Quest of the Ringbearer - Legendary Legion Predictions

With a new supplement announced and a confirmed six new Legendary Legions on the way, I thought it would be fun to have a bit of speculation about what they could be. So myself and a few of the writers over here at Drawn Combat have decided to put together a few ideas and think of our own legendary legions that might get added. At this stage these are purely speculation and the kind of legions we'd like to see, but it's always fun to play around with potential new armies.


Dave: I love the scene in Balin's Tomb, when the Goblins attack the Fellowship. It's the first time we see the Fellowship in action, and the goblins look great, especially when they bring out a cave troll! I love horde armies, so naturally, I'm writing my “Fantasy Legendary Legion” as a Moria army.


The Battle in Balin's Tomb

Army Composition:
 * Moria Blackshield Captain
 * Moria Goblin Captain (Bow, Shield)
 * Moria Goblin Warriors (Bow, Shield, Spear)
 * Moria Blackshields (Spear)
 * Moria Goblin Drum
 * Cave Troll with Hammer and Troll Chain

Additional Rules: 
A Battle in Balin's Tomb must have at least one Moria Blackshield Captain who is your leader. This model counted as being a Hero of Valour and gains one additional Might,Will and Fate point. Additionally, this model may use Heroic Strike as if it was listed under it's Heroic Actions.

A Battle in Balin's Tomb force must include one, and only one, Cave Troll. This Cave Troll must be armed with a Hand and a Half Hammer and a Troll Chain. Additionally, this model is treated as a Minor Hero, with 2 Might, and 1 Will and Fate. You may also use Heroic Strength.

A Battle in Balin's Tomb force must contain atleast one Moria Goblin Drum.

Special Rules
“We cannot get out. They are coming.”
Friendly Moria Goblin models involved in a fight where their opponent is trapped receive a bonus of +1 to their Fight value.

“Drums in the Deep.”
The range of the drum is increased to the whole battlefield as long as it remains stationary during the movement phase.

So this is my pretty basic idea for a Moria Legendary Legion. Whilst you can't take any named characters, or even Shamans for that matter, you must take atleast one Blackshield Captain, who gains an additional M,W and F, and a rule allowing him to use Heroic Strike, making him pretty potent in combat (by Goblin standards!).
What you lack in the way of Goblin Prowlers, or Marauders, you make up for with a Battelfield-wide buff to your Goblin Drum, a permanent banner effect and a +1/-1 courage to you and your opponent respectively is no joke!
Finally, you must take a Cave Troll (it is a pretty iconic part of the scene, after all!), but he gains some M,W and F, aswell as Heroic Strength, making him a very nice bit of punch in the army!
Since you can't take the more expensive heroes, this list will be the epitome of Goblin Horde, just make sure you can keep your Drum alive since the courage buff will be very important when you break!

Steve: Being an Isenguard player, there’s one legion and one hero I certainly hope to see elevated even if just a little in the next supplement - Lurtz. We got a nice part Uruk Scouts based legion in Ugluk’s legendary legion back in War in Rohan, so this legion idea may well sound similar in a few regards. Obviously a large component of this will be the Boromir slayer himself - Lurtz and in the wider MESBG game he’s honestly a little underwhelming despite the tenacity and brutality he shows in the films.

Lurtz's Scouts

Army Composition:
 * Lurtz
 * Ugluk
 * Mauhur
 * Vrasku
 * Uruk-Hai Scout Captain (Uruk Bow, Shield, Two-Handed Weapon)
 * Uruk-Hai Drummer
 * Uruk-Hai Scout (Uruk Bow, Shield)

At a first glance, not a whole lot of options available other than being relatively hero heavy (all of which being scout related), one thing to change it up however will be some special rules. As I said before, one thing this force showed in the films more than anything was it’s tenacity and determination to complete their goal - this shown more so through their leader.

Additional Rules:
Lurtz’s Scouts must always include Lurtz. Lurtz is always the army leader.

Special Rules:

“You do not know Pain, you do not know Fear!”
Friendly Isenguard models do not start to take courage tests for being Broken until at least 66% of the force’s models have been removed as casualties.

Make Haste to Isenguard
Friendly models gain the Woodland Creature special rule.

Uruk Tenacity
Lurtz gains the Oblivious to Pain special rule. Lurtz’s Stand Fast! Range is increased to 12”.

“Find them!”
When in base contact with an objective marker and making a courage check, friendly models in this may roll 3D6 and choose the two highest results.

At a first glance, not a whole lot of options available other than being relatively hero heavy (all of which being scout related), one thing to change it up however will be some special rules. As I said before, one thing this force showed in the films more than anything was it’s tenacity and determination to complete their goal - this shown more so through their leader.

So a little bit of explanation about these: a lot of my thinking when designing this legion was revolving around the Uruks having a specific objective, one they were determined to accomplish and Lurtz was making sure of that. With that I decided to go with rules that would largely buff their average courage to reflect this ‘accomplish our goal or die trying’ mentality. The latter of the rules will however only work in certain scenarios, but plays into their objective heavy mindset of Saruman’s mission to them. Lastly, Lurtz did feel like he needed somewhat of a bonus especially given his climactic showdown with Aragorn where he kept going despite grievous wounds - with this in mind it felt appropriate to give him the Beserker and Feral special rule of ‘Oblivious to Pain’ giving him a nice little soft fate roll.

Will: So with my LL, although I am a keen advocate of a Cirith Ungol and pretty much anything evil. I have actually gone with a LL that I would like for good - one of the iconic scenes in The Two Towers and big point of Frodo's theatrical journey being the journey to Osgiliath and it's ongoing siege. One where Frodo would have a fateful encounter with a young Gondor Captain.

Defenders of Osgiliath

Army Composition:
 * Faramir

 * Madril

 * Damrod

 * Anborn 

 * Mablug 

 * Frodo Baggins

 * Samwise Gamgee

 * Smeagol/Gollum

 * Minas Tirith Warriors (Bow, Spear, Shield)

 * Ranger of Gondor (Spear)

 * Osgiliath Veteran (Bow, Spear, Shield)

Additional Rules:
A Defenders of Osgiliath force must include Faramir and Frodo Baggins. Faramir is always the army leader.

The force has a bow limit of 50%

Special rules: 
Life as Forfeit
If Frodo is still alive and on the Battlefield your opponent cannot score VP's for slaying the Enemy leader as Faramir will happily give up his life so Frodo can destroy the One Ring.

Protect the Ringbearer
Faramir gets +1 to wound on ranged attacks when firing on Wraith models or their mounts.

Stay here Frodo
Whilst Frodo is alive and still on the Battlefield all Warrior models gain +1 Strength. Additionally all models within 6 inches of Frodo receive +1 courage.
Each turn Frodo must roll for Sauron's Will before the movement phase and before heroics are called whether he is wearing the ring or not.
If he fails, the force loses its bonuses for the remainder of the game. The first time this fails, Faramir May call a Heroic Move or Heroic Combat for free this turn.
Frodo gains no benefits from wearing the One Ring. If he does decide to wear it for some odd reason
the army loses its Bonuses for the remainder of the game.

It's your Sam
If Samwise Gamgee is within 3 inches of Frodo you may use his might as well as Frodo's to adjust the Sauron's Will role.

As you can see, this is a Protect Frodo heavy Legion. I love this scene in the movie and it is one that brings out Faramir as the great character he is and thematically as usual, Sam saving Frodo's backside.

Whilst writing this I realised I actually love this idea and I may just invest in making this army anyway! So most of these rules I've written, as well as lines from the film, I have written them with the scene in mind (and a little help from the other members of the blog). Now an obvious weakness here is siege weapons, bow shots etc towards Frodo. This could really hurt this legion's chances and buffs but keep him hidden and safe and you're golden.

Obviously I have included the two new amazing looking Ranger models. I have no way of knowing their rules but I imagine they won't be too OP to put in this legion. With the buff to warriors, this makes the Osgiliath Veterans extremely appealing troops as fighters and gives you some difficult decisions to make.

Colm: Listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DFYvwn_xLM. Is there any other argument needed for a Black Riders LL? I personally would love something for the Nine based around their chase of the hobbits from The Shire to Rivendell. The unit choices available to this legion would obviously be quite limited. There is always the possibility that the nine unique wraith profiles could be included, but my guess is that to reflect the nine at this period the profiles available would be generic Ringwraiths and the Witch King all riding horses. 

The Black Riders

Army Composition:

 * The Witch-King of Angmar (Armoured Horse, Morgul Blade)

 * Ringwraith (Horse)

Additional Rules:

A Black Riders force must always contain The With-King of Angmar.

All models in this force must start mounted

Special Rules:

"He has been stabbed by a Morgul Blade"
The Witch-King of Angmar may equip a Morgul Blade for no additional points cost.

"They are the Nazgûl, Ringwraiths, neither living or dead."

For one round, once per game the force may increase their Harbinger of Evil courage penalty to -2.

Additionally when casting Instil Fear and Channel it for no extra cost.

The terror of the hobbits upon hearing the keening wail of the riders is an excellent introduction to the riders and something that reflects how horrifying they are seems a natural rule to include. Maybe once a game their harbinger game reduces courage by 2, or if they cast instill fear it counts as channelled.

"Do not come between a Nazgul and his prey."

Once per game the controlling player may elect to automatically win a Priority roll - the use of this special rule must be declared before any dice are rolled for Priority.

Additionally, the force may also deploy as a single warband or individually. This is to be stated after the scenario has been chosen.

An obvious weakness of Ringwraiths is their Will of Evil special rule. If they get caught in a combat they don't want or cast one spell too many they can disappear very quickly. Something to counteract this would be cool and also a way to increase their power level. There are many ways to do this such as a free will point each turn for spell casting, or if in combat they only lose on a will point on a 5+, or they get will back for killing a hero . . . The possibilities are pretty much endless.

The terror of the hobbits upon hearing the keening wail of the riders is an excellent introduction to the riders and something that reflects how horrifying they are seems a natural rule to include, this was my thinking behind the "They are the Nazgûl, Ringwraiths, neither living or dead." special rule. This partnered up with "Do not come between a Nazgul and his prey." to reflect the nature of their chase and sudden moments of ambush such as the attack at Weathertop.
Current iterations on a Black Riders lists aren't very competitive and the above rules don't necessarily change that, but its something I dont think I could resist as they're some of the most iconic villains not just in Lord of the Rings, but literature/cinema in general.

Well, that's just a sample of some of the ideas which sprang to mind upon the announcement of  Quest of the Ringbearer supplement. What ideas for Legendary Legions do you have? Drop us a comment and get the speculation rolling!

Lockdown Hobby Update!

We here in the UK, like many other countries, are currently on lockdown. While this situation is obviously very serious and worrying there is one silver lining: more hobby time! Here are a few pictures of what we have been working on while on lockdown. (You'll notice we have all used the principles discussed by Steve in his excellent article on photography for these pictures!)

Dan Slob:
I have been working on my Serpent Horde recently. Not all of this has been done since the lockdown but most of it has! I have also bought a Mumak from the lovely folks at Rebel Base Gaming to help me through the down time but I haven't had the courage to start it yet. Hoping to conquer the big boy before the end of April!

Steve:
I have been working on my Isengard recently. After finally getting hold of the Rohan at War book I decided to redo the basing on my Uruks to match my Rohan so we could go through some of the narrative missions once this is all over. I then realised I didn't like the armour on the Uruks so redid that too. Then the skin didn't match, so I started working on redoing that too. Before I knew it I had basically painted an entirely new army! Whoops! I also painted up the Knight of Umbar so I can start working on my force for Wraithbowl!

Colm:
I have been working on my Mordor army for our slow-grow league. I converted some Black Numenorians from Army of the Dead figures with the face plates from Morgul Knights. To back them up I have also been painting up some Morannon Orcs. These guys are not much fun to paint but they are the backbone to many Mordor lists so have to be done! When they are finished I am going to reward myself with some characters.

Will:
I have managed to finish pretty much all of my Mordor pile at this point, allowing me to field more or less anything I like! After these guys are all done and based I am moving on to a Serpent Horde force, starting out with a mighty Mumak! I have begun by adding some tusk weapons so he can be fielded as the Mumak Warleader! I even recruited my partner and her nail lacquer to help! After that I need to decide on a paint scheme for the warriors themselves and then try and get my hands on some Camels....

I'm not sure she'll thank me for this ;)

Dan Stu:
Since the lockdown began I have mostly been distracted by Animal Crossing! However I did manage to get my Easterling War Priest all finished off and some Khandish Horsemen basecoated. After they are all done I will be moving on to the vast pile of Fiefdoms that I have amassed. Watch this space.

Dave:
I haven't really worked on LOTR much recently after getting a bit burnt out by my Shire army! But here they are in all their glory anyway (plus a few bits I have managed to do). I’m currently planning an all Cave Troll army led by Buhrdur and have just bought the big man himself!

Sean:
I have been working on my Rohan, specifically on Dernhelm! This model was a real joy to paint and now that I have my scheme sorted I’ll be moving on to the piles of Riders I have sitting around!

That’s all for now! We’d love to see what you have been working on too!

A Simple Guide to Photographing Miniatures at Home

Given my full-time profession, I often get asked about the best way to photograph miniatures.

Sometimes, this simply comes down to the way I use complex lighting for large scale dioramas I produce in the studio. But more often than not, I’m simply asked 'How do I photograph my miniatures at home? I only have a phone camera!”.

With Lockdown in full swing (and my years of bodging sets together), I’ve decided to have a look around the house for inspiration on building my very own low-budget setup.

We'll look at producing something similar to the result below: a good quality 'hero' shot as we call it. Now this isn't a term for the model in particular, but this is the photograph to best encapsulate the miniature(s) overall. Often what you'll see on website product listings; The simplest and often most effective clean white background and nice bright light.

So this image was produced using my standard product photography setup; a high powered flash kit along with an industry standard DSLR camera. Don't fret however, as you absolutely do not need this kit to produce great and effective images to show off your fantastic paint job!

Instead for today's tutorial, you'll need the following items for your standard 25mm and 40mm miniatures.

* Camera Phone
* A4 White sheets of paper
* Desk/painting lamp
* Blu-tac or sellotape.
* Flat surface

That's it! If you want to go any larger, you're best off with a larger sheet of paper if you have one lying around.

Before we go any further, there is a very important step you must take before setting up::

CLEAN YOUR LENS

I forget to do this all too often on my phone, and it's incredible how much it affects the quality of your photo.

Set up your backdrop

So the first step is to create our background. For this, you'll need to make a corner on your flat surface, this can be done simply by using a box.

You then need to rest the paper in a curve as shown below and then secure the paper down (some blu-tac or tape on the corners works well). This is called an infinity curve, named as such that if your lighting works well, there is seemingly no end to the background.

Once you have your curve you can then place your light. LED lamps work the best I find due to their brightness, but any will do, as long as you can angle it overhead like below:

Now this is just the lamp I use for painting. It's nothing special and cost me around £25 on Amazon and I certainly didn't have photography in mind when I bought it. As you can see, it is not directly over the white background, rather it is slightly in front of the miniature (as you can see on the diagram below). Now, we do this for a very good reason: Shadows - and we'll come back to it shortly.

So now, your setup should look roughly something like this from above:

Now that we're all set, let's take some photos! On your phone (remember to clean the lens!) try and keep it level by resting it on the surface you're working on. If you have 'Pro' mode on your smartphone’s camera, then certainly take a few minutes to mess around a few of the settings and get yourself acquainted with them.

When taking the photo, make sure that the miniatures are in focus, then snap away!

So this was taken on the set shown in the previous images with my smartphone camera, It hasn’t turned out far off from the original one I shot with studio grade equipment, bar a smaller resolution. 

Remember what I mentioned earlier about shadows though? This following photo was taken with the light directly over the models:

Compared to the previous photo, the shadows are much more pronounced, leaving less detail under the robes (such as the armour on the unmounted model) and casts a very harsh highlight on the shoulders. This will be contrary to your paintjob and not show it off to its full potential!

One thing I've also had people ask me about is using the flash on their phones. Granted, it will give you a bright image, but not in the places that you need it most:

The result is far less organic and unnatural to how you'd regularly see the miniature. Due to the very directional and small aperture of phone flashes, the spread of light becomes very uneven - leading to a lack of natural shade to the figure and often blows the colours out of proportion as well.

The final step for your photo, one not often considered, is cropping. When photographing, I always leave more space around what I'm photographing than I need to make sure I have everything in the frame. The same goes for miniatures photography. What you always want to do is be able to select the best crop for your models to make sure they are the central focus of the image.

With our finished photo below, I simply made sure that the borders of the image were closer to the sides of the models. There's still a good amount of negative space surrounding them however, and this is to ensure that when posted to whatever platform you fancy, they’ll still be able to pop out on the page. For reference, Instagram uses a 1:1 square crop.

That's all from today's tutorial - a very simple and basic guide in how to make your miniatures stand out and truly show off the hours of painting you've put into your favourite models.

Next time, I'll be going over some more advanced techniques, ones that can help in small scale diorama images.

Please make sure to comment if you have any questions, and please show off your images to us!