Barrage 2019 Games - Two Lord of the Rings Affairs!

I got back from Barrage 2019 late last night, too tired to post about it.  24 hours later, I'm still tired, feeling very much the "old man," but am going to post some pics of the games I ran at the convention.

First off, it continues to be one of my favorite minis gaming conventions.  It is a little on the small side, but the Hawks, who host the convention, are very professional and organized in putting together a local, but still two-day convention that attracts enough gamers to make it fun and interesting.  I have been to probably six of the last eight Barrage conventions, and have had a good time at each one.  Now for the games I ran.

My plan after last year was to get my Dark Ages game done and run that.  Didn't happen.  But Buck, one of the Hawks and one of the main organizers of the convention, contacted me and asked me to run a game or two, even if it was a rehash of my old games.  He told me that the games with my little wooden miniatures have become somewhat of a "standard" at Barrage in terms of there always being a game or two with them offered at Barrage, and I was too flattered not to put on a game or two after being asked so nicely.  So I decided that the easiest thing to do was to do a Balin's Tomb game with my 2nd generation LotR figures (since I had already done one for my club over a year ago), and I would also do a Bridge of Khazad-Dum game, since that would force me to get off my duff and finish the balrog … a figure that has been unpainted in my basement for … I can't believe it … more than a year!  So I committed to Buck that I would run these two games.

Before I get to the games, here is a shot of the finished Balrog miniature.  I made a lot of additions to him, besides the paint, since the last pictures of him that I posted on this blog over a year ago.

I am very pleased with how he turned out.  I changed his feet, I put him on a different base, and I used the hot glue gun to fill in a bunch of the areas that used to be open space, such as around his "elbows" and this turned out to be a great decision.  I also used the hot glue gun to make the "ridges" on his horns and face as well as to create a mouth opening.  His teeth are tile spacers.  The fire coming out of his back behind his head is just paper with hot glue all over it to give it strength.  I painted the areas on him that were going to be fire white and then used the neon craft paints (orange and yellow colors) to create the fire effect.  Then I painted the dark brown over the fire to create the look like what is on his shoulders.  There are other pictures of him in the second game report below, but above is a close up of him.  I can't tell you how happy I am to finally have him finished!  I think he turned out really good!

Game 1 - Balin's Tomb
The first game was the old stand by the skirmish in Balin's Tomb.  I used different terrain for this game than the last time, so I'll spend more time talking about it.  The main difference is I used a oil painting canvas as a "board."  This turned out to be a good decision because it made it easy to move the "tomb" floor plan around and all I had to do was paint it black and then do some lighter to darker tones starting with the middle of the room going to the edges.  The corners are black cardboard boxes I got at a craft store.  The "doors" are just wooden craft shapes that I glued together and painted to look like the doors.  This is the beginning of the game before the goblins rush in, but the doors have been broken open.

Here is a shot after the battle has been joined.  Aragorn, Gimli, and Boromir have rushed to the front to stop the onslaught of goblins pouring through the doorway.  Legolas provides supportive bow fire from behind and the hobbits and Gandalf provide moral support from the rear.  The gold gem on Aragorn means that he is shaken because he lost a melee combat with that goblin, but he wasn't wounded.  He would rapidly recover from the shock and fight on!

In game shot … I accidentally got a shot of Zeb Cook's hand in the shot.  As you can see Merry has moved up on the goblin's left, getting ready to join the fray.

Here is a shot right before the end of the game.  The dreaded cave troll has entered the room, striking fear in the hearts of the Fellowship.  Lucky for them Zeb was playing Legolas, who before this point in the game hadn't hit anything with his bow, and he got two shots into the cave troll as it entered the room before it could get into melee with anyone and I rolled a "1" on the death check … "www-UUUUhhhhhh …" went the cave troll as it fell face-first onto the floor of the tomb, dead.  You can see that Sam has moved up to help out Gimli, and that goblin in the upper right of the picture was Shaken for three turns I think, never recovering, and spent the entire battle cowering back on that corner <laugh>!

It was a pretty easy victory for the Fellowship.  Killing the cave troll so quickly certainly helped, but I didn't put enough goblins in the fight.  Next time, more goblins.

Game 2 - The Bridge of Khazad-Dum
Probably my favorite scene in the first LotR movie is the Fellowships flight to and across the Bridge of Khazad-Dum.  Seeing the Balrog, Gandalf falling, all highly dramatic stuff, and something that I wanted to try and capture in a minis game using my little wooden fellows.

I had a great group of players in this game, all very experienced minis game players and this really helped out a lot, because they had a very bad shock of bad luck within the first few turns of the game.

The Fellowship has about three or four turns to try and get as far from the door, and to the bridge, as possible before the Balrog makes an appearance.  The problem is there are goblins coming in from the sides to try and serve a speed bumps to slow them up so that the Balrog can get them.

Here is a close up of the Fellowship running through the doorway in the mountainside on their way to the bridge, with Balrog and goblins in hot pursuit!

And here is amore distant shot.  The mountain wall was made with thick craft foam cut into the shapes and layered together to give the impression of a thick rock formation.

Here is a shot of the game right before the Balrog arrives.  You can see that the Fellowship is making progress, with Gandalf leading the way, but the goblins are closing in and causing some problems for them.

Tense times for the Fellowship.  Boromir is about to have 4 goblins on him, Frodo is under attack (they lose the game if Frodo is killed), and Gimli is being held up close to the door by a lone goblin.

But they do manage to start making some progress thanks in large part to Boromir blowing the Horn of Gondor and causing 6 goblins to become shaken, allowing the Fellowship to run past them without getting stuck in melee with them.  You can see the edge of the bridge in this shot (it is also made out of craft foam) and the blackness over the edge is just black felt that the two canvases that serve as the two boards (one on each side of the bridge) are painted more or less the same way as they were for the Balin's Tomb game.  And then … the Balrog came through the door!  And you'll note that … wait … where's Gandalf!?  He fell!  Gandalf fell!  No way for the Fellowship to hold back the Balrog now!  And they can't destroy the bridge anymore either!  Oh no!  The poor guy playing Gandalf rolled a "1" on the first Death check, the only thing that would kill Gandalf, and Gandalf was removed from play.  This sapped the morale of the players, but like the heroes they were playing, they pushed on!

The Balrog moves at a steady 6 inches each time it is activated, and if it comes into contact with friend or foe it doesn't stop moving … it pushes them forward with it.

I took the backdrop cave wall down because I kept knocking the #@$%! thing over, so it doesn't look as good as in the other pictures, but what can I say.  I got tired of knocking it over.  At this stage you can see Frodo, Pippin, and Sam have rushed across the bridge and are nearly to the other side.  Merry is close behind but there is a goblin next to him (Frodo and Sam knocked the goblin down in the turn before so they could run past him this turn!).  But you can see a goblin closing in from their right ready to attack them in melee once they exit the bridge.  Once any one member of the Fellowship is within an inch of the bridge, the new goblins that come on each turn can come enter on the board that is on the far side of the bridge close to the exit.  Boromir, Aragorn, and Gimli are attempting to hold the Balrog back on the other side of the bridge!  The issue is although they can "win" in combat, they have no way of hurting the creature (only magic can hurt it) so the best they can do is slow it down.  But they were able to fight this thing for several turns as it pushed them across the bridge and they were not miraculously wounded or killed!

The Fellowship got stuck on the other side trying to get out, but the Balrog kept coming!  Without Gandalf, they can't destroy the bridge!

This is the next to last turn.  I think it was this turn that the Fellowship won the melee combat with the Balrog and the lone goblin (you can just see him in between two of the hobbits on the right side of the fray) and they caused two Hits.  The goblin takes one of them, and he died, and the second must be taken by the Balrog.  Normally this would be ignored because only magic can hurt the Balrog but since Frodo, using Sting, was in the melee the Balrog could be wounded.  I rolled … he was wounded, and had to make a death check.  If I rolled a "1" on a D6 he would die ... but I rolled a "5" so he was only wounded, not killed.  Finally the cards (which are used to activate the figures) were kind to the players and the Fellowship all acted before the Balrog which allowed them to flee up the stairs and out of the cavern to safety.  To win the Fellowship had to get Frodo and four other members of the Fellowship out alive, and they were able to get all out except for Gandalf.  Player victory!

I also played in a game at this year's Barrage (I don't always do that) and had a really fun time in the game I played in as well … even though I was soundly defeated!  Another great year at Barrage and I'm already looking forward to next year.