Monday, July 19, 2010

Ork Tactica Part 1: Da Green Tide

Ork Tactica

**DISCLAIMER** This is strictly my opinion, I may be wrong in a lot of areas, this is just what my experience has taught me, in no way shape or form do I declare myself all knowing or claim to be Gork himself (or possibly Mork). So if you disagree please comment. The point of this tactica is to help new Ork players, give them so info I WISH I had when I was starting Orks. So thank you and Enjoy the show!

Picking the Theme that’s Right for YOU!

In this section I will go over 4 basic main ideas to base your army off of. I’ll go over some of the advantages and dis-advantages of those lists and give you the best idea I possibly can from just writing , so you can decide which discipline is right for your boyz! I will include a sample Army list and give you an general idea on how much that list would cost.

There is no right or wrong way to play the Orks, but from my years of experience with them there are 4 basic ideas that any list comes from, if you try to play them all 4 ways you will go broke =). They are a Hoard army, and you will have a TON of models to paint and put together. But in the end most orks players I know are proud to call them selves Bosses! The 4 Themes I mentioned earlier are 1. Green Tide. 2. Speed Freaks. 3. Mekky and 4. Trukk Boyz Hoard.

Da Green Tide

I’ll go over this list first, you may know it by the Hoarde List, or the Foot Slogging list, and give you a few idea on what units are good for this list and what units don’t work so well. This is the style I know best because I run this style the most. It isn’t better or worse than the other ideas It just fits me. When you play this list, try to get yourself mentally prepared to see A LOT of your units get killed, if you were a space marine player or a necron player you may not be used to removing this many units from play and you might feel defeated before you really are. When you play orks you are going to lose pieces, just get yourself mentally prepared for it.

This list is called the green tide because you should have somewhere between 90 and 120 Boyz on the table at the beginning of the game. The Main tactic of this style is to throw as many Boyz as you can at the enemy in hopes of simply overwhealming them. This tactic is very good at beginner and novice players it works on them psychologically, they don’t see armor 6…they see a crap ton of models ready to slice and dice them the shreads, and orks have a good reputation in the 40k world…for being awesome in assaults.

Troop Choice Composition:

Your looking at about 3-4 squads of 30 boyz.

Nob:You want to take a Nob with each to lead them Give him a Power Klaw and a Boss Pole and if you like ‘eavy armor, it may come in useful during assaults, the longer your nob lives the more he can kill with his power klaw. You give him the boss pole because while Ork Mobz are Fearless at this size, they wont always be this size…and you will want some insurance that those boyz don’t turn tail and run if its toward the end of the game and they’re sitting on an objective. Your Nob should also be able to kill approx. 2 marines by himself in close combat

Shoota Boyz:As for the Boyz, you can outfit them any way you like really, Shoota Boyz aren’t as bad as they were in 4th edition, they are an Assault 2 weapon which means you can move and shoot, and with 60 shots, you hit on average with 20 of them, and at S4 you’ll wound on approx Half which means 10 of them and Marines will save on most of those, so you may kill about 3 marines by shooting. I find that Shoota Boyz are most useful against Armor 10 vehicles, especially Land Speeders or their equivalent, something in a “squadron” where you can Destroy it on an Immobilized result. That’s a lot of shots, and yea you need 6’s to Glance and then 6’s to Immobilize, but again you throw enough Boyz at a problem eventually they’ll solve it. Shoota Boyz are just as good as Slugga boyz in close combat except they get 1 less attack, 2 attacks +1 for the Charge for a total of 3 attacks.

Slugga Boyz: Slugga Boyz are the Staple for your army, you will usually use more of them than Shoota Boyz. I would always use 2/3 or ¾ of your units as Slugga Boyz . With this unit of Slugga Boyz you want to Assault as quickly as you can, so you would run as much as possible, you can for-go your run move to shoot before you assault, but only if you are 100% sure you can get a boat load of boyz into the assault with out running. 30 boyz with 4 attacks is 120 attacks, now to be realistic you’ll never get all 30 boyz to survive long enough to assault them all onto a squad, so lets say 15 boyz charging in would get 60 attacks, with a WS of a 4 you will Hit approx ½ the time so you will hit on 30 attacks, with a Str of a 3 against a Marine you will wound 1/3 of the time so you will give them 10 wounds, and you will kill about 3 or 4 of them.

Special Weapons: You can Take 1 Special Weapon for every 10 Boyz, so at 30 Boyz you can take up to 3 special weapons. For a mob of Slugga Boyz its kind of a waste, as you should be running not stoping to shoot. So I would not recommend taking Special Weapons with a mob of Slugga Boys. With a Mob of Shoota boys, I would take Special Weapons. Rokkits are useless, with 3 shots you’ll hit 1/3 of the time on average so you’ll hit with 1, Str 8 means you will more than likely wound so that 1 dead marine. Big Shoota’s are the weapon most prefer to take with Shoota Boyz, with 3 shots each, meaning 9 shots, you’ll hit with 3 on average, while the averages may be close with each weapon, the maximum damage output is higher with the Big Shoota, you have the maximum chance to hit with 9 shots, as opposed to the maximum of 3 shots with the Rokkits. So again just personal preference I would take the Big Shootas every time with a squad of Shoota Boyz.

End of Part 1. More to come if people enjoy this so far. Next up “Da’ Green Tide Part 2, Supporting your tide da Propa way!”

Da Green Tide Part 2: Supporting da Boyz in da Propa wayz

HQ.

The 2 most useful HQ Choices to support your green tide are the Big Mek and the Warboss. The Weird Boy can be effective but it is a Highly un predictiable unit and should be added into fun lists, but not compettative ones. You really need to play around with the weird boy to find its strengths and weaknesses so we will be focusing on how a Big Mek and a War Boss can support da boyz in da Propa wayz

War Boss: Super Killy a warboss can compliment just about any unit you choose to put him with. A great outfit for this style of army would be a Warboss with ‘eavy armor to give him a 3+ save, a Power Klaw, Kombi Shoota Skorcha, to “flame on” right before you assault, and if you have the extra points go ahead and give him a Cybork body as well for that 5+ invul save. That way you have a T5 4+/5+ so he wont be killed out right with double toughness rules. Lets go over a few of the other options you could give your war boss and discuss why we didn’t chose them for this boss. Mega Armor: you want him to be able to keep up and towards the front of your boyz mob, without a transport this option is just too slow. Twin Linked Shoota, not a bad choice but it costs the same as your Kombi Skorcha, again in this list you wont be stoping to shoot, you want to get into assault as quickly as possible so you will be running, I would rather send some flames in right before I assault for the 5 points than be able to re roll missed shots that chances are, your going to miss again. A Big Choppa raises your str to 7, and its 20 points cheaper than the powerklaw…this is not the place to skimp on points…you should make sure you have enough points for a power klaw on your boss. You don’t need a Boss pole if your Nob has one. The attack squig give you extra attacks, so its not a bad choice if you have the extra points. And the Ammo runt is kinda of a waste of points as I said, your not going to be stopping to shoot. The War Boss is also great if you decide to take a unit of Nobz, the Nobz can be a Troop Choice and Capture objectives, this is a great idea as you will have an extra scoring unit on the table.

Big Mek KFF: Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field is my favorite HQ choice with this army. Take him, Put him in a Battle Wagon and ride him up the table in between 2 of your Boyz Mobs, and give them a 5+ cover save. When I take this Mek I usually just leave him with a slugga and a choppa as to save points, He should stay inside the battlewagon at all times to protect it, and give any unit within 6” of it a 5+ cover save. If the Wagon gets popped and he is forced out, just team him up with one of the squads of boyz and walk him up the table. Once the Boyz are in Combat if he is still in his battle wagon he is free to Ram other tanks with his Deff Rolla or Tank Shokk those hard to kill units doing a d6 str 10 hits on the tank shokk!. I would also give this guy some Grot Oilers to assist in fixin the Battle Wagon if it gets damage * Note the Codex reads that vehicles that are within 6’’ count as being obscured targets, and the rule book reads that obscured targers are a 4+ cover save

The Big Mek KFF Battle Wagon: I’m adding this here because it is a vital part of the Big Mek KFF strategy. You want to take a Battle Wagon with a Deff Rolla, it will count as a Heavy Support Choice because the Big Mek can not take it as a dedicated transport. You want to put a DeffRolla on it, 2 Big Shootas (or 1 big shoota and a Kannon), you want 2 weapons on it in the case of a weapon destroyed, you wont really be worried about the shooting capability of these weapons, you just don’t want to take 0 weapons because then a weapon destroyed result turns into a Immobilized result, Just a reminder the Deff Rolla does not count as a weapon for weapon destroyed results as it is a vehicle upgrade, not a weapon. A Kannon can still fire if the wagon moves…so if you have the points sure, give it a Kannon. Some people also like to give the wagon a red paint job which helps with that extra inch, and a hard case and armor plates, if you have the points these are also great add-ons.

Big Mek SAG: This is another viable HQ, this guy stays back with your Lootas and adds fire support down range for your boyz. While the results of the Shokk Attack Gun can be unpredictable, it’s a chance worth taking to some much needed fire support that Orks and their BS of 2 lack. You can save points by not giving him any special armor or weapons, but for this unit an ammo runt is useful, in my opinion its one of the only units its worth taking.


Other Supporting Cast

The Green Screen: Lootas and Grots: These 2 units are like peas and carrots, in my opinion they should always be taken together when possible. Lootas are a must have for just about any list, they work as long range fire support for your orks, they are a shooty unit in a not so shooty army. Take between 8 and 15 Lootas. They give you the option to take a Mek with a Kustom Mega Blasta, the range for the Kustom Mega Blasta is shorter so really think about how close you expect your enemy to get to this unit before decideing to take the Meks or Not. The second part to this team is the Grots, take 15 Grots, with 1 Runtherd. 15 should usually be enough. What you do for this tactic is mix the Lootas and the Grots together that way the Grots provide a much needed cover save for your Lootas and the Lootas provide a cover save for their screening grots. Also if anyone gets close enough to assault your Lootas, you can simply shift all of your grots ahead to either assault that unit first before they get your lootas, or act as a green screen so the enemy simply cant move around them to get to your Lootas, and have to move through them, this should give you enough time to re position your lootas to keep them alive a bit longer. This method is tried and true, I use it a lot and it drives my opponents crazy!. The Grots also count as a scoring unit and should be placed Near an objective, not on an objective, as that would put 2 eggs in the same basket….place them near, that way the grots could claim the objective towards the end of the game, and your forcing your opponent to either claim the objective and get shot at by the Lootas, or Assault the Lootas and leave the objective un claimed.

The NOB Squad: Who doesn’t like these guys! Super Killy but expensive. I find it difficult to incorporate an effective squad of Nobs into a Green Tide list. But if you choose to use them I would go with a cheaper version of the Nobs, include maybe 5-7 Nobs, Give them Shootas and Big Choppas maybe give 1 or 2 a power Klaw and all “eavy armor. Give 1 a boss pole just to keep the others in line. Again if you insist on taking these guys, getting them into action exactly where you want them can prove difficult. What I have done in the past is walked them up behind my Battle Wagon as to keep them safe on their journey across the board. Another tactic that I’ve used was to keep this unit at home, and have them claim an objective in my zone. You’ve got 10 to 14 wounds with a 4+ armor save to claim an objective, most of your green tide will be infront of it to protect it and give them a cover save for the first couple turns at least. Nobs can be useful in this list, it just all comes down to what you think your points will be spent better on.

Killa Kanz: a Much needed addition to the shootyness of the army is a Killa Kanz Squad. Personally I choose to take 1 squad of 3 Kanz all with Rokkit Launchas. With the Grots BS of 3 you are hitting ½ the time instead of 1/3 of the time. This is where you want most of the Rokkit Fire Power in your army. When you buy the Killa Kanz Box they only give you one Rokkit Launcha Arm, I have taken old rokkit bits, or you can fashion your own and add them to the Big Shoota arm or the Grotzooka arm if you are like me and only use Rokkit Kanz. The other weapons are ok…I mean I could justify using the Grotzooka as a template weapon, but if your not taking rokkits on your Kanz your missing the point. As far as upgrades to the Kanz I usually don’t take any, Grot Riggers is a waste since they are a squadron, if you take 1 single Kan you could take grot riggers but if you take them as a mob don’t bother. Armor plates aren’t a terrible idea but its all in how you want to spend your points.

Part 3: The Ensemble

So by now you’ve read the Important parts of the Green Tide Army. The Main Cast being the tons and tons of Boyz that are the main attraction of this army. The Supporting Cast showing off the units you will use most to support your tons and tons of boyz. And Now here is the Ensemble, the rest of the Boyz that will fill out your army. We’ll look at a few different units and go over why they could be good choices to add to your Green Tide list and how to use them effectively in this list.

Looted Wagon: Always take the BoomGun with this option. This almost made it as supporting cast because I take this wagon 99% of the time with the green tide list, the only reason its here in the ensemble is because of points cost…its not expensive per say but if it comes down to more boyz or Lootas, you’ll take them over this. But if you can try to find a way to get this in your list as the Str 8 Ap 3 Large Blast will kill Marines out-right. Don’t press dat can get annoying but I try to butt the front edge of my tank against some impassable terrain so it doesn’t actually have to move far from where I want it. It also helps protect the wagon from certain vantage points by blocking LOS or making the vehicle count as obscured. Looted Wagons are easy enough to get, I use an Imperial Guard Basalisk, but I have seem many different kinds of Kustom ones that are truly awesome. Again this vehicle adds much needed long range fire support that Orks typically lack. With a squad of Lootas, Rokkit Kanz and This looted Wagon, you’ll have enough fire support to help Da Boyz get where they’re goin.

Big Gunz: These guys are tricky, they add decent fire support with a Grots BS so they are hitting ½ the time. But I don’t recommend these for an “all comers” list…if you add them add them to fight a particular army, you can have Kannons, Lobbas or Zzapp Gunz…Zzapp guns being the most famous. Once you load out the Krew and add extra grots and ammo runts and the runtherd it can get pretty expensive and actually end up costing you more than a Looted Wagon with a Boom Gun…and honestly I feel the Looted Wagon is a better option. But to each their own and if you simply have these models and don’t have a Looted Wagon, these guys can replace that as additional fire support.

Flash Gitz: No…to make this unit even worth it you need to load it out to the max, with the best weapon upgrades for each Nob, Kaptain Badrukk, and a Pain boy, this will easily run you over 500 points and just really has no place in a Green Tide list.

Deff Dread: Love Deff Dreads, but not for this list. A properly equipped Dread has 3 close combat weapons and a skorcha. Its an Assault unit, not a shooty unit. Yes it can be taken as a troop choice, but we already have 6 troop choices in this army, 4 Boyz, 1 Nobs, 1 Grots. You don’t want this unit taking up a Heavy Slot either because you need to reserve those slots for fire support, with the Kanz, BattleWagon and the Looted Wagon, even if you decide not to take the Looted Wagon, another Mob of Kanz or an Extra Battle Wagon would be a better choice in this list than the Deff Dread. So yea, LOVE the Deff Dread, just not in this list.

Bikers, Buggies, Storm Boyz OH MY!: Again in my opinion these units have their advantages but not in this list. The point of the list is to move forward as a GREEN TIDE, so the huge wave hits the opponents line all at once, sending one of these units ahead of the tide will only get it killed.

Trukks: Arent needed due to the size of your units

Specialists: Kommandos, Tank Bustas and Burna boyz: The only one of these units I would suggest thinking about would be the Burna Boyz and I’d put them with the Big Mek in the Battlewagon. Tank Bustas get distracted to easily and Kommandos are infiltraiters again, if one unit gets infront of the tide and hits before the big wave, chances are its dead. You can try to out flank the Kommandos and see what happens but chances are they’ll get shot down before they get close enough to assault. With a Max unit capacity of 15…there’s a good chance they’ll be dead, or run away before they ever get stuck in. but to be honest I haven’t play tested Kommandos in this list as much, so you may have better luck or a different perspective with them than I do.

MANZ aka Mega Armored NobZ: Nope too slow, and chances are you wont be able to afford a transport for these guys with a green tide list.

Special Characters: Nope…not needed. You want to stick with the generic Warboss and the Mek, for this list, it just works better.

Approx Price: $600 - $700.00 based on MSRP

This Concludes the Green Tide style, comments and questions are welcome. I’ll try to have another Style up for you soon.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Malifaux: Too good to be true?

So after first hearing about Malifaux on 40K Radio, I decided to do a bit of research on the new game from Wyrd Minatures. The first step in research of anything our generation does, is search Wiki or You Tube to see whats out there about this game, and if its something you may enjoy. Since Malifaux is a pretty new game, coming out at GenCon 2009 you see mainly 2 groups giving Malifaux Love those would be our Aussie buds down at the Battle Bunker, who have even given us a Demo game, its a video that's just over an hour long, yea i know it doesnt sound like much fun watching a game, but since the Rule Book is a little wordy, and already has over 15 pages of Errata, the only way to really learn this game is by reading along with the rule book and playing a game. So these guys really did us all a service by explaining step by step how the game works in their video. The other group showing Malifaux some love on You Tube is AG Productions Inc. They do a few "unboxings" of the sets you can purchase of the mini's and they show you exactly what you will get in each box. They go into detail about the flashing on the minis, and what steps you may need to take to get the mini to sit in the base correctly. I would highly reccomend checking out both of these groups to see what they have to say about the Game.

I am a 40K player and have said i would never play another game, it doesnt make sense to me to start a new game when i have invested Thousands, yes Thousands of dollars into a game, i dont get to play enough of as it is. Those of you who know me know i also wont give Warmachine or Hordes any love...I LOVE 40K, i am emotionally invested as much as i am monetarily, the Fluff is awesome, everything about the game i really enjoy so why would i spend money on anther game, when there are still so many more 40K toys i want to buy? So why on earth would i consider Malifaux? what can it offer me that i cant get from 40K or Games Workshop?

Its a Card game...you draw cards from a "fate" deck that randomly generate numbers for combat and other game dynamics. Not that i dont like dice, because i do, but this is just a new refreshing way of reinventing a table top war game.

Its a skirmish game with awesome looking models! I mean i could go buy a Blood bowl army and stay true to GW or even Mordheim, Thats the GW skirmish game...But honestly i dont think the GW models for these 2 games come anywhere close to how awesome Wyrd Minatures models look for this game.

Being that its a skirmish game, games only last about 45 minutes to an hour...which means i can play when i dont have an entire night to devote to gaming. Those of you with significant others and kids out there, you guys catch where i'm coming from on this one.

The gaming system is 100% different from 40K so as i believe Chipley from 40K Radio said, its a palate cleanser. The Turns are different, the weapons are different, the cards, the soulstones, even the movement, its all different, even the setting and the fluff the creatures, the races, its all different, and Awesome...Wyrd took a bunch of generes and mashed them up into 1 game, and had it make sense, which is tough to do, its Wild West, Steam Punk, Victorian, Horror, Alternate Worldly...its a new story on a different level from 40k, that i am able to buy into

its Cheap! WOO WHOOOO thank gods, I went to The WarStore and priced everything i would need for an entire army, Rule Book, Starter Set, 3 extra minis (which you dont even need) a tube of those clear stones for Soul Stone markers (which you dont even need) and a Fate deck (again you dont need one because you can use a REGULAR DECK OF CARDS! how awesome is that) and with all the stuff i want (but dont need) the total was STILL under $100 u.s.!! i mean really? thats freaking awesome!

Space is not as much of an issue as other games..Still on the business of being cheap, Malifaux is mainly played on a 3'x3' board...which means i can play it on the 4' x 6' board i already have...you just line off the legnth at 3' across and start you mini's 6'' in on each side...and if you have friends over you could have 2 games going on at once. If you dont have a game board, you could use your dining room table, with a 3' x 3' area it will be alot easier to play a "pick up" game at home.

Protecting your minis, Malifaux has been on the market less than a year and Romeo and the guys at Battle Foam already offer an affordable way to transport and store your stuff. That may sound like a shameless plug for my buddies at Battle Foam, but its not...well it kinda is, but everyone knows How much we nerds like to organize our "little men" ha ha.

So in closing, I would just like to finish with, Yes...i am convienced that i will try this game, My Birthday is coming up and i will be purchasing my Entire Gang and accessories for under $100...and i'll be sure to post all the paint jobs and even a review on how I like the game after i've tried it. I hope this post got your mind grapes thinking, and your brainsicles dripping.

As always comments are welcome, if you have a Malifaux experience you would like to share, please leave me a comment below




Friday, July 2, 2010

June Motovational Challenge



Was 2 days late turning in this one...but at least i got it done, didn't have a ton of time to paint this month, things have been crazy with my best friends wedding, and the baby, and work...but anyways, these guys really didnt turn out as good as i had hoped they would...but ehh i guess they cant all be winners. Thanks for checking in, and comments always welcome

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Eldar Warlock




I wasn't even planning on painting today...I 've been putting off my Warlocks and Farseer because i am afraid to paint robes and cloth, i bought the MWG.com Painting Bootcamp DVD and i've watched it several times, and still i was afraid to paint cloth, So i was looking at the Warlocks sitting there, all primed and not painted, and i decided to put on my big boy pants and just give it a go, worst case scenario i have simple green, i could just scrub it right? well i'm not 100% sure what happened, maybe i was Channeling my Aussie buddy Role Player, but some how i think i just painted the nicest mini i've ever painted...i hope i can re-do this performance when i do the rest of them, let me be clear i dont think this is ANYWHERE close to what RP or CiaphasCain or any of those guys do, but for me and my ability, i think i really did well, and i'm proud of this one, i'm uploading the pictures now so i hope they do it justice. again any comments, or any tips you can give so i do a better job, please let me know - Kenny

Full Ork Army Picutre (Only Painted Models)


Well Folks i've been working on my orks for about 2 years now on and off...Thanks to the FreeBootaz Forum and the MWG.com Forum i've been more motivated to paint in the last 6 months and i've actually got ALOT done, from my count i have 124 models painted + Vehicles...some i'm more proud of than other but overall I think they've turned out well...Please comment and let me know what you think