LoTR SBG - Riders of Rohan and Gaming in General

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that I work better under pressure. Well I am currently finishing off my Saxon army for Scrivs Warhammer Ancients (WAB) Age of Arthur Day in mid March and as such am under the cosh!

However this doesn’t stop me from having a few deviations here and there, these Riders of Rohan being one of them. Over a year ago I started gathering up Lord of The Rings SBG models as part of another “On a Budget” projects that I like to do and I have to say I have amassed rather a considerable amount. Well it does seem like a good time to paint them so I picked up brushes and paints and set too - here’s the first four finished models!

They’re a little tricky to paint in that they’re plastics and are a little poorly defined (and fragile!!!) however block colours, generous use of washes and a little highlights and we’re good to go.

Now as I’ve managed to get some LoTR mini’s painted I thought it might be useful to continue to familiarise myself with the game and so fellow LoTR fan Andy and I managed to get a game in at the club. The setting for the game was a skirmish at a small farm in the outlying region of Helms Deep. We used very minimal forces as we’re both still getting the mechanics sorted in our heads. I had 5 riders and a standard, 4 warriors with throwing weapons, 4 warriors with shields and Gamling. Andy had a solid block of 14 Uruks, standard and a captain.

Now I would show pics however I didn’t take any and this isn’t really an AAR but more of a reflection on how the game plays. We’ve finally managed to get hold of the most recent edition of the rules (LoTR rules that is and not the Hobbit set!) and I have to say we had a blast. We only managed to play out 6 turns, which in LoTR SBG is not really a lot however we did focus most of our attention on playing out combats correctly. Getting a hang on the individual tactics of where to make your charges so that you shut down zones of control and how to block your opponents charges so that you fight on your own terms seems to be the “tactical” element of the game and is more akin to chess than any other wargame I’ve played.

In addition knowing when to use might points to change that all important die roll or call heroic actions (move, shooting or combat) seems to be key to achieving your objectives. We have played a straight forward “pitched battle” before and didn’t really feel connected to the game however as soon as we put our film/book heads on and pictured the action it became a more immersive and enjoyable experience.

I’ve now come to the realisation that LoTR SBG is in reality two wargames; traditional manoeuvre/out-manoeuvre that I’m used to and then micro-managed combats where you start thinking three or four moves ahead as you really focus in a small playing area. Heck the majority of our game was confined in an area roughly 10” x 10” in the centre of the board.

So I’m looking forward to getting some more models finished and on to the table and thrashing out some scenarios!