A Grim Invasion - Ork Crusade So Far...

Hello!

Looks like I'm finishing off 9th edition with some Crusade! Once again, Grim Dice are running a Crusade league, and I decided to join in with the Snakebite Orks this time, after previously running AdMech and Tyranids. Since initially at least Crusade games tend to be quite short, and the last times I had a few byes so didn't actually play all the games anyway, and I'm kind of lazy (no one is paying me for this!), I'm just going to do a quick summary of each game, and this first post will be the first three of them.

This time rather than using a GW narrative pack the guys at Grim have decided to run their own narrative, which features special attacker and defender bonuses and a system of boons for your warlord to accumulate over the campaign. With this in mind I decided to lean into a bit of Warboss hero hammer and make Redtoof as tanky as possible - I used the Beast Boss and gave him both the Super Cybork Body and the Half-Chewed warlord trait. In the initial 25PL force he was leading up thirty assorted Boyz and some Squighog riders from Da Vipers tribe. 

The first game was against Grey Knights, bringing a couple of regular power armoured squads, some cheap servitors and a big beefy Dreadknight!

The Knights carved through the Boyz, while Redtoof went on a bit of a rampage chopping through marines everywhere. Thanks to teleport shenanigans the Grey Knights were able to pull ahead on points but by the last turn only two models remained - both warlords! The Dreadknight teleported over to have a duel (and pick up a load of XP) but Redtoof survived and managed to cut him down in return, having previously lost wounds from a fight with the Squighog Boyz. Technically a loss for da boyz but Redtoof killed basically the entire enemy army so got to feel pretty good about himself.

Second game was against Space Wolves, running the Phobos armoured Vanguard army of renown. Lots of sneaky tricks but that might not help them up close and personal with the boyz...

The Boyz got stuck in quick this time after some generally disappointing Space Wolf firepower (aside from the Eliminators removing the Squighog Boyz in one volley), coving the objectives with boots and their choppas with blood. The marines fought back with an outflanking squad of specialist Hounds of Morkai, but they were too little too late and the collective bosses got together to krump 'em good. Solid win for da Boyz.

After game two it was time to increase to 50 power level. I opted to add in a couple of big fun models in the Squiggoth and Killrig, and three of my recently painted Warbikers. During the first two games Redtoof got to Blooded rank and I picked up the Ded 'Ard armour and a WAAAGH-Boss upgrade to make him even tougher. With the custom boons he's now sitting at 9 wounds!

Game three was once again vs Space Wolves. Narratively appropriate that they would come to avenge their brothers. This time a more heavy hitting melee focused force with Wulfen, Thunderwolf cavalry, a Dreadnought and jump pack Wolf Guard, plus a beefy lord and some primaris units to fill the gaps. It was also a sabotage mission so the Orks would have to do actions on the objectives to destroy them and score points.

The Orks got to charge in first this time, with the Kill Rig and Warboss Redtoof making contact immediately. This time however the Wolves punched back hard, and it quickly turned into a bloodbath, all thought of objectives forgotten. Redtoof was felled for the first time this campaign with the combined might of Eradicators shooting and the veteran Dreadnought charging - though he did take out the Dread in return! The Squighogs managed to return the favour and down the enemy Warlord, though it wasn't going too well elsewhere and the last Squighog was the final Ork model surviving before getting cut down by Thunderwolves. A loss, but a good scrap none the less! The Squighog boyz did get a battle honour for their troubles, becoming Veteran warriors.

One win, one moral victory and one tabling, a reasonable start for da Vipers who are just here for a big fight, and a good start for Redtoof who has accumulated plenty of XP so is likely to go up again the next game, and has picked up 6 unit kills already! WAAAGH!!!

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there!

Gloomspite Gits Project - All Together!

Hello!

As you may have seen, I did a Gloomspite Gits army project aka the Purple Squig project, and here they all are together! I've previously shown the various infantry(ish) units and the assorted larger, squig based ones. There's not really much more to say than what's in those two posts, so here's a bunch of pictures, starting with the whole group...

And now a bunch of closer shots. Imagine you're in a big spooky cave, and you see this lot...

There we have it, purple squigs all over the place! Hope you enjoyed this, and stay safe out there!

Gloomspite Gitz Wave Two - Purple Squigs for Life!

Hello!

More gits! Previously I worked my way through all the 'chaff', assorted gobbos on foot and their squigs. This time it's all about bigger squigs (and trolls) with little gits hanging onto them for dear life! So here we go, completing the set with some big bouncy weirdness.

First into the fray, it's a Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig. As a character model (and this one certainly does have a lot of character) he got a bit of extra attention with some bonus highlights and the like, which I think has come out nicely. This guy was built before these got to me and he already had a magnetised arm, so of course I painted up both weapons. Of course a mad grot bouncing around on a squig is unlikely to come alone...

BOI-OING! Squig Hoppers! A brilliantly mad kit and suitable update to the classic metal versions of old, obviously this unit was a blast to build and paint. I really enjoyed the variety in the kit, with different head options for the squig and the grot, plus I quickly found that although there are recommended sets of legs for each squig body/rider combination, the legs pretty much all fit on any body, allowing for even more variation! This was particularly handy because...

Yeah there was another box of them! This set got built as the Boingrot Bounders, which might just be my favourite unit in the army. There's something very comical about 'goblin knights' as a concept, and it's also a great excuse for a load of really rusty metal. 

Wait, they aren't squigs? Well there's also some purple Troggoths in this army!

This three are Fellwater Troggoths, aka River Trolls, and they were supplied with some Idoneth Deepkin bits to give them a bit more fishy flavour. I found they didn't have as much empty base space to do as much as I'd like, but I did fit a freshly chopped off tail on one and a shark-head hood on another!

Joining those Troggoths is another set of Underworlds denizens, Mollog and his mob. Painted the same purple as his cousins, I made sure to give him a green mushroom hat and green loincloth to tie him in with their scales. This one is a very silly set, I particulalry like his angry looking walking mushroom thing.

Raiding Forgeworld now for some artillery support, this is the hilarious Squig Gobba. Yuck. I opted to go for horrible yellow phlegm propelling the 'projectiles'. I don't really know why, it's just gross, but I think it works. This set comes with a bunch of fun gobbo crewmen that went on the base, and I added some mushrooms and a weird snail squig from the other kits to tie it in a bit more.

Finally, it's mangling time! The biggest and silliest models in the collection are the two (four?) Mangler Squigs. Although both the same kit I tried to get variety by using some of the Boss build on one of them and making sure all the squigs were slightly different colours!

This one is the pale squig on the bottom and dark squig on top. It's hard to see but the top squig is actually a mix of two shades, divided roughly down  the middle horizontally.

And finally the other pair features a dark squig on the bottom, and perhaps my favourite squig on top - vertically split down the middle between pale and deep purple, with a series of yellow spots along the divides, plus a big skull-showing wound over it's eye and some more disgusting yellow phlegm on the tongue! Truly a top tier squig!

In any case, I hope you like them, it seems that the client does so that's the most important thing! This was a really fun project, and I'm glad I got to have a go at them with my sponge and my selection of contrast paints! It would be nice though to see them all together, wouldn't it?

Thanks for reading, stay safe out there!