"It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish"

 Mae govannen, mellyn nín!

 Many years ago I got swept up in wargaming universe that wasn't Middle Earth. Whilst I did dabble in a few Lord of the Rings inspired conversions from that range, it wasn't until the films release many years later that the idea of wargaming in Middle Earth crossed my mind again.

With models being released via a magazine partworks, I went to pick up a copy of the first issue. Where on arrival to the store, I was told that this new range of minis was a smaller scale and we'd not be allowed to use models from across the ranges to play either game. Which promoted me to not buy anything from the new range at all. It already took long enough to paint an army of miniatures, why on earth would I spend time working on a project that was almost identical to what I already owned and collected, but not able to combine with what I was already working on. 

Over the following years, mainly due to commercial practices and attitudes, I lost interest in using any single wargaming company as a 'one stop shop' and I started seeking out new models and being able to play at home allowed me to drop the burden of obeying the 'official products only' tag that came with playing within this other universe.

I then spent a lot of years painting 6mm scale projects. But once the oathmark rules were announced and the first sets of models were released I was instantly hooked. Oathmark felt both like it could have been a game I'd have grown up with and it also felt fresh and original in a market flooded with FOMO style releases.

I quickly started painting up new forces for oathmark, but setting my narrative in that other universe. But there was more and more kits coming out I was desperate to get my hands on and didn't really have a reason to paint (as they didn't fit the aesthetic of the other universe) and so I decided that it would be time to finally indulge in Middle Earth gaming.

Lockdown hit and I wasn't able to carry on with any of my then-planned games so instead I started collecting miniatures for Middle Earth. I picked up almost every kit Northstar had put out for Oathmark. I brought a ton of stuff from Victrix and lots of orcs from Warlord games. Then I spotted a really, really good deal on some MESBG stuff and it was too good to pass up. Whilst I intend to stick closer to the narrative and feel of the books, I don't mind most of the imagery from the movies (and games). Its just the rules and cost in keeping up with the game I don't care for.

This carried on during lockdown and I ended up with way, way too much stuff needed to be painted, and coupled with an eye injury last year this project has now become quite the beast of burden. So now I need to start organising and getting work completed.

The plan is to eventually play a huge game set at the battle under the trees. This battle gives me the chance to paint up many of my favourite forces (Orcs, Elves) in my favourite location(s) of Middle Earth (Dol Guldur, Mirkwood). Very little official information was ever made on this battle, which leaves me plenty of room to embellish anything extra I might wish too. 

If its possible, I'd like to run the main battle on one large table with other key locations built on smaller sub tables and played simultaneously.

This also lets me build and paint a good sizeable set of forces which can then also be used for many other eras or battles within Middle Earth. 

This blog will (hopefully) catalogue the project (mostly for my own reference) as I'd like to see something of it completed. However much remains to be seen!