Brokentooth's Guide to Goblin Greatness: Being the biggest, baddest goblin you can be.

Brokentooth surveyed the young goblins before him.  Pathetic. One of two showed promise, but the bulk of them? rabble.  sigh.

Quiet down or I'll stuff you in the wolf pen and ring the dinner bell!  You're given me a headpounding. 

That shut them up.  Mostly.

Alright.  I probably won't live forever.  The shamans keep working on that, but I think it's more likely I'll die from their potions than live longer.  So someday someone has to take my place.  It might be one of you, however depressing the notion is. And if you don't want to be trampled by pinkones on horses or slaved up by orcs you'll listen close!  Now, I've told you about the powerful arms of a goblin army... the giant things and trolls, and you best remember that, but arms aren't much good without a back & head!  No indeed, arms all flopping around on the ground, spurting gouts of blood. Useless. The goblins in bulk are the back of an army and it's all lead by the head, and that's the leader. And if that leader aint a goblin then what's the point? So if you ever want to be leader, or you're pushed forward and have no choice, then it's up to you to be the biggest, baddest most clever goblin there is!  I can't help you much on being clever, and some of you there's just no help at all, but being big & mean you gots some control over. 

An army looks to it's leader, so if they can't see you, you're lost.  Armies want to see their leader is tough too, tougher than the enemy or they may run off, so the secret is find the biggest monster you can, and ride it to battle.  It's not much of a secret... you'll see some orcs and pinkboys doing this, maybe even an elf, but often as not these leaders stay in their tents lookin at their scraps, but that's not much reassurance fer goblins. 

Now, you've seen my Spitter...

Much snickering and cackles broke out among the goblin youth.

Ack! That's not what I meant and you knows it!  I mean my Wyvern!  Still.. that is a pretty good one...
Anyways, my Wyvern Spitter is a serious mean beast!  I stole the egg from an Orc camp and reared him from a pup.  Most big beasts like wyverns, dragons, birdcats can and will eat a goblin down in one gulp, but if you can avoids it, you're on your way to being a great leader! 

.....................................

I think Brokentooth deserves his own monster mount.  Kings of War doesn't allow for Goblin leaders to ride big flying monsters, it has that in common with Warhammer.  However, the combo of the ally system & liberal use of 'counts as' offer a lot of possibilities to bring this otherwise never seen possibility to the battlefield.

You could take units of allied orcs or humans, finding a goblin-looking version for them, and then bring in a character on a flying beast: easy as pie!  There is also a goblin leader on a mechanical giant, so if you don't mind your flying beast 'chicken flail flying' then that's an option too.

I have admired this very old Citadel Miniatures Orc War Wyvern since I started playing miniatures games.  My friend Bill who got me into this hobby had one,  just damn beautiful, and I loved it.  This is a great sculpt, so much character, and it's 'cute' for a monster too.  I think it is easily the best Wyvern GW ever made, maybe the best flying monster in general as well.

I found one on Ebay many years ago, and decided it's finally time to paint it.

I converted it some of course, to give it a functional-looking saddle, and a goblin general, and it needed a functioning-looking reins too.  It overhangs a base quite a lot, so I also gave it a tall rocky outcrop for the base.

Here he is:

He will be painted by the end of the month.  That's the plan anyway.

More mayhem to follow...

Officers of the Suzerainty of Phorus : Conversion W.I.P.

I've been compiling ideas for the timeline and various worlds for Planets in Peril for.. well, years now.
One thing I've always enjoyed about the gaming hobby, in minis wargaming and RPGs before that is 'world building'. Creating a setting is just great fun.  So creating multiple worlds is even more fun.

Eventually I'll organize it and present it.  Quickly speaking, it begins in the early twentieth century and progresses several decades. It is unashamedly inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a touch of Wells and who knows what else pulled on my neurons to make a stamp here and there, along with some original ideas I would hope. The nice thing about a Burroughs-concept of the solar system is it is rich, fertile ground for crafting worlds.  If there is a rock out there orbiting the Sun then it's worthy of populating, hard science be damned.

Despite wars and conflicts our inner planets are comparatively safe, because the outer planets are dominated by the Jovian Overlords: shadowy powers who's purpose in using terrestrial races as pawns are unfathomable.  There are many races under their sway already, on the large rocky moons of the Gas Giants.  One of the more formidable powers is the Suzerainty of Phorus, located on Enceladus, orbiting Saturn.

The Suzerainty is an old and byzantine culture, steeped in martial tradition.  Their pride runs deep, many of their citizens do not know that the Jovians are in fact living beings, believing them to be the spirits of dead Suzerains of the past.  Phorusian legions are anything but an uncommon sight in the worlds past the asteroid belt.

Since Suzerainty troops might be numerous foes in some scenarios I picked up three sets of 5-man squads from CP Models. When I saw these minis I loved them instantly.  Quirky and Odd: just my style.  I've always loved prehistoric 'Terror Birds' so the minis of what might be an evolved sentient race of them was something I couldn't resist. I knew I'd want some terrestrial races for the Outer Planets, but hadn't decided what they'd be... but now I have the first one set and starting to decide details on their culture and history, as you see from above.

A set of 5 minis comes with 4 riflemen and a leader, to create more variety I converted the 3 leaders: 1 commander and 2 lesser officers. The commander I just made a helmet and the others I removed the sword and gave them force halberds. And that's that. Here they are:

These three and 12 riflemen make 15 that are primed and ready to start painting.
I'm looking forward to them!  What do you think of them?

And yes, some of these large moons are still pretty small, especially compared to a planet like Earth.

Take the Phorusians' world of Enceladus, seen here to scale:

A small world. but considering it has no oceans, but plenty of ice & lakes beneath the surface, there is still plenty of land for a formidable power to call home.  Considering how much of the Earth was under the power of the island in the picture above, I think the Suzerainty should not be quickly dismissed. 

More to come! 

Dungeon Dwellers Blood Bowl Team : Do You Dare Delve Where Darkness Dwells?

The Dungeon Dwellers Chaos Pact Blood Bowl team is finished and ready to fly off to Europe.

A client of mine is planning to attend the Dungeon Bowl Blood Bowl tournament in Dusseldorf Germany next year.  I went this year, and had a great time.  The only potential snag for it though is that since it is held in a Games Workshop location, only GW minis are allowed. Setting aside all the feelings that tends to bring up, the biggest problem was he didn't have a team with GW minis!  Yes, GW has let their interest in Blood Bowl wane to the point that it's more likely people will have teams made of other miniatures than of GW.  So he needed a legal team.

But not just any team.  The last Blood Bowl minis GW produced was near around 15 years ago?  So a lot of people have the GW teams, or at least have seen them, and often, for the last 20 years. He wanted something unique. We tossed some ideas around, and then it struck me that since this was the Dungeon Bowl, what about a team that is defending the dungeon?  It is their home.  This lead to some ideas that finally settled into a 'dark, sinister dungeon dwellers with a bit of disturbing tech': the Dark Eldar line being ideal and the Chaos Pact roster, with a variety of monsters being the ideal vector to bring them to life.

So on to the team!

The big draw of a Chaos Pact team is its three big guys!

Ogre                                    Minotaur                                           Troll

The Dark Eldar Talos kit came with a lot of extras to donate to his buddies.

Next is the three small fellows, the Renegades:

Goblin                                      Skaven                              Dark Elf

They are just linemen on their respected teams, but out of that element and working together they are special.

The Skaven's armor seemed to go very well with the aesthetic of the Dark Eldar.

Then there are the Chaos Marauders:

Something 'Hellraiser' about the style of these guys.  

Since Marauders can have mutations, I gave them a lot: 2 Claws, Big hand, 2 Tentacles...

& more..

more mutations: Extra Arms, 2 Extra Heads, and 2 without mutations.

And a couple Star Players for the team: 

Ugroth (Chainsaw) & Dribblesnot (Bomber)

The weapons have a different look to fit the theme: a chain-whip sword for a chainsaw, and a goblin throwing a big bouncing trap jaw for a bomb. 

The Staff: 

Apothecary                                            Coach                                    Cheerleader

Re-roll tokens: Bronze for leader, iron for regular

And the team together: 

(click for larger)

I hope they have fun at the Dungeon Bowl next year. 

Maybe they'll have the luck of 'Home Field Advantage'!

Tokens for Dungeon Dwellers Blood Bowl Team

The last three updates were part of a 'Guess the Project' style that I do now and then.
Pryn was the first to pinpoint the exact project type: a Chaos Pact Blood Bowl Team.

You can check out the last three updates to see the Troll, Ogre & Minotaur, or 'Talostaur' as I've been calling him.  I am a big fan of the Chaos Pact team in Blood Bowl.  Not only is it a fun team to play.. who doesn't like three big guys? but it has a lot of interesting potential with all the mutation access.  Maybe best of all though is how open to theme the roster is.  I have a lot of different ideas for Chaos Pact teams of different types.  My own is a Narnia theme team, but I have another idea that I may make at some point.

In the meantime, this team's theme is 'dark sinister dungeon dwellers'. That being the case I figured a set of dungeon trap doors would make a good set of tokens.

I made these with that in mind:

I can imagine secret trap doors opening and a thin pale hand reaching out to trip an opposing player, or nudge the ball closer to a dwellers team mate to explain the 're-roll' concept.

More on the team soon, they are almost finished.

In the meantime, here are the three amigos from the last few updates together:

I liked the idea of tying the disparate monsters together by their armor, but with different main colors.
All the skin is paler than normal for their species though, to show how they live their life in the dungeon away from any sunlight.

Troll with the Mechanical Hand : guess the project

Time for another bout of 'Guess the Project' !

First up:

He's a Troll who's very handy to have around the house, should you need any troublesome jars opened.

Who is he and what is his purpose? He's not saying.  Maybe you can guess.

(click for larger)

Goblin Skeleton with Chainsaw painted: Another Star Player for Ingolstadt Immortals

The converted Goblin Skeleton Chainsaw Star Player to be 'Hack Enslash' is now painted.

So the Ingolstadt Immortals have two dedicated star players. That should see them safely to any tournament or league play, if I get lucky enough to have league play opportunity again.

Here he is:

For this fellow I felt I had to go a bit bloody.

Click for larger:

Compared to a basic line Skeleton.

I also took a new team photo, to add in Hack. 

Click for larger or visit them in the Hall of Fame

I'm quite pleased with the team.  Maybe I'll take them to West Coast Quake in January.

Skeleton with a Chainsaw. Need I Say More?

I know, Zombies are the hotness, but I've always preferred Skeletons.  Skeletons just have more style.
It's probably because I saw Jason & The Argonauts as a kid in the theater, and Harryhausen's Skeletons were amazing. Zombies are fun.. I did watch the season premiere of Walking Dead just now, but my vote still goes to Skeletons.

And what's cooler than a Skeleton?  A Skeleton with a chainsaw!

Luckily, there is a Blood Bowl Star Player that is a Skeleton with a Chainsaw!
Hack Enslash.

He's probably not the best Chainsaw Star Player... not by a long shot, though he does have side step which is interesting. But any Chainsaw wielder is worth fielding.

So when I remembered that I did have another resin goblin skeleton from the Titan Forge set, I decided my Ingolstadt Immortals should have another Star Player!

This Goblin Skeleton has a more elaborate helmet, with a bat crest, which I didn't favor compared to the bare skull skeletons, so I originally skipped using him, figuring I didn't need more than 6 linemenish players.

Plus, his arm was heavily integrated with a thick shield and I didn't want to do the work ;)  But deciding on the Chainsaw Star Skellie meant that a fancy helmet was appropriate, and I'd just have to deal with the extra arm carving.

So here is the conversion:

YuuhN-na-na-na-na...

So if the team needs a star and can't afford Count Luthorc VonDrakenborc they'll know where to turn.

The Ingolstadt Immortals : My Latest Blood Bowl Team: Undead/Necromantic Orcs!

Victorc Frankenstein was a dok of notable potential.  His father, a famous dok of the badlands, and wealthy beyond reason, for he withdrew many more teef than other doks, could see that young Victorc could become a dok of even greater skill and fame than himself.  So of course he decided to kill his son.

Victorc was no fool.  He escaped in the night with a large bag of toolz and a hefty bag of teef and set out to the city of Ingolstadt to enroll in the University.  The University dean was a Vampire of exceptional power and skill: a master of unlife. The University had students from many powerful families, mostly from Naggaroth and the less reputable families of the Empire. They had never had an Orc enroll before, as Orcs don't read.

But Victorc was not about to let something like that get in his way.  When the advanced anatomy class met the next night, the class found Victorc already there, along with a dark elf noble,who had voiced strong criticism of Victorc being granted admission.  The elf voiced no such concerns now however, as his mouth was missing, being sewn over with his own skin and a skaven's arm sewn beneath one of his own, apparently all working fine.  Victorc was admitted to the University.

In his second year Victorc tried out for the University Blood Bowl team.  He was an accomplished thrower and enjoyed having control over the plays, directing the flow of the team.  He worked long into the night perfecting the skills of necromancy and after graduation recruited orcs and goblins from the local marauding tribes to form a Blood Bowl team, The Ingolstadt Invaders, for the regional league.

Unfortunately, Victorc found that orcs & goblins, generally speaking, are frustratingly stupid and stubborn.  Worse still, they expected to get paid, whether they won or not!  Mid-season he held a celebratory feast for the team, where he poisoned them all. In the week that followed he used his medical knowledge and sorcery to rebuild his team, more befitting his grand design.

He changed the team name to The Ingolstadt Immortals, tore up the now unneeded player contracts and set about to make his fortune.

.........................

Victorc Frankenstein gloats before a match

The Ingolstadt Immortals (+1 orc tooth for knowing why that city) may look a bit like an Orc team, but they are a combo team that can be either Undead or Necromantic.  Those teams share a lot of players, but have some differences.  Undead have 2 mummies where Necro has 2 flesh golems.  Undead can have 4 ghouls, Necro only 2.  Undead linechumps can be zombies or skeletons, Necro are only zombies, and Necromantic can have 2 werewolves and Undead can not have any. 

Let's see the team:

The coach, Victorc Frankenstein.  I will use this as my turn marker. 

Cheerleader (lost an arm from vigorous cheering) will be used for score marker, and graves as re-rolls.

The Wights: skeletal orcs.

Mummies / Flesh Golems.  

I won't mind using these as mummies: easily big enough for Strength 5, even bigger than Willy Mummies!

Ghouls: Ghostly Goblins.

Werewolves: Why should it always be humans turning into wolves? Why not Orcs?

Zombies: Reanimated Goblins. 

The nice thing about zombie goblins: stronger than mortal goblins! The bad thing: all that decaying flesh prevents them from their spry dodging. But, they don't need to be fed or paid! 

Skeletons: Zombie Goblins past their prime can have their remaining flesh boiled away.

They're a little easier to damage this way, but they pick up more speed without the dead weight.

A friend of Victorc, the Orc Vampire, Count Luthorc Von Drakenborc sometimes plays for the team.

It's always nice to have a likely star player to make a team feel more 'complete'.

The team: click for larger

The Ingolstadt Immortals

The team will now join The Hall of Fame (tab at the top of the blog) and get me 2 teams closer to my goal of having all 24 teams! 

Undead are considered one of the better teams in Blood Bowl, and Necromantic have a lot of flexibility of play style, so I'm sure I'll enjoy them.  I wasn't that excited about the theme of Undead until I thought of the undead orc concept.. orcs are always fun theme. 

Thanks for looking!

Enjoy!