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Reading article 'A Simple Guide to the Easterlings'
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Faramir_of_Ithilien
Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:50 pm
A Simple Guide to the Easterlings
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| A Simple Guide to the Easterlings |
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‘More Men going to Mordor,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Dark faces. We have not seen men like this before, no, Smeagol has not. They are fierce. They have black eyes, and long black hair, and gold rings in their ears; yes, lots of beautiful gold. And some have red paint on their cheeks, and red cloaks; and their flags are red, and the tips of their spears; and they have round shields, yellow and black with big spikes. Not nice; very cruel wicked men they look. Almost as bad as Orcs, and much bigger.’
(LotR; TTT, Pages 631-2, Collins Modern Classics, by Prof. J.R.R. Tolkien)
| | Introduction |
A Simple Guide to the Easterlings is my second article, following on from the Siege of Middle-Earth volumes 1+2, and is meant to be an article containing all the peculiarities of the Easterling forces, the place they live in, the tactics that can be used against them, and some hints and tips…
| | Contents: |
Introduction
A Guide to Rhun
A Guide to Easterling Soldiers
A Guide to Easterling Heroes
Conclusion
| | A Guide to Rhun: |
From the mysterious land of Rhun come the Easterlings, men under the power of Sauron, though not altogether through choice, for the Dark Lord has spent many years seducing them, as he once did the Elves, and these are but men, easy to induce into fighting for him in the War of the Ring. The Easterlings are the most versatile troops under Saurons command, and he uses them to ensure victory over the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain. They almost succeed, but are thwarted by the defeat of Sauron and the victory of the heir of Elendil, and give up fleeing back to their country.
What is known of Rhun, which is little, can be gleaned from maps, in which it is evident that Rhun is in actual fact a desert, for the most part, but contains woods, and the great inland Sea of Rhun, next to the mountain range of the Mountains of Rhun. It is a vast country, covering from below the Iron Hills to the Land of Mordor, and is a country of which the great civilisation of Gondor knows little, for even their adventurers do not know much of what the fearsome men of Rhun look like, underneath their body covering armour, and their masking helmets, with the only cavity’s being the eye holes, through which an Easterling soldier’s impassive, staring eyes can be seen…
The reason of the Gondorians steering clear of Rhun is never entirely clear, for the people of this country are not known for being cowards, but maybe upon closer examination, we may be able to find some reason…
Maybe Rhun is counted as being too far out to be of any purpose conquering, or maybe when the scouts saw the great expanses of open desert they decided that it was not worth going any further, and then maybe it was the impenetrable ring of forts and cities that surrounded the Sea of Rhun that forced the Gondorians, when seeing them, to stop, like the Romans deciding that Caledonia (Scotland) wasn’t worth going to the trouble of capture…
| | A Guide to Easterling Soldiers |
With the release of the Games Workshop supplement A Shadow in the East, come the latest innovation on the Easterling models… Plastic Easterling Soldiers! As always, the Easterling Blister packs contain just three Easterling foot soldiers, meaning that to build up a unit of twelve it cost you £24 (With the old price range), an amount not readily available for most people, plus of course, the cost of paints, which at £2 a throw, forms a price of £30+, obviously put a damper on the number of Easterlings somebody could afford.
Now you have no need to worry. For the cost of little more than £15, you get 20 Easterling warriors, which greatly cuts down on the running costs…
An Easterling Plastic sprue of 10 comes with 4 Swordsmen, 4 Easterling Archers, a new innovation, but unfortunately only 2 Spearmen (Halberds), a fact which I believe is Games-Workshop’s way of making people by the metal models as well. In each pack there are two sprues, as always. Worth mentioning is the fact that the models are in quite unusual poses by GW standards(well, some of them at least!).
Easterling Swordsman (Equipped with Heavy Armour and Hand Weapon)
The basic footman of every army, the Easterling Swordsman is the person to lead any attack, as he is well equipped with a high defence. Use him well and he could carry the day.
Always buy a shield for him…
Easterling Spearman(Equipped with Heavy Armour and Hand Weapon)
Use the Spearman to back up the Easterling Swordsman with his pike, receiving an extra attack, and don’t forget that the ‘Phalanx’ allows you to equip him with a shield…
Unfortunately, he costs more than a Gondorian spearman, so take that into account. Still, do not be afraid to charge him into combat, since he can shield when equipped with one.
Easterling Archer (Equipped with Heavy Armour and Hand Weapon)
The Easterling archer has added a whole new dimension to the Easterling army, because whilst before you had to use mercenary Orcs or Haradrim, both with lower defence values, and the Orcs lower Shoot value, you can now use your very own home grown archers, with their high defence, and the fact that they meld in with the rest of your army. Beware though, while they may look better, they may be no better…
My advice is that you don’t spend too much on Archers, as they often prove to be unsuccessful.
Well, I hope those helped, and that the advice (and warnings) contained in them may help you in your fight against the Free Peoples…
| | A Guide to Easterling Heroes |
Khamul, the Black Easterling
I don’t actually have this model, but I do know something about his stats, and I would suggest that you experiment with him and see what he can do. His ‘Essence Leech’ looks particularly interesting, so use it to full, deadly, effect, especially against heroes such as Aragorn and Boromir.
Easterling Captain
The Easterling Captain is the ideal leader for an Easterling army, is cheap (in points!) and is perfect as a fairly expendable hero. I do use him, and I find that his courage, while relatively high always lets me down, so beware!
Use him well, and he will definitely be a leading force in your army!
Don’t forget to make up your own characters for an army, giving it an extra-personalized feel which is always pleasant to find in an opponents army.
| | Conclusion |
Well, that’s it, the Article is finished! It (Hopefully) is what it says on the can, that is, a Simple guide to the Easterlings… I hope it lives up to its reputation! It’s been fun writing it, even though information has been hard to come by concerning Rhun!
| | The End |
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