LoTR - New Purchases

The LoTR painting campaign continues with another 38. This includes some of the first new models I've bought for a while. $150AUD for 14 models - yikes - there's a reason I merely rely on my 10-year-old eBay purchases. Prices are crazy, and while I like the LoTR sculpting style they are far from cutting edge - and haven't changed from the early 2000s from what I can see.

My 2023 LoTR painted total now stands at 162. All the 10-year-old eBay stuff is done, save a dozen or so excess orcs and Rohirrim, and a set of 6 Dol Amroth Knights. I think I did 336 in 2022. I only play skirmish games with low model counts so 500+ models in two years, for just one game genre, is a pretty big deal to me - output probably even exceeding my childless years of yore.

Arwen was outrageously expensive - $35AUD for 2 models - but my daughter is pleased at more female LoTR representatives.

I'm not a big fan of basing but emboldened by my success with the Balrog, I essayed a simple 'creek' base on Arwen and the Galadhrim Knights.

The Haradrim were another purchase. I kinda wanted an Mumak, but the raiders were a more sensible option both financially and gameplay-wise.

 

Finally I 'bulked out' my painting with a quick two dozen orcs; with green and red themes.

 

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The pink $3 dollhouse ruined palace of Arnor is yet to be properly completed, but even with a quick spray+drybrush it forms a useful addition to our 'secondhand store castles.'  We are getting quite a tableful of these, and since my son isn't using the ones I donated to his sandpit I'll probably reclaim them as well and give them a quick coat...

In other news....

I'm also prepping 1:100/15mm tanks (PSC and Zvezda), for which I'll probably continue to develop my own homebrew "Tank Mordhiem." The Zvezda ones snap together (which my son does for me before I glue them for strength).

Burrows and Badgers is due to be playtested and reviewed (my daughter is keen to get some cute mousemaid warriors) and initial read through seems like a sensible set of rules, though I am less keen since I discovered it has hitpoints. 

I and my son have assembled some vikings for Ragnarok but the more I think about it, the less I actually want to play the rules (the setting and campaign is cool, the rules are merely average to meh). 

My 7 year old loves minis and is by no means a rough kid, but he is hard on them as he swooshes them around like the toys they are supposed to be. I reckon I'll get him some 15mm historicals as metal 15mm seem the most resilient models I have and allow the possibility to mix with Hot Wheels etc as he is not hung up on scale. Suggestions as to the best brands welcomed.

I also really need to paint and assemble my Imperialis Aeronautica and Dropfleet Commander minis and they sit near my workbench along with French Indian Wars regulars and undead pirates... ....but I just found some Mantic space dwarves so my kids want to make a wargame of the PC game Deep Rock Galactic. And they found my Quar pretty quirky and fun. Oh well - it's a hobby not a job - I guess I can do whatever...

The 60-Minute Balrog (and other LoTR minis)

As a model I've procrastinated over for a while, I was amazed how easy this model was to paint. 

 The Balrog hides in the toy castle my daughter and I repainted a few weeks ago...

Black undercoat->Grey drybrush->Brown drybrush (wings)->red flames->orange flames->yellow flames->orange then red flames towards tips->re-do black then gray drybrush to get the shoulder plates/scales the flames are coming through.

Simultaneously did black-grey base, then red-orange-yellow lava river in between. He has no whip, but I'll make him one from wire sometime. Considering he was $10 on EBay, I'm OK with its absence.

Encouraged by this, I started my other procrastination model - Treebeard. The videos on Youtube show methods/paints/undercoats I don't have, so I went with a light brown-wash-Kharak stone overall, and used various green/brown washes to get the moss look on legs/beard. Then I did Merry and Pippin to look like my other on-foot models, and picked out any lichen and leaves. It took more than double the time of the Balrog, and I like it less...

Not keen on paying $22 for 3, I converted some spare/broken Gondor troops to Osgiliath veterans. I used the purse off a zombie nurse for a satchel for one...

I then found some metal Uruk crossbowmen. Given they are not cheap on EBay ($10ea), I bless Perry's Men at Arms kit, who donated arms/bows. 

Given Rohan Outriders are merely standard warriors in trenchcoats, I just matched Rohan troops to riders from my leftover box; and gave them bronze armour and extra swords and gear, so I can tell them apart on the battlefield from regulars. Again, I saved $60AUD by converting the spares. These conversions have saved me about $122 from buying them new...

I then speedpainted some Rangers (12), Men of the Last Alliance (6) and stock Orcs (16) to get some 'runs on the board'

That's 51 painted in the last few weeks. Added to the 73 already this year, 2023's "LoTR painted" count is 124! I've decided to reward myself by buying some new models as I've painted everything save some of my (excessive) horde of orcs, and some Knights of Dol Amroth (I wish I could afford the foot version). Oh, and we bought a new fairy castle for $3.

We hunt for toy buildings that fit when we are in secondhand shops. My daughter is nominated to carry them in the shop (she complains it is embarrassing) as the old ladies at the counter say "Oh, a nice dolls house for you"... ...as I don't want to explain to them it will be converted to serve as a summer palace in Arnor, that is attacked and sacked by orcs....  However I just bought an Arwen model (one of her favourite characters in LoTR) so that has muted her complaints.

MESBG with Kids

It's weird that for all my dislike of GW and general espousal of indie games, its LoTR product is my most-played, most-collected and most-painted game.

I do like LoTR in general; currently my 7-year-old has asked to be read LoTR like his sister (having enjoyed The Hobbit) and the rules are pretty kid-friendly. In addition, I have the OOP Wild West, Pirate, Gladiator and Viking spin-off rules which means once they get the basics down pat, we can enjoy a fair bit of variety.

While my son and daughter painted vikings today, I found more LotR minis hidden away; 24 Elves of the Last Alliance (we watched the opening scene together today)...

...plus 6 Men of the Last Alliance, as well as a few loose Uruks. 

This brings the LoTR painted total to 73 for 2023. I'm even considering new purchases: Victrix Vikings I reckon would make good Dunlendings, the one faction (along with Khand) I do not own from the original movies. My son is pushing for an Oliphaunt but at $150AUD I think he's optimistic...

Today my kids played a scenario; a bunch of Uruk scouts had raided a village. The kids each controlled a force of a dozen Wood Elves; their mission was to chase off an equivalent force of Uruks to rescue any villagers hiding in their huts.

Entering from opposite sides of the board, my daughter was unlucky in exchanging bow fire losing several elves for a single orc, retreating into a forest. My son pushed forward impetuously using the superior Fight score to quickly slice up the orcs in the huts on his side of the board. I also had to police my kids rather liberal movement distances (they viewed the movement tape measure more a 'guideline' that should be ignored if it stopped them from doing cool stuff...)

Eventually the orcs broke and my kids gleefully chased them off the board. My son discovered an elf he forgot behind a tree and we/they decided the elf had peed his pants and had hidden in embarrassment.

I've always thought the LoTR rules were the way forward for GW, as they do a lot of things right, while being fairly old-school and familiar. 

*The turn being broken into A Move, B Move, A Shoot, B Shoot makes the action more fluid than IGOUGO.

*It allows formations to kinda happen organically while each model is free to move individually

*The who-fights-who/pushback minigame make melee actually kinda interesting

*Might-Will-Fate allows you to change the activation order as well as giving a layer of resource management, allowing heroes to be actual leaders

*Relatively simple stats and easy to remember rules and mechanics (though MESBG does add in a bit more stuff than the original, usually cinematic but also unnecessary)

*Works well with scenarios, and can be used with points system as well

A switch to d10, and changing the priority roll-off each turn to a more nuanced way to determine initiative would probably be my first changes, along with abolishing the wound table for some method where you don't need to look it up (I kinda remember the rolls required anyway, but when showing the game to the kids I realized how old-school looking up tables are...).

I can certainly recommend LoTR as an intro wargame; my kids quickly grasped the rules (I avoided using heroes/monsters to keep things simple) and my daughter now wants to play Legends of the Old West (as she sees I own a all-cowgirl warband...)

Ragnarok: Heavy Metal Combat in the Viking Age (Rules Review)

A campaign skirmish game. With vikings. Using epic god powers and pulling off awesome moves. Viking Mordhiem?  Sounds epic. I've actually struggled to find reviews or much online on this (a bit from a few years back, then it seems to vanish off the radar, despite sequels), so I thought I'd share my thoughts.

The Shiny

The book is a very nice, glossy hardcover. 205 pages, of which about 20 pages are the actual rules. It has a decent mix of artwork and mini photos and the text is easy to read. There is a nice index and I found it pretty easy to navigate. The lore was interesting but not intrusive. I feel it was good production value/cost. Thumbs up.

Overhead "What you need to have/know"

One criticism is the use of "stats" named HP, SP, MA, RA, DF, RS, DR, MN - mentioned through the book. There is an explanation on p.24, but I often had to flip back as it wasn't instantly intuitive what stat "RS" referred to, for example, or why "DR" or "MN" should be effected by x. "DF" is ability to avoid hits, not toughness to resist once hit - that's "DR." I'd prefer they were labelled Health, Speed, Melee, etc throughout the rules - it's only using a few more letters in a 205 page rulebook, and would make things much easier to use.  

It uses the somewhat pretentiously-named "Morpheus System" - basically rolling a 7+ on a 2d6, but modifying it based on stats of both sides i.e. a Attack 5 vs a Defence 7 would modify the usual 7+ success roll to be a 9+ as the negative -2 between the respective stats raises the target number to make success harder. I've used 'stat difference changes target roll' for years (only with 5+ on a d10 or 4+ on d6) but never thought to call it the "Monkeigh Engine." That aside, using the same resolution consistently through a ruleset is a good thing. You only need 2d6, and a d8 for random scatter stuff.

The game is miniatures agnostic, so my Gripping Beast and PSC vikings will be supplemented by some Frostgrave barbarian boxes, I predict, along with LoTR trolls, dwarves and goblins filling in various norse mythology roles. There is actually dozens of unit and creature profiles so finding random models to match may be fun or stressful depending on how you view it.

Activation & Initiative, Movement

The now industry-standard alternate activation, taking turns moving individual models, with the side with superior numbers continuing to move once the smaller side runs out of minis to move (I'm not a huge fan of this as it can make big horde armies tactically superior). Fine, I guess, but a bit dull. Minis get "action points" which gives me a real 1990s-early 2000s vibe. Actions are very detailed. There are detailed rules for falling, climbing etc as you'd expect.

For example: Going prone may -3 SP, -1MA, -1 size, -1RA vs them to hit, and +1MA vs them to hit  

^^ It gives a bit of an old-school RPG feel and feels a bit obtuse and overly detailed. Kinda fiddly - a lot of little things to keep track of that may not be that vital.

There is a fair bit on terrain - from thin ice to thorn forests - the intent is to allow you to throw enemies off cliffs or into spikes and stuff like that.  

Combat

Melee and ranged works similarly, which is good. You compare relevant stats (MA/RA vs DF) and modify the target score from 7+. The level of success may inflict extra hits or have extra effects. Then, compare attack ST vs target RS. Despite the "HP" stat this is only 2-3 "HP" for most models so is no different from "wounds" in other games - you could track it with red paint blood spatters on some clear tokens on the tabletop. Models have 360d LoS; restricting this to 180d would allow more tactical possibilities for flanking/surprise etc. 

Melee has some variety (good) - before you just shove minis together and chug dice you have some choices, such as "clash" - counter-attacking possibly getting in a first blow but opening yourself up to be more easily hit. There is also a "MR" - a 2" kinda zone of control which adds some depth. Ranged attack has blast, line(beam) and spray attacks (covering magic and beasts).

Mechanics can be a bit over-detailed and fiddly but are consistent.  I didn't notice much in the way of morale rules but perhaps heroic vikings kinda ignore that.

Campaigns Godspark (Magic) & Special Rules (aka the majority 150+ pages of the book)

From page 47 on, the remaining 150+ pages is devoted to campaign rules, scenarios, weapon and gear lists, special traits/attacks/abilities and god powers (magic) and a bestiary. It really has strong RPG overtones. 

There are rules for creating your own war clan with jarl, bondi, huskarls, skalds, beserkers, speider and gothi. As they are all human vikings they are all kinda samey. They can be equipped with the usual viking-y axes, spears, shields, leather, chainmail etc but the real difference is Godspark - as different warbands get access to different powers (either by choice or random roll).

Godspark is the "god powers" or magic system, and is generated when any roll exceeds the target number i.e. if you need a 7+ and roll a 10, you get 3 Godspark. it seems cool but I'm wondering if (a) this will incentivize a big "pile in" fight in the middle to maximise generation of Godspark and (b) it makes lucky dice rolling even stronger and making it harder to recover from early game bad rolls i.e. you are punished twice - your opponent got a good roll to hurt you and melee AND now has extra magic to beat you with further...

That said it does add an element of resource management - another 'layer' to the game, which is good. However tracking/adding Godspark pretty much every roll could become a bit tiresome.

There are about 40 God Powers which sounds quite a lot as they all trigger further special rules/effects/traits, however each warband has access to only 3 which makes it more manageable in practice.

These God Powers link to specific norse gods - so Balder's powers allow you to heal wounds, while Thor's powers allow channelling electrical shock attacks. Having a read through I'm not confident they are well balanced; some seem much stronger than others. So I'd suggest they are randomly assigned as there'd be a temptation to min-max.

There is a very thorough campaign section where you can level up warriors, gain glory, check injuries, roll for loot, purchase new gear, weapons and God powers etc. Many modern skirmish rules skimp on this section with barebones campaigns but Ragnarok is the real deal. There is equipment, magic items to buy, a detailed injury table, legendary weapons and detailed rules on levelling up warriors and God Powers. (Basically, the God Powers get cheaper to cast, until the cost reaches 0 and it is imprinted on a particular warrior - i.e. is free but cannot be used by everyone else in the warband any more)

You can recruit new warriors, but interestingly, only recruit special heroes and beasts if you have defeated them in battle (i.e. as random encounter). There is only 6 scenarios (I say "only" but that is probably because the rest of this section is so thorough) but there are 12 secondary objectives that modify them for more variety. There are also random "encounter models" which randomly deploy from a pool of models they players determine before the game - once defeated, you can recruit them. There is also a mechanic for helping warbands 'catch up' if they are behind.

There is a large bestiary (80~) of monsters and races, from dwarves, and swartelves, to dragons, hags, draugr, demons, direwolves - basically a roll-call of norse mythological critters.

Finally there are 70+ special abilities or traits, from attacks like toxin, drain, blind - to 'absent minded' healer, delusional, regeneration.  This whole huge section gives real RPG vibes and I found myself mentally comparing it to "Savage Worlds" - my usual go-to "RPG-cum-skirmish-game." Based on the contents of this rulebook, I'm confident the author is an avid RPG-er.

TL:DR

A very nice rulebook which was easy to access, but obscure stats (MN, DR, RA) and key words were not always obvious so I had to spend time backtracking/checking. Rules were somewhat fiddly and had an old-school 1990s feel (which may appeal to some). Not as accessible as I'd hoped. 

Very detailed Mordheim-esque campaign with injuries, gear and tables; and big bestiary and magic list. The last 150 pages could have come from a RPG book like Savage Worlds. Plenty of chrome, "Godspark" adds an interesting (if potentially unbalanced) layer and the book has a cool theme and world-building. 

Ragnarok has happened - but not the way we thought. Vikings fighting for "essence" of dead gods in the ruins of the world? It's got a good theme for sure.

Recommended? Yes. Not a resounding yes, but yes.

I could probably replicate everything in it using Savage Worlds at about the same speed, for half the price...  ....but it does what it says on the tin, and has (for once) a proper skirmish campaign and trimmings. It's decent value for a quality book. It's not amazing or revolutionary, but I have no regrets of my purchase - and while I suspect I won't play it much, I'll certainly be making some viking warbands. It's worth a spot on your gaming shelf.

Procrastination via Painting

 Well my Battletech box arrived. I'm going to probably whack a sacred cow by stating

(a) the new sculpts are much better than the 'iconic' and 'characterful' (aka crap) older metals

(b) the rules haven't changed from what I can see, which means they are a very clunky 1980s RPG masquerading as a miniatures game.

I could probably devote a whole post on ways to 'modernize' and 'declunkify' Battletech including heresies such as getting rid of the complex hit locations/multi-stage crits, hundreds of hitpoints, and 'bell curve' 2d6 - focussing on the effects and streamlining procedures. Alpha Strike for me missed the mark the other way; it's too simple and lost too much of the nuance of Battletech.

So I have these nice mechs but no rules to play them with, so instead I stalled by hunting for some other minis which I like which also have hideous rules: Warmachine. Actually, I don't hate the rules per se - they are/were quite clear, consistent and tightly written and also, in an age where GW rules run you $90AUD, free. It's the 101 special rules, and how it's more how you memorize rules and combos than actual tactics - resource management, knowing combos and 'deck building' and synergies IS the game. Warmachine is a card game masquerading as a wargame.  I hear Warmachine is heading to 3D printing-on-demand to stave off their final fall (it really died fast a few years back - I think they shot themselves in the foot by removing Press Gangers) - but I have an even more radical suggestion for Privateer Press; scrap the minis altogether and pivot into a CCG. 

I like the minis, the factons and the lore - steampunk mechs, undead pirates, dragons and techno elves all sharing the stage.  Painting something I didn't intend to paint instead of what I planned to paint is, I suspect, a form of procrastination.

My 9-year-old did some of the photography as she likes to pose the minis.  They are set against the toy castle we painted a few weeks back. As usual I've gone for speed over style; undercoat, base, 2nd layer, wash, highlight/fix.

After the nice bright Warmahordes, I found a few more LoTR lying around. That brings my 2023 LoTR painted counter to 31. The orcs are hunters or trackers - some sort of special unit. The Haradrim riders will also add a bit more flavour to an Easterling force. While exploring the box I found a LOT more mounted Rohirrim; I'll speedpaint 6 or so to tabletop standard as Rohan seems light on specialists and needs its mounted from what I can see. I keep eying my Balrog but I bet the sucker would be a pain to paint; flame effects are seldom quick and less so when painted 'into' cracks on a black model....

Lying on my painting bench are aforesaid Battletech, some Heavy Gear I also found while rummaging, 1:2400 sailing ships... and a new entry, French and Indian Wars minis from Warlord which have emerged from the dust of ages...   ..and I'll probably end up finding something else!

LoTR: SBG - Wrapping up Rohan

 With these minis, I've kinda finished the main stage of my LoTR; to have ~6 heroes, ~12 "special" troops, monsters or cavalry and ~50 regulars for each faction.

There are a few things I'd like to finish - Treebeard and a Balrog - and some things I'd like to get - various special troops which will be fun mini-projects - but they are more aspirational than strictly necessary (well, as I define it). I could probably also start another orc faction as I have ~100 orcs beyond the 50 or so I planned to paint, but I can now field an interesting force for all the LoTR factions; at a guess I've probably got ~500 minis or so painted in total.

The 16 minis take my LoTR total to 26 for 2023.  I've always found them easy to paint; simplistic, realistic scale (no potato faces and giant fists) yet detailed enough to be interesting.  

The central three figures are not official LoTR, instead Helldorado(?) but I'm proxying him for the Golden King of Azkahuni or whatever with bodyguard, and the geni will serve as a locale-specific ringwraith. 

The Rohan heroes have been sitting on my workbench for quite a while. 

I decided I couldn't do them justice, so just focussed on making them table-ready. They could do with more shading and highlighting for sure...

I have several spare Eomers, so I modified one with a shield and a Gripping Beast viking axe. He'll serve as a generic captain of the Royal Guard.  A pity I don't live somewhere like UK as I reckon I could trade my spares to fill in gaps elsewhere. I don't think I've ever seen LoTR played locally and it has only recently appeared in the local games shop.

 My daughter also did a bit of painting - these are her first 28mm. She always loves 'girls' - and will dig through my boxes looking for female minis which are pretty under-represented, I do admit. I'd like to find some cheap female heads, as I'd prefer to convert normal male minis for her rather than have a constant stream of short skirts and chainmail bikinis which seems to be the majority of what is on offer. 

I've found some Privateer Press Warmahordes which will be my next project I think, but I'll be doing a deep dive into the unpainted lead mountain looking for interesting projects. My son is nudging me towards 1:2400 ships and I also have some pirates and French-Indian war troops laying out. But then there are Imperialis Aeronautica and Dropfleet vessels sitting looking reproachfully at me...

Lord of the Rings + "Hogwarts"

My daughter and I spent an afternoon in the shed - she painting her toy Hogwarts into a medieval monastery, and I pottering around finding and painting some LoTR models - I found 9 Easterlings from 2022 which brings my total painted LoTR for the year to 344.

The Hogwarts may not win any modelling competitions but it's not bad for a 9-year-old occasionally assisted by dad. Here's what it originally looked like:

 

As part of the deal, she had to help me paint some barrels I found in a box before I helped her with the inside.

 

Conveniently, both my kids now can basecoat and drybrush competently. I may have had ulterior motives in training them...

Hogwarts before....

and after...

 

They aren't to scale at all, but it kinda looks OK from distance. Maybe a medieval inn or manor house?

Finally, I managed to paint some Rangers as "Blackroot Vale Archers" and Prince Imrahil and some random Fiefdoms dude who will be a captain for them. Along with 4 more Guards of the Fountain Court it brings my total of LoTR in 2023 to.... 10.

OK, just 335 more to go this year to beat my record...

In other news, my Battletech: Game of Armoured Combat arrived. The mecha minis are great but the rules are just as clunky and awful as I remember.  Back to scratch building my own rules I guess...

As I was disgusted with the $50+50 postage price of Spectre:Operations I decided to make my own game, and bought two rulesets with the money I saved. Since they were $40 and $45, I actually "earned" $5. Or that's how I explained it to my wife...

Both purchases somewhat have my kids in mind. As we are reading Redwall, Burrows and Badgers looks interesting. While my daughter likes the cute models she was asking about pirates (I do have some nice Black Scorpion metals) and my son was asking about sailing ships as we have been playing Sea of Thieves together on PC.  I've dug out a copy of Fighting Sail (the least clunky sailing rules I own) and some Tumbling Dice 1:2400 which haven't seen the light of day since 2018.

The second is I have been cleaning out old minis by the simple expedient of handing them to my son. Since we are reading Rosemary Sutcliffe's Beowulf he has come into possession of some PSC vikings with the warning I regard them as annoyingly breakable, so his viking dudes flimsy weapons may not survive long.  Thus I bought a copy of Ragnarok: Heavy Metal, a game which seems almost impossible to obtain a review or playtest (or perhaps my Google-Fu is weak). For a game with several follow-up expansion books, it seems pretty unknown. Like Burrows & Badgers, it is also a skirmish, narrative campaign system about vikings who collect and level up god powers after said powers were scattered about after Ragnarok. Hopefully they are winging on their way, and Australia Post doesn't lose them like my $90 skateboard trucks *shakes fist*.

LoTR:SBG - Easterlings, Ringwraiths, Army of the Dead

My 1000-page journey with my daughter through the LoTR books is at an end, and likewise my LOTR painting run is drawing to a close.

This month my work ramped up again, and I only managed to paint these 31 models, giving me a total of 289 painted in two months of 2022 - mostly due to being flooded in. It's currently another huge flood where I live, and Day #5 stranded, without coffee. Yep let that sink in.

I've now done the bulk of my Middle Earth forces. Now it's just 'tidying up' random models. My aim was to have 50-60+ strong warbands for each main LoTR faction and this has been largely achieved. 

The army of the dead were most interesting to paint.  I painted them roughly in brown base colours, then went over the top in grey then white drybrushes, with the odd wash in between. 

You can see the leather and armour peaking through, which I based on this picture. They aren't pure greeny-white which is the most common paint style. I found the success confidence boosting and I may attempt some glow and fire effects based on what I learned. I was surprised how fast and easy it was.

I only have 7 ringwraiths - remember I ordered random job lots from eBay - which I painted rather boldly rather than drybushing to make them 'pop' more from a distance. Two had broken weapons and were customised out of my bitz box.

The Easterlings with their pleasingly uniform paint scheme was another 'low hanging fruit' to chalk up a few more minis before the month ended. They could probably do with more highlighting but I'm on a schedule. 

The only  'must do' LoTR remaining is some 12-16 Rohirrim on horseback and some 5-6 random heroes; the rest is just me trying to trim down spare plastics - i.e. I have only painted 40 or so Mordor orcs I needed, but there is still 100 or so of them in a box, staring accusingly at me. 

Now it's all ready to play - naaah - time to switch to a new project! Imperialis Aeronautica is looking increasingly good - I just found a random Thunderbolt model in one of my 'bulk buy' LoTR boxes and I really like it. It must be a sign!

But.... ....my daughter and I are now reading Mortal Engines. Perhaps its time for some mega tanks and humongous landships....

LOTR: SBG - Haradrim

I've finally hit my last factions - the Haradrim/Easterlings - but my painting pace has slowed as work has been hectic and my enthusiasm for anything is low.  However I'd like to record my weekly 24+ goal - my aim is 24 speedpainted minis plus a few extras (cool side projects, heroes) each week.

As usual, this isn't to show off my admittedly mediocore painting skills but to encourage other 'average dads' to make inroads into their unpainted pile of shame. In my case, 500+ LOTR minis which have sat boxed up for 8 years+.

My only goal is to make the minis acceptable on the table-top. 

One day, when I have copious spare time (presumably my children have grown up and left home!) I'll probably revisit these minis and do a better job - but who am I kidding? I know I'll be chasing some new shiny thing!  

My next task is some low-hanging fruit - either Army of the Dead or Ringwraiths with their limited palette, or some nice uniform Easterlings.  As for those blasted mounted Rohirrim... I'll get some more done eventually...

Because I bought the minis off eBay in job lots, I have random assorted heroes and metal minis. Luckily I have a Haradrim captain which is handy to lead my force.  

 

My daughter (we're well into RoTK together) is deeply interested in LoTR, and unbeknownst to my kids I have actually been teaching them the core mechanics, under the guise of a sandpit game with plastic army men. Dad usually plays the opposing force and the two kids band to beat him. I usually play like a RPG GM - with cinematic tactics - aka just enough to be threatening and tense but not actually win....

The Watchers of Karna guard the haunted cities of the Haradrim. I gave them a dull camo tone to match their role. 

These minis chalk up the first 28 minis of the new month, and give a running total of  258 models in 2022. Besides the above-mentioned LoTR - there's still about 50 or so I've planned to paint this month - I'm gearing up for the arrival of my Dropfleet Commander UCM & PHR fleets, probably by repainting my sadly chipped Full Thrust metals.

 

I've got so far through my LoTR models I'm considering buying some more (small 3-packs of heroes and interesting elite forces) to round out my collection which now covers all the armies of the original trilogy - something I'd have laughed at if you suggested it a year ago.

Gaming-wise, I've reprinted the 2022 incarnation of my Delta Vector space rules (you know, the ones that got me started into game design back in 2013ish) which I've stripped back to their roots. I'm also eyeing off Aeronautica Imperialis (always liked the minis, regard the rules as very average) as my recent investigation of X-Wing for my son makes GW look affordable and reasonable in comparison. If only GW provided free rule pdfs - the lack of transparency with which codexes, campaign books and expansions are needed is the only thing holding me back....