April 22, 2017
I bought the original slipcase edition of The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild (that’s what it was called at the time) by Cubicle 7 soon after its release in 2011. Much like the books on which it is based, I immediately liked it.
I read and re-read the rules, ran several one shot demos, bought all subsequent releases, formed a Meetup group, and eventually ran a 16 month campaign before becoming a player in a Darkening of Mirkwood campaign being run by my friend Marco Rafalá.
Like a lot of systems, running and playing The One Ring are different experiences. I recently sat down and wrote up my thoughts on what playing the game means to me. The results follow.
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January 17, 2017
This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog on January 13, 2017.
I jumped the gun earlier this week with my first entry into the challenge for fear of missing next week’s deadline. Now, that I’m more in the swing of things, I wanted to try to get a few more figures in this week.
First up is Snorri the smith, leader of our traveling trio of itinerant craftsdwarves.
Next up is Hár the stone mason. Both he and Snorri are from the same Games Workshop Dwarf Rangers box set from which their friend Borri hailed. I love the cloaks and the poses of these sculpts. My only complaint is, as they’re one piece figures, it’s difficult to field more than one box on the table and not have things look redundant.
Finally, here’s a French Regular from Conquest Miniatures. I’ve been slowly working on my Canadian wilderness force for Muskets & Tomahawks, but it’s been slow going. I think I first got started on a militia unit in August of last year. Well, I just found out that my friend Brian is moving back to the UK soon and that we’ll be sending him off with a big game of M&T at the club, so there’s no time like the present to get these Canadians done.
My previous experience painting uniformed troops involved ACW Confederates and WWII U.S. Paratroopers – i.e. lots of butternut and olive drab respectively. Eighteenth century regular units are an entirely different challenge. I can’t wait to see a finished unit in formation!
Next week will be more of the same branched paths with dwarves, wargs and Dark Ages/fantasy warriors on one hand and French regulars on the other.
January 14, 2017
This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog on January 10, 2017.
Our 2016 addition to the family added to both the enjoyment and exhaustion of the holidays. After an equally exhausting week back at work, I’ve finally returned to my nightly painting habit.
I thought I was going to start with something from my historical backlog – French Regulars for the French and Indian War or American Airborne for WWII. However, a recent game of Cubicle 7’s Adventures in Middle-earth has got me painting Dwarves. This figure is from the Games Workshop Dwarf Rangers box.
I call him Borri the whittler after an NPC from The Eaves of Mirkwood scenario for Adventures in Middle-earth. I have his friends Snorri the smith and Hár the stone mason on the bench. I’ll post them in the next day or so.
December 14, 2016
A couple years ago, just after the last film of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy was released, I decided to reread the book. It had been several years since my last reading, and there were so many things in the film that I didn’t remember from the book. It turned out they were more or less all there — through portrayal and emphasis, though, they felt somehow unfamiliar.
But, I digress…
Around the same time, I found out about Games Workshop’s The Battle of Five Armies box set. Having picked up and throughly enjoyed The Mines of Moria box set sometime before, I decided I had to have The Battle of Five Armies. They’re, of course, very different games – the former being based on the 10mm Warmaster ruleset while the latter is a part of the 28mm Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game system. Regardless, they both do a great job evoking Middle-earth. I mean just take a look at the BoFA box art.
As so often is the case, the BoFA box sat more or less undisturbed on a shelf in my bedroom closet for the better part of the past two years. After painting a good deal of 15 and 28mm this year, I recently decided that I needed a change of pace. So, I tried my hand at my first 10mm stands. The results can be seen below.
A change of pace is exactly what I got. I was in fine detail mode for everything but the cloaks on the backside of the stands. I had to lift the visor often to check the results at table distance. Otherwise, I would have driven myself mad.
I still don’t know if I’m fulling committed to painting up this entire set anytime soon, but I do think I’ll work on some more stands for this year’s Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.
I’ll post more as I progess.