Right - well, I must kick off by telling you all (or anyone who actually reads this) is how excited I am about the new 'War of the Ring' from Games Workshop.

I've not had a lot to do with the LOTR range, mainly because I tend towards playing Warhammer Fantasy when I want to bash a few Greenskins, and also I'm not much of a skirmish wargames player - I like the big battle arena myself, but for some reason, whilst putting an order in the other day I decided to get a copy of 'War of the Ring' - and I have not been disappointed.

Giving the rules a quick glance, first thing I noted was how the turn sequence is, in my mind, a lot better than Warhammer - with both sides taking turns in each 'phase' before moving onto the remainder of the turn - so both move, then both shoot, both charge etc.

One player always goes first in each phase, but this can change from turn to turn as the players roll a D6 for initiative.

Looking at the army lists next (so I went from the front of the book to the back) at first glance I did not think that the various units looked that different to make things interesting - so thought that might be a bit of a down side but having still not tackled the main rules, I decided to reserve judgement at this stage.

And lucky I did.

Because once you read the rules you find that 'War of the Ring' is far more subtle in many ways than Warhammer, but with just as much opportunity for good unit selection and tactics.

And there's more.....

'War of the Ring' has a great system of 'Heroic Actions' which are things that Heroes can do that can change or influence the game. Nothing is too over the top (mostly) but it means that there are lots of things that you can try to turn things your way or exploit possible victories - and this I really like.

One of the things I don't like about most wargames, including Warhammer, is that once the troops are deployed and going at it, there is little you can do to change things - but with these 'Heroic Actions' you can really feel that good command and decision making, as well as a bit of daring do, can win the day.

So overall - to stop myself going on and on - I really rate this game highly - the proof of the pudding shall be in the eating of course, and I have not actually played a game, but it's certainly impressed me enough to get me started on collecting some LOTR figures (I'm going for Harad so that I can get some Mumaks !)

Leaving LOTR there - this past week I've also cracked open a box of the new Warlord ECW chaps and painted up a pike block. Must say, as usual I have been very impressed with the Warlord figures, and Ill post some pictures on the web site once I get the camera off my daughter - who is in charge of family photography !

I've also completed some Perry Miniatures French Infantry - without a doubt the best 28mm hard plastic figures out there in my opinion, but Victrix and Warlord are very close to them.

Next big game on the horizon for myself and Martin is our Dark Elves V a gang of Lizarmen - going to be a 6000 points a side bash. Ill try to get shots of that battle when it takes place, and in the mean time I really do have to stop getting distracted by other figures and paint up some more Dark Elf units - can't mention what ones in case the enemy are reading this !

All the best

Steve