Search the Community

Hello Fraters! Having lurked and occasionally posted over the last few months I have decided to create a WIP log to document my re-entry to the hobby. This was going to be a Raven Guard-based log as I have a Strikeforce to build but I have already paused that plan, bought Kill Team Octarius and started some terrain painting. This is very much WIP as I test out washes and contrast paints and basically learn to paint. I only painted a few minis when I was at school, I think it must have been around 1989/1990. Edit: title updated to reflect that I have now bought two KT boxes and have been painting Genestealers to refresh my v.1 Space Hulk game.

Codex etc up for pre order this coming Saturday. Very dull box compared with the current one. Huge step backwards.

Make it Orky.

Starting a thread for it since it's still a new release Da Big Dakka - Mike Brooks (Audiobook) Brooks' third ork book, and his second Ufthak Blackhawk book, is here. Released to much fandom excitement and much fandom ire because it was basically the only pushed release for this year's Black Library celebration. I don't think either is super fair to it; like most works by Brooks it's a very solid "good." The orky bits in particular are more refined than ever. This time, we have Dark Eldar as our foil POVs. While they're still perfectly entertaining, I think it's a bit of a step down from Brutal Kunnin'. That book, to me, read like half of an actual Mechanicus novel that also had Ork chapters. I know that didn't work for many people, but I thought it created a uniquely entertaining read that showed exactly why Orks are such a fun faction. These Dark Eldar, by contrast, read like Dark Eldar in an Ork novel; it's all much more obviously tongue in cheek and they don't seem to have much reverence for their own culture, which is odd because of their supremacist views. The book is more evenly humorous because of this approach, but I think it takes away some of the charm and dilutes any really funny bits. The orky stuff, as mentioned, is the best from Brooks so far, even with the plot failing to meaningfully endanger Ufthak at any point. Brooks' writing isn't the most refined in the stable, but he has a unique talent for making fight scenes engaging. Better authors than Brooks have still managed to deliver complete snoozefests because their fight scenes ended up being poetically rendered filler. Brooks' style of giving us a play-by-play of everyone's decisions as the fight progresses means keeps every moment of this book's very frequent battles enjoyable. This is especially fun for Ork POVs, who doesn't love some good Ork logic? Ufthak describing humans as essentially Orks who are bad at being Orks was a personal favourite. I will say I noticed how often he lent into the "it was believed that X, but of course Y was true" style of exposition a bit too often, I hope he reins that in a bit next time. As expected, Snaggi is back as well. Despite my problems with the Dark Eldar here, I still found this book was back to the balance of opposing POVs that I thought made Brutal Kunnin' so much better than Warboss, so by extension I preferred this book's Snaggi content. At times, he reads like the only POV with legitimate stakes. Also, big shoutout to Harry Myers' narration. He's got a great range to his performance and I quite liked his Dark Eldar, despite his "unrefined" accent. That man can go deep and menacing when he wants to. Overall, super fun book that never had me bored. Probably what you want out of a running Ork series, eh? 7.5/10 To Taste because it's Brooks. The man's becoming to me what Guy Haley seems to be to other people: workhorse author with a strong respect for continuity, who also never fails to deliver something worse than "good." Now somebody crack the whip on a sequel to his Alpha Legion work.

Hi Folks, Still progressing on my Plodding, with this time the Mekboy Workshop done. Barricades and piles of scrap were already painted in January, and I lately completed the workshop itself. It might be an offense to Mork (or to Gork, I dunno), but I wanted to get rid of some orkiness, so I focussed on a limited colour pallet and did not stressed on too much on icons and mess. I also decided not to install the Ork totem on the bridge so that the model can insert smoothly in a more "imperial outpost" environment. And here it is: Its a set that cover some serious area on the table. 10th Ed rules make piles of scrap less useful, but, anyway, it is a good space filler. Some close ups of the workshop, heads and tails: And some other "larger" views shots: While I am tipping these words, Brass scorpion is drying on my last Ryza Pattern hab bunker (from the Moroch set). I will then pass to the antena and shrine. I also still have to finish gantries from the Bheta Decima set. But these are in a stop status: I do not like painting Gantries. BUt I already comented this a couple of time already. See you once stuff will be progressing.

I recently wrote about selling my pile of shame and how it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Then I went on eBay and picked up two more Ork box sets in addition to the Combat Patrol I already had. It's not the same though, this isn't a pile of shame. It's a pile of potential. Let me explain. First and foremost, they were excellent deals. The Beast Snagga army set was £100 and the Imperium Premium Kit was £35. That's value you simply cannot turn down. Secondly, I have a plan. Instead of having everything sat in the boxes for months on end, I'm going to build them ASAP. It's all part of my new model-building system based on an incredibly complicated excel spreadsheet. I'm going to build all of these models, then prime them, then drybrush them, then paint them, then base them and then actually play a game with them. I swear, that's what I'm actually doing. I've already built 5 models! When this process is done I'll have well over 1000 points of Orks to take to the table. My old method of spending 10+ hours painting each mini was too slow so I'm going to try the slapchop method with the 2.0 speed paints from the army painter. A friend does the same technique for their 'nids and they always turn out pretty awesome - so with a little extra detailing I'm confident I'll have an army that I can be proud of. The hardest part is staying away from eBay and Facebook marketplace. It hurts me to know there's probably some great deals out there that I'm missing out on. Maybe if I check every now and again it won't hurt anyone... right?

I got back into 40K 10th edition after a break during 8th and 9th. Life happened - you know how it is! When I came back, it's safe to say I got a bit too excited buying new models. I had over 3000 points of Primaris Space Marines in a nice, juicy pile ready and waiting. I had such good intentions - I really was going to paint and play with them all, however as time went on and my rate of painting stayed at it's traditional slow pace, those models started to feel like a burden. Towards the end of 2023 I was thinking about New Year's resolutions and wanting to clear my conscience, so I'd originally planned on painting like a madman and getting through a huge chunk of my unbuilt models. Then the first week of 2024 came and went without me so much as looking at the models and I knew I had to make a change. We've all heard this advice before - "don't buy any new models until you've painted what you already have!" If I had any hope of actually painting all my models and playing a game of 40K in 10th edition, I knew I'd have to do something drastic. After sleeping on it, I decided to put all my Space Marines on eBay (see the attached image) and pick up an Ork Combat Patrol instead. I got rid of all my Orks during 7th (again, life happened) and I missed my green bois... although I don't miss their twerking models. So far I've been able to resist trawling eBay and Facebook marketplace for deals on Ork models. Once the Combat Patrol arrives and I've actually got something to be getting on with, I may well turn it into a challenge - perhaps a hobby streak? Anything to avoid me creating a new pile of shame and having to go through another hard reset!

To avoid burying the lede, the TL;DR is that I'm switching to Necrons. ----- Every game of 10th that I have played has been with Orks. I've managed to track every game since my third in the (excellent) Tabletop Battles app. You can see my stats below: As you can see, I've now played thirty games of 10th. And while I have a lot of thoughts about the edition in general, this post is about my experiences playing Orks, and my plans for the foreseeable future. Evolution of a List A quick rundown of how to win a game using the Leviathan mission deck: Ok, so scoring points and winning games with tactical secondaries is about putting units on objectives, surviving on those objectives until you can score, having units that can be in the right place at the right time and, of course, killing the enemy as needed. While you don't have to score the full 90 to win every time (just have to have more than your opponent, afterall), it's generally safer to have a plan on how to get the max. You can win the game by tabling the enemy, but you can also lose after tabling the enemy. You cannot lose by scoring the max number of points (though you can tie, hilariously enough), and you can max score without killing a single enemy unit (though that is so incredibly unlikely to occur). Over time, I learned these facts. I started early with Mozrog, pound-for-pound the best beatstick in the index, but I quickly grew so enamored with him that I had to add another Squigboss. I bought, assembled, and (barely) painted a unit of Flash Gitz, and converted a counts-as Kaptin Badrukk, after I played another Ork and saw how deadly that unit's shooting was (especially their overwatch, a tool I otherwise don't think Orks can make use of). I went from three trukks to four, then five, and eventually six, and I think if there wasn't a limit, I would have kept going. They are the right combination of fast, durable and cheap, and they consistently score me secondary objectives. And I've expanded my Squighog Boys unit from being mobile objective doers to being the primary hammer of my list. Some things haven't worked for me: Beastsnagga Boyz and the Beastboss. I've used this unit in the vast majority of my games, but I just can't help but feel like it doesn't do enough. Often, the best thing about it was the OC, which I can get cheaper from regular Boyz. The Beastboss has been especially disappointing, as he is so reliant on generating Devastating Wounds in order to do any damage, and even against vehicles, it's pretty easy to have a bad turn and not get enough 4+s. At least the Squigbosses are durable enough that when they whiff, they can be expected to stick around and get another shot at it. This is a recent drop for me, but I can't imagine I'll miss them. Nobz and the Warboss. I've gone back and forth on these guys, from running a full 10-man, to having none, to having two 5-mans (each with a warboss), and most recently, back to a full 10-man. The truth is, they are the best source Orks have for a large quantity of AP-2 attacks, something we sorely need. But they suffer from being too easy to kill; -1 to-be-wounded is nice and all, but 2W and no innate invulnerable save just make them too soft, and we can also slap a -1 to-be-wounded on any non-vehicle unit. This is a high-finesse unit and one I've been really trying to use well. Anything that shoots other than Flash Gitz. We just don't have enough support, our weapons are good enough, and we can't field enough of it to matter. In the end, this meant I've found the most success by making lists that focus on staying power over offensive burst; a few units can lay down the hurt, but the vast majority of the list isn't interested in killing the enemy as much as it's just trying to find points to score. And even those best, most deadly units, the Squigbosses and Squighog Boyz, are really about being ultra-durable and forcing the opponent to over-invest in killing them, lest they let my stuff get to them. That means it's very viable for me to keep my units on objectives but out of Line-of-Sight and force the enemy to over-commit to clear the objective. It's simple, it's effective, and frankly, it's a lot of fun. But, there's a problem. The Problem Sitting back on objectives and forgoing charging into the enemy isn't very Orky. There's room for kunnin' and I'm a Blood Axe at heart, but still, it will never feel right to go "my Squighog Boys are not going to move to charge that Dreadnought" and instead just score points by sitting there. But, that's what I'm often doing! And, again, I like it! Playing the game tactically and for the win is an enjoyable experience. It's just not what I signed up for when I selected the greenskins. There's a couple more: I cannot paint Orks fast enough to react to changing metas and my own preferences. I paint every detail on my Orks and use a lot of colors, and it just takes me forever, which isn't ideal when you want to quickly swap and add units. I hate the movement rules in the Charge and Fight phases. I just don't find it fun to do, and those phases being so key to my army's (meager) offensive output actively saps my enjoyment. So, what's the solution? The Solution Enter the Necrons. They have it all: Primarily a shooting army, so no need to perform charge/fight phase movement a dozen times per game. A quick paint scheme that I can bang out fast when my list needs to change. Similar overall strategy of holding objectives and just surviving the onslaught to score points. But most importantly; They play competitively like they are in the fluff. Currently, competitive Necrons are all about using "bricks" of either Warriors or Lychguard (or even one of each!), getting them on objectives in No Man's Land and just outlasting everything. They get killed and then just get back up, an implacable force that laughs at the puny weapons of the younger species of the galaxy. Their esoteric and arcane technologies allow them to make the laws of physics into tools for acts akin to magic, such as the teleportation of troops. And so on and on, fluff reflected on the tabletop in a manner that isn't just faithful, but is also good. It's for these reasons that I'll be switching to Necrons, a faction I didn't even consider at the beginning of the edition, as the name of this blog implies. In fact, other than painting the Indomitus set three years ago, and another five Immortals as a palette cleanser some time later, I never seriously thought about collecting the army, let alone playing them as my main faction. But then again, 10th is my edition of trying new things, so I should be less surprised. But for now, the Kharezt dynasty awakens, and marches to war.

https://youtu.be/GxZOgct_BeA Cheers, Thoth