Wolfriders 2: Electric Boogarooooooo!

Two quick things to update today. First off is that I finished my next 5 wolf riders today (the ones I whinged about converting HERE.

I do love these wolf models and wolf riders have always been a favourite of mine. Partially because of the rapid movement, but also because of fond memories and fevered imaginings of the battle of five armies from The Hobbit. 

The group shot was too blurry, but here are a few solo shots:

Here's the boss...

Here's the musician, complete with excessively large horn!

Wolf rider making with the stabby-stabby.

So, of course, the reason I was painting these all so frantically, was that I was playing Andrew B's undead horde tonight.

To say it was a game of two halves would be an understatement...

Waaagh Morthang

Horde's Eye View...

Initially, things were almost all going my way. Barring some very unlucky animosity rolls, it all went my way in the first 2 turns.

Turn 1

Morthang swept through the centre of Andrew's army, taking out the Hex Wraiths and the Undead Heavy Cav too. The Spider Riders not only broke the dire wolf unit, they swept into the black coach and (along with the goblin archers who were "suffering" under animosity) destroyed it to. The Spiders' poisoned attacks were very lucky, and Andrew's ward saves were very unlucky.

Meanwhile, though, my savage orc big uns and orc boyz were going nowhere fast, as they failed animosity test after animosity test.

Morthang ended up in combat, alongside the wolf riders, with a skelly warrior unit. It should have been a bloodbath, but the Wyvern rolled poorly, as did the wolf riders, and though beaten, the undead hung on.

At this point we made a wee rules mistake, and assumed Morthang (who was no longer in B2B) would be free from the combat, as he'd wiped out all the skellies he was in B2B with. In truth, he should have been moved into contact again. As it was, he was out on his own, and a combination of a Tomb Banshee's howl attack and a Cairn Wraith chill attack killed him. The Wyvern broke from combat and was killed. Gutted. I gave him the Trickster's Helm, but against those special undead attacks, it was totally useless. Bah. Lesson learned: against undead, you need a ward save!

From this point on, it was downhill for the greenskins. Andrew's general - Eichengard - is nuggets. Fencers blades, plus a ward, plus a couple of blood gifts, make him a combat wombat. There was just nothing my lesser characters could do against him. Morthang, on Wyvern, would have done alright, I think, but a Big Boss just ain't that big.

I plugged away, and my boyz did OK, but he was killing 5 to 8 boyz a turn. We stood no chance (though bigger units may help in the future...).

Penultimate Turn

In the end we were left in the odd situation where Eichengard and one skelly were in combat with my unit. Eichengard kept offering challenges then obliterating my characters. With hindsight, I probably would have been better refusing the challenge (unOrcy though!) and hoping some boys were left in B2B to hurt him. Also, again, bigger units may have managed to overcome his insane amount of damage.

What was odd, was that if there had been more skellies there, my savage orcs would have killed them, meaning they won the combat, meaning Eichengard took wounds and died. As it was though, they just stood around like plums, watching him slaughter character after character.

So a victory to the undead.

Lessons learned:

1 - ward save vs. the undead.
2 - don't play scenarios where you play lengthways, as animosity is a killer.
3 - I really need bigger units.

Good fun game though. At any point it could have gone differently: If Morthang hadn't been able to be reached by the Cairn Wraiths, he'd have survived at least one more turn, possibly longer. If my infantry hadn't failed all those animosity tests, they'd have been attacking Eichengard at the same time as the small boar boy unit (whose magic banner negated his magic items, though in truth it's the blood gifts that did most harm).

Equally, if Andrew's black coach and/or wolves had survived, or his cavalry...

Already looking forward to the next game (and hoping my ordered stuff arrives soon!).

Isn't it? Wasn't it? Standard.

The other day I posted about a couple of conversions I did for my army; given I'm playing Andrew B's shambling hordes on Monday, I figured I'd best pull my finger out and get on with the painting.

So I did.

LEADBELLY: Orc Battle Standard Bearer

Converted from the Avatar of War shaman model, with weapons and standards from the Orc sprues and armour and skulls from the undead sprue. I wanted him to stand out, and since red was the detail colour for my army, it made sense to do his cloak and standard in that colour. 

Given his rag-tag, mismatched armour, I decided to paint the banner as if it had been looted. So I painted it up with a black chevron, intentionally aping the design on the shield of my wolf rider musician. The idea being that Morthang's Waaagh have tangled with a Bretonnian army before, squishing some Knights Errant in the process. Then I slapped some orcy glyphs on top. The skull design has been repeated across my army, but I added a crude, stylised flaming sword, as he is Morthang Da Burna's standard bearer. 

I'm super-chuffed with how he turned out. He's virtually unrecognisable as the same model as my shaman Drogrot Gorkeye. 

I was concerned he'd look more similar from the rear, as the cloak has a lot of detail. It is amazing, though, the difference a paintjob makes. A shield slapped on, and a banner to draw the eye, combined with a lick of red paint and Gork's your uncle. 

Leadbelly from behind

I decided to "dirty up" the banner and his tattered red cloak. Initially I was going to use a brown wash (Agrax Earth Shade to the rescue) but it turned the glyphs a funny pink colour. Once that dried, and I redid the white glyphs, I opted for a drybrush of bown/black instead, and it worked really well. 

Once I put him in the unit, he looks even better, nicely offsetting the red of the shields. Here he is with the Orc Boyz unit "Da Red Skullz" and their boss Grak Skulltaker.

Leadbelly in situ with Da Red Skullz

 Finally, before I sign off, here's a shot of Leadbelly and Big Toof, my savage orc big boss. I did take a shot of Big Toof in Skargutz' Boyz, along with Drogrot the shaman, but Big Toof's sword is blocking Drogrot from the camera, so I'll try that again later.

Da Big Boss Men. Or rather orcs. 

Here's hoping the Ld boost and battle standard (which allows a reroll on all Ld tests, as well as an extra +1 combat resolution) will prove handy. I know Big Toof's attacks will...

Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.

As I mentioned last post, I'm doing some converting just now: to whit, one Battle Standard Bearer (as well as some more wolf riders). I'm using the Shaman model from Avatar of War, as I ended up with 2 by accident, and I knew I had lots of spare Orcy bits. Behold: Orc Big Boss and Morthang's Battle Standard Bearer.

Leadbelly

 Flash has killed the detail on the metal bits, but hopefully you can see well enough that it's hardly recognisable as a shaman. The head and sword-hand, as well as spear/banner are basic Orc Boy bitz, while his armour is from the skelly warrior bits, donated by Andrew B. One breastplate looked too small, but I had the idea to put two on him, as if he was too big and fat to get armour that fit him. A green stuff belly and a dab of glue, and he has a name: Leadbelly. Some more undead bits and bobs finish him off, hiding the handle of the staff, and a pile o'skulls on the base. Trophies and what not.

Leadbelly from the rear

He looked pretty different from behind, too, but I popped a shield on his back to hide some of the detail, to make him look different, and to keep him in line with the Orc Boyz he'll be accompanying to battle.

`Remarkably fast to do, and I think he'll look great once he's painted.

So, on to the wolf-riders.

I wasn't planning on posting anything about these guys. I've already blogged about GW's awesome Fenrisian Wolf models, and how good they look as wolf-rider mounts. However, when I went to make my next five, I encountered a problem. Maths.

I had miscounted when I checked I had enough bitz left over for 10 riders. Specifically, I was shy right arms with bows and, more worryingly, left arms. Not just left arms with the right pose or weapon, but left arms. Period.

D'oh!

Time to adapt, improvise and overcome! To deal with the bow issue, I mostly used spears. I made a few in a throwing pose, and ensured they all had quivers and bows on their backs. This will mean I can split the spears up and say the units just have bows or, if I ever want a unit with spears, I can put them together and hey-presto! Spear unit.

The other arms were trickier though. In my first Frankenstein's monster, I used two bits of different right arms chopped up and put together to make something that looked roughly arm and elbow-like. The hand was a round stump, but that was easily hidden behind a shield. Turned out OK, in the end.

From the rear: messy

From the front: OK

So, buoyed by my pleasant surprise, I turned to the musician. I am sick to bits of the Goblin musician. There is just one instrument - a horn, gripped in the right hand - and so far I've done one for my archers and my first wolf-rider unit. I couldn't face yet another, but luckily I didn't have to as Andrew B's undead sprues contained an enormous horn, which was just too comical not to use. 

Problem was, it had a skelly arm in it. So some snipping, and finagling, and I had a goblin arm in there. The hand is a touch too small - being a skelly hand, but once the shield's whacked on, it looks grand. 

My, that's a big horn. Fnar fnar etc.

The rest of the wolf riders look pretty good. The spears are dynamic and I like this rearing (slightly out of control?) gobbo. If I ever need a boss for the unit, he'll do!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

So all converted up. Now I just need to paint the buggers!

Victory! (and not quite victory but not quite utter defeat either!)

As Andy Lawhammer mentions here, and t'other Andrew mentions here, I played a couple of games on Saturday.

The first, against Andrew Bell's undead, was an overwhelming victory for my ladz. Cue happy orcs.

ERMAHGERD! WE WON!

My army mostly performed well. A little bad luck, and a little good; Andrew B was hamstrung by the theme of his army. He wants one led by his PC from our RPG, who is not a vampire, so he has been having a necromancer lord as his general. It turns out necromancer lords are allergic to Black Orc Warbosses. Who knew? Ultimately, my plan was to wipe out his general and back up necromancer. With Orcs, that wasn't so hard. We called it quits in turn 4, as I still had most of my army alive, and he'd lost a chunk of units and both necromancers. That'll do, Orcs. That'll do.

(Andy Lawhammer and I prevailed upon him to use the vampire rules to represent his character (Eichengard) as it's a better fit. Eichengard is tough, a skilled fighter, and rubbish at magic. A rock hard vampire with level 1 necromancy is a much better fit than a level 4 necromancer who is squishier than a marshmallow.)

Not Eichengard

So, to the second game.

As we are still taking a while to play (though we are getting slowly faster, if that makes sense), we decided to make our next game a threeway (steady now!) using the battle royale scenario.

Would it be gauche to mention the lack of a Cathay/Nippon GW army?

We diced off, with Waaaagh Morthang forced to deploy in the middle, the Nulners on one flank and the Restless Dead on the other. I made the decision to focus on Nuln first, as my orcs hadn't eaten any 'oomies for a while, and I knew that if I got bogged down in the undead army, the Empire would fire their cannons and handguns at us both to devastating effect.

I'm hungry for manflesh. Oooer, fnar fnar!

While my orcs did rout the Imperials, it was at devastating cost. My Warlord fell to the Imperial General: Black Orc and Wyvern both underperformed, and the lack of a ward save / anything more than heavy armour meant he fell too easily.

Ultimately, I could only put up a token resistance to the undead, and our final VPs (based on generals, and objectives held) were Undead 3, Orcs 2, Empire 1. If the Wyvern had rolled more than one on his Thunderstomp Morthang would have lived and I'd have got a tie. Still, such are the vagaries of fate!

Lessons Learned
So the games gave me a few things to think about.

Firstly, I need to bulk up my units, especially my Orcs, Savage Orcs and Boar Boyz.

Secondly, I need a couple more characters, including a beefier Savage Orc and a Battle Standard Bearer.

Thirdly, if I'm playing undead, I need a few magic items. Stinking Ethereal units.

I've ordered some more troops, but I have movement on the characters already. Ladles and jellyspoons, I present...Big Toof.

Big Toof. Waaagh and what not.

This is another Avatar of War miniature and I love it almost as much as the shaman. Almost. I did a SHOCKING job on the mould lines, but I tried to make up for that with some more elaborate warpaint. This guy will go with Skargutz's Boyz, giving them a bit more oomph (and, against the Undead, having a cheap magic weapon to let him wade into those stinking ethereal units).

I am looking forward to seeing how he gets on.

Tomorrow I'll be picking up the annoying second shaman model, which I'll be converting to a battle standard bearer, thanks to some Undead bits and bobs given to me by Andrew B.

So that's all for now. The army continues to take shape, and with our first crushing victory I can feel the Waaagh energy growing!

Drogrot & Morthang

Drogrot & Morthang...sounds like a firm of Orc solicitors. I can't imagine there's much market for Orc legal advice though...

''Ello, Drogrot & Morthang!"
"I was bashin' stunties and Grimfang stole me squigs!"
"Well?"
"Can you 'elp?"
"Yeah. Bash Grimfang an' get yer squigs back!"

I don't remember Ally McBeal being like that.

Anyway, to business. Or pleasure, rather, Drogrot and Morthang are, in fact, the two characters I've just painted for my army. Wahey!

The characters themselves were actually created by Andy Lawhammer for our WFRP game. When I decided to make an Orc army, and to have a Wyvern-mounted war boss leading it, I recalled our PCs facing a Black Orc on a Wyvern. Well, I say facing. He swooped down, his Wyvern ate our rock-hard NPC henchman in one gulp, and we ran away.

So Andy filled me in on some of the details, and lo and behold! Morthang da Burna.

Morthang da Burna, on his wyvern

That flaming sword represents the Grudgebringer sword, as featured in Dark Omens and Shadow of the Horned Rat. The sword, once borne by Captain Bernhardt, found its way into the hands of this mighty Black Orc. I converted Azhag the Slaughterer with a burning wizard sword, graciously donated by Andy. In game, I'll use the Ruby Ring of Rhuin to represent its fireball attack.

A more detailed view of Morthang.

I'm pleased with how the flaming sword has come out. You may just be able to see the hint of runes I did at the base of the fire (Grudgebringer, in our canon at least, is one of Alaric the Mad's Dwarven runeweapons). Obviously Morthang has attached it to a bit of bone to give him a proper, Orcy handle (the original plan was to strap the sword onto a huge Orc choppa, but it looked silly).

The reasons for his red crown are twofold. I wanted his helmet to stand out. His armour looked rag-tag, so I wanted to paint it all bashed, rusty iron. But the helmet looked cool, with the little crown-like peaks and what-not. But, when I got to painting it, I realised I had a limited palette of colours to use. In particular, I've yet to pick up a gold colour (hence Morthang's bone hilt). I'd already done one model, an Orc Boss, with a red helmet, and liked the effect, so that's what I went for.

In a full game, when I can afford the points, I'll probably give him The Trickster's Helm. It's a pricy magic item, but quite useful for a tough old Black Orc (it forces enemies to reroll successful to-wound rolls). There's also a nice connection to my WFRP character, Adhemar, that would take too long to explain here.

Morthang from the side! From the side! (obscure Lee Evans reference)

Overall, he's painted more roughly than I'd like. I'll probably tidy some bits up (I've manged to get red in the wyvern's armpit. Wingpit?) and some of the drybrushing's a bit rough. But once he was based, he really came together, and I'm pretty chuffed overall.

Now, Andy also mentioned that Morthang was accompanied by an Orc Shaman, Drogrot Gorkeye. This fanatical visionary is convinced Morthang is the reincarnation of Mork himself, destined to bind all the Orcs together in the greatest Waaagh the world has ever seen.

Now, while the Warhammer Orc shaman is a cracking model, it didn't really capture the steely-eyed intensity Andy was describing. So, I turned to Avatars of War, who do some cracking figures. Their Orc Shaman, in particular, is wicked, and looks the part. So he became my Drogrot:

Drogrot Gorkeye; driven

I love this model. The detail, the pose. Brilliant, and really fits the character. His cloak has some cool details on it too, severed hands and skulls and what-not.

Detail on Drogrot's cloak: pleased with the severed hands!

Through an online shopping debacle, I've ended up with two of this model: I intend to convert one to become a Battle Standard bearer, but more on that later.

I've wittered on for quite long enough, all that remains is to tot up my points so far...

Lords - 320 (25%)
 Morthang on Wyvern

Heroes - 190 (15%)
 Drogrot (level 2), Mord (level 2)

Core - 615 (49%)
 10 x Savage Orc Big Uns, 15 x Orc Boyz, 20 x Goblins, 10 Spider Riders, 5 Wolf Riders

Special - 135 (11%)
 5 x Orc Boar Boyz

Total - 1,260

Not bad, not bad at all. I should also mention here that I'm using Quartermaster, an army building app that is aces. Love it.

I still have a Savage Orc Big Boss to finish painting, and a BSB to convert, and I think I'll buy myself some Savage Orc Boyz this week too. Time Skargutz's Boyz got reinforced.

Waaaagh!

Arooooo!

So, after Sunday's dejection, I have repaired my wolf riders. And I'm still pleased with them, even though the poses aren't *quite* right.

The first unit of five has no boss - all a boss gives you is +1A; not much use in a 5 man scout unit with bows. I did include a musician though. That +1 to rally attempts will be handy, especially if they end up out with the general's Ld range.

The musician's shield was a casualty of Sunday's windy disaster, but making lemonade from that metaphorical lemon, I used a Bretonnian shield graciously donated by Andy Lawhammer. A few scuffs and nicks added, and now it looks like it was scavenged from the corpse of a reckless Knight Errant.

Wolf Rider Musician with looted shield

Wolf Riders

Hang on tight!

Musician from the front