OWAC 8 - Rise of the Chaos Gnomes

Some number of years ago when the blog was young, I became enamored with the Big Hat Chaos Dwarfs that everyone falls in love with at some point in their retrohammer journey. In perusing the internet as one did in those times, I came across a small company called Admiralty miniatures, who produced a range of 15mm Big Hat Chaos Dwarfs, no doubt for use of in Warmaster or a similarly scaled simulated strategy game. I began collecting them immediately, and after a few years I had a tackle box full of the little fellows. At this point I had also encountered Byron's Alpine Gnomes and Undead Gnomes from Old School Miniatures, and after another bout of collecting ensued, it occured to me that my Chaos Dwarfs weren't Dwarfs at all; they were also Gnomes, and I was building three concurrent Gnomish armies.

Last year, when I participated in the Old World Army Challenge, I took it as an opportunity to paint up my Alpiners, and this year I used that same impetus to paint my Chaos gremlins. As I tend to do, its an old-school force with a funky little twist and a few dashes of defangment to create a one-of-a-kind Warhammer Fantasy Battle army that delights as much as it destroys, (the 6th ed Ravening Hordes list is surprisingly strong.)

All told, I wound up with a decently sized force that can do 1k fairly comfortably and 2k with a bit of stretching. I'll be list crafting until the end of time, but I can tell you in sheer numbers what all was painted for this challenge.

A lord on a manticore, a lord on a cockatrice, 5 gnomish heroes, 2 hobgoblin heroes, 60 gnomish warriors, 10 gnomish blunderbussers, 10 hobgoblin archers, 15 hobgoblin spearmen, 5 bull centaurs, 4 hobgoblin bolt throwers, 1 gnomish death rocket, and two pieces of baggage train. 

No army is ever finished, and the Chaos Gnomes are no exception, but unlike other projects in years past, this one culminated in a battle report between my armies from both OWAC 8 and OWAC 7; a fight two-to-seven years in the making. On top of that, this battle was my first time playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle Sixth Edition in roughly 20 years! I can't begin to tell you how healing the experience was, nor how grateful I was to my opponent who happened to be familiar with the system.

I'll not regale you with the details of the battle; only that I played the Alpiners, who were slaughtered mercilessly by the Chaos Gnomes, piloted by my friend Stephen, which feels fitting in a funny sort of way. During the blogging of the army building process, I had cobbled together some loose-fitting lore for the Chaos Dwarfs, where they had suffered a debilitating defeat against the Alpiners at the Battle of Tinyfoot Pass, and were now raising an warhorde for round two. The Chaos Gnomes winning that "rematch" felt thematically appropriate given the hard won redemption arc I'd tried to set them on, and so I found the match extraordinarily satisfying, as it fulfilled some implied destiny for these tiny hellions. 

In the aftermath of OWAC 8, I've been giving some thought to how things ought to progress for my little slice of the Old World, that World-that-Was that sparked our imaginations as children. With three little Gnome armies knocking about, I feel that I should bolster them in ways that are fun and meaningful. Since I'm now actively playing 6th edition, after having found a pocket community in my area, I'll have to make sure my "Chaos Dwarfs" are up for most challenges since they're the most "official," army I've got right now. After them though, I had been painting up some reinforcements for the Alpiners in order to do the Battle report with Stephen, which could use finishing, and I've been playing around with the idea of rebasing and remastering my Undead Gnome army so that it can be run as a counts as Vampire Counts list. 

While I'm sorely in need of a palette cleanser, I'm excited to be playing games again. This development has me feeling like I have an abundance of reason to pursue the hobby that I've kinda/sorta dedicated my professional life to, not just out of obligation and duty, but for joy and exuberance as well. In the not too distant future, I'll likely formalize some of my plans and designs for the three armies, and maybe fill in the world around them as I explore 6th edition with a renewed passion, but for now I leave you with this: so much of our hobby is built on hope that someday we can see a vision fulfilled, and when it is... I don't know if it changes you, or if it lets you feel something that was inside of you all along, but there's something to it for sure. 

10/10 would recommend following your heart.

 

A special thanks goes out to Stephen, Byron, Mattias, Tjub, Liv, and all of my fellow OWAC participants.