Anachronistic 40k: Madboyz

I could blog for years about the Orks from the early days of Warhammer 40,000. There was so much unique and rich material from that time that got left behind with the new editions. Slowly, elements from that era have crept back, especially in the background material. But one particular unit type from that era that never returned, at least on the table-top, are the Madboyz.

One of the Sacred Books of WAAARGH!

The Madboyz first appeared in 'Ere We Go, one of the three Rogue Trader-era stand-alone publications dedicated solely to Orks. It's a brilliant work, one I still recommend to all true fans of the Orks. It featured a lot of new units and the Madboyz was one of them. Essentially the Madboyz are the Orks that are so insane -for whatever reason- that the "normal" Orks would rather not be around them. Here's a quote from the book that sums them up rather nicely:

"Madboys are Orks whose behaviour marks them as obviously and unashamedly mad. Of course, even normal Orks do things which a human would think insane, but Madboyz are so reckless, manic, or downright strange that even other Orks consider them crazy."

It's stated that in the game, the player has very little control over the Madboyz. In fact the unit they form is called a Madmob and once you see their rules you'll find that to be a fit title. The only thing you can do is point the models in the direction that you want them to face at the start of their turn, and roll on the chart. The Mood Chart. The Mood Chart used a D10 and broke down as follows:

1. Frantik
2. Paranoid
3. Phobiak
4. Manik
5. Skitzo
6. Moronik
7. Delirik
8. Melankolik
9.-10. Bloodlust

You then referenced the corresponding page, as each of these conditions had a further D10 chart to roll on -which filled up an entire 8.5" x 11" page of the books! Malankolik was the exception and was only a half-page and used a D6. Rolling on these charts was insanely fun, and you NEVER knew what was going to happen next.

The Phobiak table, to give you a sense of the possibilities. 

Your Madboyz could do anything from being terrified of the battle noises, to shooting at random terrain features, to laying about contemplating the universe. Their actions were totally determined by the charts in the book and they ignored normal rules for psychology. In one battle I heard about, a friend of mine had his Madboyz roll a result that had them decide that the enemy wasn't so bad after all and they went up and tried to befriend the closest one, in this case a Deathjester who had just gibbed some boyz with a bio-shuriken. Nothing was all the enemy was allowed to do as he was too confused to understand what was happening. (Skitzo, 'Fraternizashun wiv da enemee'). The results are far to numerous to dictate or copy for this post, but I hope you get the gist: these rules were crazy-fun!

You could influence their behavior slightly by having a Weirdboy join the unit which allowed you to re-roll the Mood Chart results. Often in the lore for Weirdboyz there will be discussion regarding their association with the Madboyz. Other factors would trigger new mood swings as well: Having the unit-size drop to less than 25% of the starting force, other units routing too close to the Madmob, units close by charging, being charged by the enemy, etc. They even summarized this in a chart (a novel concept!).

Like I said, crazy-fun! And so were the models! Brilliantly sculpted by the legendary Bob Olly, who I think did some of his best work on these guys. Each model represented one of the nine moods from the rules and they were just full of energy. So much so that some of these are 28mm tributes to kinetic energy. Take a look at the catalog page below:

Madness for sale! 

And then 2nd edition came along with it's tidied up ruleset and ruined it all. Gone were the pages of charts and bizarre random actions. Instead you got one chart. This chart relied upon the existing core psychology rules, so your Madboyz could end up being Frenzied, Stupid, Fearful, Crazy or even immune to all Psychology. These rules were simply no fun at all and not nearly as random or as entertaining at the previous rules were. Yes, the previous rules were a lot to have to deal with, and it would've been a sizable chunk of the page count to directly port them into the tight book that was the Codex: Orks, that's understood. But it felt like a cop-out to simply resort to the existing psychology rules, which honestly, were more of a pain to deal then they ever were beneficial.

Having said that, at least we had rules for the Madboyz. When 40k 3rd ed came around, it was "back ta basiks" for the Orks, and some of their zanier aspects were simply gone. The Madboyz would only return as a sidebar mention in the 4th ed Codex (rules-wise, arguably the best post 3rd Ed book the Orks got*) and in a three paragraph write-up in the current book. In fact so prominent is their piece in the current book that I have to wonder if GW were hoping to make new models but just didn't get to them in time? I would love to know if that theory has any merit. Since they still exist in the background as being augmenting influences to the Weirdboyz, and with the return of psykers in 40k in 6th & 7th Ed, it would have been nice to have a bit more help for the for the Weirdboyz.

Mad Dok Grotsnik.

Also the background for Mad Dok Grotsnik mentions how he's "madder than a Madboy", so technically I suppose there is still one Madboy left in the game...

* 2018 addendum: Morko Vayrynen commented that the Madboyz did reappear during 3rd edition! It was in the Ferral Ork Codex that appeared in White Dwarf and reprinted and updated in the Chapter Approved books that supported the game during that edition. They had a simplified 'Disturbed' list with only results, but considering 3rd edition's aversion to charts of any kind, this was something of an achievement.

Madboyz entry in the 3rd Ed Ferral Ork list.

All of the images in the post are Copyright Games Workshop and are used here for the purposes of review and not as a challenge to their individual copyrights. 

The Rise of Mad Dok Grotsnik part 2

In part one  of this glorious tale of greenness, I touched on some highlights from the previous game where Screech challenged us with his Space Wolves. Da Masta Cheef, my ally in that battle, wrote a more detailed battlereport. That first part ends with me packing up Mad Dok Grotsnik and heading off to a match against Da Cheef's  Red Corsair Centurion and his dreaded Murder Sword. After reading what that guy did to Max's Ultramarines in a recent battle I was unsure how well the Mad Dok list I used against Screech would fair against a Chaos Space Marine force, especially without 500 points of grot allies!

My Orcs assembled and ready for WAAAGH!!!

Note that unlike the previous game I didn't use the mob we nicknamed 'Ork Pizza' but instead used my original plastic boyz from the '89 boxed set. They are a Technicolor dream aren't they? Cheef was intimidated by their mohawks! LOL

The Centurion's force complete with anticipatory Soul-blaze tokens.

The field of battle.

This would be my first game playing on the Realm of Battle board. I like the surface and think it makes for some great pics. I lament the fact that I had so many unfinished models still to meekly place down onto such a fine battleground.

So we rolled the mission and got 'Emperor's Will' (which made for a good chuckle considering that neither of us had Imperial forces) placed objectives, and deployed. I can't recall if I stole the Initiative, but I do recall setting up very defensively in response to Cheef's set up so I must have.

Ork Deployement.

Chaos Deployment

 And then the fighting began! I threw a bunch of templates into the closest Chaos Cultist unit and eliminated a lot them, but they were steely in their resolve and stood on the hill speaking in tongues at the ork army in crazed defiance!

First blood!

 My Lootas brought down a scary looking dreadn -Hellbrute that just looked like it could kill lots of orks fast.

The extent of the Ork advance, Grotsnik and his Burnas are bottle necked in their effort to race across the board.

 Chaos Turn One.

Cheef kills these three Orks. But sets his friends on fire with Soulblaze.

 Turn Two

In turn one we kept discovering that some units would be out of shooting range by just under an inch. A theme that would continue throughout this game.

The Ork army's advance on turn 2.

 The rhino containing the Centurion, who was determined to murder my Big Mek, who is my warlord in this game, is blown up quite spectacularly. Note the big blast template. I had both the Kill Cannon and Shok Attack gun scatter onto that same relative spot!

Deff Dread wants to get you!

 Meanwhile my Deff Dread attempted to get to grips with either the Chaos Dreadnought -Hellbrute or the Rhino, but despite losing a Hull Point to a plasma gun (what the heck is in that Rhino?!) he rolled a 4 for his charge range only to find he need another 1/4" to reach it! Drats!

Chaos Turn 2

A small squad of Chaos Terminators land in my back field and kill a few of my Lootas!

"I just flew in from hell, and man are my arms tired!"

Charge!

The Hellbrute charged my Deff Dread (yes kids, that really is a Deff Dread, I'll explain in a moment), and rolled the exact number he needed to make contact! 4", which we had a good laugh at considering my previous turn! And just like the previous game where's Screech's Space Wolf Dreadnought botched his attacks, the Hellbrute did likewise and was ripped apart by the Deff Dread after two player turns of assault.

The Centurion maximizes the use of available cover.

 Ork Turn 3

Circle 'round the fire!

 Mad Dok's unit has to go after the closest unit, which was now these annoying terminators (he was really wanting to destroy the Centurion!). The Burnas successfully cleanse the terminators with fire!

Careful with that scatter!

 Again the Shokk Attack Gun and Kill Cannon scatter wildly in a sad attempt to blast the Centurion and his unit!

"Come 'ere tank!"

 After killing the Chaos Dreadnoug....Hellbrute, the Deff Dread consolidates towards the Rhino,

Now, this Deff Dread was the original, circa 1988, Ork Dreadnought. It is piloted by a gretchin. The original idea was that in a cruel experiment a Pain Boy and Mek Boy would partner up and stuff a grot into one of these things, and the crazed power-tripping grot would wreck everything in it's path. The next Ork Dreadnought models came out in 2nd edition and featured an Ork Pilot, and was also bigger to accommodate the large passenger. The 3rd edition dred would only get bigger, and with the current plastic model the size difference is quite laughable! In fact, the grot concept is back in the form of Killer Kans, and we all know, they rock, and they are bigger than this original model. But I don't care, as it still does what it does, and I have it on the proper sized base. I decided that when I paint these (I have two of them and they are both armed the same) I will do them in Bad Moon colors. Maybe the extra wealth of that clan can afford the 'miniaturization' of technology?

Chaos Turn 3

The Deff Dread  is blown apart by the passengers in the rhino, who hit it with more plasma shots!

The Red Corsair Centurion advances up on my Ork Shootas who have taken a lot of casualties from the two Predator tanks down field and from the resulting Soulblaze. How ever he fails on his charge attempt...

Guess who rolled a 4 on his charge dice! Ha! We laugh at you!!!

 One of the predator takes a hull point off of my Gobsmasha which I had moved out of cover in an attempt to try to hurt those annoying Predators. I think the Ork Warbikes were killed off by the cultists this turn as well after they too had failed to roll high enough on their charge distance in the previous turn.

Orks Turn 4

Mad Dok Grotsnik's burna boyz now find that their closest enemy is the rhino that killed the Deff Dread last turn. This target is even more appealing after the Lootas blow up the rhino to reveal the passengers to be a Havoc Squad armed with Plasma Guns! (Ingenious idea Cheef! I got to steal it for my chaos guys!)

My shootas charge the Centurion! They had already blasted away the rest of his unit, but the fearless maniac cared not and challenged my Ork nob. He would've had a lot or re-rolls too, but the Murder Sword was hungry and feasted upon ork meat! I can not recall what his Chaos Reward was...

Nik Fury dies at the hands of the Centurion!

 After another, painful, failed charge, the Burna boys roll too low on their charge distance!
and during Chaos Turn 4, they lose half the squad to concentrated plasma gunnery and soulblaze!

"How come soulblaze has a continuous fire effect but Flamer weapons don't?"

 The Centurion is butchered by the remaining Shoota boyz, who consolidate towards the hill where the remaining Chaos Cultists and Chaos Sorcerer hold on to their objective.

Ork Turn 5.

"Don't shoot until you see the green of their skin!"

 With very few of burna boyz left, Mad Dok Grotsnik declares a charge, only to have his remaining burna boyz killed by the Overwatch. Rolling an 8 on the charge dice, Grotsnik gets the exact number he needs to make contact!

Too close!

And dives into the ruckus!

"Time for yur medz!!!"

And he butchers the Havocs and consolidates into the crater, eying the two predators that have been slowly inching up the field.

"Charge!"

The shoota boyz connect to the Chaos Cultists on the hill. They do well, but remain locked in combat. However in the Chaos Turn 5, the Shoota Boyz would be wiped out, and the objective in his deployment zone is now secure in the grip of the Chaos Cultists!

Turn 6 arrives, and with much of the Chaos force in shambles, and half of the orks gone as well, I decided to move the Gobsmasha out in an effort to ram one of the Predators. I just was out of range for that attempt though...

The I assume shots were taken at the chaos cultist as they appear to have lost a few more from what these next two pics show, but being fearless they were not about to run anywhere.

The Gobsmasha sets up for a ramming attack...

 Chaos Turn 6

Cultist take cover behind the dilapidated bastion and hold on to their objective.

 Mad Dok Grotsnik dies to another las cannon shot to the face from the predators. Oddly, this would be two games in a row where he was removed from the game in this manner.

The face off that wouldn't happen.

 And the game ended, with the final fate of the Gobsmasher left unknown!

The Chaos got 3 Victory Points for holding onto their objective, and the Orks got 5 victory points for holding onto theirs, killing the Centurion (Warlord secondary objective), and First Blood.

All in all, a very fun game!

Inspired again, I took the time to complete Mad Dok Grotsnik's paint job.

And here he is:

Blood For The Blood God was used for the blood on the blades and apron. I like it a lot!!!

Used GW's Middenland Tufts on some of the grass.

Yeah, I left it piss colored for the syringe....ew, right?

 I only wish I had a grot orderly to put on the base with him. Otherwise, I am quite pleased with how he turned out!

The Rise of Mad Dok Grotsnik part 1

"Trepanning iz good on da brainz!"

Last weekend instead of playing our Friday night roleplaying session, Screech, Da Masta Cheef and I opted to play a 40K game. Cheef only wanted to used a 500 point "ally" wing of Grots from his Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun while I would field 1500 points of something vs. Screech's 2K points worth of whatever he would show up with. It didn't take long to decide to field my Orks, and with all this focus on painting and building an Orc army for Warhammer Fantasy, the desire to play with my greenskinned madmen has been high regardless of whether it be WHFB or WH40K. I knew I wanted to use the Shokk Attack Gun again, so I took a Big Mek and made him my army general. I opted to leave out my warlord, Ror-Ruk, in favor of trying to improve my army's survivability. Remembering  the fun I had a few years ago using Mad Dok Grotsnik, I decided to give him a go again. He has zero chances of living through a game due to his recklessness so it made sense to not make him the general. I mean, why just give away a Secondary Objective, right? :)

So, I took Mad Dok Grotsnik and attached him to a squad of Burna boys (these models are very old! One day I will show them off to you, probably close to that one day I start painting them. -quiet Cheef) who I stuck in a Gobsmasha (see Battlewagon build in the list area of your Ork Codex for rules). The elites in my army list, the Burna Boyz and Lootas, as well as my Big Mek, all got the discount Cybork bodies upgrade for improved survivability. The Burnas would benefit from the Feel No Pain special rule that Grotsnik would also bestow upon them.

  

Mad Dok Grotsnik and the Burna Boys having killed a Grey Hunter pack, consolidate closer to the next unit...

The details of our battle can be read here in gory detail courtesy of Mr. Cheef.

Aspiring Squigoth.

The take aways from this battle was:

•  that when given the opportunity to shine, Burna Boyz can really do it! Even though we used a house rule (allegedly a rule-change, but I can't find an FAQ to support it) regarding the flame template weapons and Overwatch, they still kicked butt!

• The other take away is that Cybork bodies for just 5pts is too good an upgrade not to take!

"Aye'll take yoo all on I willz!!!"

• Mad Dok Grotsnik can really soak up the incoming fire if the dice let him! He after leading the burna through 2 squads of Grey Hunters and assaulting a tank, he eventually net his demise to a disabled Predator with a lucky Las Cannon shot!

The Wolf Lord and the Nob challenge off. The Nob had a pool of 5 rerolls thanks to his ork mob.

•  This game also was noteworthy of being the battle field debut of 'Ork Pizza' the squad of 30 Shoota Boyz that I have been ignoring for a few years. After finishing a regiment of spear orcs for WHFB I decided I would get these guys out of the way next. They performed very well, killing Screech's Wolf Lord in close combat.

The classic 'Ork Pizza' photo.

• It was cool seeing the Grot Mega Tank finally get to shine in battle! Cheef was thrilled to see it actually destroy another vehicle for a change, and to have it survive a game!

So, yeah we won that battle, but regardless of the results, I was very pleased with Mad Doc Grotsnik. So much so that in what little spare time I had this week I tasked myself toward getting his paint job finished. The next two pics show how far I got with him before it was time to pack him back up for another battle yesterday.

I was thinking the cable that runs from the pump on his back to the syringe on his power klaw was going to be yellow with black stripes in a sort of power-cord look, but I think the colors I chose has a 'pissy' look about it which I find sort of gross and disturbing. So I might leave it as is, and color the syringe a similar color in the hopes of further disturbing those who might face him.

I am sort of stuck on his gun however. Have used the dark metals that I typically use on weapons on his arm, I want to contrast the gun from it but I am a bit stuck on how to do it. I hesitate reverting back to some of the gun colors that my orks that were painted in the late 2nd edition era have...  I shall ponder this further.

Citadel Color just released a new color called Blood for the Blood God that looks like a must have for me, and especially for Grotsnik's medical apron. One of our new players at Hobbytown is Mac (now nick named as Mac'n'cheese -he's accepted now!), and Mac showed me his recently painted Ultramarine with lightning claws where he used this color on the blades. It looks pretty impressive! I can't recall the last time I was this excited about a Citadel color...

As if my blog already isn't a massive free-plug for GW, go here to get it!

This is it for Part One. Part Two will be posted later in the week, as I take the army used in the previous battle and face off against Da Masta Cheef's Red Corsair Centurian and his Murder Sword! Stay tuned for those results! Also I will see how much more I can get done on Grotsnik's paint-job.