Foam Gothic Terrain

 

Lets start the year with the near completion of another terrain project. This one started 4-5 years ago. I made terrain using the incised method of foam carving. I liked the look but it was less practical on the gaming table - specifically for games like Mordheim. It simply did not have sufficient access points to climb and risk averse players chose not to scale the surfaces. 

One reason is that the blue foam sheets I can purchase (in my home town) are all 30mm tall - not the smaller sheets available in other places (eg: USA.) This means its taller than a model - well about ... I'm looking at you GW - demanding a climb test. Also 30mm equates to around 1 1/2 inches meaning some slightly funny math on movement. 

Also, I made these because ... now I can do better. My foam crafting has improved and these look better. The different sizes make these more functional. I also made more bridges or walkways to aid player movement. 

And all this is pretty damn stupid because ... I don't play Mord, Warcry, IHMN or Frostgrave any more. My group doesn't have much interest in those directions. (I must say that Mord is my preferred fantasy skirmish game out of all of those listed.) 

So ... in other words ... I've made a lot of terrain that I won't use. 

It was a significant investment of time and I'm not going to use it. 

But I do really like the results.

As usual with my posts, I've gone off half cocked as I'm finishing off 10 small pieces of ruined wall scatter terrain to complete this project. Everything is a little bare atm. These look great with my Sigmarite Mausoleum terrain from GW and can certainly use those. 

I have a narrow hope that this would work really well with smaller games of MESBG - including Battle Companies (which appear to have been dropped in the latest 2024 edition of the Middle Earth game) - as ruined places such as Osgiliath, Fornost or something similar (maybe a raid on ruins around Minas Morgul itself?) There is also the opportunity to use in IHMN games with a more gothic horror twist. 

(I know there are games like Silver Bayonet but after 6-8 games of Frostgrave, I was sharply reminded about how much I dislike wargaming systems that use D20. Too swingy and luck based. Even D10 is sometimes too much eg: Fire and Fury.) 

All up ... another filled container in much wargames cupboard, going beside another 10-12 that I never open. But wargames is a funny old thing and sometimes you just never see the future potential of miniatures and terrain until it arrives. Overall, these mark a final trend - my increasing desire to toss out my previous terrain as I can now make better - but who can face such as massive commitment to do all that ... plus I don't have a good method for making hills as yet.

A New Year Sacrifice

I won't lie, countless orcs were harmed in the making of this battle report. 

It was MESBG (old edition) with 650 points. Mordor vs the White Council (well, 4 of them - Galadriel, Gandalf, Saruman and Elrond.) 

Mordor had the Witch King about 20 Morannons, about 20 more Orcs and 3 Warg riders. 

The scenario was capture and hold (?) ... the one with five objectives precisely spaced out around the table. We could have been fighting anywhere in Middle Earth but it was probably a little green for Gorgoroth. 

(Above, my big hope, a Morannon Captain, 11 Morannons and a banner.)

My Mordor list featured the Witch King - who I had only just painted around New Years. He was also holding a Morgul Blade but - I won't lie - he was secretly shitting himself as he knew the most powerful casters in ME were going to be using his empty hood as a target. I hoped the Morannon Orc higher defence and strength might help me out.

The WHOLE army ... yep ... 4! For 650 points!!! I was in for an utterly torrid time. 

The game kicked off with Mordor trying to encircle and get to all of the outlying objectives. The White Council kicked off with Elrond going crazy ape shit and punching a big hole in my main Morannon battle line. The Elvish lord threw out approximately a metric fuck-ton of water and my lads are scared of baths. 

The centre of the table was the place of action with Saruman, Galadriel and Elrond laying waste to Orcs. Their lower defence didn't matter a jot as I couldn't charge them due to terror (or only in a piecemeal manner) or just couldn't win a duel roll due to higher fight values. 

Time and again Orcs surged in only to be battered away with losses mounting steadily. 

My flanking forces did their job securing side and rear objectives. 

(The foreground has my right flanking force - 6 Morannons, Grishnakh, Orcs with 2HW, a warg rider, some bows and an Orc drummer. Their whole job was to flank and surround.)

Ah, the Valar themselves, far across the ocean, care little for the struggles of lesser creatures. 

Orc numbers were getting thinner ... Honestly, after 7 Morannons went down in 2 turns I was pretty shaken and didn't know what to do. I debated swarming them or just surrounding them to reduce movement (without attempting combat) or running away to stand on objectives? 

But then again, lots of initiative felt like it was going the way of the Council removing a lot of my choices. Against these guys, my big hopes - Morannon Captain and Grishnakh - just appeared underpowered and pretty foolish. I was hoping to use might to get a wound on at least one enemy before the end of the night. 

Now the Mordor flanking forces were in - including warg riders who tried to charge from behind but basically didn't pass any courage tests to do so - so I committed the Witch King too. In one turn I spent 4-5 might. I charged, used Heroic Strike and then used more to actually win the duel rolls. Then I threw a bag of pus dice. Not even the Morgul Blade helped. 

After that, all my might was gone (my will points had been used earlier - the WK had 5-6 left) and my fate was soon to be used. 

Looking back, I think I totally forgot my Mordor rule to re-roll ones. As I said above, just having my army dissected for 10 turns while not even winning a single duel roll and few initiatives (although I did manage to compel Elrond once or twice) had me totally flustered with no idea of how to respond. 

I tried to compete as best I could be repeatedly throwing in my hordes. My luck had to change at some stage. I was just fishing for a way of feeling like I was actually being a part of the battle rather than just being a target for heroes to hack down. 

Numbers are thinning above. The red dots show the objectives controlled by Mordor. The one at the top should be red too as you can see a warg rider parked on top of it. 

It looks like a heroic combat ... but it wasn't. The Witch King fought for three turns - I think - winning one, then spending all his fate points on the next and finally being hacked apart. He was about as tough as the old bedsheet he had wrapped about his insubstantial body. 

The only question remained ... why had Saruman decided to wear that ridiculously over-sized necklace? I think Elrond told him that it suited his eyes ... lying fucker. 

Now Gandalf was punching everyone on the centre objective ... Saruman still in huge necklace. Galadriel stood about like a terrifying pontifex ready to slap Orcs to death barehanded or perhaps dunk them in her mirror until they drowned. 

The only danger to Elrond was that his sword would go blunt from shearing through Morannon neck bones or he might slip in a slick of Orcish entrails. 

Finally, the supply of Orcs had run out. Right near the end both Gandalf and Galadriel had died ... not due to Orc inflicted wounds though. Both were just worn out slaying masses of Orcs and took themselves to the bench. Personally, I think they feigned injury and were just bored of killing. 

A small donny erupted as Saruman pushed for the objective at the back. Even this act showed his superiority as he could have walked the shorter distance to the centre but chose to go clear across the table - almost unscathed - to challenge the Mordor objective in their deployment zone. 

And he won that fight too ... 

Although good sense had prevailed and Saruman had taken off that stupid necklace. Perhaps Elrond's lie about accessories began Saruman's spiral toward evil?

Mordor did win on points but didn't feel like they were really "in" the game at any time. 

For the last couple of turns I was trying to figure out the benefits of being quartered - and how to hurry the process along. MESBG seems a strange game due to routing from the table seems like a good tactic at times. This ends the game and if you can finish ahead on points ... you win. This is very difficult for me to understand after decades of playing historical wargames where routing is bad. Here, there seems to be a time and a place for it. There may just be an art to getting your last guys killed then maximising your chances to fail courage tests. But, like lots of tactics in MESBG, I don't get it.