Saturday, May 10, 2025

Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #4

Act 4

The dwarf fort jutted from the foothills all grey and unfriendly with it's thick walls and murder-holes. It looked like it didn’t want visitors. Rugluk Backstabba glared at it from his makeshift war throne.

“Why won’t da stunties come out?” he growled.

They’d been chucking boulders for three days straight. The walls didn’t care. Neither did the dwarfs-except to shoot back. A black orc chief had lost his head to a cannonball. A goblin regiment routed when their battering ram caught fire.

Rugluk bellowed at his lieutenants, kicked over the stew pot, and ordered a charge. It ended in complete chaos. A pump wagon broke up halfway across the field, splattering the crew and flattening three goblins who’d been hiding behind it. Then came the arrows. Cannonballs. Boiling oil.

That night, the camp was quiet. Too quiet. Rugluk didn’t like it.

He paced his tent, muttering. “They’z whisperin’. I know it. Gits think I’z lost it.” He scratched his chin. “Maybe I ‘ave. Or maybe it’s them dat needs stabbin’...”

A goblin runner crept in with bad news-another warband had left during the night. Rugluk stared at him for a long time before saying anything.

“Anyone else got ideas ‘bout leavin’?” he shouted to no one in particular.

Outside, the lads kept their heads low. The mutterin’ had started. They said Rugluk was cursed. Said da wyrm lied. Said da boss had lost it.

And Rugluk? He stared at the dwarf fort and thought he saw it grinning.

 

And so, the final Rank & File month is here! There’s still a lot I plan to do, but the heavy lifting is done. I can feel the pressure of the challenge lifting from my shoulders-and it feels nice. I chose to paint a big unit and two war machines, but honestly didn’t expect to finish all of them. The Goblins were quicker to paint than I expected, though I admit some midnight oil was burnt.

 

I managed to finish painting a unit of Goblins, two Skull Crushers, and a Sow (shown later). As mentioned earlier, Grom's Goblin Guard was a priority-Tom gave me part of the unit, so I really wanted to paint it this season. They’re a fine addition to the force, and as you can see, they’ve already successfully stormed the fort!


I like the elite look that monopose units have. A block of Goblins is always fearsome to behold… but yeah, okay-I admit they're only elite in the fluff.


The cheek and neck guards remind me of Roman legionaries and I let that influence the shield design.

I usually varnish my models after taking photos, and naturally, managed to chip some paint from the banner. There's a red checker pattern hidden somewhere under that layer of dirt.

 
I also managed to paint two Skull Crushers with crew. One of the front wheels is a spare made from green stuff.

 

This month in points:


 

 

 

 

I'm very happy with how things are going at the moment, but I understand that painting a horde is an endurance sport. I've already made some outlines for what I'd like to paint next season, but I still hope to reach the minimum army requirements in Warhammer Armies in addition to the OWAC requirements this season. That would mean painting a unit of Stickas, a few more Arrer Boyz, and of course Rugluk.

 

SIEGE

I'm keeping it simple in the Siege section.


I picked up this Sow from Wargames Foundry and gave it a simple paint job. I chose to keep it generic, without anything orky, so I can use it with other armies too. It came with some human crew that I’ll paint later.
 
The Sow is basically a mobile cover that you can push around the battlefield. It's not very manoeuvrable with it's movement of 3" and turn radius of three times the moved distance. You can enter it and shoot through the slits. I imagine putting a small unit of Arrers in it.  The points value depends on the crew capacity and varies between 10 and 30.





 

And that’s it for the month. I think Rugluk will have to wait a while longer, and May will be my Wild Card month, with a focus on the Siege section.

 


 

10 comments:

  1. Nice addition to the horde, particularly like the 2nd edition guard regiment of renown, well done.

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    1. Thank you! I love the old Regiments of Renown and hope to include more of them later-unfortunately not before next season, though

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  2. Definitely an imposing unit of elite gobbos! That banner is fab, and the Sow is a really great addition to keep it Siege themed. Painting is subtle but detailed and really well judged as always. Great month for a great project.

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    1. Thank you, I'm pretty happy with how this month turned out too!

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  3. That's a lot of great looking goblins, well done. Both of my own Skull Crushers had to be repaired like that, hiding somewhere out there are a lot of old warmachine wheels...

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    1. Thank you! Yeah, I’d love to stumble upon the mythical secret stash of missing Oldhammer wheels. These war machines aren’t the only ones I have missing them!

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  4. Outstanding, as usual !!! I love the siege stuff you're building ! Your army is ready for any situation.

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    1. Thank you! There's plenty more in the pipeline-I hope you’ll like those too!

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  5. Sweet jeebus - that banner! They look incredible - great work!

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  6. Your army is getting bigger and bigger. I love its consistency and the colors you chose. You re delivering a solid result for the whole army.

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