The return to Middle-Earth

I guess it was unavoidable, ever since the new starter set came out last month and me being back in the hobby.

And the half yearly Lord of the Rings marathon was the final nail in the coffin... I'm going back to painting Lord of the Rings figures for the Games Workshop game.

It all started when this little guy turned up in my bitsbox, and it started to tickle again.

By faith, GW then released the newest edition of the game, Battle of Pellenor Fields, and boy, did it really start to twitch again at that moment.  And that new plastic Theoden, hmm hmmm....

And then I cracked as I watched Eomer relieve Helm's Deep again (*cough* Erkenbrand, but hey, movies) and thought to myself  "f**k it, just go grab that box and be off again on an adventure"...
I had just recently sold off my ACW army (as in those mega events all models are provided for anyways) with the idea of secretly building a Dark Angels force for the club league, but when the box came out I decided instead to use that hobby budget for this and the second hand box of models you see later in this post.  
Taking into account that my Crisis shopping list stands as good as barren at the moment (1 figure, a small 3x3 game mat and some paints) this seemed like a better buy.  At least one that does get my blood pumping as crazy while the Dark Angels would just have been a flunsy anyways...

Strolling through past conventions pictures, I came across the huge Helm's Deep we did back in the day at Crisis, and while I have no ambition at all to rebuild such a massive Rohirrim force ever again, they still are my faction of choice.  I was amazed though it has already been 15 years since we ran that game...

Now, I know the game isn't popular at TSA, though it is played at the other club I am a member off, the Puppeteers.  This means I might drop by there on a thursday more often to get a game in.

It all cumulated into some deep diving, and I have this to get me going.  If I join in the Analogue challenge again this winter, they will be high on the priority list to paint up, and I am going for a bit more detailed paintjobs on them I think.  Especially for the characters....

In the meantime, I will be trying to warm people at TSA for getting into the game (again?) and will be building forces for both sides as a result, probably beginning with the Battle Companies skirmish system or such I guess, requiring only a handfull of models per player.  It`s not like I don`t have the models to have a go at it...  Nemesis has been reeled in at least, and so will Noshi, I just need to make sure there are models ready for both sides.

One of the comments I heard is that the game is more like old "hero-hammer", with the characters whooping all... but isn't that the core of the books and movies after all?

So there we have it, I'm throwing myself into it again for 2019, to provide some counterbalance to all the pink I'll be painting along the road.

Du Bekar!  Du Bekar!