Small Rewards...

After lots of grinding through infantry, decided it was time to reward myself and start painting the Night Goblin command figs. This musician is almost done. Still need to add additional highlights and more detail work, but he's battle ready.

Background

The Skaven of the Black Chasm lair formed a shaky alliance with Night Goblin Warboss Skragg's Orc & Goblin horde that resides deep in the forest of Loren to invade the Bretonnian town of Parravon. The Bretonnian Baron de Parravon was not prepared for an invasion from both hordes, as his crusader army was off in Lustria looking for an old family relic. He called in a favor from the High Elves and they dispatched the small guard unit from the trading post outside of Marienburg. The High Elves fought off the initial attack, but everyone knows it was simply a minor probe to test the defenses.

While the Baron rushed back from Lustria the High Elves fought multiple delaying actions against the goblin horde. The elves continued to repel the goblins, but the most recent engagement exacted a severe price on the elves. The Baron's arrival could not come at a better time. The elves need to regroup and rest. Unfortunately, the Baron's vanguard were not aware that the elves were aiding their lord, and decided to engage the elves.

Meanwhile, the shaky alliance between the Skaven and Goblins erupted into violence. The Night Goblin Warboss felt like his horde was doing the brunt of the fighting, and as they returned to the forest to prepare for the next assault on Parravon, they ran into the Skaven and a fight ensued.

Escalation Army List

Game 3: 650 Point limit
-General: Orc Big Boss w/ light armor, great axe, shield: 73pts
-Hero: Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armor, great axe, +15pts Talisman of Protection: 51pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield, spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield, spear, full command: 80pts
-20 Night Goblin Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-3 Fanatics: 75pts
-18 Orc Boyz w/ light armor, choppa, extra hand weapon, Standard bearer, musician: 141pts
-10 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 70pts
Army Total: 650


Game 4: 1000 Point limit
-General: Orc Big Boss w/ light armor, +35pts Magic Akk'Rit Axe, shield (need magic item): 104pts
-Hero: Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe, +15pts Talisman of Protection: 51pts
-Level 2 Night Goblin Shaman: 95pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield, spear, full command: 80pts
-20 Night Goblin Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-6 Fanatics: 125pts
-18 Orc Big Uns w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, shield,  Standard bearer, musician: 195pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa, light armor and bow: 128
Army Total: 956

Escalation Order of Battle

UPDATED:
After a few test battles, it was quickly apparent that a Level 1 Shaman with only a Leadership 5 is not a suitable general whatsoever. Not sure why I ever thought it would work. I've swapped out the shaman for a Night Goblin Big Boss, and filled out the rest of the points with extra Orc Arrer Boyz.

Here's the current plan I have for the remaining battles of the Escalation Campaign.

Game 2: 500 Point limit
-General is Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-General is Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe: 36pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-16 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon: 112pts
-12 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 84pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
Army Total: 496pts
Army Total: 500pts

Notes: I'm going with the Shaman as my general because I haven't prepped or primed the Night Goblin Big Boss yet.  I'm also giving the Orc Boyz the additional hand weapon because that's what the models have. I'd rather have a shield instead of the additional hand weapon because I lose the bonus strength from the choppas, but I prefer to just use the models as-is.   Also, I apparently can't do math because originally I thought I'd be able to field the entire 16 Orc bowmen, but that put me over the top.


Game 3: 550 Point limit

-General is Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-General is Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe: 36pts

-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-18 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, musician, standard: 141pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
Army Total: 546pts
Army Total: 529pts (gonna have to add some additional points here somehow...)

Game 4: 600 Point limit
-General is Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe: 36pts
Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-18 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, musician, standard: 141pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
Army Total: 589pts



Game 5: 700 Point limit
-General is Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe, +15pts Talisman of Protection: 51pts
-Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-3 Fanatics: 75pts
-19 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, full command: 161pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
Army Total: 699pts


Game 6: 1000 Point limit
-General is Night Goblin Warboss w/ light armour, great axe, +15pts Talisman of Protection: 79pts
-Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-3 Fanatics: 75pts
-19 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, full command: 161pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
-Orc Boar Chariot: 80pts
-Orc Big Boss Hero on Boar w/light armour, shield,  +35pts Magic Akk'Rit Axe: 121
-Snotling Pump Wagon: 40pts
Army Total: 978
Still need to add some points here, so TBD on the rest.

Bad lighting, don't care

These are terrible pictures in awful lighting, but it's 12:43am and I don't really care. I'm getting close to having 500pts of Orcs and Goblins "battle ready" which is an accomplishment in itself.

I'll post better pictures, soon.

You can see that some of these are in a "half-way" state, but it's still nice to rank up the figs every once in a while.
Got a solid 4 hours of painting in while listening to Episode 8 of the  Skull Bros Awesome Warhammer podcast.

Brushes and Greenskins

I was interested in trying out some new brushes, so I picked up a brush from a local gaming shop (they apparently make their own brushes), along with a few AK Interactive brushes that I grabbed at the Fall-In historical wargaming convention in October.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the AK brushes were synthetic.

Synthetic vs Sable

I've been using Games Workshop brushes exclusively for around 17 years. They're fine sable, natural brushes.  The bristle spread of the synthetic brushes is just...weird. My control of the paint strokes is not as accurate as the sable brushes, but i've found that the synthetic holds it's shape better (so far).
I'm not sure if I can make a change to synthetic; it's so different than what I'm used to. We'll see.

As for the Orcs and Goblins, we're coming up on the next battle in the Escalation Campaign and it's 500 points.  Lots of painting to be done, but I realized I needed to do an inventory of the OnG figs I have and come up with a plan for how I'm going to construct my OnG army for the rest of the campaign. Since this is essentially an excuse to finally paint all the OnG figs I have lying around and use them as a "house" army, I need an accurate count of what I have.  I'm not buying any additional OnG stuff (except in a few special cases); the goal is to paint all the stuff I have and move on to The Empire army that I intend to use.

Current Painted Units:
17 Night Goblin Spearmen
17 Night Goblin Spearmen
18 Night Goblin Archers with champion
16 Orc Boyz
16 Orc Arrer Boyz

Next Up:
Command groups for the Night Goblin units (champion, standard, musician)
Command group for the Orc Boyz (standard, musician)
Night Goblin Shaman
Night Goblin Big Boss
Orc Boar Chariot (rare OOP Marauder chariot)
1 Snotling Pump Wagon (old OOP citadel model)
3 Night Goblin Fanatics
1 Doom Diver

Future Units:
Plastic Boar Chariot (from Skull Pass)
Orc Warlord on Wyvern (rare OOP Marauder model)
  -will be the centerpiece of the army. i've always loved this model
Black Orc Warboss from Games Day (2000?)
Orc Boss (old citadel model)
Orc Hero on Boar (rare OOP Marauder model)

Extra Units for later:
60 Night Goblin Spearmen from 4th edition boxed set
  -I'm considering converting these into "goblins" with hand weapons. we'll see
30 Night Goblin Archers from 4th edition boxed  set
  -not sure what to do with these guys. I hate the hoods.
2 OOP metal River Trolls (need to be stripped and re-painted)
1 Plastic Stone Troll (from Skull Pass)
7 metal Orc Boyz (rare OOP Marauder figs that need to be stripped and re-painted)
4 metal Orc Arrer Boyz (more rare OOP Marauder figs)
10 Plastic Orc Boyz (terrible, terrible models. maybe I just throw 'em away).

This is all OnG stuff that I had lying around, except for the Wyvern, old Boar chariot, and the Pump Wagon.

Next post, I'll lay out my army list plan for the next 5 battles in the Escalation Campaign.