Thursday, October 8, 2009

Da Boyz Toyz



Hey guys, in my last entry (which was horribly long and boring, I know, sorry), I posted some really poor pics of some Vehicles that I have been starting to add to my Ork army. I have found, in recent games, a necessity to change up my Ork mob tactic to better allow me to handle the Marine and IG MEQ armies and the Space Wolf inspired combined arms lists (Mix of mounted up Marines and Terminators supported by fast movers like jump troops, bikes, and out flankers).

The amount of vehicles I will be fielding has been steadily going up starting with no vehicles, just Deff Koptas; to Deff Koptas and 2 Trukks; to Deff Koptas, 2 Trukks, and a Battle Wagon; and now finally to Deff Koptas, 2 Trukks, a Battle Wagon, and a not quite finished yet Looted Wagon. I suspect another Battle Wagon or two are going to find their way into my list eventually, but I am going to stick with this for now.

In later entries I will discuss the different uses, wargear options, and craziness associated with Ork Vehicles but for now I wanted to share some better pics of these 4 vehicles in all their glory!

First up is the first Trukk I assembled, which when I opened the box I found to be missing a few parts, namely 3 wheel halves, the ork gunner for the big shoota, and the mounts for the boarding planks. A quick call to GW and they sent me a whole new Trukk (see Trukk 2 below).



Even with out these parts I could tell that this kit was going to be a tough build and I am not to ashamed to say that this is the first GW Vehicle Kit I have had to look at the directions to build in recent years. Wow this is a great kit, lots of option on how to assemble things, parts to put on or leave off, and pretty much all the options all in one box. If you look closely at the pic above and the pic of Trukk 2 below you can see there are some slight difference that while not major, really make the vehicles different and unique while keeping the overall Ramshackle yet similar look going. So needless to say I applied some of my conversion skills and over came the missing components by just leaving one of the two sets of back wheels off and hiding the missing set with some armor pieces made from the planks that did not have mounts and some glyph plate detail pieces that were on the sprues for the Trukk.

Trukk 2 (The Free Trukk!) offered me some new modeling opportunities as all the piece were there this time, so I went to work trying to build the basic Trukk the directions told me to build.



I did a few things differently. For starters I figured out something I had gotten wrong about the assembly of the crew compartment on the first Trukk, and did it right this time. Then I switched the sides of the Driver and Gunner. This is really one of the great things about the Trukk Kit, a lot of the pieces are modular so you can assemble them in different ways to get a unique feel every time. I also left off some the rear armor plating and one of the roll bars to give the back a more open feel. In addition I added on the boarding planks to each side of the Trukk this time, but cut them down to make them shorter to make them fit in with the Trukk a bit better. I did a few other cosmetic things too but they are not that important.

Next up we have the Battle Wagon!



This monster was another kit that forced me to break out the instructions as the level of complexity and detail rivals that of the Trukk. Sure it looks less ramshackle then the Trukk does but that is the point. This bad boy comes with most of the options too, plus a few new ones that the Trukk does not have (like the Grabber Claw that I decide to put on my Looted Wagon below). This beast has so many configurations and ways to assemble it that I am going to have to get 2 or so more just so I can try them all out. I decided that this time around I wanted to go for a lightly armed, low point cost variety Battle Wagon. So I kept things simple, the only weapons options on this bad boy are a zap gun and a big shoota (not shown). Add in some Armor Plates, a Nice red paint job, and you have a 120pt - 130pt monster that can take a licking and still get its up to 20 ork crew into battle safely.

And finally, the Looted Wagon.



Originally I had not planned to add one of these into my army, preferring the speed of the fast Trukks over the slightly better armor and weapon option of the Looted Wagon, but after learning that it is nigh impossible to get Trukk transports for units like Tank Bustas (one of the balancing factors of the Ork book) I decided I need one of these vehicles to get my special boyz into battle safely. This vehicle is about 60% done being converted. I still need to work on the exhaust system some, the details on the sides, and the interior detail too. In addition, the Grabbing Claw needs a ork operator, the other side needs a hatch, and I need to figure out what weapon options I want to add. The Looted Wagon has the option of having a Skorcha for 15pts and I am starting to lean that way though it will make this tank expensive. I had already planned to give it Armored Plates, Grabbing Claw, Red Paint Job (all ork vehicles should have a red paint job) and Grot Riggers, bringing its current cost up to 60pts already. Add on a Skorcha and 2 Big Shootas and we are looking at an 85pt Armor 11 Vehicle that isn't fast. Cool, fluffy, fun, but not that cost effective. I may have to rethink things some.

Well anyways, I just wanted to share the fun I am having with my new found passion, Ork Armor. Next time I will be talking about Ork Boyz and showing you the progress I have been making on getting the 80+ I have to paint finished.

Until next time...

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Goff, We'ez 'ere ta Fight!

Hey guys, I know it has been a while but work, preparing for school (starts today), and a dire lack of wanting to paint but play (with my new orks) has had me held up from posting anything for a while now, as well as the fact I have had nothing to post.


So first things first, yeah I have a new Ork army.


"But what happened to your Griffons you ask?"


Well I have put that army on hold for now, need a break from the quartered red/yellow and besides it has not been playing very well for the most part. I need to step back, take a break, and rethink my list a bit before I go back in and tackle the final 800 - 1.5K of models to paint.


The Ork army has been growing by leaps and bounds during the month of September as I find more and more uses for the AoBR models which I keep finding for cheap on ebay or around the area. I have been building like a mad man trying to get everything together so I can get it painted while testing things out (as this is the first time I have ever played Orks in 40K). The painting on the other hand, at least in the month of September has been going really slow. The Warboss (pictured above) and 7 Nobz took me 3.5 weeks to get finish and I still haven’t based them properly yet as I can not decide on what finish I want to go with. Here is a bad pic of what they look like:


As I mentioned above, I have been getting in some gaming recently, a lot more then I did over the summer and I have had a chance to face the new Space Wolves list. So 2 games against the new Space Wolves this week and also a game against a very tweaked IG MEQ list last weekend has caused me to begin thinking about my Ork list and what needs to be changed to deal with both of these very different threats. The Wolves really do out Ork the Ork army, putting out an insane amount of attacks (especially Sky Claws and Grey Hunters packs with wolfen) at a higher Init then my Orks, killing a lot of boy before I even get to go. IG on the other hand, tends to be lots of tanks and transports with a butt ton of melta bottled up inside those transport waiting to kill my 2 wound Nobs and Deff Koptas dead with ease. How do you combat both the need for more counter charge ability against wolves and tank busting ability against guard?


To be honest I am not sure, but I have some ideas. For those that don't know or who will be there I am headed to Mechanicon the first weekend of November up in Philly for a 5 round 1850pt 40K Tournament, and I will be playing Orks. Besides figuring out what I will be taking, I need to figure out how to deal with the above two list and all the rest I might face or at least have a plan for each type of army going in. The list I had intended to take looks like this:


Warboss

Big Mek (Kustom Force Field)

2 units of 30 Slugga/Choppa Boyz with Nobz

20 Shoota Boyz with 2 Big Shootas and Nob

7 Nobz w/ Trukk

10 Lootaz

10 Tank Bustas

5 Deff Koptas

Battle Wagon


What I have found (though I have not used the Battle Wagon yet) is that this army just can't handle high armor or fully MEQ armies very well. Sure the Mass of boyz is nice but isn't in anyway guaranteed to take out tanks or transports if they get to them. Additionally, a more mobile hard hitting Melee army like Space Wolves can have lots of tools that make this type of list not work either. In a game last night I found that all the Wolves have to do is jump a sky claws unit lead by a wolf priest behind my unit of 30 Slugga/Choppa boyz and they can pretty much clean house by shooting and then charging in and it is doubtful that I will be able to win the combat, even with a full 30 Orks at the start.


I suspect that I am going to need to try to start thinking more unconventionally with the Orks to be able to handle some of the nastier New fangled IG and Wolf lists. Also, to add insult to injury, I found out last night that I have been doing something wrong; Boyz units can not take a truck if they have more then 12 models in them, something I have been doing to give my Tank Bustas a ride.


I have talked to a few Ork players about what they do and all of them have told me or have been surprise that I do not have any Trukk boy mobs in my army. A trukk boy mob is just 10 to 12 orks, usually with a Nob with Power Klaw mounted up in a Trukk. Personally just looking at them on paper seems like I am giving my opponent easy Kill Points. 12 boyz and a truck, wow that is an easy 2 KP right there, Pop the truck and then blast away at the 12 boyz with a low 6+ armor save, simple. But I am going to go against my instinct I think and try them out. From everything I have heard you are never supposed to Run them in less then groups of 2 to 3 trukks so I am going to try out 2 units run together for now (As I only have 2 Trukks). I will be mounting up 12 Slugga/Choppa Boyz with a Nob w/Power Klaw and a Boy with a Big Shoota into each trukk. Here is a pic of most of the models for these two units:


As for the rest of my army, this has a few effects. For starters I have had to cut down one of my 30 Boy Mobs to 20 models as I only have so many extra boyz lying around. Secondly, I need a new ride for my Nobs and Tank Bustas. In comes a Battle Wagon which I have just finished building and a Looted Wagon (which as luck would have it; I started building out of an unassembled Rhino kit I had laying around). Here is a pic:


And finally I think I am going to be upping the number of Lootaz in my army to 13 as was suggested to me by a friend that plays orks. 13 ups the number needed to be killed to take a test to 4 and gives me 4 more deffguns to blast away at my enemies with (in the old squad of 10 had a mech with a rokkit). To do this, and get in all the other stuff I want to add in it probably means I am going to have to drop the Shoota Boyz, at least in 1850pt games. So as of now here is the new list am leaning towards, at least till I test it some and find out is does not work at all, sigh


Warboss and Big Mek (KFF)

2 mobs of 12 Trukk Boyz with Nobz w/ Power Klaws

2 mobs Boyz w/ Nob and Sluggas/Choppas, one 30 Boyz, one 20 Boyz

5 Nobz in a Battle Wagon

10 Tank Bustas mounted up in a Looted Wagon

12 Lootaz

4 Deff Koptas with TL Rokkits


Thoughts?

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