Goblin Fanatics!

"The Goblins of the Black River country are similar to Goblinoids elsewhere in that they venerate the twin Orcish gods Gork and Mork, but there also exists amoung them a powerful sect devoted to the worship of a Goblinoid Earth Mother figure to whom they give no name.  In the wild, broken country to the North and East of the Baron Von Refn's lands there are certain deep and tortuously winding cave systems which this priesthood claims are in fact the reproductive system of their Mother Goddess, and hence the place of origin of all the Black River Goblins.  The existence of similar cave systems west of the river, well within the Baron's patrimony, may explain the bitter determination and rare courage shown by the Goblins in their ongoing campaign to reclaim certain portions of that territory which they lost to the Baron's people long ago.

It is well known that deep within some of these cave systems grow certain weird species of fungus with powerful psychedelic properties  The Goblin-Priests believe that these growths are the venereal warts of their Earth-Mother, and that they contain a degree of her awesome elemental power. It would appear that when properly prepared and consumed by one of her children, they can transform that creature into a terrifying instrument of her divine wrath.

It is certainly true that the onslaught of swarms of these drug-crazed fanatics, wielding enormous iron flails and shrieking such nonsense as "HOLY SHIT, I CAN SEE THROUGH TIME!" and "TRAILS!  TRAILS! TRAILS!" is one of the most disconcerting sights likely to confront the Goblins' enemies.

This fact is not lost upon the Orc Warlord Big Blackie, and he has actively encouraged the growth of this Goblin Cult in order to bring as many screaming green dervishes onto the battlefields of the Black River country as possible...."

Goblin fanatics are silly, fun, random and effective troops and although I'm not likely to use more than 4 or 5 in a 3k point army, I've painted up a bunch to make sure I'll have a ready supply as Big Blackie's horde grows past 3,000 points.  I suppose the bases need some explaining...

I've modeled them after the fanatics in Rick Priestly's own Orc and Goblin army as shown here on the back cover of White Dwarf #139, one of the first issues of WD I ever bought, and still one of my favorites.  Opposite them are Andy Chambers' Skaven.  (Sorry I don't have a better picture, my own scanner is on the fritz, and this is the only copy I could find on Google.  Don't you wish they had covered this game in a battle report?)  The templates appear to be 2 inch templates, without the 'clock' shown on the template in the Warhammer 3rd edition rulebook.  The book claims fanatics should be mounted on the one inch base included in the book, but the template is actually closer to two inches, I think.  (Just one of several errors and typos in the special troops and artillery section of that volume?)
I dunno.  Anyway, I kind of like the look of 'em, and what's good enough for Rick's army is most likely good enough for mine...at some future point, I might decide to glue some twigs or pebbels to the templates to mark out some of the numbers on the clock...

A trio of fanatics help clear the way for the advance of Retchie Stinkfinga's Stikka gang...'til next time....

"WAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"