Cheesing it up with Draigowing?

Hey all,

After rummaging around in the various gaming bits my dad brought over to Bratislava when he visited, I found my batch of metal Grey Knight Terminators that I got in trade before leaving the US. As I counted up how many bodies, arms and weapons I had, a thought struck me....Draigowing. While I don't have that many terminators, using Draigowing means I can make a 1500pt army with perhaps 15 figures all in all.

For those who aren't familiar with the term, Draigowing is named after Deathwing and is another all terminator force that can be played, this time with the Grey Knight Codex (the other one is Loganwing with Space Wolves). It involves using the special character Kaldor Draigo to unlock Paladins (2 wound terminator dudes) as troops and having a nasty, deathstar-type army list.

To sum up the list:

- Draigo
- Librarian
- 10 Paladins with 4 psycannons
- 5 Paladins with 2 incinerators

Add a few upgrades and it makes 1500 on the nose. Compact and deadly, I hope.

Here's what I have to start working with.

Sterm with a Storm Shield will be Draigo and the brother captain will be the librarian.

My long range firepower component.

The rest of the big squad.

My incinerator squad, still short a few arms unfortunately.


So here is the next project that I'll be working on alongside the Deathwing painting and Dreadfleet, though my girlfriend has expressed interest in helping with the latter. She played two games against me last night (winning both) and is quite a fan of the ship-based boardgame vibe.

I am a little short of weapons and other bits for these guys. You'll notice that I have an extra four bodies in the first picture with no arms for them. It's a bit of a bummer but I might just use regular plastic terminator arms for them and then paint them up as another Deathwing squad if I need to expand the army.

Of course, if any readers have spare Grey Knight terminator weapons they might be willing to part with, please get in touch ;-)

Also, any tactical thoughts or advice for this compact army is much appreciated.

All the best,

Pete

PS: Next post is about me getting my butt kicked at Dreadfleet by my girlfriend.

Bringing out the Dark Kin from Commoragh

Hi everyone,

So now that my Deathwing force is well into the painting stage, is complete at 1500 and just needs a couple of units to make it to 1750 (see other post), I'd like to talk about another army entirely.

Deathwing are, to me, the epitome of a durable, slowly moving elite force. There aren't many of them so you have to concentrate your attacks carefully but they will weather a storm of fire, never run since they are fearless and will often surprise you with just how long they can plough through the opposition when the chips are down. You can trust in your 2+ armour and 3+/5+ invulnerable saves all while gunning the opposition down with storm bolters, assault cannons and cyclones, or pulping them in assault with lightning claws, power fists and thunder hammers.

If Deathwing are the proverbial brick outhouse, now I want to have a try with the glass cannon that is the Dark Eldar army.

This might just be the most awesome cannon ever :-)


I've really enjoyed the tactical challenge of having to carefully consider each and every move I make with my small, elite Deathwing force and from all counts, playing a mechanised Dark Eldar force brings many of the same thinking challenges. Knowing that you are very vulnerable to shooting and assault from pretty much anything in the game makes me feel like I'll have to have razor focus all the time. Now that can be a tiring way to play but it is exhilarating too.

So having read a few tactica articles on Dakka and considered the kind of army I'd like to play here is my 1500point army list.

HQ
- Haemonculus.
- Haemonculus.

Elites
- 3 Trueborns with blasters in a Dakka Venom (two splinter cannons)
- 3 Trueborns with blasters in a Dakka Venom (two splinter cannons)
- 5 Incubi in a Dakka Venom (two splinter cannons)

Troops

- 7 Wracks with an Agoniser wielding acothyst in a Raider (flickerfield, aethersails, shock prow).

- 7 Wyches, haywire grenades, razorflails, Hekatrix with agoniser in a raider (configured as above)

- 7 Wyches, haywire grenades, razorflails, Hekatrix with agoniser in a raider (configured as above)

Heavy Support

- Ravager, 3 Dark Lances and Flickerfield
- Ravager, 3 Dark Lances and Flickerfield
- Ravager, 3 Dark Lances and Flickerfield


NB: To bring this up to 1750, I'd probably add another Haemonculus and ten Kabalite warriors in a Raider.

Rargh! We've come for your souls.


Army Selection Thoughts

Despite the tasty selection of characters in the codex I decided to start off with cheap Haemonculi to bring some paint tokens. With one token I get FNP, two tokens give me furious charge and three make me fearless. The first one is really key for a fragile dark eldar army and will make my Wyches even nastier in assault. I'll probably put one with each wyche squad.

For the elite selection I knew I wanted some nasty shooting and assault ability. The blaster trueborn are a tried and tested way to kill off tanks and terminators. Putting them in a dakka venom lets me move 6" and fire 3 blasters plus 12 poisoned splinter cannon shots out to 36". If I need to move 12" I still get to unleash the dakka since poisoned weapons always count as defensive. I added Incubi because the models are really nice and they will let me take out armoured foes or those with FNP that I don't want my wyches tied up against.

For the troops I started with wracks who bring their own pain token. With poisoned weapons they can put a nice hurting on an enemy in assault. I see these as being effective troops to tie up the more basic enemy forces that I don't want my wyches engaging or to sit on an objective if needed. The wyches are nasty assault units that can kill off enemies with the agoniser, threaten tanks with haywire grenades (possibly on turn one if the opponent deploys on the 12" line) and tie up big assault units because of their CC invulnerable save.

All of my raiders get a flickerfield (5+ invul) since they'll be in danger most of the game, aethersails to make sure I get a turn 2 assault, redeploy rapidly or tank shock at speed, and a shock prow in order to make tank shocks. It not only adds a threat to armour but lets me tank shock units to put them in a good position for controlling the number of models who can hit me back.

The ravagers are tank and heavy infantry hunters. Because they can move 12" and still fire all three weapons I think it will be very tough for a foe to stop me getting side armour shots. Also it lets me redeploy a lot of force very quickly that can reach out and touch hard at range.


The downside

So while this is an exciting army idea I hope to get started on soon, the inevitable downside is pricing. GW has made it quite costly to mechanise your army and having to shell out some £20 for each raider, £18 for each venom and £30 per Ravager makes it a big investment, even before I put troops in them.

Still it's a nice project to look forward to.

Thoughts, criticism and jokes all very much welcomed

Pete :-)

Taking the Deathwing up to 1750 points

Hi everyone,

So my Deathwing army painting is progressing at a decent pace now that I've gotten myself settled in Bratislava and been able to unpack. One of my new coworkers at the language school is also a 40k player and will be introducing me to the gaming club here soon.

The army as it is so far.

I'm happy with the way that the models are turning out so far. I need to test out some highlighting as I'm not sure how much more I want to brighten up the bone armour and how extensively. Should I just do edge highlights with a brighter shade (I used Menoth White Base so I can do Menoth White Highlight next) or should I look to brighten up the armour more in general? Not sure on that one yet so I'll be doing a test on one of the grunt models before I apply it to Lysander/Belial/etc.

Now the army comes out to just over 1500 points with upgrades and I hear that a lot of people here game at 1750 so I want to increase my army size a bit. With 215-230 points (depending on upgrades) to play with I have some options. I don't really want to add more terminators since the current lot are such a mix of styles (GK, SM and SW) and I like the variety. Plus I already have 27 terminators to paint and I don't need more ;-)

I've been thinking about one of the new venerable dreadnought kits and the techmarine with servitors. I know the latter is not a power unit by any means but I've always liked the model and now that it's in the easily-assembled Finecast format, it's something I can consider. Superglue still hates me but the lack of weight on the Finecast means even I can assemble the models.

Some groovy venerable dreadnoughts


A good picture of the Finecast techmarine from the always excellent 40kbitz blog. Go and follow it ;-)


Any thoughts or advice for boosting the army? I'd like to keep everything in the same bone-white though I don't mind painting Ravenwing in that colour if land speeder is the way forward.

If only Sammael on Jetbike was available in Finecast, he'd be on my list for sure :-)

Thanks for reading,

Pete

PS: The other option is to leave the army at 1500 and move onto my new crush of a Dark Eldar Skimmer army. More to come on this soon ;-)

PPS: I got my new Windsor and Newton brushes as a birthday present to myself (27 years young and still playing with toy soldiers).
Deathwing Lysander approves of my new brushes!

WFB Orcs and Goblins using just a sprinkle of GW for flavour. Pt 2: Saving money ;-)

To continue our look at making an orcs and goblins army on something of a budget, here are some price comparisons and ideas for saving those precious dollars/pounds/euros/florints/yen etc. ;-)

I know that many people buy from online retailers who offer discounts but for this post I'll keep everything on RRP or it will get very confusing with all the different places you can buy. Also, I'm rounding everything up to the nearest £ so don't have to type endless .99 etc.

1x Orc Mega army from Mantic (96 figures) = £100
1x Orc Ax horde from Mantic (30 figures) = £25
3x Night Goblin regiments = £63
1x Giant = £31
1x Arachnarok spider = £36
2x Goblin bolt throwers from Ramshackle Games = £9

Total = £264

Now if I want to be even cheaper, I'd drop the night goblins for now and either the giant or the spider, making the total around £170. Either that or I'd track down a set or two of the Goblins from the old Battle for Skull Pass Warhammer set. If anybody has the gobbos models from Skull Pass they'd be willing to sell/trade (I have metal Grey Knight Terminators), please drop me a line ;-)

Skull Pass Gobbos, have you seen us?


So the basic army I can build from this is as follows:

- Warboss on boar
- 40 Black Orcs
- 10 Boar Boyz
- 75 Orc Boyz
- 60 Night Goblins
- 2 Speak Chukkas
- Giant
- Arachnarok spider

Now for a brief comparison of cost vs GW sets.

- Orc Warboss = £17
- 4x Black Orcs = £104
- 1x Boar Boyz = £16
- 6x Orc Boyz = £108
- 2x Night Gobbos = £42
- 2x Spear Chukkas = £38
- 1x Giant = £31
- 1x Arachnarok spider = £36
- 1x O&G Battalion (15 boyz, 20 gobbos, 5 boar boyz, 10 spider riders) = £60

Total = £452
Difference = £188 looking at RRP, or

To be fair to GW, the spider riders in the battalion are extra, so I should knock £19 off the difference to account for buying a set of them to match.

Adjusted difference = £169.

Not a bad saving in my mind. Once you add in the discount from online retailers, you can knock a bit off each total as both Wayland Games and Maelstrom Games stock Mantic and offer shipping within the EU.

Ordering from both (and Ramshackle) to take advantage of the prices on offer, I come out with a total of £224 delivered for everything.

Part 3 coming soon where I put together something of an army list and ask advice from more experienced WFB players.

Pete

WFB Orcs and Goblins using just a sprinkle of GW for flavour. Pt 1: Inspiration

Hey everyone,

I recently had a crazy idea about Warhammer Fantasy. When I first started with GW I was mainly a fantasy player and had a dwarf army. Since then it hasn't piqued my interest compared to 40k and other tabletop miniature games that are availablhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife. That is with the exception of the greenskins. Much like my 40k ork army, which I was sad to pass on (especially after painting 80+ figures), I love the character of the WFB orcs and goblins army.

To me they hearken back to the days when Warhammer and 40k were less streamlined and dark worlds. There was more of a light-hearted dorkiness to a lot of the units and gameplay mechanics that I love. Perhaps it's something of the nostalgia for those innocent early days of wargaming :-)

However there are two big problems for me:

1 - I think the WFB orc boyz look really goofy and I don't like the proportions.
2 - It gets really expensive to make a horde army, especially with GW's prices on basic core unit boxes. I'm not inspired by spending £100 on two units of orcs who will make up basic regiments.

However, I've been browsing the web a bit as I wait for my training to start for my new job and have found a company that can help me out with my two major objections. Enter Mantic Games Orc range

I really like the character of their models compared to GW and the price is great too.

The GW orc looks to me like a caricature with its heroic proportions, where the Mantic orc is hunched and menacing.

I also really like the warboss on a boar that Mantic have going.


Their boar boyz, in my opinion, outdo those offered by GW as well.

GW's boar boyz

Mantic boar boyz


So the models live up to my standards, certainly with respect to making large blocks of troops. I know that there will be more repetition of model types using Mantic orcs as they are not the same kind of multi-part kit that you find from GW orcs, but in a big regiment of 20+, I think the difference between them will be less noticeable than when comparing individual figures.

When browsing the Mantic site, I notice the following deal for an Orc Mega Army

For £99 retail you get:
- Orc Krudger (warboss) on boar
- 10 x Plastic Resin Gore (boar) Riders with Command Group
- 20 x Plastic Orc Greatax with Command Group (Two handed weapon)
- 20 x Plastic/Metal Orc Morax with Command Group (Twin axes)
- 45 x Plastic Orc Ax with Command Group (boyz)
- (Enough little snotling-like additions on the sprues to make two or three bases)

Mmmm greenskin horde


Now that a solid bulk of the army is there, what from GW just can't be replicated elsewhere? Well, there are three big things for me that I would consider from GW. These are the parts that add some flavour you can't find elsewhere. When you're just getting the odd bit at GW prices it makes a horde army a lot less daunting.

- The Giant. Great model, lots of options for construction and fun to play with.
- The Arachnarok spider. Expensive but a really nice big plastic kit. Plus forest goblin riders are just cool.
- Night goblins and forest goblins. The little buggers are just awesome and have the fun of fanatics, netters, spider riders. I am also a big fan of Warlord Skarsnik.

So a possible purchasing block could look like this:

- Army deal from Mantic.
- Additional Boar boyz and orcs from Mantic
- Giant from GW
- Arachnarok from GW
- Couple of Night goblin regiments with fanatics from GW.
- Some forest goblin spider riders from GW
- Skarsnik and Gobbla from GW

So there's the gem of my next idea to go alongside my Deathwing army. Part 2 of this post will look at some cost savings from using the Mantic range. Part 3 will put up a basic army list using the models I've found.

All the best,

Pete

Painting display models

Hey everyone,

Been very busy recently getting myself settled into my new life in Bratislava, Slovakia where I'm teaching English (for more info see here http://pete-teaches-in-bratislava.blogspot.com) so not much time to do anything wargaming related. I've managed to keep up to date on blogs and internet news for the most part but haven't broken out the brushes or even taken my models out of their packed state since June 28th when I put them away before flying here. Since I haven't yet managed to find any gaming groups around here and I'm not sure I'll have lots of evenings free to play wargames, I was thinking of getting a fancy model or two to really go to town on and make into display pieces.

The two possible models that have caught my eye for now are:

Ruby from Studio Mcvey



...and the completely crazy option of Elspeth Von Draken on a Carmine Dragon from Forge WorldRaaargh

Mmmm, insanely fine detailing

Now the difference between this two are primarily scale and cost. Ruby fits on a 50mm base and costs about £27 shipped, whereas Elspeth would set me back something like £80 shipped. Quality-wise I would trust Studio Mcvey more but then again this is a new model from Forge World so the moulds are likely to still be good.

The main concern I have with both of these is making sure that my painting lives up to the quality of the models.

Have any of you painted models that were intended almost entirely for display? If so, how do you suggest going about it, especially for something as big as Elspeth? What's the best way to maintain interest during such a long and complex project? What techniques should be mastered before going about such a task? Paint in pieces then assemble? Create a fancy base for the model in case I want to game with it in the future?

As you can tell I'm both excited and intimidated by the idea of either of these models. Who knows, with a good enough effort over time they might even be somethiing I can sell for a profit. I can dream right? ;-)

All the best,

Pete

Citadel Finecast and a Neruda poem.

Hey everyone,

Today I went into the Cambridge GW and chatted with the staff there since I'm going to be living here for a month and need to get some game time in with the Deathwing before I head to Bratislava and possibly have a dearth of players. The guys working there were very cool and nice to talk to. They didn't try to sell me anything, were interested in my models and happy to chat about a bunch of different stuff.

However, when it came to Citadel Finecast, they clammed up hard. They've been told firmly from higher up that if they say too much they will be fired for it. The big reveal will be next Monday and despite me asking questions in a dozen different ways and them really wanting to tell me things, they didn't. What I gleamed was (take this with as much salt as you wish):

- They've been reading the blogs etc and 80% of it is wrong. They think people will be surprised at how wrong they are.
- Finecasting is a fundamentally new technique (they would neither confirm nor deny if it was resin)
- The detail of the models is a serious step up and makes Forge World look merely OK.
- No other game company will be able to afford to invest and make this technique happen. GW has been working on it for a while.
- While they didn't say exactly, it seems like the models will be receiving new sculpts and so on. They hinted that those expecting an exact recast in resin were wrong.


What they didn't comment on:

- Are old metal blisters going to be phased out and replaced by finecast? Will there be a sale? Are they just going to be melted down?
- Are all metal kits going to be moved to finecast, including big ones like Greater Daemons and metal warmachines?


All in all the two blueshirts were really nice guys. They invited me to their gaming night, didn't push sales, listened to my expressing the current upset with GW and responded fairly. Summed up:
- Finecast misunderstood
- Price rise is annual and expected. GW profits aren't that high because of reinvestment into model kits etc. It's not the big cash cow some people think
- FAQ writing was slow but seems to be better now. Also game designers work 2 years or more out on things so it's hard for them to predict rules conflicts and devote their time to FAQing new issues since they have moved on to later products
- The ban on online retailers shipping to Oz is not their speciality, but they speculated that GW may open a moulding plant over there, as the did in the states and prices can be brought in line.


All in all, good guys and I'm looking forward to seeing the Finecast models. I hope to be truly surprised and impressed at GW's work. But, it has to be said I have some scepticism. I can't see how much more detailing they can add to models so we will have to see.

I couldn't decide between the following animal pics so you get both ;-)








Now for something completely different. Thanks to someone I used to be in good contact with who showed me their favourite poem (Tonight I can Write), I found and fell in love with the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Here is a poem called unity that I read this morning and liked. Enjoy :-)


There is something dense, united, settled in the depths,
repeating its number, its identical sign.
How it is noted that stones have touched time,
in their refined matter there is an odor of age,
of water brought by the sea, from salt and sleep.

I'm encircled by a single thing, a single movement:
a mineral weight, a honeyed light
cling to the sound of the word "noche":
the tint of wheat, of ivory, of tears,
things of leather, of wood, of wool,
archaic, faded, uniform,
collect around me like walls.

I work quietly, wheeling over myself,
a crow over death, a crow in mourning.
I mediate, isolated in the spread of seasons,
centric, encircled by a silent geometry:
a partial temperature drifts down from the sky,
a distant empire of confused unities
reunites encircling me.

Breaking with the long time girlfriend that is GW...

I wasn't sure how to title or phrase this particular blog post until I was chatting with Old Shatter Hands on gmail and we came around to the topic of GW's actions of late. To sum them up for those who aren't familiar:

One - The new wave of Dark Eldar models are really nice. The 40k online community is generally all in favour of them, the models, prices not too bad for GW and all is well. Hope blossoms.

Two - GW decides now all info about new things will come out a week prior to release. No exceptions. No excitement for what's coming next. No seeing plans for model releases in advance (like almost every other game compan), nada. You will get it with 7 days warning and like it!!!

Three - GW announces they are basically recasting their metal figures into resin to reduce costs. I'm on the fence about this one. Cheaper figs is good but resin can be warped, bubbly and is fragile. I don't see certain sculpts lasting well (Lelith for one). Now we find out that they are actually going up in price by about 10% average (a few £/$ per figure). Oh, they are there to reduce GW's costs and shaft us? Gotcha

Four- GW announce an annual price rise to jack everything up a few % more than inflation. Not out of the ordinary but coming along with the rest makes me a sad panda.

Five- GW orders online sellers in the UK to stop shipping outside the EU. For people in Oz/NZ it is actually cheaper to buy forge world models than GW models because of the screwed pricing (box of terminators for £48 anyone? Nearly double RRP). The online retailers helped that but no more. A lot of down under gamers have expressed their imminent migration to Warmahordes etc. Hey GW, how about making prices virtually the same across the world or at least within 5-10% on the same product?


So me and OSH start chatting and here is the the conclusion.


OSH: I dont even care...I feel like I have broken up with a long time girlfriend and I am in the stage where I kind of remember the good times, but if I think about it hard all those bad times come back to memory

Pete: Ok, that's my blog title right there. Consider it stolen (I'll credit you lol)

OSH: Haha, go ahead. Really its like that. It's time for a break up. GW is the girlfriend that doesn't appreciate what you do...

Pete: Such a good analogy




To me the key point is that GW just doesn't seem to want to communicate with the playerbase and community. OSH sent a list of FAQs to Jervis, got a response, but half of the questions were not addressed when the actual FAQ came out and sometimes we have to wait months or years for simple rules questions to be addressed.

GW's pricing has always been at the high end of the market but now it's gotten to the point where I just don't care to play any more. Not that it is that much more expensive with the annual hike (a few £ per box set) but with the other issues of the game, corporate money-first attitude, lack of player base connection and communication, it's just a little more than I care to deal with.

I'd rather support games companies that are more interested in their players and have a more vibrant feeling to them. GW feels like they've stagnated, despite some of the best fluff and background out there.

From now on, I'm going to do what Steve Holy suggested. (He is one of the many good country singers who came to the studio when I was working in radio in the states)

For me it's going to be Infinity and Malifaux, with some Warmachine if I want a bigger game.



On the other hand, I'll be keeping up with my Deathwing since they are a finished army and you can't deny the terminator models are pretty sweet. In fact, model quality is something I don't really look down on GW for. For the most part they are great and their plastics are really nice. I did so much mix and matching with these Deathwing and I think they look great for it. I'm also going to put out a WOOT for the Army Painter colour primers. Saved me so much time on basecoating.

Infinite babes?

****Disclaimer, sexism towards wargaming figures occurs in this post ;-)****

Blog followers, I have a confession to make.....I sometimes get a crush on female wargaming miniature sculpts ;-)

Instead of considering this a problem, I've decided to relish it and use it as motivation for future gaming. Enter Infinity, the game.

Because I'm lazy and want to get on with linking pics of Infinity ladies, I'm going to blatantly crib info Old Shatter Hands wrote about the game(thanks bud).

The game is set in 175 years in the future of our world. This is very important, because in the game you'll find all the contemporary world powers represented in the game. There is a huge Asian conglomerate power, the Yu Jing, that features units and troops from China, Japan and other Asian nations. Americans have been fused with the nations of the UK and Russia, and become a power, less advanced technologically due to isolation from Earth and the Human Sphere for a century.

The game can be incredibly detailed; your futuristic soldiers can doctor wounded comrades, hack into enemy computer systems, and use camouflage to move undetected across the battlefield. At first it sounds complex, but the core rules are fluid, simple and easy to learn. You'll never need more than 4 dice at a time, in contrast to 40k where you often find yourself digging out 20-30 dice from your stash.

What I like most about it, is that although it's still based on a "you-go, I-go" turn system, your enemy can react to your moves in your turn and vice versa, making for a game that engages you throughout its entire length. You don't have to watch your opponent move and shoot uncontested during his turn, you get to fight back.

I haven't even mentioned the miniatures yet. They are, in my humble opinion, the best miniatures available on the market today. Every model is expertly sculpted with near flawless anatomy, posed in dynamic and fluid stances that imply action. You have to see for yourself. It's hard to look at a 40k miniature the same way after you realize what Corvus Belli has achieved with this range.


So of the factions available I find myself drawn towards the Ariadna (Old European) and Haqqislam (new Islam). I'm going based on the models I like most because I understand that this is a much more balanced game than 40k so there are no worries about picking a faction like Witch Hunters in 40k to find your play group is running Wolves, Blood Angels and Grey Knight Shunt-punching Dreadknights.

The low model count and limited investment also work well for me with my travel plans. Here are the two starter sets I will be picking up to start my Infinity gaming.



Haqqislamn
I agree with OSH on the quality of sculpts that Corvus Belli produces and the casual assurance of the female Ghulam figure on the right makes me think she is a real soldier. Nice feminine lines without the exaggerated effect you get in some other companies' miniatures.



AriadnaSome more great models and if we focus on the female Khazak (as we should in this post), you will see that she is definitely projecting a rough and tumble sexy look. She looks more than capable of handling herself on the battlefield or off it...(giggity?)



Haqqislam anti tankFrom this model, I have learned that tank hunting definitely requires stopping in mid-run and sticking a shapely backside out so that you can see the foe coming. Presumably any tank or TAG (Infinity's armoured suits) crew will be distracted by the lovely curves on display long enough for you to put a rocket through their armour.



Ariadne ChasseurThe Ariadne have clearly learned the booty shunt move too (much more fun that the GK shunt punch). Your eyes will be stuck to her until you realise she's stuck a grenade on you with her adhesive launcher.



Ariadne Caledonian VolunteersHere a sexy, plaid skirt wearing young lady appears to have wandered into the battle and is now all flustered and cute. Wrong, she just wants you to think that while her buddy on the right takes you out or she can show you the business end of her grenade launcher.



Haqqislam OdalisqueNow this lady may be a seductress (it's in the fluff, look it up) but she's smart, sassy, sexy and stalwart too. She can fight in platform boots too. Oh yeah




Ariadne Para CommandoNow here's a lady who has clearly watched Date Night and remembers the alleyway scene (Watch the trailer and skip to 1 minute in). Yeah, she knows about the killshot.



Szalamandra SquadronNow this figure is from the Nomads faction rather than Ariadne or Haqqislam but I love the sculpting on her. To me she's saying "Once I'm done posing, I'll get into my TAG suit (it looks like a giant Crisis suit) and totally kick your ass."


So there you have a short trip through just a few of the babes of Infinity. I'm definitely planning to get an army started with some eye candy and build up a fighting force around that. One great strength of a balanced game system is that I'm not going to lose out by taking certain models or not taking others. As I understand it, almost any force can deal with almost any other force if played well.

Nicely sculpted female figures all the way ;-)

Pete

Gosh darn you GW and your temptuous ways.

Hey everyone,

So despite winding down on my time here in America (leaving April 13th) and trying to sell off the vast majority of my wargaming collection.....I am getting tempted to collect a new army.

How is it that we can be hooked so powerfully by these pieces of plastic, pewter and resin that sensible ideas like dropping the hobby for a while due to impending travel drift out of our minds and are replaced by the urge to create a new army of tiny toy warriors?

However it happened....I want to get and play a Deathwing army

I trace this particular new urge to a few factors:
- I don't want to stop the hobby, despite planning on country hopping.
- I can make an army of all terminators and only have to transport 25-30 figures.
- The new FAQ makes them better on the tabletop.
- I like the idea of having mixed armament squads
- I read the original story of the Deathwing in the novel compilation Deathwing when I first got into the GW hobby at age 10 or so.

So let's bring on the Deathwing.



Games Workshop has managed to create a rather awesome collection of plastic terminators for various armies and I like them all.....so I want to create a fun mishmash army. I will use various boxed sets and enjoy the mix of armaments that playing deathwing will allow me to take advantage of. I also have a great love for plastic models and will use it whenever possible since metal and resin don't click with me. I swear my skin exudes chemicals that prevent superglue from working on anything I'm holding, no matter what it's made from.

Army 'List'

To start with, the army needs to be led by Belial, the master of the deathwing. He allows Deathwing to be taken as troops as well as Elites, giving you 9 slots to fill with terminator goodness. There is no model for Belial so I'm thinking of using the Chaos Terminator lord as a base for him with lightning claws or converting using spare bits from the other sets I'll get.

Here's a good example of a Chaos lord Belial Conversion from Dakka



I cleary need to have some regular terminator boxes, for the cyclone launchers if nothing else but with the other sets on offer I can make some beastly combinations and fun models.

So I will start with two boxes of regular terminators and one box of assault terminators to give me some good models and basic options.

Who doesn't love hammers, claws and missiles?



Next up for me is the extremely cool Space Wolf Terminator set. This comes with a great selection of ranged and melee weapons (love the belt-fed assault cannon) and as long as I cover up some of the more obvious wolf imagery, I think it will add character.




By adding Belial to the mix, one Deathwing squad can be upgraded to have a banner and an apothecary. That's right, feel no pain on fearless terminators. Until today there was no obvious way to get a terminator-armoured apothecary and so conversion was the only option.

......then the new Grey Knight terminators set was released, including a sweet banner, apothecary, multiple great weapons and some fantastically ornate armour pieces. Clearly I'll have to fiddle around with the parts and perhaps use some green stuff to edit the many Inquisition symbols but I think they will make for great Deathwing models. Also, if I spread the Grey Knight pieces out over the whole army and add some robes with Green Stuff then the army as a whole will be coherent.




Last on the list for now is to add some Dark Angels' bits from the conversion sprue to help maintain a theme of Deathwing, particularly given the multiple sources of models I'll be using.




So there we have it. Games Workshop has tempted me back in again and I'm thinking about this quite strongly. It'll make for a good longer-term project too that I can take with me to whatever new country I'm living in and will give me a nice creative outlet for when I want to just nerd out :-)

Pete

Ork unit breakdown and probable army list Pt 2: Elites

Okay, finally got around to Part 2 of my Orky guide.

The Elites section of a codex is typically where you find some of the most effective units, though usually they appear in small numbers. The ork codex has a good selection on offer and they all have ups and downs. I will include both tactical concerns and modelling/cost ones, since both have a place in this hobby.

As before, pictures are taken without permission from Games Workshop's main website. Go there for more details on models and some more great images.

Without further ado, let's get started.




NobzThe Nobz are the biggest and meanest orks after the warboss and have a solid set of stats. They have the usual low ballistic skill for orks but come with +1 strength, initiative, wounds and attacks over boyz. With furious charge and 2 combat weapons, this means each nob will have 5x S5 attacks on the charge and two wounds mean they can stick around to keep fighting longer.

The Nobz are also perhaps the most customisable unit in any codex that I've seen with each one being able to take any of the equipment allowed (rather than the usual 'for every 5 members, 1 may exchange....' etc.). The equipment list is long too and includes: sluggas, shootas, kombi-weapons, big choppas, eavy armour, waagh banner, power klaws, ammo runts and bosspoles. This variety allows for the nasty Nob trick of making each model unique, allowing you to spread non-instant death attacks around so that each Nob takes a wound before any needs to be removed. That means you can take 10 wounds on a full squad of 10 and will only have to remove a model once the 11th wound is dealt. This can help Nobz stick around a lot longer than the enemy would like them to.

Also in there is the option to add a Painboy, who gives the unit Feel No Pain (and the choice for cybork bodies 5+ inv save), making them even nastier and more resilient. While I don't plan to do it (both for game and conversion/cost reasons) I have to point out the incredible power of Nob Bikers. The entire unit may choose to ride bikes. When accompanied by a painboy and warboss (the latter making them troops) you have a complex wound unit with 2 saves (4+ cover and FNP) where Str8-9 shots can be assigned to the warboss to prevent Instant Death, multi-charges are very easy and they can pretty much wreck anything in combat with a profusion of power klaw attacks. You generally have 1 turn to deal with this unit as it will turbo boost 24" on turn 1 and be ready to assault you come turn 2. It's not invincible by any means and is expensive, but it is very nasty to deal with and a threat that cannot be ignored.

For me, I used the Nobz boxed set, an AOBR nob set and some converting skills to mix up 2 units of foot nobz. I have 16 models total, 6 power klaws, 3 big choppas, some kombi-weapons, a waaagh banner and plans to convert a painboy or two. I will probably mix these models up a bit in two units and transport them in trukks or battlewagons (covered by a Big Mek KFF) to get into krumpin range ASAP. Looking forward to seeing how they turn out on the table.


Pros:
- Solid melee fighters with staying power and option for FNP
- Customisable and wound allocation
- Fast threat that can't be ignored easily when transported upfield
- Can be troops if a warboss is taken
- Nob Bikers
- Good value ($25 retail) set with loads of gubbinz that fits nicely onto AOBR models

Cons:
- Slow if forced to footslog
- Expensive points wise (20 base) and more when customised.
- Not the best initiative so can lose to nasty CC units (though their staying power helps offset this to some degree).



Mega Nobz
The Mega-armoured Nobz are actually a cheaper way to get smashy powerklaws onto the table than a regular Nob with a klaw. Costing 40 pts (vs 45 for a PK nob) they also get a TL-shoota and a 2+ armour save. On the other hand they lose the upgrade options (save for kombi weapons) and are slow and purposeful. The latter basically means you must have a transport for them as being stuck in the backfield and only moving 1-2" with bad rolls will not help your game at all. Be wary of fighting against power weapons or powerfists because they have no inv save and will go down to Instant Death. Choose your fights carefully.

These guys do really tempt me just because they are so fun and orky. I mean, strap a few hundred kilos of metal to an ork and point him on his way is such a greenskin mindset. My big downside though is that they are so expensive ($20 per model) if you don't convert. Still, a fun unit that is killy when it hits and definitely attracts your opponent's attention.

Pros:
- Cheap Power Klaws, 2+ save
- Nasty assault unit that draws attention

Cons:
- Slow and Purposeful.
- Require a transport (and if it's popped, see previous con)
- $20 per model :-(




Burna Boyz
Now these orks bring some versatile flamethrowers to the table and can be a real nightmare if used well. Essentially they are orks with a flamer (S4, AP5) who can use them as power weapons if they don't fire them in the shooting phase prior to assault.

In my view there are some good times to use them in the latter role (vs Power Fist terminators) where their low initiative doesn't matter and the power weapon is key, but generally I prefer them to use their flame templates. Given that they are the same as Boyz stat-wise (and cost nearly 3x as much), they aren't going to stand up to dedicated assault troops well enough to warrant frequent hand to hand.

A great change in 5th edition for the burnas is that there are no partial hits on flame templates any more and with no roll to hit, orky BS doesn't matter at all. If each burna boy can cover 2-3 marines with a template, then the hits really add up fast:10 burnas, 30 hits, 15 wounds, 5 dead marines, follow up with an assault move and you'll probably take out that marine squad. It gets even nastier in vehicles as you can either drive up beside (or tank shock into a clump) your foe, drop one template coming out of the wagon and multiply the number of hits by the number of burnas. So 5 marines covered by a template equals 50 hits with 10 burnas.

From a modelling perspective, these guys come in the same box as the Lootas and have the option to be lead by a mek. I don't really see too much utility in the mek but you might find space for a kustom mega blaster to add some punch. Money-wise, your best bet is probably to buy 2 boxes (giving you 10 bodies total), make up 8 lootas OR burnas then buy a box of boyz and use those bodies to make up the 8 of the other elite unit. Much cheaper than buying repeat boxes of the same.

Pros:
- Flaming burney death on a large scale
- Power weapon assaults can slaughter certain targets
- Good boxed set combination with Lootas

Cons:
- Expensive per model with no more survivability than a boy
- Vulnerable to assault threats
- Boxed set provides odd numbers (multiples of 4)




Lootas

Lootas are definitely one of the premiere elite units in the codex and one that few players should (or will) leave out of their army.

Each loota brings a deffgun, which is essentially a Heavy D3 autocannon. A unit of 10 will fire between 10 and 30 shots out to 48", more than enough to put the hurting on enemy vehicles and mess with a mech player's day. You roll once for the unit each turn on shots though so the damage output is variable and you can certainly have a bad game where each turn you get the minimum shots. Conversely a bunch of 5s and 6s will have you wrecking light armour like nobody's business.

The downsides of lootas are fairly simple. They are regular boyz who can have leadership issues, cost a bunch of points (15 each) and come in a box that only makes 4. It can be costly to build up large units but their guns too look very cool with a mix of tech from all the different races.

Pros:
- Great range unit that swats light armour or high Toughness targets through torrent of fire
- Relatively cheap for high damage output potential
- Tempting target, taking heat off your advancing boyz/nobz/etc.

Cons:
- Relatively small units with low leadership (max unit of 15 doesn't give much mob rule leeway)
- Variable damage output with the usual orky BS
- Annoying boxed set comes in multiples of 4 (great models though)



Kommandos

Infiltrating orks here who get to move through cover. Their classic use is for first or second turn assaults on foes who cannot react in time but they act as nice area denial troops too. Leading them with a PK nob who gets first turn auto-hits on a vehicle your opponent thought was safe is definitely mean. One option is to use them in conjunction with Boss Snikrot too. Though you lose the PK nob option, Snikrot lets you bring the Kommandos on from reserve on any table edge. Woe betide those Long fangs who though they were safe on the rear or flank position.

Pros:
- Area denial and/or first turn assaults
- Snikrot gives tactical utility

Cons:
- Smaller units with limited survivability
- Expensive models ($38 metal set of 5).




Tankbustas

The tankbustas bring some orky mayhem to the mech environment of 5th edition. Each ork has a rokkit launcher and must fire it at the nearest enemy vehicle in LOS, regardless of range. They can also come with tankhammers (S10 assault weapons vs armour), AT grenades and bomb squigs who go scuttling off to blow up nearby vehicles. Definitely a lot of fun and with great potential.

The key weakness of Tankbustas that must be mitigated is their requirement to shoot at the closest enemy vehicle. If you have LOS to a Land Raider 40" away but there is a squad of marines right next to you....tough. This means you need to plan carefully with tankbustas so you can deny them LOS to the targets you don't care for.

Pros:
- Lots of rokkits
- Bomb squigs let them engage multiple units
- Tankhammers can be swung from atop trukk boarding planks :-)

Cons:
- Glory Hogs means they must shoot vehicles
- Smaller units with limited survivability
- Expensive models ($38 metal set of 5).


That's it for elites. I'll try to be faster on the other parts of the codex so I can get on and put my final list up.

Ork unit breakdown and probable army list Pt 1: HQ

So now that I'm rolling on my way towards a Greenskin army, I thought it might be fun to do a little run down of each unit so that those less familiar with the codex can get a feel for what is on offer to a budding Warboss. I will give my understanding of the ups and downsides of the unit, my personal feelings for/against them and would appreciate any feedback from followers. For those who like more tactica reading, there is a pretty comprehensive ork article series on DakkaDakka though I feel some of the info is a little dated when looking at the current metagame

I will state up front that I like to play tough games, but that I tend towards having more fun than tournament level play. To me though, you don't have to have a random collection of units for it to be fun. I think you should take the character of the force in question and then mould a list that you are happy with (and can afford) in order to play.

All pictures are being taken completely without permission, mostly from Games Workshop's website, though since I'm advertising for them and soliciting suggestions on what I should purchase from them, I hope no legal action will be forthcoming ;-)

So without further ado here is the ork codex....

PS: I'm excluding special characters for now.



Warboss:



The warboss is pretty much a face-beating whupass kind of ork (WS5, 4 attacks). He brings instant death immunity to most weapons through his T5 and with a power klaw he will hit at a nasty S10, charge or no charge. At 85pts with a Power Klaw he is very affordable too and can be customised with other weapons and tricks. The warboss also allows a unit of Nobz to be taken as troops.
I've seen three main types of warboss being taken.

- Foot warboss. Usually a Power Klaw, perhaps Eavy Armour, an attack Squig (+1A) and hidden in a mob of boyz/nobz to add punch. Cheap and solid.
- Mega Armoured Boss. Here we trade mobility for a 2+ save and Power Klaw. This boss really needs transporting, perhaps in a battlewagon with a retinue of MegaNobz. A more expensive choice but will hit hard and stay in the fight.
- Biker Boss. By adding a bike you give him T6 to non S10 weapons and add a lot of mobility to his assault options, making him a great tank hunter. Typically a power klaw will be added so he can deliver both dakkacannon shots to side armour at S5, then carve up the rear armour with a S10 power klaw. With 6 attacks on the charge (with an attack squig) he's got a good shot at landing a hit even on a cruising speed vehicle and strength 10 messes up the rear armour of most things.



From my perspective, the foot warboss is an easy and cheap deal because you get one in Black Reach and the model is badass. I've converted my single warboss to include an attack squig stolen from the Grot box set's runtherder. I will be getting another Warboss from Black Reach soon and plan to convert him to a biker boss so I can choose between them.


Big Mek

Now here is a star unit for the orks who comes in two main flavours. The first is a go-to unit for lots of players, for very good reason, and the second is fun, unpredictable but potentially lethal.

I am of course talking about the Kustom Force Field Mek and the Shock Attack Gun Mek.


The Kustom force field gives every ork unit within 6" of the model a 5+ cover save and vehicles count as being obscured. This is a great deal up front but when you lead a unit with the big mek, only a single model from each unit needs to be within 6" so you can cover 3 mobz easily. In a a vehicle the 6" is measured from the hull. This gives a classic footslogging formation with a big mek boyz in the middle, two more either side and perhaps a grot screen up front, all benefiting from the cover save field. Or the infamous battlewagon spam where you'll have 3-4 battlewagons next to each other, grinding across the table with AV14 up front and a 4+ cover save. You have 2 turns max to deal with them before they are in your face and disgorging nobz & boyz, often lead by Ghazghkull Thraka. The last nasty trick is the Kan wall where you get 9 Killa Kans in front of a wall of boyz. The Kans give cover to the boyz and the KFF mek gives cover to the Kanz.

When facing a KFF mek, you pretty much have to accept the cover save and deal with it through careful target priority and volume of fire. Against footsloggers, I would probably focus fire on the mek's unit to force wound allocation on him and wipe out those he is with. If you manage to bring the mek down, good, if not just keep working away at the boyz to cut down their assault power. Vs vehicles I would shoot at the KFF mek's trukk/wagon. If you manage to immobilise or stun it, the other vehicles will have to decide whether to huddle for the save or move out forwards and perhaps give you another turn of firing. Against Kan wall, I would just pick on Kan squadron and shoot until it goes down. Use blockers against the other squads if need be until you can do the same to them




The Shock Attack Gun is a relic of the older, quirkier editions of the Ork codex when it would add all sorts of zany battlefield antics while occasionally doing something deadly. I think this unit was really updated well to fit into the current editions of 40k. It is still random, a bit funny and can end up doing horribly powerful things.

To sum up the rules. It is a large blast, AP2 weapon which has a strength of 2D6. With an average roll of 7 on the dice that makes it dangerous enough, but when you roll a double (or 11) then crazy things start to happen. I can't recall each result but they range from:
Bad - placing the blast marker over the big mek (low roll), giving the opponent a choice of target
Medium/Funny - making the weapon hit the nearest unit to the target (friend or foe), teleporting the Mek into assault with his target (60" assault potentially)
Outright Nasty - On a double 6, everything under the blast template is removed from the game with no saves of any kind. Yes, that does mean you could lose two land raiders full of assault terminators if the dice go that way, or a titan if you're playing apoc.



In conclusion.....

I know I've missed out the weirdboy. I have no play experience with this unit and don't intend on getting one for now. The dakka articles make some comments on them.

In model and collection terms, I want 2 warbosses, a KFF big mek and a SAG mek. The first warboss will be the AOBR footslogger, the second will be a biker boss converted from AOBR. You can't knock the value of the boxed set when trying to make an army in the current economic climate.

The KFF mek model from GW doesn't set my excitement field buzzing so I will probably convert one from the Mek you get in the Loota/Burna boxed set. I think that with some guitar string wiring coming out of the Kustom Mega Blasta barrel hooked up to a techy backpack (finally, a use for my spare Tau gubbinz) I can have a nice KFF mek.

The SAG mek on the other hand is an awesome mode and I would love to field one in game for the fun. Just look at the snotling digging his nails in not to be fired through the warp. On the other hand the model is $30 and that puts it over the cost of the great new plastic sets (nobz, lootas/burnas, stormboyz) so the value is a little tougher to assign. I'd definitely like one but dropping $24 (after online 20% discount) is a bit steep for me. We'll see. I'd love the model but unless I can find someone selling it second hand for cheap I think I may pass or convert my own.



So that ends my first foray into orkdom. I will be back soon with Pt 2: Elites.

Thoughts, comments, criticism, insults and outpourings of adulation are all welcome

I'm back into 40k and this time I'm green ;-)

After a long absence, I am back into the blogging scene and ready to go.

Lots of things have been going on with me recently that filled up my time but I have been gaming a reasonable amount. Two good friends of mine I met in the last few months both decided to get into 40k and are now a wargaming couple. Since Old Shatter Hands from The Tau of War loaned me his wargaming table and terrain to make way for his new baby I had a great setup to show them how to play on.

Playing and teaching the game to new people got me really excited to get back into things and when OSH decided to offload his small collection of ork sprues onto me, I took the plunge. I've always wanted to make a characterful greenskin mob and turn my AOBR set into something that can really be played at a decent game level.

However I have to do it on the cheap and so the challenge has been laid down. Can I make a fun, tough ork army list that I will enjoy playing without breaking the bank?

So, like any wallet-respecting ork general, my army is coming from the roots of Assault on Black Reach. This set (should you have been under a rock since 5th edition launched) gives you a power-klaw warboss, 5 Nobz, 20 Boyz, 3 deffkoptas and a bevy of marines.

Ignoring the power-armoured forces, you have a nice solid base for an ork force. I have one set of painted AOBR orks and got another set from OSH minus the warboss. To this I decided to add two boxes of the new plastic grots (cheap and fun) and a set of the plastic Nobz. I'm off to England for Christmas and I should be able to inherit another black reach set of orks when there so I will have a veritable horde of green bodies when I'm done.

So far everything has been assembled in a fairly stock way with the exception of the Nobz. For those who haven't read the ork codex, this unit brings a set of 2 wound combat machines who can be customised greatly to fit the task at hand. The problem with AOBR is that you only get the basic slugga & Choppa Nob who, while hitting with 5 S5 attacks on the charge, doesn't really take advantage of the power on offer with wargear.

So out came my clippers, X-acto knife, files, saw, glue and bitz box. Old Shatter Hands recently took on an Ogre Kingdoms (OK) commission painting army and let me root through the remaining sprue pieces for things that could be used. Orky Know Wotz imagination let me get all excited at the chance of kitbashing some neat power claws out of punch daggers and the like. The Ogre hands are pretty much the exact same size as a Nob hand so you can just clip and swap with ease.

After a brief clipping, cutting, snapping, gluing and bodging session, I had my first ork with a power klaw converted from the Black Reach set.
For those who like details I used, one curved OK punch dagger, one small sprue cylinder offcut, two OK knives cut in a curve, a shaving of sprue (as a strap) and a couple of gubbinz to make it look more mechanical. 15 minutes work and we have a free power klaw, another 10 minutes for klaw no.2. Woot.

Soon after this my boxed sets arrived and I contemplated the great variety on offer from the Nobz kit. There is sooo much in this box and I've only used a portion of it so far despite using pieces of it on 11 Nob models.


Here is my Wrecking Krew all kitbashed to Orkish perfection. In this picture (not great, just a camera phone) I have 6 power klaws (3 boxed set klaws, one counts-as buzzsaw from the set, 2 homebrew), 3 big choppas, a twin-linked shoota (far right), 2 kombi weapons and a Waagh banner (from an OK banner).

I'm really happy with these guys. They have such character, are going to be a tough prospect on the battlefield dishing out S7 big choppa hits and S9 power claw hits on the charge while being able to play with wound allocation and survive a lot of fire. I still have leftover bits to use on the next AOBR set I will pick up from England. Plastic is a joy to convert and it simply wouldn't be orky without some 'Mek Adjustin' ;-)

So here's to a greenskin holiday season. I hope life is going great for everyone.

Pete