Return of the Orcs

 Back in December of 2022, I dusted off my Oldhammer Orc army project and began adding to it, with the idea of taking it to a local tournament - Da Boyz GT - here in Rochester in November 2023, which does Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition alongside Age of Sigmar, 40K, and I believe Blood Bowl. 

In January I got the proverbial legs swept out from under me on the hobby front, and out of that came the decision that I wouldn't bother with Da Boyz. The tournament-minded players I'd encountered up to this point were not people I wanted to pay an admission fee to spend a weekend hunched over tables with, and with my wife being immunocompromised, spending two days in a hotel conference space with strangers - even if I was staying masked - felt like too great a risk. So the orcs went back into storage. 

Last week, I happened to pull some photos of my orcs out to show on a Discord hobby server, got a lot of very enthusiastic comments, and used a few of my orcs and goblins in a solo game. And, talking it over with my wife, I was reminded of why I started this project in the first place. The Oldhammer Orc Army is bigger than a tournament; it's about painting figures that make me happy and proving to myself that I can commit and build an army. It's about 14 year old me walking into a Games Workshop store in 2001 and walking out with a box of Night Goblins, a blister of Fanatics, a half-dozen bottles of paint and an army book with big dreams that he was never able to fulfill before GW nuked the Old World. If they see combat under Fistful of Lead, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Oathmark, Warlords of Erewhon, Dragon Rampant, Hobgoblin or any other ruleset, so much the better. If they're an art project and I wind up buying a big display case when we're homeowners and they stay on display, that's fine too. But I want to be able to point to them and say, "That's right. I did that. All of them. Infantry, cavalry, chariots, artillery. All me. All by my hand."

So here we are. "Dem Boyz Ova Dere," aka the "Eat Yer Beans" regiment, is back on my table. There's ten figures left to paint to get the unit to 25, and half of those have already been primed. I'm also going to paint a fresh batch of shields so that everyone matches. 

I'm going to finish off that BSB next to them too.