Saturday, January 17, 2015

Night Goblin Unit Close-ups

First up, Night Goblins with hand-weapons and shields.

Most are the current multi-part plastic kit, but a few (the larger ones) are from the older kit, either with converted hand-weapons or arms from the newer goblins (which I don't think looks that weird even though they're smaller)

Statistically this is the absolute best equipment choice. Goblins will never win a combat by killing things. HW and shield grants a defensive bonus, which maximizes the number of goblins that survive a round of combat and thus the odds of winning by conditions associated with outnumbering the enemy.

 Here we have Night Goblins with spears and shields, probably the most iconic equipment option, but also the worst under the current rules.

Like the hand-weapon guys, there's a mix of the old and new scale goblins, though here the new ones are single piece models from the Battle For Skull Pass starter set.


Next, Night Goblins with bows. Here we actually see three generations of goblin models. A large portion of these are from (I believe) the 5th edition starter set, which predates my involvement with the game. These are old models and they had only a single pose. To get some variety, I repositioned the bow arm to a horizontal pose on some, and replaced the arms with arms from the current kit on others.


Now on to the models representing unit upgrades. 
First, we have six musicians (you can have one per block of infantry to aid morale) with gongs, and an assortment of netters. One or two netter models represent an entire unit having nets, which can inhibit the enemy's ability to attack (advantageous because remember, goblins win by not dying). You'll also notice that among the netters there are a pair of two-goblin models sharing double wide bases. These are oldest models I own (in terms of the model's age, not how long I've had them). They predate even the earliest plastic goblins, and the 40x20 mm bases had to be custom made.
Here are five standard-bearers (one per unit aids in determining which side wins a round of combat) with icons/banners and a pair of Bosses, or what non-goblins call "Unit Champions", basically officers who have improved combat prowess compared to their men (in the form of an extra attack). 

The Bosses were converted to have spears, hand-weapons, shields, and bows so they could lead any unit, no matter how it was equipped. 

There are only two because most of the time spending 10 points to upgrade a single 3 point goblin to the unit champion (a goblin with 1extra attack for a total of 2) is an immensely worse choice than spending 9 points on 3 more goblins. 

The redeeming quality is that unit champions can accept challenges (read: be sacrificed) issued by enemy characters so your shamans don't have to.

Also pictured are a couple of goblins without arms that I've left to be assembled as needed.


Last of the pieces peripheral to the basic Night Goblin units are theses Fanatics. A unit can purchase up to three at 25 points each.  As indicated by their round bases, they behave differently than every other unit in the entire game and never actually enter combat. They are released from Night Goblin units when any enemy comes within 8" and subsequently move a random distance in a random direction each turn, dealing a random number of very deadly wounds to everything in their path (friend or foe) with their giant ball-and-chains. It's a very fun mechanic :)

Some of the models are from the current multi-part Fanatics kit, some are older metal models (boasting a few conversions with jeweler's chain, since the pewter model "chains" they came with broke long ago), and one is a very old metal model that I think was actually supposed to be a snotling, but whatever, he's got a ball-and-chain.


Now, on to Characters.

First, Big Bosses. Goblin hero-level characters. Excellent because they are dirt cheap points-wise and have access to great-weapons (two-handed weapons) the absolute best weapons going most of the time. A competitive Goblin-themed army would have even more of these. They are something like half the points cost of even the cheapest heroes from other armies, so you can fill out the entire front rank or more of a unit with expendable great-weapon-wielders with multiple attacks (this is unheard of in other armies).

Of the six pictured, going left to right, there's four with greatweapons:
 one (heavily converted) with great-sword, one with a trident (simple conversion),  one with a moon-shaped scythe (the stock model the trident guy is based on), and one (heavily converted, actually based on a Skaven body) with an extra long great-axe.

Then, one with hand-weapon and shield (heavily converted, actually an Empire Militia guy's body with a Common Goblin's face in a hollowed-out Night Goblin cowl).

And on the far right, the Big Boss who represents the Battle Standard Bearer (an upgrade, very important to managing morale). At the time this picture was taken he was unfinished.

Some of these guys represent some of my most ambitious early sculpts, i.e. my first attempts at creating entire segments of smooth, folded cloth (as opposed to just jabbing at greenstuff with a razorblabe to represent "fur").
 Here, in the background are some Night Goblin Shamans. The one with the mushroom staff is a conversion from the one to his left (who was left stock). On the right is a metal Great Shaman.

Oh and in the foreground are TROLLS. Trolls aren't heroes, but I can't just go taking a million pictures so here they are.

The center one is a metal River Troll, and the two on the ends actually started as the same plastic Common Troll. The left one is converted with Ogre arms and Giant hands. I also tried to make his face look different. Another early sculpt where I tried pushing the envelope :)


Last among Characters, the finished Battle Standard Bearer (BSB), and a Night Goblin Warboss.

The Battle Standard itself is a somewhat rare piece that was exclusive to an Orcs and Goblins boxed army. This guy needed an extra large magnet to counterbalance that giant standard. There used to be a rule that the BSB couldn't have a shield, not sure if that's still the case, but that's why he doesn't have one.

The Warboss is heavily converted from an old Space Ork. The more goblin-like nose, extended axe handle, and hood were all sculpted by me.

In the next post, I'll show some close-ups of the non-goblin units.

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