John's Orc Blood Bowl Team/Warband

A little over a decade and a half ago, before this blog was even started, my friend John was living in Calgary. Once or twice a year we'd get together and when we did we'd usually play Mordheim - which had been introduced to us by another friend - who was by then in Edomonton, CVT (CVT had run the Mordheim league here in Saskatoon and continued to come back and run tournaments at the Hero's Gambit convention in Saskatoon for a year or two after he moved to Edmonton).

At that time, the Games Workshop store in Calgary apparently had monthly auctions to ditch old stock. John went to these. Once or twice he picked up something. One of those times he got a Tomb Kings starter army (or... battalion box?)- BEFORE they'd been officially released (it was an accident, the dude auctioning it off picked it up out of the wrong pile in the back, or something...?). Another time he scored a bunch of old metal Orc and Goblin and Hobgoblin Blood Bowl players. Oh man, there were minis in there that I'd seen in White Dwarfs and had coveted, but had never seen in person.

I should back up even further: Blood Bowl, I think, may have been the first miniatures game John and I had ever played together. We'd known each other for a while, and played role-playing games together, and I know we'd PLANNED to play Warhammer Fantasy, and had started collecting minis for that... but I can't remember if we ever actually got to PLAYING WFB before Blood bowl (Second Edition) came out....? (this was THIRTY YEARS AGO now, I have trouble remembering things Amanda told me this morning!). We played a LOT of Blood Bowl. I mean, a LOT!!! I ran the first few leagues through the Wizard's Corner (the original FLGS in Saskatoon that john, at that time, was managing and I worked at 3 hours a week on Thursday evenings - but generally hung out there every waking hour that it was open and I wasn't in school!).

So I have (mostly) very fond and happy memories of blood bowl (of some of the dudes that played in those leagues.... less so...).

Flash forward 10-15 years and John has all these awesome Blood Bowl minis... but we don't play Blood Bowl anymore... and when we do get together we play Mordheim... so he hands them to me with a bunch of plastic weapon bitz and says; "Make me a Mordheim Warband" - the backstory being that this is what the team did in the off season - went REaving about the Empire and made their way to Mordheim to plunder the ruins...

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

I converted the lot of them, pinning and gluing weapons and hands on to each one - the results can be seen below...

Flash forward another 15 years and John is back in Saskatoon and stops by one day and gives me a pack of two plastic D&D Hobgoblin Shamans that he just picked up at the Dragon's Den (our current FLGS that just celebrated its 25TH ANNIVERSARY!!! WOW!!)

I says; "what are these for?"

He says: "Remember that goblinoid blood bowl team/warband you painted for me years ago...? I want to use them as a Frostgrave Warband!"

I says: "No."

Not as in: "no, I don't remember them"...

Not as in: "No, you can't use them as a Frostgrave Warband because that is stupid"

(because it ISN'T stupid, it's AWESOME!!!).

It was as in: "No, I'm not painting those ugly-ass miniature that look nothing like the rest of the war band" - I've got a certain sense of aesthetic, you know...

I point out he should either track down some old metal Blood Bowl Orc Throwers (as they'd fit right in and kind of look like they're casting a spell...? (One hand balled into a fist, the other pointing (as in pointing where they're going to throw that ball) or, at the very least, get some Warhammer Fantasy (or Age of Sigmar) Orc or Goblin wizards... so they at least look a little like the rest of the war band. We could call them the coaches... or a coach and a trainer...?

So, he tracked down a pair of metal Warhammer Fantasy Goblin Wizards (or Shamans...?)



The Whole Team. All miniatures from Citadel/Games Workshop.

I didn't ever paint a logo on them anywhere, but I seem to recall red and white might have been the colours of one of the Orc Blood Bowl teams mentioned in the GW fluff...? The Gouged Eye, maybe...?

I'd had a few Orc teams of my own (hence the coveting of these minis - especially the Cheerleaders!!). One was the plastic team out of the boxed set which I'd painted as the Orcland Raiders. The other was a mixed team of Orcs and Goblins which I called the Gnarly Green Guys. I dug them all out recently... I should take pics of those sometime... maybe play a game with the kids...? I digress...

(Edit: John has reminded me that the red and white colours are for the Killgory Stompeders - a play on Calgary's CFL football team, the Calgary Stampeders! I also had a skaven team called the Hammertown Tiger-Rats - after the Hamilton Tiger-Cats)



The NEW wizard/apprentice/coach/trainer team.



Big Bad Troll.



The Question Mark on his helmet and shoulder pad is his "number".

I have no idea what the fish bones stuck to his arm is all about...?



The Orcs

Originally these were all based on square bases. I think this was because, at the time, Mordheim miniatures were usually on square bases, because Warhammer Fantasy miniature were, for the most part, on square bases, because it was easier to rank them up in battle. I always thought; "who cares?" None of these will EVER be used in a game of Warhammer Fantasy!? But apparently a mutual friend of ours that John was gaming with at the time complained when John had used other minis I'd painted for him, that were on round bases, in Mordheim -0 even though I don't actually recall there ever being ANYTHING that said what shape or size anything had to be on in the rules... His complaint was that it gave one an unfair advantage somehow...? Something to do with how many miniatures could get into base contact with it...? I don't know... He got like that when he was losing! (despite that I love the guy, dearly!)

Well they're not likely to be used for Mordheim ever again, so I rebased the lot of them onto round bases! The orcs I put on 32mm bases as that's what Orcs are on these days... they look a tad big for a couple of them, but I wanted to differentiate them from the goblinses.



A couple of hard-hitting muthafukkahs. #1, who I think was the captain, and #Ø (number naught) Lemdim Greazee. The name is a play on the name of a friend of mine from high school that I don't think John was ever particularly fond of. Greazee had been the name of a Star Player in a couple of our Blood Bowl leagues. I can't remember if it was me or John that had originally came up with the name...?



Now these Blood Bowl figures, and they weren't part of the lot John had given me - they were just minis I had from back when we played Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I stripped and repainted them and added them to the war band to give them some shooty power.



A pair of Goblin noise-makers. I love the guy with the bag pipes... I'm a little surprised I didn't just steal him from the lot...



The whole cheering section...



Squigs...

 

I tried to paint them to look like footballs...

Of course it's AFTER I take all these photos, somehow, that I notice all the bits of chipped paint.... Ugh...



Squigs with their goblin herder (with a snotting-on-a-stick!)



Hobgoblins with Spear and Shield.



#s 77 and 36. #36's name (or PART thereof) can be seen on his back betwixt his shoulder pads: "LUR"...? I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be PART of his name... BLURT? SLURB? I have no idea... I'm sure it was something I thought was pretty funny at the time...



Hobgoblin with Shield and Axe (Hand Weapon)



ANOTHER #5. I think this was because I was painting them in batches and mailing them off to John in Calgary and I totally FORGOT what numbers I used...



Dual-Weilding Hobgoblins. Not sure why there are so many of these and not more with shields. I'm sure that could be fixed...



I'm certain the #37 was a reference to Clerks (the movie).



Goblins... again with the Dual-Wielding...? Was Dual-Weilding super awesome in Mordheim?



So many references to the number five. I was a teenage Discordian! (7+1= 8, 8=2³, 2+3=5... it... made sense at the time...).

I know John's immediate plan is (or WAS, when he dropped off those goblin wizards... um... a few months back). I'm not sure what all these would be in Frostgrave - it's been over a year since I last played (maybe TWO!?). Those goblins could be Thieves (count those dual wield weapons as "a dagger"). The Dual-Wield Hobgoblins could be Thugs (count THOSE dual wield weapons as "a hand weapon"). The hobgoblins with shields could be Men-at-Arms (were there different soldier types for hand weapon and shield and spear and shield...? or was is all just HAND WEAPON and shield? The rest...? I have no idea, I'd have to dig out my book and get creative...

Not quite enough of any of them for Dragon Rampant, but they'd make a wicked-cool Song of Blades and Heroes warband!! I'll have to get him to play THAT at some time!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Necromunda Game Weekend!