New Scenery Pieces from Fenris Games

Dear Reader,

Happy May!  As summer draws near and travel season starts up again on Thursday, I wanted to quickly check in with our loyal readership before darting out again for work.  A few weeks ago, I had the chance to get together with Zorro for a bit of gaming, primarily to test how badly my Isengard Raider force would get mauled by S3 archery.  He brought his High Elf Army led by Legolas and an Elf Captain (a bit shy of 35 models), and we played an Arkenstone map (because, naturally, the best game against a S3 archer team is one where holding your ground gives a tactical advantage to melee combat, right? ;) ).

Unfortuately, the dice were not willing to cooperate with my experiment, and Zorro ended up rolling very poorly for his archery in that game (If my memory serves me, by the time we met in melee combat, he had killed 3 of my uruks and I had slain 4 of his elves with orc bow and Vrasku's crossbow fire...it was pretty bad...), so we didn't really get a good feel for how well my list holds up against S3 archery.  Perhaps Tiberius or Glot would be up for some elf hunting? :) (Tiberius: yes, I'd be more than happy to give you a test...we should probably play without the new magic rules unless you're confident in your ability to take courage tests. :)) (Glenstorm: No problem there, Buddy - though I'm very confident in my C5 Ferals, :))  The result of the game was a strong finish for my uruk-hai, and (I think) my first win against Zorro's elves.  If nothing else, though, Zorro had a chance to finally see my painted Feral Uruk-Hai, which he had not seen yet.

Before moving on to my next fight with my uruk force, I wanted to give a quick update on some new scenery pieces I've been working on.  All of the following pieces were bought at Fenris Games, which sells all kinds of things for miniatures gaming, but specializes in scenery and tile pieces.  I've ordered a few of these, and had a chance to paint one of them already (the others just came in).  I'll also take the opportunity to showcase some of the Rivendell Elves I've been working on over the last few weeks, as well as some of the new Infinity miniatures I've acquired.

1.  Gate/Dais

Elrond and a force of Elves braces to hold the gate

Okay, this is a fun piece.  When I first saw this piece, I thought, "Eh, nothing special," but thankfully I stopped to read the description.  As you see in the pic above, it can be used as a very stylized gate (in case you're building an entryway to a courtyard or something), or...

Elrond and his crew prepare to defend the dais

You can use it as a dais with a water feature!  For an elf town, you could easily use this as a landing in a royal garden or town center, and in a dwarf underground map, you could also use this as, say, a landing near a chasm with no bottom (instead of a water feature).  I want to use it eventually as the placement zone for an objective (Arkenstone?), as I don't currently have terrain that set off objectives, like Tiberius does.  What all of this highlights, though, is the versatility of the piece - it can be used in many different ways in many settings, which gives me the versatility I prize in terrain pieces.  At present, though, I'm still thinking through a lot about how I'd use it in tournament play, so check back to this space for further updates.

2.  Barrels

Six barrels unpainted, and a Tankhunter from Infinity

For those of you who have never seen my office desk, welcome to my office, :)  For a while I thought about getting the Buckets and Barrels set from GW, but 1) at $20, it's overpriced for 6 barrels, and 2) well...what I really need for some of the scenario rules I'm building are barrels, not buckets.  Instead I opted to go with the six Giant Timber Barrels from Fenris Games, as I not only got the same number of items for half the cost, but I can also use them for varied purposes across the field.  I'm currently experimenting with rules for fire arrows, tar and pitch, and other exciting terrain-based bonuses to soldiers, so we'll see what happens.

3.  Bridge

A bridge with a Tankhunter posing for the height measurement, and a scout demonstrating the width

Okay, I love bridges: they usually break my armies (since I run a ton of D5 and D4 armies without much spear support), but I love bridges, :)  One of these days, when I come into my own little fortune and buy my own property, I'm definitely building a small stone bridge over a little stream.  But in the meantime, I've got a really cool new bridge from Fenris Games that is a bit wider than 1 model base.  The bridge comes as two pieces, so that you could have two bridges (narrow bridges that couldn't support a model, mind you, so it would be more like backdrop pieces), or they can join together to form one bridge.  The bridge is more or less the height of an infantry model, and would likely provide some covering of the torso of a cav model.

4.  Steps

The steps are shallow, but the mound is about 5" up

The last piece I ordered from Fenris is the base of a Mayan Pyramid, which I'll use for a higher elevation entrance point in my multi-tiered map.  The steps give a wide base (about 3 infantry models wide, and 2 cavalry models wide) that units can use to access upper portions of the town.

I'm really looking forward to using these new terrain pieces, since they are highly modular and can be used in a variety of environments.  Keep an eye out for some of them in the next battle report!  On a related side-note, I was glancing through the Kingdoms of Men Sourcebook, and found some cool new ideas for a set of Osgiliath Ruins, so...so far I have successfully passed all of my Leadership Tests to restrain, but we'll see how long this lasts, :)  Until then, you'll find me,

Watching the stars,

Glenstorm

"Lie back on the floor," said Firenze in a calm voice, "and observe the heavens.  Here is written, for those who can see, the fortune of our races." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix