"Gondor! Gondor, Between The Mountains And The Sea!"

"West wind blew there; the light upon the Silver Tree fell like bright rain in gardens of the Kings of old."

These eight "cartoon scale" white metal figures of King Victor's Men-at-Arms are produced by “Lucid Eye Publications” and can be bought from the company's "Toon Realms" range as a pack of four identical miniatures. Sculpted by Steve Saleh, I have painted them all in the colours of Gondor so as to be able to finally field a twelve-model strong unit of (Heavy Foot) Minas Tirith Knights for “Dragon Rampant” by "Osprey Games".

Initially undercoated with two layers of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, the Third Age warriors were dry-brushed using some "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal in order to bring out some of their large cloaks' detail, and subsequently washed in "Citadel" Nuln Oil. The soldiers' boots were then treated to a touch of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, whilst their sword hilts and belt buckles were given a lick of Gold.

"O proud walls! White towers! O winged crown and throne of gold!"

Both of these areas were later washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. Finally I 'picked out' the Men-at-Arms' helmets, neck armour, chain-mail and shield emblems using a combination of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil, and eventually dry-brushed these parts with (more) Ironbreaker.

Setting aside my 'Lord of the Toons' project, I have managed to 'endure' my first taste of "skirmish combat in the Mortal Realms" using my Iron Golems against the Untamed Beasts. Perhaps unsurprisingly things did not go terribly well for my "Warcry" warband, as there are clearly some formidable synergies to understand in order to utilise each factions' special abilities and Runemarks.

The Iron Golems appeared to be repeatedly outnumbered in their skirmishes, even when helped by a Chaotic Beast

There also seems to be a significant amount of luck to be found before the game has even started, as a result of the random terrain layout, victory conditions, twist deck and battleplans; most of which are drawn prior to any battle-hammer being swung in anger. In my first game, I disappointingly discovered just three of my hapless fighters along one table-edge would be facing the vast majority of my opponent's force, and to make matters worse, they immediately needed to push through this wall of bristling weapons so as to avoid being instantly removed from the game as casualties because they were within 4 inches of an edge...

Needless to say, the trio were quickly butchered before help could arrive; albeit my duardin armator making a stand rather than fleeing for his life, wasn't the smartest of strategies on my behalf. Unfortunately though, I felt the second scenario was similarly stacked against me, as my opponent had to just outnumber me at a single objective marker every turn so they could destroy some of the battle's way-points. Simple stuff when my warband was distributed right across the battlefield, whilst the Untamed Beasts' formation was significantly more concentrated...