Well, don't have any warg riders, so that makes it a bit of a wash there. What about making the bulk of the Gobbos fierce foot rather than yeomen? To give them some more punch add a cave troll as a six hit mounted men-at-arms figure?Įg 1 unit of mounted yeomen (warg riders), 2 units fierce foot (goblin spearmen), 1 mounted men-at-arms (troll with 6 hits) and 3 units of bidowers (goblin archers) would probably be a lot more fun to play. If you have some warg riders I would suggest sticking them in as mounted yeomen or serjeants to give them a bit more variety. Take care all and may the dice ever roll in your favor. My other favorite period to try Lion Rampant in is the Northern Baltic Crusades. It might not work but we shall see.Īs you can see there's lots of room to play with in this setting, both from types of battle and the fun you can have building forces Their more rounded than the classic Imperial legion scutum. Rather than going with the classic round shield, I'm thinking about taking the Gripping Beast plastic Saxons (to represent troops from the area around Dale) and fitting them with Roman Legionnary shields of the type used by the troops of Julius Caesar in Gaul. For instance it would seem to me that Dale forces knowing they would likely face Easterling cavalry would use shield wall/spear tactics to ward off cavalry charges. For instance I am not planning to use any Kite Shields or Knights that look too period/area specific. The tricky part is not using anything that looks too European/Medieval. The Gripping Beast plastic Arabs could work for Haradrim. Some of their heads could also work on Riders of Rohan. I'm using Gripping Beast's plastic Viking Hirdmen to represent the "evil Men" who fought for Angmar. Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors work fine as Dunlening Wild Men. Some Wargames Factory Celtic Chariots could work for the Balchoth/Wainrider chariots. I'm thinking of using Warlord Games Sarmatian Cataphracts to pose as Easterling heavy cavalry. While have enough of the GW Easterlings to work, I would think some of the Fireforge Games Mongols could work as Easterlings from either an earlier time or different region. I'm thinking about using Conquest Games Norman Knights with Round Shields and possible Saxon heads as Riders of Rohan. I'm kitbashing some Perry lonbowmen as Dale archers, using some Conquest Games Norman Infantry as 3rd Age Arnorian infantry. Lots of war throughout all the ages.Īs for miniatures I'm using GW minis where I have to for Orcs, Trolls, Uruk Hai and the like. I also see possibilities with earlier time frames such as Saurons invasion of Eriador during the Second Age. In fact the events leading up to the Siege of Erebor could make for an interesting narrative campaign. Defending a river line against a force of Easterlings attempting an assault crossing could make for an interesting scenario. I also want to game out the defense of the Celduin River during the War of the Ring. Several parts of that battle could be replicated with Lion Rampant. Just last night I was reading about the battle at the Fords of the Isen between the Rohirrim and the forces of Saruman.
That said if you dig through the books you can find a wealth of material from which to base battles. My main interest is the area around Dale and the Lonely Mountain and the period from the Battle of Five Armies to the War of the Ring.
Rangers come off as a mixture of Foot Men at Arms and Bidower (to represent their various abilities). For instance your basic orc seems to be a variant of foot yeomen while Uruk Hai are a variant of Fierce Foot or Foot Men at Arms.
At the moment I'm figuring out how to represent various units.
As much as I like the rules from the GW games covering LOTR and the Hobbit I am currently planning to use Lion Rampant to game out skirmishes in this setting.