The Rings of Power

So I managed to watch the first season of the Rings of Power - my thoughts. 

It’s fantasy tv, but it is not Tolkien. 

I did have high hopes when it was announced a few years ago - more Tolkien In the screen must be a good thing (the Children of Hurin would make a dark but amazing show) and some of the second age stories are great. I was a little concerned when I saw the trailer .. climbing ice cliffs with dagger …

But I have to say I was disappointed (although currently less so that the Hobbit movies, which make me sad …) … some of the characters weren’t true to the lore as I understand it. The pacing, timings and plot devices were strange to say the least. 

Some of visuals are spectacular to be fair. But the remake of Clash of the Titans had good visuals, but the story telling was nothing on the Ray Harryhausen classic - you have to have a good, well written story and characters to make people care.

So some of the things I don’t like are - 

Galadriel - she is so angry and just doesn’t make sense for a princess who spent most of the 1st age in Doriath with Melian the Maia. She would be directing others to act on her suspicions … She also wasn’t sent back to Valinor by Gil-Galad - but she wouldn’t be allowed in anyway as she is an evil being trying to commit genocide on the orcs - nice for the lady of light. Also the fight scene where Xena, sorry Galadriel takes on 4 or 5 numenorean volunteers just looked so poor and fake. I feel for the actress as she is only doing what is asked of her …

Gil-Galad - why is he such an idiot? We have to leave … in weeks. The elf who almost took down Sauron …

The dam breaking sword mechanism - WTF … really? Just break the dam … 

The amazing 3 Numenorean ships that can carry an extensive camp and some 300 armoured cavalry, who manage to arrive exact when needed to a battle they knew nothing about … that was a stroke of luck. 

The Southlands boy Theo - nothing against the actor but what’s he for … apart from being the weak link to give up the sword McMuffin to break the dam.

The fact that distances don’t matter - Mordor to Eregion in 6 days … took the fellowship to tad longer … obviously they didn’t spare the horses.

The magic mithril which apparently was formed after a fight between an elf hero (Glorfindel?) and a Balrog at the top of a mountain … but this mountain was on the way out of Gondolin which is in Beleriand - now under the sea - nowhere near the lonely mountain - I get the idea to reference the fight, but to move the location and give it the creation of mithril - why?

The forging of the 3 rings (before the forging of the 9 for men or 7 for dwarfs) and touched by Sauron with his suggestion of alloying Mithril with other metals. Now I am no expert in metal work, but I am guessing that a dagger has a iron/steel blade then a decorative silver/gold hilt (although could be iron), but we are talking about Galadriel’s dagger - so why do we melt the whole thing when we could just take the hilt off. But what do I know.  

The meteor man and the priestess following him - how can he be a Istari? As I understand  it they were sent to middle earth in the third age (about a 1000 years into it according to the Lord of the Rings appendix B), to help and prepare the free peoples against the returning darkness/Sauron. The priestess’ there was no explanation as to what they were about for about 3 episodes and they didn’t last long after we found out …

The “missing” Isildur and Celeborn - were is the risk - we know they survive and have to live. The call back to the movies with Isildur/Aragorn’s horse …

Things I’m not worried about - the Harfoots, who cares about them. Although I did find Nori rather annoying. I don’t mind Arondir, although the love story with Bronwyn is a bit naff and unnecessary (like Bronwyn to be honest).

Elf hair cuts and multi-ethnic casting, no big deal - although I would guess that historically populations would be more homogeneous in general - except in the cases of cities at the crossroads of the world (Byzantium etc.), otherwise multiculturalism would be thing now  

I did like the Uruk/Elf Adar - I like this character and idea. The fact he survived the war of wrath and was look after the orca had legs I think , what they do with it remains to be seen.

There is so much potential here but instead of having time jumps to show the fall of Numenor and the raise of Sauron, as they did in the House of the Dragon, they have condensed the time line to make no sense at all - surely changing the human actors as they get older but not changing the eleven ones would be a great way demostrate why the numenoreans become jealous of the elves and fall to darkness.

I have to say I have much prefer the Witcher and even the Wheel of Time - although I am told that this was a poor adaptation, I thought the story made more sense that the Rings of Power.

I summary they have the outline of a great story by Tolkien, but have failed to write characters or a story that people care about and they have broken the lore … 

Morts 

Almost Hallowe’en …

So it has been a busy month September - back to work, returning Thing 2 back to University, some decorating for the new sofa (arriving on the 2nd Oct). And we had the big “O” in at work … seemed to go ok, an early visit might be the way forward.

Have managed to squeeze in a wild camp out on the moor - a rather delayed train journey to Okey (but got some money for that)and sore hips for not inflating the air mattress enough. 

An ominous looking evening - but all was good (apart from the rave a couple of miles away in Fernworthy). 

Sunrise - nice. 

The views north from Hangingstone. 

A look back down the East Okement…

Gaming wise things have been quiet - due to work getting in the way. The Old World rpg which Tiger-King was bullied into running, has failed to restart due people being away (work again) the GM getting COVID (very last year).

Until today I haven’t done much painting - but I did some undercoating yesterday, managed to get some more things ready for the painting table - unfortunately the 2 cans of white primer I had found in the shed were knackered, so my plan for some zenithal undercoating was buggered up - apart from by dry brushing. 

Any how I was able to do a bit with the gunmetal for the scenery and Necrons. 

Large raw plugs to be used as force field holders - seems to work. 

Heavy weapons - I got these years ago for the Starship Troopers. I used the speed paints over the black and gunmetal - I think it works. 

I also did some more speed paints over gunmetal to get some nice effects - speed paints over the metal gives a metallic effect which look good. 

Morts

Necron Deathmarks from Warriors

So because I am a bit of a tight wad I decided to get some Necron warriors to convert into Deathmarks using the spare parts from the Immortals/Deathmark kit. I got hold of an Imperium magazine with some Necron warriors unfortunately the set I got only had 4 sets of legs - so can only have 4 Deathmarks (I hope to get another set of legs). Fortunately according to the Kill Team compendium a fire team of Deathmarks only needs 4 - so all good 

I needed a to smooth and fill out on the edges so that the chest pieces matched to the rear torsos. Then I used the rear rib guards and the spines from the warrior’s rear torsos to extend the front shoulder pauldrons and a filler on the Deathmarks back. 

The finished Deathmarks (apart from painting obviously) - the arms did struggle to get around the chest so some green stuff was needed to make it look so they didn’t have dislocated shoulders. Happy with these - but I would like another pair of legs.

Morts

Game night - BSG and Munchkin

The full collective met up last night at the Tiger-King’s for a go at Battlestar Galactica (for the first time in ages). The group enjoy BSG but it has been a while since we last played. 

The hidden Cylon mechanism provides plenty of banter as the blame game goes around - however for the first half of the game even the destiny deck was helping humanity escape - we were also helped by the fact in the first round of identities we were all humans - of course this meant when the second set were dealt 2 of us would be Cylons.

So I ended up as a Cylon so took the opportunity to reveal my identity so I could use the Basestar orders - while Sylon (who was the other Cylon) was trying to put Tiger-King in the brig. There had been a little error with the placement of refugees ships - but this was resolved and the Cylon fleet destroyed them - wiping the cursed humanity from the galaxy. Win for the Cylons.

Then we a a few rounds of Munchkin - which DK had been sending negative vibes about - but was generally considered to be an amusing game, so will get to the table again some time.

A jolly splendid evening of games, banter, some lovely food by Tiger-king’s wife and too many beige snacks….

Morts 

Chaos Space Marines - Speed Paint

I have been spending a bit of time recently assembling things as I am not sure what I want to paint. However as I had finished the Chaos Cultists, I thought that I should finish the or start the Chaos Space Marines - I also thought that it would give me more practice with the speed paints. 

So I managed the 3 with the chainswords - went for a mainly red scheme, but I thought that a few other colours would make them less uniform looking- more Chaos-y.

In retrospect the speed paints were a bit fiddly with all the deals on these - I had dry brushed white over a black undercoat. The reactivation of the speed paints can help and hinder the painting process and means I have to get some spray varnish as when I varnished the chimera some paint was lifting. There are two more marines to paint.

Morts

Kill Team - Assault Intercessors versus Craftworld

Last night Steedo came over a go at Kill Team (no covid this time). The game took a little while to set up as I had been preparing some minis and terrain for undercoating, then had to drop thing 1 so she could go off to a festival (and then meet  thing 2 with her sleeping bag which she had dropped as she headed off the to her festival). 

We played with compendium based forces- 5 Assault Intercessors versus 4 Dire Averagers  and 4 Rangers (the new balance update would have 6 space marines and 5 each of the Eldar).

Steedo chose to have the Eldar and we worked through the Tac-Ops cards (although we could find the faction specific ones in the compendium). Then we played through the setup rules for the Seize the Ground scenario from matched play. We probably set up the board incorrectly - but we were both playing on it. 

Steedo won the scouting phase and give me the initiative. The Victory Points came off holding objectives at the end of a turn - and move if they were on the opposing sides half of the table. 1 point a piece at the end of the first turn  

The game after one turn - the marines had taken some damage but were closing in on their opponents. 

Still early doors - the marines closing in - the high saves and high wounds were help them a lot - the closing of range perhaps should have meant the Steedo should have been moving his troops away out of pistol and charge range.

The Eldar leader getting a beating - this allowed me to get 2 VPs - the Eldar took serious casualties in turn 2 allowing me to play my second Tac-ops card. 

Some shocking dice rolling from me, as I tried to shoot the Avenger, so that I could then charge the Ranger behind and then batter him with chainsword … but it wasn’t to be. Shocking dice …

Turn 3 was a draw with 2 out of actions on each side - however the Only in Death Does Duty End allowed one of my marines to kill an Eldar before dying of wounds … thematic but tough on the Eldar.

The game continued with the Intercessors chasing the Eldar about - it was a tough game for Steedo as he had the numbers but it was a challenge keeping moving with the Rangers hampered by the heavy rule so that they couldn’t shoot from concealed. The 3 actions for the marines meant that they were able to shoot - charge - fight at times which was generally fatal for any Eldar they got close to. 

The end victory points were 8 to the marines and1 to the Eldar … no doubt we got some rules incorrect, but it was an interesting learning game. The Intercessors have some new rules which would allow a mixed Assault and Standard Intercessor team - so access to Auxiliary grenade launcher and Stalker bolt rifle … a tough team.  

It would be interesting to see the Eldar versus an Ad Mech team - where the guardians don’t get penalties for overwatch. The Craftworlds need an update on the compendium rules . 

I have started on the painting of the Chaos Space Marines and assembled the Nercon Immortals - and planning to kit bash some Deathmarks from some warriors (when I can get some cheap ones) . 

I am also planning a proper boots for kill Team so it matches the bases. I like the idea of the board on the reverse of an lkea picture frame  

Morts

Blackstone Cultists - part 2

With a little bit of effort I have completed the last 4 Cultists of the Abyss from the expansion with no cards or way of adding to the base game … anyway these will probably become the cannon fodder for a Chaos Space Marine Kill Team. 

Leader and dangerous flamethrower guy. 

A coupe of grunts - standard cultists you could say. 

Not bad job on these - no speed paints used.

Basing and varnishing to do. Will probably put the Chaos Space Marines on the painting table next .

Morts