Rock 'n Rolla with the diceRolla

Well, if you're not following Padre JJ's diceROLLA blog, you just missed out! I'm not here to rub anything in, but to highlight an example of unparalleled gaming generosity.

About a week or so ago diceROLLA announced they were running low on storage space and were going to give away a HUGE WHFB Chaos army, still in the boxes. I have lots of fantasy stuff, but hadn't thought of getting into 8th edition, but a new Chaos army? Come on, that's too cool for words, did I mention it was all NIB? Well only eight peeps signed up, I like those kind of odds. I tell ya, I didn't win...the grand prize (congrats again Sons of Taurus), but everyone who entered won something, and not just little stuff either. Check out this post out for all the miniatures loot that was given out. I don't know what strikes me more, the fact that bonus prizes were given out, the fact that these consolation prizes were all bigger than some grand prizes I've seen, or that diceROLLA took the time to look at the blogs of each contestant and try to match up the prizes to that individual's interests and projects. I'm thinking the latter.

Well, this is Mik's Minis, so what did I get? Here's the quote, "Gyro - You strike me as a fan of miniatures in general and in all their many varieties. I feel like if anyone can come up with a good use for an assortment of Lord of the Rings miniatures, it would be you." Just look at my 'tag cloud' at the bottom of the page, I think "fan of miniatures in general" is an accurate description! Here's the prize list of Lord of the Rings models:

• Mordor Orcs w/ swords and shields, x9
• Mordor Orcs w/ bows, x6
• Mordor Orcs w/ polearms, x2
• Mordor Orcs w/ two-handed weapons, x2
• Mordor Orc w/ standard
• Mordor Orc "champion-looking guy"
• Orc Shaman
• Mordor Troll, NIB
• Sam & Frodo in Orc Armour, NIB

Sheesh, that's quite a haul, and remember, this was a consolation prize! Well, haha, consider me consoled. My head is spinnign with possibilities, and as always I am open to suggestions. My first thought was to be to whip up not just a warband or two, but an entire army for Song of Blades and Heroes. These guys would be perfect to represent my Tuskgaarde race.

Then again, I do love Hordes of the Things, and it would be cool (and now easy) to do a HotT army in 25mm. But in good conscience I can't really neglect my poor 6mm Orc army that has been languishing in queue limbo for years. I do need to paint them.

So, what about, I dunno, Lord of the Rings? Seems kind of an obvious answer, aye? I've heard nothing but good things about the system, and now I have a nice starter army for the bad guys. I've always contemplated picking up a Fellowship box, for the heroes to paint "just because". With the addition of that, I could run skirmish battles between Aragorn, Gandalf, and the others and these Mordor forces. I don't know how it stacks up points-wise, I've gotta assume there's more in the Orc department, but who knows, the heroes aren't supposed to have it easy, right? I've not been interested in the large, mass-army scale that LotR is at now, but using good personalities versus a bunch o' baddies is quite appealing. I do believe I saw the LotR rulebooks for pretty cheap at the local used bookstore as well.


So there you have it. You'll probably be seeing a new project popping up over the wire coming this fall, and it'll probably be Lord of the Rings to boot. So check out the diceROLLA blog, there's a lot more miniatures goodness going on than just cool giveaway contests.