Snake Cults and Pig Men

It's been a busy ol' month so far. I have managed to squeeze in a bit of painting time. Not as much as I would have liked, but isn't that always the way?

Anyway, first up we have a classic Jes Goodwin beastman sculpt from the 1988 Realm of Chaos range. I was very pleased with how he came out.

This is from an era where Citadel stopped naming their minis in the catalogue, so he is uninspiringly identified as '022004'. The miniature did. however, feature as a Combat Card (GW's 1992 take on Top Trumps) where he is called 'Gregor-Kurt the Twin'.

Now, it has been said, somewhat unkindly, that the snake-arm mutation looks a wee bit like a sock puppet. To this I say, well maybe it is! Maybe Gregor-Kurt is a worshiper of the Warhammer equivalent of Glycon.

In our world, the cult of the snake god Glycon was founded in the mid-2nd century CE by Alexander of Abonoteichos. Glycon was a large snake with human features and hair on his head, who would whisper prophesies to Alexander in a human voice. Alexander claimed he had discovered  Glycon in Macedonia, brought the snake god back to his home town in Paphlagonia, built a temple and set himself up as a mystical healer and Glycon's oracle. Initially Alexander and Glycon specialized in fertility treatments (allegedly Alexander was quite hands on), but it was when the Antonine plague ripped through the Roman Empire that the cult really got going. Alexander claimed that Glycon had whispered to him a charm that would, for a fee, protect his followers against the plague. In the midst of a pandemic, Glycon's magical protection proved incredibly popular.

Late-2nd century statue of Glycon from Constanta, Romania

The cult spread rapidly. Cult inscriptions have been recorded as far apart as Antioch in the south and Londinium in the north. Emperor Marcus Aurelius even asked Glycon to foretell the outcome of his war against the Germanic tribes north of the Danube. Someone who was having none of this, though, was the satirist and realist Lucian of Samosata. His treatise Alexander the False Prophet doesn't pull any punches. Lucian called out Alexander as a fraud and a grifter, citing frequent examples, and exposed Glycon as an elaborate sock puppet hoax. 

The cult has been revived in modern times by comics legend Alan Moore, who says he worships Glycon as he's unlikely to start believing 'a glove puppet created the universe or anything dangerous like that'.

So, what would a snake cult look like in the Warhammer world? I think we all know exactly what it would look like.

Rexor and Thorgrim from Conan the Barbarian (1982)

EDIT: A buddy pointed out that Warhammer: The Old World has, in fact, just introduced the Chaos Marauder cult of the Slithering Serpent (a proto-Slaanesh warrior lodge, apparently). So I went and had a peek at the models to see if they looked anything like Thulsa Doom's lads. They totally do!

I've also made a start on some command models. This musician is from the first Heavy Metal Hordes Kickstarter from last year, sculpted by Aaron Howdie.

He's a pleasingly chunky fellow named Craic Lyn. He probably scales better with the 4th ed. beastmen rather than their '80s brethren, but the aesthetic is Oldhammer through and through. For those interested in a comparison, here we have (from left to right): Broo (1983), C27 (1985), CH4 (1987), Broo (1983), 3000/6 (1994), HMH (2025).

While I've struggled to find time to paint, I seem to have found plenty of time to buy stuff! I've added enough beastmen to the lead pile to keep me going for a good while. And even though I have PDF versions, I finally weakened and rebought WFB 3rd ed. and Warhammer Armies (I blame Mike from the Warm Ale and Mud blog for this). It's been a particular joy to have a physical copy of Armies again. I loved this book as a kid and it still hits the spot. The previous owner has also carefully inserted the errata from White Dwarf, which is very helpful.

Cheers

Head on a Stick

Cards for Chaos Marauders illustrated by John Blanche (GW 1987)

Hobgoblins in 1st and 2nd edition Warhammer were subject to frenzy. This meant that, if they could get a charge off first, hobgoblin infantry could hit pretty hard. With 3rd edition this trait became linked with fielding a sacred army standard. I'm not sure why there was this shift to hobgoblins carrying totems into battle, but I do wonder if the excellent Hobgoblin Standard cards from the Chaos Marauders game, released the year before, might have had an influence?

The entry for hobgoblins in the 3rd ed. rulebook included the following rules:

"Hobgoblin forces always carry their army standard into battle. This takes the form of a staff or pole bearing a trophy or sign, and is carried in a small wagon drawn by a span of fierce Hobhounds. So long as their standard remains intact, any Mournguls are subject to frenzy. The army standard, its wagon and crew must be included.

"The Hobgoblin standard is the symbol of the tribe's honour. Any enemy unit engaged in close combat against it is hated by all Mourngul units on the table. 

"The standard is a potent magical symbol to the Hobgoblin wizard. Totems always have the ability to act as a magical reservoir as described under magic standards. All Hobgoblin wizards must surrender half of their magic points before the battle and place them in the standard."

 

As there was no model for this, the cart and totem would need to be cobbled together using bits from other ranges or scratch built! A superb example can be seen over on the Somewhere the Tea's Getting Cold blog, but drawn by a lobotomised ogre rather than a span of hobhounds.

The requirements were less onerous for the hobgoblin mercenary contingent list in Warhammer Armies. Now you could take a standard bearer rather than needing to scratch build a dogcart. The contingent standard was also optional, but then why wouldn't you take one?

"The contingent standard is a sacred tribal fetish. As long as the standard remains intact, all Hobgoblins are subject to frenzy. Any enemy unit engaged in close combat with the standard bearer will be hated by all Hobgoblins."

 

From Warhammer Armies supplement for WFB 3rd ed. (GW 1988)

The obvious choice of model, and the only hobgoblin standard bearer in production in 1988, would have been from the Despoiling Hobgoblins of the Darklands Regiments of Renown set. However, I currently have enough despoiling hobgoblin troopers in the Dettol jar to field Throg and the boys as their own unit, complete with their iconic standard as Goodwin intended. This meant I'd have to leave my comfort zone and convert another hob for the tribal fetish wrangler. I settled on a DL2 discipline master (from the Aly Morrison's Hobgoblin Warriors boxed set) who had come with a job lot of hobs minus his man-catcher.

I initially toyed with giving this chap a banner rather than a totem, but it didn't really fit the vibe. Clearly, what was required was a head on a stick! For the pole I drilled a small hole into the hand and glued a wire spear in place. This was then padded out to the required thickness with green stuff. For the 'board' to attach the head to the pole I used a plastic shield from the bitz box. The chains and skulls are from a GW goblin sprue.

I'd only ever attempted some basic green stuff furs, so the head proved to be a challenge. With more than a nod to the Despoiling Hobgoblins standard, I was aiming for the skinned face of some 'orrible chaos ogre-type beastie that has been nailed to a board. It turns out that sculpting faces is tricky. That said, I felt this was a reasonable first stab. I then put the model in a draw and forgot about it for a year...

...and now, with hobgobs back on the menu, I've banned myself from painting any new shinnies until I've painted the draw goblins. It was time to tackle ol' Big Head.

This actually turned out far better than I was expecting. I'll be the first to admit that it's a rather basic paint job, but I think I've managed to capture the 3rd ed. vibe with this one. I'm pleased with it.

Here's my conversion next to the Jes Goodwin classic Despoiling Hobgoblins standard bearer (I call him 'Old Scrote' due to his wrinkly head). I think Mr Goodwin's sculpting might just have the edge over mine... 

And here's more of the draw goblins finally coloured in. These are all slotta C36 hobgoblins.

This hob got a 'orrible chaos ogre-type beastie for his tower shield. I haven't done one of these in ages. I'd forgotten how much fun they are to paint. 

I've still quite a few draw goblins to get through. Whether I manage to paint them all before I get side tracked remains to be seen, but it feels like I'm on a bit of a roll. Next up will either be some ADD54 hobs or some Chronicle hobs. I'm veering towards the Chronicle hobs at the mo' as they're a little less fiddly. We'll see. 

Thanks for taking a look. 'Til next time, go easy folks.

A Fistful of Hobgobs

I fancied a bit of Oldhammering recently, so I dug out a fistful of 1980s hobgobs to colour in. They're all Citadel C36 hobgoblins sculpted by Aly Morrison. The chap on the left (Dut Doomaxe according to the old catalogues) is an early slottabase miniature from 1985. The other 3 are unnamed pre-slottas from 1984. 

There's an excellent potted history of Citadel hobgoblins on ...the Leadpile blog which goes someway to explaining why the early ranges were such a hodgepodge mess. Hobgoblins had been depicted as generic barbarian-types for the Fantasy Tribes range, proxy bakemono opponents for the Samurai range, militaristic baddies with Chinese-inspired arms and armour for the AD&D range, and eventually Steppe nomads in WFB 2nd ed. Despite having mercenary contingent lists for both 2nd and 3rd ed., this iteration of hobgoblins would be killed off at the end of 3rd ed. I guess the niche for nomadic, wolf riding marauders was already well served by the evergreen orcs and goblins (not helped by the fact that all the hobgoblin miniatures were footsloggers). There also seems to have been little appetite at GW for developing the East of the Warhammer world. For my money, though, the C36 range knocks the later Big Hat hobgoblins into a cocked hat.

Hobgoblin banner designs from WFB 2nd ed. Ravening Hordes book

I'm fortunate to have previously collected several dozen C36 hobgobs (the going rate on eBay is currently a bit too spicy for me). So, given that I recently took Tolkien to task for Orientalism, why am I so enamoured with this range? I suspect it's because they're peak 1980s fantasy. The aesthetic is 1-part Conan the Barbarian to 2-parts NWOBHM* sleeve art. In fact, while I was painting the latest batch, this tune from The Comic Strip presents... More Bad News was firmly stuck in my head!

For my money, though, the most metal of all the Citadel hobgobs are the Despoiling Hobgoblins of the Darklands (Regiments of Renown RR15 - 1985) sculpted by Jes Goodwin.

I still need to track down Grunmunter the Beast and a few more troopers, but no self-respecting hobgoblin horde should be without these scallywags. And on the subject of hobgoblins I'd like to track down, if anyone has a C36 Baron Brightgore they're willing to sell for less than the price of a kidney, then please do get in touch.

*New Wave of British Heavy Metal