Archaeological anthropology and the missing wargame.FREE MINIATURES!

[Belligerentparrot]

Yeah, you have set yourself a challenge, for sure!  All the more power to you, I say.
I mentioned the Confrontation thing only because that was exactly how I got hold of the rules: someone from back in the day found them at the bottom of their cupboard. So was just hoping lightning strikes twice!

[nic-e]

I sat down and made a rough draft of one of the unit cards with some actual values.

I went for the soldiers of Minas Tirith as they are your base human armoured infantry. slow , 50/50 fighters that get a boost as a defensive unit to reflect their experience protecting Minis Tirith and Osgiliath. (I will do actual Osgiliath veterans aswell.)

I didn't give them bows as i want to distinguish them from the rangers of Gondor ,plus I like the idea of Gondorian soldiers being either spear or bow, not mixed units like orcs or elves.


I have change a couple of things. I have put a range value in with the attack , So a units range is either L, S , or 0. (Which i may change to X)
This means that attacks for ranged or mixed units can be handled in the same way as standard base to base attacks, Just from a distance. Any variation in skill or power can be reflected with the unit specific special rules.

(Eg - Gondorian rangers receive + 1 attack when attacking from a distance, This is then removed when they enter base to base combat.)

[nic-e]

Terrain rules are in progress.

I have a free evening so I sat down and did a quick sketch of a Soldier of gondor...


Took that low quality phone photo and did a quick mess around in MA paint...


printed it out onto some smooth cartridge paper and ...



...Voila!

The standees here measure about 18mm to the eye. I was originally going to go for 10mm but I think I like the bigger figures.
The base is 7 x 3 cm.

The figures can fold flat to fit into a pocket/envelope/tin, Which means you could carry two armies in a little pencil case.



I've also done some extra sketches of alternate poses and put together a rough concept of what a more varied unit will look like.


The last image is how i intend the ranks to be.10man units, varied poses, central leader figure.

If anyone wants the PDF of these I'm happy to send it, Just print it off at A4 size.

[Hobgoblin]

They look terrific! Nice to see a non-film take: yours have a little bit of a Pauline Baynes vibe about them, which is much more appropriate, I think. The assembled versions are great.

[nic-e]

They look terrific! Nice to see a non-film take: yours have a little bit of a Pauline Baynes vibe about them, which is much more appropriate, I think. The assembled versions are great.

Cheers hobgoblin.
As much as I love the films visuals and will probably steal alot from it when it comes to other units, I always feel that the world at the time of Lord of the rings is very much in a dark age. I like to think of it as being similar to the late roman empire. where in its prime the roman legions marched in thick plate and tower shields, As the empire receded they changed to mail and smaller shields. Gondor at the time of the war of the ring is a shadow of what it once was so it makes sense to me that it's soldiers be a little less armoured, something not really reflected in the film.

From the Tolkien wiki (a generally reliable source.)
"During the Third Age, Gondor's military prowess eventually declined. The soldiers used two different types of armour and shields. The first one was the same as the ones used in the War of the Last Alliance and were still used when Gondor was ruled by the Kings; however when Gondor was ruled by the Stewards instead of Kings (this was during the second half of the Third Age), this caused their armour and shields to change: the shields that they carried changed and were only about half the height of their users which were made of metal. Their armour was affected as well, for it was made out of a thin-layered strip of metal that would block against a few attacks, unlike the one used in the Second Age which could block many attacks. The weapons were the same (ex. spear, sword, bow and arrows) throughout the Third Age. Another major difference was the Gondorian soldiers themselves: although the soldiers would have proudly fought to the last man, they were never as strong as the warriors of the past especially by the second half of the Third Age. After the Great Plague and the Kin-strife, which left Gondor very weakened, many Númenóreans of pure blood had perished during those troublesome times."