Da Ork Project 2019

Hello!

So, it's 2019 now, and my resolution of sorts is to sort out my current Snakebite Ork collection and get them up to standard for the 8th edition codex. This means some repairs, some repaints and a lot of rebasing! I took a while to decide if I was going to upgrade to the 32mm bases that Boyz now come with, but eventually I made that decision - it'll be a lot of work, but the bigger bases just make the Boyz look cooler to me.

First of all though, I had to go through my collection and sort out what needed to be done with what. With that in mind, here is the current force:

Yeah, that's around 300 minis, and over 7000 points. Included in the pile are 160 Ork Boyz, plus plenty of Tankbustas, Nobz etc that want the upgrade. Luckily there are a few units and characters, like the Flash Gitz and Meganobz, that can be scratched off the list immediately. And this isn't everything I found either. There is a small horde of Orks that have reached retirement age as well - units that either don't fit in with the current plans or I just want to update and redo.

These two index choices, the Mega Armoured and 'Biker' Warbosses, made the cut, ahead of the waves of Boyz. I'm still pretty pleased with how these guys ended up after several variants along the way. Long live the Index!

Flash Gitz forming the front rank here. I think these guys are more or less the most recent edition to the army, apart from the Gorkanaut, and they are good enough as is. Being the mercenaries they are, they fit neatly into a Snakebite list without costing me my Clan Kultur or anything.

Speaking of the 'naut, here he is alongside the other big boyz. Characters and Kans in front, Wagons to the side. I'm considering converting them up to represent the special Bonebreaker and Gunwagon options in the new codex, but I think ultimately they will stay as the standard Battlewagon, due to the open top ability making them a great platform for Lootas, Tankbustas or Flash Gitz, among other shooty Orks.

Nipper the Gargantuan Squiggoth and the Stompa, Da Toof Krusha. No bases to resize here! The Stompa does need his arm sticking back on though.

So there we have it. There are still a few noticeable missing units. I'm definitely planning to add in some Gretchin at some point, as well as a few more Snakebite themed units, such as boar riding Warbikers with the newer style boars, and possibly some Age of Sigmar big monsters re-purposed as Squiggoths, or counting as another Gorkanaut or a Bonebreaker. For now though, I'll just get this lot sorted out!

Ork Retirements

Hello!

As mentioned in my Ork Project entry, I am sadly retiring several minis from the main force as for various reasons I don't see myself using them in the future. I'm not entirely sure what to do with all of these guys, I think some might end of being sold or donated to friends, while others might get recycled and reabsorbed into future projects. For now though they will get to sit around at home, drinking squig brew during the day and complaining about 'da yoofs of today'.

Firstly we've got a load of character models that are unlikely to find a space in a Snakebite clan list.

Boss Snikrot - a very cool model and saw a lot of use during the days of his special ambush rule allowing all sorts of hi-jinks. He might get reused as a Snakebite Warboss of some kind one day.

Kaptain Badrukk, as a Flash Git boss, is technically still available to turn up alongside the Snakebites, but it's not very thematic and he doesn't really suit an army that isn't largely a gun-line. I remember he was fun to paint with his little treasure map loin cloth, but he doesn't really feel 'right' for the army to me.

This is Dokta Hogsnikk - a Snakebite rip off of Mad Dok Grotsnik. This was a fun conversion, and I've had loads of use out of him over the years. However sadly in the current rules he's not available to a pure Snakebite list as Grotsnik, and thanks to conflict with the clan Kultur, running him as a regular painboy is a bit redundant.

A couple of converted Big Meks next. Thought both are technically valid as Snakebite choices, I own a surplus of big meks and I can't envision a situation where I'd take five of them. The left one is converted from a Nob with a powerklaw and holds a Kustom Force Field made from random gubbinz. He's also pretty clearly a Deathskull. On the right is another Nob based conversion holding an old 2nd edition Shokk Attack Gun, with tubing made from a drinking staw.

Some random Meks and a Runtherd. I don't currently have enough gretchin so the Runtherd isn't very useful, and the meks/spannas don't feel very useful outside of Deathskulls or Badmoons. I might steal that saw blade for something though...

Ammo runts! There was a time you could take hundreds of these with your Flash Gitz and others. Now they are limited to 1 per 5, so I've got spares.

Next some vehicles, and a wall?

This is an Orky Aegis defence line I built back when it was all the rage to have a wall in your army list. It's made from random chunks of plasticard and various Ork bitz. A lot of the plates came from the Stompa kit. The sections are all the same lengths as the official Imperial model, and roughly the same height. This would suit a more stand and shoot Ork list, or would be great as extra terrain for an Ork themed board.

These Warbiker conversions have long served as buggies in my armies, providing cheap mobility and fire support. They are now however fighting for the rule even more closely with Deffkoptas, which just seem like a better choice to me. They might well get canibalised for the bits though.

This old scratch-built Trukk has also been a long serving unit for me. It's definitely showing it's age now though, and has less of a role now than it has in the past.

These two looted wagons however still look pretty good to me. They've both had numerous modifications over the years in true Orky fashion to get them where they are today. They are however very obviously Deathskull wagons, and don't really fit the in thematically.

Finally we've got some very thematic Snakebite conversions! While I do like these guys, I think I can probably do better with the models available now/more work.

A Painboy on a 'bike' with a Killsaw. Really love the mask and thought it was very appropriate for a witch doctor style Painboy, but the boar does like a bit tiny these days, and, as mentioned previously, Painboys don't really do a lot for me.

Boarboy Bikers. Some fun conversions in here and several classic bits from some very old models. Again though, they would look much nicer on newer, bigger boars.

These are my Nobz on Bikes. They've had a few alterations over the years, most recently to equip some of them with big choppas, but I think this only serves further to illustrate the relatively small stature of their piggies.

These guys are pretty recent, converted from the Age of Sigmar Ironjawz range. They were originally going to be Meganobz, because I had visions of taking 15 of them for one of the Ork formations in 7th edition. Thankfully that's not really a thing anymore. Sadly these guys are slightly smaller than 'proper' Meganobz, and significantly bigger than regular Nobz, so they don't really fit for me in their current guise. I have considered giving them a hefty 40k-ifying makeover with lots of extra armour and gubbinz to make them Meganob worthy, but I'm not sure I'd use more than the five metal Meganobz I already own.

So there you have it. The Orks that get to put their feet up and take a well earned rest. Until they are inevitably broken down into bits or shipped off to fight for another Warboss!

Mini Battle Reports - Element Games casual gaming

Hello!

Time for a special 'treat' to end the year - three mini, barely remembered battle reports in one blog entry! This is the three 'casual' games I had against regular-opponent-John at the Element Games Grand Slam that we attended in November, and the last bit of content I've got from that event.

The first two games were played on the night before the event. We both took an extra 1000 point list for casual games against randoms, but having both just come off night shifts we decided socialising was hard and just played against each other a couple of times. My list was detailed here, but in essence it was an Ork Warboss, a Weirdboy, 3 units of 20+ boyz and a Gorkanaut. This would be my first games with the new Ork book, so I was pretty excited to get use out of the new stratagems and stuff. John took a Chaos Lord, Sorcerer, 2 Helbrutes (I think they had autocannons and missile launchers), 2 Contemptors with butcher cannons and 2 decimators with storm lasers. Classic John.

Our first game was... something with objectives? Whatever it was, we lined up like this:

John went first and moved up to get shots off and cover some objectives. He killed some Orks and grabbed a central objective, in front of the Gorkanaut...

In my turn I played the ramming speed stratagem on the 'naut, and rolled that! Ugh! The boyz got in though.

They were unable to bring the dread down though, and in John's turn they were all but destroyed with his combined firepower. However, a few of them clung on...

Enough for the Green Tide stratagem! I also cast Da Jump on the Warboss, putting him in a position to charge the Lord.

The Gorkanaut waddled over to the other side of the board, looming over the dreads in that corner, while a few remaining shoota boyz held an objective.

Charges were made, but John's stompy robots made it our alive, disengaging away on their long legs. Return fire gutted the unit somewhat.

However the Gorkanaut eventually made it in, and made a right mess of one of the Helbrutes.

I remember there was an epic clash between the two warlords, both surviving the other's deadly claws against all odds. John later fell back and shot the Warboss, who managed to hang on on barely any wounds.

Eventually he charged back in to beat up the Contemptor that had escaped the Gorkanaut in turn one. I can't remember if he did kill it, but I'm pretty sure he died shortly after.

Meanwhile the Gorkanaut was very much enjoying his first outing, clearing everything for the right flank, including the other Contemptor. He is an absolute monster in melee! The game ended, with him pretty much my only model left. I'd lost on victory points, but I was happy with the carnage I'd inflicted!

Game two we set up the same armies, but using the same mission and deployment we would be using in game 1 the next morning.

We set up something like this, with me pushing forward in the centre and John's dreads spread out in a wide arc. John decided the Gorkanaut just had to die, and this time he put all of his firepower into it on turn one. It took a hell of a beating, but eventually it fell into a pile of bullet-ridden scrap.

I started moving up. I tried to use Green Tide and Da Jump to pop two units behind John's lines, but Da Jump failed. I them proceeded to fail the charge. Being unable to tie up any of the dreads, and with my hard hitting Gorkanaut dead, I conceded there and then. There was absolutely no question that unit would be destroyed in John's turn, which left me with only some shoota boyz who could either sit back and lose on objectives or charge forward/Da Jump in, and die. And actually, we were quite sleepy.

First two games with the Orks were a close loss, and a crushingly fast defeat, but I was getting a bit of a taste for how they are supposed to work and how with a few key rolls going my way I could have tied up more units, made more charges, cast more powers etc.


So, we jump ahead to the end of day 1 and we've got time for another game. We were going to play a practice game at some point with our two tournament armies, but never managed to schedule it ahead of the event, so we decided to play it halfway through, obviously. If you've been keeping track of things, you'll know that apparently this actually worked, because we both won our last two games.

I was of course running my Adeptus Mechanicus / Imperial Knight Imperium force, as seen here. Roughly speaking, it features A Ryza battalion with Tech Priest Dominus, Enginseer, 5 Rangers, 5 Vanguard, 5 Plasma Destroyers, 2 Fist Kastelans, 2 Blaster Kastelans and Datasmith, then the Knight detachment with 2 Warglaives and the Valiant.

John's list was a very tasty, very beautiful Chaos concoction. An Emperor's Children battalion with a Lord, Sorcerer, 2x10 Cultists and 18 Noise Marines, backed up by a Hellforged Spartan in a superheavy auxiliary and a Renegade Knight detachment with two 'Gallants' and a 'Warglaive'.

For context, in the final standings John and his list finished 12th (and picked up second best army) while I ended up at 45th (out of 86).

I forget what mission we played, but it was on a very pretty board! I think we both knew that, though there were objectives, this was going to be all about killing stuff.

John got first turn, moving his Knights up and targeting the Valiant with the Spartan, which in classic John style, whiffed and left the Knight largely undamaged.

My first turn, and the counter punch was brutal. The Kataphrons moved up and used the Elimination Volley/Plasma Specialists combo to supercharge their plasma culverins and blasted 21 wounds off one of the Gallants. Other shooting easily finished it off, and the Valiant combined with the Armigers critically damaged the other renegade Knight, though not quite finishing it off. This is exactly the situation the Kataphrons excel at, and they absolutely did. They subsequently bought it the next turn when the Noise Marines disembarked, but they had done their job! 

The remaining 'Gallant', the Armiger and the Spartan combined on turn two to kill off one of the Armigers (I think), and put some more wounds on the Valiant, but hilariously the big knight failed it's very short charge into the Valiant after John foolishly used his last command point to rotate ion shields in his charge phase to mitigate the punishing overwatch.

In my turn the Knights cleaned up the last of their former brothers, while the Phosphor blaster robots blasted the noise marines. I think the Valiant charged the last one to slingshot itself up the board.

At this point John pretty much just had the Spartan and cultists left. The Spartan whiffed again, the Valiant finished it off, and John called it there. A convincing victory for the Imperial forces! The servitors were absolutely savage in this game, and the Valiant did the business yet again. At this stage I'm head over heels for the thing, it's absolutely my favourite unit in this army, so it and the pilot need a name.

I've decided that she is named Lady Helena, and she rides The Defiant Flame.

Match Report - The Fiery Fowlers (Halflings) vs Nurgle

Hello!

Merry Christmas everyone! (Or alternative holiday greeting if you prefer.) Now that it is officially Christmas (Noddy said so), it's time for a festive treat. And what could embody the spirit of Christmas more than a game of Blood Bowl?

Yes, that's right, Halfling heroes The Fiery Fowlers have been back in action, working up a bit of an appetite for the end of season feast. Hot off a narrow defeat to Goblins (back in October), the Fowlers were looking for their first win against a Nurgle team coached by George, formerly of the Injection Molded Marauders. George assured me that one day he would have a painted Bloodbowl team, however today was not that day. We had a brief and non-conclusive discussion about a team name for the new boys, but I think I will call them the Pallid Pugilists.

Before the game however, it was time to get into character...

That that out of the way, it was time to play some Bloodbowl! We played to 1000 TV, George's team were taking to the field with no skills, while I had just the one, Break Tackle on Treeman Rowan Greenleaf to make up the TV a bit. We rolled up all the pre-game stuff, it turns out the Halfling fans didn't want to travel because they were outnumbered more than two-to-one by the Chaos crowd. The weather result justified that, a very seasonal blizzard. Finally, the Pallid Pugilists got to receive the ball first.

Kick off with the Fiery Fowlers spreading out across their half, and the Nurgle players lining up to stomp forward. The ball was recovered easily by one of the Pestigor and the offence began...

The two tress started doing some damage, but the Pugilists pushed up the flank with the ball. The Fowlers dropped into a tentative screen to try and keep them at bay. Several Halflings fell as the Chaos players slowly pushed up. A touchdown looked inevitable... 

Time for some hero plays! Dodging left and right, Gilbert Smoothands and Randy Butternibs combined to get a spicy tackle on the ball carrier. In an unlikely turn of events (2 dice uphill) the goat fell and the ball bounced off the pitch and was thrown back in (apparently by one of the few Halfling fans) right in position for Sam Copperkettle to grab it and make his way back towards the Nurgle end zone!

Copperkettle proved much too slippery for the Nurgle players who managed to get back to block his path, though some of the other 'flings were less fortunate, finding themselves flattened under the bulk of the chaos warriors.

With time ticking down on the first half, the Fowlers ran in for an incredibly unlikely Touchdown! For the first time in history, the Fiery Fowlers were winning a game!

In the second half, the Halflings were receiving the ball. The Pallid Pugilists had kindly left some gaps for thrown 'flings to land in, but in the unusual situation of actually being ahead meant that might not be the best option.

The ball landed far on the flank, and the Fowlers quickly swarmed around it, followed shortly after by Nurgle players.

As it happened, the tree-powered touchdown plan went out the window pretty quick as the Nurgle team managed to chop down the Treemen and keep them on the floor for most of the half. Their focus on the big guys did let the little ones pick up the ball and put a lot of (admittedly very small) bodies between it and the opposition.

With time ticking away, the Halfings danced away from the slow moving, disturbingly smelly noose that was closing around them. They just needed to hold on a little longer...

Things started to get messy as the bloated warriors started to throw their considerable weight around. Having fowled one of the Trees off the pitch, the Pugilists were able to commit even more players to the squeeze onto the ball carrier. One of the rotters got himself into position to shamble in for the draw if the Halflings should drop the ball.

It got tighter and tighter, but the plucky Halflings were able to dodge and dive around the Nurgle tackles and as the ref was getting ready to blow his whistle, they found an opening to rush the ball back down the pitch to safety. The whistle blew and Piggy Beefteeth's men celebrated their first victory! The end of match feast never tasted so sweet!

An interesting game for sure. The lack of skills on the basic Nurgle players was really their downfall here, that and some good rolls for me. So many times George got two or three dice tackles and was unable to roll a defender down result, with dodge ignoring the stumbles and both down being an issue without block on the hard hitters. The ability to move through all the tackle zones with Stunties meant that George could not make a truly safe cage in the first half, opening him up for my insane hero play. This was probably about the best match up I could have hoped for with the 'flings, but it still did require some good luck to pull off that win. But I'll take it!