Last month saw the release of The War of the Rohirrim™ – the first journal for this edition of the Middle-earth™ Strategy Battle Game. Within its pages is a slew of content surrounding The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim™ movie, complete with Narrative Scenarios, painting guides, a number of hobby guides to build your own terrain themed around the scenes from the movie, and even how to make your own Rabid Mûmak!
But that’s not all. New plastic kits were released alongside the journal, one containing three Heroes from the film – Fréaláf, Olwyn, and Lief – and another containing the mighty Helm Hammerhand, fully kitted out in his royal armour and atop his noble steed!
This has clearly inspired the Lead Writer for Middle-earth™, Jay, to add more to his burgeoning Rohan collection which, now bolstered by these new Heroes, is looking pretty formidable on the tabletop!
Jay: The Rohan army you see before you was initially built and painted to be my Grand Tournament army for the forces of Good earlier this year. I went with a Defenders of the Hornburg list (hence the snowy bases) featuring Helm Hammerhand, Wraith of the Hornburg, and led by Héra, the Bride of Death.
The release of the new plastic Heroes gave me a chance to paint them up and field the Warriors of Rohan you see here as the Army of Edoras – after all, it’s the same Warriors of Rohan, just led by different Heroes!
Naturally, this army will be led by the king himself – now with a glorious new model that was an absolute joy to paint! At his side stand his children, Haleth, Háma, and Héra, all of whom have different roles on the battlefield, and are well equipped to accomplish them. Whilst I’m not sure I’ll be able to squeeze all of them into every list I take (depending on the points value), seeing them all painted up and standing side by side together does warm my heart a little – even if some of them do meet a tragic end…
Of course, it would be a real shame if my army didn’t have the newly released Olwyn, Lief, and Fréaláf ready to go as well! I always like to try to paint my Heroes to match what we see in the movies, and I’ve tried my best to accomplish that here. I’m particularly happy with how they’ve turned out, especially Fréaláf, who, incidentally, is my personal favorite of all the new models to come out this release.
So what’s next? Well, that’s a good question. The plan is to paint up a warband of Warriors of Harrowdale to accompany Fréaláf into battle. Luckily, there is a handy paint scheme in The War of the Rohirrim journal with tips and tricks to get them just right – I’ll be using that for sure! Then it’ll be time to get them to an event and enact some glorious battles in the name of Helm Hammerhand. For Rohan!
Thanks, Jay! The War of the Rohirrim™ journal, Helm Hammerhand, and Fréaláf, Olwyn, and Lief are all out now. Perfect for starting, or expanding, your own army of the Rohirrim!
