Orcs & Hobgoblins

 I know, I know

 

It’s almost been 6 months since an update however, what an update I have for you in store. I haven’t spent the last 6 months sitting idle. No sir, I have been putting ‘paint to plastic’ and have moved further towards my goal of having a lovely painted Chaos Dwarf army. Now, without further a-do, let me take you through what I’ve achieved.

 

(Unit 1 – Black Orcs)

 

Okay so slightly cheating but, if you look at the front row of the unit, you’ll find a new edition. When Clive was growing up, his mum and dad looked lovingly into his eyes and said “… you can be whatever you want to be, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise…”.

 

Clive took their comments to heart, did a bit of thinking, and came back to them 3 months later and said that he wanted to be a Black Orc. They laughed. Though disappointed he ignored them. He told his mates at school too and they laughed. Over time Clive developed quiet a bit of a temper and one day, whilst some other goblins were mocking him at school, he found a hammer in the caretaker’s room and started kneecapping fellow students. This got him expelled, but he never forgot his dream.

 

One day he plucked up the courage to find a unit of Black Orcs and, with his hammer ask to join their unit. They laughed however, once joined in battle, they soon found that, having ‘Angry Clive’ with his hammer, taking out the enemies’ knees was a big help. Soon no one mocked Clive. He identifies to this day as a Black Orc and no one says anything otherwise.

 

OR

 

It could be that the Black Orc character next to him takes up more space than his 30cm base therefore, no normal Black Orc would rank properly next to him … so I needed a smaller model.

 

So, 401 points done

 

(Unit 2 – 2 Bolt throwers)

 

I am sorry but, I just couldn’t get the light right for these. I decided to use the Lord of The Rings Uruk-hai Ballista as a bolt thrower with hobgoblin crew. One crew is from the old Age of Sigma Hobgoblin range and the other is from the new. I think they work pretty well together

 

Whereas the Black Orcs stick to a ‘goblin green’ highlight for their skin (and Clive has Goblin Green + Bleached Bone) the Hobgoblins have Goblin Green + Snotling Green mix as a highlight. This now gives me 3 different tones of green flesh, brining more story to the army. Also, as these hobgoblins are special - as they command an artillery piece - they get red armour. Chaos Dwarfs are reluctant to give out red armour as they see it as a prize to note importance. It’s a very rare thing and, usually hobgoblins will have black armour.

 

Points wise, these two add another 90 points to the army

 

(Unit 3 – 2 Sneaky Gitz mobs)

 

Also with red armour are two prized Sneak Gitz mobs consisting of 14 models in each with full command (though Sneaky Gitz can’t have a standard but, doesn’t matter really). These are ambushers, evasive and skirmishers allowing for baggage raids. At 96 points for 14 they are cheap, and they can shoot. I do believe this set of abilities gives them the right to adorn red armour.

 

Finally, I can rank them up into a unit of 32 hobgoblins. It’s 32 because I do have unit fillers coming up next. At the end of the project, if I have spare models, I might fill the last four spaces. Also, within this unit are two standards and four musicians. One of each is placed within the front rank however, the others are scattered in the other ranks. This is a warband levy unit; I just can’t see them turning up to battle in nice neat lines with only one musician and standard. Flags will be flying everywhere and the drums will be deafening. My other Hobgoblin units will have the same.

 

96 points for 14 equals 192pts for all 28 with musician and champion.

 

(Unit 4 – Trolls)

 

As you can see, I have three trolls painted and they, have their skin highlighted a green one level down from Goblin Green. This now gives me four different green skin tones. As these are unit fillers for Hobgoblins, Black Orcs and a unit by themselves, they need to be on 40mmx40mm, 50mmx50mm and 60mmx60mm bases … all at the same time. Whilst scouring the internet I found that Warbases did some bases with extenders. I have purchased them and now all I need to do is paint them up … but hopefully you can envisage what it’ll look like.

 

Round up

 

So 587points now done. Though it’s taken a while, I love the little details of why the armour is the colour it is or, why that model has that skin tone. The army is coming alive in more ways than one.

 

Next up I’ll continue with two more big units of Hobgoblins but this time, being regular, they’ll be in black armour.

 

I have also realised that, as I am painting all the hobgoblins first, I’ll actually be closer to building an Orc & Hobgoblin army than a Chaos Dwarf one. For 2,000pts all I’ll need extra is 5 characters, 9 fanatics, 2 Doom Divers and 2 Giant squigs. That’ll be much quicker to paint up than the dwarf part of my Chaos Dwarf contingent. So, it looks like I am sort of collecting Orcs & Hobgoblins. Then I’ll do a ‘Chaotic Dwarf army’ and, as a result, I’ll have a Chaos Dwarf army. Well, it’s the end result that counts.

 

Toodle Pip!

6 months and 18 figures completed

Well not quiet … there are only 17 models here and, I did take 6 weeks off in November/December to paint some Bretonnians but still … this unit has taken a very long time to get onto the table however, I am very happy with it.

 

So, the first unit for my Chaos Dwarf army has been completed… and yet, not a single Chaos Dwarf can be found. Black Orcs, I would argue, are more themed within a Chaos Dwarf list than in an Orc and Goblin one because Chaos Dwarfs actually made them. This unit of 18 will form the centre of my force.

 

The armour is black; washed with Atherax Earthshade to give it a gloss look and edge highlighted with a light grey (which the camera has really picked out … it’s not that noticeable). The skin, for me, is quite interesting. I am planning on having trolls (yes trolls; these will be unit fillers) and hobgoblins within the army making three different ‘green skin’ models. The hobgoblins will give a nod to the past by having the lightest green skin you’ve ever seen whereas, I have decided that the trolls will have a very dark green. This means that my Black Orcs sit in the middle therefore, I have mixed and matched the colour of their skin to blend the two other extremes. I see that, having different tones of green skin, show the different ages of the Black Orcs. The only other noticeable thing within my painting choice is the banner being red with ‘free handed flames’ along the bottom. This is my nod to try and keep the unit together with my Chaos Dwarfs as, they will have red armour. The grey helmeted orc is my champion. Finally the bases are of flowing molten lava and should join up. I decided not to PVA glue the lanes of lava as, on my two test models, it just made the lanes look shiny.

 

So come on Matt; why is there a space in the front rank

 

It’s simple really. The model to the left of the space is my Black Orc Boss and he ‘overfills’ his allotted area, not leaving enough room for a conventional Black Orc model without it looking ‘squashed’. I am therefore going to put a goblin or hobgoblin on that square. Maybe he is the boss’s sidekick. Any funny ideas for a model are more than welcome though, as I play at Warhammer World, it’ll have to be a GW model.

 

Though this unit has taken me 5/6 months, the models are quite ‘beefy’ compared to a Hobgoblin or Dwarf therefore, I hope my other units won’t take as long. The unit is also quite a lot of points:

 

17x Black Orcs

Full Command

Magic Banner – Da Banner of Butchery

9x models with great weapons

8x models with additional hand weapons

Total 283 points

 

(The great thing about having the two weapon options is that I could say to my opponent that the whole unit has whatever the first rank is armed with … meaning that I have two-unit options for the price of one)

 

Black Orc Bigboss

Additional hand weapon

Full plate armour

Trollhide trousers

Total 118pts

 

Grand total 401pts

 

So 20% of the army has been completed within one unit … not bad

 

So what’s next?

 

Next a three trolls I am using as ‘unit fillers’ before I move onto an actual Chaos Dwarf unit. Hopefully my next update won’t be in 6 months! ... Toodle Pip

 

The Old World: Started my Chaos Dwarf Army ... sort of

 Yes behold! I am finally going back to the first army I ever played with during my Warhammer Fantasy days ... Chaos Dwarfs

Okay so it doesn't look like much however I have:

- Built about 1500pts of the army

- Started work on around 200 bases!

So I've decided to do the bases separately. First of all, these aren't your standard Games Workshop bases. These were bought off Etsy because, underneath, they hold a space for a small circular magnet. Very handy as I plan to magnetise them ... and I only got two magnets the wrong way around!

I then sprayed the whole lot red before adding milliput and putting sand over said milliput. So what I am trying to recreated is lava flows with small islands of hardened molten. The molten will be painted black and dry brushed grey (with a little static grass). The lava will be painted red, orange and yellow ... before applying PVA over the top. I hope it works!

I will be getting all of the bases done to a certain level before I start on the infantry. Hopefully, by Christmas, I might have 1,000pt force ... fingers crossed!

Toodle Pip!

Biggest Game I have ever played

 When I had finished my Warhammer 40,000 Nurgle Marine army, I wanted to get it all out on a beautiful table at Warhammer World, and play a game...

... just once

This weekend, that happened. At 10am I met Al - Demons and Alpha Legion Player - where we took 90 minutes to setup 10,000 points per side, and 5 and half hours to play two turns!

It was still worth it. The visual spectacle ... and all the people who came up for a photo and a chat ... made it a lot of fun and made me realise that 10th isn't too bad...

But it could be a lot better :)

Below are some photos

Legions Imperialis: Part one completed

 Sorry for the 'not so great photos'. Models are quite small in Legions so still trying to get used to photographing them ... and the fact that I chose Word Bearers - a dark red - stuck to a dark brown base doesn't help.

Below are images of 'part one' of my Legions army. I currently have no unpainted Legions marines in my house! Everything I have bought for this army has been painted ... and not many people can say that!

So what do I have in my army?

4x Command stands (100pts)

10x Rhinos (100pts)

4x Tactical detachment - 16 stands (140pts)

2x Tactical upgrade stands (12pts)

1x Plasma gun detachment - 4 stands (35pts)

1x Missile Launcher detachment - 4 stands (40 pts)

1x Assault detachment - 4 stands (30pts)

1x Terminator detachment - 4 stands (50pts)

1x Rapier Battery - 2 stands: Laser destroyer array (40pts)

1x Rapier Battery - 2 stands: Quad launchers (40pts)

1x Leviathan Siege Dreadnought detachment - 4 stands (75pts)

1x Legion Dreadnought Talon detachment - 8 stands (130pts)

1x Tarantula Battery - 2 stands: Lascannon battery (36pts)

1x Tarantula Battery - 2 stands: Missile Launcher (36pts)

1x Deredeo Dreadnought detachment - 4 stands (85pts)

1x Predator squadron - 3 stands (115pts)

1x Sicaran squadron - 2 stands (105pts)

1x Kratos squadron - 4 stands (260pts)

6x Xiphon Interceptors (570pts)

2x Storm Eagles (200pts)

2x Fire Raptors (200pts)

1x Thunderhawk (150pts)

1x Outrider squadron: 4 stands (60pts)

1x Scimtar Jetbikes squadron: 6 stands (70pts)

1x Land Speeder squadron: 4 stands (60pts)

1x Lavelin squadron: 4 stands (66pts)

4x Spartans: 2 pintle mounted multimeltas (330pts)

6x Land Raiders: 2 pintle mounted multimeltas (250pts)

4x Drop Pods: 1 Palisade Drop Pod (50pts)

4x Dreadnought Drop Pods: 1 Palisade Drop Pod (53pts)

Grand total 3488 (plus all the titans and knights you could ever want)

So what's next: In truth I am struggling to get to grips with the game. In my opinion ... there are far too many special rules that it's hard to remember them all. I am going to sell my imperial guard stuff for the game and just concerntrate on marines. I shall play the game for the next 6 months or so and, if I get it, buy more and build the army up. If not, maybe see this force.

We shall see!

Legions Imperials: The Start

 It’s taken over a year.

 

Legions Imperials came out in October 2023 and I, like so many others, was super excited. Epic 40,000 and Epic Armageddon were two of my favourite games. I also love Aeronautica Imperialis and Adeptitus Titanicus. So, having all these models in one game themed around the Horus Hersey … what wasn’t there to like?

 

Well … I was pretty shocked, when I wrote my first 3,000pt army, with the amount of stuff you could put onto the battlefield. Compared to Epic Armageddon, I’d need close to three times the amount of infantry. With the board size shrunk, I was getting worried that the game play would lose any aspect of strategic movement it once had. Add to this early supply issues and, the first online battle reports not all being overly positive, I decided to complete a few other painting projects along the way.

 

It has therefore taken over a year to get my army into a position where I can field it and play a game. Note I say ‘army into a position’; it’s not all painted yet. This Christmas I set myself, and completed, a project to base all my painted Legions Infantry which had been on sprues for months. Because I paint infantry on the sprue, I can’t use it in a game until painted hence, why it’s taken so long. So, I only have planes and drop pods left which have been built and sprayed so, can be used.

 

Below is my first attempt at a 3,000pt Word Bearer legions army list (I need to get rid of 4pts). As I have 10,000 points of Titans and knights, I am determined to make sure that these are included in my force … hence why my Legion infantry have bases which match my titans and knights. I also feel that my marine army should be hard hitting and lighting quick, hence why lots of flyers

 

Legion Garrison force (546pts)
Infantry command (25pts)
Rapier battery - Quad launcher (40pts)
tarantula battery - 2 lascannon / 2 air defence (36pts)
Tactical detachment (35pts)
Dreadnought talon (70pts)
Deredo Dreadnought (85pts)
3x Xiphon intercept (255pts)

Legion Aerial assault (770pts)
Infantry command (25pts)
Missile launcher - Storm eagle (140pts)
Tactical detachment - Storm eagle (135pts)
Outrider squad (30pts)
Legion Assault (30pts)
Plasma gun support (35pts)
Thunder hawk (150pts)
3x Xiphon intercept (255pts)

Legion Demi company (612pts)
Infantry command - Rhino (35pts)
Tactical detachment - Rhino (45pts)
Tactical detachment - Rhino (45pts)
Terminator detachment (50pts)
2x Raptors (200pts)
Leviathan Dreadnought - 2 drop pods + palisade (121pts)
Talon Dreadnoughts - 2 drop pods+ palisade (116pts)

Legion Skyhunter (226pts)
Scimitar jet bikes (35pts)
Scimitar jet bikes (35pts)
Outrider squad (30pts)
Javelin squad - 2x extra (66pts)
Landspeeders squad - 2x extra (60pts)

Warlord titan (600pts)

Acastus knight (250pts)

Total 3004pts

 

So next up are the planes and drop pods. After this, I have two boxes of land raiders to paint. The idea then is to have a break from painting legions, and paint up my ‘Old World’ Chaos Dwarfs whilst playing lots of legions. I reckon it’ll take me so long to paint up my Chaos Dwarfs that, I would have had lots of games of legions. Those games will allow me to work out exactly what I would want to paint up next for this game within ‘tranche 2’.

 

Toodle Pip!

And with my Eldar fleet finished, that’s Aeronautica Imperials done for me!

It might amaze you when I say that, with Necromunda (old version), 1^st edition of Aeronautica Imperialis (let’s be honest; 2^nd edition is almost the same as 1^st … just has a board so no guess ranges … which I miss) is my favourite Games Workshop game of all time. It’s simple yet, I feel, really captures the aesthetic of aerial combat without getting bogged down. A friend and I have had many an interesting campaign blowing up VIP convoys, transporting troops into a battlefield and reenacting vicious dog fights in the sky.

 

As mentioned in my Tau post above. I owned a huge old 1^st Edition Tau fleet and painted it to a level I was very happy with. The only mistake I made was that this was the only fleet I owned and so, a part from my regular fleet commander (opponent), I was unable to get in games with anyone else as the game was no longer sold by GW and, I didn’t have a spare fleet. Also, when second edition did come along and I could buy another fleet … surprise, surprise the model scale was vastly different.

 

I therefore sold my old Tau fleet which allowed me to purchase a new 2^nd edition Tau fleet AND an Eldar fleet. I made sure that no previous mistakes were made as I made sure both fleets were a very good size. I am pleased to let you all know that now, both are painted.

 

For the Eldar, I decided to go the classic route of siam-hein (red top and white bottom). I used my new airbrush to do most of the red (Two GW reds; Menphiston and Evil Sunz Scarlet red) as I feel Eldar planes lead themselves nicely to airbrushing. For the gems, I went for a green with a dot of white in the top-right corner. Finally, the pilot’s canopy was white with a thin wash of blue. I feel the combination works … okay-ish. Overall, I did enjoy painting this fleet. I love the Eldar aesthetic in all of Games Workshop’s futuristic systems.

 

Below are some images to feat your eyes upon:

 Matt's Eldar Aeronautica Fleet

 

Whole fleet

 

 

 

2x Nightshade Interceptors - these guys seem redicilously fast

2x Helmlock fighters - I know I haven't played much of second edition however, they seem a little broken with their weapons. If I was my opponent, these boys would be 'target number one'.

1x Vampire Hunter

1x Vampire Raider

3x Phoenix Bombers

6x Nightwings

2x Anti-air platforms and a wraithgate

Right, that's me done for AI now. I am back onto my Legions Imperialis army which seems to never end. I really hope I will have a massive update in time for Christmas however, with two young children ... who knows...

Until next time ... toodle pip