Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Araby Ogres Project

A few days ago I asked the blogosphere for help, concerning green stuff and sculpting some army-specific items for my Araby-themed Ogres....
Some of you were quick to answer my call with useful information, tips and tools of the trade, for which I am very thankful!

It was Miniature Tim who decided to take one for the Ogres team. Good ole Tim has offered his skills, time and tutelage to help yours truly with some very-needed green stuff tutorials. VIDEO tutorials, mind you! I will be sending Tim a few of my boring, generic Ogres, which he will probably transform into fierce mercenaries of the Middle East.

brOgre power!
 This is still an early post to notify you of this awesome collaboration between Wolves for the Wolf God and Miniature Tim's blog. This is still work in progress, but expect sculpting tutorials on how to make turbans, vests and maybe even sashes out of Green Stuff for your armies. Even if you are not planning on fielding Ogres you never know when the Oriental will summon you, so stand by and hopefully we'll have something to show you guys in a few weeks?

Until then I have a bunch of ideas for new posts! Lets see.. a review of both A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns, probably a joint-post with "Frozencore" Joe about the map-based 40k campaign that we created and a bunch of other weird shenanigans..


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Bretonnian Auction!

I know that this is the second auction that I'm promoting on the website, but I swear, I'm not trying to turn this into a pseudo-eBay for miniatures. There are far better places for that... but I don't know about any of them.

A really good friend of mine has decided that Bretonnians are not for his play-style - he loves to "ride out" with his knights in shining armor, but as soon as they clash with his opponents he quickly loses interest. So, he has decided to find a better home for his Bretonnians, hopefully to start a Dwarven army with some of the funds from the auction. If you are interested in starting your very own Bretonnian army you should totally check out his link as this wonderful lot has everything you'll ever need on the battlefield and then some more. And more importantly.. it's cheap!
And in case heavily armored noblemen on horses are not your thing you could always buy the Bretonnians and use them as canned food for your Ogres, or as a cool way to oh.. I dunno.. act out Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Don't forget to mention this blog if you end up buying this army!


Coconut shells not included..
The army lot includes:
1 Games Workshop model case
1 Bretonnian Army Book
1 battle standard knight
1 knight general
1 green knight 
Trebuchet w/ Full Crew
Grail Reliaque w/ 18 supported peasants
2 damsel (1 on foot, 1 on horse)
7 pegasus knights
49 knights
57 bowmen
52 men at arms
6 wood barriers
2 boxes of bretonnian bits

Everything has been assembled very well.  The knights are not glued to the horse to allow a much better paint job of the models.  The grail reliaquae is not fully assembled but all the parts are in tack and in their original box.  Some of the shields on the men at arms are not attached because I intended to paint them separately but never got around to that, those parts are all kept in a plastic bag for assembly.  As far as the bits are concerned, I have two boxes of sprue bits from the bretonnian battlion boxes that will be included in the shipment.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Ogre Auction! Get them before they get skinny!

A friend of mine is selling his painted Ogre Kingdoms army! I don't know why, I guess he's not cool enough to body slam people with his sweaty Ogres... He bought them about a year ago to get some fresh air and to play an army that was not his Dark Elves, which were curb-stomping many of the armies at the store.The army has everything you need to start your very own Ogre Kingdoms army and they are painted in a which I'm sure my friend will share with you if you dare to ask. Plus it has a Giant, and Giants are friggin' cool! Check the link down below and if you are personally not interested... why not share it with your friends? And if you do end up buying this army, tell my friend that you saw it first on Wolves for the Wolf God.
I leave you with my buddy's words to you:

This is an Ogre Kingdoms army as seen in the picture. I am looking to unload one of my armies to make room for another and this is the one. With the exception of the giant and 2nd butcher the army is fully painted, and half based. There are also Gut Magic markers included, movement trays, and all of my extra ogre bits including 24 gnoblars that are not pictured. This is basically a fully painted battalion box, bull box, tyrant, and giant (unpainted). It is painted very well beyond the standard 3 color table top standard. This army is ready to play out of the box, with some room for a personal touch through the unpainted giant. I will be individually bubble wrapping the models for shipping. Any questions feel free to contact me. Also if you would like to see close ups of the army please send me a message. 




The army includes:
1 Tyrant
2 Butchers/Slaughtermasters
10 Bulls
7 Ironguts
1 converted Ogre that can serve as Bruiser, Irongut or Bull
4 Leadbelchers
1 Gorger
1 Giant

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Attention to all Green Stuff pros: Help wanted!

You! Yes, you who can create the unthinkable by mixing blue and yellow stuff.
I am looking at you and you know who you are. You have the power and right now your skills in the fields of Green Stuff manipulation are required.

I am asking the hobby community for assistance with my current project and this time I am hoping for your guidance and tutelage.

What is it this time?
My Ogres. 

While building my brand new Ogres I was constantly trying to come up with a theme for them. At first I wanted to give them an Ice theme and use Thundertusks, the Dragonhide banner and even some Yhetees. Then I scrapped the whole thing and decided to go with a... Fire theme, which would have Firebellies, volcanoes, lava.. you know how it goes. But it was all too simple, all too.. bland. I really needed something special and more flavorful.

Enter Araby Ogres. 
The idea of big, massive Ogres carrying big, massive scimitars, all wearing turbans and colorful vests got me motivated enough to expand my Ogre army pretty quickly. Quicker than I anticipated, actually. It is supposed to be a nice blend of fluff and good units that would look good on the tabletop, but would also perform well and actually win games. Think about it..
- Ali Baba and his 40 Gnoblar thieves 
- Firebelly on an Araby Magic Flying Carpet
- Djinn Slaughtermaster
- Efreet Gorgers


The problem?
Green stuff. Not the amount of it that will be needed, but its use. I think I'm decent when it comes to making simple things out of Green Stuff, but I have always been a learner. I guess I just prefer to visually see what I need to do and how to do it before I attempt it. It's less scary that way.
I this situation I know what I want to do with Green stuff.. I just don't know how to do it or where to begin. It's.. too daunting a task.

And this is where I'm asking you for help.
I would really appreciate any and all tips, pointers, maybe even videos on how to start this project. Some of the things I'll need to learn how to sculpt are turbans, vests, fezzes.

Can some of you sculptors extraordinaire help a fellow hobbyist out? Think of it as a challenge and a way to help me and the community as I'm pretty sure that whatever you sculpt, write or record will be extremely useful not only to me but to a boat-load of gamers.
Also, any painting tips on how to paint my Ogres would be very appreciated. I want them to have a Middle-Eastern look, without being too extreme.

Friday, October 14, 2011

My Aporkalyptik Dream of running a unit of 100 Deffkoptas..

"An ork Big Mek once dreamed of flying and built himself a Deffkopta. Now he is bored with flying at breakneck speeds and simply wishes to walk again... on top of a cloud of Deffkoptas."

A hundred Deffkoptas? In one unit? :O
If you are an Ork player you probably can relate to this crazy idea of mine that will unfortunately probably never happen.

Some of you surely dream of one day building the biggest Stompa or running Da Green Tide with at least 1,000 Ork Boyz. Or.. I don't know.. somehow build a vehicle or create a single unit that in one round of shooting can produce hundreds if not thousands of shots.
You know, man-childish nonsensical ideas like that.
Funny thing how it is always about numbers and sizes with Orkz, huh?

No. Not you, metal $33 Deffkopta. No one likes your style. Go away.
My current obsession are Deffkoptas. I want at least 100 of them, because they are most definitely one of the coolest looking Ork models Games Workshop has ever made, because their rules are fun, fluffy and killy and because ....well.. DAKKA! Need I say more?



 But wait.. Deffkoptas only have a Unit Composition of 1-5! How could I possibly ever run a unit of a hundred of 'em? Well, for once I'm thankful for Apocalypse, which not only offers a nifty battle formation but is also the perfect system to field that many orky jetbikes in, because let me tell you what - the unit will eat up your points. All of your points. It's like the school bully that used to beat you up on your way to school and used to take your lunch money to spend them on tokens at the nearby Arcade..

Enter the Deffkopta Big Choppa Skwadron from Apocalypse Reloaded!
The "tax" you have to pay for this ridiculous formation is just 100 points and is totally worth the silliness that you get.

Yes! It blends!
First of all - Whirrin' Deff. You know that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark in which Indiana Jones is fighting with the stacked Nazi guy next to the plane? Remember what happened to the Nazi guy at the end of the fight. Yeah. Now you can bring the obligatory death-by-airplane-blades scene to a tabletop near you! This allows all of your Deffkoptas in close combat to exchange their attacks for a D6+1 S6 attacks instead, to represent their attempts to slurpify your opponent's little plastic dudemen. Just don't roll any 1's, though, because at the end of the combat you will lose that many Deffkoptas due to explosions.
Oh well, I'm gonna have like 100 of them. 


Floor it Boyz: Having the Strategic Redeployment move once per game is a sweet asset. One that lets you move anywhere on the table while also being able to move within 12'' of your enemies is just amazing. Sure, you don't get to shoot or assault, but being able to drop a blob of ~100 Deffkoptas on a vital objective is petty much the best thing ever. EVER.

Bommz Away: Basically an alternative version of the Bigbommz Deffkoptas may take. Once per game you get to drop this Apocalyptic Barrage weapon on a unit you passed over in the Movement phase. Yes, it means that you can use it while Turbo-boosting or using Strategic Redeployment, since it doesn't count as shooting and it takes place at the end of the Movement phase. It's not too powerful, but it will cause some damage to horde units, swarms, etc. It is S4, AP5 and is Apocalyptic Barrage-X, where X is the number of Deffkoptas in the unit. Yes, it means that you would roll 100 times to see what parts of the Apocalyptic Barrage are hit. You just place that bad boy on.. anything... and it will die. Hundreds of Tyranids/Orkz, blobs of Guardsmen? DEAD. Also, it's a Barrage weapon.. so possibly no cover saves as well. You just pick a unit and it be pulverized. Death from above, baby!


The rest:
Batshit Insane: Remember how your 1-5 Deffkoptas are afraid of losing any models, because their Mob Rule is always unavailable? They are now a Ld 100 Fearless unit, haha.


Tuff as Nailz: At T4(5) and 2 Wounds, Deffkoptas are already pretty durable. Add a decent 4+ armor save and a 3+ cover save from its turbo-boosters. Which also brings up a pretty interesting questions - If Deffkoptas use their Floor it Boyz rule and end up at least 18'' away from their starting position... do they count as turbo-boosting?

How to Make them Extra Tuff:
Oh, sup Mad Dok Grotsnik! What's that? Any model in my army can get cybork bodies for +5 pt./model, you say? I'll take a 100, thank-you-very-much. You can keep the extra parts, of course.
A 5+ invulnerable save will come in handy against all those Strength D weapons that ignore your cover saves.


MORE Dakka or More DAKKA?
This one is tough. Do I run them bare-bones with their delicious twin-linked big shootas, allowing the entire unit to be in range of their targets? Do splurge the extra 1000 points to run them all with twin-linked rokkits launchas and go after.. oh, I dunno, any Super Heavy with my 100 rokkits? I don't think I'd bother with kustom mega-blastas. Or do I perhaps run them as a mixed unit - some ratio of big shootas/rokkits? Maybe 6 out of 10 with big shootas to save some points?

Nah. Go big or go home, I say. Why avoid the chance to pay 5000 points on one unit?

Man, I can just see my opponents' faces. "You brought WHAT?!?"
It's definitely not a game winner. Mighty be on the beardy side, but it will look mighty impressive on the table and can threaten one unit at best. You could use them to screen your entire army, though.


How far am I from obtaining 100 Deffkoptas?
Eh. Not very. I only have around 12 of them, but my friend is saving a bunch for me once I get the money. I'm buying them for ~$5 a pop. So if any of you want to contribute to this insane cause and want to contribute somehow to this truly, truly outrageous Fleet.. hit me up at neiskata DOT gak AT gmail DOT com. Who knows, maybe you have a few Deffkoptas to spare or guilt me into buying.

One day it will happen.
And it will be glorious.
Oh, so glorious.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

HotPANDA's 100th Post Giveaway!

FREE STUFF! 

Well. Possibly. Only if you are awesome and the Dice Gods smile upon your fate, though.
If you would like to learn more about this awesome G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y, then you should check out HotPANDA's awesome blog: The Chaos Manifesto for more information.



The lovely doughnut-hatin' robot-lover Panda of the hot variety is celebrating his 100th blog post with a sweeet giveaway and the more people subscribe to his blog by a certain date, the sweeter the prize will be.

I mean.. the prize support could be better. Like.. a friggin robot or something. Throne, HotPANDA, what the frakk, man? Where is my life-sized, fully-operational Space Wolves Imperator-class Titan?
If I win, don't even bother sending me that delicious, succulent Games Workshop voucher! I want my robot.

Tell you what. If I WIN, I'm sending you a dozen doughnuts and you'll have to make a video and eat every single one of them. In one sitting. After all, we all know how much you love your doughnuts. NOT!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Rock-Con 2011! My first singles 40k Tournament!

You guys! I am super excited! 
Why? 
Because I just signed up for Rock-Con 2011, which will have a Warhammer 40,000 Tournament!! 

Ogre Kingdoms (Slave)Giants: Are they worth it?

Hello, hello, hello. Long time no see, I know, but as always I have been a busy little gamer! As promised, the shiny, new Ogres have been built and have seen some tabletop action against the other races of Warhammer.

But we are here to discuss GIANTS!

My Ogre Kingdoms Giant!
As a leftover from my unsuccessful Orcs and Goblins Waaaagh, my Giant quickly found his place in my Ogre Kingdoms list, even at 1000 pt. games. At first, he was just a giant point-sink - something worth 200 points that allowed me to quickly fill-up a list. Add to the fact that Giants are quick to field, sturdy, easy to transport (no puny, fiddly details, not finecast - just good ole plastic!) and you can see why I decided to include one in my previous army. Heck, the previous sentence is also the reason why I'm playing Ogre Kingdoms in the first place..

So.. what do you get?
Well, for 200 points you get possibly one of the most balanced, well-rounded big, nasty creatures in Warhammer Fantasy. A random table of effects allows a giant to deal with other big monsters either by killing or shutting them down and he excels at stomping on big blocks of guys or holding them in one place until your Ogres get in position for some delicious flank charges. Add to that the benefit of the survivability granted by Lore of the Great Maw and maybe you'll see why a Giant can be a great addition to your army. Lets start with the most obvious reason to use a Giant:

Bullet Magnet:
A Giant is the cheapest big monster that you can add to your list and as such he should be used to taunt your opponent and fish out his artillery, magic missiles and shooting.
Multiple Wounds: In other armies Giants stick like a sore thumb and are surrounded by big blocks of numerous models with only one wound. As such they are usually the first thing to be shot at by cannons, balistas, etc.However, if you do use a Giant in your OK you'll realize that their biggest importance is to be the center of attention. You want cannons to shoot at them and not at your Ogres and Ironguts, because they will go through your models, they will wound them and they WILL cause multiple wounds to your Ogres.
Sure, they have no armor, but what they lack in defense they have in Toughness. With 6 Wounds and Toughness 5, I Giant can and will absorb some shooting. If you manage to get some soft cover from specific terrain pieces, many archer units will hit you on 6's and wound you on 6's. Your biggest weakness will be some of the army-specific magic missiles which hit automatically and have a high Strength.

However, your best augment spells can greatly benefit your giant! Toothcracker adds +1T, making your Giant even harder to wound at T6. However, what truly makes the Ogre Kingdoms Giant is the ability to give him Regeneration. Yep, a 4+ save by casting Trollguts. Hit your lumbering behemoth with that spell and all of a sudden he's getting some awesome resistance against most attacks.
Similarly, casting Toothcracker on your other units will make them T5, thus making them equally hard to kill. What does that mean, then? Well, it will force your opponent to make choices, especially if they are shooting you with S3. All of a sudden your army is tougher to kill and your opponent has to decide what to go for and every time there are decisions to be made there will be mistakes!

Beast Slayer
Giant are great at "tar-pitting" and even slaying your opponents monster, chariots, cavalry, etc.
But before we discuss his arsenal against the big, nasty things.. let me reveal to you what the most important factor is: Initiative 3. That's right. A Giant's most awesome stat when it comes to fighting monster is his average Initiative. Many creatures have lower Initiative than your Giant and in many cases it is vital for him to strike first. Hydras are I 2, Necrosphinxes - I 1, etc. etc. Coincidentally, their low Initiative makes them that much easier to kill. When fighting Big Things you roll on a chart to see what happens. Half of the time you basically shut down your target until the next turn. The other half is a painful thump with club.. 
Yell an Ball - If you roll a 1 on the table for killing Big Things (which affects Monsters, Monstrous Beasts, Monstrous Infantry, Monstrous Cavalry, Chariots, War Machines, etc.) you automatically end the combat and with by 2 points. This is great as a tar-pitting "technique" and will save you against some especially hard-hitting things - like giant blocks of Always Strike Last great weapon-wielders. A lot of the time monsters are stubborn but have low Initiative, so your chances of making your opponent's scary beast to run away are pretty good!
Thump with Club - (2-4) This is the deadliest weapon your Giant has against big things. A failed Initiative test inflicts 2d6 automatic wounds. No armor saves allowed. Remember how I mentioned that many monstrous creatures have piss-poor Initiative? This is when it truly, truly matters. I've killed Hydras and Necrosphinxes without even taking a wound. Yeah, a Necrosphinx has Heroic Killing Blow, T8, S8 (I think) and other nasty surprises, but with an Initiative of 1 that failed test will inflict 7 wounds on average, thus instakilling it. ;D Thump with Club tests against the lowest Initiative in a unit (so a Chariot will have to pass an I2 because of its Cold One or Horse), so that makes it useful against mixed units as well.
'eadbutt: On a 5 or 6, your Giant inflicts an automatic wound on any model in the unit. No armor saves. The model is then "stunned" and if it hasn't attacked this turn it loses all of its attacks. If it has, it loses next turn's attacks. Yet another tar-pit ability useful against things without a Ward save or Regeneration. It will save your skin many, many times!

Suicide Horde-Stomper
Sometimes it is necessary to have one or two units that can dish out enough damage to horde units just to reduce their ranks. At 200 points your Giant is 22 points cheaper than your 6-man Ogre unit with Iron Fists and Full command. Not to mention that he does not have a banner, so when he dies (and he most definitely will), your opponent will only be able to capture his loincloth.
What should you aim for? Obviously lower Strength, lower Initiative blocks of guys - Empire Halberds, pretty much anything Lizardmen, Orcs, Goblins, other Ogres. Going after blocks of Dark Elves is tough, because of Hatred, but you have Terror and if you're lucky their WS will be reduced. Same goes for the other armies - when charged or getting charged don't forget to mention your Terror ability, because a failed Ld check by your opponent will mean you're getting on 5's, rather on 3's or 4's.
Your Ld10 and Stubborn mean you don't care if you get the charge or not. If you use your Giant as a suicide unit you'll be going after other Stubborn regiments.
The trick is that even if you lose, even if you die before using any of your Special Attacks you still have a chance of doing tons of damage by falling on them. Most of the time you'll be hitting around 15+ small models and wound them on 2+ (S6). Also, Multiple Wounds (d3) on bigger things, so multiple wound blocks are also in trouble if your Giant falls on them. And if you somehow survive your epic charge.. well.. that's a bonus, I guess. No matter how badly you lost by you are Ld10 Stubborn, so just don't fail at rolling dice. Oh, and don't roll a 1 after losing.. :P