Angmar and Misty Mountains Update

Dear Reader,

As January comes to a close, I wanted to give a quick update on my Angmar force and Misty Mountains Force.  Over the past few weeks, I've been painting, converting, and battling with these armies, and I'm looking forward to what next month will bring.  My Angmar forces - orcs, Barrow Wights, and the Dwimmerlaik - have been showcased here before; more recently, though, I bought another blister of Hunter Orcs for the Misty Mountains side of the list (I just cannot get enough of these guys, :) ), and I want to give you all a quick update on that part of the army.

For a 600-point game, I'm currently leaning (following suggestions from some of my opponents and some new ideas from the sourcebook) toward the following army list:

Chill of Angmar: 603 pts

Angmar (LOME): 392 pts
-Dwimmerlaik (Army Leader): 120 pts
-2 Barrow Wights: 100 pts (Drop from 3 to 2; this was a good suggestion from my brothers in arms, as I was spending upwards of 300 points on just the heroes for my two armies, which is over half my points)
-8 Orc Warriors w/ shields: 48 pts
-8 Orc Warriors w/ shields/spears: 56 pts
-3 Orc Warriors w/ 2H weapons: 18 pts
-1 Orc Warrior w/ banner: 30 pts
-4 Orc Trackers: 20 pts (New idea: drop my D4 archers to D3, and bring their shoot value up to 4+ from 5+ for 1 point less)

Allied Force: Misty Mountains (Constructed LOME): 211
-Narzug: 50 pts
-3 Hunter Orcs w/ 2H weapons: 27 pts
-6 Hunter Orcs w/ bows: 54 pts
-10 Hunter Orcs: 80 pts

TOTAL: 603 points, 47 units, 3 Might, 27 Will (3 casters)

For the Misty Mountains side of the list, I'm doing final touches on my first set of Hunter Orcs, and have only base painted the rest.  Let's start with the archers:

There aren't too many things you can do with these archer poses, though I'm getting a few ideas, :)  The two on the left and the two on the right are duplicates, so I'll likely use different flesh/cloth colors, and have also placed the quivers in different places (hip/back/horizontal) for some variety.  I've also started thinking about battle scarring, which you can see on the third archer (who is still in progress; I don't know what I'll do with him in terms of colors).

I'm also working on 2Hers; unfortunately, though, the poses don't allow for as much customization (which I've discovered to be true across the board for 2H soldiers, even beyond LOTR).  Here's the three I'll use in the army:

As you can see, I did the base coat on the middle guy, and then added a new gray for some flesh color (also present on one of the orcs above - the one on the far right).  It's a bit dark, but it could work for a flesh color.  I dunno - I'll keep playing around with it.  I really like these units, as they give me a chance at 2 S4 attacks with +1 to wound if you win the fight.  Optimally, you use them to finish off some poor hero that has been paralyzed by a Barrow Wight, as you now have 4 attacks that will hit D7 and D8 units (dwarf heroes) on 5s, D5 and D6 units (most man and elf heroes) on 4s, and D4 units on 3s.  Pretty sweet, :)

And, to round out the raw fighting power of the list, here's the regular Hunter Orcs:

Sorry for the blur, :-/  These guys give me 2 attacks at S4 (3 if spear-supported) for only 8 points, which is pretty cool.  The downside of these guys, of course, is that they are only F3 (the highest orcs can get), so they tie off against rank-and-file men, and they lose to elite troops, all dwarves, all elves, and all monsters.  They are good troops, but by no means overpowered/invincible.  The fact that I have S4 units in the army, though, is amazing for taking on those D6 units that are supposed to present an unbreakable wall to an enemy.  I'm a major fan of them, :)

One of the things I really like about the swordsmen is that they are much easier to transform into new poses.  All of the models are multi-part, with something or other needing gluing, but these models lend themselves well toward transformation.  Here's a few of the conversions I've done on them:

The original units are on the ends, and the new poses are in the middle.  From the amount of color on them, you can also see why I wanted to buy another blister of hunters - I didn't have some of the original poses, :)  This one was a simple right hand swap; nothing too flashy here, except that the curved scimitar  is actually attached to the leg that is on the far right guy originally, so getting it off without messing it up for the guy that's second from the left was...an adventure, :)  Here's another conversion I did:

Simple head swap: the original units are on the ends, and the conversions are in the middle.  I was uncertain what I'd think about this swap, because I really like the units on the end (I'm also experimenting with two new green colors for flesh tone, so that's exciting too, :) ).  But when I was done with the swap, I was pretty satisfied with the result, and I actually really like the second unit.  I think I'll keep these two, :)

Here's another picture of the conversion, as the other one is pretty dark:

This one highlights the detail on the new units, which I also really like.  I'm also thinking about taking the front blade from the third model, and turning it 90 degrees, but we'll see if I end up doing that.

I'm currently on the road for work, so I'll be away from home for the next two weeks.  This effectively stalls my projects, but also affords me a good amount of time to think about what I want to do with my models, some time for thinking through tactics (especially now that I nixed a D7 unit and added 7 more D4 units!), and thinking through what I'll do with the last few weeks of February.  When I get back, Tiberius and I are going to get together to test my new list against his dwarves (as they are a very different civ from the other ones I've played), so we'll see how that goes.  I'm thinking about spending February working on my Gondor and Fiefdoms units, though I'm also thinking about the month to work on scenery, as I'm woefully behind on a lot of my scenery projects (and my closet is screaming at me because of all of the raw materials that are sitting in it).  Until then, you know where to find me:

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane - yes, with humans alongside me if I must." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone