A mere 14 years ago, I started work on a Savage Orc army.
It was only a wee force: one unit of boyz, one unit of arrer boyz (in the good old days when they could skirmish), a small troop of boarboyz and a few stone trolls.
They were picked almost solely because I liked the 'Eavy Metal paint job and wanted to replicate it (my breathtaking originality evidenced by the photocopied banner). But it had the added bonus of giving me an extra army, so I could instruct a neophyte General Leofa all about 5th ed. Warhammer.
I think what he most took away from it was that it's no fun to play against a Savage Orc Warboss when frenzied attacks are doubled, rather than just +1.
(ahh ... HeroHammer)
Anyway it was a robust little army, thematically linked and eventually let me spread out into other Orc & Goblin forces. There was just one problem really: only 19 boyz in the main unit.
It was my own fault. I bought a Shaman to fill in the final rank and file position. This was another feature of 5th ed - a Savage Orc Shaman would increase everyone's ward save just by being in the unit (something that now requires a 50 point magic item), so you'd be a fool not to shove a cheap Lv1 in there.
Except without that Shaman, there was an empty space in the back rank of my unit. And while such things hardly matter, it was – in a very real sense – driving me mad.
By the time I got around to doing anything about it, the miniatures were long out of production. But with eBay and good pot of paint remover, no pewter miniature is beyond redemption. So off I went to the auctions and came back with...
... two Savage Orc boyz.
Well, this wouldn't do at all. A regiment of 21 was just as distressing as 19, but with a bit of rounding off, I could get a nice solid unit of 25. So off to market I went.
And this time, I got four more. I now have 25 boys, except one of them was an archer.
So now I still have a missing space in the back rank of infantry, and I somehow have to accommodate a solitary archer into my existing 10 arrer boyz.
More auctions, more job lots, more uneven numbers, more rounding off. And I'm not entirely sure how I got here, but I now have 54 unpainted Savage Orcs.
Probably time I sat down and finished off this army: painting up the new models and toning down the existing ones. So initiate Phase 2 of my Great Big Painting Plan - at WoffBoot VII, the Savage 'Uns will be taking the field!
It was only a wee force: one unit of boyz, one unit of arrer boyz (in the good old days when they could skirmish), a small troop of boarboyz and a few stone trolls.
They were picked almost solely because I liked the 'Eavy Metal paint job and wanted to replicate it (my breathtaking originality evidenced by the photocopied banner). But it had the added bonus of giving me an extra army, so I could instruct a neophyte General Leofa all about 5th ed. Warhammer.
I think what he most took away from it was that it's no fun to play against a Savage Orc Warboss when frenzied attacks are doubled, rather than just +1.
(ahh ... HeroHammer)
 |
| "My hobbies include enslaving Indian children and hypnotising archaeologists." |
Anyway it was a robust little army, thematically linked and eventually let me spread out into other Orc & Goblin forces. There was just one problem really: only 19 boyz in the main unit.
It was my own fault. I bought a Shaman to fill in the final rank and file position. This was another feature of 5th ed - a Savage Orc Shaman would increase everyone's ward save just by being in the unit (something that now requires a 50 point magic item), so you'd be a fool not to shove a cheap Lv1 in there.
Except without that Shaman, there was an empty space in the back rank of my unit. And while such things hardly matter, it was – in a very real sense – driving me mad.
 |
| Four rows back: evidence that I am both obsessive-compulsive and unable to count properly. |
By the time I got around to doing anything about it, the miniatures were long out of production. But with eBay and good pot of paint remover, no pewter miniature is beyond redemption. So off I went to the auctions and came back with...
... two Savage Orc boyz.
Well, this wouldn't do at all. A regiment of 21 was just as distressing as 19, but with a bit of rounding off, I could get a nice solid unit of 25. So off to market I went.
And this time, I got four more. I now have 25 boys, except one of them was an archer.
So now I still have a missing space in the back rank of infantry, and I somehow have to accommodate a solitary archer into my existing 10 arrer boyz.
More auctions, more job lots, more uneven numbers, more rounding off. And I'm not entirely sure how I got here, but I now have 54 unpainted Savage Orcs.
 |
| ... and some Snotlings. |
Probably time I sat down and finished off this army: painting up the new models and toning down the existing ones. So initiate Phase 2 of my Great Big Painting Plan - at WoffBoot VII, the Savage 'Uns will be taking the field!
No comments:
Post a Comment