Catch Up 2 - Middle Earth Wargaming (MESBG and SOBAH)

 If I'd restarted this blog a month earlier, Middle Earth wouldn't have even featured. Mourning the loss of Forest Dragon STL files on Patreon, I spent an evening looking at where else I might  spend my money and was drawn to Davale Games who do a wonderful range of proxies for GW's Middle Earth range.

I haven't played MESBG in a long while. I'm not sure if I've totally skipped one or two editions of the rules but my last game was definitely pre-Hobbit and possibly even pre-blog!

Regardless, I had to (re)start somewhere so I've bought the latest edition of the rules and found an excellent online army builder. Despite the fact that I have fully painted Dwarf, Moria, Rivendell, Minas Tirith and Mordor armies I have decided to hit the ground running with matched forces for Arnor. I have the very old supplement from eons ago and I'm currently putting together the forces to be able to play all of the narrative scenarios within.

I'm also looking to downscale and play small games using Song of Blades and Heroes, and possibly upscale as well, to play games with Midgard and/or Dragon Rampant.

Needless to say, I've gone in to this with all guns blazing but I'm only sharing figures I've painted. The grey resin mountain in my wargames room is my business, not yours!

First up, Buhrdur and his buddies. The scenarios I want to play needs three Hill Trolls and their leader Buhrdur (Arathorn slayer!). GW produce lovely models covering everything I need but at £72 for three figures it was never going to happen! Enter stage left Davale Games and their wonderful proxies...

This is my Buhrdur proxy...

And these are his two Hill Troll buddies that the scenarios demand...

I'm pretty stoked at how they turned out. 😁😁😁😁

About 20 years ago, no exaggeration, I bought a bunch of  GW Dunedain / Rangers of the North (RotN) at a wargames show, getting there about 5 minutes before my mate Sean who would have snapped them up. No problem if I slap some paint on them and get them on the table so we can both use them, right? Yeah, that never happened, but 20 years later I've got the first six done (and the rest undercoated).

The latest edition has combined RotN and Dunedain into one profile. Fair enough, as the only difference was armour (+1 Df to the RotN). To differentiate between them I have chosen to depict the RothN with grey cloaks with chain mail and the lower Df Dunedain in green.

I present, 20 years after purchase, the first six Dunedain...

Well, it's a start... Time for a little scrap using SOBAH!