A Tale of Four Gamers Part Deux: War of the Rings

As you all know, the boys at Adult Swim Bunker have been contemplating "A Tale of Four Gamers." Each players builds and paints 250 points of minis each week, battling it out all along the way.

So what army for me? I have a budding War of the Rings army (25 Minas Tirith Warriors and various forms of Boromir). The warriors are painted. Boromir is not. Technically, the painted guys couldn't be part of the challenge. But that's okay because I have a hankering for a different army: Misty Mountains.

But why Misty Mountains? Adult Swim Bunker's Jake (a WHFB genius) wrote an article espousing the virtues of the Misty Mountains list and it sounds fun (though perhaps a bit challenging).

My main reason for liking the army, however, is the monsters. I just love monsters. From the age of four, watching Godzilla movies on black-and-white TV, monsters have just been my faves. Misty Mountains gets you Wargs, Giant Spiders, Bats, Cave Trolls, Dragons and the Balrog. I mean holy crappoly.

Also: the whole list also oozes nostalgia. Everyone in my age group (I'm 35, like a boss) remembers the classic animated Rankin/Bass version of "The Hobbit." That movie (and of course the book) was ALL ABOUT the Misty Mountains. (It's pretty much what turned me into a gaming geek, too).

Though the WoTR minis don't exactly look like the Rankin/Bass character designs, they are still reminiscent enough to give me chills. So nostalgia, whether it's a love of scary monsters or the thumpety thump of my heart when I think about an animated Smaug, is getting me here.

The downside to Misty Mountains? As Jake said during a game of Arkham Horrror last week: "You have to paint a shit-ton of goblins." And you have to buy them too. And while I loves me some monsters, it may not be worth it in the long run if I have to choke down company after company of gobbos. I have enough of them to paint for Fantasy!

So what's my alternative? Gondor? Well despite the fact that Jeff says it's the best army in the game, I'm just not feeling it. I have no doubt about Jeff's assessment. The data is all there -- and I do intend to build a Gondor army at some point. But I'm in the mood for evil. So Mordor? Arnor? Isengard? (I loves me some Uruk-hai).