Orcs Revisited

As with the Dwarves, earlier this month, I've been rebasing and reorganizing the Orc collection... well... ONE of the orc collections. This is collection that is mostly metal miniatures, from a wild mix of manufacturers, and mostly painted with orange skin. 

(the OTHER collection of Orcs is a mix of metal and plastic Orc miniatures from Citadel Miniatures/Games workshop and painted with green skin)

Some time ago, when I was painting (or, in some cases, RE-PAINTING) these for use with Hordes of the Things, I decided I was tired of painting orcs with green skin and, partially inspired by the orcs on the cover of Keep on the Borderlands and partly by the orcs in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings series, I stopped painting them green and started painting them a mix of reddish-orangish-brownish colours, before finally settling on Orange.

Many of these were previously based for Hordes of the Things and were rebased individually to use with... well... OTHER GAMES!? Largely I am organizing them for Dragon Rampant, but they could totally be used for Song of Blades and Heroes or Rangers of Shadowdeep, or Frostgrave or any number of assorted Fantasy Role-Playing Games or other skirmishy games. 

PAINTED

Here's what I have painted so far:

For a Dragon Rampant army, I could currently field them as 

• Heavy Rider - 4 points
• Heavy Rider - 4 points
• Heavy Rider - 4 points
• Light Missile - 4 points
• Scout - 2 points
• Offensive Heavy Foot - 6 points

Total: 24 Points - Ready to go! 

Orc warlord and his closest cronies - Heavy Riders. 

These, and the others below, are from Old Glory miniatures. I like the idea of having a Orc Hordes of the Things army that was primarily MOUNTED. I think I ended up with eight of twelve elements being mounted...? I wanted them to be analagous to Mongols or Huns - fast moving raiders (or conquerers!?) that could sweep across the lands (and battlfields) sowing death and destruction in their wake!

The Dragon Rampant force won't have nearly the same proportion or mounted Orcs... but not an insignificant amount! 

I can't recall if I counted them as Riders or Beasts in Hordes of the Things, I think it suggested that Orc wolf-riders could be classified as Beasts - as they move through rough terrain without slowing down...? Which made me wonder if these should have been classified as Lesser Warbeasts in Dragon Rampant. After thinking on it, I decided to go with Heavy Riders... for now... 

More Orc Heavy Riders 

STILL More Orc Heavy Riders 

Currently being fielded as Scouts, I do have 6-7 more, which could fill out a full unit of Light Missile... or... just be a second unit of Scouts

These little goblins are some of the oldest miniatures I still have. They were part of my first miniature ARMY. I'd had individual miniatures or heroes and assorted monsters for role-playing games, but the first ARMY I build was orcs and goblins and mostly made of Ral Partha miniatures. These were originally painted green. They were stripped and repainted when I rebased them to make a unit of Bow for the Hordes of the Things army. 

For a very brief time, these may have been a first unit built for AD&D Battlesystem, but I couldn't find anyone to play with and were never actually used with the game. Eventually I met guys that were starting to build armies for Warhammer Fantasy Battle (4th Edition). No one cared about using Citadel miniatures then. We just build our armies with whatever we could get our mittens on - which was, for the most part, Ral Partha and RAFM minaitures (and a few older Citadel miniature, produced under license in Canada)

Light Missile - Mostly Celtos miniatures, but there are a few repainted Ral Partha Orc archers mixed in there because I didn't have enough of the Celtos minis... I suppose at some point I could order a few more from Brigade Models in the UK (as they still produce the old Celtos minis!) 

(There are actually thirteen here, so one - or two - of the Ral Partha Orc archers will likely join a different unit, when others get painted) 

Offensive Heavy Foot. 

Some of the first Citadel Orcs I owned - "pre-slotta" 

Not a full unit - These are more Celtos orcs I think they were originally part of a Warband element in the Hordes of the things army. I have seven more I've started to finish off a unit of twelve. Then I have enough of these for THREE MORE units!? I think I'll classify them as Belicose Foot. 

An Orc catapult from RAFM. I thought I COULD use it as a Heavy Missile (Single Model Unit)... Maybe add some fantastical rules to make them a bit more brittle (less survivable in melee (like FEARFUL -2 points; -1 to all Courage and Rally tests?)

Orc Casualty/Broken markers - made from some spare Mantic Orcs that Finnegan had. 

I think this was a "pre-slotta" Citadel female orc (produced under license by Rafm). I had a few of these that I used as Orc Cheerleaders for my Blood Bowl team at one point. 

At one point I made Army Markers to move about a map when playing Hordes of the Things campaigns. This was the one for the Orcs. 

Still TO DO

All (well... MOST) of the stuff I still have to do for this army. 

The spare Celtos Orcs I need to finish up the unit above. 

THREE MORE units of Celtos Orcs that I could use as Bellicose Foot. 

More of the Ral Partha goblin archers. They could be added to the six above to make a unit of 12 Light Missile... or just make up a second unit of scouts...? 

There is one extra here... it might be added to the unit of Celtos Goblin archers to free up another of the Ral Partha orc archers to add to the four below to make a unit of... scouts!?

six little goblins from Harlequin miniautres (or was it Heartbreaker...? One of those GW knock-offs that started with an 'H')... They would be used as Scouts. 

MORE Goblin Archers (later Ral Partha/Iron Wind Metals, I think...?)

Four more Ral Partha Orc archers. as noted above, I could free up two of the ones currently in the unit of painted goblins archers to add to these to make a unit of Scouts.

An assortment of odd and extra goblins and orcs from a variety of manufacturers that I could, someday, use as RAvenous Hordes (they're fairly low on the priority list....)

More odd, assorted Orcs that don't really fit into any particular units for Dragon Rampant. 

Orc and Goblin Sizards/Shamen. I think they're all from Black Tree Design...? Two are on flagstone bases as I though I might make an Orc and Goblin warband for Frostgrave...? 

Still more stuff that I haven't even based or primed... 

Not sure what I'll ever do with those gigantic orc archers!? I have enough goblins for THREE units of Light Missile. How would I differentiate these from the Goblins!? 

So... I have a viable army that could be used to start a campaign, and LOTS of others I could finish up to expand that army! 

OTHER STUFF

Other stuff that is Orc and Goblin related, but not really part of the above force.... 

Drawer full of assorted Ogres and Trolls. These have been nominally associated with the above Orc and Goblin collection for years. Some of them were previously based for Hordes of the Things and included in the Orc army.... Really, though, I have LOADS of Orcs and Goblins, and there are enough of these that I could really make an entire Dragon Rampant warband/army of just these!? 

One of the OTHER Collections of Orcs (or... ORRUKS, as they are now known) - these are the aforementioned mix of metal and plastic orcs from Citadel Miniatures/Games Workshop that I'm painting with green skin. There are three different Warhammer Underworlds warbands in here. I figure I could use some as WarCry warbands... but there is almost enough to field as a Dragon Rampant warband. 

The Brutes of Morgok's Krushas could be a reduced model unit of Elite Foot. 

The 'Ard Boys of Ironskull's Boyz could be a reduced model unit of Offensive Heavy Foot (4 models = 3strength Points per model) 

and then I have enough assorted other older GW/Citadel orcs (which are considerably smaller than the Ard Boyz and Brutes - but still much bigger than most of the other orcs in the collection above) that could be two more units of Offensive Heavy Foot.

And that would be 24 Points! 

MORE GW/Citadel green guys- Goblins, Trolls and Ogres. Goblins are no longer associated with Orcs in Games Workshop armies. Gloomspite Gitz are a mix of Goblins and Toggoths (trolls) and are completely separate from the Orruk Wartribes.

Also in the drawer are Ogres (also a separate faction - Ogor Mawtribes). 

There are two different Warhammer Underworlds warbands here, and a few things I thought I could cobble together for Warcry Warbands. Not really enough here to make a separate Dragon Rampant army - though they could be extras in an army of the Green Orcs above. 

A unit in the works that would be in the drawer above, but it's been in an 'on deck' box near the workbench for some time. They are all old GW/Citadel goblin miniatures. MOST of them are pre-slotta goblin MUTANTS from back when goblins were (sometimes?) the minions of Chaos!

Random Troll

Over the last few weeks, I got a little distracted from the BAck of Beyond stuff and started rebasing some fantasy armies. In the process of doing so, I ended up painting a single troll miniature, to finish up a unit.. 

TROLL! The model is from Old Glory Miniatures (I think...?)

I painted it because it seemed like it might be a quick one to knock off and then I'd have three of them I could classify as a "reduced model unit" of... something...? 

Offensive Heavy Foot (Reduced Model Unit)?

Offensive Light Foot (Reduced Model Unit)?

I don't know... 

This is the three of them together. I think I did a pretty good job of matching up the paint jobs. (might not be apparent in the pics - they look kind of black on my screen - but the paint is actually a really dark brown). 

Of course, after finishing the one up and thinking it was done, I found a fourth one from the same line... and a fifth that could probably go with them... just need one more to make it an even six!? 

I have PILES more trolls - from Ral Partha - that I've organized into units of six... none of those are painted yet, though... Most of those have weapons and armour and clothes... 

Maybe these ones won't ever be part of a Dragon Rampant army, they'll just be used in Song or Blades and Heroes or some Fantasy Role-Playing Game as more traditional bridge trolls...? 

MORE Lord of the Rings Distractions - Nazgûl and Re-Based Uruk-Hai

Circling back to Lord of the Rings for a moment... most of my postulating during my recent Lord of the Rings Distraction was focusing on Dragon Rampant. While I did mention that they could conceivably be used in Song of Blades and Heroes, it wasn't very seriously considered. 

This past weekend I was supposed to start running a role-playing campaign with FATE... but Sunday morning one player bailed, another hadn't responded in a week and I tried to find something else me and the remaining player could do... and I suggested Song of Blades and Heroes - thinking I might use a few of the recently rebased Lord of the Rings miniatures... 

In a panic I turned to the internet to see if anyone else had come up with stats for characters. While at one point, I would have just made up stats, on the spot for just about anything in Song of Blades and Heroes... it's been YEARS since I've played and while it is a simple enough game to pick up and play, I was no longer feeling confident I could just make them up on the spot!? Luckily I found a blog post from 12 years ago that had all I needed to get started! 

Steel City Wargaming - SoBH for LotR Games

Initially I'd thought of running something with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas... but wasn't sure what to throw them up against? I didn't have a lot of options for foes... I did have a handful of Uruk-hai with pikes (though a few were still on washer bases!) but I'd have to throw in Sarumon to get something close to matching points, and I don't think they ever really faced Sarumon, face-to-face... 

Next thought was maybe using Éowyn on foot with some warriors of Rohan... against the same weird mix of Sarumon, and Orc Captain and a handful of Uruk-Hai... then I remember the Witch-King and had a new idea... 

Then the final player sent me a note bailing 15 minutes after he was supposed to have arrived!? 

Ah, well... 

I was already down a rabbithole... 

I got thinking about a scenario involving mounted Éomer and a few riders chasing down Uruk-Hai that were wandering about the edge of the Fangorn Forest... and so got to rebasing more of the Uruk-hai - and spent the rest of Sunday doing that! 

(well... and re-basing some OTHER stuff as well!) 

Uruk-Hai - not quite a Dragon Rampant warband... but plenty to play Song of Blades and Heroes with! 

Still lots to do - 50+ to rebase 

I also happened to paint up those two Nazgûl from Mithril Miniatures. 

Sunday evening, Amanda and I started watching Rings of Power on Amazon Prime... which may or may not provide further distraction inspiration to work on these.

I would like to get in a quick game of Song of Blades and Heroes, this week, using these miniatures. If I don't the moment will pass and they will languish in their drawers for a few more years until I circle back to them again... which would probably be okay, as I have OTHER THINGS to be working on! But, given all the work I've done on these lately, it'd be nice to see them in action and not leave them feeling all that work was for naught! 

Warhammer Underworlds - Da Kunnin' Krew

I have to admit, didn't get these done until Friday afternoon ( a little late for Warhammer Wednesday!). Amanda was very obliging and played on Saturday instead. 

These, along with Xandire's Truthseekers, were one of the two warbands that came with Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep - which was released just over a year ago! 

Da Kunnin Krew. 

Having a brief look through the cards, they actually look not too terrible, on paper. They have a pretty strong them of mutual support and killing things. They all inspire if there are 3 enemy out of action (not always easy... especially against the harder hitting warbands that only HAVE three in them), OR they inspire after an attack action in which they were supported or were supporting another friendly fighter... 

Mannock the Kunnin'

Five wounds is nice. His special ability is a reaction that allows an adjacent fighter to move after some other friendly fighter has made a move action. 

Torka Tuffskul

four wounds Attacks from two away with ensnare and grievous AND counts as supporting if within 2 hexes of the target of an attack action... NASTY!!

Krookgrin

Meh... lies somewhere between Mannock and Torka... 3 wounds.. deals two damage... but, honestly, the minions below seem more useful.. 

Gikkit 

Gikkit, and Shank below, both have only two wounds and deal one damage... BUT both count as TWO fighters when supporting! Which is pretty cool! 

Shank 

Overall looked pretty interesting - just with the starter deck... filtering out some of the weaker cards and adding in some stuff to make them a bit more maneuverable - pushing to get them within support range - could make them downright NASTY! 

Not sure which I'm going to do next... Feeling a little distracted by Astra Militarum rebasing projects. Myari's Purifiers seem like they'd be a good idea, as they are partly painted... and now it's Saturday and I only have half a week to get another warband done... if I want to have it ready for Wednesday! There are others Id be more interested in doing at this point... but they're ones I'd like to actually do a good job on, and so, don't want to rush... like Elathain's Soulraid (which seems like it would fit right in to this setting!) or The Crimson Court or The Shadeborn or Blackpowder's Buccaneers... I don't know.... 

Ironskull's Boyz

This is one of the Warbands I recently picked up with a used copy of Shadespire. One was painted, another half-painted, the other two just primed. So, I just painted them all black and started from scratch. 

The one that was painted, was actually really well done and I liked the look of it. I had briefly considered trying to match the paint job on it with the others, but then decided it would make more sense to just paint them all my way - which would match the other Orruks I have. 

I've tried to go with a rusted up, grimy version of the bog-standard Yellow and Black of the Ironskullz. 

I've actually painted this warband before, a few years back, for my friend John. 

Ironskull's Boyz

Gurzag Ironskull - the leader of this mob. 

Hakka

Basha

Bonekutta

These, along with Morgok's Krushas, would probably make a good Warcry Warband. Or the beginning of an Orruk Wartribe army!? 

More Orruks coming soon! Would that be Morruks? I don't know... 

Warhammer Underworlds: Morgok's Krushas

And MORE Stormcast Eternals - no, wait, these ones are different. They're BIGGER than the freaking Stormcast Eternals! Last weekend I was in my FLGS hoping the Wrumspat warbad I'd asked them to get in had arrived... and left with Morgok's Krusha's instead... because... REASONS!?

Morgok Krusha's is a mob of Ironjawz Brutes that were released as part of the Beastgrave expansions - the "3rd Season" of Warhammer Underworlds. Brutes are REALLY BIG Orruks - kind of like bosses in 40K, I think. They're on freaking 40mm bases!? I'm curious to see how they play in Warhammer Underworlds - starting with only three, I'll have more activations than miniatures to START! Need to find lots of push and bonus attack cards. There are a few in their deck but I feel like a few more might be handy. 

They seem like a murderiferous aggressive warband - but actually have a few Objective Cards that score for holding objectives?! I guess every warband it going to have a mix. Not sure if I should can those and go for more that give bonuses for killifying things... or go for the HOLD STUFF. I think that might be hard - it would require splitting them up, the most I could ever hold is three, and they are SLOW - so it would be challenging to get to Objective Markers deep in enemy territory...?

Morgok's Krushas

Morgok

'Ard-Skull

Thugg 

I probably should have done a comparison picture, so you can see how absurdly HUGE these are.... ah well, you'll see soon enough when I (and they) face Amanda (and Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven) this weekend 

I was thinking of repainting a few of my older GW Warhammer Fantasy Battle Orcs to join these guys and make a Warcry warband... but all the current Orruks seem to fall into two groups; Ironjawz (which these are) and Savage Orruks. Ironjawz all seem to be hulking brutes in plate armour - with NO MISSILE WEAPONS!? The Savage Orruks are lightly armoured, if at all, and carry weapons made of stone!? The old Orcs I have lighter armour - but metal, like chainmail hauberks - and crossbows and stuff!? Maybe I'll just have to use the ones I have as a warband of their own and use the Savage Orruk stats. And just pick up one or two more Ironjawz to join these guys to make a Warcry warband. 

John's Orc Blood Bowl Team/Warband

A little over a decade and a half ago, before this blog was even started, my friend John was living in Calgary. Once or twice a year we'd get together and when we did we'd usually play Mordheim - which had been introduced to us by another friend - who was by then in Edomonton, CVT (CVT had run the Mordheim league here in Saskatoon and continued to come back and run tournaments at the Hero's Gambit convention in Saskatoon for a year or two after he moved to Edmonton).

At that time, the Games Workshop store in Calgary apparently had monthly auctions to ditch old stock. John went to these. Once or twice he picked up something. One of those times he got a Tomb Kings starter army (or... battalion box?)- BEFORE they'd been officially released (it was an accident, the dude auctioning it off picked it up out of the wrong pile in the back, or something...?). Another time he scored a bunch of old metal Orc and Goblin and Hobgoblin Blood Bowl players. Oh man, there were minis in there that I'd seen in White Dwarfs and had coveted, but had never seen in person.

I should back up even further: Blood Bowl, I think, may have been the first miniatures game John and I had ever played together. We'd known each other for a while, and played role-playing games together, and I know we'd PLANNED to play Warhammer Fantasy, and had started collecting minis for that... but I can't remember if we ever actually got to PLAYING WFB before Blood bowl (Second Edition) came out....? (this was THIRTY YEARS AGO now, I have trouble remembering things Amanda told me this morning!). We played a LOT of Blood Bowl. I mean, a LOT!!! I ran the first few leagues through the Wizard's Corner (the original FLGS in Saskatoon that john, at that time, was managing and I worked at 3 hours a week on Thursday evenings - but generally hung out there every waking hour that it was open and I wasn't in school!).

So I have (mostly) very fond and happy memories of blood bowl (of some of the dudes that played in those leagues.... less so...).

Flash forward 10-15 years and John has all these awesome Blood Bowl minis... but we don't play Blood Bowl anymore... and when we do get together we play Mordheim... so he hands them to me with a bunch of plastic weapon bitz and says; "Make me a Mordheim Warband" - the backstory being that this is what the team did in the off season - went REaving about the Empire and made their way to Mordheim to plunder the ruins...

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

I converted the lot of them, pinning and gluing weapons and hands on to each one - the results can be seen below...

Flash forward another 15 years and John is back in Saskatoon and stops by one day and gives me a pack of two plastic D&D Hobgoblin Shamans that he just picked up at the Dragon's Den (our current FLGS that just celebrated its 25TH ANNIVERSARY!!! WOW!!)

I says; "what are these for?"

He says: "Remember that goblinoid blood bowl team/warband you painted for me years ago...? I want to use them as a Frostgrave Warband!"

I says: "No."

Not as in: "no, I don't remember them"...

Not as in: "No, you can't use them as a Frostgrave Warband because that is stupid"

(because it ISN'T stupid, it's AWESOME!!!).

It was as in: "No, I'm not painting those ugly-ass miniature that look nothing like the rest of the war band" - I've got a certain sense of aesthetic, you know...

I point out he should either track down some old metal Blood Bowl Orc Throwers (as they'd fit right in and kind of look like they're casting a spell...? (One hand balled into a fist, the other pointing (as in pointing where they're going to throw that ball) or, at the very least, get some Warhammer Fantasy (or Age of Sigmar) Orc or Goblin wizards... so they at least look a little like the rest of the war band. We could call them the coaches... or a coach and a trainer...?

So, he tracked down a pair of metal Warhammer Fantasy Goblin Wizards (or Shamans...?)



The Whole Team. All miniatures from Citadel/Games Workshop.

I didn't ever paint a logo on them anywhere, but I seem to recall red and white might have been the colours of one of the Orc Blood Bowl teams mentioned in the GW fluff...? The Gouged Eye, maybe...?

I'd had a few Orc teams of my own (hence the coveting of these minis - especially the Cheerleaders!!). One was the plastic team out of the boxed set which I'd painted as the Orcland Raiders. The other was a mixed team of Orcs and Goblins which I called the Gnarly Green Guys. I dug them all out recently... I should take pics of those sometime... maybe play a game with the kids...? I digress...

(Edit: John has reminded me that the red and white colours are for the Killgory Stompeders - a play on Calgary's CFL football team, the Calgary Stampeders! I also had a skaven team called the Hammertown Tiger-Rats - after the Hamilton Tiger-Cats)



The NEW wizard/apprentice/coach/trainer team.



Big Bad Troll.



The Question Mark on his helmet and shoulder pad is his "number".

I have no idea what the fish bones stuck to his arm is all about...?



The Orcs

Originally these were all based on square bases. I think this was because, at the time, Mordheim miniatures were usually on square bases, because Warhammer Fantasy miniature were, for the most part, on square bases, because it was easier to rank them up in battle. I always thought; "who cares?" None of these will EVER be used in a game of Warhammer Fantasy!? But apparently a mutual friend of ours that John was gaming with at the time complained when John had used other minis I'd painted for him, that were on round bases, in Mordheim -0 even though I don't actually recall there ever being ANYTHING that said what shape or size anything had to be on in the rules... His complaint was that it gave one an unfair advantage somehow...? Something to do with how many miniatures could get into base contact with it...? I don't know... He got like that when he was losing! (despite that I love the guy, dearly!)

Well they're not likely to be used for Mordheim ever again, so I rebased the lot of them onto round bases! The orcs I put on 32mm bases as that's what Orcs are on these days... they look a tad big for a couple of them, but I wanted to differentiate them from the goblinses.



A couple of hard-hitting muthafukkahs. #1, who I think was the captain, and #Ø (number naught) Lemdim Greazee. The name is a play on the name of a friend of mine from high school that I don't think John was ever particularly fond of. Greazee had been the name of a Star Player in a couple of our Blood Bowl leagues. I can't remember if it was me or John that had originally came up with the name...?



Now these Blood Bowl figures, and they weren't part of the lot John had given me - they were just minis I had from back when we played Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I stripped and repainted them and added them to the war band to give them some shooty power.



A pair of Goblin noise-makers. I love the guy with the bag pipes... I'm a little surprised I didn't just steal him from the lot...



The whole cheering section...



Squigs...

 

I tried to paint them to look like footballs...

Of course it's AFTER I take all these photos, somehow, that I notice all the bits of chipped paint.... Ugh...



Squigs with their goblin herder (with a snotting-on-a-stick!)



Hobgoblins with Spear and Shield.



#s 77 and 36. #36's name (or PART thereof) can be seen on his back betwixt his shoulder pads: "LUR"...? I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be PART of his name... BLURT? SLURB? I have no idea... I'm sure it was something I thought was pretty funny at the time...



Hobgoblin with Shield and Axe (Hand Weapon)



ANOTHER #5. I think this was because I was painting them in batches and mailing them off to John in Calgary and I totally FORGOT what numbers I used...



Dual-Weilding Hobgoblins. Not sure why there are so many of these and not more with shields. I'm sure that could be fixed...



I'm certain the #37 was a reference to Clerks (the movie).



Goblins... again with the Dual-Wielding...? Was Dual-Weilding super awesome in Mordheim?



So many references to the number five. I was a teenage Discordian! (7+1= 8, 8=2³, 2+3=5... it... made sense at the time...).

I know John's immediate plan is (or WAS, when he dropped off those goblin wizards... um... a few months back). I'm not sure what all these would be in Frostgrave - it's been over a year since I last played (maybe TWO!?). Those goblins could be Thieves (count those dual wield weapons as "a dagger"). The Dual-Wield Hobgoblins could be Thugs (count THOSE dual wield weapons as "a hand weapon"). The hobgoblins with shields could be Men-at-Arms (were there different soldier types for hand weapon and shield and spear and shield...? or was is all just HAND WEAPON and shield? The rest...? I have no idea, I'd have to dig out my book and get creative...

Not quite enough of any of them for Dragon Rampant, but they'd make a wicked-cool Song of Blades and Heroes warband!! I'll have to get him to play THAT at some time!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Necromunda Game Weekend!