Scenery Projects: Operation Tuckborough

Hey Reader!

Greetings again from the Forge!  Before jumping fully into the army I'll be using for the Hunters Red October Tournament (more details in a future post!), I wanted to update you all on the progress I've made on Operation Tuckborough.  Below, you'll find all of the scenery I've worked on to date for that project, which I'm excited to say is now completed!  Here's a walkthrough of my little hobbit town. *Cues "Concerning Hobbits" soundtrack*

Shire List, Part 4: Strategy and Tactics

Dear Reader,

Greetings again from the Forge!  Work is back into full swing, so I'm not sure how much I'll be posting on this blog for the next few weeks, but I'll try to keep it consistent, :)  I'm also hoping to have an update on Operation Tuckborough coming out soon, including a special project I'm working on for the outskirts of the map, :)

As promised in past posts, I'll be laying out a few strategy and tactics thoughts for you all when using a Shire army.  In passing before we begin, Shire is still very new to me, and I get the feeling already that this list is going to take a long time to master, and is also among the softest lists you can field in LOTR.  With low FV, low defense, and low strength, doing damage is really hard with this civ.  But if you play your cards well, I contend that you can pull it out - a claim that I hope to substantiate in the March TMAT Grand Tournament.

Shire List, Part 3: Heroes Post 2 of 2

Dear Reader,

Welcome back!  We continue our series of discussing the Shire list of LOME with a discussion of the lesser known hobbit heroes, as well as the non-halfling heroes at your disposal (which everyone finds more exciting, more helpful in a fight, and more funner all-around, :) ).  After covering the four hobbits from the Fellowship in my last post, I'm really looking forward to getting into a number of the unique roles that the other heroes in the list play.  Some of my comments are going to be "like duh" commentary on a model, as some of the heroes were built for only one purpose by GW.  Others may surprise you.  In any event, as we trailblaze some territory that no one in the blogosphere has covered, bear with me as we discuss ten heroes that are worth fielding in your force to meet specific needs.

Shire List, Part 2: Heroes Post 1 of 2

Dear Reader,

Greetings again!  I was out for the past week visiting family, and am just now getting caught up on all of my projects.  Spending 20 hours on a plane does wonders for gathering your thoughts on a list, and what follows is my assessment of the heroes available for Shire teams.  I'll begin with the hobbit heroes, and then move on to the non-hobbit (and more exciting) heroes available to you.  Before launching into that discussion, though, something should be repeated from my last post:

You play with Shire lists to play with heroes.

Yeah, you all saw that coming, :)  If you've ever wanted to field a hero-heavy force, go with one of the Eriador civs: Shire or Grey Company.  Unlike the Grey Company, though, your selection of F6, S4, D5-6 heroes is extremely limited, so you'll be working with a smaller (no pun intended), less sustainable crew in a Shire army.  That being said, you can cover all of the bases using a Shire list for dirt cheap, and that will be the focus of this post.

Shire List, Part 1: Warriors

Dear Reader,

Greetings from the Forge!  As you saw in my last post, Operation Tuckborough is nearing completion, and I'm really excited about some new possibilities for new boards!  In this post, I want to begin laying out some of the strategy and tactics for effectively using a Shire list in combat.  Over the course of the next few posts, I'll be detailing the warriors in the army (which will occur in this post), the heroes you can field (the next few posts), and a short discussion on tactics and deployment strategies for your forces to wrap up the discussion.

Before discussing the three Hobbit units in the army, though, I'd like to note that I've spent some time searching the blogosphere for any other tips and hints in regards to strategy with this force, and so far all of my searches (including searches in other languages) have come up with only one thread on Warseer from 2007, and in that article there was hardly any discussion on the importance or role of the units in your army.  So this is a discussion that has not been discussed very much by the gaming community at large.  I propose that this is due to three contributing factors.