Ork Reinforcements

Hello!

So obviously as a Snakebite Ork player, I absolutely had to get the Beast Snagga Box to add to my collection. It feels like a very long time since my faction got some love, with most of the previous few waves of Ork releases focusing on vehicles. As you may have noticed, I tend to prefer the old ways of footslogging into the enemy guns! In addition to the contents of that box, I also picked up a load of Gretchin to add even more green bodies to the collection!

Lotsa Grots! These were an ebay purchase, with about 10 already painted and the rest sprayed green. I went for a nice easy scheme to get through them quick that ended up looking pretty similar to the already painted ones, which was nice. Drybrushed the sprayed green grots heavily with bone, then used contrast Plaguebearer Flesh for the skin, and other contrast paints for other areas. Notably Snakebite Leather for most of the clothing, belts, pouches etc. Black Templar went over all the metal, which got a big of a drybrush and some brown washing to dirty it up. Pick out a few details and that's about it!

Of course the real reason for the Grots is an excuse to field Zodgrod Wortsnagga, the crazy old Runtherd character who for some reason things the Gretchin are actually worth something.

Though really he's a renegade, he still wears his Snakebite heritage proudly! Quite a dirty, dark model so I took the opportunity to add a splash of colour with his beast hide shawl thing and clan symbol.

Speaking of Grots, here's some taking a literally piggyback ride with the Squighog Riders! These models really are very cool, I'm looking forward to getting them on the table soon! That said, they are quite unique in their pose and don't really have any easy options in the kit, other than leaving off the iron jaws, so I'm not sure how well they would go as a duplicated set if I should get some more.

Leading the Squighog Boyz is the awesome Nob on Smasha Squig!

I think this is my absolute favourite model from the Beast Snagga box, there's something so incredibly Orky about ramming enemies with a Squig with a metal plate in it's head. Also good fun to paint the 'purple dinosaur'.

Finally, the Beast Snagga Boyz themselves. These guys have already seen the table, appearing in the latest version of the Green Tide list against Custodes. 

There's twenty models in the set, two lots of the 10 man box, and unlike the Squighogs I found them quite easy to swap around components and add bits for conversions so that I don't have duplicates. I was even able to give the thump guns to two different bodies. Added to that the assorted hides were a great excuse to get a nice colourful unit, to go along with the orange warpaint and rusty metals.

Overall I'm pleased with the results on this lot, and looking forward to seeing more of what they can do! Hope you liked them as well, stay safe and WAAAGH!!!

Battle Report - Orks vs Custodes

Hello!

It's another report with the new Ork book, with the third iteration on the Green Tide list taking on JP's Custodes. The previous two versions of this list had got the better of Space Wolves and then Sisters of Battle, but the big golden boys would prove much tougher to shift.

We played the GT2021 mission Overrun, which is a hold two, three and more mission with six objectives, and used a terrain set up intended to be in line with the upcoming LGT, which James is attending (along with Andrew from the last reports), so it was tournament practice time.

My list had evolved from last time to include more units of troops and a second Warboss by taking an additional patrol detachment. To free up the points I have notably sacrificed a lot of the support characters, so no force field or feel no pain - I was finding the effects were pretty minimal anyway. I've also slipped in some recently painted units, Beast Snagga Boyz and some Gretchin! 

Snakebite Battalion and Patrol

HQ: Warboss (attack squig, kombi-skorcha, powerklaw, Brutal but Kunnin, Super Cybork Body), Warboss (big choppa, kustom shoota, 'Ard as Nails, Headwoppa's Killchoppa), Weirdboy (Da Jump, Warpath), Weirdboy (Fists of Gork, Jabbin' Fingerz)

Troops: 4x 15 Boyz (powerklaw), 2x 15 Boyz (powerklaw, shootas), 2x 11 Gretchin, 18 Beast Snagga Boyz

Elites: 15 Kommandos (bomb squig, distraction grot)

Fast Attack: 5 Stormboyz (powerklaw), 5 Deffkoptas (specialist mob: Boomboyz) 

For my secondaries I took Green Tide from the Ork book, Banners and No Prisoners. I wasn't necessarily expecting to score big on them but I would be aiming to get as high on GT as possible early on before all my larger units died, and the others should come pretty naturally from just playing the game. I deployed all across the line, as one might expect, with characters fairly central. Knowing where the Venatari were placed once all my basics were down, I put the Beast Snaggas and the Kommandos on the opposite side of the board! Stormboyz and Deffkoptas stayed in the sky for now.

JP's Custodes list was almost all infantry, obviously built to take ground and hold it indefinitely with a load of shields, then bunch from the deadly Venatari and a blob of Terminators. He was running the Dread Host for a strat to get bonuses to charge out of deep strike. I forget all the details of the list, but both his Shield Captains were buffed up with 3+ invulnerable relics and defensive warlord traits.

HQ: Bike Shield Captain, Terminator Shield Captain

Troops: 3x 4 Custodian Guard (storm shields), 2x 5 Sisters of Silence Prosecutors, 5 Sagittarum

Elites: 5 Allarus Terminators

Fast Attack: 5 Venatari (pistols and bucklers)

His secondaries were No Prisoners (a no brainer against my 159 model list), Banners and Engage. So pretty similar to me! Under the warchful eyes of the Squig, he hid the majority of his force behind ruins, with the Terminators and their boss staying off the board.

We rolled off and I got first turn. At the time I wasn't sure if I wanted to go first or second (not that I had a choice), but in hindsight, it was quite an important roll.

The Orks moved up across the line, advancing pretty much everywhere, except the units designated to raise banners and a couple of potential combats. In the psychic phase I managed to Jump one of the Boyz units up to the far left corner, which, assuming the Kommandos made a first turn charge, would give me the full 5 for Green Tide.

As it happened, they did, making short work of the Sisters of Silence parked on the objective here. Three banners raised, full points for the Tide and a lot of early pressure and board control, a good start for Da Boyz.

The Custodes countered hard in their turn, wiping out the Kommandos with ease and the Venatari using their double shoot to kill 14 of the 15 Boyz who teleported in. Amusingly the lone Nob passed his morale to stick around and be annoying.

WAAAGH!!! Turn two, as seems to be the norm, saw the Waaagh declared, and the Boyz surged forward, surrounding the defenders on the flanks. The Deffkoptas came in to eye up the Venatari while the powerklaw Warboss (Redtoof himself) snuck into the corner of the ruin opposite them. In the psychic phase I put Fists of Gork of Redtoof and Warpath on the Beast Snaggas. The Deffkoptas shooting produced a lot of dice rolls but only one dead Venatari. Then the charge phase...

Glorious combats all across the board! I got slightly lucky and all of my charges went off. Importantly Redtoof made it into the Venatari, while the Custodians on the flanks were surrounded by multiple units. They did prove to be very tough though! With storm shields they still got a 2+ save against choppas, and even with 5 attacks each on the Beast Snaggas, hitting on 2s because of the Warboss aura, they only brought down two of them with the help of the white Boyz mob. Still, every Custodian that falls is a big blow, and 3/10ths of a point for me!

Redtoof swung after the boyz, going in with 8 power klaw attacks at strength 14, and getting to go again with each that didn't get to the damage stage. In spite of this he only killed one Venatari! However that was a minor issue, I had scored some points (full for GT again, 3 banners and 10 primary), a lot of board presence and was denying JP from scoring any primary points in turn two. It was a very good turn.

However, for all my board control I did kind of slip up and leave a big terminator shaped gap in the centre of the board. Combined with the Sagittarum their firepower culled most of the Beast Snaggas, while they lined up a charge onto one of my objectives...

On the left flank more Custodians and the biker Captain came out to play, peppering my Boyz with firepower and preparing some more charges.

Success for both the Terminators and their Captain, going into some shoota boyz on my right objective. I interrupted here in order to pile forward and stop him getting models on the objective, but thanks to their S8 axes ignoring my Snakebite trait, they butchered the whole unit and marched onto it anyway.

The biker Captain hopped over the wall that Redtoof had charged through, cutting down a few boyz in the process, but more importantly getting those sweet Engage points. The Custodian guard also charged into my Warboss to support the Venatari, but between all their combat and the pistol shooting, the boss still lived, and cut down another of the flying boys.

My turn three, I was down to two banners, but scored a decent amount of primary points thanks to an objective held in enemy territory. I decided that I would try to clear some annoying threats from my lines, though I'd probably leave those Terminators alone for now, they are a bit too beefy! Boyz moved into he biker Captain, while the other Warboss (Bluetoof, obviously) looked at taking the head of the Terminator one. I dropped in the Stormboyz to hold my central objective.

Shooting was largely Deffkoptas, this time their Rokkits took a chunk out of the Sagittarum. Also notably one of the grots managed to wound an Allarus Terminator!

With a bit of assistance from the Weirdboy, Bluetoof and the Shield Captain fought a bloody duel, leaving both with a single wound remaining! Elsewhere the combats ground on, Redtoof managing to still hang on and take out those Venatari, while my remnant boyz units dragged down more guard with sheer weight of dice. Importantly I was holding two objectives in the Custodes lines, so with the one the Terminators were occupying in mine that gave them only 5 Primary.

Custodes turn three involved trying to kill what they could and ensure some objectives would be held. The Terminators got revenge on the grots by shooting them all to death, before they marched over and massacred the Stormboyz, taking down another of my banners. The bike Captain jumped out of combat to land next to another of my objectives. Hilariously he is objective secured while the eleven Gretchin standing there are not, so he claimed it and took that banner as well. More shooting and fighting diminished my Boyz on his side of the board, meaning after this I no longer had enough units of 11+ models to attempt to score Green Tide, I was at 13 points on that for the rest of the game. It wasn't all good for them however, as Bluetoof took down the Terminator Captain with a mortal wound from his Killchoppa.

More points for Engage and a banner for the Custodies, but being starved for Primary points meant they were slipping well behind.

Turn four saw more grinding fighting, with the Deffkoptas and Boyz eventually dispatching the Guard on the flank objectives. I once again ignored the Terminators, aside from a bullish Bluetoof bellowing a challenge at them and failing his charge. The Custodies finally picked up 10 Primary in their turn, holding two of mine and one of theirs, and butchered some more Boyz that were nearby.

Turn five, and the Orks were in complete control of the board, having now cleared all the Custodies on their side, Redtoof went into the last Sisters squad on their central objective, killing them with Skorcha and Klaw. The Deffkoptas had a go at the Terminators, scratching their paint a bit, before combing with the Weirdboy to finish off the last Captain with mortal wounds and spinnin' blades. This left the Custodies with a single unit left in their turn - the Terminators, and therefore no way to score banners, engage or primary points. They opted to try and maximise their No Prisoners points by culling the remaining Gretchin.

I didn't remember to record the final score, but it was pretty decisive, something like 75-35 in the Ork's favour, the big swing coming from the Primary points, though the Custodies did eventually get 138 wounds for No Prisoners, so it's not like I had many models left! Oh well, plenty more where they came from! WAAAGH!!!

Fun game with lots of death on both sides, but undeniably one sided in the score (I think this might have been equally so as the Tyranids vs Guard game we played, but roles reversed). I think it was definitely a bad match up for the Custodies, I was able to pretty much do exactly what this list is supposed to do - overwhelm. To that end, getting first turn definitely helped, though I'm not sure the Custodies would have done much on turn one to stop me, they would at least have been able to spread out a bit more and defend their objectives. Overall I'm really pleased with how this list is going, and I think I'm homing in on the 'right' variant for me. I missed the obsec on the Grots and also missed the Snakebite key word on the Koptas, so I think the next change will only be minor - the Gretchin will be the 'Orrible Gitz specialist mobs.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the report, and stay safe!

Death Guard - Pallid Hand

Hello!

If you've been keeping up with my progress this year, you'll know that I've been painting some Death Guard after discovering the wonders of the sponge. Well apparently at least one other person was interested because I was commissioned to paint another Death Guard force, this time based on the Pallid Hand scheme.

So here's the first batch, a bunch of Plague Marines. As you can see they have a similar dirty, disorganised look to mine, thanks to the use of sponging and contrast and washes. For these though I took a bit of a cue from my Poxwalkers, initially hitting them with a brown spray, then a bone zenithal, then some metal and contrast for details, and finally a bone sponged highlight layer. I'm pleased with the very mottled, chipped look.

Here's some bolter marines, some of which are the Space Marine Heroes models, and the others have nice resin bases. 

Next, some special weapons and banner guys. Particularly happy with the melta gun guy who's weapon looks nice and crusty.

Melee models and champions. No idea if that cleaver is good, but it looks cool!

Rear shot. Really like the weird Plaguebearer face on the back of the fist champion - the Hexwraith for the glowing bits works nicely for me.

Anyway, I hope you like this second Death Guard force. Seems the client really likes them so that's good, and it means there's definitely more coming! Thanks for looking, and stay safe out there.