. Also with me working on my Wicked Wench ship model I see myself getting back into my own game. I think I will invite a few select folks over for a Campaign day at the end of February, so stay tuned for more on that.

Gothic Horror/ Pulp
For awhile now I have had an interest in doing something with the Horror/Pulp setting. I have even started collecting up stuff for a Pulp game in the desert with mummies. I hopefully will get something to the table this year. The owner of my local game store is also interested in this and has purchased a bunch of terrain that I may be painting up for him, this will feed the Pulp idea further, so we shall see. I also have another friend that purchased some stuff for Chaos in Carpathia and that may hit the table as well.

Other Gaming
I will also keep working on my 28mm WWII stuff as well as my Flames of War project and I am sure other games will creep in from time to time.

So there you go, Small is Big this year, it will be interesting to see how the year pans out so stay tuned...

TK

Rocks and Passageways

Okay,

To go along with the Osgiliath revamp I did a few rock piles for the table at GitD. Nothing special just a few rocks on some bases painted to match the rest of the terrain. So here are a few shots of them.









Here is a group shots of the piles, each piece is about 4" to 6" long and they will provide line of sight blockers for the table.


Also to go along with the Osgiliath table I decided to build a quick fountain for the the center of the table. It is made out of PVC plastic sheeting, 4 3/4" wood blocks and 5 statues from the GW kit. I also used Liqutex to add texture to the fountain. The inside of the fountain has a simple cobblestone sheeting and I poured some Gloss varnish into the fountain (it is still wet in the pictures).





Also for a couple of friends across the pound I have a few shots from some old passageway boards for the old GW Warhammer Quest game. First up is a picture of the original stairway tile that came with the game.


Here is the replacement tile that I made out of cork and matte board. The cork is great to work with since it has a natural rock look and it is easy to add cracks to it.


Here is another Objective room tile (the Tomb room).


And here is my replacement, once again it is cork and matte board. The coffin is made out of foam core and matte board. I was going to add a dead knight to the top but never got around to it.


Here is another shot with two sections together. Warhammer Quest is a great game and I only bust it out when either my son is home (he grew up watching us play until he learned how) or when my brother visits.

So there you go...

TK

Osgiliath Revamped

So,

The New Year and the first post for 2011 and it is a terrain post. As loyal readers are aware, I run Gathering in the Desert, a Lord of the Rings Independent Grand Tournament. We are going on our 4th year and in a manner to bring some awesome terrain to the event I started to revamp some of the terrain. The past two years Tom O supplied the terrain for the Osgiliath table which was greeted with some interesting comments (From we love it to I hate that table!). Tom is looking at selling off his terrain so it was up to me to re-do the table.

Well I started with 8 of the Osgiliath terrain kits from Gamesworkshop. here are a few of the completed terrain pieces for the table.












DrunkenSamurai is working on at least two other sections for this table, so the table looks a little bare in the below picture.

I also have a fountain and a few rubble piles to finish up but all in all the table looks good. Now I just have to finish a few other tables before GitD 2011. So stay tuned...

TK