OWAC IX Recap

July is coming to a close, and you know what that means…

For the third year in a row, I have participated in the OLD WORLD ARMY CHALLENGE, and for the third year I have come out the other side victorious, finishing all of the models I pledged to at the start.

This time around I chose to make a gnomish army.

What makes this one different from the last two (also gnomes armies) is that this one is undead! It’s actually a remix and repaint of my old undead gnome army from 2020. 

So why gnomes again? Especially gnomes I've already painted at least twice before?

Here’s a short list

1. Because miniature miniatures are the coolest miniatures
2. Because I love these particular miniatures to death
3. Because I love a good bit.
4. Because I’m doing a variation of a theme.
5. Because these projects make me feel like I’m exploring the cultural diaspora of gnomekind.

That last one is particularly juicy to me, so without further ado, elaboration…

KULTUR

From my readings in both WFB and WFRP, gnomes are a race of two extremes: they either cohabitate with another bipedal race in sympatico, borrowing from the larger culture from behind its lacuna, or they originate from their own antiquity, following their progenitors in the pursuit of excellence in craft and community. For this OWAC I positioned my project to examine the ancestors of those Alpine gnomes, as their reanimated status has rendered them into walking anthropology courses. Also, I found it worrying that the dead are gathering again so soon after the events of Gnomemageddon, and so I felt it crucial to investigate the troublesome throng before the suspicious becomes the problematic.

I imagine a student of antiquity would analyze the reanimated gnomes like so:

"Based on the specimens available, what death rituals can we infer about the ancient Alpine gnome culture?" So far, regardless of preparative process, all gnomish undead have been witnessed wearing caps. Unless it is a part of some necromantic process, it appears that regardless of treatment or statement, all deceased gnomes have their hats with them at time of interment. Two kinds of preparation have been noted among the most ranks of the dead; some bandaged form of mummification, and some process that accelerated the decay of flesh, but preserved the skeletal structure perfectly. Both have been found to contain specimens of spruce, from sprigs and boughs woven between the bones, to its sap coating the bandages for an enhanced seal. One would forgive me were I to assume that these processes of decoration and preservation demonstrate care for the dead, as some processes would require quite some time and intimacy with the deceased in order to achieve these end-states."

There’s explorable depth in this force, and while I’ve yet to set the lore in stone, this feels like an authentic in-world examination of the cultures of these ancient gnomes as they engage with death and death ceremonies.

MODELING

I began the year anxious, and anticipating the worst, I decided to rebalance my priorities. Ordinarily, my OWAC armies are about volume, but since OWAC IX had a theme of drawing from Oldhammer inspiration, I decided to make my army footprint reflect a minimum viable product, and instead I prioritized expressiveness in the paint schemes for the force.

I decided to honor both the cover to the Undead Army Book by David Gallagher, and a piece Ian Miller did for The Terror of the Lichemaster, by borrowing from their palettes for the fantastical painting of this army.. 

Undead Army Book cover by David Gallagher

Terror of the Lichemaster art by Ian Miller

For my fifth edition force I decided to paint my skeletons as though they were enchanted, instead of having them look as though they’ve just crawled out of the grave. I think I achieved this by having the skellibobs start with a dark colored base coat instead of a black or white basecoat. Pulling the bone white up through the value range of those darker base colors make the skeletons appear tinted or luminous, and I think the effect pairs well with the cartoonishly red weapons. Luckily I learned the new scheme quick and everything went according to plan!

THE PLAN

Undead Lord - Vampire Lord on Dragon - 825 pts

2 Necromancers - 68 pts/each

20 Skeleton Warriors - Full Command and Halberds - 257 pts

20 Skeleton Warriors - Full Command and Halberds - 257 pts

10 Wights - Full Command, Spears, Shields, Heavy Armor, Skeletal Steeds - 528 pts

Total - 2003 pts

Well, there was actually one deviation from the original plan. At some point one of my necromancers got lost in the shuffle, and I had to scramble for a replacement. Luckily for me, another Oldhammer enthusiast posted a copy of Heinrich Kemmler for sale a few days after I noticed my gnomish gnecromancer’s disappearance, and I leapt at the opportunity. Shortly after that I sourced myself a bootleg Krell, and then we were in business!

Aside from the Lichemaster shenanigans, OWAC IX went largely as planned: I was able to repaint my skellibobs from projects past, use awesome minis I’d secreted away, and sculpt a little to scratch that miniature designer itch. Some of my favorite pieces from this little list are the Vampire Lord on Dragon, which converted a gnomish hero into a befanged beast to ride atop a Grenadier Pond Dragon, and the Pillbug Knights.

The Pillbug Knights began as three pairs of skeletons atop rolypolies from Alternative Armies. When I redid them for OWAC, I sculpted a pair of pillbugs and cloned them using blue stuff to make a full 10 knight unit where each skeleton had their own steed. The droopy lances are my favorites! 

CONCLUSION

Overall, I’m pleased with how OWAC IX turned out, and already I’m toiling away to collect the army for OWAC X… I only wish I could make up my mind on what that army was. It’s tough collecting more than one contender’s worth of figs, especially considering my growing space issue that surely comes from being three OWACs deep into my Warhammer Fantasy Battles collection.

That said, those of you who’ve been following along on the Old World Army Challenge blog likely know that uh, this little article is a wee bit misleading. I set myself very reasonable expectations for the number of models I’d finish before the final bell, and I exceeded them by quite a bit actually. However I didn’t count them here since they weren’t on the original list. I’m being a bit cheeky in the hopes that I can wrangle together a follow-up post to talk about those minis as well, and maybe wax on the future of Gnomekind in that doomed-to-grow way all armies tend to be. 

But for now, those are all the words I have. Thank you very much for reading, and congratulations to the other OWAC participants. You were fantastic!

And you know what?

So was I.