ANUCON 2011 wrap-up and Ork list thoughts

ANUCON 2011 has been run and won, and from what i could gather everyone had a great time- me included! My Deathskull Orks acquitted themselves quite well in their first ever tournament outing, and where things went against me I gained invaluable experience and insight into my choices, tactics and what i should do next time. For the record, my list looked like this:

• Warboss with Pklaw, Cybork, Bosspole, t/l shoota
• Big Mek with a Shokk Attack Gun
• 5 Nobz, with Waagh Banner, all with eavy armour and uge choppas, mounted in a Battlewagon with reinforced ram, 3 big shootas, grabbin klaw, extra armour, grot riggers. Counted as Troops.
• Boyz x30, with a Nob (Pklaw, bosspole), 3 big shootas.
• Boyz x30, with a Nob (Pklaw, bosspole), 3 big shootas.
• Deffkopta with t/l rokkit launcha, buzzsaw (pklaw)
• Deffkopta with t/l rokkit launcha
• 3x Killa Kanz- grotzooka, rokkit launcha, big shoota
• Looted Wagon with ard case, boomgun
• Battlewagon with ard case, killcannon 

So, the things i learnt were:

Warboss is hard as nails! 5 Powerklaw attacks on the charge is messy for anyone, and the Boss sliced through everything thrown at him, the only time he copped a beating was a Wraithlord hitting him with a Wraithsword Str10 attack which i failed the Cybork invulnerable roll for. Otherwise, the pansy walker would have been cactus! In a mob of Nobz with a Waaagh! banner he's WS6, and the Nobz keep him alive long enough to do serious damage. Very pleased with how he turned out!

Shokk Attack Gun Mek- the one thing i will never do again is deploy my forces or based a strategy with any reliance on the Mek to hold the flank, pin an enemy unit or otherwise. First time i ever used him, he teleported himself and the gun directly into combat with the target he was shooting at, this unfortunately turned out to be a Commisar Lord with a power fist. He got a few punches in but the commisar and friends beat the Mek to a green pulp in short order. Further games saw him miss everything that he shot at (when generating high strength shots), hitting with low strength and generally being useless. I actually blame the terrain available to me in these games, I think on a few of the other boards out there he would have dominated, but most of the ones i got were restrictive and had crappy lines of sight. In his last two games, both of his first shots were his last- double 1s meant the shokk attack gun exploded and "removed from play" everything within 6 inches- what are the odds!! However, for his points, he adds so much flavour and randomness to the game that its hard to say no to him :) If anything, he can still be useful as an area denial weapon/psychological advantage, but its no fun if you dont shoot it now is it?

The Nobz dealt massive punishment to everything they came up against, and while their 'Uge Choppa attacks arent power weapons, they are Str7 on the charge, and a full squad punches out 20 of these on the charge at WS5 (yeah, that Waaagh banner is worth it!). Best moment was the Nobz and Boss annihilating an 8 man squad of Khorne Bezerkers without losing a single man, then casually waltzing back to cap an objective (as they are troops as per the Warboss). Only adjustment i'd make for future games is to throw Stikkbomb launchers onto their Battlewagon, as its cheaper to outfit this once, instead of paying loads for for stikkbombs on each nob and the boss.

The Ork Boyz- as is to be expected, they are the heart and soul of my army, and they worked a treat at the full capacity of 30 boyz. Previously i'd run with 3x 20 boyz mobz, but this only allowed for 10 casualties per mob before the Ork 'Mob Rule' couldnt be used (any mob of 11 or more models is counted as fearless). The larger mobz allowed for up to 20 casualties before i had to go anywhere near a leadership test, and even then I had the bosspole on each Nob for the all important re-rolls when I got below this point.

I have fond memories of one of the mobz charging a squad of Khorne Bezerkers, getting 90 standard and 3 powerklaw attacks- the bezerkers ending up as a fine mist of blood and some tattered rags of flesh, then the boyz swung round to shoot Kharn the Betrayer with 20+ slugga pistol shots, he dropped dead. A Greater Daemon of Khorne then engaged the boyz, who hacked it into pieces with 60+ attacks (didnt even need the pklaw), then they turned around to face the Chaos Dread that had assualted them from behind, the Nob tore it to pieces and the boyz were victorious! WAAAGH!!! < < < Sorry, I couldnt help it :)

Deffkoptas, i had two of these- one with a Buzzsaw (Pklaw) and one without, both had t/l rokkit launchas though. I ran them as seperate units, and to outflank to hit rear armour and assault or tie up artillery, nasty tanks etc. This worked in a few games, but not enough for me to be happy with them used only this way, i'm thinking of running 3-4 in squadrons (as even reduced to one, they can regroup because they are still 25% of original size). Definately more development needed with these units, although im sure they can be useful.

Killa Kanz- lesson learnt: Kanz will not survive close encounters with monstrous creatures!! AV11 gets carved to pieces quickly, and only through sheer luck will they get some hits back, as they are still just WS2. Against standard infantry they can be great, i'd even rate them against a terminator squad, but MCs are jsut a no go zone. In saying that though, the Kanz did end up dropping a Wraithlord in my last game, but it was already wounded and on its way out. When i get more kanz and can tailor the weapons loadouts i feel they'll be more uselful in a specific role, as opposed to the jack-of-all trades approach i had going on for this tourney.

Looted Wagon- my love for this unit increased tenfold. 1 in 6 chance of zooming forwards and losing shooting for a turn is offset by the Boomgun's profile, I obliterated a lot of pricey infantry with this tank (and scoring some great scatter results!). Wont change a thing, excellent value for its points. A second one will be coming up soon, with a boomgun as well, although i'm making Skorcha turrets for both using the weapons found in the Killa Kanz box. Being Deathskulls, i dont need to justify another piece of 'orkified' Imperial technology...

Battlewagons- the big rumbling monsters were the Rooks of my green and blue chess pieces, with the "gunwagon" and its Killcannon dependably slowly crawling 6" per turn and hammering away with its Ordinance gun. The transport Bwagon as used by the Nobz + Warboss was equally as potent, getting its cargo of frothing maniacs into close combat time and again without fail. AV14 front is very dependable, and the 12 side armour really isnt as bad as people might make out. Im still working out how best to use the Gunwagon, as its 24" Killcannon is a bit limited, but the transport wagon is great. Only changes there will be to swap out to a Dethrolla and maybe drop a couple of big shootas.

Okay so you're possibly bored from all that, so here's some shiny pics from the weekend.

Shokk Attack Mek opens his career with a teleport into Alan's Commisar Lord. Not a good opener...

Kanz v Kharn. the Kanz didnt make it :'( as Kharn hits like a MC... doh.

From another angle- the Bezerkers are moments away from their doom... 

The mob that beat down everyone! 

The Warboss and his entourage moved back towards the Battlewagon, waiting for the Wraithlord so they'd hopefully get the charge. Prior to this, they and the Kanz had decimated 10 Wraithguard and a Warlock in single round of combat!!  

As well as the photos shown here, i invite you to take a look at Luke's blog (he was the the tourney organiser). A great selection of pics can be found there, including a couple of my boys which i've included above. The link to the pics can be found here:

ANUCON 2011 Photos

As always, i'd love to hear from you if you have any feedback or thoughts on any of the above!

Cheers,
Tempest :)         

Shokk Attack Mek and FTW inclusion

So, ANUCON is on tomorrow and i've actually done a lot more beforehand than i'd expected, i think the simple colourscheme for this army lends itself to mad-rush speed painting, and lets face it- they're orks- too neat and precise with would ruin the effect. Although a lot of the minis will have sections of black undercoat showing through, all of them will be green skin and blue armour/warpaint. Bases arent done, thats an immense job that wasnt going to happen in time, but as im really only going for some fun then I really dont care!

So on to the Big Mek. I bought this guy from the UK via eBay, he's a 1990 metal model who had never been painted or glued together, a rare find! Thankfully he landed in the mail at the start of this week, so with a quick cut and shut i brought him into my list for this weekend. This then forced me to paint him up- and as the Vintage Mini Competition was running on Second Sphere then I thought why not enter him... I found a plastic AoBR Ork left choppa arm for him, and cut off the weapon, sculpting a dip in the top and bottom of the clenched fist.

For the painting i used a lot of the same colours as the rest of my Deathskulls, but with the inclusion of some brighter colours on the gun itself, this pays homage to the origins of the model and the era it comes from. The small details on the model are what i love the most- the spanner earring, the glass vial on the side of the gun and the stuff tucked into his belt. Also, the tongue poking out of the grinning mouth is pure Rogue Trader "Space Ork".  I also gave him a very brief basing job, however this may not end up being the scheme for the rest of the boyz- i can rebase the Mek later if a better idea comes along.

From The Warp!

Im proud to say that my blog has now been added to the From The Warp (FTW) blogroll, a collective community location for a lot of 40K-centric blogs that aim to positively promote the hobby and gaming.

I'd advise you visit the site and make sure to look around at all their useful articles and list of other blogs, its an absolute melting pot of enthusiasm and creativity over there! Im hoping that through them I contribute to the wider community as well as getting my blog out to a wider audience.

FTW can be found at: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/

'Fallout 3' inspired wasteland ruins, and ANUCON prep

Wow, im so slack. Not at painting or building terrain, but getting round to these posts...

Without further ado, here's my latest creation- terrain built from "recycled" (read: chopped to bits) milk crates. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a stash of old trashed crates, with the bottoms hanging out of them, broken handle pieces and whatnot. With some dangerous cutting using a hacksaw, some MDF basing and a simple yet fancy paintjob we have some great wasteland type ruins.

Since buying Fallout: 3 for my Xbox I've wanted to create some ruins that look like they've been through a nuclear explosion and then left to rot for a century or so- these fit the bill nicely! This is one of the 4 pieces i've constructed so far, and will be used this weekend at ANUCON (40k tourney here in Canberra), im hoping to have about 8 or 9 pieces done to use on the one table. There's even some matching rubble piles to represent the roof or centre sections of the buildings after they've collapsed!

Furhter to this, im working on a super-cool Rogue-Trader (40K's 'First Edition' for you young'uns) mini to take to ANUCON, as well as entering it in an online "Vintage Mini" comp on Second Sphere, which is my 'home' 40K Forum. I wont put up pics of the mini just yet, suffice to say its gonna be awesome :)

Other tasks this week are: Putting together ANOTHER revision of the tourney list im taking, painting up two Deffkoptas to an acceptible 'base colours' level, some more detail on the Warboss... general stuff like that. The terrain has to be done before sleep time Thursday night, in time for table setup on Friday night... will i make it?
   

Scenery- the difference between a good game, and a great game

Okay, so the above is a bit of a opinionated statement but one that I personally think rings true. The scenery pieces and the table they sit upon is what can turn your game of "plastic men shooting each other from behind book piles" to "a bloody encounter between two heavily armed forces on the Imperial Forgeworld of XYZ etc". Simply put, scenery is what sets the scene.

I understand that the above paragraph may have some of you nodding your head in disagreement, but for me the lure of the game is the fact that we arent just rolling dice and using tactics to beat an opponent's forces- there is plenty more simplistic games out there that cover this requirement off without needing the spend the time and effort required for 40K. No, we are creating (or re-creating) a battle in the 41st millenium, in one of the richest sci-fi backgrounds thus created, so I feel that games should strive to be as immersive as possible- you aren't just looming over the table all god-like and omnipotent, you are down there with the men at ground level, seeing whats going on. And at eye level, thats when you want to see the nice stuff.

Whilst I can forgive unpainted minis (or even just base-coated/undercoated), a lack of simple terrain is a no-no for me. It really takes no time, effort or expenditure to cut out some different size carboard into boxes and glue together to create buildings. Or, to glue some cheap aquarium plants to a rounded wooden base to make clumps of vegetation. I've used both of the above examples to create terrain for my own games and
they help to set the scene.

Speaking of setting the scene, i went to a 3 per side team game last weekend at a friend's place. Whilst the majority of his terrain and scenery is GW store-bought, some pieces like the landing pad were scratchbuilt- all of them were fully painted and detailed though, and it was great. Playing on a table with flocked grasslands on one side and cratered wastelands on the other was great- we augmented this with some of my hills, trees and buildings that i brought along. We also had an Ork settlement in one corner, the aforementioned landing pad as our central objective and a river running through the green side of the board- this all added up to a great setting for our battle.

The game specifics were 1200pts per player, and comprised of "team evil" with the Deathskull Orks (Me), Goff Orks (Adam) and Daemons (Colin). "Team Good" was comprised of Salamanders (Ash), Grey Knights (Brendan) and Imperial Guard (Claire). Although the first few turns were decidedly in Team Evil's favour, it balanced out in the end with one objective a piece and the last one contested. Was a hugely enjoyable game, with no hassles, no powergaming and no arguements. Playing 40K on a table like this, with beautiful themed terrain pieces-thats what the hobby is about for me.

The board- nice terrain and tertured game surface pieces!

Da Boss decides to prune some trees, as well as the Salamanders camped in them...

The Battlewagon drove up the river the whole game, ploughing onwards with its reinforced ram!

Adam's Goff Orks, at deployment.

WAAAAGHH!!!

More Ork Progress- blue blue and more (rusty) blue...

Due to several tournaments looming i’ve decided to get moving quickly on my Orks. I’ve settled on the “Deathskulls” clan colours, which is a blue paintup of  the face/arm/hand/ random clothing of weapon, this appears to borrow from the Scots as immortalised in the film “Braveheart”. It doesn’t hurt that the original concept for the Orks was as a “rabble of wild warriors” as based on the historic Scottish Clansmen, so this colour and theme works extremely well. I also ran with this clan as I came up with an effective paintscheme for armour and vehicles.

The following is the process I used for all the blue that isn’t painted onto Ork skin. It appears convoluted, but once i got it sorted out it was very quick and easy- washes and drybrushing speed everything up.

Basecoat: Chaos Black Spray (Always!!!!) > single, even coating of Hawk Turquoise> thinned, watered down Blazing Orange (1:1 water to paint) run along all panel joins, dabbed around rivets etc > very light drybrush of Boltgun Metal> wash of Devlan Mud > stipple Hawk Turquoise back onto middle sections of armour, leaving rusty/washed/metal areas near the edges of the panel. The close ups of the Killa Kanz shows the end result best.

The Orks themselves had the blue painted onto their skin randomly, this will be washed over soon with Devlan Mud and then (like the skin) re-highlighted with the same blue again. Simple but striking!

The Battlewagon and Looted Wagon have both turned out great, the Looted Wagon actually exceeding my expectations- the welded on metal struts and spikes have given it a really Orky feel that I’m happy with. The big bad “boomgun” needs painting up and im thinking of throwing some razorwire around it, but aside from that its done.

My next post will be up soon as well, will be my new urban ruins terrain pieces- check in the next few days for an update!  (I figure that being a terrain and Minatures blog I should actually put some terrain up hey...)

Comments most welcome!

The Beginnings of my Waaagh!

Over the last year or so I've traded and bought a huge stack of Assault on Black Reach Ork minis with the intention of launching a Waaagh with which to a) amuse myself with, as Orks can be crazy and random, b)paint something different to power armour (but still green hey!) and c)inject a new faction into my current gaming group.

(which currently comprises of - Space Wolves x2, Crimson Fists, Salamanders, Necrons, Iron Warriors, Eldar, Tyranids, Imperial Guard, Grey Knights and my Dark Angels)

Getting back to 'da ladz',for a really small outlay I had myself a decent foot army and some Deffkoptas as well. However, the bug has bitten hard- Gork AND Mork spoke to me and demanded more units! So the lads have now been backed up by 3 Killa Kanz, 2 Looted Wagons, 2 Battlewagons and a Stompa super heavy walker! As a pure wysiwyg army it'll start around 3000 pts but could easily top 4500 without overloading on wargear and losing unit cost effectiveness. Big thanks to James, Ash and Alan for the AoBR kits, and Chris (chopshopbitz on eBay) for the Battlewagons and Stompa.

Now to find the time to paint all 123 models (101 of those are footsoldiers!). Oh, and I finally decided that my Orks will be the thieving looting opportunistic types, and are being painted up as Deathskulls. Every other Ork army I come across seems to be Goffs or Bad Moonz, and i have a vibrant 'blue' tone that really pops out against green skin.

Time to stock up on greens, blues, washes and dirty, metallic and rusty colours....

Some Pics!
Almost the whole collection- still have to assemble another 10 boyz, another Battlewagon and the Stompa...

Da Kanz!!

Nobz:

Boyz

Looted Wagon with Boomgun!!

One of the Battlewagons (rear canopy and all turrets are removable). Will be getting a Dethrolla for the front really soon.

So there we go- the Waaagh is well and truly on the way!! Im going to be crafting a 1500pt list from the models i have here in time for a tournament in late September, and im hoping to have the majority of these guys painted up in time, even if only base colours with some washes and highlights. Going to run 2 Battlewagons, the Kanz, a couple of Koptas and as many Boyz as i can fit in with the points limit....

Welcome one and all :)

A big hello to anyone reading this, thanks for stopping in and having a look here. My blog will be updated as regularly as i can manage and will cover off the goings on of my hobby life, including painting updates, terrain builds, commision pieces and other work from the workbench.

I'll also be reviewing products as i come across them, highlighting older GW minis and putting up tips and tricks that people may find useful. As well as all this you may see the odd battle report appear as well.

Im looking forward to developing this blog as on ongoing chronicle of my gaming exploits, and i hope you'll keep watching and replying as the updates roll on.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to my Dark Angels. This army has been in the build (on and off) for around 4 years now. All the power armoured squads in the army use the Dark Angel Veteran bodies, so they are all robed- my army represents a specialist strike force of the most senior brother-marines, assembled from across the Chapter itself. I've also included several modified miniatures for my Captains- a chopped and changed AoBR model now has a Mk6 corvus head, different arms and a Sanguinary Guard jump pack and wings, and the other Captain is a Terminator with chapter-symbol leg greaves, custom built shoulder plates and Sanguinary Guard wings as well- he represents the legendary Deathwing Master Belial.

Alongside the foot models are my three Rhinos, Predator and Land Raider. Each features freehand chapter symbols, stylised and modified to some degree. Im especially proud of the Rhinos, they all appear to look like facsimiles of each other which was no mean feat!