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So, we have the rules, now for the minis! This is a thread to post your BotFA themed conversions and models (painted or not), and discuss ideas on how to fill the gaps in the range. To get the ball rolling, some Iron Hills models converted from Grimhammers.

Firstly, 3 Kingsguard, made from the poses that were unsuitable for for pikes. Simple conversion, just swapped the hammer heads for large, flat axe blades and called it a day:


And next, the pikemen. These guys got plasticard spearheads and shields, on paper-clip pikes.





So, let the ideas fly!

Nice! I must say those Kingsguard look ace! Is the axe head just plasticard? Those pike are pretty sweet as well, especially in formation. Would love to play against that army!

Have asked for some Grimhammers for my birthday (four weeks today!) so will be joining you soon enough. Might see if there is anything in my model box i can convert up until then.

Good start and i look forward to seeing more!

Edit: could you post a picture of a Grim hammer next to a standard human from LotR, just so i can get an idea of the dwarf scale. Cheers

Cheers! Yeah, the axes on the Kingsguard are just plasticard, I simply cut the relevent head from the Grimhammer weapon and added that in its place. The formation actually worked out quite nicely; with minimal convertion, I ended up being able to form up a pike block with pointy bits in all the right directions!

I've got the lot painted now, so I'll snap some scale shots tomorrow with various other minis. For now, though, I'll say that, having just had them in battle, they were noticably shorter even than the Orcs they were up against, so properly Dwarf-y. But as the Orcs soon discovered, size isn't everything, but pike-walls are!

Oh cool, they look really effective!

How did they perform in the battle? Are the stats appropriate? Really want to play a game with them now...

They did very well against the Orcs, tabling them for the loss of only 2 models, but I think that was a matchup they were always going to win. The Orcs just had Shield and Spear troops, none of the harder-hitting Mordor stuff that could have messed up their day, and some poor rolling from the Orcs meant the Dwarves were able to stay in a 3-deep Pike formation for most of the game. With that, and with the Shield+support rule, they were throwing 4 dice and auto-winning on 6s, so it wasn't too hard to just win and then get the odd kill with the Supporting strikes.

Next, they will be going up against equal points of Uruks, and I'm thinking the higher S/D and F stats should be a great leveller. No more 4-dice-6-to-win shieldwalling, and when the Uruks can hit back with just as many attacks with Pikes it should be a fairer matchup. In this testing process, I'll be scaling up the 'difficulty' with each game, so I'm not going to say they are too strong yet considering they've only beaten 'easy' so far!

The shieldwall seems pretty effective against standard troops!

Good system, will be interested to see how they deal with monsters breaking the battle line up...

Yeah, I'm thinking Trolls might end up being a hard counter to these guys. How appropriate!

Indeed! Things like Hurl and Barge will be the main issues methinks, such effective ways for breaking battle lines...

Wizards with compel, sorcerous blast, etc. Those things will hurt. I'm curious to see uw they fair against Calvary. I know I've always had success with my elves against dwarves. Combo of nasty shooting, formation of elves with support spears, using woods to my advantage, and Calvary that has 12" movement.

Yes, I was thinking last night that Saruan in particular (75% chance to Sorcerus Blast on his free dice, almost guaranteed with two!) Could ruin this lot.

That's largely why I think the rule is fair; in formation they're tough as nails, but once you break that you've got very expensive single attack models.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And here are the Dwarves, all painted up!







I'm thinking I might need to do something different with the next batch of shields, not quite sure what though. Regardless, I think they've come out OK, they look fine on a battlefield mixed in with my other models.

And the scale shot.

Probably obvious, but from Left to Right: High Elf, Pikeman, LotR Dwarf, pikeman, Gondor Warrior, pikeman, Mordor Orc.

Just going to re-awaken this...

So I got the BotFA Chronicles art book for my Birthday yesterday and have been looking through it, and the main thing i have to say is just how much cool stuff is there that could have been that we never got to see! Also, lots of references to extra scenes that may be in the extended edition.

Anyway, really want to convert some dwarves now so will buy some grimhammers and get to work on them. Its interesting how the erebor dwarves were originally designs for the iron hill dwarves. Another thing that caught my eye was the original Bolg concept. I'm going to pick up the old model of him and do a bit of converting to make him the beast he could have been! (If anyone would like to donate a feral warg that would be greatly appreciated )

A quick note i thought i'd add is the issue with GW calling the Moria orc models Gundubads, as that was what the concepts for the movie were called before the script change so that was what must have been released to the market. Interesting, and hopefully will mean MOAR orcs. The ones in 'Chronicles' look awesome and some of the warbeasts are nice too.

Enough rambling, time to start ordering...

Yeah, that book is amazing (as are the rest of the Art books in the series. I don't have the props ones yet, but I will once they get just a tad cheaper).

On the note of Orcs, it was pointed out on OR that the Orcs in Azog's army were not Moria Orcs, despite Azog ruling Moria, so they are being renamed Dol Guldur Orcs in the next edition. And old-Bolg is awesome, sooo much better than the one they ended up with (one of the few character designs I really hate). Grab the model while you can, I say! (interestingly, he did appear in the movies twice; you can see Dwalin take him down in the first Moria flashback, and then he gets nuked by Galadriel in BotFA... not a great track record, then...)

EDIT: Posted this bit in the wrong thread, it thought this was the supplement thread
I'm just about to start editing on V3, here's my fix list (which I'm hoping will be the final one)

- Rename Moria Orcs to DG Orcs
- Lower catapult cost on Triioll to 50-60 points
- Bats get -1F unless another is nearby
- Add note that external heroes (the chaps from the GW supplement) can lead Warbands.

Anyone got anything else to add/alter? If not, I'm thinking this will be the work finished. I was asked about adding little fluff descriptors for each profile, but I think I'll only add that after the rules are 100% sorted.

Really good read indeed, makes me want to get the rest now if they are as good!

Ah fair enough with the orcs, makes sense i suppose. Yeah i love the old bolg design and the new is just a bit... Weird i suppose. I think they tried to tie him in more with the Azog look being his spawn and all. I noticed him as well, maybe Peter liked the design but couldn't make it fit, so shoved the character in anyway! I think he turns up again in Dol Guldur because the necromancer resurrects him...

Fixes look good, and i think fluff etc. would round it off nicely.

Just a heads up, the very talented Ridgeback from One Ring has put up a few of his Dain sculpts for sale.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Zwergen-Hauptmann-Tabletop-Fantasy-Zinn-28mm-/121575428511

 Captain Galenus wrote:
Just going to re-awaken this...

So I got the BotFA Chronicles art book for my Birthday yesterday and have been looking through it, and the main thing i have to say is just how much cool stuff is there that could have been that we never got to see! Also, lots of references to extra scenes that may be in the extended edition.

 Paradigm wrote:
Yeah, that book is amazing (as are the rest of the Art books in the series. I don't have the props ones yet, but I will once they get just a tad cheaper).

Thanks for the heads-up on that one. I'd bought the previous ones for my wife but had forgotten about the third film's ones, so I managed to order it and it arrived last week. Great stuff inside as usual!

Here's Dain! Unofficial it may be, but frankly, it's just as good if not better than any of the GW Hobbit character sculpts. Without a doubt, this guy fits better than the proxy Dain I was using before (on the right of the scale shot below). All told, it's a pretty awesome mini to have!

Those dwarves look really bloody cool. I'm thinking more and more that they will be my next LotR force I work on after I complete the Gondor project.