The first battle in the our planned narrative campaign is fought over the titular Idol of Gork (and Mork as well, though possibly the other way around). The old 5th edition Campaign set came with printed cardboard terrain, but we want to do something more special than that. Besides, orc idols are a great terrain feature to use in future games! Back when we were first playing around with this idea my talented uncle developed these concept sketches which I still really like.

In terms of design parameters, I think getting the size right is important. We want something big enough to impress but not with such a big footprint that it dominates the battlefield. Verticality is probably the way to go for in terms of impact from size then. Another thing we decided would be fun would be to create spaces for characters to stand on the model (imagine a spellcaster perched on a jutting orc brow or tooth… or perhaps even a war machine mounted on top!).

A quick google search turns up some interesting interpretations others have had about the Idol of Gork:

Then of course there is the ‘Rogue Idol of Gork’ model from ForgeWorld for inspiration:

I am keen to get back into Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WFB) with my uncle, who has adopted the 9th Age community driven ruleset since Games Workshop stopped supporting WFB officially. What interests me about miniature wargames is the potential to play out a campaign arc, where each battle has implications for the next and a narrative thread runs throughout. Also, fatherhood, work and study means I don’t have a lot of time for gaming at the moment so I want to make the rare opportunity that comes by count! So we have decided to adapt some of the old WFB campaigns to the 9th Age ruleset and play them out slowly, perhaps even one campaign across a year, so that we can savour each battle with my uncle’s gloriously painted armies. For our first campaign we have decided to convert the WFB 5th Edition’s Idol of Gork, pitting the Empire against the Orcs and Goblins in the Border Princes (I actually started converting Idol of Gork to 8th edition some years back but never completed the project). I am going to use this blog to keep my thoughts on the conversion process together as I go, and eventually to write battle reports as we play the campaign out!