Just John's Orcish Chronicle

It's great to be back for a second OWAC, I learned quite a bit from the last one and was determined to go into this one better prepared and ready to hit the ground running. Well that didn't happen - mainly due to me managing to get sick in early December with something that's like COVID but most certainly isn't.  Still I've managed to get enough done to get this post ready and I am looking forward to starting the prep and painting.

Way back in the mists of time, before the internet was anything more than a gleam in the eye of its creator/ inventor I picked up a copy of these two magazines 

Within the pages of these (at the time) weighty tomes were pages and pages of photographs of miniatures that I had never seen before and, with a few exceptions, were virtually impossible to get in the Dublin of the mid-80s. For some reason I particularly enamoured with the range of Chronicle miniatures, which were sculpted by Nick Lund. There was something different about them that really appealed to a young me, possibly because they were equipped like serious warriors but had horrific faces and rode giant wolves. These hobgoblins and wolfriders have always been among my favourite miniatures.

I managed to pick up a blister pack of the hobgoblins in the old Virgin Megastore (which was unlike anything we had until that time) and that was about it until much, much later when the now invented internet combined with eBay and an income allowed me to over indulge myself and gradually pick up  the miniatures that I had drooled over in my youth. Fast forward another 5 or 6 years and we are now in 2021 and it seems like a perfect time to start painting them. But where to start? Well, there is really only one option and so I decided to attempt to paint an army of mounted orc riding their giant wolves and then fill in any points gaps with other bits and pieces. 

I started going through the box of minis and paired off wolves with riders, added a few Grenadier wolf riders to add a few command figures and then realised that I had 36 wolves and riders. I've split these up into 4 units of 8 rank and files and a four  figure command unit. I'm hoping that I will be able to paint 8 wolves and riders a month but if not I will catch up in the Wildcard month. If I do manage to keep the Wildcard month free I have a couple of idea for what I would like to do.

The 3rd edition army list doesn't allow orcs to ride wolves, which are reserved for goblins instead. For some reason Citadel went with orcs on boars, possibly as they made the boars more vicious than the  wolves. Rather than messing around with points and stat lines I decided that these orcs would ride larger giant wolves (gianter wolves?) with the same stat line as the boars. Let's call them Wargs instead. This keeps things simple and means that the army works out as follows:

Rank & File 1

8 x Orcs on Wargs. The orcs are equipped with light armour and shields. 

8 x 25 points (19 + 2 + 4) = 200 points

Rank & File 2

8 x Orcs on Wargs. The orcs are equipped with light armour and shields.

8 x 25 points (19 + 2 + 4) = 200 points

Rank & File 3

8 x Orcs on Wargs. The orcs are equipped with light armour and bows.

8 x 25 points (19 + 2 + 4) = 200 points

Rank & File 4

8 x Orcs on Wargs. The orcs are equipped with light armour, shields and spears.

8 x 27 points (19 + 2 + 2 + 4) = 216 points

General & Command all mounted on Wargs

General Lvl 20 Hero with light armour & shield 135 points (116 + 16 + 2 + 1)

Shaman Lvl 15 179 points (163 + 16)

Champion Lvl 10 with light armour & two-handed weapon 81 points (61 + 16 + 2 + 2)

Champion Lvl 10 with light armour & shield 80 points (61 + 16 + 2 + 1)

That comes to a total of 1291 points not including anything done in the Wildcard month.

Here are a few photos of the army in its unpainted state. There is still a fair bit of prep work for most of the figures and quite a few figures need repair or conversion. Unfortunately its one of the downsides of these minis - they are generally so old that there are a lot more damaged versions than whole versions on eBay. I have to say I am looking forward to painting these now. Whether I will still be as enthusiastic as I work my way through 36 wolves I'm not sure. 

The contents of this box make up my hoped for Wild Card entry. Its all the parts that I have collected over the years to make up the Grenadier Orc warlords chariot drawn by four wolves. I think there are 2 complete ones in the box and maybe part of a third. I hope to get one of them made in the Wild Card month.

And finally here is my offering to the overlord with baby blue shirt and pink guts as requested.

All that's left is to wish everyone the best of luck for OWAC V.