Brokentooth's Mustering of Goblins pt1.

Continuing on from Brokentooth's Guide to Goblin Greatness, it's time to muster some troops!

Where to begin?

Planning a large army is a bit different than a skirmish force or Blood Bowl team, which admittedly I have a lot more experience with in the last half decade than vast army building. But large scale armies are what I started with and I've planned and made quite a few in the past, so no worries.

Here's my approach in short form:

1.  Think about the army. 

What motivates you to build it?  What is it about it that you like?

It is very important to have a clear idea of what you like because you don't want to get distracted away from it.  I'm not sure how often I've run across people who have built and play an army they say they like for one reason, but aren't pursuing it.. maybe they say how much they love the basic troops, for their stoic determination getting stuck in, but they play a gun line because it is more game-winning.  Know what you like about the concept and pursue that, not something else or you'll lose interest or not enjoy the results.

2.  Plan the result and add 20% 

If you're planning an army of Xpts, pad it out.  You will want some extra things: putting a different monster in, or a different character.. taking a tank out of your army and replacing with anti-tank infantry, etc. It doesn't usually take a lot of extras to get a lot more flexible miles out of a project.  You'll probably add more along the way, but it's a good idea to have in mind what those additions will be.

3.  Decide if, or what parts, will be double-duty.

It is often nice to get two or more projects out of one.  What other uses will the minis of your project have for other projects? What will you need to do to make them work with other projects, such as base size & style?  Are the requirements for double-duty worth whatever limitations it may have for the primary project?

4. Paint Scheme Test

Before starting to paint, finish a test piece to make sure you like the paint scheme and learn any shortcuts.

5. Stock up on motivation.

A large project takes a lot more effort, and therefore motivation, than a small project.  Update your progress on a blog, a forum.  Perhaps have an end date goal, such as a tournament, or milestone goals like a unit finished for a game night.

Reward yourself with the 'fun parts': Don't paint all the fun stuff first. if you love painting Big monsters or tanks most, don't do them all at once- reward them like desert to yourself in stages of completion of the items you don't enjoy working on as much.

So what are these for my project?

1. I like Goblins in all their variety: unruly masses, wolfriders, trolls, goblins with wonky machines. I also like monsters, so some variety of big things is needed too.  In game-play my favorite type of unit is light cavalry.  I love hit & run attacks, softening up the enemy from relative safety before committing.

I want a lot of variety for this project. So while I do have a lot of goblins from the Kickstarter, I have to make sure I have plenty of other concept stuff to mix in. In my mind goblins are not overly uniform.

2.  A lot of the planning was done for me, as the kickstarter gave me a lot of the army already, and the heaps of extras provides plenty for addition and variety.  In fact, adding in other things I want I have far more than I need.  the kickstarter made this different than most projects since it gives so much upfront without needing to decide what I'd get.  I'll initially be aiming at:

Infantry:
2 hordes of archers, 1 horde of spear, 3 regiments of rabble - I may be able to pad this out to get an additional regiment of spear, and maybe a 3rd horde of archers.

Cavalry:
2 regiments of spear wolf riders, 3 troops of bow wolf riders, pack of mawbeasts

Trolls:
I have 18 from the kickstarter. I'll base them individually so I can run them in 1's, 3's or 6's.

Artillery:
2 catapults, 3 war trombones, 4 bolt throwers. I'm making it possible that the catapults & bolt throwers can be used by goblins or dwarves, to save on money (double duty)

Monsters:
1 giant, 1 jabberwock. I'm really tempted by the GW arachnarok spider.. it just looks very fun. I'm also considering converting a paleolithic mammal toy.

Characters:
So many characterful options out there.  I'll have 3-4 wizards & big heroes, and a couple banners.

3. Double Duty:
As mentioned, some of the warmachines will be from my dwarf army. The monsters could also be useful in any number of projects. Characters will be usable in skirmish games, but most of the army will be element based and for this project only.  The advantages to this project outweigh the disadvantages that creates in general.

4. Painting to come.

5. Motivation started by updating on the project.

So, let's see some of the minis!

Here are a few characters (L-R): Flag-git, Big-git, Wiz.
The Goblin Wiz is a Gamezone mini, the other two are GW.
A minor conversion for the flag-git: snip the weapon, add an Ungor spear and some resin banner pieces from the bits horde.

Base size is important for units in Kings of War, but Characters, esp those you hope to avoid combat, seems a bit less important.  So I based mine on 25mm instead of 20mm. 5mm isn't much, but it makes all the difference when wanting to give a character some elbow room.

Here are some characters I'm considering picking up to add to the army:

From Avatars of War, this Goblin might make a very nice King Brokentooth! 

A Big-git on fleabag? I stumbled on Olde World Miniatures Kickstarter recently. They have several fun characterful minis, and this one is tempting for the Goblin Army.

What do you think? What are your favorite goblins?

More Mayhem to Follow...