Kill Team , 1st games with Orks

Yesterday I had my first game playing with Orks. We played a couple of Kill team games at my local gaming club. I think Kill Team is a good way to get started with a new army. You can take 200 points of miniatures, they don't act as units but as individual characters. If your Kill Team falls below 50% of it's starting figures (not points) you have to take a leadership test. If failed you lose the game. very easy, quick and fun to play.

Game 1: Orks vs Orks (200 points)

My first game was against a fellow Ork player who actually played Ork Kill team a good couple of times before and was still undefeated at our club. A tough nut so to speak.

His list was;

-5 biker boyz 

-10 slugga boyz with big shoota and a nob

My list was:

-5 Nobz with various layout like Powerklaw,big choppa, kombi scorcha and 2 vannila nobz all 'Eavy armour

-10 gretchin plus runtherd with grabba stick.

Deployment

He won the roll off and got to go first and he deployed his forces in the north east table quarter. his bikes split up ready to roll in. 8 of his boyz on the right and 2 (1 big shoota) on the left.

I deployed all my gretchin on the right of my table quarter hoping to get them in good (4+) cover and 2 nobz on the left.I put the one with the powerklaw on the left to deal with the bikers.my big choppa and kombi scorcha on the right to take out some boyz.

Round 1

In his first turn he moved up his boyz and bikes to line them up propperly and he took some shots at me. Because I was spread out and in good cover and he rolled terrible on his 'to hit' rolls I only lost 1 Nob.
In my turn I just moved all my gretchin in cover and a little closer and my nobz out front.My shooting didn't go too bad and my gretchin took out 2 boyz.

Round 2 & 3

I'm not completely sure how turn two went but I remember him shooting at my gretchin on the righthand side and killing 1 gretchin and on the left he shot at one of my two nobz and wounded 1. After that I returned fire with my gretchin and moved all my nobz to charging distance. The kombi scorcha killed 3 boyz, my gretchin 1 boy and on the charge i killed his Nob and a bikerboy.
In turn 3 he passed his first leadership test so the game went on. he killed 1 nob on the left and the two nobz on the right. on the left I killed one more Bike but lost the last Nob.

Round 4

This round he had to pass his leadership test again because his total surviving figures had dropped below 50% and this time he didn't make it handing me the victory and with that my first win the very first time playing Orks.

Post game thoughts

My opponent had been a bit overconvident with his shooting. He knew I had never played my orks before so I think he thought it was going to be a roll up. afterwards he admitted that he should have drove his bikes around denying me my very valuable 4+ cover save on all those gretchin.

My gretchin were a vital part of my strategy, they are cheap but high in number so because I kept them alive for so long I never had to take a leadership test. I focussed on his boyz first and because they were in the open and within shooting range I windeled them down quite easily.

My oppponent also lost two bikes because he charged my nobz with them and that didn't pay off at all and got them killed. My Nobz had 'Eavy armour wich was also vital in keeping them alive.

Game 2: Orks vs Space Wolves (200 points)

After my first game I played another guy from my gaming club on the same table with the same lay-out. He just started space wolves and this was his list:

1  HQ choice (I can't remember which) +powerweapon

10 Wolf guard with 1 plasmagun and 1 flamer 

I played the same list as the first game:

-5 Nobz with various layout like Powerklaw,big choppa, kombi scorcha and 2 vannila nobz all 'Eavy armour

-10 gretchin plus runtherd with grabba stick.

Again I lost the roll off to go first so he set up in the same table quarter as my first opponent. He put all his troops in a bunker and I deployed my forces the same way I did before.if it works once...... (it's no garantee it will work again...)

Round 1

This game was a little different because my opponent didn''t move but just started basting away from his bunkered possition. I tried my best moving from cover to cover to close the gap but I still lost a a nob.

The cowardly Space wolves hiding in their bunker.Their weapons have far superior range over the orks weapons so no need to move...

Round 2

My plan was to run with everything trying to close the gap and get withing range or charging distance. He took the bait and focussed on my large mob of Gretchin in the north whilst my 3 nobz in the south closed in. I did lose a lot of gretchin to a flamer and shooting and also 1 Nob and a Runtherd. I then returned fire with my remaining Gretchin and manage to kill 1 wolf guard.

Round 3

In the third round at became clear that I wasn't going to win this game. Although my Gretchin stood their ground and actually managed to keep the flamer wolf guard in CC. unfortunately my oppponent switched his fire to my Nobz sneaking up to the building and he manages to kill two.

In my turn the remaining nob strikes back. It's kombi scorcha again turns some opponents into piles of ash and together with the gretchins grotblaster I finally manage to shoot 5 wolf guard from the top of the bunker.

Round 4 & Post game thoughts

In his turn 4 absolutely nothing happened, he tried shooting but nothing happened and when it was my turn I had to test for my leadership first because I fell below half strenght and I failed and so lost the game.

Clearly the table was in his advantage, he hardly moved all game and just took pot shots at my troops windling them down before they could get to them. I wonder what would have happened if I just kept out of range for the first couple of turns but my intention was to learn about the Orks. I must say that the Gretchin were again doing a great job. But I think my nobz only made 1 cover save all game and I lost them pretty quickly before they could do anything.

Game 3: Orks vs Space Wolves (200 points)

The Space wolves player wanted to have another go because he wants to get to know his army a bit better too and so we set up the table a bit differently and put the bunker in the middele so he couldn't take it first turn. I didn't take any pictures but believe me when I say that this game was the total opposite of the first game. I had him moving towards cover but managed to catch him in CC and tabled him by turn 3. The picture here on the side was the last wolf guard in CC with thee Nobz and a Runtherd. just seconds before it went down.

So in the end not a bad score winning 2 out of 3 games when I play with Orks for the very first time. I learned a few things and it was fun to play a short mission like this.

Boss Scrapsmacka can be pleased, all the enemies have been defeated... and If I would have lost I would have won anyway like a true Ork...

Weez keepin da scrap boss!

Seb

Wednesday W.I.P.11

It's been quite a good week on the hobby front. I managed to get my Watchtower and Chapel done and nothing is more satisfying then finishing a project. Certainly when that project had been sitting on a shelf looking at me for the past few months. I think every miniature painter out there has the same problem, Too many project and not enough time to finish them all. The result of having so many projects for me usually means that I assemble the model and put the undercoat on with black or light grey primer and leave it like that for 2 or 3 months. Then i come back to that project, paint it a bit and then put it away again..

This year my new year's resolution was not to buy anything anymore before I had finished a good deal of my models that weren't finished yet. I already broke that promise but so far I've done pretty good and actually finished a good couple of projects.

Click to enlarge

This coming Sunday I'll play some Kill Team games at my gaming club and I thought it would be fun to play a game or two with my new Orks. The only problem is that 4 out of my 5 Nobz are not yet painted so these coming days all my time goes in to finishing them. I already have most of the basepainting done as you can see in the picture but still some way to go. The fifth Nob is finished, I painted him so I could have a little try out with the color scheme. If you want to see how he turned out have a look at on older post of mine HERE.


The Kill Team I want to field looks like this:

10 Gretchin with Grotblasta's
1   Runtherd with Grabbastick and Slugga
1   Nob with Powerklaw and Slugga
1   Nob with Big Choppa
1   Nob with Scarcha/Shoota combi
1   Nob with Choppa and Slugga
1   Nob with Choppa and Slugga
Total: 200points

I have never played Kill Team before so I have no idea how this list will work but it's about having fun more then winning. I'll try to take some pictures of the games and pour it into a topic here on my blog.

Seb

Adding a bit of value to your models.

Plastic models are the way forward and GW is bringing out more and more plastics. This way they can keep the costs of producing lower then with metal models and for us it makes it easier to convert models. The amount of detail is getting better and better with plastics but it has one drawback, plastic models are very lightweight. They have the tendency of boouncing to the other end of the room when you drop them.
But there's an easy sollution for that. I stick a 5cents euro coin in the bases to weigh them down a bit and it works really well. Models don't get knocked over on the table and stay in their place nice and sturdy. I imagine that every currency has a coin with the size of a base so if you're not in the euro zone you might have to have a look wich coin fits. This way you also add a little value to the models. A unit of 10 models costs me €0,50 so that's not much .

But why stop there? I also magnatize all my bases. I started doing this with my fantasy army as they have to be placed on movement trays. so when you magnatize the bases and get a metal sheet and cut that to the size of your unit they will never fall of and you can easily move them araound on the table.
But why do this with 40K models then,.. well you can put your models on any metal tray for easy transport. the models will stick to the tray even if you turn the tray upside down. I have seen DIY cases that fit metal serving trays and have magnetized units on them.Also you can imagine that when you attend a tournament and have to move between tables a lot that it's very easy if you have one or two of these trays and you don't have to worry about people bumping into you when you make your way through the crowded room with your precious painted models.

I take a pen and draw the outline of the bases on a magnetsheet and cut them out with a pair of scissors. These magnetsheets are available at the better hobbystores and some DIY stores. Internet is your friend to locate them.
I then superglue the cut out magnets to the bases.It's better if the magnet is a little bigger then the bases. Because once they are glued properly you can take a knive and cut away the excess.

Once the magnet fits perfectly I paint the sides of the base and you can hardly see the magnetsheet underneath.

If you want to see the whole gretchin unit with magnets then click here.

And then there's one more good reason to do this....



Waaagh!



How else would you mount that vertical assault on the washing machine to claim that unreachable objective on top of it.

Seb

Da Gretchin Crew

As promised here are my newly finished gretchin with Runtherd. I had so much fun painting these little fella's. Each and every one has so much character and I tried to make them all look different and still fit within the unit. The yellow binds them but most of all their bases make it work. (which were a lot of work)

The bases took me a few hours to put together but in the end I really think it paid off. If you want to see a before and after shot then have a look here.The bases are really a nice little canvas for the Gretchin to stand on and really brings them out. Not two bases are the same but still have a proper uniform look about them for the army.

As I said the little gretchin are really fun to look at. They each bring a sense of character and I wanted to emphasise on that. I painted them all individualy so one has a tartan blue cloth, and one has a red tartan cloth. I have made one with an orky smiley t-shirt and put extra strong red lenses on the gretchin with the goggles. They look like a crazy gang when you see them together.

Have a look and let me know what you think. In the pictures the skincolor is a little bit of. they have a bit more depth. I am still considering if I should highlight them more or just leave them like this.

If you look carefully you'll notice something funny about their bases that I haven't mentioned yet before so that's a nice little teaser to leave you with untill the next post. (here's a little clue)

Seb