Into the Wild: Weathertop, Part 3

So in today's post, I've done some detail painting to the Weathertop board (TEDIOUS!) and finished the columns for the top of the structure. To display some of the terrain work, you'll also see shots of my Ringwraith conversions (more on those guys in coming weeks), a shot here of my son Gorgoroth, and some of the final touches that have been put on my Wild Warg Chieftain conversions (more on them after THRO). While Weathertop is great and all, it's only part of a board that will be used in the upcoming THRO 2014 tournament. The rest of the terrain pieces that will be used will be seen too.

Weathertop

The entryways have gotten some moss work and most of the pink polystyrene can't be seen now. It's hard to keep it that way when you have a two-year-old who thinks this is the coolest piece of terrain and wants to drag units across it (we're working on it). Gandalf is stalled by some wargs and their chieftain, trying to reach the top: you can see that there is room for cavalry to ride up to the second level and the overhang allows for archers (or climbers) to really take advantage of the terrain piece.

Further up the road, Aragorn is ambushed by two mounted ringwraiths. The alcove landings provide plenty of room for moving, but has some restricted space to allow for shield walls to try to be effective. At the bottom left, you will notice that the ground rises a bit to allow for evading your opponent's line if he doesn't block that route. It also provides some limited archery protection (in-the-way roll).

At the seat of power, the hobbits face three ringwraiths, including the Witch King of Angmar! I finally got the pillars how I want them. They are all on movable bases, making the terrain modular (and optional). The two pillars that form the arch can be used together (as shown) or separately. If used separately, I find that cavalry/monsters have a single stairwell they can use to enter the top, which for the purposes of our tournament is probably not fair - ergo, this will be the set up. Pillars are still WIP, but we'll see if I can get them improved this weekend.

Ancient Ruins

Elsewhere on the field, Glorfindel challenges the Witch King in all his splendor (yes, he appears twice...don't ask). There are four ruins that I have built the other objectives on the map. Two are shown here: on the left is a simple building which will be equipped with a non-movable ladder allowing for archers to roost on the top deck and sturdy walls to hide in if you don't have a bow. On the right is my long-time-work-project smithy, which hopefully will be a bit more detailed by the time the tournament hits two weekends from now.

Non-Objective Terrain

Other pieces of terrain will be scatter across the table. These include the large rocks that you see (perfect for hiding if you don't want to be found), a woodland piece of terrain featuring a fallen tree (great for protecting Elven cloak units), and a marsh and briar patch (both standard difficult terrain, not woodland terrain). I've also based my field boundary walls, which will be scattered across the rest of the field, providing some deployment opportunities and minimal archery protection for some races (they're not high).

Next week, I'll be hitting the Dwarf Hold board again, touching up places where paint has chipped away and talking about the terrain restrictions that go with it. The Saturday after that post goes up, we'll have the THRO tournament, the intro to which I plan to have up on that day. If all goes according to plan, all of the tournament results will be up before the end of the month. Until you choose to stop in again, happy hobbying!