Having recently done the First Battle of the Fords of Isen, and having all the models and terrain already done, it was pretty easy to crank out the Second Battle of the Fords of Isen.

You can see the results here if you're interested:

http://davetownsend.org/Battles/LotR-20210918/

Nice battle report once again! There are some rules that I tend to forget every game for at least a couple of turns and those are the Shielding rule and the Terror rule. Maybe I should just make a note of these easy-to-miss rules and place it next to the dice pool at all times.

The pictures look very scenic, nice shot especially with the Uruk-hai crossing the river and being held back by the Rohirrim!

It seems you've almost finished the War in Rohan scenarios?

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/

Thanks, Voyager. I'm about 2/3 of the way through War in Rohan (that's counting the three non-War of the Ring scenarios in the back). Next up for me should be the Walls scenarios. I have HD walls .... but they aren't the 8" deep that the scenarios seem to require.

If I wait until I've constructed that terrain, it's going to be months again before I can get to it. So I'm probably just going to fake it.

I'm also trying to think of solutions to the Last March of the Ents, which requires an Orthanc. Anything easy to do isn't going to look good; anything that looks good isn't going to be easy to do.

Anyone have suggestions?

For the 8" deep walls, what I'm planning to do when I eventually get there is use a simple layer of polystyrene and cut it in pieces of 8" deep, cover it with texture paint and paint it stony grey, place that atop random objects and then put the HD walls in front. In that way, from the siege side it should look convincing and you would have the correct dimensions.

As for Orthanc, I've yet to make one myself and am not particularly looking forward to it, but I do believe it may be less complicated than it seems. I've found this on Facebook a few weeks ago:

Spray it black with a foam-safe spray and you would be pretty much done.

He made a more detailed version after this one:


Obviously it wouldn't be the true scale and it would still take a few dedicated evenings or days to make, but I do think it would look pretty effective and would not be too hard to make if you can find the right materials.

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/

"a few dedicated evenings of days to make"

That tower looks pretty good, but it'd take me a lot longer than that to make!

Nice battle report as usual, regarding Orthanc, have you considered a version of what's in the older version of the Fall of the Necromancer book and the tower of Dol Guldur?

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Thanks, Mapper.

I don't think the Dol Guldur in the Necromancer book looks much like Orthanc. Like the BGiME Orthanc, it has orthogonal walls rather than the slightly sloped walls I'd prefer. And you really need to handle that texturing somehow.

I tried a quick search on eBay for the 3-D puzzle version of Orthanc. But the cheapest I could find was still $100, which is a lot of money for how rarely it would get used.

Think I'm just going to have to buckle down and build it myself at some point.

So many projects, so little time....

Not sure how much of Orthanc is required for the scenario, thought just the top of the Necromancer would help. Assume you have seen this?
http://www.lotrscenerybuilder.org/ortha ... hp?page=11

Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Yeah, that Orthanc is inspiring and intimidating in about equal measures!

Fantastic stuff all round Dave. Love the Orthanc- it's coming along beautifully.

Really enjoyed both Fords of Isen Scenario's. You've inspired me to play them. Right now, I'm madly painting up a Dunlending force so I can follow suit. Also need to make the Fjord terrain and finish a cpl of Rohan heroes.

However, I'm planning on playing it in War of the Ring mass battle format. Something I've been meaning to do for almost 10 years! If I ever get around to it, I'll make sure to post pics & a battle report.

Thanks, perry_pug! None of the Orthancs posted here are mine, though, to be clear.

Looking forward to seeing your takes on the Fords scenarios. Trying them out in War of the Ring format is an interesting idea, one I'd like to follow up myself some day. My impression from reading the WotR rules and seeing one or two battle reports was that magic played far too important a part. But the Fords scenarios have neither magic nor monsters, so that wouldn't be an issue.

Of course getting enough models to really fill out the companies is a problem...

Oops re: Orthancs. They are lovely though..

Good point about the magic. I hadn't thought of that angle.

Getting to that model count is certainly challenging. I'm still short Uruk-hai crossbows, Wild men of Dunland & painted Rohan Warriors on foot, but I'll patch together with other common troops.

I have managed to assemble 5 companies of Royal guard on foot which look awesome with Theodred ready to lead his last stand

Five companies of RRG - 40 models? I bet that does look impressive.

I've got that many Uruk-hai pikemen and likewise Uruk-hai swordsmen. That's an ok nucleus for an Isengard WotR army. But my Rohan forces are nowhere near that numerous, so I've got a long way to go there.