Dragon Rampant: The Trolls/Orcs

I continue to plough through my Rampant armies adding filler to the bases. Here is another of my Dragon Rampant warbands which has recently had the bases levelled as part of the Great Lockdown Leap Forward.

Following Poul Anderson's world, these are Trolls but they're equivalent to Tolkien's Orcs (who Tolkien sometimes called Goblins). Anyway, to avoid confusion for other wargamers, I will probably have to start calling them Orcs and reserve the name Trolls for larger figures, a couple of which are also featured below.

The figures come from various manufacturers. It's been a while since I bought them, but I'll do my best to identify them. Their physiognomy is similar (I avoided very pig-like features) but clothing styles differ. I'm confident the divergent styles will be brought together once I get some paint on them.

These larger Orcs (Reaper) will provide the Troll King and units of Bellicose and/or Elite Foot.  It's now common to assume that Orcs should be violently green-skinned. Anderson's Trolls and Goblins are both green, but Tolkien visualised his Orcs as swarthy and 'Hunnic' in appearance. I'm compromising on this by painting my Trolls (Orcs), Goblins and giant Trolls in a light olive green, but Hill and other Giants will be completed in human skin tones.

The mass of Trolls/Orcs will be fielded as Offensive Heavy Foot. Some of the more weedy ones may be drawn out as Scouts. The most appropriate Trolls I originally found were the CP Models Orc clubmen but it's a very small range, so I also ordered all the Reaper figures I thought would do, and then added some from a new range by Elite Wargames. I also bought some newer armoured Orcs and Orc bowmen from CP Models but these are disappointingly crude and lumpy designs and I won't be using them.

These Half-Orcs (ex-Grenadier from Mirliton) will be Offensive  Medium Foot. I looked at the Grenadier Orcs but they were anatomically very extreme and I think Trolls and similar are most sinister when they are closer to human form.

There are a few bow-armed figures scattered amongst the various types. These will be ignored or used to indicate units additionally armed with missiles depending on how I want to field things.

Ogres (Otherworld). Great figures but the spear arm on the lower right one was a devil to fit.

Various opportunistic Nasties as Troll/Orc allies. Front row: A Witch (Magister Militum) with Rat (Eureka) flanked by two large Trolls (North Star). Back row: An archetypal 'Fairytale' Giant and a Fantasy Viking-style Frost Giant (North Star OGAM).

Wolves (various manufacturers) as Lesser Warbeasts. They do look a bit puny now, especially next to my wolf-riding Goblin cavalry.

Of Trolls, Orcs and Goblins

Hobgoblin: Coincidentally one of my favourite
bottled beers. In the wargaming world Hobgoblins
are usually regarded as larger and stronger
than ordinary Goblins.

I've been collecting figures for my Elf, Troll (Orc) and other armies for Dragon Rampant, so this is a good time to share some more ideas.

As I outlined before  my inspiration comes more from Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword than it does from Tolkein. Having said that, the Fantasy market has long been engulfed by the Tolkein tsunami, so it is not easy (or necessarily advantageous) to escape the influence that has had.

Tolkien originally used Goblin as an alternative name for Orc, while Anderson has Goblins as a separate ‘race’. Even if you reach behind their depiction in modern literature to the folkloric origins of Giants, Trolls, Orcs, Goblins and Ogres, these concepts are overlapping and confused.

I like to think of Goblins as halflings and separate from, if allied to, Orcs/Trolls, and this view seems to be generally favoured by other gamers and figure manufacturers.

Doom Goblins from Knightmare Miniatures (not my painting - though I wish it was).

In the interests of variation - a key element of Fantasy armies - I was surfing the web for Goblins with the intention of adding a unit or two to my Troll army when I came across some relatively new  greens sculpted by the prolific Goblin sculptor Kev Adams. I found these particularly appealing and an enquiry on the Lead Adventure Forum pointed me to Knightmare Miniatures, a company based in Spain.

Anyway, I was so entranced, specifically by the 'Doom Goblins' that I ordered enough figures for a whole Goblin Warband. I even included Goblin wolf-riders. Although I think that is purely a Tolkein invention, I liked the idea of having a DA force with some Riders in it.

I was thinking of reinforcing these with other makes - Midlam, Otherworld, Weyland and Artizan, all of which I like, but I now have all the Goblins I need without having to bother about compatibility.