Byron's Invasion of Ulthuan - foraging mission (395 pts)

An army marches on its stomach. And, goblin stomachs are often full of mushroom. 

While waiting to hear back from his scouts, Grom turned to the next important business for his army, Food. Nearly all of the food packed onto the rafts had been eaten during the voyage or was already spoiled. The goblins were hungry and needed grub in their bellies before they turned on each other. 

Night goblins shamans are skilled connoisseurs of mushrooms; it is a key ingredient in their spells and nogs. So, Grom sent Madlum the Shaman in charge of a foraging mission to find Mushrooms. 

Cimrond Joyriver greets the morning with a White Lion stretch,
while the brothers Kurwyn and Dolryll share their latest groovy jam.

Madlum, was smart enough to know that he didn't know where to find mushrooms on Ulthuan. But, he was also keen enough to know what kind of elf would. Those kind of elves always made themselves known by their particular kind of music and their proclivities toward stretching on rugs and breathing funny for a long time. As silly as they were to him, Madlum knew their mushrooms made the best ingredients for his magic and to get his fanatic friends all worked up. 

Kalerond lightstoned, standing wide in mountain pose,
tells of his recent retreat at Tor Elyr

Just as Madlum had told them, the elves made themselves known. Grobbit and Gribbit spotted the unwary elves from their vantage point in the underbrush. 

Grobbit peaks over the underbrush

Grobbit spies on the elves while formulating a plan with Gribbit. 

Teamwork makes the dream work - at least so says Grobbit.

Grobbit and Gribbit lower down a bit and wait for their buddies to spring the trap - with the say so of Madlum, that is. 

The attack is begun! Grobbit and Gribbit prod their squigs out of the bushes toward the elves. 

Eadrihyr Joykeeper grabs the reins of Shadowprancer
but the horse is startled by the unfamiliar monsters approaching

One of the elves tries to mount up and escape to raise the alarm, but he is caught by a second group of goblins that emerges from the bushes poking squigs toward the elves. 

Madlum is gleeful. These elves will undoubtedly know where to find the mushrooms he needs. If not they can make a good stew for Grom and the others. 

Now for pics of the minis:

The new lot all together.

Goblin Fanatics (30 pts each). The fanatic on the right is a converted Bequest goblin.

Madlum, Goblin Shaman Champion (83 pts). Madlum is a harlequin goblin sculpted by Kev Adams.

Squig Hunter Teams (8 pts each). The herder team on the left is another bequest miniature, but their pitch fork was swapped with one of the other hunter teams. The bequest team is giving "Goblin Gothic" vibes. 

Squigs (20 pts each). Mostly bequest miniatures, except for the dragon squig in the back. The Squigs are mostly good sculpts, but many of the other bequest sculpts have very soft details. 

Total: 395 points.

Finally, pics of my progress toward covering the entire shelf. Despite easily meeting the 200 point goal, and the minimum threshold for a rank and file month, I did not get close to my goals for February. 

My goal for March is to focus on models with bigger bases in hopes that it will close the gap. Lots of trolls, wolf riders and chariots are lined up for March. 

Jaakko and Rugluk Backstabba- The Tragedy of Rugluk - Wrap-up

Epilogue

Deep below the craggy hills a small cavern echoed with laughter. Not orcish roars or goblin sniggers-this was sharper, clearer.

Three gnomes sat around a bubbling cauldron, mugs in hand, snorting into their beards.

“And then-and then-he stabbed his boss over a fake prophecy! Hah!”

The eldest gnome, Tobbin Flickerflint, wiped a tear from his eye and waved a hand over the bubbling pool. In its surface shimmered Rugluk, raging across empty dwarf tunnels with a warband too tired to argue.

“I told you the snake illusion would sell it,” said Primsy Gloomwhistle, and took a sip of mushroom wine. “Bit of hissing, a few glowing eyes, some destiny nonsense-works every time.”

“What was it we called him?” chuckled Jibbin. “The Chosen One?”

“Might be our best one yet,” said Tobbin.

They raised their mugs and toasted.

“To da Backstabba!”

The cauldron flickered and showed Rugluk again-this time yelling at returning goblin scouts.

The gnomes howled.

“Ohhh, we should definitely do goblins next!”

And here we are! The painting marathon we call Old World Army Challenge is once again grinding to a momentary halt. And what a ride it has been!

This has easily been my favourite season so far, as I’ve thoroughly enjoyed exploring the classic Orc and Goblin range with a paintbrush in hand. The events that set this project into motion happened during the Leader Month of Season Six, when I painted a banner inspired by the designs in the O&G section of Warhammer Armies. I already had a Chaos Thug Musician wielding an instrument that seemed to be stolen from my Dwarf army (Ronald the Farter, painted just before Season Six), and I felt I needed to paint the Orc army that the banner belonged to.

And here it is-the siege-laying horde of Orcs and Goblins led by Rugluk Backstabba! Or at least the first part of it. This is more than I hoped to achieve and I'm really happy with how things are going. I did expect to have painted some Goblin Wolf Riders by now, though. I actually started both units on January 1st but only managed to finish the wolves themselves. I’m hoping to get them done during the off-season and present them in the intro post of next season-alongside a Snotling Pump Wagon that didn’t quite make the finish line either. 

Rugluk Backstabba and the Boyz-my favourite unit in the army

I kept painting more models throughout July, as I had a 3rd edition Fantasy Battle game lined up for the end of the month. I needed to meet the minimum requirements from Warhammer Armies and to hit the 3000-point mark we had agreed on. With a bit of help from some Giants borrowed from Slargash’s army, I managed to reach both goals-and we had a great game to top it all off.

I painted a unit of Stickas, six Fanatics, beefed up the existing unit of Arrer Boyz, and added an Orc Shaman on a Warboar.

I love Goblin Fanatics-these sculpts are oozing with character. My favourite sculpts are saved to the next season, though, and I hope to dedicate a full month to them.

 

The Stickas

As mentioned above, I painted five more models for this unit, bringing the total to 19. I also received an Orc from John R that fits the unit nicely and finished a spare Harboth I’d used for skin tone tests before the challenge began, bringing the unit up to 21 Orcs overall. Naturally, only 19 will count toward the challenge tally.

Orc Shaman on Warboar. The model comes with a banner pole, but I didn’t have time to add it yet. It’ll need pinning and a bit more work, so I’ll come back to it later.

This month in points: 

Some pictures of the army:

I really like Pump Wagon models and how they work in the game. I also enjoy painting the little guys themselves and hope to do more of that next season. I brought some daylight lamps to my gaming group's space to better capture their slightly paler skintone (and colours in general) in photos. 

 

The Harboth shown partly here was one of my early skin tone tests. I’m thinking of giving a second one a matching look and tying them together as brothers in the background lore.

I really like the command group in Grom's Goblin Guard-they're all fantastic sculpts. 

The picture isn’t great, but I wanted to include the baggage in this post since, even though it wasn’t the first one I started painting, it’s the first one I’ve actually finished.

 

And the army in points:

The Owac adjusted model count has been applied to the Shaman and the baggage. 

 

 

 

 

  

 

What next? Well, I have some half-painted miniatures from this challenge that I need to finish, as mentioned earlier. I also hope to explore the siege theme further in the future, but we’ll see what form that takes. Originally, I had planned to fix and paint a Mighty Fortress during a future Wild Card month, but the current idea is to tackle it during the off-season instead. I’m hoping to get a Warhammer Siege game under my belt sooner rather than later.

And that's it, I guess. As mentioned above, I had a lot of fun this season, but I definitely don’t mind taking it a bit easier over the next few months. I hope to return for Season IX with Rugluk and his army as there are still plenty of units, monsters, and character models I can’t wait to paint!

Wishing you all the best in the meantime. My condolences to the fallen comrades, and big congrats to the challengers who made it to the finish line!