More on Giak Army organisation - theorising more units

One of the things I keep coming back to in my fantasy gaming is my Orc and Goblin army, for Warhammer, and later Kings of War (see the 'Raising the Standard' tag to go back over me building parts of it), and now, possibly for Oathmark (for which, I will perhaps resurrect the 'Raising the Standard' tag); and one of the things that feeds into how I think about Orcs and Goblins is the Giak Army List in the Second Citadel Journal. I never had any of the Giak minis (I did have a dream recently that I was searching for some in a second-hand shop, that's how much they've infested my consciousness, even 35 or more years later), nor indeed any of the Lone Wolf gamebooks from which the Giaks come, but I really liked the idea of a huge Goblin army organised into regiments along the lines of the Giak Army List, and it's helped pattern the way I've thought about Goblins, Orcs, and indeed Orks, ever since.

The idea I was pushing towards some years ago (link) - to use build an analogue of the army using Warhammer Goblins to stand for Giaks - will not currently work. Goblins have mostly been withdrawn by GW: in the current 'Age of Sigmar' iteration of Warhammer, there are no Goblin (as opposed to Night Goblin, 'Gitz', or Orc, 'Orruk') infantry units. The only 'Goblins' are what used to be known as 'Forest Goblin Spider Riders', and some Wolf Riders (and there only seem to be 3 of these). There is a limited number of Gnoblars (grey Swamp Goblins that hang around with Ogres) from GW but there is little flexibility in what are basically single-piece sculpts (different heads is your lot here); if I do anything with Gnoblars it will probably be just bulking out other units. 

Perhaps I can find a way to build the army from the current sets of Night Goblins and Orcs that GW is now selling. The Night Goblins I'm considering - there are several options in the Infantry box that might be useful. As to the 'Orruks' - nothing I've seen in the new ranges strikes me as good for the units I'm after. Maybe I can pick up enough old GW Goblins from ebay to build an army, or maybe this will forever remain in the realm of speculation. But, as I'm unlikely to often venture back into a Games Workshop premises to play, maybe the presence of non-GW models might not be a problem and I can do this using Goblins from another manufacturer. Mantic in their Kings of War range (link) and North Star in their Oathmark range (link) both have Goblin Infantry that have weapon options including bows, spears, slashing weapons and some crushing weapons, though it seems the prevalence of the latter is much less than other sorts. North Star also do some Wolf Riders that might serve, as Giaks also ride wolves (they organise their wolf riders into units of 20). These Wolf Riders seem to be compatible with the Goblin Infantry which may increase choices when it comes to weapon swaps etc. And, as I mentioned at the top of the post, I'm building units for Oathmark. A colleague mentioned it had a good campaign system at work one day (there's a very long backstory involving running a quick D&D campaign in our lunchbreaks) and I've picked it up on his recommendation, but not yet fought any battles. It could be a good reason to re-activate the building of a Goblin army anyway.

Mantic also do Wolf Riders, and is also expanding its range of Orcs, which may feed back into this if I go for a mix of 'Orc' and 'Goblin' units. The Riftforged Orcs especially seem suitable (link), as they have a range of crushing weapons and good armour. This makes them something like the militaristic Giaks - but they seem much larger, they're something like WH 'Black Orcs', even larger than the standard Mantic Orc Infantry. Depending on how I sort this, that might not be a problem.

The Giak army list entries are these:

Unit Name:                 Colour:      Symbol:                     Notes:
Gorakim                          Red           Fanged Jawbone        Gourgaz leader
('The Animals')

Konkorim                        Yellow      Bow crossed by           All armed with
('The Hunters')                                 3 arrows                        short bows

Kaggazheg                      Orange       Flaming                        Leader wears
('Fire-Dogs')                                      Dog's Head                   a Doomwolf Pelt

Moggador                      Dark           Crossed                          No Edged Weapons
('The Hammerers')      Blue            Warhammers

Nadul-Nak                     Black          Black Flag                     Dressed in Black
('Nightfighters')

Lajakann                        Grey           Grey Heart &                Gourgaz leader     
('The Stonehearts')                           Scimitar

Ogshashez                      Purple        Serrated Dagger          No Blunt Weapons
('The Throat-Slitters')                                                              No Pole-arms

Nanenrakim                   Light           Black Arrows              All armed with
('The Life-stealers')       Blue                                                   short bows

Orgadak-Taagim            Dull            Human Head              All armed with
('The Humankillers')     Red             on a pole                     Pole-arms

Anyway - the Giak Army List is cool and inspiring. This is about taking that inspiration and going elsewhere with it.

I think there are similarities between the Giak Army List and the 'Clerical Quick Reference Chart' in the back of Deities & Demigods. In D&D, there is a standard progression of evil humanoids, known as 'KGOHGBO', which stands for Kobold-Goblin-Orc-Hobgoblin-Gnoll-Bugbear-Ogre, and represents humanoid tribal monsters of increasing resilience. Taking the idea of the KGOHGBO progression as being, basically, 'O&G', finding out what gods were worshipped by the various races, and basing units on that, I came up with the following notes towards a new regiments list (formatted as the Giak Army List, listed in KGOHGBO order):

Unit Name:              Colour:    Symbol:                Notes:

Stak-Danakim             Orange     Skull                        Kobolds: Spears

('Orange Spears')                                                          Follow Kurtulmak

Gudjagim                     Grey-       Bloody Axe              Goblins: Axes
('Mighty Ones')            Green                                        Follow Maglubiyet

Naogjatim                    Dark        Unwinking                Orcs: Black Spears
('The Unsleeping')       Red          Eye                            Follow Gruumsh

(Hobgoblins would go here but they worship Maglubiyet along with Goblins)

Staz-Ekug                      Dirty        Triple-                     Gnolls: (no edged weapons?)
('Yellow Punishment')   Yellow      Flail                         Follow Yeenoghu

Hugzakim                    Black       Morningstar              Bugbears: No Edged Weapons
('Smashers')                                                                   Follow Hruggek

Ruzzakim                      Blood       Taloned Hand          Ogres: (edged weapons?)
('The Destroyers')         Red                                           Follow Vaprak

Italics represent my attempts at using the Project Aeon word-lists (English to Giak, Giak to English) to create unit names. In the case of Ruzzakim, I'm translating directly from Vaprak's title, 'The Destroyer'. For the rest, I'm picking some aspect of the deity and running with it. For the 'Stak-Danakim' I'd have preferred some name relating to Kurtulmak's cunning, but cannot find a Giak word that equates to cunning, cleverness or trickery (traits particularly prized by the Kobolds and reflected in their God's nature).

Some classic tropes connected with 'Orc' units in Warhammer (axes and skulls for instance) are in this list connected with Maglubiyet (Goblin/Hobgoblin god) and Kurtulmak (Kobold god) respectively. On the other hand, Gruumsh, the Orcs' one-eyed spear-wielder seems (in Warhammer terms) to be more likely to be a Goblin (particularly Night Goblin) deity, given the prevalence of eye-imagery, and the use of spears, by Night Goblins.

Vaprak and Hruggek are relatively unproblematic - Hruggek smashes things and Vaprak tears them apart. I know Warhammer understands 'Ogres' differently to D&D, but to me, from a D&D perspective, they're still just the biggest sort of Orc (when they're not what Tolkien calls by the name of 'Trolls'). Anyroadup, big Goblins and their smashy god, big Orcs and their vicious rippy god called 'The Destroyer'.

Yeenoghu, the demon-prince who is the Gnolls' deity, is a problem for two reasons. Are Gnolls really bigger Orcs? Maybe. Maybe as much as Kobolds are smaller ones. For a long time I've mentally broken KGOHGBO into two parallel groups - KOGO and GHB. Gnolls are just bigger Orcs. But there aren't really any whip/flail weapons for WH Orcs, nor Goblins neither. Not enough to make units out of anyway, maybe the odd one. Perhaps just having non-edged weapons is enough, if such a thing is possible, given the general lack of crushing weapons for Goblins? Perhaps this could be a Night Goblin unit with some of the weird weapons like nets and the ball-and-chain weapons of Night Goblin fanatics? 

There are no archer-regiments in this list. That's because no KGOHGBO god has a bow as a weapon. 6 regiments mean that I can add two bow-armed units to this list (no more than 25% of Giak units can be bow-armed, at an 'Army' level of organisation at any rate, and they have to be short-bows, so no Orcs with longbows or x-bows in this list).

Giaks group their units (the basic unit, the 36-model regiment/warband, is called a 'dorgar') into divisions called 'zegorim' (which looks like a plural, and elsewhere that just seems to be another word for 'Giaks') which consist of 3 regiments. The way the 25% bows is supposed to work rather fails in the overall list at a sub-army level, however, because no matter how you slice it (9 units, 3 divisions, 1 army) you can't have a 3-unit division with a bow-armed unit in it that is not more than 25% of the total. So the 25% must only apply at army level not division level. No reason I suppose that you can't have the two archer-units in the same division, in that case. But it's not elegant, I think.

Anyway, the DDG list has got me 2/3 of the way to a 'new' 9-unit Giak army list, and two archer-regiments has got 8/9 of the way there, at least in outline. The way I think I shall divide it up is something like...

Orgar Shug-Tanzar or Army-Green-Storm - a favourite army name of mine, named after the 'Green Storm Commandos' in the Philip Reeve books... my 40K Ork army has a unit called the Grub-Dakka Orkyzag, or 'Cunning Attack Green Lightning', as that's the closest I can get in Orkish to 'Green Storm Commando'. I think it's a good name for an orcish/orkish unit. But there's no word in Giak for 'cunning' that I can find as I mentioned in discussing the 'Orange Spears' - and anyway, Giaks are supposed to be grey so maybe 'grey storm' would be more accurate. Unfortunately, there's no word for 'grey' (or gray for that matter) in the English-Giak word-list either... 'Army Green Storm' will have to do.

I'm going to apply certain rules here. The first is that I think that I should assign an independent 1-in-6 chance of a Gourgaz leader to each unit (for using these as 'real' Giaks - in the original list, some Giak units are led by Gourgaz, which are axe-wielding troglodytes); the 2/9 of the original list seem to be around that kind of chance. I found a pic of a Gourgaz, but I no longer know where.

This is an artist's impression of a Gourgaz - by the looks, it is intended as a standee

I rolled 5, 4, 1, 6, 6, 1 for the units I have, then 4, 3, 1 for the as-yet-unknown units; so the units with Gourgaz leaders will be 3 (Naogjatim,'The Unsleeping') and 6 (Ruzzakim 'The Destroyers'), then the final unknown unit, which on balance should probably be another unit with edged weapons (they're certainly easier to come by then bludgeoning/crushing weapons). 

The following assumes I'm using the current Warhammer range of figures...

Unit Name:                Colour:    Symbol:                  Notes:

Stak-Danakim              Orange     Skull                        Orange Spears                              
('Orange Spears')                                                          (Night Goblins with spears?)

Gudjagim                     Grey-       Bloody Axe              Axes
('Mighty Ones')            Green                                        (Orcs with axes?)

Naogjatim                   Dark         Unwinking               Black Spears: Gourgaz leader
('The Unsleeping')      Red           Eye                           (Night Goblins with spears?)

Staz-Ekug                    Dirty        Triple-                       No Edged Weapons
('Yellow Punishment') Yellow      Flail                          (Orcs with smashing weapons?)

Hugzakim                    Black       Morningstar              No Edged Weapons
('Smashers')                                                                   (Orcs with smashing weapons?)

Ruzzakim                     Blood       Taloned Hand           Edged weapons: Gourgaz leader
('The Destroyers')        Red                                           (Orcs with axes/swords?)

(Unknown archer unit)                                                  Shortbows

                                                                                       (Night Goblins with shortbows?)

(Unknown archer unit)                                                  Shortbows
                                                                                       (Night Goblins with shortbows?)

(Unknown unit)                                                             Edged weapons?: Gourgaz leader
                                                                                       (Orcs with swords?)

Additional considerations: as two units list 'dark red' and 'blood red' (which I guess is more vibrant) as their regimental colours, they should probably be in different divisions, as should the units using orange and 'dirty yellow', just to avoid the confusion of colours; just because it makes sense, the two spear-units should be in different divisions, and the two archer-units should also be in different divisions. That is the plan... but as I only have the sketchiest ideas yet for three of the units, maybe I can organise the six units I do have a plan for into two divisions and leave the third for now, with the two regiments of archers in that. I have in effect two spear units, two smashing units and two slashing units, and can put one of each into both divisions.

From here I think I can break the units thusly:

First Division -

Stak-Danakim - Goblins with spears (orange)

Ruzzakim - Orcs with swords (blood red)

Hugzakim - Orcs with smashing weapons (black)

Second Division -

Gudjagim - Orcs with axes (grey-green)

Naogjatim - Goblins with spears (dark red)

Staz-Ekug - Orcs with smashing weapons (yellow)

Problems then come because the number of smashing weapons in the various boxes is very small. Building 2 units of 'smashers' will be tricky from any individual range. I am aiming I think for 40 Goblins per 'dorgar'; if I substitute any with Orc models, maybe 30 per regiment would do. The original Giak list has 36-model regiments (it doesn't explain what to do if the unit is led by a Gourgaz however, that's something I will have to think about later). If I'm fielding the army as a 'counts as' rather than just 'inspired by', they really should all be Goblins.

Then, of course, the problem is that any Night Goblins who are not archers will have 'Bad Moon' shields. These come integrally cast with the arms. It is of course possible to shave off the shield designs and paint them appropriately but that seems a real faff, and perhaps suggests I should look elsewhere for my models. Or, I could use the shield designs as-is, and just paint them in the requisite colours. In that case I could just do all of the units, for both armies, with the exception of the units with smashing weapons, as Night Goblins, and paint all of the shields in the required colours - so I have yellow moons, blue moons, purple moons, several colours of green moons etc. It's not an ideal solution though.

Whether any of this will ever exist in the flesh (or at least in miniature form) is unknowable. But I think the Oathmark Goblin Infantry and Wolf Riders are the front-runners for models I might actually obtain in the near future, and I can begin to grind through unit-building. I've sort of talked myself into buying a few boxes of each I think and seeing how I get on with them. Of course, I'm also trying to get this army ready for playing Oathmark anyway. That has certain limits on units - no more than 4 units of one type, as a hard maximum, so whatever army organisation I go for, I can't have more than 4 Goblin Infantry, 4 Goblin Spearmen etc, which will start to impose some further restrictions on what I can and can't field. Whether I get any of the Mantic Goblins (or Orcs), or anything from GW, I'm less sure about. Watch this space, perhaps not too intently; the Army Green Storm is rumbling its way over the horizon... maybe...

Bakshi's Lord of the Rings

I re-watched it yesterday. Not seen it in 40 years, and I have to say I think it stands up pretty well (Mrs. Orc and Orc Minissimus disagreed and gave up round about Lorien I think).

It has got me thinking. I have a few 'spare' LotR minis that have not yet been painted up. Due to having a couple of different sets (a Mines of Moria set and a box of Heroes of Helm's Deep) and then a few random ebay purchases I have in total (as far as the Fellowship goes anyway) 1 plastic Gandalf, 1 plastic Boromir (for certain - I think I may have another in a different box, maybe 90% convinced of that); 2 Legolases (1 plastic, 1 metal); 2 Aragorns (1 plastic, 1 metal); 3 Gimlis (2 plastic, one with a broken weapon, 1 metal); 2 plastic Merrys; 3 plastic Pippins; 3 Sams (2 plastic, one with his pan broken off, 1 metal); and 4 Frodos (3 plastic, 1 metal).

I definitely have some spares is what I'm saying... so I think I shall paint some of them up in colours matching the Bakshi versions - though to be honest, several of them have been partly-painted anyway. I definitely started painting the metal Legolas and Aragorn figures back in the day (The Two Towers was released in 2002 so it's quite likely I've had some of these figures for upwards of 15 years). Checking on the others, I think I remember at least putting some paint on Gandalf, but the plastics of Boromir, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and one of the plastic lots of the four Hobbits have been painted to a greater or lesser extent, and not by me.

The almost-complete paints somewhat resemble these outfits:

Sam, Merry, Frodo, Pippin, from Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring

Painting them up Bakshi-style might be easier with the Hobbits than with some of the characters. The clothing worn by some of the characters is not really so similar (well, Gandalf is pretty much the same) but the Hobbits aren't massively different. Aragorn and Boromir, definitely different. Legolas and Gimli, pretty different. The Hobbits' clothes are similar, without being identical.

Pippin, Sam, Merry and Frodo, I think about to hide from the Black Rider, from Bakshi's Lord of the Rings

Essentially, they wear breeches, shirts and waistcoats, with green cloaks over the top (Bakshi doesn't have them given new cloaks in Lorien, but that doesn't matter, I'm painting up 'Moria' Hobbits anyway). Unlike the others, Sam doesn't wear a shirt-and-waistcoat combo, he wears a sort of tunic or smock. The modern GW Hobbits (I'm old enough to remember the original GW Lord of the Rings range from the '80s - in fact, I have a few of those too, in with all my 'Oldhammer' minis) are obviously designed to be faithful reproductions of the Jackson film versions, so they wear jackets as well as waistcoats, and the waistcoats themselves have a considerably higher neck-line than the Bakshi depictions. So I'll have to use a bit of creative licence with transferring the information.

Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry, at the Prancing Pony, from Bakshi's Lord of the Rings

The notes I made (with occasional corrections to something I misinterpreted in bad light):

All Hobbits wear dark green cloaks

Frodo - red hair, brown tunic waistcoat, white shirt, dark brown trews, black belt, brass (gold?) buckle

Sam - black dark brown hair, red-brown tunic, dark brown trews

Merry - blondish hair, tan mid-green waistcoat, white pale green shirt, mid- darker green trews

Pippin - brown hair, tan waistcoat, yellow shirt, lightish mid-brown trews

This was after getting Merry and Pippin confused, but afterwards I sorted out which was which. By the time I thought about this, it was difficult to tell Merry and Pippin apart, Merry had already gone for his walk in Bree and Pippin had dropped the stone down the well. I should have just waited and got some images from the web.

So that's the next task I've set myself, getting them painted, the Hobbits first. I shall have to paint over the blue breeches one of them has already been given but it will be fine I'm sure. Whether paint will touch any of the rest of the Fellowship in the near future remains to be seen. From one point of view, it is unfortunate that both Legolases have been painted, at least to some extent. I don't intend to repaint the plastic Legolas to match the Bakshi version, and I'm definitely not repainting my metal Legolas that I painted all those years ago. A bit of a touch-up maybe, but not a total repaint. Perhaps I can paint a different Elf for the Bakshi version, I have plenty. Trying to work out how to paint Gimli, however, in fairly different clothes, will be a bit of a challenge. Aragorn too, their costumes are very different. But maybe instead of the greenish palate of the Jackson Aragorn, I will paint one in more russety tones. But for the ones that are at least partly done, I'm going to finish them Jackson-style.

Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli, at the death of Boromir and the breaking of the Fellowship, from Bakshi's Lord of the Rings

So that's it - painting of LotR characters. There should be an update 'soon'... whatever that means...
.

Guardians of the World-tree... perhaps some progress

Some lore and other ancient history...

In the distant past there were only Elves. Some myths say that Eru created the Elves but they slept until Eru had made the stars; then the Elves awoke beside a lake. Some myths say that Corellon Larethian fought the demon Lolth and the Elves sprang from the drops of Corellon's blood shed in the fight (in one version, the Drow from Lolth's blood, the ancestors of the good Elves from Corellon's).

I don't know other Elven myths, but certainly in Azeroth there is (or was rather) a 'World Tree' that the Elves lived around. They're supposed to be the oldest race, and they have split into different kindreds, primarily the Night Elves and the Blood Elves (the Blood Elves, originally High Elves, were the ruling class of Elven society).

Whatever the version, the Elves are divided. In at least some versions, there are World Trees.

Malekith the King of the Dark Elves (Marvel) is certainly the inspiration for Malekith King of the Dark Elves (Warhammer). The Marvel Dark Elves also imply 'Light Elves', and obviously, these are all derived pretty squarely from nordo-germanic myths with the 'svartalfar' and 'liosalfar'. Why have I never realised Malekith of Marvel's Dark Elves are blue? This might explain those blue Citadel Dark Elves that used to pop up in the late 1980s. They weren't 'Drow' per se, they were Marvel Dark Elves not TSR Dark Elves.

Anyway, I've been painting Elves again. Maybe they'll see action in Warhammer or Kings of War someday soon. Maybe they won't in the end but hell I like painting Elves. And not those camo-clad guerrilla-fighters that GW have been pushing for the last 10 years or so. No, proper guards-of-the-Fairy-Queen type. They wear blue, and red, and white, and bright green, as well as cloaks of dappled green that hide them in the forests. Some of my Elves are Blood Elves, some will be various kinds of Dark Elves, some will be Night Elves and so on.

Some of my Elves

It's only about 10 years since I started on this idea of a united force of Elves. That's probably slow even by my standards!

In defence of Ritual

I don't usually post about archaeology, but I am an archaeologist and as such was somewhat taken with a post a couple of days ago over at Realm of Chaos - an Oldhammer blog of some repute - and it got me thinking about that much-maligned term that archaeologists seem to come out with whenever they don't have an explanation for something - 'ritual'

I'm going to defend the 'ritual' interpretation, but with a caveat. I'll start by saying that it sometimes seems that archaeologists use 'ritual' as an excuse for not thinking. It might seem that way - but I think it isn't so. Honestly, archaeologists think loads, and some of the thinking is amazing. What they (or maybe we) don't do some of the time is communicate that thinking very well.

The separation of spheres of activity into 'religious' 'political' 'agricultural' 'meteorological' 'psychological' and so forth is a product of a very modern mind. If you read the plays of Shakespeare even, you see that the wrong king on the throne makes (the) God(s) angry, the weather bad, crops fail, people and animals go mad etc. Shakespeare was only writing 400 years ago, the Egtved Girl that's the subject of the post at Realm of Chaos was buried more than 3,000 years ago, after what seems to have been a short life (she was between 16-18 when she died) that involved several journeys between South-west Germany and Denmark, covering perhaps 3,000km in the last year or so of her life and being buried it seems in the summer of 1370BC.

There is an intrinsic connection between our behaviour and the workings of the universe. I think this was accepted by people in the Bronze Age as much as by people that have actually left us written records - the Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Medieval Europeans and up to the Early Modern period, as well as people from further afield that Europeans only really found out about later - and of course, some people still believe that there is a connection between microcosmic and macrocosmic systems or no-one would ever say a) that God told them to run for President or alternatively b) that using the wrong lightbulbs will make the sea level rise. This is the context I think in which archaeologists, but probably not non-specialists, think of 'ritual'. When we say it, we mean something like 'part of life bound up with ideas of the relationship between community and the cosmos' or 'codified actions designed to facilitate the smooth running of the universe'. We mean the actions that people take that are regarded as 'right behaviour'. Archaeologists tend to believe that 'right behaviour' is culturally-specific: what is 'right' in 18th century East Africa would not be appropriate in China in 500BC or Milan in 1450. Though the details of the rituals change, human societies have rules about what is 'right behaviour' in terms of death, birth, coming-of-age, establishing family units and such like. We send each other cards for passing driving tests or getting new jobs. Archaeologists call that 'ritual'. If all you had was a pile of cards saying 'congratulations' and 'sorry you're leaving' archaeologists would still have to try and reconstruct what they meant. Probably they'd come up up with some explanation about rituals involving socially-defined stages of life in the community. And if they did, they'd be right, because that's what those things represent in our society.

When people outside of archaeology hear us taking about 'ritual' however, I think they often assume we mean 'some irrational mumbo-jumbo of which we are guessing at the details'. They then conclude that archaeology itself is a 'ritual' in this second sense, as it seems to be merely irrational mumbo-jumbo of which they can only guess at the details. It isn't, but if we don't communicate what we mean very well, it's hardly surprising that sometimes people think we're just making it up out of nothing.

I had the privilege to see the Egtved Girl's burial when I went to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen earlier this year. It was one of my main reasons to go to the museum (one of the others being to see the Trundholm Sun Chariot - I would have linked to the National Museum of Denmark's web-pages on these but when I do so it crashes my internet connection for some reason) and I'm really glad I did. It is an amazing museum (and city, and country from what I saw which admittedly wasn't much). The displays helped me towards some new insights about prehistoric societies, about anthropology in general I suppose, and I like to feed that stuff back into gaming. Thinking about how society worked, what people's beliefs might have been, in the European Bronze Age or Ancient Egypt or Late Antique Italy (or whatever/wherever) helps in thinking about how a community works in Carcosa or Thyatis or Gondor. In fact, my specific interest in the Egtved Girl came from finding out about her because I was interested from a gaming point of view to find out what people were actually wearing in the Bronze Age - research for some way of adding a bit of verisimilitude to a 'barbarian' settlement led me down a rabbit-hole of fascinating information about the 'Nordic Bronze Age' (by the way, apart from the Egtved Girl, Denmark has some other really well-preserved prehistoric clothing, some of the best examples in Europe, and a goldmine of information for anyone wanting to re-imagine what a low-tech 'barbaric' society might look like).

The research into isotopes trapped in her hair that has been carried out also has thrown up really interesting questions about society in Northern Europe 3,300 years ago. It seems the the Egtved Girl was probably born in South-West Germany, in the Black Forest region, and travelled to Denmark when she was approximately 14-16 years old. Then, after a short period, she went back to Germany. She stayed in Germany for a few months and then journeyed back to Denmark. A short time, maybe about a month, after she arrived back in Denmark, she died, aged around 16-18.

I've long been a supporter of the notion that there was a lot of moving about in prehistoric societies. Not so much the idea, prevalent in English-speaking academic circles up to the 1950s, that 'waves of X-people drove out the less-advanced Y-people with their new technological innovation of the Pointed Stick and introduced Pottery and Cricket', but not 'no-one before the invention of the horse ever went more than 4 miles from the place they were born' either. I'm pretty sure that people knew that 'those islands over there' were where the tin/gold/amber/wine/furs or whatever came from and that 'those people up the river' were really good at making rugs but beyond them 'the other people' sang strange songs but had mad skills with doing archery. I'm from Britain (so I think that this bit is important), and Britain is thought to have been the major source of tin in the Mediterranean Bronze Age. There's an awful lot of Bronze Age bronze, so people in the Mediterranean must have known about Britain even if only as a source of tin (though that doesn't seem likely to me). Likewise (as I mentioned it and we're talking about Denmark) almost all European amber comes from the shores of the Baltic, which is quite a hike from the Mediterranean, and yet amber turns up in a lot of places in southern Europe. Jet, obsidian, particular sorts of axes or other objects turn up a long way from their sources. Beakers, a set of forms of pottery vessels, are part of a cultural complex that stretches from Morocco to Denmark, Hungary to Ireland. 4000 years ago, people were engaging in long-distance travel around the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black seas, out into the Atlantic, up the rivers... it was an interconnected world. And I think that's really interesting.

So anyway I don't know whether I'm saying 'go to Denmark, they've got great museums' or 'read some anthropology/archaeology/history books, they might spark gaming ideas' or probably a bit of both. I'm pretty sure I'm saying 'don't be too hard on archaeologists, they have to get unfamiliar ideas over in 10 seconds on the news or some popular history programme, there's probably more to it than it seems'. And it can be both fun and intellectually rewarding to find out what does lie behind the headlines.

Oldhammer Giaks

Every so often, something floats across my consciousness that isn't to do with D&D. Sometimes, it has to do with another facet of my nostalgia for fantasy gaming in the 1980s - Oldhammer.

Some time ago I was talking about Giaks in Warhammer/Oldhammer. That post included a link to a Giak Army ('Orgar') list of 9 units that goes something like this:

Orgar Rekenar (Rekenar = 'Scouts')

Name of Regiment    Colour    Regiment Symbol    Special Notes

Gorakim                          Red           Fanged Jawbone          Gourgaz leader
('The Animals')

Konkorim                       Yellow      Bow crossed by            All armed with
('The Hunters')                                 3 arrows                       short bows

Kaggazheg                    Orange       Flaming                        Leader wears
('Fire-Dogs')                                      Dog's Head                 a Doomwolf Pelt

Moggador                      Dark           Crossed                        No Edged Weapons
('The Hammerers')         Blue           Warhammers

Nadul-Nak                     Black         Black Flag                    Dressed in Black
('Nightfighters')

Lajakann                        Grey          Grey Heart &                Gourgaz leader    
('The Stonehearts')                           Scimitar

Ogshashez                     Purple         Serrated Dagger          No Blunt Weapons
('The Throat-                                                                         No Pole-arms
Slitters')

Nanenrakim                    Light            Black Arrows             All armed with
('The Life-stealers')       Blue                                                 short bows

Orgadak-Taagim            Dull             Human Head            All armed with
('The Humankillers')      Red              on a pole                   Pole-arms

There are no Gourgaz (Giant Troglodytes) in other games, but perhaps were I ever to field a 'proper' Giak Army, for WH 2nd Ed using these rules, I could get something to stand in for them (using Heroquest Fimir perhaps).

Gourgaz
From http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/03/interview-gary-chalk-fantasy-artist-author-games-designer/

Fimir
From http://www.sodemons.com/rhfimir/03heroquest/L07A5292-130725-01.htm

Merely using this as a template for organisation however, I've decided that (at least for the moment) 'Giak' isn't a particular kind of Goblin; I'm going to assume that any kind of O&G type can be slotted into this list. A concession to later editions? Probably. However, I'll still play by the stipulations of the list - no more than 25% of troops may be archers, and they can only use short-bows. This means, in effect, that I have to use Goblins or Night Goblins as archers. Obviously, the plan is to eventually do these units as armoured Goblins, but in the meantime, I think I can be a bit more flexible (while I work out what would be a decent source for 'Oldhammer' style Goblins with different weapons, as there are only really two Goblin foot units, Common Goblins with spears or bows, and Night Goblins with spears, bows or slashing weapons - now all called 'Grots' apparently).

So - how best to field these units as an O&G army?

Gorakim                      Red         Fanged Jawbone        Gourgaz leader
('The Animals')

I think their 'animal' nature is probably a reference to their ferocity. So, they're likely a close-combat unit. Probably Orcs then, let's say with axes or other slashing weapons. Maybe they could have two hand weapons, as opposed to the more usual slashing weapon/shield combo.

Konkorim                    Yellow    Bow crossed by          All armed with
('The Hunters')                            3 arrows                     short bows

This unit could be Night Goblins or Common Goblins, as both can use shortbows. Night Goblins are cheaper (points-wise) in later editions, so maybe they're the way to go here. But given that the ultimate aim is to field (Common) Goblin units corresponding to the units on this list, maybe I should go straight for that and cut out the middle stage.  As the point of this unit is to stay out of the way and just shoot, having slightly better fighters makes no real sense from a points-based point of view, but it does in terms of eventual development of the list.

Kaggazheg                  Orange    Flaming                      Leader wears
('Fire-Dogs')                                Dog's Head                a Doomwolf Pelt

This is best as a close-combat unit, and in general that would mean an Orc unit I think - again axes seems appropriate.

Moggador                   Dark         Crossed                      No Edged Weapons
('The Hammerers')      Blue         Warhammers

Orcs with bludgeoning weapons is I think the best way to go here. Of course, bludgeoning or slashing weapons have the same profiles in 2nd Ed, they're all 'hand weapons'. But there are 3rd Ed (? I think) plastic Orc minis with mace-type weapons. However, I also have a bunch of Dwarf hammer-heads (alternate weapons from the old 60-to-a-box white plastic figures) so if I can get some Goblins with weapon-grips maybe I can add the hammer-heads myself.

Nadul-Nak                  Black        Black Flag                 Dressed in Black
('Nightfighters')

This is almost designed for Night Goblins I think, with hand-weapons or spears, it matters not.

Lajakann                     Grey         Grey Heart &            Gourgaz leader  
('The Stonehearts')                       Scimitar

I have a few small 'Goblin' shields with a heart & sword motif. Perhaps, if I can get about 30 more of them, they can be the shields for a unit of Night Goblins, who at least can have hand weapons.

Ogshashez                   Purple       Serrated Dagger        No Blunt Weapons
('The Throat-                                                                   No Pole-arms
Slitters')

I think, a unit of Orcs armed with slashing weapons. Or possibly Night Goblins again with slashing weapons, but Night Goblins are nothing like as good at fighting.

Nanenrakim                Light           Black Arrows           All armed with
('The Life-stealers')     Blue                                             short bows

As with the other bow-unit, the choice is between getting a Night Goblin unit and eventually replacing it or going for a Goblin unit from the start.

Orgadak-Taagim         Dull           Human Head            All armed with
('The Humankillers')   Red            on a pole                  Pole-arms

Well, this is a bit tricky as 'pole arms' per se aren't a viable option but two-handed axes might be. I'd settle for that as an alternative - I think this was an option for some Orcs back in the day. Otherwise, Goblins with spears might be a basis for some conversions using large blades attached to the spear-shafts.

That would get me my 9 units. Whether this actually gets anywhere as a project is a bit more difficult to tell at the moment though...

Giaks and Warhammer

It's a bit of a rarity at the moment to post about Warhammer, even though that was why I started this blog. I've been posting much more about D&D in recent months because that's what I've been doing most often, due to the campaign I'm running with my son's mates. I've not played any Warhammer or even Kings of War (which has actually been my default fantasy battlegame over the last couple of years) in ages.

Though I have an 'Oldhammer' logo on this page, I feel like a bit of an outsider on the Oldhammer forums sometimes - because the 'Oldhammer' that gets talked about mostly is 3rd Ed, and the Oldhammer I know is 2nd Ed. I know that Skaven are Ratmen, for instance, but I don't know why. I don't know when the Empire got so good at shooting, because according to the version I have it's the southern city-states (what would become Estalia and Tilea) that are the advanced human cultures in the NW of the Old World, and only they use black-powder weapons. Maybe I don't play 'Oldhammer' at all. Maybe it's 'Archaeohammer' (in which case, I guess 1st Ed would be 'Palaeohammer').

Anyway, one of the things I've been interested in since about 1985 is the possibility of fielding an army of Giaks in Warhammer. For those who don't know, Giaks were a goblinoid race from the Lone Wolf books. They're described as greyish, militaristic (which I think means organised as well as nasty) and a bit bigger than the Common Goblins of Warhammer. GW had the licence to produce minis for them, and released a boxed-set and a few blisters in the mid-'80s. All told there were 7 Giak models, including a banner-bearer, none of which I own. They also printed two pages of rules in the Citadel Journal (1 & 2). The pages include enough rules for 2nd Ed to make an army of 324 Giaks, arranged in 9 infantry regiments of 36 each. There are also notes about support troops such as wolf-riders. For anyone interested in further research on the Giaks, there's also Project Aon here where among other things there's loads of information on the Giak language.

There's no way I'll ever get the Giak minis to make up this army, because apart from anything else there are several units for whom no Giak minis exist. The Giaks in the list are armed with a variety of weapons - two regiments with bows, one with slashing weapons, one with pole arms and one with bludgeoning weapons. The weapons of the other four units are not listed but cannot include bows (no more than 25% of Giak armies may be armed with bows). The breakdown of the existing models is one banner-bearer, 3 with sword & shield, 1 with a sword only, 1 with spear and shield, 1 with a bow.

Unfortunately, given that the current 'Goblin Regiment' from Citadel only comes with options for bow or spear/shield, that means that a load of the weapons options will be unavailable even if one uses Goblin minis instead of Giaks. No hand weapons for Goblins? C'mon Citadel, what do you think you're doing? Even taking spear as being an acceptable substitute for pole-arm, I'd still need (at the very least) to find enough Goblin-arms for a regiment of swords (or other slashing weapons), and a regiment of club- or mace-wielding Goblins too. That's assuming that I make an army in which 2 regiments have bows, 1 has spears instead of pole-arms, and every regiment not listed as having a particular weapon has spears. So 5 spear-armed regiments out of 9. That really isn't what I want to do.

I fear it will be a long and slow slog before I get to the 360-or-so Goblins I will need for this project, and how I get at least 160 of them with weapons that Goblins 'can't have' I'm really not sure. Ah well, we'll see...

The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The War of Grom the Paunch - alternative timeline

From the earliest annals, which may or may not be the most correct, the following rough timeline can be constructed.

Grom kills Wulfrun Willowhand, King of the Northern Dwarfs, beginning the Dwarf-Goblin Wars.

At some point subsequently, Mudat Brokenbone sacks Nuln; around this time, Bogdan Legbreak, a Goblin warlord with many chariots, and his Ogre ally Golgfag the Rutdrogg, kill Bono Bugman.

Following the sack of Nuln, Mudat lays siege to Helmgart.

Around this time, Bogdan and Golgfag sack Bugman's Brewery.

After the Seige of Helmgart, Mudat and Grom end up on opposite sides in the Battle of Gonnear; Grom kills Mudat. This is the first recorded appearance of Grom's Goblin Guard.

Some time after this, Golgfag's second-in-command Gratthud slays Bogdan; 'Mad-Eyed' Hogg becomes the leader of Bogdan's chariots, and commands them at Zhuf Field, where he fights alongside Grom.

After Zhuf Field, Grom and Hogg assault the 'Dwarf City' of Middenheim, where Grom is killed.

Some years later is the battle of Mad Dog Pass, where Grom's Goblin Guard is exterminated. Hogg is also present at the battle, and leads the survivors of of Bogdan's chariots into the Darklands.



Originally hosted over at:

The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The War of Grom the Paunch - alternative timeline: 


In this timeline, it is the killing of Bono, son of Joseph, Bugman by Bogdan Legbreak and Golgfag the Rutdrogg that leads to Joseph Bugman to form his famous Rangers. The Rangers are exterminated, and Joseph disappears never to be seen again, presumed killed, when Bogdan and Golgfagg sack Bugman's Brewery. Indeed, Goblin legend tells of how Bogdan taunts and kills Joseph Bugman during the sacking of the brewery.

The stories of Bugman's return from the sacking of the Brewery and the refounding of the Rangers at Karak Varn seem not to based on early historical record. In even later stories, Bugman does not even found his Rangers until after the sack of the brewery. Finally, in the latest versions of the story, generations are transposed. In the earliest versions, Joseph is the grandson of Samuel Bugman, and Bono Bugman is Joseph's son. Later, Samuel is sometimes called Joseph or Josef Bugman's father; meanwhile, Bono is sometimes called a son of Samuel.

The sacking of Nuln, sometimes said in later tales to be the work of Grom the Paunch (of the Misty Mountain, as he is always known in the earliest tales), is here credited to Mudat Brokenbone. Though, after the sack of Nuln, later stories say that Grom was defeated by the Prince of Altdorf and attacked Middenheim, this is treated as an Imperial rather than a Dwarf city; and Grom is said to have personally broken the gates of the city and built a chariot there from the remains of a temple to Ulric. Thus, the use of chariots by the Goblin army is credited to Grom, whereas in the early tales it is Bogdan and Hogg who command them. He is than given a story of invading Uluthuan, whereas in the earliest version, he was killed in the siege of Middenheim.

In the earliest versions then, three Greenskin leaders (Grom the Paunch of the Misty Mountain, Mudat Brokenbone, and Bogdan Legbreak) command the forces that attack the dwarf cities and invade the Empire. Later tales only remember Grom the Paunch and ascribe all the deeds to him that in the earliest tales are the work of other commanders.

The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The Story of Otto Kleinhund, III & IV

The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The Story of Otto Kleinhund, Part the Third

The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The Story of Otto Kleinhund, Part the Fourth

Look, I really don't know how the hell this re-blogging thing works ... anyway here is the rest of the story of Otto Kleinhund. Please read it, if you like, it's all about Oldhammer.

Goblins galore!

A shot of some of my goblins that I was painting up for Kings of War... well, they languished in the box for a while, like 18 months, until yesterday when I got my paints down from the loft and painted their hats red. I'd decided that they needed more colour, and remembered the Redcaps of fairly folklore. What could be better for these be-capped Night Goblins? OK, technically the goblin 6 from the left in the front row is not a Night Goblin, but I only have a certain quantity of Goblins, and I was one short for this unit. Look, he's in a Night Goblin unit, he'll be statted as a Night Goblin (if I ever play a game where they're not just statted as 'Goblins').

So... still got a lot of work to do on these to get them looking 'nice' (if they ever do, I'm a rubbish painter) but I thought I might post them here. I looked up Redcaps - I didn't know that they were particularly from Northern England and Southern and Central Scotland. Perhaps they deserve their own entry in the Observer's Book of Monsters?

The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The Story of Otto Kleinhund, Part the Second

Re-blogging this from one of my other blogs; not really sure how re-blogging works to be honest but it may be interesting to Oldhammer types...


The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The Story of Otto Kleinhund, Part the Second: The cellar was dark, the air cold and stale. Yet Otto began to sweat. Why had Master Wilhelm mentioned trolls? Was there something that Otto...

The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The Story of Otto Kleinhund, Part the First

 I'm re-blogging this from one of my other blogs, with includes more theoretical or speculative stuff than my 'straightforward' gaming activity usually included here.

It's the first part of a short story, set in the Warhammer world, dealing with some speculations about the relationship between official and more underground history, and may be of some interest to the Oldhammer crowd.



The College of Speculative Antiquarians: The Story of Otto Kleinhund, Part the First:

Otto Kleinhund sniffed the air issuing from the trapdoor.

"You say no-one has been down here for more than 20 years? I would believe it, Master Wilhelm." He took a torch from the massive slab of a man to his right, and began to descend the rickety ladder, nearly setting his straggly beard aflame as he tried to hold the torch, while gathering his ornate robes to avoid tripping on the staircase, whose side-rail he was also attempting to grip.

"Perhaps, Kleinhund, you should drop a torch down first?" suggested the aged Master of the College of Speculative Antiquarians, a lesser-known cousin of the Guild of Historians.

"I would, Master, but the steps are made of wood and there may be parchments in the room," explained Kleinhund, after a moment's thought.

"Ah, I see, might need to fight them off, you mean? Good thinking," replied Master Wilhelm.

Kleinhund stared at him. "Parchments?" he asked.

"What? Parchments? Sorry, I thought you said trolls. Anyway... carry on." Having grown bored, Master Wilhelm wandered away, back towards the better-lit corridors of the ancient and crumbling College. He beckoned the large man who'd provided Kleinhund with his torch. "Come, Dorothy, there's a wardrobe I want you to move. I think it has a witch in it."

Kleinhund stared at the two backs slowly receding down the corridor. "Well, this is it, my old son," he said to himself, "you knew you'd be on your own in the end. When you come out you'll either be a hero to historians everywhere, or a laughing stock to any man who can write his own name." A horrid thought struck him, causing another pause. "Assuming you do come up that is. Here goes..." and he rattled down the rest of the ladder, into the musty dark.

Bitten by the Megadungeon bug

It's no good. I think, somehow, it's encoded into the gaming DNA.

I'm about 2 years older than the people I most regularly do 'gaming stuff' with. One result of this is that I was one of those weird hybrid players who started with the Moldvay Basic D&D but the Mentzer Expert. Everyone else I know uses Mentzer Basic. There probably aren't so many differences, but it's a generation thing I think.

Anyway, I regard myself as a bit of a hybrid in terms of gaming style too. Part-megadungeon-basher, part-ecological-dungeon-explorer, I have over the years given fairly free rein to the urge to create wildernesses with lairs in them, with only occasional (unsuccessful) forays into the lost art of the megadungeon.

But, buoyed up by the panoply of discussions about OD&D and the art of the megadungeon (for example, over at Beyond the Black Gate), I've decided anew to give it a go. And, what's more, I've realised I've got a perfect excuse.

Part of what I've been researching recently is an interest in old British gaming. I'm an old British gamer: I have many classic issues of White Dwarf, from before the days they were only going to feature Games Workshop's products. Unfortunately for my plans to use them, so have my gaming buddies, we're all pretty much the same age (unless I end up doing the retro campaign campaign with my son's mates... which is still on the cards).

What my friends don't seem to have is old copies of Imagine. This was the TSR UK magazine produced approximately 1984-87. It featured a campaign setting called 'Pelinore', which included a city called 'The City League' in a county called 'Cerwyn' in a world... well - if you go to Phil Gyford's website, there's a pdf of a huge amount of collected material from the Pelinore setting - and my hand-copied version of the map of The City League (without adventure locations) which is the basis of my new city-campaign is right here:

What isn't included in Phil's pdf is one of the Pelinore-compliant adventures that was published in Imagine, of which I have a copy from around 1985. Now, I didn't have many issues of Imagine and certainly there's much more in Phil's pdf than I ever had - and so, some of it hasn't been incorporated into 'my' version of the City League (shorn of its wider setting, of which I knew little until downloading the pdf). But what I do have gave me one of the fundamental parts of the 'ancient history' of my campaign.

In my campaign world, Dwarves are an exiled race. Big deal; Dwarves are exiled in The Hobbit too. But, in my campaign world, taking a cue from this adventure published in Imagine, the Dwarves are exiles not because a Dragon (or Goblins/Lizard Men, a la Warhammer/Oldhammer) invaded their city, but because the last Dwarf King, Karyl, was corrupted by an evil power (a servant of one of the Gods of the Pelinore setting) into waging war with the human neighbours of his kingdom. I took a decision (because I happened on another bit of information about Dwarves from a different source set 400 years in the past) to make this event 400 years ago in game time (a couple of Dwarven generations). This, in the adventure, is little more than a hook to hang a quest on. In world-building terms, it's gold.

There are more or less two sorts of Dwarves in my campaign world; Dwarves who are ashamed of Karyl's actions, and blame him for the destruction of their home and their banishment, and Dwarves who are resentful of the situation they are now in, and therefore blame the humans, and by default whitewash Karyl and his actions. The former tend to seek redemption for themselves and their race by becoming crusaders and monster-hunters; the latter tend to be grumpy blacksmiths and tavern-keepers who spend their time hating their jobs, their clients and burning with rage any time a miserable human looks down on them (pun optional).

Anyway; because there is a 'Last Dwarf King' there is also an 'ex-Dwarf kingdom'. And in the 'ex-Dwarf kingdom', are one or more 'former Dwarf cities'. Now, what could offer a better megadungeon environment than a former Dwarf city? I mean, really, we're talking Moria-like megadungeon potential here, in terms of scope, but because the plot isn't 'city falls to marauding Orcs', there's no necessity for a vast number of one type of monster (as there probably would be were one to actually try to run Moria as a megadungeon, say). Essentially the city was vacant (or was it? Are there still Dwarves inside? Are the shades of the Dwarven dead, or the ghosts of their innocent victims, haunting the depths?) and so it was colonised by squatters. And those squatters can be anything at all...

So, yesterday, instead of doing anything about The City League, which I really should be working on, I sketched out the entrance to Level 1 and the Main Hall of Level 3, and drew a complete map of sub-Level 2a (the Guard Level) of Silvergate, fallen capital of the Dwarf Realm...

Oldhammer house...

... as advertised yesterday, from Erny's blog here. Very quickly built with a gluestick rather than PVA, so it's a bit 'lifty' in places, which should be taken as a reflection of my shoddy building practices, not Erny's design, which is very nice.

If you are planning to build it, be aware that I think it needs more tabs than are on the actual model. Take a look before you start cutting is all I'm saying - you should be able to work out where they need to be...

Anyway - enjoy the pics!

Building a settlement

I need some buildings to represent the settlements that are being attacked and generally fought over when play Warhammer, LotR and D&D. So, first off I'm trying to make some generic long-house type huts, buildings that have a fairly wide historical span attached to them (Viking long-houses probably weren't massively different to neolithic European long houses, from 5,000 years earlier). I figure that there's no reason buildings of this type can't be from somewhere in the north of the Empire or Norsca, even one of the poorer parts of Bretonnia; in Rohan or anywhere in Eriador; or pretty much anywhere not tropical in any D&D setting.

I have some preformed bits of cardboard that I'm intending to use as roofs; I have some balsa to use as corner posts; I have some 'craft sticks' to use as planking; if I can get some stiff card (preferably corrugated) to use as wooden walls with plaster on them (OK, that's not a well-attested historical style, but I'm trying to make this out of easily-accessable materials so cut me some slack!), I'm sorted...

A spur to this is the terrain-building competition over at the small but perfectly formed Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter forum that is calling for gamers to submit Warhammer-compatible terrain.

Can I get my longhouses/long houses finished? Watch this space...

And, in other exciting medieval-style property development news, the lovely and talented Erny over at the Lead Adventure Forum tempted me over to his blog with the offer of a free house!

Hand-drawn by Erny, it's very much in the style of the old Warhammer cardboard buildings or 'Oldhammer', so I've downloaded it from the blog and hope to be building it as soon as I can find some thin plain card to print it on. Cheers, Erny!