@GtW - the prequels were the worst thing in Star Wars ever (some cool stuff but as a whole I wish they were unrelated). At least some Ewoks died in RotJ. Lucas still had a spine in his film making back then.

@SD - if you and your fellow players aren't concerned with theme then don't worry about it. Many of us came to these games after history with the books (often dating back long before the films) and so for us a properly themed army overrides list combo maximizing (except if we're playing at tournament level in which case everyone's priorities may shift).

As GW gave us the whole Watchers of Karna and ghostly references for them I guess the Shade could be viewed in that theme. But please...no djinn.

_________________
Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

Is Obi-wan a Shade? 'Cause that's the only way I can see relating Star Wars to this thread

One person's cool is another person's fool...

That depends entirely on the quality of the conversion work and painting.

There is always a disconnect between fluff (theme, lore, whatever) and rules. Getting the two mixed up is risky. In the game the Shade is a profile, a set of rules and a points cost. The games designers have decided that it can ally with any evil army so there is no rules dispute, a shade can go in a Harad army.

so.... we are left with a theme dispute, is it thematic or not. Is it likely that the armies of Harad would have an evil spirit fighting for them? Well, GW have given us The Betrayer. Would Tolkien have approved of GW's rules for this particular Wraith, I don't know. I do know that apart from the WK and Khamul, none of the other named wraiths are canon. It's not a huge stretch of the imagination to imagine a wraith having similar powers to a shade, it's just 100 points of spirit with D8 and an area effect.

I think the shade model is pants. If I want one I'd like to get a couple of the twilight wraith minis and model them on a scenic 40mm base, maybe a ruined spiral stair, so the whole thing is the same size as the shade model. Then it's alternate wraith model, using the rules for the shade to represent other aspects of wraithy evilness.

Jar Jar Binks is the worst thing in star wars, closely followed by the entirity of Episode III, then the recent Vodafone ads where Lucas has sold out Yoda for cash.

_________________
Titans Wargames Club

http://s10.zetaboards.com/The_Titans/index/

If a model looks dreadful, it matters not how well it was made or painted. I'm sure many people will paint Dain Irobnfoot's boar very well.

You have however reminded me of GW's made up Dwimlokhi spirits of Karna, so regrettably, GW have just given people a legitimate reason for the Shade / Golden King combo, great work guys...

Also the Betrayer and the Knight of Umbar are both Harad heroes who reside predominantly in Umbar, but may go native too.

_________________
"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Last time I dealed with shade was with some galadhrim knights and cappy along with radagast... the thing was protected by an orc captain on warg and a couple of others and some orcs... i was a bit lucky with radagast and made havock with the panic steed on the wargs, he made it to breka 3 warg riders and their captain and sorcerous blast the shade out of the group... made enough holes in the formation to get enough room to expel the shade out of it, then i just dig up in with my cappy and radagast to immobilize the orc captain while the elf lord chew through the orcs to pick on the shade and keep it away... eventually the shad was killed, but only thanks to the browyn wizard :/ who found himself very low on will to make all this wizadry prowess

the main problem in here, despite being funny... they gave all those nazguls a name and skills, in a way they kinda ruined it to make the balance of forces very unbalanced.
I would rather to be more lotro, would use the ringwraiths instead of the named ones, despite being like 1/3 as good as them.
cause if you get like morannon orcs to fill up the line + barad guldur guard or captain + 2 named nazguls (still dont have the time to remember the unbuffers name) + the shade thats super hard to break in a go.
I wish good guys could get a nasty combo as this ... :/

_________________
http://33.media.tumblr.com/c5d31d12524c ... o1_500.gif

Radagast can't cast Sorcerous Blast..

Floi. Or maybe an enraged Batswarm on a suicide mission. A fell beast could make some dents...but tricky, not getting swarmed just after.

Galadhrim Stormcaller and Great Eagle work well for me or massed amounts of bow fire