NEW STUFF?

One of the exciting but scary elements of working with the licence is that we are allowed 'within reason' to add to the existing material, exploring beyond what is in the text and adding creatures, characters and even places of our own creation to the world of Middle-earth. I am obviously an enthusiastic The Lord of The Rings fan and would be the first to object to any crass exploitation of the world Tolkien created, so this put me in a difficult position; on one hand there is the joy of being able to create something new in a world that I have loved since my teens, and on the other a huge responsibility to do it properly. I am aware that it will be impossible to please everyone – there are purists who dislike anything other than the original texts, and those that would like to see ever more The Lord of The Rings material spun off from the core ideas. I think I'm somewhere in between, and I can only say that I will do my best to create cool new stuff without it being gratuitous or inappropriate. Hopefully the players of our game, and the fans of Tolkien, will be able to enjoy what we have created.

TO WRITE OR NOT TO WRITE?

The second problem that soon arose was whether we should include the brief pieces of fiction and very short stories which we always have in our Warhammer Armies books, Warhammer 40,000 Codexes and rulebooks. Often written from the point of view of the characters of the story, they are very useful to set a scene or convey to the reader a clear feel of what the book is about – heroic Space Marines in a last stand against hordes of Tyranids or brave Bretonnians charging into a trap set by the treacherous Skaven. So, should we be writing for the new supplements a little story about an encounter between some Rangers of the North and the Ringwraiths near Weathertop, and then another half-pager about a small group of Elves defending the borders of Lorien against a marauding band of Orcs, and so on?

Well, the temptation was there, but then I decided against it because, to be frank, I was terrified of the comparison with the original novel. How do you write about Middle-earth without feeling inadequate? Also, the absence of stories would again mark these supplements as different from the other ones we produce – always a healthy idea.

What I definitely wanted to do is to sprinkle throughout the books a few very short quotes from The Lord of The Rings, to share with other fans the power of Tolkien's words and, who knows, maybe inspire a few people who haven't already done so to pick up the novel and read it.

The Dwarves and Goblins battle for control of the Mines of Moria.

A NEW FORMAT

Another novelty and point of differentiation of these supplements is that they are in full colour, in keeping with the rest of The Lord of The Rings range. Also, we are now allowed to produce our own art to illustrate them and the choice of using sepia tones for these pictures makes them, in my opinion, unique and very classy. I really hope you'll agree with me how intriguing it is to see a double-page spread of Dave Gallagher's great sketches right next to film stills from The Fellowship of The Ring, as well as photographs of our models – so many forms of creativity coming together!

Not being forced to concentrate all the hobby material into one colour section (as normal with black and white army books) has the unexpected benefit that in these new supplements the bits about modelling and painting are interspersed among the 'rulesy' bits. This, in my opinion, gives the entire book a better pace, more variety and an overall feel of integration between the various facets of our hobby.

WHY "SHADOW & FLAME"?

MODELLING THE DWARVES
Alan Perry	Michael Perry
The look of the Dwarves was based upon conceptual designs by Dave Gallagher with a little input by us, but we were all heavily influenced by numerous sources of Tolkien imagery. They were a great project to work on as they are little more lithe than their Warhammer counterparts and thus allowed us to sculpt more movement and animation on the final models. We gave them the same general physique as Gimli, not too stout and fairly broad shouldered, with long beards and plaits in evidence. As many images of the Dwarf kings and Gimli show both mail and scale armour it seemed appropriate to give the Moria Dwarves the same. The basic Dwarf warriors were given shorter mail and scale shirts, assuming they would be less wealthy than the Guard. Circular course shields seemed appropriate to give them a Dark Age feel. Tolkien mentions Dwarves using bows in the Battle of the Five Armies (in The Hobbit) which gave us good reason to arm the Moria Dwarves likewise. They also make for an unusual troop type as Warhammer Dwarves have always relied on the crossbow.

Well, now that I had defined in my mind what I wanted these supplements to be like (and received the thumbs up signal from the PTB...), it was time to decide what exactly the first of them would have been about.

That wasn't difficult – it had to be Dwarves!

My imagination had been really stimulated by the feel of the ancient glory and the tragic present of the Dwarven race that permeates the entire passage through Moria in The Fellowship of The Ring. I couldn't help wondering what would lie in wait for the heroes if they had taken a different route, and in particular I couldn't help thinking about what Khazad-dûm would have been like in the past. The expedition of Balin and his Dwarves to try and reclaim their ancestral home would, in my opinion, make the perfect theme for our first supplement and offer a splendid excuse for people to add Dwarf models to their collection for The Lord of The Rings strategy battle game.

Soon the rules for Balin, the Dwarf Captains, the Khazâd Guard and the Dwarf warriors were complete. Balin is certainly one of the most important Dwarves in Tolkien's stories. He is the one that gets closest to Bilbo, he fights bravely in the Battle of the Five Armies and then sets off to recapture Moria, becoming its Lord before meeting his tragic fate – a true Dwarf hero. The Perry twins made a great model for him and the Dwarf warriors turned out rather splendid too (a lot of people were pleased to see back in our range some Dwarves with bows!). For the Khazâd Guard I was inspired by Tolkien's description of the Dwarves of old going into battle wearing terrifying war-masks, and I thought that such great detail would suit an elite Bodyguard best. To give the Dwarves an overall common feel, I decided that their main trait would be their incredibly high Defence, which makes them the toughest race in the game system. I swear I'll make sure it stays that way.

To oppose the Dwarves I felt the need to expand a bit on the Moria Goblins forces. Their most characterful element I remember from the book is the ominous sound of the drums, which haunts the steps of the Fellowship as they try to escape from the depths of Moria. The drum and drummer models were born, a gaming piece that emboldens the Goblins and attacks the morale of their enemies.

Next I assumed that the Goblins had some kind of leader, maybe a huge Goblin King. Durbûrz came into being, loosely based on the Great Goblin that anyone who has read The Hobbit will be familiar with.

I also imagined that the little critters would probably worship the Red Eye and see the Balrog as a manifestation of their evil divinity. The next step was to assume that there must have been a few figures whose role was to communicate with Mordor and make the will of Sauron known to the Goblins. That's where the Goblin Shamans came from, and I made sure they were very low-power wizards in comparison with Gandalf and Saruman. In a way I wanted their powers to feel almost like something in between 'real' magic and just an extreme form of psychological boost on their superstitious kin. Is it true that they can invoke the power of the Red Eye to protect the warriors, or is it just that the warriors themselves, convinced of such protection, go beyond their normal limits and turn into frothing berserkers? I imagine that not even the Shamans themselves could really answer this question. As an example of this, remember Saruman's "You shall know no pain, you shall know no fear" speech in the film and think of the effect it had on Lurtz (chop one of his arms off, stab him through the guts and the monster still fights on... Aragorn has to decapitate him to persuade him to give up!).

Thinking of the scene above, I immediately decided that I wanted to do Shamans for the Uruk-hai as well, since they are our main Evil force out there in 2003.

Next: I Cannot Do This Alone...
Previous: Introduction