More Boyz for the Mob

 
More Boyz for Waaagh Scrivs were completed over the past few days with another two units added to the warband.

Some heavy hand-to-hand hitters in the form of 10 Beast Snagga Boyz. Led by a Nob with Power Snappa, eight Orks with Shoota and Choppa and an Ork with a Thump Gun.

They are great models with some excellent details, each one is draped in the hide of some great beast and the figures are festooned with "teef" and glyphs. 

The Beast Snagga's are an equal opportunities mob, physical disability is no bar to membership, most of the figures have bionic limbs and eyes and there are signs of lobotomies and many scars from hideous wounds.

I liked painting these so much that a second box has already been purchased.

Having got a couple of games under my belt, I've come to the realization that if you are going to use Grots in your Ork force then you should go big or go home, so a couple of packs of Grots were bought and added to the force.

These Grots are certainly grotty models, the finish on the raw models is like a cheap plastic toy and there are loads of mould lines to be cleaned up. But, after a extended cleaning they do seem to come out ok.

There are not so many areas on these Grots for me to go nuts with the rust theme, but, I've added it where I can. 

Once the additional unit of Beast Snaggas are painted this will bring my Ork Mob nicely up to 1000 points with a few options for force selection. But, as I've so far only got one HQ choice, no Elite choices and only one each of Heavy and Fast Attack choices to go with the six troop choices I can see a few other bits and bobs being added.

Crumpin' into a storm of steel

 

Thursday was another outing for the Orks, this time against Matt and his Crimson Fists. 

Both forces were 750pts. I had my force of Warboss in Mega Armour, Runtherd, 10 Grots, unit of 14 Boyz, unit of 17 Boyz, 3 Deffkopters, Deff Dredd with 4 Dread Klaws. Matt had (IIRC), Captain, 5 Marines with Plasma, 5 Marines with Assault Bolters, 5 Marines with Heavy Bolters, Dread with Gatling Cannons, Trike with Heavy Bolters.

We randomized the Ransack mission and got set up. Matt was quite concerned about my Deffkopters so when I deployed them behind the building, Matt deployed a lot of his troops on his right flank, although my Kopters would be more vulnerable than I hoped this had a positive impact on the battle for me.

Matt won the first turn and opened up with everything, by the end of the first turn my ablative Grots and my right flank Boyz were gone and one off the Deffkopters was dead. I would not be advancing into that firing line.

In my first turn everything went hide behind over, I would at least make Matt move to be able to unleash that firepower on me again, my Deff Dread was most advanced, hiding behind a building waiting to get the jump on the Assault Bolter Marines. In his turn, Matt moved up but was no longer in such a target rich environment. 

At the start of my turn I bagged fifteen points for the objectives, and called a Waaagh. The Deff Dredd lumbered into the Assault Bolter Marines and the remaining Boyz piled onto the Trike, by the end of the turn I'd mashed up two of the Marine units and extended the range to the other Marines. In his turn Matt shot up the Deff Dredd and caused some mayhem among the remaining Boyz but they survived.

I spent the remaining turns hiding behind terrain from Matt's gun-line, but, having bagged fifteen points in objectives earlier and with Matt deploying in a position that was advantageous for shooting, but not so for scoring objective points I won the game in a most un-Orky way.

Midgard: Hundred Years War clash

It's back to back gaming at Scrivsland, following on from the American Civil War action on Saturday we played a Hundred Years War battle on Sunday using my collection with the Midgard rules that James is currently playtesting and will hopefully be published soon.

Initial deployments

James played a French force, led by the Duke of Orleans (L2) accompanied by the Constable of France (L1), the Duke of Brabant (L1) and the Counts of Eu (L1) and Vendôme (L1), these led a force of four units of mounted men at arms, two units of foot men at arms, a unit of billmen, two units of spearmen and a unit of crossbowmen.

Paul and I commanded the English, led by Henry V (L4), the Duke of York (L2), Baron Camoys (L1) and Sir Thomas Erpingham (L1), the English troops were four units of foot men at arms and six units of bowmen.

We would be trying out some stakes rules for bowmen for the first time.

Vendôme and his knights push up the left flank

The English deployed quite far back with a centre of men at arms supported on each side by archers, a detachment of archers and men at arms was deployed on our right to counter any French attacks around the woods there.

The French concentrated their main body in the centre, and as expected two units of Gendarmes were positioned attempting to exploit around those woods.

The initial French attacks fell on that flank, supported by the stout bowmen emplaced behind their stakes, the Duke of York fended off the attacks although many Englishmen fell, both units remained in the fray.

The General French attack in the front and centre now fell like a hammer blow.

Unfortunately the hammer had been badly forged! Units of French men at arms struggled to make headway against the English bowmen, combats that on paper were foregone conclusions saw English bowmen not only hold the line against the French foot knights, but in some places also drive them off.

The only headway that the French were making was on the left flank, where their levy spearmen and mercenary crossbowmen were driving back the English archers, the French mounted and foot men at arms could only look on in anguish as the commoners fared better.

Seizing the opportunity Henry committed his men at arms to the battle to engage their French opposite numbers.

The French morale collapsed and the English were victorious! Not a single English unit had been eliminated. 

The Constable of France along with the Count of Eu and Count of Vendôme had been captured for lucrative ransoms.

More shots of the action.

A great game in great company.

Antietam: The Bloody Lane

 

Yesterday Martyn, Nick, Steve and myself met up at mine to play the Antietam: Attack on the Bloody Lane scenario for the Pickett's Charge rules.

Martyn and I played the Union attackers while Steve and Nick the Confederates.

We were using all my stuff so I was able to set up the table and sort out the two forces before everybody arrived.

We would be using the Fog of War rules for the first few turns so that table was not that photogenic with bits of paper all over it, the photos of the action are from when most of the troops were deployed.

Meagher's Irish Brigade are fast into the fray 

Rode's Brigade stands fast

Weber's brigade secure a foothold in the sunken lane

Union guns pound the defenders

Martyn and I placed Kimball's brigade in reserve on the right flank and attack with the remaining troops across the line.

Some spirited defensive fire from the Sesesh and abysmal Brigade Command rolls from the Union meant that the attack struggled to make headway, and the most opportunely deployed and miraculously good shotted Confederate battery on their left made short work of Kimball's flank attack with both Union brigades on that side in much disarray.

On our right, the Confederates were so confident they even started counter attacking us, but a spirited charge from the 81st Pennsylvania restored the situation.

Weber's brigade secured a foothold in the sunken lane at great cost to themselves and with Rode's veterans poised to push them out, we called a Confederate victory and went for a pint, or two, at the pub.

Crumpin' time

Thursday saw the first outing for the Ork Boyz and Sam kindly showed agreed to show me the ropes with his Death Watch force.

Based on what we had painted, Sam fielded, Captain Artemis, an Assassin, 2 small Deathwatch kill teams, a Primaris 5-man unit with bolt rifles, and a razorback with twin lascannon. I fielded a Warboss, two units of Boyz, a unit of Gretchin, a Runtherd, three Deffkopters and a Deff Dredd. Both forces were about 750pts.

Sam was the defender and chose sides, then we alternated deploying. I set almost everything (intent was everything) behind terrain. Sam took first turn and grabbed some positions, the only thing that could shoot was the Predator that killed two Ork boyz, a failed Combat Attrition test saw two more bugger off, an inauspicious start.

The Boyz surged forwards, the Deffkopters did rather well, moving onto an objective and making a right mess of, but not destroying the Predator.

Sam then deployed his Assassin against the Warboss and the Predator stormed forwards disgorging their specialist Kill Team. I used the Grot Screen on my left and although all the Gretchin were done for, the boyz on that side survived unscathed. The Deffkopters took a lot of incoming fire from the Kill Team  and the Predator, but one of them survived the shooting phase. 

In the combat phase the last Deffkopter fell to the Kill Team, and although the Kunnin' but Brutal boss based up the Assassin badly both finished the turn on two wounds.

Start of my turn two, time to Waaagh! The Deff Dredd and boyz on my right shoot like mad into the Primaris and charge them, The boyz and Runtherd on my left charge into Captain Artemis and the Deathwatch on that side.

Much combat ensues, the Big Boss splats the Assassin, while the Thunder Hammer armed Kill Team Marine destroys the Deff Dredd, but to naught as the Ork boyz mop up all the Kill Team that had disgorged from the Predator. 

Captain Artemis is gravely wounded and left with only a couple of Marines to escort him.

Artemis and his buddies fall back and my Orks on that side take some fire but survive it. In my second Waaagh phase the Big Boss, Runtherd and last few Boyz charge into Artemis and co while the other boyz slam into the Predator. The combats go the way of the Orks and at the start of Sam's fourth turn he only has the Primaris Marines left. 

Assault Rifle fire kills all but one of the boyz in my unit on the left, and in my turn, some rather splendid 'Ere We Go rerolls sees everything I have pile into the Primaris Marines and mash them all up!

I had a lot of fun and will be doing more of the same next Thursday against Matts Crimson Fists this time.

 

Ork mob in a week (and a day)

 

In a bit of a departure from the usual Scrivsland fare I decided a few weeks ago that I ought to start playing Warhammer 40K after seeing a few great looking games at the club. In other "all the cool kids are doing it" news I also purchased about fifteen Citadel contrast paints.

Warboss in Mega Armour

As a starter for the force, I picked up Combat Patrol: Orks from Firestorm Games and another unit of Boyz from eBay. 

It was then off on vacation for a week in Cornwall where hopefully I'd be able to paint up a small force for some games. 

Ork Boyz - 1

For the initial unit of Boyz I painted I tested out the contrast paints over a primer of grey auto-primer, washed with VMC Black Grey  and then drybrushed with VMC Ivory. 

Initial thoughts on the Contrast Paints are mixed. Some of them are excellent, others are completely underwhelming, take the Gryph Charger grey, honestly, I've had pisses with more pigment in them. 

Ork Boyz - 2

The Ork Flesh is woeful too. I thought that I should maybe not have done the undercoat the way I did so I tried painting Ork Flesh off of a light cream base, that was even worse! The Ork skin tones here are me working up off the Ork Flesh with VMC Flat Green with subsequent lighter layers.

There are no metallic paints in the range, so all weapons and armour were done in Black Templar, for the guns and stik-bombs I did a hard edge highlight in off white, but for the armour and bladed weapons I wanted a rusty effect for that added risk of tetanus. 

Ork Boyz - 3

I've had a lot of practice with rust on my recent Gaslands paint jobs, working up from the Black Templar, I added a thin layer of VMC Gunmetal Grey, added some VMC Saddle Brown to that for another layer then a couple of progressive highlights with more VMC Orange added to the mix.

On the second batch of Boyz I decided to go with a primer of VMC Grey surface primer that is a very light coloured basecoat, I did not apply a wash at all and instead went straight for it with the Contrast Paints. I'll not be doing this method again, I was not that impressed with the previous result but think those came out much worse.

The Contrast browns especially came out much worse than over a gradient basecoat and are really patchy.

Deffkopters

For the vehicles, to keep the theme, I wanted to do a dilapidated rusty look on these so from a grey primer I added a wash of black and then applied a mix of VMC Gunmetal Grey and VMC Saddle Brown, then added successive patches with more and more VMC Clear Orange.

Once the rusting was done the areas to be 'painted' were blocked in with VMC Pale Sand and the rest painted with contrast paints. Again, lesson learned since, before doing the contrast paints the areas to be painted need a wash of black or very dark grey so that the contrast paints get shaded from below.

The bottom pair of arms on the Deff Dredd are not glued on so that I can choose between Big Shoota, Rokitt Launcher, Burna or more close combat weapons.

Everything but one unit of Boyz was painted during the stay in the converted barn in Cornwall with the last unit of Boyz being cranked out on the Sunday after we arrived home. I've already got a unit of Gretchin pretty much completed too.

First game is against Sam on Thursday, I'll hopefully be able to post a report of the mayhem!