Epilogue
Deep below the craggy hills a small cavern echoed with laughter. Not orcish roars or goblin sniggers-this was sharper, clearer.
Three gnomes sat around a bubbling cauldron, mugs in hand, snorting into their beards.
“And then-and then-he stabbed his boss over a fake prophecy! Hah!”
The eldest gnome, Tobbin Flickerflint, wiped a tear from his eye and waved a hand over the bubbling pool. In its surface shimmered Rugluk, raging across empty dwarf tunnels with a warband too tired to argue.
“I told you the snake illusion would sell it,” said Primsy Gloomwhistle, and took a sip of mushroom wine. “Bit of hissing, a few glowing eyes, some destiny nonsense-works every time.”
“What was it we called him?” chuckled Jibbin. “The Chosen One?”
“Might be our best one yet,” said Tobbin.
They raised their mugs and toasted.
“To da Backstabba!”
The cauldron flickered and showed Rugluk again-this time yelling at returning goblin scouts.
The gnomes howled.
“Ohhh, we should definitely do goblins next!”
And here we are! The painting marathon we call Old World Army Challenge is once again grinding to a momentary halt. And what a ride it has been!
This has easily been my favourite season so far, as I’ve thoroughly enjoyed exploring the classic Orc and Goblin range with a paintbrush in hand. The events that set this project into motion happened during the Leader Month of Season Six, when I painted a banner inspired by the designs in the O&G section of Warhammer Armies. I already had a Chaos Thug Musician wielding an instrument that seemed to be stolen from my Dwarf army (Ronald the Farter, painted just before Season Six), and I felt I needed to paint the Orc army that the banner belonged to.
And here it is-the siege-laying horde of Orcs and Goblins led by Rugluk Backstabba! Or at least the first part of it. This is more than I hoped to achieve and I'm really happy with how things are going. I did expect to have painted some Goblin Wolf Riders by now, though. I actually started both units on January 1st but only managed to finish the wolves themselves. I’m hoping to get them done during the off-season and present them in the intro post of next season-alongside a Snotling Pump Wagon that didn’t quite make the finish line either.
Rugluk Backstabba and the Boyz-my favourite unit in the army
I kept painting more models throughout July, as I had a 3rd edition Fantasy Battle game lined up for the end of the month. I needed to meet the minimum requirements from Warhammer Armies and to hit the 3000-point mark we had agreed on. With a bit of help from some Giants borrowed from Slargash’s army, I managed to reach both goals-and we had a great game to top it all off.
I painted a unit of Stickas, six Fanatics, beefed up the existing unit of Arrer Boyz, and added an Orc Shaman on a Warboar.
I love Goblin Fanatics-these sculpts are oozing with character. My favourite sculpts are saved to the next season, though, and I hope to dedicate a full month to them.
The Stickas
As mentioned above, I painted five more models for this unit, bringing the total to 19. I also received an Orc from John R that fits the unit nicely and finished a spare Harboth I’d used for skin tone tests before the challenge began, bringing the unit up to 21 Orcs overall. Naturally, only 19 will count toward the challenge tally.
Orc Shaman on Warboar. The model comes with a banner pole, but I didn’t have time to add it yet. It’ll need pinning and a bit more work, so I’ll come back to it later.
This month in points:
I really like Pump Wagon models and how they work in the game. I also enjoy painting the little guys themselves and hope to do more of that next season. I brought some daylight lamps to my gaming group's space to better capture their slightly paler skintone (and colours in general) in photos.
The Harboth shown partly here was one of my early skin tone tests. I’m thinking of giving a second one a matching look and tying them together as brothers in the background lore.
I really like the command group in Grom's Goblin Guard-they're all fantastic sculpts.
The picture isn’t great, but I wanted to include the baggage in this post since, even though it wasn’t the first one I started painting, it’s the first one I’ve actually finished.
And the army in points:
The Owac adjusted model count has been applied to the Shaman and the baggage.
What next? Well, I have some half-painted miniatures from this challenge that I need to finish, as mentioned earlier. I also hope to explore the siege theme further in the future, but we’ll see what form that takes. Originally, I had planned to fix and paint a Mighty Fortress during a future Wild Card month, but the current idea is to tackle it during the off-season instead. I’m hoping to get a Warhammer Siege game under my belt sooner rather than later.
And that's it, I guess. As mentioned above, I had a lot of fun this season, but I definitely don’t mind taking it a bit easier over the next few months. I hope to return for Season IX with Rugluk and his army as there are still plenty of units, monsters, and character models I can’t wait to paint!
Wishing you all the best in the meantime. My condolences to the fallen comrades, and big congrats to the challengers who made it to the finish line!