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Sunday 14 June 2015

The Mighty Throgg and his Hobgoblin Despoilers of the Darklands

My Hobgoblin army has been receiving some attention in preparation for BOYL 2015 and it's all about monopose loveliness this morning with Throgg's Despoiling Hobgoblins - not sure how you can despoil the Darklands as they're already in a pretty parlous state but there you go...



Not sure I've been that successful in echoing Chris Achilleos' brilliant painting, Orc Charge, in my photography, but the basing is supposed to suggest the Steppe flowers and long grasses featured in it.


As with other Regiments of renown, there is a nice bit of background provided -

Driven from the Old World at the end of the Goblin Wars many of the Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins and other allied creatures fled into the Dark Lands. The Dark Lands were then, as now, truly dark: ceaseless volcanic activity, steaming tar pits and terrible, natural pollution shielded the land from the sun. Little could grow in such a place, and very few creatures could tolerate the barren landscape, the gloom and the choking air. Throg, however, quite liked it.

From his armed camp on the eastern side of the World's Edge Mountains, Throg gathered his seasoned warriors and began to carve himself out a little empire. Soon a goodly chunk of the western part of the Dark Lands were under his control, and he began to extend his power deep into the mountains themselves. Here he and his Champion, Grunmunter the Beast, fought numerous battles in the valleys and passes of the mountains, and eventually within the Dwarf fortresses. His enemies were mostly Dwarfs, and the Hobgoblins soon acquired a taste for the flesh of these creatures. What became of this renowned fighter is a mystery, some say that he disappeared whilst leading a mixed force of goblinoids into the Dwarf Fortress of Raven's Hold. Others link his disappearance to treachery on behalf of the ferocious Grunmunter, a callous individual.

Of all the many bloody and violent deeds of Throg the most often remembered is the so called Feast of the Dwarven King. On this occasion the Hobgoblins infiltrated the underground fortress of Boran Fireheart a powerful Dwarf lord. The Hobgoblins secreted themselves in the kitchens until the night of a feast, subdued the servants and disguised themselves in the aprons and other clothing of the waiters. That Boran Fireheart failed to notice until far too late that his kitche n staff were all over 6' tall and incredibly ugly, can only be put down to the general level of intoxication. The feast went ahead as usual, but instead of the planned proceedings the Hobgoblins ate Boran and his guests, while Throg entertained by torturing a troop of Halfling Juggler s unlucky enough to be passing through.



I'll be figuring this back story into the scenario I'm preparing for the Journey to the East game that I am now running for this year's BOYL - ironically Lenihan, who had been organising it, now finds himself journeying to Mongolia with work and sadly can't attend!


The action will take place some time after the events recorded in their background - Grunmunter's attempted coup has failed and he now owes his life to Throgg, who has decided to torment his would-be betrayer by sparing his life and forcing him into virtual slavery - they're a nice bunch these Hobgoblins! Having tired of the Darklands, Throgg has marched East and sold his services to a former regional Khan of the Hobgobla Empire, who has set himself up as a petty Warlord, raiding the Spice Road for easy pickings.

Throgg and his Command - including the sinister Grunmunter...
When it came to painting the troopers, the shield designs took some consideration. The background information helpfully tells us that the shields carry the emblem shown, drawn in the blood of their enemies. Colours will therefore vary from bright red to darkish brown or black. Somewhat unhelpfully, however, the emblem didn't make it on to the Solegends page!

So I figured I'd come up with my own idea. Now there are many things I love about this hobby but one thing often gets overlooked - its educational value! The mention of symbols got me thinking along the lines of Mongolian letters and after a quick search of the internet I found a handy English/Mongolian dictionary.

The next problem came in that I wanted their shields to be black and for the Mongolian script to be painted in blood. After a few experiments with Tamiya Clear Red, it soon became apparent that black was not a good choice of background colour for the blood to stand out from. In the end I opted to paint the Mongolian script in white and spatter blood over it - think it came out all right in the end.

I also had a lot of fun choosing what to put on each shield. I don't profess to being an expert in Ancient Mongolian - the grammar is probably all to hell but here is what I think each shield actually says -

From left to right - Beautiful Anger, Cold Hate, Bitter Grief, Blood Lust.

Cruel Joy, Beautiful War, Blood God, Mad Wolf.

Flesh Eater, Corpse Taker, Throat Biter, Skin Taker.

Conquer All, Poison Tongue, Man Killer, Hunger.

Heart of Darkness, Man Eater, Bad Wolf, Man Flesh.
Next up - my enlarged Hobhound pack and handlers and a big bunch of big bad Bugbears!

14 comments:

  1. Good job mate :) Nicely done on the shields :)

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    1. Cheers Chico - you still up for a game with these lads at BOYL? I've got a couple of others still interested since Lenihan left us for the real thing (very jealous by the way mate!) and a bit of a scenario cooking up, which I'll post on the forum some time soon.

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  2. These look suitably cruel! Well done on the 'dreaded' batch production line required to get units like this finished. I look forwards to seeing them in action.

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    1. Thanks mate - that was the vibe I was after. My speed painting with inks certainly helped out but batch painting is still pretty gruelling. As always the shields took twice as long as the Hobgoblins themselves!

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  3. Clearly the rumours that you had been eaten by hobgoblins were greatly exaggerated... looking forward to the next instalment!!

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    1. Well it was a close run thing I must admit! ; )

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  4. Looking really good T, can't wait to see them in the flesh. Lead. You know what I mean.

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    1. Cheers P - looking forward to our first installment of the Trolltooth Wars as well!

      Which reminds me I must base up my Strongarm mercenaries and finish off the few of Marr's mounted legionaries who will be accompanying them.

      Any tips on painting those 4Ground wagons by the way - don't want mine swelling up from the moisture. Did you prime yours with anything in particular?

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  5. Wonderful presentation of a fantastic unit, Thantsants! I love that first picture especially! And nothing like a group of monopose guys - they make the command section really pop! Great shields too, although I half expected some guy in the middle to have "Fluffy Lover" boldly emblazoned across his shield!

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    1. Most kind of you PW - I'm quite tempted to repaint one of them with something along those lines and station him permanently in the back rank as a conscientious objector!

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  6. Thank you so much for your blog, it has inspired me back into the hobby along with weasel the wise and many other fine fellows. I am too old to consider learning new or other rules so warhammer 3rd is where I will remain. Best of all I am not a teenager with limited paperboy funds to collect with, as such I last week completed this mighty regiment of renown. New paint arrived last night so my paint table successes and woes you and many other oldhammer chaps have endured and enjoyed begins once more in full. My first serious project will be this very unit, your wonderful style and concept has me thinking just how do I approach the shields. I had thought of bronze with the cover a dark brown / black from the dried up blood, but what symbol? The standard classical citadel leering face may be my answer. But the Mongol script is inspired..
    Well anyway it will take a month to paint the 36 hobgoblins so much time to decide on something

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    1. Glad to have been of service Weasel!

      Looking forward to seeing your take on Throgg's 'orrible lot - the old citadel face would look great on the shields and fit in with the standard bearer but the mongol script has the benefit of being relatively easy to paint in white and then spatter with blood!

      Your comment may have inspired me to take this regiment to the Oldhammer game we have organised this Saturday down at the Foundry now that I've just flicked back through the pics!

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  7. Fantastic skin tone, perfect in my book. Fascinated by that painting (orc charge) on the cover of Ravenous Hoards all those years ago which I thought was more like Hobgoblins of the Steppe, reinforcing my chosen creed...Orcs didn’t do it for me! So much so I have arranged them into regional units by manufacturer with adjusted stats. To think it all started with the illustration of “two hobgoblins in a clearing” from the FF book The Forest of Doom! Best.

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    1. Thanks very much! I've always loved the painting too and was quite surprised to find out it was Orcs and not Hobgoblins back in the day! I love the sound of your regional units to reflect the different manufacturers' styles - I might have to follow suit as there's plenty of Hobgoblin miniatures out there I'd love to get my hands on. The adjusted stats also interests me - presumably to reflect the size difference between models or do you go as far as adding psychology rules if they look particularly cowardly or ferocious?

      Amazing how an artwork can really influence you like this. I've always liked the Warhammer Orcs but what I truly always wanted was something more akin to Achilleos' Orc charge. Reckon I'm halfway there and at some point I'll be expanding the army with a whole bunch of Satanic Panic Hobgoblins who definitely fit that look.

      Apologies - this reply is getting rather wordy but I couldn't help but remark that the Hobgoblin's face, one on the right, in that brilliant Forest of Doom illustration (if I've got the right one!) reminds me an awful lot of the Orcs in Bakshi's Lord of the Rings film - I wonder if that was a deliberate thing on the behalf of Malcolm Barter or just his style? More Orc/Hobgoblin crossover perhaps? XD

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