SWA: Orktoberfest!

Happy Orktoberfest everyone! Yes, it is that time of year when the bloggosphere and on line hobby groups give way to the exuberance of the greenskins!

I had been planning on spacing out my various Ork/Orctober blog posts throughout the month, but a combination of work/life balance being hectic, plus lots of actual game playing!! (sadly no Shadow War however), has meant that they are all going to come in a rush at the end of the month.

First up has to be the next recruits to my Snake Bite kill team for SWA. Sadly my Summer of Shadows project has not involved nearly as much gaming as I had hoped for thanks to ill health, but I have enjoyed an Indian Summer of painting up these vicious bastards.

"Wot choo lookin at dog breff!?"

They have all been painted up using the same 'red period' colour palette as the rest of my 2nd Ed and SWA Orks, although I will admit that I ended up using more red on these than I initially intended. They are still Snake Bites. Honest guv!

This is going to be my Mek Boy for SWA, but is actually a Nob from the back of a RT/2nd Ed era Nobz Warbike circa 1990(?) - I slightly regret choosing green for the plasma energy, and bottled any attempts at OSL (object sourced lighting) as a result, having been slightly disappointed with how it worked out on another old school Ork I painted earlier in the year.

Also not that happy with the freehand clan markings on this one, it's slightly off centre and maybe not immediately recognisable as Snakebitey enough, despite being straight out of the 2nd Ed Codex. Ah well, at least it proves he is a Snakebite, despite all the red. Proves it I tells ya!

This is my second Spanner Boy wiv Rokkit Launcha, and possibly my favourite of the bunch. Not only am I happier with the freehand glyph, but it includes some scavenged RTB1 Space Marine parts in true Orky fashion.

I deliberately didn't repair/repaint the missile launcher (other than to tidy up some paint splatter and add a grey highlight to the black metal areas) as I wanted it to feel like he has lifted it from somewhere else. I think it does that without looking completely out of place. I also made a shank out of some left over pistol handle and a combat blade attachment for a Space Marine bolter.

This is obviously my Pain Boy, and a very fun mini to paint. I added a later edition bolt pistol, so I could paint the heavy casing red to tie in with the rest of the band and a prosthetic blade-arm from Gorka Morka which seemed an appropriate choice.

I had trouble with the splatter effect of Tamiya Clear Red up the front of his apron, but a single rogue line flicked up over his mouth and face which I like in a gross sort of way, so I quit while I was ahead. More practice required there however.

Finally we have this rude little felllow! Yes, that is a cricket bat.

Originally sculpted by Kev White for the GoblinAid project a few years back he was a present from a fellow Old/Middlehammerer, the Goblin Bat Man (aka 'Gretchin Anaesthetist' in my universe) is going to act as the Pain Boy's assistant (active in 40k but a non combat role in SWA). The colour scheme is less red period than the others, and not just because there is hardly any red on him. The sculpt just seemed to call out for a paint job that makes him look like a contemporary street thug. Love him!

Anyway, I should be getting on with my next Orctober post! Thanks for stopping by. Do come again and bring some cake.

Summer of Shadows: Snakebite Mob for SWA

Well, my Summer of Shadows has not gone as planned. Continued ill health has scuppered many plans this year, but most of all it has meant I have played no further games of Shadow War (and I'm a few games behind the others now!) Sad times indeed.

However, I have managed to assemble a dedicated crew of Orks (RT, 2nd Ed, and Gorka Morka in the mix) and paint them up to represent an oldschool Snake Bite mob - I was previously using an assorted mob of orks from my existing old school force as can be seen in my earlier post.

First up is my Boss, Kaptin Fang who is armed with a Kustom Shoota (w/ reload), Big Choppa, wears 'Eavy Armour and has a Clip Harness. He has survived a few scraps and has picked up the valuable Dodge skill (one of the reasons I like Snakebites is that they are one of the only Ork Clans (along with Evil Sunz) who can access Agility skills.

"Wot choo lookin at, scum?"

I had a spare 2nd Edition Ghazkhull Mag Uruk Thrakka lying around who seemed the perfect fit. I have owned the model before, and since lost it, and bought it again twice over (once with Makari the standard bearer in tow, they are being saved to lead my Goff force) - but I've never actually painted him before. The model was a little daunting to the younger me and I was surprised to find a little of that apprehension return when I finally came to paint him. That passed very quickly once I started in with a brightly coloured Snakebite scheme and I found myself having great fun painting up this icon of 2nd Edition. Yes, there is extra detail on virtually every single surface of the model, but once you get stuck in it pretty much paints itself.

I love the detail of the Stikk Bombz at the back of the model. That screams 2nd Ed to me :)

The only problem was the very obvious Goff symbol on his back. At first I thought about just making it flat with putty and then painting on the Snaklebite glyph later, but I got a bit drunk and decided to 'sculpt' one instead. My GS skills are infantile, but luckily that sort of works when it comes to Ork glyphs. All in all I was pretty chuffed with my first attempt on Ghazkhull and he is exactly what I had in mind for Kaptin Fang when I was creating my SWA crew.

Kaptin Fang and his Boyz

Here we find Kaptin Fang hanging out with his Boyz: Blak-Mamba, Lard, Tusks, and Pyfon... who may not reappear if I don't get round to rescuing him from the Eldar!

Da Yoofs - appropriately (for round here at least) hanging out near some scenery made out of a discarded NO2 Canister

I plumped for a handful of Gorka Morka orks as being suitably feral to count as Snakebites, but also armed simply with shanks and sluggas, as are my Yoofs: Pig-Spit, Pork Rind, Adder-Boy, Grass-Snake, Swill Pot, and Vypa... except that Pig Spit has been promoted to a Boy after surviving a head wound and rolling 'What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger' on his second mission, so I might do some temporary swapping around with him and Pyfon, depending on what happens on the rescue mission.

Too Inch scours the sulphur stained sands for scrap to make shooty gubbinz with

Too Inch da Spanna Boy is armed with a Big Shoota with a Red Dot Sight, and a Massive Spanner. This Spanner boy from Gorka Morka with his bionic shoota arm was the perfect fit. I have left off giving him a backpack for now (there is a peg on his back that originally held a shotgun) to see how the campaign progresses and how I might want ot customise him.

Too Inch and Da Yoofs make a charge across the sands

I will eventually add each of the available Ork specialists, but in keeping with both the Snakebite background and the numbers based approach that I went for with this crew, the first on my list was a Runtherd with six Grots.

Snotragg da Runtherd and his horde of six miserable, snivelling, little grots

The Grots are obviously the classic monopose plastic Gretchin from the 2nd Ed starter box. The Runtherd is an Ork Slaver from Gorka Morka. The colour scheme is also echoing the Snakebite colours, but far less obvious as might befit a Specialist for hire.

Kaptin Fang's Snakebite Crew swarm from their huts to charge across the sands

Next up for the crew are a new Spanna Boy, Rattla with his Old-Skool Rokkit Launcher, and Doc Gristle the Pain Boy, who has dispensed with the middle man as it were and replaced his own right hand with a massive knife. These two jumped out at me from my leadpile as the most Snakebite-esque of the candidates and they are already assembled and undercoated, working their way up the painting queue.

Something really satisfying about workign with these old sculpts. So evocative of the period that first got me hooked on the hobby :)

Now, if only I could get a few more games in!

Thanks for reading. Do pop back again. I'll make tea.

Summer of Shadows: Shadow War Hobby Project

So, Shadow War is good isn't it! In many ways it is the game that I've always hankered for. A small skirmish based game with fewer models but still set in the Warhammer 40K universe, and with narrative and progression for your crew as you play through a campaign. What's not to love!?

Nothing so far in my opinion, but then I've only played two games. Enough to convince me it is a winner though, even though I lost both games... and bravo to GW for this move. There have been a number of more positive trends coming out of GW recently, and this is certainly one of them.

I play with a bunch of grognards who have been gaming against each other since school and all pine for 2nd Edition Warhammer 40K believing it to be the pinnacle of the game, so SW with its obvious 2nd Ed/Necromunda vibe was an easy sell to some of our lapsed and reluctant participants and we were able to get five of us together to kick off a campaign at our FLGS Bristol Independent Gaming. Thanks as ever to Jim for being such a welcoming host! 🙂

We lined up as Orks (Snakebites - Me), Space Marine Scouts (Flesh Eaters - Craig the secret nerd), Chaos Space Marines (Nightlords - AVP Shaun), Eldar (Outcasts/Pirates - Dave the Scenery Savant), and more Orks (Bad Moons - Big Russ).

In my first game I played against Dave's Eldar and all I can say is... I hate grav platforms! I totally see the logic of how they work, and actually really like it in terms of how that ties in with the background and the 'science' if you will, but boy are they tough to play against! The Ork advance was steady until an entire flank got mowed down by a platform mounted Shuriken Cannon and I failed my subsequent Bottle Test. One of my Yoofs (Pork Rind) was out of action for the next game as he had a Head Wound (although this meant he would have Frenzy when he came back!), and one of my Boys (Pyfon) got himself captured by the Eldar to boot. As we were playing against rotating partners we agreed that the Rescue Mission could be deferred until we could arrange a follow up.

Da Boys of Kaptin Fang's Mob advance through the centre of the ruined city block

Da sneaky Elf-gitz hide in the rubble like wusses!

We didn't spot the rule about paying a Promethium Cache in ransom until afterwards, but it wouldn't have changed my decision anyway, a Boy armed with a shank and a slugga ain't worth a precious promethium! I stockpiled the one cache I got but spent some credits replacing my captured Boy like for like, and making use of the campaign house rule that you can bank unspent credits.

Two Boys plus Pork-Rind da Yoof advance down the flank trying to out manoeuvre the Eldar Grave platform. Wrong!

Too-inch da Spanner with his Big Shoota covers the advance of Pig-Spit and Swill-Pot da Yoofs

My next game was against the Flesh Eaters who had been victorious in their previous game against the Bad Moon Orks, and had spent a Promethium cache to acquire the services of a Deathwatch Veteran specialist. The mission was an Ambush! with the marines attempting to catch the Orks unawares, however, they obviously underestimated both the cunning of Kaptin Fang and the sheer numbers at his command, as the deployment rules played out allowing my Orks to effectively ambush the ambushers. The first turn would see immediate charges and hand to hand combat, dice rolls falling narrowly in the Scout's favour in one instance, but a scout falling to the double teaming efforts of two burly Yoofs elsewhere.

After splitting my massive mob into 4 groups and rolling two 6s in deployment the ambushed became the ambushers!

After downing a Flesh Eater scout in brutal hand to hand combat Adder-Boy da Yoof follows up into the Deathwatch Veteran. "Can't fault his bravery!" thinks Kaptin Fang briefly as they are both sliced open by the energised blade...

Sadly for the Orks, Kaptin Fang failed to take out the Deathwatch Veteran and the following turn saw the specialist eviscerate everyone within range with his power sword - and that was without us remembering to use the Xenos Hunter special rule which would have made him even more deadly against Orks! Apparently the look on my face was one of the best moments of the day for the Flesh Tearers player. Hmmm....

Elsewhere a Boy was knocked off his perch by a heavy bolter shot and fell off a building knocking himself out. A quick assessment of the situation and it was clear that while the ambush had been foiled, the Orks' only sensible option was to Bottle It! and live to fight another day, as the risk of incurring further heavy losses was all too real.

This hand to hand was close, but sadly went to the scout, and the Slugga shot of the Boy bringing up the rear failed to pin the Gunner, who then blasted him in the chest with a heavy bolter. Ouch!

Luck was finally on my side and my crew all made good recoveries, even Pig-Spit the Yoof who might of died, but now has a dead 'ard looking scar across his throat, and as he rolled 'What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger' so was promoted up to full Boy status. I banked the promethium cache again, but used some of the credits to recruit a new Spanner (Rattla') armed with a Shoota (until we can get him a Rokkit Launcher that is!), and banked the rest. I'm painting up some Grots and a Runtherd, and already have suitable models for a Mek Boy or Pain Boy, so may indulge in hiring a Specialist for my next game, which will hopefully be the mission to rescue Pyfon. Strangely, in the Eldar's next game against the Bad Moons, they captured another Ork Boy (with the same arrangement to defer the rescue mission). Clearly the Eldar are seeking to gather information on the Orks for some reason! Or maybe they are just making them touch each others butts?

Meanwhile in other parts of the ruined city...

Bad Moons vs Flesh Eater Scouts face off in the Industrial Old Town

Bad Moons - yes, I know they look like Goffs, but they are Bad Moons in fancy dress, OK?! - make an ill fated dash across the Flesh Tearers' kill box

It was not a good day for either of the Ork mobs and the two Nobs got their heads together afterwards and agreed that you can't just 'do a second edition' and charge them hoping enough of you survive to dismember them in hand to hand. Very un Orky. This was noted by oponents of the Bad Moon Nob who remarked that while his blind faith in charging staionary Space Marine Scouts showed commitment, it was like watching the French Cavalry in WWI.

The Bad Moons continued to have bad luck facing the Nightlords in a Raid, with the highlight being the Nighlords' Aspiring Champion punching the bunker door into pieces in the second turn with his Power Fist, ending the game. The same Aspiring Champion later punched a Flesh Tearers Terminator to death! The spirit of Konrad Kurze would be pleased! If it gave a shit that is.

So here are the results of the first round of games:

Flesh Eaters vs Bad Moons - Scouts Win
Eldar Pirates vs Snake Bites - Eldar Win
Snake Bites vs Flesh Eaters - Scouts Win
Eldar Pirates vs Bad Moons - Eldar Win
Nightlords vs Bad Moons - Nightlords win.
Nightlords vs Flesh Tearers - Nightlords win

I had to head off early but the chaps carried on playing and had a 'Fatal Four Way' of Flesh Tearers vs Bad Moons vs Nightlords vs Eldar, just for shits and giggles.

Thats a lot of pinning!

The highlight of the game was the Orks getting pinned so badly in the cross fire from the Scouts and the Eldar that the Nightlords felt compelled to help them. Such a severe break with the background caused a tear in the fabric of the universe and the entire of the space-time continuum was swallowed up in a second. Sadly that meant gaming had to stop.

Everyone had good fun and agreed Shadow War is a great rule set and we are already planning the next round of games, which will involve successive rescue missions on those sneaky Eldar for Kaptin Fang and his Bad Moon counterpart to get our Boyz back!

Thanks for reading - don't forget to share your own Shadow War exploits on the Middlehammer face book page for the 'Summer of Shadows' theme!