Next year I shall mostly be painting.....

After a lot of thinking and some helpful suggestions I've decided to end the year making a start on my old sea elves. These could form an allied contingent to the 80's empire force I'm working on. Not strictly by the armies book but they will make a nice bunch of merchant guards from a sea elf quarter of some city or other. 

They can also venture deep into the interior of a long dreamed of jungle/volcanic island. Also inhabited by Slann, Dark Elves and who knows what other evils, probably some Norse maybe even Nipon or Cathay.

Anyway here is where I start.

Orc give away.

I finally got round to sending Paul his prize for Orctober. Only a few months late but at least it is in time for Christmas. Thanks to all who joined in the Orctober fun, even if I some how managed to contribute very little.

Now pop over to Paul's blog and pester him until he gets the orcs painted.

Serving suggestion.

Too much choice!

OK long time no blog but I guess anyone who has followed my blog  for any time will know I blog in bursts. I'm beginning to feel the urge to paint and blog again but the problem is what.

Now I know a great number of you will roll your eyes when I say part of my problem is having too much stuff. And some of you may even volunteer to help me out by taking some of it off my hands (yeah right). But given my collection is well over 20 years worth of yearly growth sometimes I just despair at where to start.

Doubled my collection of late 80's pree Perry overhaul empire thanks to foundry.

Red period even for blue armies.

I start prepping a pre 89 only empire army then while looking for the box containing that knight I want to use as it's general I rediscover a couple of  90's Razorbacks. Now I really do want that 2nd ed Ultramarine's army painted up. Ooo look didn't I plan to use that set of RT backpacks to convert up some more chaos renegades.


You get the idea and the whole problem isn't helped by the fantastic deals on ebay at the moment. I can only assume people are spending disposable cash on Christmas because a lot of  good stuff is only attracting a few bids at the moment. I just won serious amounts of boxed nighties high elves for 50 quid. We're talking all three types of cavalry, gryphon, Pegasus, chariots, giant eagle riders, spears and archers plus loads of unopened blisters. I couldn't let that go now could I. I guess I could just stop looking on ebay but it is so easy to get a hobby fix that way than actually decide on a project.

Sorry bro I just had to start collecting these lovely models.

So the actual point of this post I need to make a decision.

Currently my brain is knocking about the idea of painting up that empire army, or adding to my 90's empire army or painting up my sea elves or painting up my regiments of renown...

Sea elves and high elves.

Back to them Orcs.

OK so a while ago I challenged people to post something Orcy in Orctober with the promise of miniatures for the first name out of the hat. I must say, particularly given how few posts I managed, the response was great for a first crack at this idea.

We had a scenario from WP. Lots of fun with a special troll.

An interesting look at 1:72 orcs with Sean. Who knew, still looking to see more.

My brother gave us a great special character, unit and general look at his collection

An ace bit of orcy dadhammer from Kasper and Sons.  Would love to see what your guys make of the orcs, name from hat permitting.

A trip through orcs in 80's pop culture (or maybe that's geek culture) from Thantsants.

Some Black Mountain boys looking wonderful and menacing from Phreed.

Painting by Zhu.

A painting no less and cool musings on more ancient culture and orcs from Zhu.

A bit of a review of mantic's orcs from Paradox0n.

Loki (Andrew) gave us some vibrant and awesomely painted new savage orcs.

A salvage job on an old machine of distruction from Kaleb.

Some modern boars and semi-vintage boyz were presented with nice paint tutorials from TWD.

Goff Orks looking hard as nails ( and literally saved from being shot) from asslessman.

Old school motivations for you're orcs presented by Paul.

Technically late but actually great Orc wimmin from Tartar Sauce. I think Dorra Skullcrusher may well be the Buxom Sawtooth female of Ashcans dreams.

Also a number of people posted over at LAF.

All names have been put in d20 random table and the dice gods were consulted. I'm pleased to say if he wants them Paul Brown has some Orcs coming to him. I'm going to need your address so if you PM me on the Oldhammer forum or on the LAF forum I can get them sent to you.

Opps!

Ashcan lifted the puny human up by the neck and looked him in the eye,"wot appened ummi?"

"What can I say", choked Erny,"once more life got in the way."

So what can I say guys after some truly marvelous posts of Orctober I managed to get posted about 10% of what I hoped. Life once more got in the way, I had two deadlines at work brought forward by a couple of months, a troublesome mini Erny waking up in the wee hours and a holiday cottage that proved to have less useful broadband than expected.

Still Orcs are ones to invade and break the rules so I hope (fingers crossed) to post much of what I had hoped in the now more clumsily named Orctober over spill Norctober (haha he said Norc). I'll put together the names for the fantasy regiments orcs and pick a winner soon and still haven't given up on posting a competition for another set of perhaps more wanted orcs in the future.

Normal service (whatever that is) to resume soon.

Orctober: Orc Tactics innit. Tactical thoughts for 3rd ed Warhammer armies Orcs and Goblins..

So what’s this? An article about uber tactics and list design for 3^rd ed orcs? Well, no, for one thing I think the choice of troops you have in your army should be down to you, what do you like the look of, story behind or simply in your collection. Having said that you can’t go wrong taking boys, lots of boys. I also don’t think that 3^rd leans itself to the concept of good or bad builds. As to tactics you won’t find any advice on tricks and cleaver ploys to use the rules to your advantage. No the following is more about being a good opponent and giving a good game. It is about how to wield the amorphous bludgeon that is an orc horde in a solid orc-like manner. It is the sound advice an Orc warlord would bestow on the strongest and brightest of his offspring.

With his army arrayed across the vale, boys drinking and bragging, preparing for battle Ashcan looked down at the young orcling. Ashcan believed he was probably from the second whelping with that buxom Sawtooth female the one with the large… Anyway the little runt’s observations showed promise, at the very least he’d noticed you have to keep the gobs away from the boys if you don’t want the jealous little snots stabbing your boys in the back. He booted Stinky Fred in his boney goblin posterior. “Getchur arse dan der an tell them Blood skull boys ta come in ta da centa more, I don’t care if theys want the ale frum da Inn day are gett’n outta posishun.”

The first and perhaps the most important part of taking your army to battle is how you deploy. Mistakes made here last for the whole battle and can often be the difference between winning and losing or to give it a less win at all costs spin, the difference between giving your opponent a good game or a walk in the park.

Green Skins arrayed with races nicely grouped.

So that should be the very first subject we talk about shouldn’t it. Sort of. We cannot consider deployment before first understanding the major limitation of the goblinoid army, animosity. Understanding how animosity works is the key to ensuring your army does more or less what you ask it to. A good orc general would understand these principals too so there is a narrative, RPG element to the following comment and advice.

Animosity works with a die roll the lower the better, above a certain number (look it up in the book, I can’t give exact rules out here now can I) things get interesting. The amount rolled on the dice is increased by certain modifiers and importantly decreased by an leaders LD bonus.

So the golden rules for not getting completely nerfed by animosity are:

1  )      Include leaders with at least a +1 Ld bonus wherever possible.

2  )      Ensure if possible all troops can see the enemy.

3  )      Try to ensure troops ahead of other troops are not directly in front.

4  )      Try to ensure troops of different races are not too close to each other or have leaders with very good LD bonuses.

5  )      If they are in your army and you can work it usefully into your deployment use black orcs to dampen any possible animosity.

Next we should look at what assets we have, however you build your army you are going to have a solid infantry base, a regular orc is better than a human for the same points and even a spear-gobo is deadly if backed up by enough of his tribe.  You will probably have a strong selection of peripheral troops too, decent skirmishers if used in large numbers, fast cavalry and possibly even good  enough heavy cavalry. You also have numbers, orcs get a great deal points wise because of animosity which as we now know need not hinder the orc general with some brains in his noggin.

Now with is all in mind we can consider how an Orc general may deploy his forces to ensure victory. The obvious tactic that springs to mind is the double envelopment quite possible to pull off with only boys in your army! Used by Hannibal at Cannae this is often classically pulled off with a force smaller than your opponent. With your boys however there is a very good chance you will outnumber your opponent so the double envelopment employed will look more like the , “buffalo horn”, envelopment of the  Zulus. Use your numbers to stretch your opponent to ridiculous weakness or allow him to concentrate and bring your flanks round whilst initially refusing your centre.

The dwarves at the bottom are ready to be enveloped by the Orcs notice the strong units on the flanks.

If you prefer to go cavalry heavy perhaps a leaf out of old Alexander’s book is called for, the Hammer and anvil is I guess a single envelopment using your cavalry to get round the enemies back whilst pinning with your boys, make sure you have superiority of numbers in cavalry even if not quality.

These two tactics will serve you well and the one can morph into the other as need dictates. But what if the other army is also a horde and can adequately defend his flanks and support his centre with numbers.  I’m looking at you Skaven and Brettonians. Well here again we have an advantage, animosity. Animosity is a major headache if you allow it to happen so good quality troops get a major point reduction. If we don’t allow animosity to ruin our day we end up with a horde of good quality troops. Yes it takes marshaling but what do you think the great brutes of leaders in each unit are for? It will be a straight pitched battle but even here we can take the initiative and attack where we like with confidence. There will be weak spots in any horde army but Orcs, take advantage of that. Most of all though, have fun and crump the stunties.

Happy Orctober the First, free miniatures inside!

Happy first of Orctober, my quest to make October the nations favorite holiday with a celebration of all things green skinned.  Starting this month of Orcy wonder off right I thought it best to start with a giveaway. You see to further the aim of converting the world to my new holiday I’ve dug through my lead pile looking for little gems to give away. It’s all in an effort to get you all celebrating along with me. Just think of me as Father Greenskin dropping down your chimney every Orctober with bundles of goblinoid cheer.

Anyway back to the giveaway, I’ve dug through my lead pile and come up with a bunch of plastic. Amongst many things Orctober is about the unexpected. Here they are, a usable sized unit of Orc boyz made from the ever classic Warhammer regiments uni-pose orcs.   

There are twelve here though I will probably be able to dig out at least three more.  You will also notice about half have the original shields which makes them a bit rarer.  I may be able to find more of the said shields in the surplus pile but cannot guarantee anything. Yes they need a bit of a clean up but nothing to strenuous.

So how do you get your mits on these? Easy post an Orc (or Ork I guess) related post on your blog or forum of choice, make it clear it is for Orctober linking back here and make it a bit more meaningful than a couple of lines just to qualify for the draw. Post back here a link to your article/post/whatever and I’ll enter you into a draw at the end of the month (so you have until the 25th) first out gets the Orcs if they want them. Reasonable postage paid (i.e. a few quid) otherwise I’ll have to ask for some help on that one.

As motivation here are a couple of shots of my own in a unit looking quite nice even if I do say so myself you'll have to find your own command!