Orktober 2025: Ork Army Builds and a 2026 Painting Rematch

Orktober 2025 ended with a lopsided score and a satisfying set of additions to the workbench army. I finished on 67 points, while IRO reached 134. That’s my heaviest defeat since our annual contest began in 2021, and a clear target for next year. The score stings; the models are still worth celebrating.

I started the month expecting to give the competition a proper try without letting the result take over. Then the gap widened, and my competitive instincts had other ideas. I spent more time thinking about how to catch up, but the points kept going IRO’s way. So much for a relaxed approach. The loss has already become part of the planning for Orktober 2026: I’m looking at what I finished, where my time went and what needs to reach the painting table sooner.

A long-planned biker squad

The biggest addition to my Ork force is a squad of bikers, a project that had sat on the to-do list for ages. They give the army a new group of models to put on the table and finally turn one of those recurring plans into a finished unit. Getting them done feels like a meaningful step even in a year when the final tally stayed modest.

Long-standing projects have a way of becoming background noise: they’re always planned, yet somehow never quite ready to start. Finishing the bikers is a useful reminder to give those ideas a specific place in the year’s schedule. They don’t need to be the biggest project on the desk to make a collection feel more complete.

A captain for the Flash Gits

I also painted a captain for my Flash Gits. That’s another addition that had been waiting a long time for its turn. Now he can lead the unit on its search for more loot, giving the group a character at the front and making a previously incomplete plan part of the army at last.

There’s a particular satisfaction in finishing a model that was already easy to picture in place. A leader beside an established unit makes the collection feel more intentional, and it gives me a clear focal point when I take the Flash Gits out. Between the captain and the bikers, the Ork army gained pieces I’d wanted for years, even if the number of completed projects didn’t match my initial ambitions.

The Ork town reaches its planned size

My Ork town terrain collection has now reached the size I was aiming for. I may add to it someday—terrain projects have a habit of growing—but for now the set has met its main goal. I still owe the collection a group photograph, which should show how the separate pieces work together as a place for the army to fight around.

A finished terrain set changes what a collection can do on the table. Individual pieces can be useful on their own, but seeing them together makes it easier to build a coherent battlefield and gives the models a setting that fits their character. The town is one of this year’s clearest milestones: the plan I had in mind is now there to use, with room left for future tinkering if the right idea comes along.

Old World plans still need attention

The biggest shortfall was my WHFB/Old World Orcs and Goblins army. I’d hoped to add a lot of new models, but the project fell well behind that target. The good news is that it didn’t end the year empty-handed. I completed a squad of Orc boys, giving the army its first core unit of the larger greenskins.

Alongside them, I painted a rock lobba to soften up the opposition while the boys advance—or get distracted squabbling among themselves. The machine and its crew give the force another completed piece, while the boys provide a starting point for the larger unit of greenskins I’d meant to build this year.

Those two projects point toward a practical priority for 2026: give the Old World army more room on the schedule. A useful way to approach that is to set a specific unit as the next finish, then decide what model or project follows it. That keeps a broad plan from becoming another long-running item on the list. I’ve already got reason to put the army first next year; now the challenge is making the time for it.

A score to chase

I’m pleased with the additions, even with the gap between the work I hoped to finish and what actually made it across the line. The bikers, Flash Gits captain, completed town terrain, Orc boys and rock lobba give the collection several concrete steps forward. I just wish there had been more of them.

IRO’s 134 points may be the best score either of us has put up, which makes 67 feel even more distant. It also gives next year’s contest a straightforward aim: finish more, give the Old World force proper attention and see if I can beat both the score and my rival. Orktober 2026 has its first plan already.