And so it comes to the great hobby blog of our time…
I’m already a little involved with Vanguard as I’ve been on the playtest group for a while and have been helping with some of the expanded Campaign Rules but I wanted to do more from a hobby perspective – partly to get other players and hobbyists enthused about the game and also to spur me on to build up some consistency with my painting and hobby efforts through sheer force of peer pressure!
And so I present to you this website and my initial Goblin Warband for Vanguard – Greskyr’s Sneaky Hallions!
Looking through the Warband options I wanted to try something a little different and adventurous in terms of who would lead my Warband and what theme I could build around their function and purpose as part of a wider Goblin army. So I wanted to stay away from what I think would be the common Biggit option as much as possible and go with something a little more cunning…
As I had picked up a really cool looking Goblin Assassin figure from Atlantis Miniatures for use in Dungeon Saga custom games (but still unused!) I wanted this to be his moment in my gaming limelight – step forth Greskyr the Sicklesnag, Shanker extraordinaire!
With him picked, the theme was going to follow after him, primarily a sneaky and back-stabby goblin warband with a little punch thrown in to help me out of a scuffle when I’m cornered.
Greskyr is ably assisted by 3x Goblin Spitters (archers) from the Grunt model type that I am using some of my Dungeon Saga miniatures to provide. Nothing says sneak like an arrow in the back! As with any Grunt I will use in Vanguard – these guys get no names!
Keeping with my lowly Grunt types I have also included 2x Goblin Rabble, one armed with a spear that uses another Dungeon Saga miniature and the other with a plain sword & shield that I am using one of my really old Battle Masters plastic goblins for. He has seen many a slaying on the plastic battlefield and still he fights on (he’s prob about 25 years old!)
Next I have opted for a Thuggit of the Warrior type to provide a little cheap punch to the Warband, and he is represented by another of the Dungeon Saga miniatures, this time the sword & shield waving model with the fancy helmet. And he shall be named “Featheric”!
Then I back the Thuggit up with another Warrior type but in keeping with the Warband “theme” of dirty combat, I’ve picked a Sneak to give me a little knife throwing range. The miniature I am using for this is a GW Battle for Skull Pass Night Goblin captain with a sickleblade and shield - a perfect apprentice to the main shanker himself, this gobbo will go by the name “Hooder”.
With my basic Warriors and Grunts all selected it was time to dive into my cast of “better” fighters to give my Warband some versatility.
I selected a Mawbeast from the Support type to give me some additional speed and a tasty 3 dice in Melee. I’m using another model from the archaic Battle Masters range to represent him, a wolf rider that has a very old paint job (the cleanest wolf you might ever see!). As he’s aged so well, I’m keeping a connection to the Battle Masters unit name and calling this duo “Blackyr & Fangyl”.
EDIT: The picture here is out of date and shows a plain GW wolfrider that I have since swapped out.
Also from the Support type I have taken a Snaggit, from the engineering caste of Goblin-kin with a rather hefty spanner using the Mantic Games driver model from the Goblin Mincer, his Dastardly Traps equipment fitting in nicely with my Warband theme. Say hello to “Coggle”.
Things get magical with the choice of a Wiz from the Sepllcastter type, the alpha Warbands are just too light in variety and options to give this guy a miss and not get access to some spells. The miniature for this is another GW Battle for Skull Pass Night Goblin with a bag of mushrooms and a voodoo-esque staff – inspiring the simplest of names “Vood”. This guy and his Night Gobbo GW compatriot were selected as their hoods lend themselves to my overall sneaky theme.
And last but not least, we have a Troll taken to offer me some serious muscle for what is a pretty lightweight Warband. Not much to say about something as tough and dumb as this guy bar his name “Urgut” as that's what most things look like after he’s thwacked them…
And so I have my Warband with a model count of 12 and equalling the allotted 100pts, and also coming in at over 50% Mantic models (7 in total).
I’ll follow-up this selection post later with a proper background story for Greskyr and his band of Sneaky Hallions in the near future – cheers for reading!
Full List is below:
1x Shanker COMMAND (Leader) 14pts
3x Spitter GRUNT 12pts
2x Rabble GRUNT 9pts (1 equipped w/ spear for +1pt)
1x Thuggit WARRIOR 6pts
1x Sneak WARRIOR 4pts
1x Mawbeast SUPPORT 8pts
1x Snaggit SUPPORT 12pts
1x Wiz SPELLCASTER 15pts
1x Troll LARGE 20pts
