100th Post Hobby Blog Special

 

One of my plans for 2026 was to keep a hobby log of my painting progress, especially as this is my 100th post on this blog. We're now nearly 3 months into the year and...

Live footage from painting desk

Let's just say progress has been slow, with only a few models seeing the paint brush and go forward momentum falling off a cliff. This is not helpful to the task of clearing the backlog of unpainted minis in my collection or achievingany of the 101 ideas floating around my head at any one time. So, in order to rectify this something drastic has to be done.

And with that it's time to introduce the Arbitrarily Random Selection Engine*

Basically, it's a series of tables that will determine a random mini project for me to work on during the next couple of weeks through the rolling of 2 D6. The 1st dice determines the general game system and the 2nd dice the specific project to paint. 

And onto the tables:

40K

Bolt Action

Age of Sigmar / Old World

Underworlds 

Miscellaneous 

Middle Earth SBG

Finally, the 1st rolls are:

Tankettes!!!!

Now lets come back in a couple of weeks and see if this thing works.

*Working title, that acronym could use some work

IHL Interviews - Alex Neaves

 

After what seems like the entirety of the 3rd Age, the blog is back!! And what better place to start than with a little chat with the newly crowned IHL Champion for 2025, Alex Neaves?

Tell me a little about yourself. How did your hobby journey begin and what drew you to MESBG?

*batista entrance music playing* *pyrotechnics*
*Crowd cheers*

Where to start, firstly I’d like to thank Rob for giving me the chance to share my experience this year and just my general knattering on

well my first experience with wargames was actually in school, we had a gaming club where I played and won a shadespire tournament, that was my first real experience with wargames and the hobby in general.
My first look as mesbg also came here as the teacher who ran the club did a balins tomb game to show everyone in the club, but the main reason I got into the game for real was due to my friend Ben. He got into the game as Covid happened and for a while he couldn’t really play, we were both 15 or 16 at the time so travelling to clubs to play wasn’t really an option for us. So playing Ben was mainly my first way of getting into the game, so if anyone is to blame for me terrorising the ihl and greater sbg community in the many ways I do… it’s Ben


What kind of armies have you been playing during your championship run?

This year I really had no intention of playing for the championship as I’m a full time university student with my weekends being taken up with work so it was really difficult to find a chance to make it to events at the start of the year (shout out to my loving partner who definitely was super ok with me using all my holidays to go to events) but because I’m talking to you now I guess you can say I made it work.

As for the sort of lists I played this year I’d describe them as fun and fluffy but if you asked my opponents they’d probably say I’m a liar. Because I was limited to 4 events the minimum needed to have a chance at winning the league I looked to play some pretty strong lists, due to joining the league 8 months late I had the chance to let the edition play out for a few months and the strong lists became quite obvious so I had an idea of the sort of lists I wanted to play #metachaser4life .i played 5 lists this year including- Moria double dragon, men of the west, army of the white hand/ defenders of the pelenorr (gve event) and finally at the league final I took the mighty balrog in the depths of Moria. I’ve always been a fan of playing strong lists and even though we have a small league compared to a lot of countries the skill level of a lot of players is very high so really if you want a chance at doing well at these events you need to play lists that are going to aid in winning.

What factors draw you to a particular army list? Are you more prone to chasing a competitive edge, or more driven by more thematic considerations, for example?

As many know last edition I was a huge fan of soup lists and really pushing the boat out of what ever the lads from cork at the time were playing haha, but with Ivan and Dave on a sabbatical I was left to make my own lists, I definitely do prefer a high power level army, I play the game to win and that’s how I have fun. I have nothing against people who play the game for fun and I’m honestly jealous of those who can play a not so strong list and still have a blast at events.
I have found myself at the top tables of many high calibre events, I was an unfortunate dice roll away from a 3rd place at the largest Irish event with 60+ players last year with many great players from around the world, I’ve played on the top tables at scotlands biggest event until I was eventually told I had to play Ivan on the top table and he showed me there was still levels to this game haha. This year I managed to go 3 event wins and 1 second place, doing 4-2, 5-1, 4-2 and 6-0 respectively ending the year with just under an 80% win ratio. My lists definitely played a strong part in this but between my last event of the last edition in November 2024 and my first event coming in late July this year I had probably played 3 proper games of the new edition. Putting all these factors together I am more than thrilled with my performance this year, dropping 8 months of events to everyone else was definitely a struggle to come back and win, somehow managing to pull it off has definitely been the highlight of my time playing in the ihl so far. A huge thank you has to go out to all my opponents for many delightful games, Oli and Damian for the lifts to events, Damian also gave me a lend of my army for the final so blame him for everyone being wrecked by the balrog and of course Nicky who was an amazing host for two of my trips to the north and making my trophy collection look a whole lot cooler with probably the best trophies in the game. All the amazing TOs who ran 4 fantastic events and most importantly my microwave who cooked all my dice to absolute perfection.


What advice would you give to a new player who was thinking about diving into the hobby?

Rob has also asked me to give a little advice to the newer players looking to further their skills or start their hobby journey. The best advice I can offer is pick an army you think looks cool and would enjoy playing and master it, our resident boromir player Che has taken this to absolutely terrifying heights. As the saying goes do as I say not as I do as I think the most events I’ve ever played the same list at is two so grain of salt and that. If you want to up your skill just playing games and getting that experience is the best way you’re goi...

Hmm, we seem to have had some technical issues there, just as Alex was about to impart his tactical brilliance. I'm sure it's just coincidence. But many thanks to Alex for taking time out of his busy Champion's schedule to talk to me, and best of luck in your title defence. 

Alex asked me specifically to include this photo, no idea why...

Donegal Dash - Army Lists

This weekend marks the 1st event that I have TO'ed in many years and the 1st IHL event to be held in Co. Donegal. This is the Donegal Dash, a 200 point event (with the option to bring a Good and Evil list) held in conjunction with the Donegal Dice Flingers and the Wild Atlantic Wargaming and Tabletop groups in Letterkenny. 

So without further ado, onto the lists.

So there are all the lists, I hope everyone has a great time. 

Games Workshop wouldn't, so we did

 “I don’t want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I can’t escape is even worse.”

Its been a while since Games Workshop produced any meaningful new releases for MESBG and we're all getting fed up with waiting. However, towards the start of the year I was approached by a shady YouTuber asking if I wanted to take part in a collaboration with other content creators to address this lack of new stuff. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity without having a clue what I was getting myself into. Then Benji of Benji's Hobbies told us what the challenge was thus:

"The aim is that we each create a profile for use in game for on our our favourite factions. You can tie in some lore, make up stat lines and special rules and obviously create the models as well - these can be either conversions or 3D prints, whatever you like!"

Naturally, Thorin's Company is my favourite faction, but it's already perfect and I couldn't possibly create anything that could improve on perfection.

Perfection 😍

So the hunt was on to find something new I could create and I quickly settled on a historical force that has never been touched upon within the game despite having a fairly prominent role within the Appendices and a key role in shaping Middle Earth politics at the time of the War of the Ring. 

This force is the Wain Riders.

The Wain Riders are described as a confederation of people's who appeared from the East of Middle Earth and fought a series of wars against the Kingdom of Gondor (and their Northmen allies) over a period of about 100 years. This series of wars represented one of the greatest threats to the Gondorian Kingdom and resulted in the death of 2 Kings and the near extinction of the line of Kings. 

Not a huge amount of description is given of the Wain Riders beyond the points that they were better armed than earlier Easterlings, "they journeyed in great wains, and their chieftains fought in chariots" and that they utilized" fortified camps of wagons". Not a lot to go on, but based on that I knew I needed a Wain (or Wagon) as that was their defining characteristic and gave them their name. Based on what little we have to go on they seem to be semi-nomadic people akin to the Steppe tribes of our world (they have been described by some commentators as the Huns of Middle Earth), so that is where I started looking for models to base these conversions off. Unfortunately, historically most of the Steppe tribes of our world made extensive use of cavalry and the model ranges reflect that. I wanted this to be an infantry force outside of the chieftains in their chariots and the Wains because cavalry typically completely replaced chariots and the only mention of horse cavalry comes in the final campaign when the Wain Riders were accompanied by Khandish allies and had "a force of cavalry far greater than any that had been expected," alongside the"War-Chariots of the Wain Riders". This suggests that the cavalry was provided by the Khandish allies and that the Wain Riders themselves used little cavalry. Luckily Fireforge Games sell a box of Steppe Warriors that perfectly fit with what I wanted. 

These, combined with bits from my bits box (primarily from Warlord Games Celts and Victrix Libyans) provided me with perfect Wain Rider warriors.

Now, as far as the actual Wain for these guys to ride I found an excellent War Wagon for sale from 1st Corps that fit the bill. The 4 oxen pulling the Wagon would suit well as the Wild White Kine that famously lived in the area (and from one of which the Horn of Gondor was cut) and it would easily accommodate several Riders upon it.

Now invariably real life got in the way, and so my plans for the chariot riding Chieftains (and fully finishing the paint job on these) didn't make it in time for this challenge but here's the current state of the Wainrider Horde.

And as far as profiles go did create a full army lists worth but  I'll just focus on the 2 for now. I wanted the Warriors to be a fairly basic option because I wanted the focus to be on the Chariots and Wains, although they have some flavour with their Chariot Runner special rule which allows them to keep up with and support their faster brethren.

The War Wain was a little more complex. I based the main rules for it off the Iron Hills chariot but included the option for up to 6 infantry models to ride it and attempt to leap off and into the fighting (at the risk of leaping to their demise.

I'll come back to this project and keep you all updated on its progress but until then what profiles would you like to add to the game if you had the opportunity? And don't forget to check out the other participants entries with their ideas over here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVGrfW126UEj5vzmnc0WwmWqEBJDffVcI&si=_r2wkpGD27Wwzsra

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17-jTlbkI-0NBofw-d3CC8OHF7h19Hoq2

February 2024 FAQ Reaction

 "The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure." Theoden

There was an FAQ, there were questions, there were answers, there were changes.

So what are my thoughts on this new post-FAQ landscape we find ourselves in?

Meh.

I don't really care. The changes are relatively minor and don't impact any of the armies I use or have planned, so grand. The general lack of requirement to make changes shows that the balance is generally in a reasonably good place at the moment, which is great.

PS. Something about Jamie Wiggans, for some unknown reason. 

New Year, New Me?

"There never was much hope. Just a fool's hope."

New Year's is traditionally a time for new beginnings, new resolutions and new challenges. New Year, New Me and all that malarkey. But I'm sure you're not interested in hearing about me losing weight, giving up booze and going to the gym (none of which I have no intention of attempting).

No. This is a hobby blog and so (I assume) you're here to read about hobbying*. And so what crazy resolution/challenge will I be attempting to kick start 2024? After spending literally moments considering it, I had the perfect challenge to spectacularly fail at.

This year, my ill-thoughtout challenge will be to paint 100 models in 100 days. That means that between January 1st and April 10th I will attempt to complete 100 models. Now, considering that I painted a total of about 88 models in the entirety of 2023 and my current record for a whole calendar year is around 110, this may be impossible, but God loves a tryer.

And to start off, between midnight and 1am on New Year's I painted the first model of this challenge; Oindiana Jones, dwarven treasurer seeker.

Now wish me luck, and you can follow my progress/failure by checking out my Instagram.

*If you're not you're probably in the wrong place.

It's like in the Great Tales

'A story must be told or there'll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.' JRR Tolkien

Bilbo Baggins by Raoul Vitale

One of the most common questions that I see asked about MESBG is 'how do you write an army list for [insert faction here]? Obviously, the answer here depends heavily on what faction is being asked about but there's probably as many answers here as there are wargamers. In general though there's a few archetypes for how I see people writing lists; ranging from power gamers and net listers right through the spectrum to the thematic gamers.

Personally, I fit very firmly within the thematic gamer camp and something that I've noticed more and more with how I create army lists is that I'm always trying to make my army lists not just be a believable army within the realms of Middle Earth but I also want it to tell a story. Take for example, the army I took to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad which was telling the story of the Knights of Gondor rescuing the retreat of Faramir across the Pelennor in the buildup to the Siege of Minas Tirith.

I find that this takes thematic list writing to another step up, where every decision I choose to make has to have a justification for it within the story I'm trying to tell and that these decisions then influence the building and painting of my army. This is most evident when it comes to hero choices, MESBG is a game defined by its heroes, although it also filters down through the hero choices Again using my Knights of Gondor as an example, I had a Captain of Minas Tirith leading a small warband and rather than leave him nameless and his story untold I checked through the books and found that Hirluin the Fair of Pinnath Gelin rode alongside Imrahil on the Pelennor, and so my Captain of Minas Tirith became Hirluin and from there the model came to life.

Hirluin the Fair from my Knights of Gondor army 

This story-driven army building approach doesn't have to be wedded to the letter of the books or the images of the film, however. As long as you can justify your choices within the context of the world Tolkien created you can really have some fun probing the edges of the map and exploring the untold tales of Middle Earth, creating your own stories as you go, 'Forging the Narrative' to coin the old Games Workshop term. It's as Tolkien himself said it's the untold tales that are the most moving.

I'm not saying that this is the right or best way to write army lists for this great game, but it is a very fun one and one I'll certainly be continuing to do as I embark on new adventures in the hobby and I encourage others to do so to.