Wednesday, September 30, 2009

#028 - da whip


i need an APC... something light and sporty, able to handle off-road conditions and any weather imaginable... most importantly, it needs to be dedicated to my 'ard boyz, so there will need to be decent armour plating and a heavy armament load... it will also need to be red... enter the hellhound i havent been using in my guard army, that happened to go the same way as the medusa - a good idea at the time, but not practical without the squadron...

skorcha, two big shootas, reinforced ram, 'ard case, armour plates, grot riggers, stikkbomm chukkas, and a red paint job - everything da boyz need to get da job done... of course, i have to repaint the whole deal, but with the brown base already on it, it shouldnt be hard... this wagon isnt as decorated as the medusa, naturally... the way i see it working with irongob's boyz is they don't need the trophies like the others do - his boyz want to get in and get fighting, so they just need trakks and a target...

i was originally looking to get a battlewagon into the list, but it doesnt seem like a viable option at the moment, both monetary and playability wise... as it stands now, i have about 1300 pt, which means only 200 more until its a standing list... im hoping to get another boyz box so i can make a second mob (18 and 18 respectively), plus i need 2 trukks, which i will probably convert from chimeras when i get the chance/money... gotta keep in theme, otherwise the whole thing loses its appeal...

/post

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

#027 - da 'eavies


so i got to thinking, what would make for an effective heavy addition to the blood axes... to be honest, i'm taking full advantage of furious charge for the most part, letting wogrot and his krew rush in at marine initiative with two big choppas (strength 7 is nothing to scoff at)... so far, only trakka, irongob, and a soon-to-be-named nob leader from the 25-count boyz mob have power klaws, and shadez's kommando team sports two rokkits - the extent of my anti-tank arsenal is rather limited... i did some pondering and came up with two answers...

the first, picture at top, is the zzap gun krew... keeping with my "looted imperium" theme thus far, i decided to take spare lascannons i had laying in the immense bitz box and rig up a trio on termie bases... then i decided they need to be orky, so i did what any brilliant mek would do and put bayonets on the underside of the zzap guns - style always trumps function in a greenskin force... add to that a grot mob with runtherd and we have our first tank popper... sure, the hit rate is a 50/50... and it's true that i may roll a 4 for strength when it really counts... but a gun krew is small and can be placed in cover, which is exactly what gobsmasha wants - throw three zzap guns inside a building or treeline and pop shots at heavy infantry (since they're AP 2 regardless of strength) and vehicles...

then i decided to take advantage of two things at once with the second picture... i had purchased, through proxy, a medusa conversion kit from forge world because i was building a guard force at the time... unfortunately, unless you take artillery in threes with a guard force, they are pretty much useless and easy to kill - fire magnets are never good when you only have the one... so the medusa sat around a lot, collecting both dust and ire until two days ago... i can't say how or why i decided on it, but before i knew it, i was looking for bitz to slap onto the medusa to make my first looted wagon... i don't even know where to begin with this one...

when i think of orks looting something, there are always additions to the original design... additional power cables... plates... superfluous gadgets that serve no practical value other than to exist... with this in mind, the first stage became armor plating, and with an abundance of fantasy shields laying about inside the bitz box, as well as ogre gut plates, i decided to go the trophy route... adorning almost every side of the looted medusa are totems and shields, as well as an ork icon and what will be another banner displayed proudly on the front of the vehicle - gobsmasha's pictogram will be on there as well... then it came time for the back of the tank, and it hit me again - gobsmasha and his krew love killing big game as much as smaller prey, and what could be bigger than the tyranid carnifex (at least in normal games anyway)... as a result, there are four fex carapace plates instead of a railing around the back, like a mobile hunting lodge - when hunting big game, you need a big gun, i guess... but the fun didn't stop there... it still needed something to make it more official that this was not just orky, but MY orky... wooden paneling protects the gear assembly of the boomgun on the sides, and there are two crates on the deck, presumably containing more shells... however, the unique bit rests solely with the two palm trees located in the corner - my homage to kelly's heroes... this looted wagon is home to a veteran krew, and one that enjoys its comforts...

this looted wagon has sun umbrellas on its deck... /post

#026 - da boss and his boyz


so now we get to the top of the food chain in the warband - gutstab gobsmasha and his personal bodyguard, wogrot's wreckaz... da boss himself is sporting a rather large bosspole, topped with his personal standard, which will be a broken ork jaw over two red axes... armed with kombi-scorcha and big choppa, i will be taking full advantage of what furious charge has to offer - initiative 5 is better than 1, especially since space wolves will be the new army for a while... the unique detail here is the big choppa itself, a polearm instead of an axe... i thought this a more fitting touch, considering they are sneaky gitz instead of loud and rowdy - better to gut someone from 10 feet away than risk getting too close... the fact it's a polearm just makes him look more skilled at close combat... finally, we have 'eavy armour and a kustom cybork job - a metal plate on the left abdomen covers where dok stabbawitz and 'toolz' murfy added "gutz 'n gubbinz" to give gobsmasha a localized kustom field powered by his twin hearts (an idea they got from gutting several space marines)...

which now brings us to gunna wogrot and his wreckaz... if gobsmasha is the brains, then wogrot's krew is the backbone... what da boss says goes, and those who dont get in line get a crack to the skull... wogrot, pictured on the left, is the captain to gobsmasha's colonel, also sporting a polearm big choppa, though not as long as gobsmasha's, and a slugga... next in line we have a choppa with kombi-scorcha, followed by a big choppa and kombi-scorcha, then slugga and choppa with voxcaster on the back, with a kombi-scorcha and choppa at the end... the entire krew has 'eavy armour and stikkbomms, as well as several different backup weapons (extra choppas, boltguns, backpacks, etc) that serve a purely cosmetic function - these boyz are kitted for the big fights, able to stand alongside da boss and come out on top of the pile no matter what...

simply put, da boss and his krew are meant to assault infantry and big game creatures, which is exactly how they like things... four one-shot heavy flamers, stikkbomms, and enough armour to withstand prolonged combat (short of power weapons anyway)... missing from this list at the moment, however, is one dok stabbawitz, the final piece of the top tier krew... while gobsmasha himself doesn't benefit from 'feel no pain,' the 12 wounds possessed by the krew certainly do...

all i need now is a battlewagon to transport them in... /post

Thursday, September 24, 2009

#025 - da boyz, part one




so here they are, the first of da boyz: kommando teams wun and too, plus 'strika' irongob's 'ard boyz...

so trakka's team is up at the top, the team possessing a power klaw and burna... i found an interesting tutorial online about converting kommandos from regular boyz... all it involves is clipping one leg and repositioning it... now the team lives up to its fluff, crawling along the ground to be the sneakiest gitz in da game... even the kommando with the burna is sneaking along on all fours with a converted big shoota/guard heavy flamer... trakka himself, you'll note, wears a guard voxcaster on his back, since da boss needs to make sure they got the right targets...

the second group is shadez's kommando team, possessing big choppa and two rokkit launchas... since shadez is the more braggy of the kovert pair, his boyz strut upright, and are loaded with all sorts of gear... explosives, engineer packs, boltguns as backup pieces, extra choppas - all of it stolen from the bodies they've left behind... again, the motif here is the team leader with voxcaster, only this time with big choppa held at the ready...

at the bottom we have 'strika' irongob's 'ard boyz, the strike team sent in first to take care of anything that needs taking care of (since they have actual armour)... forged from the fires of fantasy black orcs, each model is a kitbash armed with shootas and choppas... irongob himself has the black orc big choppa raised over his head... then there's the big shoota in the group, sported one-handed by the shoulder strap... once i get transports, this squad will be much more effective in actual game terms...

next up, i think, will be getting a standard metal painboy, as well as two burna boxes... then i just need to convert a pair of mekboyz - spanna (with kustom-mega blasta) and chainz (with big shoota)... then i'm just a big mek away from the complete character set... the next update: gobsmasha, wogrot and the wreckaz... /post

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

#024 - Da 'Urty Dozen


so when the battle for macragge starter box came out, i bought it... it came with marines and tyranids, but i mainly got it for the small rule book and free terrain... at the time, i wanted to start orks, as they had always been my favorite army, but i decided it prudent to build upon bugs, seeing that even back then i knew marines were gay...

fast forward 5 years and 9 armies later, i finally have an ork force ready to rok... enter "da 'urty dozen," a blood axe warband as a quirky homage to world war 2... the name originated when i was supposed to inherit an ork army of considerable size, and the original 1850 list contained 12 unit slots... the name just stuck, as did the theme of the force - american and british special forces from the last great war...

there is no set point limit in mind as this shall be my 'masterwork' force - granted, i make chaos super-heavies now as a matter of course, but this is more a test of both my modeling and painting skills... how good can i make this without running out of ideas? well the pinnacle of the force at the moment is "da supa-bomma" as seen in the picture... a model b-17 at 1:48 scale, the supa-bomma is the first ork super-heavy i've done... and probably won't be the last...

we begin with gutstab gobsmasha, the big boss of da 'urty dozen... rather than run a "proppa waaagh" like other bosses, gobsmasha prefers a much quieter approach - anyone can gut a man in a big rumble, but it takes a "real killa" to do it when no one's lookin, and gobsmasha is a real killa... either it's his way or no way, and several high-thinking nobz have had to find out what "no way" is the hard way...

next in line we have gunna wogrot and his wreckaz, gobsmasha's personal brute squad... every nob has ambitions of being the ork on top, but with a boss as cunning and skilled in combat as gobsmasha, wogrot is content for the present being "second boss" in the krew... while he may not have the brilliance of gobsmasha, wogrot has the discipline and battle prowess it takes to keep the rest of the boyz in check - when gobsmasha speaks, wogrot makes sure the rest listen up good...

the third character started as a generic filler, but soon became the comic relief for the entire concept... dok stabbawitz (yes, a jewish surgeon) was the most skilled painboy in the old warband, and the biggest loss to it once he defected with gobsmasha's krew... to his credit, he has yet to lose a patient he could realistically save, but a lot of the those who couldn't still live on as transplants... many an arm or leg has found its way back into full service in da 'urty dozen from dok stabbawitz's brilliance on the operating slab...

the fourth character to be named was the big mek, and chief engineer in gobsmasha's krew, 'toolz' murfy... 'toolz' was a recruit from another warband after the split, a specialist from the bad moons sent to keep an eye on gobsmasha while working for them... impressed with both gobsmasha's tactics, and his ability to leave valuable loot intact (instead of running in and blowing everything up in sight), 'toolz' saw potential in signing up - plenty of valuable loot, and all he'd have to do is keep everything running smoothly... well, the bad moons have enough mekz to not notice one missing in action...

the next two characters are the nob leaders of the two kommando teams in the force - trakka and shadez... trakka is the silent type, his mind set solely on whatever mission da boss tells him to do... as a result, his team, known as 'wun,' is just as quiet and efficient as their leader... shadez, however, is the exact opposite, revelling in the kill and quite fond of demolitions work... his team, 'too,' tends to take a more up front approach to stealth work... the pair of team leaders get along as well as any two orks could, comparing body counts after the job is done - any job that needs a little more force is bound to feel the 'wun-too kombo...'

after that bit of the army came the nob in charge of the shock troops - 'strika' irongob leads a team of 'ard boyz in every engagement that needs a more direct approach... considered to be the bodyguard of the boss' bodyguard, irongob's boyz are often given the job of securing a breach point in the enemy's lines, often with a burna mob as a support option... which brings us to spanna and chainz, two mekboyz who lead the burnas into the fire as it were...

with all the characters necessary to make a warband worthy to be orks, all that remains is building and painting it all nice... /post