Bink's Birthday Bash!

"I know I dropped it around here somewhere...".

 

Last night we gathered for a massive 40k game, and since it was the eve before Bink's birthday we decided to have two Ork armies (Waaagh Bink and Waaagh RorRuk) square off against Screech's Chaos army (yes, the nefarious Thousand Sons (of Bitches) deploying from their battle barge The Velvetta Scourge) along with Jim's Blood Angels (of Khorne, apparently). Since we all had 1500pt armies made up, we just went with those.

Setting up the BAs...

Knowing that time was limited for such a large scale game we agreed to try to limit our movement phases to 15 minutes tops. We choose to e deploy on the long table edges, and chose Purge the Alien as out mission.

Orks set up on the right side of their DZ

Orks set up on the left side.

Thousand Sons set up

Blood Angels set up and the start for 1st turn moves...

 

Surge in a pop smoke!



And here are the highlights

Turn One Blood Angels/1K Sons

 

• A Blood Angel Drop Pod lands in the middle of our Deployment zone cutting off a key path between one of the high rises and a bunker. It deploys a dreadnought with twin-linked heavy flamer! (ulp!)
• The BA dread blows up the trukk that was transporting Mad Doc Grotsnik!
• BA Bikers shoot up my Kommandos who break and run!
• One of my Deff Dredds takes HP damaged from the 1K Sons Landraider.

The BA dread blows up a Mad Doc's Trukk!

 



Turn One: Orks

• None of my shooting was effective at all! I rolled a lot ones considering that I needed 5+ to hit, yeah I expected to miss, but jeeesh! I killed a single Devastator marine.
• Mad Doc's retinue is a mob of 'Ard Boys who charge with frothing fury at the fire throwing dread, but it is no match against all of that rage and is wrecked.

 

And a dreadnought dies

Turn two BA/1K sons

Thousand Sons and Dread Co. Dread tearing up the Ork lines

• The Death Company Dread is deployed via Drop Pod into the left portion of the Ork's deployment zone. It blows up my Battle Wagon with a lucky shot!
• A squad of Thousand Sons marines lead by his Warlord, a Chaos Sorcerer, arrive via Dread Claw. They shoot up, and charge Bink's Bikers, killing his Warlord in a Challenge, defeating them and running them down. It was a humbling affair but at least one of the Thousands Sons died via overwatch.
• On the other flank, the Chosen charge my slugga mob, and champion challenges my squad's Nob. They kill each other! The two units remain locked in combat...

Turn Two: Orks

• We focus most of our fire on the left flank on that Death Co. Dread. It simply must go! And after taking HPs to a Weird Boy Zzzap! it's my Lootas T7 guns that finished it off.
• On the right, Bink's Deff Coptas and my Dredd shoot the heck out of a 1K son's Rhino and fail to do anything to it! My dredd charges it and wipes it out with a power klaw!

Look, more things to kill!

• Desperate, and statistically challenged, the Burna Boys charge the Thousand Sons. They are crushed by the Thousand Sons who slowly and purposely stride across their fuel soaked corpses.

"You Blood Angels just hang back an' watch this..."

•  My slugga mob wipe out all but one of the Chosen, and he's the guy with fearless banner! So, this one guy has my Warlord and big mob locked in combat with him.

"HA! I will take you ALL on!!!"

• My Kommados, who rallied on our Turn one and have been making their way over to the BA Bikers that have been shooting at them, attempted and failed a charge against them.

it struck us that it was now nearing 2 am, and most of us were feeling it hard! The funny thing is, when you're having this much fun it only feels like 2 hours have past, but in fact MANY hours passed and passed quickly! We agreed to call it there and tally our VPs, declaring the BA/1K Son alliance the victors! All of us were itching to continue, but we just HAD to stop. Still, it was good fun and all units got to participate (regardless of their effectiveness, heheh).

Looking down the Ork lines, another round or two and it was going to get SERIOUSLY bloody

As we packed up we tried to figure out what happened: how can we do this on a Friday night and actually finish the game? Shy of playing with a greatly reduced point agreement, we probably can't. We would need to agree to play an all day game starting at noon or so get through this kind of Epic awesomeness. Still, finishing wasn't the point: it was the fun of getting our war-cries out and hanging out together, and enjoying the time well spent, and that is what this is all about! It was a good start to Bink's Birthday weekend: we'll see if we can top it next time!

Rubble! Rubble!

Here's a quick one for you.

While recognizing the urgent need for more scenery pieces for my game table, and being on a tight budget, I came up with the idea making big rubble piles. Particularly big rubble piles out of the discarded frames from Citadel plastic miniatures. So, I aggressively set about randomly cutting up and gluing together a few frames, and this is what you see here!

I then added a few random bits just to break up and pattern one could see as well as give them a sense of scale, otherwise they'll just look like a pile of chopped up sprue. I happened to have some extra tires which, let's face it, nothing says "urban decay" more than random tires! ...Ok, burning barrels maybe, but I don't have many of those. I painted these using black spray paint, 3 shades of grey, 3 shades of brown, and some brown and orange ink for the rusty bits.

To make these thing useable I had to make them high enough to actually obscure a model so as to provide real LOS blocking cover. There is an Emperor's Children marine behind this pile (He has mastered the art of remaining hidden!).

 Elevating the camera higher, the Chaos Space Marine is revealed!

Now, the economic implications of this project needs to addressed. With the increased costs of buying plastic miniatures one must consider the money wasted when empty frames are discarded. Seriously, considering how much money you could be tossing away each time you chuck out one of these things once the bits have been removed! If you considered the weight of the frame vs. the cost, it's enough to drive a miser into massacre mode! So, even if you have no other bits, maximize your plastic box set purchase: every squad comes with a rubble pile!

What you need:

• Empty model frames (sprues)
• Clippers or an xacto blade
• Model glue
• a base (optional, but trust me, it helps)
• random bits (tires, barrels, armor plates, doors, hatches, etc.-all of which are optional).

Now, have at it,

Orcs! (with a C) part 4

Progress has been slow on these guys, and well, all of my projects actually, due to trying to maximize outdoor opportunities while the summer heat is available, and exploring the joyous new paradigm of my new relationship. However during that time I have found a few moments to throw down some paint. So, here is some of the progress I have made on my Orc spear regiment:

1st up is the unit banner. Based on the skull icons GW puts on their 'Eavy Metal banners, I decided to do something similar. The 1st model I painted for this army has a yellow skull on his shield and I decided I would use that for the theme for the whole army. I thought yellow on red might look striking, so I hand drew it on to the banner with a pencil and 'ere we go:

Base coated with Scab Red and Fiery Orange.

Mid coat of Mephiston Red and Blazing Yellow 

3rd stage of Blood Red and Badmoon Yellow

Since I took that last pic, I removed the banner from the sprue, and painted up the pole and attachments as well as the skull on top.

 It just occurred to me that newer readers might be confused, as I have colors from all the ranges that Citadel color has ever made. Not a complete range mind you, but a lot. And the names have changed over the years. Anyway, I believe there are conversion charts online that one can seek out.

I finished the metal on the spears and knives. I think I achieved a good feel of what I was hoping for (see the 1st post in this series) with the rusty and well used metal blades.

The metal on the spears is done!

 And I just can not leave well enough along, Yeah, I should stop here, I mean these guys are at a great standard for basic troops but darn it I just can't resist all that crazy detail! So, picking out the leather bits, highlighting the hair, all the teeth, etc.

Black ink wash on the black bits, and other details picked out

 There are a few more bits to pick out and the base models will be done. I haven't even started on their shields yet! Those will have yellow skulls as well, but I doubt I will hand draw them.

...I just realized that I took those pics about 3 weeks apart and got them at the same angle! I haven't even touched that bottle of yellow ink back there!

Well, that's it for now, and if you recall the last pic of part 3 of this series, you'll be pleased to see that I haven't ignored these guys either:

We're GREEN!!! Waaaagh!!