A Manic Mantic Summer: Hunter’s Ogres

This summer we've had some great help from our intern, Hunter. Before he left to head back to university, he's written a blog to tell everyone about his new addiction: Ogres. In preparation for the Edge of the Abyss campaign, Hunter went DEEP into the hobby and below you can find out why...

For the past two months, I’ve worked as an Intern at Mantic. While I’ve done lots over the summer, you might know me best from the better know an army blogs I wrote in July or as the person you’ve emailed all your battle reports to over the past two weeks. It has been a crazy summer indeed here at Mantic, but I have loved my time here. Sadly, I’m back up to St. Andrews to finish my degree, so you probably won’t be hearing from me again, at least not on here.

As this is my last blog, I wanted to take the time to talk to you about my experience at Mantic. Not all the work and boring behind the scenes bit, but something far more important. Ogres! Over the past two months, I have indulged my wargaming addiction in ways that I had not done for four years.

Right now, I have 112 Ogres and 80 goblins all fully painted and based, all bought this summer. And here’s the kicker. I have never had a fully painted army before and never based a single model before this summer. Back in NYC, I have about 4 vast unpainted armies sitting on my shelves collected over a good 15 years of dedicated wargaming. Perhaps, it was being surrounded by other wargamers this summer or maybe I was just ready, but I assembled, painted, and based every model I bought this summer. They cover a full half of my desk now.

When I started here, I figured I should get an army going since I was going to be working on Kings of War. While researching the lore for my first blogs, I fell in love with Mantic’s Ogres. All Mantic promotion and such aside, I really do love these Ogres. Aside from the fact that they are gorgeous models (especially the Beserkers which I could stare at for hours), I found the twist Mantic gave the Ogres to be fascinating. While they are the classic violent race, they also have this fascinating love of stories and individual merit that captured my imagination. I decided they were the army for me.

I started off with the mega force, since I wanted to participate in Mantic Mondays. Once that was done, I managed to restrain myself from anymore purchases for a whole month. Then my friends came to visit and Andy let us look around the store during one of his famous tours. I think I bought more that day than they did, purchasing 2 Ogre Berserker boxes, 2 Hunter Regiments, 2 Ogre command packs, and an Ogre Horde. I had thought myself reasonable, restraining myself from the chariot pack, Hell on Wheels, but a week later I bought that too. Goblins followed once I realised their tactical utility in blocking charges. Then another army box followed…and a few more ~Berserkers and Hunters….Okay, I might have gone a bit over board, but I enjoyed every purchase.

I would buy the models at work, bring them home, and assemble them over the weekend while binge watching How I Met Your Mother Seasons 1-5. Then, during work, I would use my hour lunch break to hurriedly slap a few coats of paint on them. If I completed a blog or task, I’d reward myself by taking a quick break to slap another coat of paint on. By the end of the day, I’d have banged out an Ogre regiment. I kept that up for two months and a daily habit formed.

I’m not a great painter or modeller. I mostly use what I have on hand. This whole summer, I used 3 brushes because I didn’t want to buy any more. I was too cheap to buy paints for my goblins, so I just made them all red. Most of the time, I just drowned my models in dark wash and prayed it concealed all my mistakes. Whatever their quality, however, I had a fantastic time this summer working at Mantic, getting back into wargaming, and corresponding with all you crazy players. Now, for the first time in my life, I have a fully painted and based army that I can be proud of. Also, it proves what you can do when you put your mind to it. I came to Mantic without a single painted miniature and left with an entire army!

Now, onto my next project ('thanks' to Rob for recruiting another goblin commander into the fold)…