Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rings game is a marvelous skirmish system that is readily convertable to many other periods. Hey—Games Workshop proved it by releasing Legends of the Old West, a set of cowboy skirmish rules.
If you’re playing the Scouring of the Shire scenarios for Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rigns battle game, you might need a small hobbit sized barn. Here’s one.
The One Ring Website has a tutorial on building a Mordor Siege Tower from balsa, cardboard and wood. While the idea is for Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rings Battle Game, it clearly could be used for any ancients or medieval miniatures wargame.
When playing Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rings battlegame, you need to keep track of each character’s Might, Will, Fate and Wounds. As you can imagine, when playing a character heavy game, this can get a bit fiddly.
The solution is to create sets of small character cards where you can tick off the stats as necesary. Even better: laminate the cards so you can write on them with wipe off pens and so use them over and over.
If you dont’ have access to a laminating machine, I have another suggestion: lay out a sheet of clear contact paper with the sticky side up. Then put the cut out cards on the shelf liner, face down. Cut out the cards and then repeat for the backs. The shelf liner is not as good as laminate, but will make the cars last for a bunch of games.
Games Workshop’s most excellent Black Gobbo web magazine has an article on building underground dwarf chasms for your Warhammer fantasy dwarf armies. They also would be good for teh Lord of the Rings game.
I’ve got this vision, though, of a game called Orcs vs Waves, in which you play bands of goblins and orcs scurrying to find high ground as a huge wave crashes through.
I’ve been painting Gripping Beast Vikings with the idea of having them do double duty as Rohirrim in Rohan v Uruk Hai batttles. The Vikigns are close to finished. I’m going to use this Uruk Hai painting guide when I start with the orcs.
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
