Big Update V: Ork Army - January/February 2016

Apologies for the lengthy absence from the blogosphere. After my visit home to Canada things have been very busy both in terms of my work and the hobby and I just haven't found the time to post!

The big news is that the 40k narrative escalation campaign I'm running will be starting very soon from March 1st onwards! I have been furiously painting to meet the deadline and I'm extremely proud to showcase my initial 500 points of Orks. With the exception of basecoating the boyz units before Christmas, everything here has been done from January 20th onwards, so I've been setting a really furious pace!

This force represents a conscious effort to paint to a tabletop standard, and I don't think I've ever been more efficient with my painting. While I am not challenging myself with any new techniques it is interesting trying to get a decent result when everything is calibrated towards a minimum expenditure of effort. There is no highlighting or even drybrushing involved with any of these figures. Outside of the initial basecoats the only thing I do to add depth (outside of a single coat of airbrush zenithal highlighting on the skin) is to build multiple layers of washes over the skin, turquoise, and metals. Overall I'm pleased with how everything has turned out, and I feel this is a good standard of quality to aim for with any non-skirmish system that requires such a large force.

Naturally I had to name all my characters and units, it is a narrative campaign after all! So lets go through them one by one.

Here is my warboss, Da Glorious Leada' Gorgot!
This is the forge-world Ork bikerboss model. Although I felt the buzzsaw he comes with was far too weedy looking, so I converted him a propa' power klaw using one from Kromlech's wonderful "Juggernaut Armor" Orks.

This is Gorgot's biker retinue, Da Bootstrapz.
Their Boss Nob is "Bunky da Bootz".

My two shoota boyz squads.
"Rugnut Irongobz's Band-O-Boyz" and
"Snagabob's Spleenbenderz"!

I had my first game of 40k this past week in a four-way battle designed to introduce the new players in our campaign to the system. I admit I was slightly nervous about it, as I really didn't want a repeat of the Batman Miniatures Game, where I felt like all my hard hours of painting had been for a game I didn't actually enjoy playing that much. My only previous Games Workshop system had been eight edition Fantasy, which had felt immensely clunky an unintuitive.

However I'm very pleased to announce that I enjoyed myself enormously. I didn't end up winning, but the system itself is far simpler than the clunkiness of pre-AoS Fantasy, and allows for some great narrative moments in a way that is really casual, fun, and smooth to play. I'll provide some more detailed thoughts on it after we're stuck into the campaign, but my initial impression was extremely positive. It also really helped me understand the direction Games Workshop took with Age of Sigmar in regards to making a system that was more intuitive to play.

I also have to say that I love my choice of faction and that Orks are a joy to play. They have tons of character and make for some great narrative moments. I'm extremely happy about my decision not to continue building on the Grey Knights I had painted earlier and make the (admittedly difficult) switch to Orks.

The highlight of my first game was my Gorgot charging a unit of tyranid warriors to do (what I can only imagine to be) a huge burnout that beheaded all three of them in a single round of combat. He then miraculously survived being charged by both a Hive Tyrant and Carnifex in the ensuing turn only to immediately blow himself up with his own item when he attempted to retaliate. It. was. brilliant.

Snagabob Snotgob makes a defiant last stand before getting blasted into the side of a mountain by a Predator's lascannon.

Having finished my initial 500 points I am frantically getting started on the rest of the army list I have planned for the campaign. I will post a full army list once it is finalized, but in the meantime here is a teaser shot of a converted Big Mek I've created. His name is Zagnatz and he managed to salvage a Kastelan Robot for parts!

WAAAAAAGH!