Inspiration and reasons to collect:
Summary
Orcs were my first love in fantasy. And the first place I ever came across an orc was reading the beautifully illustrated copy of the hobbit that I had as a child.
The goblins (orcs) in that book were stunted, cruel and selfish beasts - easy to hate (and by extension love) protagonists.
The Goblin King: Alan Lee
As a child it put me in mind of the perhaps orc inspired minions of the evil witch in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (which we had on VHS).
Malificent’s Goons: Disney
In fact that film itself had great fantasy visuals with dungeons, castles, dragons etc but I digress.
The next time I was made aware of orcs would have been around 2000/2001. I would have discovered Warhammer and within one year seen the first Lord of the Rings movie by Peter Jackson.
I went to see this movie four times in cinema. Every week I got £5 pocket money, and every weekend I spent my £5 on a cinema ticket to see it for a whole month.
I fell in love with orc, the goblin and the Uruk portrayed in this film. They became “my orcs” as it were. Saruman, as portrayed by Christopher Lee, took on the role of the brain behind the operation and narratively was a far more engaging antagonist than the disembodied Sauron. He was the Malificent to this piece. The David Bowie’s Goblin King! (Another childhood favourite and early introduction to goblins)
Some of my love of chaos dwarfs comes from my love of Saruman as a character. The embittered wizard high in his black tower, whispering to the darkness and turning to evil, obsessed with industry and domination and using enslaved lesser creatures - orcs and goblins to do his will. Sound familiar?
Now, the Warhammer orcs were awesome. Although being a 40k kid I was much more aware of the sci-fi space orks fresh from their GorkaMorka reboot being muscle bound and green Mad Max extras.
The fantasy orcs that caught my attention were those in Jacksons move.
Orcs in the LOTR Trilogy: Peter Jackson
Much like Malificent’s goons, here were the archetypal, unrepentantly evil and utterly irredeemable nasty henchmen of greater evils. The orcs in these films echoed, and were no doubt inspired by, the art of Alan Lee and John Howe.
In short, my expectation of what an orc is or should be was firmly Tolkien inspired. This was also reinforced by seeing Bakshi’s surreal, brilliant yet flawed LOTR adaptation wheee the orcs are very creepy indeed.
Orcs in Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of The Rings
(An aside : You’ll notice I have and will continue to use the word orc and goblin interchangeably. This is because being a Tolkien fan first, they are interchangeable terms. D&D then Warhammer and later Warcraft / magic the gathering et al certainly separated these into two species in the popular imagination but to me, in my head canon, they are one species. Even when playing Warhammer I just think of Orcs as big bold goblins and goblins as small snivelling orcs. I don’t feel the need to differentiate them that seperately. Add hobgoblins into the mix and I can see a sliding scale or spectrum of orc phenotypes as opposed to clear distinct races. )
Moving into secondary school (what people on this soggy little island call high school), I continued playing 40k but also dived head first into Tolkien art books and Dungeons and Dragons monster manuals.
Orc: 3rd edition dungeons and dragons
Orcs: images taken from Tolkien art books in my school library.(Ian miller, Alan Lee and John Howe)
This is before Dungeons and Dragons decided to rehabilitate the orc.
Click here for an unsolicited rant on this topic
By the time I was finishing secondary school, my brother and I played Warcraft 3 and he later got very into world of Warcraft. I remember playing the strategy game thinking yes orcs! However these orcs were not my orcs. On the surface they had the Warhammer silhouette of big green savages (as opposed to skulking nasty Tolkien fiends) but past the surface it was clear these were not orcs like I understood.
These were “noble savages” or as I have since thought of them “green Klingons”. They have perfectly braided beards, clearly spend most days bench pressing and looking at their arms and armour they clearly made beautiful things and so had a society that could support things like metallurgy and high end craftsmanship.
The orcs I knew would make simple wicked things or steal/ patch together things. They weren’t relatable in the sense that they represented some noble ancient ideal of what we once were.
The orcs I knew and loved instead were a black mirror. They reflected back the very worst of humanity. They are lazy, self hating and ugly. They are selfish and backstabbing and delight in cruelty.
This was part of a wider trend. The elder scrolls series have noble savage orcs. Dungeons and dragons has rehabilitated the orc and half orc and in general encourage players to challenge archetypes.
Some of this is political and there are essays online that can be found about if Tolkien’s world and “races” are something we should reappraise and adapt in the 21st century. I shan’t go into this here, not his frequently misquoted letter describing the physical appearance of orcs. We have a strict no politics rule on CDO.
This blog perhaps explains this sentiment better than I could: …the leadpilehttp://theleadpile.blogspot.com › th…The Campaign for Real Orcs
The orcs here were brutish beasts and selfish greedy monsters. They were, again, often the minions of greater evils. (At least in the campaigns I played.)
Why Kruleboyz?
Summary
I’ve waited until the old world previews to heavily invest in an AoS army. Funny innit?
The dominion release for Kruleboyz
However I’ve been a long term fan of this range. I know they are controversial amongst Warhammer orc fans due to their different aesthetic to fantasy orcs. But for the reasons described above, about why I love orcs, I love these.
When the AoS Dominion Boxset was previewed I remember being very interested and excited by the portrayal of orcs and goblins.
In fact we have time capsule to an old podcast where I laid out my views:
Chaos Dwarf Radio: The Brazen Broadcast #3
The Kruelboyz and Hobgrotz were perfect for me. They leaned into the more tolkieny feel of nasty skulking greenskins. They also had skinnier orcs and taller goblins (in the form of hobgrots) which helped my “orcs and goblins are the same thing” brain cope. The greataxes and oversized swords are swapped for cruel curves ones and polearms. The weapons of heroes have been replaced by the weapons of cowards, sneaks and those who wish to fight in large groups. In my opinion this is so orcy.
The boar is replaced by what can only be described as a Warg.
And the setting of misty fens and bogs creates a truly fairy tale/ mythology inspired setting. I am instantly put in kind of Beowulf awaiting Grendel (another potential proto-orc like character) in the kings hall by the misty swamps.
JR Skelton’s Grendel (From 1908!)
Alongside this the range has some truly Warhammerian inspiration. The orcs are not only Tolkienesque but are a nod back to Kev Adams take on greenskins.
Pic: Kevin Adams Orcs
Until the Brian Nelson Shaman began that new aesthetic for orcs, they were skinnier than we might imagine and armed with a variety of stolen weapons / looted armour.
Alongside this the range leans heavily on the evil sun logo. For any Warhammer fan of a certain age this, alongside chequerboards, was synonymous with Warhammer and the citadel paint range for many years. An old Warhammer community article points out the inspiration for these shields: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/06/04/how-age-of-sigmars-dominion-boxed-set-draws-on-40-years-of-warhammer-history/
Picture: the evil sun/ old citadel paints
My Hobgoblins - joining the cause!
Summary
I was a well documented buyer of hobgoblins! I completed a crazy self imposed challenge of creating a hobgrot army in a a month (i think?) using the very cheap Hobgrotz from this set.
My challenge and the army it created are documented here: The Wolves of WoE - A Hobgoblin army project
Now that the old world beckons - these will be joining up with and serving as the goblins in my orc and goblin army.
This also makes this army less pressure. It’s a goblin army ready to go for the new game that I can add orcs to slowly. It also means that I’ll get to use an army that I think have only seen two games since I made them! Expect pics of these to be added to the showcase section of this blog as it develops.
The Old World - Old bases?
Summary
I am sticking to traditional sized basing for the troops in this army. That is - 25s for orcs and 20s for goblins. The reason for this is that the goblins are already on 20s and will need spacer trays. I also already have some orcs built, but not painted on 25s. If spacer trays will be the aesthetic of the army, that’s fine. Completely new armies may well be on modern sized bases such as my slow growing elves: The Last Alliance - LOTR inspired Old World High Elves (this project has not been blogged but will be at some point as models are painted for it. Lots have been built!)
