Old World Army Challenge Wrap-up; a 1000pts army of Forest Goblins!

Well here it is, the end of the Old World Army Challenge. When we decided to do the challenge, I really wanted to start a Goblin army, something that was a dream of mine in my youth, but the task was a daunting one, and made me hesitate. In the end though, the pull was too big, and I plunged! And I'm really happy I did! Now, let's get that Warhammer army pose picture out of the way, shall we ;-)

The look of content after a 6 month marathon

The Plan

My Orcs and Goblins unpainted collection was a hefty one, and here is a reminder of what it looked like 6 months ago (obviously, only a small part of that was painted!).

My original plan was the following :

• 19 Forest Goblins archers, including standard & musician : 63 pts
• 19 Forest Goblins archers, including standard & musician : 63 pts
• 30 Forest Goblins w 2 handed weapons, including standard & musician : 108.5 pts
• 9 spider riders, including standard & musician : 121 pts
• 2 Doom Divers : 200 pts
• 3 Ogres w light armour and 2 handed weapons : 132 pts
• Forest Goblin Shaman Champion on Giant Spider : 87 pts
• Forest Goblin Warlord : 50 pts
• Forest Goblin Big Boss : 33 pts
• Forest Goblin Big Boss : 33 pts
• Forest Goblin Big Boss on Giant Spider : 37pts

A tall task! For while I am a very organized person, especially when it comes to this hobby, I am also an incredibly slow painter, and also a perfectionist! 

The Result

Well, I'm happy to say I almost followed my plans, but for one unit, replacing one archer unit with fanatics. I can live with that! 

Noraz Stickblast regiment (19 Forest Goblins archers, including standard, musician and Big Boss Noraz Stickblast) : 99 pts

Ukag's Mercenaries (3 Ogres w light armour and 2 handed weapons): 132 pts

Kleznot's Forest Goblin Mob (29 Forest Goblins w 2 handed weapons, including standard & musician and Big Boss Kleznot : 141.5 pts)

3 Fanatics : 90pts

Stag's Spida Rida (9 spider riders, including musician and standard, equipped with lances, shields and bows and Stag, Big Boss on giant spider, equipped with shield) : 170pts

2 Doom Divers (200pts) 

Zrazoig, the almighty Shaman, and his trusted sacred spider, Fang the hairy (Forest Goblin Shaman on Gigantic Spider) : 128pts

Graaz the Savage (Forest Goblin Warlord) : 50 pts

Total : 1010.5pts

I like Forest Goblins, I like them a lot!

It's a great feeling to come up from this Challenge with a complete 1000pts force. It's based, I even did all the customized movement tray, so I can say this 1000pts is *completely* finished. Yeah! I'll admit there was a moment in the challenge when I told myself (and Laurie) that I had made a mistake by going with goblins! But in the end my pride, mostly, pushed me to finish!And now that it's over, it's probably one of the favourite wargame army I've painted; the 4th edition gobbos are such fantastic little figures.

Now I'm taking a well deserved break, and I hope to organize part II of the Challenge in 6 to 8 months!

Lord of Change

"Magnarrr" , the voice purred as the deamon scrutinised it's champion, "you must remember there is nothing I do not know, no-one I do not suspect! No-one, no-one.

The daemon laughed it's mocking laugh once more and Magnar turned his face from that unforgiving stare.

The first painted miniature that wowed me and made me want to not only paint miniatures, but also be good at it, was a Lord of Change on the cover of the "Citadel Painting Guide", a small booklet which Games Workshop sold, at the time, for a buck! 

Lord of Change, upper right

I just loved the vibrant tropical colours and the awesome look of this chaotic beast. I painted one, back in 1991 which for very long stood as the benchmark of my painting abilities. It's still today in my collection, and it has seen a lot of battles over the years (as evidenced by the loss of its tail...).

So for the Monstrous challenge of the The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (Yes, I'm stupidly part of two painting challenges at the same time)  I decided to paint me another one of those! I figured there would be a lot of dark stuff in this challenge, but I would go with a full blown display of colours! I find it a bit sad nowadays seeing people paint their Lord of Changes in mono colours of blue or purple, this is Tzeentch goddammit, the God of Change and mutations, and his servants should be as vibrant and colourful as possible!

At the time, Citadel made three bodies, with randomly available heads and tails. My favourite body was this one, and the two headed was also my favourite head. I waited for a while on Ebay until I found my perfect Lord of Change, and this guy's been in my collection for a few years now. 

So I obviously went with a full tropical colour scheme, inspired by the classic paint jobs of the 80s. I especially like my ultra bright green and the pale blue of the wings. This guy took me a while to paint, what with all the textures and the many details. He was also a pain to hold while painting! But I'm really happy with him, and I believe my 10 year old self would be very happy with his look.

He's going to have a place of honour in my future Tzeentch and Slaanesh allied force I've been collecting and planning in the last few years (my current force is Nurgle, undivided and Khorne). 

Hope you like him, cheers!

Ukag's Mercenaries and Graaz the Savage (December entry in the OWAC)

So my first month of the challenge was a busy one, what with a 20 figures unit plus a Doom Diver, so I figured I needed maybe a slightly less busy month. 

My December entry is pure Oldhammer, with a trio of maybe the most iconic figures ever produced by Citadel Miniatures, the famous Jes Goodwin's Ogres mercenaries. 

Ukag's Mercenaries

These guys are exactly how I imagine Ogres, with their touch of oriental/slavic armour and fashions. While my Goblin's colour scheme is a very colourful triad of yellow, orange and red, I wanted these guys to have a more somber, "business" look, while still fitting in the army. Consequently I used yellow and red to tie them the army, but offset by greys and dark green. I'm super happy with them, it's been a while since I've been that satisfied with a unit. I also had a perfectly sized movement trays for these guys, I'll need to order some more for all my units. Convenient and nice looking.

Boss Ukag himself, maybe my favourite miniature ever

For Ukag, the Mercenary Boss, I couldn't resist doing some stripped pants, as is almost mandatory with the model, and I'm quite happy with the results. The big yellow emblem really gives him a dash of colours on an otherwise subdued scheme.

Then we have "Mace" Nakog; I had to do one of the Ogres in a Christmas colour scheme, just had to!

"Mace" Nakog

And the third Ogre, Gurot the Butcher, a fantastic figure which was a lot of fun to paint. The mix of grey and yellow works really well I think, more than I first anticipated! 

Gurot the Butcher

And to finish this month in style, here is Graaz the Savage, the General of my army. It's the only figure of the project more recent than 1992, and comes from the Oldhammer inspired GreenSkins Wars from Knightmare Miniatures (Goblin fans have a look at their ranges there's a lot of awesome pieces). The figure is a bit bigger than the other goblins in my collection (although all were sculpted by Gobbo master Kev Adams) but it works perfectly as "DA Big Boss" of my army. It's also very Forest Goblin in it's style. 

So, for December :

• 3 Ogres w light armour and 2 handed weapons : 132 pts
• Forest Goblin Warlord : 50 pts

Total : 182pts

My Old World Army Challenge (OWAC) project

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Stick 'em wiv arrers'. Stick 'em with knives. 'an swords, and spears. Stick 'em quick and stick 'em where it 'urts. But most of all, stick 'em when they's looking in the other way.

I've been involved in Oldhammer, and it's awesome community, for around 4 years now. Now I won't bore you with my tales of nostalgia, although should you be interested you'll find it in here. My first love was Warhammer 3rd Edition, and the Realm of Chaos books. So when I started my Oldhammer collecting, and then painting, my first target was a Chaos army. But while I was building that army, my collector's sight were already fixed on amassing my second dream army; Goblins! For you see Warhammer 4th edition came out shortly after I started the hobby, and my White Dwarfs were rapidly inundated with pictures of Kev Adam's wonderful sculpts of those mischievous green creatures. To this day I've yet to find another range that embodies how I see Goblins; evil yes, but also incredibly stupid and yes, kind of cute. Basically, I like my goblins more on the mischievous side than the pure evil side, and Kev Adam's 4th edition Goblins are exactly that. 

But in the early 90s, while I was dreaming about building a Goblin army, the sad reality was that in was just that, a dream. In 1992-1993, I was but 13 years old, and a goblin only army was extremely expensive. Other than the plastic night goblins archers and the goblins spearmen from the boxset, all goblins available were in metal, and you needed hundreds of them! In those days the little guys were sold in blisters of 4 IIRC, so it was simply an impossible mission for a young boy with a 20$ bi-weekly allowance! I did buy many blisters actually, but it was a drop of water in the ocean!

So around 3 years ago I really started to collect a 4th ed Goblin army. And boy, it wasn't easy! One of the great mysteries of Oldhammer is, to me, the rarity of metal goblins and their prohibitive price on Ebay. So I was patient, waited for big lots, and when the big lots came I was as rutless as they come. THEY WERE MINE, ALL MINE! I was especially interested in the forest goblins, my favourite, and the classic goblins. If you haven't noticed yet, my thing is goblins, I'm not a huge fan of Orcs. A necessary evil, at most.

So between trading pages, Ebay and my old original stock I did managed to assemble a vast collection, one that I'm especially proud of. But the collection's been ready for over a year now and I procrastinate and procrastinate. Why? Well I'm a bit afraid of the sheer numbers of figures I'll need to paint.

So when I was challenged by my good friend Chris to create the OWAC, I knew the time had come, and that I could hide no more! The goblins were calling me, waiting to be unleashed upon the world, to swarm their enemies (Greg, Chris, I"m looking at you), to conquer...ok, ok...they are still goblins so conquer is a tad exaggerated. Annoy might be more exact.

Anyways, I talk too much. Let's have a look at my complete Orcs & goblins collection, and my plans for the next 6 months!

When the Challenge started, I decided to make a complete inventory of my collection. Here it is : 

As you can see the majority of the collection is made-up of forest goblins and goblins, with some Orcs and night goblins. The vast majority is also from 4th ed, although I do have some Marauder orcs and goblins, and some really Old School Ogres. 

From that I just had to come up with one 1000pts worth of Orcs & Goblins. Since I had enough of the little fuckers, I decided to go with an all forest goblins force (well, almost). More figures to paint, sure, but oh so more rewarding! Not to mention fulfilling the dream of my 13 year old self! Obviously, in this case I used the 4th edition Orcs & Goblins army book. Too many troops were not present in the 3rd edition (forest goblins, Doom Divers, etc.) Although ironically I do not play 4th, so I intend on building a custom list eventually for 3rd! 

So here's my list! I'm around 70 pts short, which I will use for either more goblins, wolf riders, stone lobbers or orcs, depending on my mood.

• 19 Forest Goblins archers, including standard & musician : 63 pts
• 19 Forest Goblins archers, including standard & musician : 63 pts
• 30 Forest Goblins w 2 handed weapons, including standard & musician : 108.5 pts
• 9 spider riders, including standard & musician : 121 pts
• 2 Doom Divers : 200 pts
• 3 Ogres w light armour and 2 handed weapons : 132 pts
• Forest Goblin Shaman Champion on Giant Spider : 87 pts
• Forest Goblin Warlord : 50 pts
• Forest Goblin Big Boss : 33 pts
• Forest Goblin Big Boss : 33 pts
• Forest Goblin Big Boss on Giant Spider : 37 pts

Total : 927.5 pts

Of course I reserve the right to make changes as I go! But I do enjoy making lists, it's great for planning. The Challenge states that we must paint 200pts per month, and I believe I have a good mix of units, war machines and characters which should allow me to reach that goal while still having fun.

Let the green madness begin!!

Visit the Old World Army Challenge blog to read the projects of each of the other 36 members!