Jaakko and Rugluk: Season II - The Reinforcements - Introduction

Rugluk Backstabba stood on a ridge of broken stone and looked down at his army.

It didn’t take long. There weren’t many left.

A handful of orcs leaned on chipped axes, arguing about whose fault it was they were hungry. Goblins huddled near a fire that wasn’t really burning. A pump wagon sat on its side, crew gone, probably eaten.

Rugluk bared his teeth. “Dis ain’t an army,” he growled. “Dis a bad joke.”

No one laughed.

The siege, the mutiny, the empty fort-it had all taken its toll. Some had wandered off. Others had challenged him and lost. A few had challenged him and won, at least enough to run away afterward. Fear carried only so far when there was no loot and too much marching.

Rugluk clenched his fist. He was still alive. Boyz will always find the real boss.

“Dey’ll come,” he muttered. “Dey always do.”

A goblin scout scurried up the slope, panting. “Boss! Found tracks”

Rugluk’s eye twitched. “Orcs?”

The goblin hesitated. “Uh… not exactly.”

Rugluk grinned anyway.

“Well, I ain’t picky.”

And so another season of OWAC is about to begin! And, as promised, the second season of painting Orcs and Goblins for the Horde of Rugluk.

The theme of season IX is to draw inspiration from Oldhammer artwork. I knew this beforehand, and since I’m working on a multi-season project, I already snuck this picture into the introduction post for season VIII:

Or rather, a part of this larger artwork from Warhammer Armies:

I love everything about it and hope to capture the style of this orc horde in my slowly materializing army-to-be. I’ve also snuck in some smaller details that fit this year’s theme into last season-but there will be more of them next month (as I’m not writing this from home and forgot to take pictures). More small surprises are also hopefully still to come. Anyway, here are some photos of the unpainted models waiting for their turn!

This unit will feature two banners, so the fellow in the middle seems to be a rival of Rugluk.

I painted some Goblin Fanatics last year, but I saved my favourites for this season. As far as I know, all the different pre-slotta sculpts will be featured. I can’t imagine a scenario where I’d actually need so many Fanatics, but I enjoy painting them.

And here they are in a list:

That’s still more than I can manage to paint in one season, but we’ll see.

If I have time, I might also finish these Goblin Wolf Riders that I didn’t manage to complete last season. They won’t be included in the model count or points, of course, since they already have some season VIII paint on them.

Good luck to all of our challengers! See you next month!