Death race 40,000. Or building a better Ork Buggy. Or unleashing my inner Mekboy.

I've been following Captain Crooks and his plans to host a violent racing game at this years Oldhammer weekender, Deathrace 40,000. Quite apart from the fact that the game looks awesome the Captain is coming over from Oz to run it and he sent me a cheesbarian in the post. It would be rude  not to join in.

Now there really is only one choice I could make for my vehicle and crew it just boils down to how green I paint the orks and how red I paint the truck. I had an idea how I wanted the thing to look, it had to be a Orky monster truck so I could crush the opposition with my tires.

Something like this Beverly Hillbillies monster truck:

I decided to use a standard GorkaMorka truck but give it big wheels and whilst originally I wasn't thinking of exactly a Beverly Hillbillies truck but the idea is growing on me. To find big wheels I decide to do a quick search on ebay for suitable toys and that's when I found this:

Not quite the size wheels I was after but very cheap and remote control. It is quite possible a giant light bulb lit up above my head at this point. The car arrived all the way from Hong Kong at the weekend and L started stripping it down to see what I had.

First off its a good size, I should have put a miniature in this shot but trust me when I say it's about the right size.

The body of the car itself is a very thin polystyrene shell and easily removed.

The actual machine underneath is simple and has a few useful points for attaching pieces with screws. A bit of snipping of excess plastic on the RC car and a bit of drilling and I very quickly attached the front of a GorkaMorka Truck. I didn't quite match the front axles molded onto the truck with those of the car but its good enough and when the driver and gunner are in place it won't notice at all.

 And here is the driver to test for size! He was actually saying, "Vrooom, vrooom", at this point. Or maybe it was me.

 At the back is a point for attaching the rear spoiler, trimmed down it is the perfect point for attaching the truck's rear. So far so jolly easy, a quick test to ensure the thing still drove and it did. The truck may be light but it is way heavier than the original car shell. But the motor is actually pretty nippy.

 Here is a side view to show how well this was working, the truck bed is higher than on the original model, in fact the rear of the RC car is just higher than the rear top of the trucks cab. This means the bed starts above the front seating and slopes very slightly up towards the back. I could not have planned it better.

 Here I've added the front to the trucks cab and we are really looking the business.

 Latter that night I started extending the trucks base. I added two lengths of H section plaststrut. I smiled a lot as I used liquid poly to weld the plastic to the bottom of the truck bed much as a Mekboy would weld steel beams to strengthen his latest creation. This proved problematic at the plaststrut interfered with the suspension. I dremmelled out a suitable space in the beamand began to plan the floor. The rear wheels gearing  stuck up into the space I needed and even more so when the suspension compressed.

I had to leave a hole in the floor and am currently thinking about my options. A mesh cage over the hole and the mechanism below would look cool but perhaps Orks don't care about health and safety and it should just be left as a hazard for careless grots to get killed in.

 Ive been adding rivets and have begun to think about what else to add. If I'm going to drive it with crew in the back I'll have to stick them down but then the truck becomes less useful as a gaming piece which is the primary aim. I tried out the secondary use last night and managed to jump my Ork waggon over two rhinos (side to side). The only thing to fall off was an exhaust.

Necromunda: The OGRE Sump campaign.

When Necromunda came out I was at University and gaming wasn't high on my list of priorities. I didn't buy the game and wouldn't have gamed it if not for a campaign my Brother ran. Four years my junior Necromunda came along for him just at that perfect gaming age of I guess about 14-16. If the Oldhammer Community has taught me anything the games we play then seam to set the tone for our gaqming tatses for life. So it's no wonder my brother loved the game. However I did too and I think that's because even when for me GW was slowy taking the fun out of gaming Necromunda had one foot in the past already. Nothing new here, we all know of confrontation but at a time when GW seamed to be all about simple games for the kids the fun of Necromunda kept me interested. I never had a break from the hobby and Necromunda is partly to blame for that.

After a great game of RT at WP on his Ferrograd table I figure the time had come to resurect Necromunda and promptly invited everyone over for a afternoon and evening of gaming to get the first few turns of a new Campaign in. So before I post up a batrep for the fun my own gang had I guess I should introduce them, freshly painted this week they are still a work in progress. Oh the gangs names are all from friends I had aboput the time Necromunda came out..

Papa Erny in the middle flanked by MJ on the left and Hack on the right.

Slim with the stubba and BB with the Autopistol.

Ben with the club and MJ jr with the Lazpistol.

Stretch with the lazgun, Merc with the heavy stubber and Eats Dust the hired scout.

Somehow missing from the clos ups are MJ with lazgun and spiked club and plastic Stu with the plastic lazgun.

They still need a fair bit of work but just getting the eyes and hair done would help a lot.

And the winner is...

OK it may be late but I've finally managed to rune the random numbers and come up with a winner for the prize I promised last Orctober. To remind you all here are the motley crew I picked out to give away. Turns out I have these Harboth's going spare:

And then of course on to the winner, After compiling a list of all entrants I have to say as always the dice gods picked out the perfect match for the prize. The miniatures I have to give away perfectly compliment those that he painted up, not that you have to paint miniatures for Orctober, last years winner was a text entry.

Where was I, oh yes the winner, Mathew from Oldenhammer in Toronto and here is a link to his Orctober posts:

Orctober in Toronto.

I hope Mathew finds the time to paint up the guys I'm sending him as well as this. I'll be contacting the winner shortly for an address to send these to.

Back with an 80's citadel give away. Finally an Orctober prize.

Long time no blog.  I've been on a blogging pause for a while, without going into details I just wasn't up to it but I'm beginning to feel my gaming mojo returning. If I'm going to start blogging again I really ought to wrap up old business.

To that end I've dug out some miniatures to give away as the promised Orctober prize. So here they are some two months late. I figured ten of Harboths lads incluing Yaskin Forit had to be OK with any Orc fanatic.

Now all I need to do is decide who wins them. I'll be entering anyone who made a meaningful Orctober post and registered it here or here. If you made an Orctober post and it doesn't appear in any of these places let me know on this post in the next couple of days and I'll see about including you in  the draw.

Warlord: Battle in the badlands. Guidelines and tables for Goblinoid warbands using 3rd ed Warhammer.

Finally got the Warband guidelines ready to release. Treat this as a playtest set and forgive any and all errors, there are bound to be many. Any feed back is greatly received.

Link:

Warlord Battle in the Badlands.


Edit:

I've already spotted some problems with the document not least of which is the roll to advance your warlords stats. It should read minus from your roll the number of times you have tried to improve the stat including failed times. This makes it increasingly difficult to improve.

Orctober, a few posts you may have missed.

Not everyone who visits this blog is also a member of the Oldhammer forum (if not why not?) so there is a chance you may have missed the thread running on that august site covering many of the members contributions to Orctober.

If you haven't been may I suggest you visit.

Orctober on Oldhammer.

Here are the couple of pictures posted to said thread, go check it out:

Skirmish at the rock. An Orc Warband battle report.

 


Harbash grinned, "dat lit'l toerag Slagnark fort e cood run, fort e cood 'ide aaat safely wid a bunch a gobbos. Dat litawl toerag noo nuffink." His boyz the bashers were with him and they two were itching to carve a new one on Slagnark. It had taken balls the size of fabled squigoths and treachery that the pointy eared pansies would  be proud of to do what he'd done. Harbash wasn't going to be pleased until Slagnarks flayed skin hung as atrophy on the grinning sun banner of the bashers.

 

The gobbos, the Thieving gitz, as they were known locally were much loathed in the local area and mnay locals had been quite happy to point out the current location of their camp. Harbosh had also been told the usual tactics of the thieving gitz. Send in the stikkas to soften the enemy, meanwhile the gobbo spears sat on their arses. All the time Sodgit the self styled shaman warlord blasted fireballs and sent spirits to make the enemy fill their breeches and run. Harboth plan in return wouldbe to send his boyz down to bash the gobbos and he'd personally see, with his own bows that the stickas were driven off. Hed have plenty of time to come back to the main fight crashing into the side or rear.

Things began to unravel almost straight away. The gobbos, probably incentivised by Slagnark in their ranks started marching forward.  They'd be on the Bashers before Harbash had a chance to chase off the skirmishers. "Wait on dat 'ill", roared Harbash, "I be back in a bit." he then strode of with his bow-orcs to crump some goblins. The little bleeders began shooting at him but t o no effect. He even let his own boyz return fire grinning as one of the little runtz keeled over, a thick crow fletched shaft  stuck in it's body.

Sodgit the shaman started convulsing in a weired dance before sending ancestral daemons to sap the resolve of the bashers just as he'd sent similar spirits to boost the courage of his own boyz. The boyz didnt' seam convinced by the spell seaming ly shrugging off it's effects. Meanwhile the gobblin spears edged closer to the bashers huddled in shield wall on the hill.

It was then that stranger things began to happen, the stikkas caused a casualty amongst Harbash's bow boyz who were unable to hit in return. Fireballs also began to fall upon the unit.

The goblin spears marched to within an easy charge of the orcs on the hill and then stopped jeering the bashers trying to provoke the charge. And charge they did, with the advantage of height and the impetus of the charge a quick win was expected but with only a single goblin casualty caused the orcish attack stalled.

Sensing the turning point of the battle had already been reached without him Harbash turned his unit to charge the goblin spears flank ignoring the goblin skirmishers. A fatal move for several more orcs. 
Slagnark set about his old comrades with vicious abandonment slaying one unfortunate boy followed by the improbable death of several others at the hands of the spear goblins. All for no loss of life on the goblin side. The Bashers turned and ran before being cut down to a man, their standard captured as the loan orcish survivor turned tail and fled before being overun.

Harbash correctly sensed the time was upon him to run, which he promptly did. He had just received a resounding thrashing from a bunch of gobbos.