The official RU-vid channel for all my creative ventures. This channel will be home to many of my videos relating to my roles as a Crime Fiction Writer, Comic Book Writer, War Gamer, Terrain modeler and Model Railway Modeler. Stay tuned for book trailers, updates and reviews from all these creative avenues. I hope these will bring enjoyment to many, inspiration to others and even knowledge to some. Thanks for watching my videos. Please feel free to leave comments, like my videos and subscribe to my channel. All the best!
Today is my wedding anniversary. I could perhaps shave a little time off my evening out with the wife. There is certainly a quick job or two i could complete. Although I suspect i may get unsubscribed by having my phone inserted somewhere inaccessible! All joking aside, it's a good approach. I have mentally allocated a day for hobby catching up. It will certainly be eaten into but you have to focus on the time you actually had.
@@TsCreativeRamblings 23rd September. Probably lots of painting. Mostly jobs I should have done better originally. I have painted SO MANY bases recently.
Oh that sounds good! I’d love to do a live stream that day to give you something to paint to but unfortunately I’ll be in work that day! Enjoy it though, I’m sure you deserve it!
That’s a good shout! Not sure if they are still available but I used to do a podcast called The Brit, The Yank and The Hobby. That’s a good listen. So is A Few Brits and The Hobby which is the other podcast I did.
Good stuff. Is there much difference between the various brands of acrylic paint pens? Now I’m retired I hope to start painting my 2mm armies, so need to understand which specific brand to buy. I’ll try the Sharpie ones you recommend and see how it goes… Do the Sharpie ones have a specific description/product ID? Cheers 😉
@@TsCreativeRamblings - many thanks. I’ll check ‘em out. Presumably they also do other colours (rather than just these “metal” colours suitable for armour/shields etc) - I’m thinking of, say, colours for cloaks, uniforms & flesh.
I think so. Amazon had a good selection of Sharpie pens. That is certainly a smart way of getting the other colours ‘painted’. It’s not something I’d considered but now you mention it. I would try and find the fine tip markers as 2mm are very small. Just remember to leave some black showing so you get that shadow effect. That’s what gives the depth and helps to make them pop. Good luck and enjoy!
@@TsCreativeRamblings - thanks. I’ll see how I get on with the Sharpie ones first. I see Amazon has various tip sizes - fine, extra fine and ultra fine so I need to be sure I’m using the appropriate tip size. I wouldn’t wanna paint a 28mm figure with a pen with just a 0.7mm tip but I also wouldn’t want to try using a 1” paintbrush. I’ll hafta investigate further. Thanks for your advice 👍
Good points! Related to your tips, perhaps another is trying to complete a step before stopping a session, even if it’s only 10 mins. Eg finish that one colour of painting on those figures or complete the basing on all 3 of those pieces of terrain. Finishing something helps with the good feelings of working towards the overall goal. Also your point about “wellness” is well noted. We can all do with more wellness!
Thanks for your support and comments! Agreed. My only reason for leaving that out is I know I’m often in situations where when my time is up, that’s it I have to move on. Particularly if little one needs me. However, fully agree that completing steps gives us those good feelings and contribute towards our motivation. Completely agree we can all do with more wellness. Thanks again for taking the time to comment and support my channel.
Gluing minis facing the opposite way is a 2mm right of passage. I think you do have to remove and reposition, sorry! Glad youve begun Minas Tirith. What is the ground scale for your game?
lol I think I’m going to leave as is. I can’t bare the thought of trying to take them apart. I’m sure I can get away with the story that they are passing by each other. Not sure on ground scale. My hope is to fit the battle of Pelennor Fields onto a 6x4ft table.
That sounds truly epic. There are so many troops to get on the table, you'll need all that. When I first began gaming, White Dwarf 54, I think, had an inspirational Pelennor Fields scenario. I would just add, Irregular miniatures make some great 2mm siege equipment. Their 6mm battering ram would make an excellent Grond. It towers over the little guys!
Yeah I’m planning on making some siege towers. I do need to look at the army lists once I’ve finished but I’m working off the list in the files section of the Strength & Honour Facebook group.
Tom, that’s great to know! Many thanks for all your support! I’m considering doing some ‘how to’ videos for Contact Front so if that’s something that would appeal to you, keep your eyes peeled!
I subscribed on the basis of 2mm LOTR, and those projects have been very interesting. I would like to see more 2mm. I feel some battle reporting would show off the models splendidly.
Thanks John for your comments! That’s really helpful! I’d very keen to do some videos of games so if that’s what the audience wants, then that’s what the audience will get! How would you feel about 6mm content? Thanks for your support!
@@TsCreativeRamblings Napoleonics is just not a genre I've ever been tempted by. I can appreciate it, but it's not for me. I'm a bit limited in that I don't really collect historical. Again, interesting and would watch. I've recently picked up Age of Hannibal, but it will be rules adapted for fantasy (ironically!)
2mm is always very interesting. Excited about AARs with Strength & Honor LotR. Other smallscale stuff like modeling, painting and so on. Other scales are fine if the content is different to the other thousands of videos out there. Legobuilds, not at all. One big thing; Learn how to do some post-processing regadring sound. Set volume levels and use a compressor on everything coming in from the mic during editing. This is sorely lacking with "boomer-youtubers" and I am sad to say I have had to stop watching more than a few channels because of the huge difference in sound in the videos. LOUD intro, soft voice that is all over the scale so you have to raise you volume alot. EVEN LOUDER OUTRO!!!! *eardrums gone* (Yes, even this vlog has that problem) It takes 30 minutes to learn and makes a world of difference to the quality of videos. Cheers.
Thank you so much for your comments! Really useful and I shall be taking them on board as I move forward. This video was edited on my phone so I very much hope to be making even better videos when I get my new computer. Really interesting to hear that smaller scales are something that would be good to do. I’ve seen some smaller scale videos out there but not as many as 28mm content. I shall very much bare that in mind! Thanks again for your contribution!
What size table are you planning on using for the Pelennor Fields? Its a project ive wondered about. I thought about just creating the first wall to curve between 2 table edges. As you say, even in 2mm its a significant feature.
In Strength and Honour, I’m looking at a large table (24x16 squares). I suspect it’ll fit on a 6ft x 4ft table as I’m aiming the base for Minas Tirith to be 1ft x 1ft. I’m hoping to start sketching some ideas out over the next couple of weeks so should have an update on the next livestream.
Do a favour for an old subscriber? Do please try to find space for Dol Amroth? I know you're basing convention captures large formations, but I'd love to see that. Just received, among other bits, a 2mm genie from IM. My 2mm fantasy are LOTR ish, but I think it's perfect for my Eastern contingent. Along with elephants and some camelry.
Thanks for the continued and long standing support! I’m sure I can get a base of them in! I’m going to be working on some forces of Gondor next so feels like a great opportunity to me!! Keep your eyes peeled!
Thanks! I really appreciate that. It’s been great fun making and I hope to continue until I have enough for lots of different battles! I’ll try and do a livestream this weekend and give you guys an update!
Great to see you returning to the Lord of the Rings Carl. You got my name 90% right - Craig Nicholls. Glad that my work on LOTR scenarios, which was inspired by your work, is inspiring you to give this more of a go! You have certainly picked a big battle to start with - Pelennor fields. I can understand this though, those oliphaunt’s are so cute!
Many apologies Craig! I forgot to note down your name prior to going live. Next time I’ll have to write some show notes. lol Definitely inspired by the work you’ve done. I’m hoping that if I do Pelennor Fields then the units for that will give me most of the units for the others! Plus I have a plan to do the ghost pirates which may be just a film thing…
@@TsCreativeRamblings thank god this will not come from Lego because Blue Brixx has the Licence and its going to be great without stupid Stickers and ugly colors
Great video and thanks for the mention. My rules are based on the WW1 version of CoC, which Rich C originally wrote back in 2014. I've expanded them and added my own flavour.
Great to hear Carl about the various updates. I am really pleased to hear that the War of the Ring scenarios I have put together have got you and Mark keen to try these out and video them. It is a nice full circle, your videos inspired me to put together the scenarios and now you are looking at playing them! Oh yes, you had my name right! In terms of playing the scenarios feel free to change them in any way. They haven’t been play tested and I am new to the Strength and Honour rules. If you do make changes I am happy to import these back into them. My plan with these scenarios is to get out a first draft that has the army lists and scenarios in the one document rather than having them separately. Once I complete the armies I will then start playing them and update the scenarios for balance/fun. This is probably a few weeks away. I look forward to seeing your plays. And the oliphaunts look fantastic!
That’s awesome! I hadn’t thought about it like that but it is a circle of inspiration! I guess that’s what the hobby is all about, having fun and inspiring others to enjoy it. I will definitely make notes and pass back any feedback we have! Thanks again for all your work on it.
Oh how dissapointing bits were missing! Make sure to texture the crap out of those buildings as they do look flat! Other than that its a nice build and I agree it is acceptable for 20mm.
Thanks mate! Yeah definitely disappointed but hopefully the replacement pieces will arrive shortly. Then the fun can begin! I think they will improve the look of the table and provide a bit more cover.
These look great! I like the look of the banners also which give a bit of more depth that can be lacking at 2mm scale. I also love the elephants (mumakil, oliphaunts). I hope you get to put together a Pelennor fields army and play - that would look pretty awesome! I am not a painter so I am using the printable armies pdf from karwansaray publishers to make my armies. The way you have based yours has given me some good ideas for which bases I will use. While they have a good range of troop formations I will still need to make some of my own - I am just putting the finishing touches on an Ent base. I am also experimenting with how it looks to add a banner or flag symbol on the edge of the base to better show which side the unit is on. This will reduce the amount of space to show the formation but I hope it will look good. I will mock some up and put them on the S&H Facebook page to get feedback.
That would be great to see! Mark puts unit tags on his bases using magnetic paper so he can change the name of the unit. Worth checking out his armies!
@@TsCreativeRamblings Does he have a RU-vid channel? I tried joining his twitter account but he blocked me! Strange as I had only just joined (no weird posts, LOL) - I think maybe he thought I was a bot or something.
@@TsCreativeRamblings That’s right! I have watched a few of his battle games and unit overviews on the Lardies channel. I don’t think I have seen them all yet. It was what got me keen on the system (as well your videos).
@@TsCreativeRamblings It does look like it is pretty tedious so I can understand you finding it difficult at times to get the mojo to do this, but the results are great. It is also good at this scale that you can put together a big army relatively quickly. I can see why some people see 2mm as too small but I really like the sense of scale and the aerial view of the battlefield this gives you.
Hi Carl. I have been thinking about the scenario version I wrote up with what you have written here. I deliberately set the battle to the moment after the Deeping Wall and Gate have been breached and when Theoden rides out of Gate while Gandalf reinforces from the rear. I did this as I didn’t want to make up siege rules and this keeps the game focussed on the battle rather than the siege. I also didn’t include the Ents, which now I actually think I will add now. Not better or worse, but different. I also followed the book version so there are some differences in forces. As people have pointed out the only elf at the battle was Legolas. Another difference is that there weren’t Ents at this battle, the trees in the forest are actually a different type of tree related to Ents, the Huorns. They are not as powerful as Ents but still killed any Uruk-Hai entering the forest. This is probably a bit of a geeky detail and Ents are probably good enough, but thought I would mention it. In terms of numbers, as best I can figure from the books are: Rohan: Theoden, Aragorn, Eomer 1,000 Rohan cavalry 500 bow 2,000 Rohan infantry Rohan Reinforcements: 1,000 Rohan infantry, Gandalf Isengard: 10,000 Uruk-Hai 3,000 (est) Dunlendings If we allow for 1 base (round up) per 1,000 Rohan and about 1 base per 2,000 Saruman this would give us: Rohan Theoden, Éomer, Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn 1 Cavalry, 1 Infantry reinforcement (with Gandalf) 1 Archer (skirmisher) 1 Rohan infantry, 1 Rohan infantry (raw) Saruman 5 Uruk-hai warriors 2 Dunlending infantry 2 Urak-Hai Skirmishers I have played around a little with Surame ‘s forces as a result of re-reading the Helm’s Deep chapter. While it talks about orc forces, it seems to be referring to Urak-Hai, not orcs. In addition, orcs can’t battle during the day, so they wouldn’t be taking part in this battle that starts at dawn. The chapter also mentions hails of arrows raining down on Helm’s Deep, so I have added 2 Urak-Hai ranged Skirmishers.
In terms of the forces characteristics I agree with a lot of what you have written but have a few possible changes in mind. I also understand Mark made some changes so if you can share this I would be interested. As I wrote above my army lists would be a lot simpler as there would be no elf warriors, wall defenders, camps, orcs, attending rams and fire of orthanc. My suggestions: - add ferocious and charge and possibly frenzy (or just frenzy) to the Rohan cavalry - in the book Theoden rode out of the gate and smashed through the mass of orcs. It was a final desperate charge, so this reflects that. - the heroic characteristic doesn’t really capture the impact of the Fellowship characters to me. I see them more as killing machines who helped fight alongside the other troops (remember Gimli and Legolas adding up their kills and comparing them! Or Gandalf and his magic etc). To capture this how about making a new characteristic “Hero”. A hero is an individual who can attach to a unit like a general. While attached they add 1 to the combat value of the unit (just melee, but Legolas or Gandalf also adds 1 to ranged). If the unit they are attached to is pushed back, Disordered, Retiring, or suffers a Rout, there is a risk that the General has been killed or injured. Roll 2D6 on the injury table. This rule allows these characters to be heroes and make a difference to the battle as well as help balance the scenario. If this was done I would make the following heroes: Gandalf, Aragorn and Gimli/Legolas as a single hero (as they always fought together and there would be too many heroes in this scenario if they were each made a hero). A change I would make in my scenario is to add 3 units of Huorns (Ents). I think your stats look pretty good. The change I would make is that the Huorns can only move at most 1 square from the forest (so I will need to add some forest at the top of the map!). In the books they were guardians of the forest and only killed the Urak-hai who entered the forest so this reflects that. Also they would unbalance the scenario I think too much if they could move closer to Helm’s deep. So I think that is my main feedback. Let me know what you think - especially if there are ideas you like/don’t like about possible changes to my scenario as I am trying to shape this up to be a balanced Strength and Honour game. I am also interested in what you think of the hero characteristic idea. If you want to take this up separately to this RU-vid clip feel free to DM me. Cheers Craig
@@TsCreativeRamblings I am hoping that some of these special rules will give some extra flavour to the battle and help balance it out. I hope it won’t be too much for people. Because I love the book and movies I tend to want to put in the details that I love from them into my gaming. Although having said that I like keeping things on the simpler side if possible! Of course playtesting this will best tell if things are too fiddly or not balanced well. Just to add more wall of text and ideas …. I like you idea of making the Hornburg a baggage camp. This is essentially what it was and including it in this way gives Rohan a greater breaking point and also gives Suraman another target to focus on. I don’t see the Deeping wall gap as a baggage camp, but it is an important point of entrance into the Hornburg. My thought here is that you could make it that if Suraman gets a unit into the Deeping wall gap and there are no Rohan forces defending the gap, that Rohan gets a set-back card. Again this is thematic to the films/books and gives Suraman another target to potentially focus on.
Hi Carl. For the Rohan Wall Defenders you have listed the as having the characteristic of “Ranged Attack” but you haven’t given them a ranged combat rating in the combat stat. Do you remember what ranged combat value you gave them?
@@TsCreativeRamblings No problems and thanks for the offer. If this is no trouble go ahead, but I can also wait for the article which I am sure will go into this.
Great to hear Carl that the Middle Earth Big Battles document has sparked this interest. I am really looking forward to what you and Mark do with these. They are very early drafts, and making them more balanced will be a question here. I think adding rules for magic or heroic figures would help as they feature heavily in the films and books as helping turn the tides of battle against seemingly overwhelming forces. I have tried to add some special rules to the scenarios that give a little more flavour but also balance. I think more could potentially be done here. My plan is to try to update these battles to include more Strength and Honour rules to these scenarios so they can be more easily picked up and played with this system. However I am also happy for you and Mark to use this material however you want it. Get in touch though if you like and I am happy to give feedback or ideas about these battles and to update the document with this. Another thought is how to model the disparity of the forces. Often the Free People are outnumbered 3 to 1 or even up to 10 to 1. Of course you could fudge the numbers and say they were a little more equal. Another idea is to make it so that the Free People’s bases are 1,000 or 2,000 troops (which is often all they have in a particular formation of troops) and say that the forces of Sauron are often 3,000 to 5,000 per stand. I think this would be a better solution. The number of stands representing the forces of Sauron would still outnumber the free people but not to a ridiculous degree. I think it also fits in the sense that the orcs were often large unruly mobs where-as the Gondor or Rohan have more disciplined and effective forces. So having different numbers for each base could still work. What do you think? All the best and happy Middle Earth and other war gaming into 2024!
Thanks for your comment and support! I think you raise a good point. For Strength & Honour I’d be inclined to model the amount of troops per base as different. Like you say, the forces of the Free Peoples were often smaller so I’d model the units/elements to represent that. My Orcs have a lot more figures per base. All the best for 2024!
Looks great. Have you ended up using this in the game(s) with Mark? Edit - I just rewatched your battle report and saw it there. Hopefully you can try the siege at some point although maybe S&H would need some siege rule additions.
@LtMrT1985 This looks like a good ruleset for some of the epic middle earth battles. The main missing elements I guess are seiges (I think) and heroes/magic.
@@swaminic it is a great rule set, well worth trying! Mark and I have been discussing how we might incorporate the heroes/magic element of LotRs. Hopefully 2024 will see an article about this.
Great! I think this is the main missing piece in using S&H to fight War of the Ring battles - you really need rules to model the heroic powers of Aragorn, Gandalf, Witch King etc@@TsCreativeRamblings
Good video and explanation as to how to paint 2mm armies. I glad to see you using the cheaper paints, they last a long time and are so much better for the wallet. The Ent forest is awesome too.
Thanks for your great feedback and support! I’m glad you found the video useful and I completely agree, you don’t always have to use the expensive paints! The wallet is much happier!
