Recently I’ve come into a glut of goblins, and in part that is due to me placing orders for many goblins, but also being gifted a pile of the guys from a local gamer (thank you Mark,) and remembering my stash leftover from my youth. Since I’m between OWACs and Battle March is currently the craze, I’m going to try again to do a “Tale of One Warlord” in the off-season, and paint up a 750 point force of Goblins (for Breakfast!)
In preparing for this project, I made the fateful decision to base this force for Warhammer: The Old World, meaning that my goblin infantry stands on 25mm bases instead of the 20mm ones that would make this army backwards compatible with my favorite ruleset Warhammer Fantasy Battles 6e. I think I felt confident doing this for a few reasons, firstly being that Tolkien made no firm distinction between goblins and orcs, using the term interchangeably. Given that fluidity, I reasoned that the goblins of TOW could be used as orcs in WFB if I wished to run them at all with that future force (um, I might end up with 2 goblin armies when all is said and done.) Additionally, I wanted to be respectful of the fact that I am trying something new and so I aimed to make something dedicated for that foray into TOW, and remove any conversion factors from this force so as to maintain the immersion for all. Lastly, I was genuinely curious about the benefits of the larger base size. So far, I’m enjoying how the shift from 20mm to 25mm feels, as it gives the figures room to breathe and find their place in space, and it makes the miniature feel more toylike proportionally, which I dig because these are my toys and this is my play (thank you for noticing.)
Speaking of which, lets look at some toys?
One of the reasons this project exists is because years ago I backed a Heartbreaker Kickstarter that was producing resin casts of old Ian Pickford and Kev Adams sculpts, and despite not playing any green-skin armies at that point. They stayed in a baggie for the better part of a decade until ideas started churning later last month, and I realized how many goblins I’d subconsciously collected over the years. On the right (ignore the crossed out guy,) is one of the force’s oddgits so that it has a little bit of magic/magic resistance.
In true last minute fashion, I decided I liked this sculpt better than the crossed out model from the previous pic. It’s another oddgit, this time pulled from a Mistery bag from Knightmare Miniatures, who came in clutch when filling out the remainder of the force. This is also a Kev piece, and I really like how both of my wizards’ staffs have gross little faces growing in the mushrooms. Consistency!
On the right we have the force’s final bigboss, this time mounted on wolfback. He’s another Knightmare piece, and since he’s the biggest it only makes goblin sense that he’d be the bossiest. The other models in the picture are some official Nasty Skulkers that my mother got me at the closure sale of my childhood game shop (thank you Mom.) Since goblins are all about tucking nasty things into their units, these three are a very welcome addition to the force!
Here’s a unit of common goblins to tuck those gift gits into. This is a mash of Knightmare and Heartbreaker minis, save for the BSB who is a conversion from one of the goblin chariot drivers, and the musician who I believe is of older Citadel stock. I only recently came to understand battlefield roles like hammers and anvils, so this is my attempt at having something like the latter. They’re pretty squishy, but a 4+ save can go a little ways in keeping foes in position, which is hopefully long enough for my hammers to mobilize (fingers crossed.)
Elsewise we have a small unit of archers to pepper opponents with very reasonable BS 3 shooting attacks. I don’t expect much work out of them, but I liked that I could mix all of these figures together to get a truly rag-tag regiment. The biggest change up from Heartbreaker resin and Knightmare metals are the addition of original metal Heartbreakers (who are different sculpts,) and a handful of goblins from Olley’s Armies, who really emphasize the size differential and the variety of material culture. To me this army feels like a mustering from some larger, more aspirational goblins who rallied a horde of smaller gobs who’re maybe not the most warlike types. A for effort, but S for smol.
But that’s not smol! You can’t go to war without the most diminutive gits! Who else would you pick on when things went horribly awry? These four stands are 98% actual GW snotlings from my childhood that I collected from the “by the ounce bitz bin” that my childhood shop kept by the counter. Simpler days!
The first of my two hammers is a wolf rider company. I’ve been saving the musician for ages now, as it was part of my first Black Tree Designs order from way back in the day, and it was the reason I knew I had to have a unit of Wolf Riders leading the charge. The other standout from this unit is the model I chose as to be its leader (second from left,) who pre-priming switched wolves with the musician. Remembering to look at the receipt, I can now see that the wolf is Longtooth from the Citadel N15 wolf rider range, sculpted by Nick Lund, and presumably the rider is… related to that somehow? I don’t know my stuff when it comes to this period, but I think the steedswap and a hand swap really went miles in making the rider look like a foreboding and commanding figure.
Finally we have a pack of Grenadier Trolls, who are the only dupes in the army (aside from a few snots, but in swarm stands that’s more forgivable,) and they are the most involved conversions for the whole project. To prevent twin syndrome, I took some apoxiesculpt to one of each of the sculpts and gave them little non-invasive facelifts and accoutrements. My favorite embellishment is the hat, which I imagine makes this troll feel fancy.
One thing that delights me (tangent,) is that the trolls, snotlings, and wolf riders are all based as they would have been for WFB6, so if (read:when) I do that 6e goblin force, I’ll have 2-3 units ready to go for just that occasion.
And for those of you who are interested in lists, here’s the one for this project. For games of Battle March the points cap is a solid 750, and it was my intention to build some modularity into the force to allow for some variation between matches or at different match points.
And that’s the post of intention! Depending on how this goes (I have things to do with this army, so its more likely to be finished,) I’d like to rebase the Dwarf army I’d intended to do in that “Little Army Challenge” post I did a year or two ago (time is fake) so that these guys have someone to test their mettle against (at least within the b-ecosystem.)
For now, I’m going to resist the temptation to let this army expand past 750/1000 since this is literally the level I want to play it on. Since I could speculate til the dogs come home, I think I’ll simply abstain and end the post here.
…
That said, the jump from 750 to 1k is just enough for a Troll Hag.
-b
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