Visions of the Lonely Mountain (Input)

[LouieN]

Hello All,

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The armies of the Battle of the five armies are nearing completion.  [hurray]

Now I have to start thinking of terrain.  I want / need to build the entrance into the lonely mountain.   

Looking for ideas / suggestions on how to build the gate.

#1 - A simple gate where the outside is barely touched.  I always appreciated that the best dwarf stonework was almost undetectable. 






#2 - A grand entrance with battlements and arches.  You know the Peter Jackson "Make me a gate worthy of cinema!" version. 



Just looking for nay pictures or suggestions. 

Thanks

[Hobgoblin]

Go to the source! 

[snitcythedog]

Go to the source! 

+1 here too.

[robh]

Another of the original sketches showing a closer view.
I agree about going with the original source. No reason not to.

[LouieN]

Thank you.

I am not familiar with the artwork.  Is it from JRR himself?

[robh]

Thank you.

I am not familiar with the artwork.  Is it from JRR himself?

Yes, they are his own sketches done at different times. He was consistent in how the 5 Armies battlefield looked.

Although I have an intense dislike for hex terrain this 15mm layout captures the look of the illustrations pretty well. The actual gate could be a lot better though.
http://play.nobleknight.com/battle-five-armies-gencon-1994/

[Eric the Shed]

We went simple with our Five Armies recreation just some polystyrene and a couple of Kiddy toys repurposed

more here

http://shedwars.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-battle-of-five-armies-in-28mm.html

[LouieN]

Those are all great, and inspiring, pictures.  Thank you very much.  I wanted simple and I have professor himself telling me to keep it simple.  Make it so!

We did a very rough playtest using the Dragon rampant rules.  We got to the point the first wave of Goblins/Wolves were wiped out and the valley cleared.  But two entire armies of orcs/goblins were right behind.  Goblins were also coming over the mountain heights.

We had a substitute "Gate" and the blue tape marks the terrain I have to build.  That will represent the spurs of the mountain.     

The minis on the board represent almost 2 years of painting.  Almost there! 

[Ray Rivers]

We went simple with our Five Armies recreation

 

Damn, Eric, I wouldn't describe it quite that way, myself. 

Never go half way, do you? 

[Cacique Caribe]

The ultimate Thunderdome scenario.  Five armies go in and … only one comes out. 

Dan

[LouieN]

I thought of one more question.

How big should the opening be to handle a 15mm Ancient Dragon?  6" ?

Thanks

[Pattus Magnus]

If you already have the dragon, I would have use that as the starting point for deciding on the size of the opening.

Six inches seems like a good overall choice. That would scale to aprox 50 feet (or 15m) with 15mm figures. That’s a very large door/gateway, but seems to fit with how Tolkien described dwarven architecture, with enormous halls carved within thaw mountain. A little ironic maybe, given the short stature of the original inhabitants, but if you have the technical ability, why not flaunt it? Of course, if they made the gate and halls smaller, they might not have had a dragon infestation in the first place…

Anyway, a monumental gateway definitely seems like a cool idea!

[LouieN]

I wonder if the mountain had a natural cave, especially with a water source inside it.  The dwarves expanded on what was already there. 

[Pattus Magnus]

I don’t remember that being mentioned in the book, but it seems very likely that there would have been pre-existing caves with water in them. A large stream (the River Running? I don’t have my copy of the book handy) flowed out of the mountain next to the gate and it had to come from somewhere! Dwarves colonizing existing caves and expanding outward the way you suggest makes a lot of sense.