toaae presents: WAAAAGH! Tortoof

[toaae]

 

 

The runtherd. I was possibly thinking of doing a runtherd/weird boy conversion myself as I need 3 and only have the one. Seeing yours makes me totally convinced now to loot the idea from you. The runtherd is a cool looking weirdboy model.

 

Plus he has a buddy.

Just curious - what application do you have for that many Weirdboys? Beyond Da Jump of course.

First and foremost, they are the cheapest HQ for filling out detachments. If they do nothing else during the game, they were worth taking for that.

 

Second, Da Jump redundancy. Weirdboyz are super easy to kill, and there's enough snipers in the game to sometimes necessitate a backup Da Jump.

 

Third, smite, deny the witch, and Fists of Gork. The first two come on all Weirdboy, and having the latter can help turn a character into a beatstick.

Edited December 31, 2019 by toaae

[toaae]

Finished the weirdboy this morning, and that brings my 2019 to a close, hobby-wise (though, he wasn't the last model I painted). Overall, this was a pretty easy mini to paint, with less details than the metal weirdboy I painted this past summer. Still, I like the conversion and as @Lord_Caerolion put so well, it has the right weirdness for a weirdboy.

And some close ups on his unfortunate familiar:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With 2019 coming to a close, so too does my 300 days of hobby goal. I hit that number a few days ago, which means my final daily total is 304. That's 304 days of building or painting miniatures, all Games Workshop. Days where I gamed only, with no hobby work, weren't counted (so, a lot of tournament days).

As I did for the first, second, and third quarters, I'm doing a review. From October 1st to December 31st, I went from 227 to 304 days, a total of 77 hobby days. There are 92 days in the 4th quarter, so in all, this was my second best quarter of the year. A little breakdown:

Q1: 71 days out of 90 (78.8%)

Q2: 83 days out of 91 (91.2%)
Q3: 73 days out of 92 (79.3%)
Q4: 77 days out of 92 (83.7%)

In terms of points, it was my best haul of the year. I completed a Morkanaut, 10 gretchin, a Bonebreaka, a Wazbom Blastajet, and the Weirdboy, for a total of 747 points this quarter! And that's just Orks! Add the 66 points for the Sanguinary Ancient, the test intercessor for my Dune Vipers (and the other two that weren't finished as I was hunting down the scheme), and the more than 1,000 points I painted for AoS, and I'm confident in saying that Q4 of 2019 was my most productive stretch in the hobby, EVER!

So, in total, this is my (ork) list for the year:

Completed (2,436 points):
1x Big Mek w/ KFF
1x Big Mek w/ SAG
1x Deffkilla Wartrike
2x Warbosses
1x Warboss in Mega Armor
2x Weirdboyz
10x Boyz
25x Gretchin
2x Nob Bikers
1x Painboy
2x Bonebreakas
1x Gorkanaut
1x Morkanaut
7x Lootas
1x Dakkajet
1x Wazbom Blastajet

And this is my "pile of shame", AKA, stuff I worked on and did not complete. I feel no real shame, as all of it was done to minimum painting standards for tournaments, and them pushed back to a later date for finishing (a status which many of the items on the above list also held)

2x Mek Gunz
30x Grots
1x Warboss on Warbike
1x Weirdboy
5x Nob Bikers
36x Boyz
8x Lootas

1x Bonebreaka
(another 1,166 points)

What. A. Year.

Still organizing my 2020 plans. Will share those when I'm ready.

Edited January 3, 2020 by toaae

[Kierdale]

Well done! :tu:

 

I daren’t count up how much I did, not set myself long-term goals. In the former case I’d probably be disappointed, in the latter case something always comes up. Usually a shiny new model ;)

 

You still have some Orks to do this new year, yes? I remember you also mentioned AoS stuff would be taking your time up.

[toaae]

Yep, I still have 20 grots and a Bonebreaka to paint before LVO, and I hope to finish everything on the second list this year. Also, I want to add a lot of Meganobz to my collection, and I'm planning on doing a handful of the new buggies for ETL and another flyer (or three...) for the WAAAGH! event in the fall.

Suffice to say, I still plan on painting a lot of greenskins. I do want to get a full AoS army painted this year (and attend an event for that game), as well as add to/update my Blood Angels for the post-Blood of Baal world we live it. Oh, and do a few kill teams. Oh yeah, and start a Sisters of Battle Army (though, I'm planning for that to be the big project for me in 2021).

But, yeah, I still have orks to paint 

[Akrim]

Thats a serious amount of stuff, nice work.

 

Curious to know what your LVO list contains, im thinking of running my Orks for ITC this year.

[Kierdale]

Toaae, do you mind if I ask the (rough) dimensions of the battlewagon/gunwagon/bonebreaka model?

[toaae]

https://i.redd.it/f1bbktep4q341.png

 

Some other mek has already worked it out, as well as just about every other ork-relevant model. Doesn't seem to include a Deff rolla, though. If you want that measurement, I'll go downand look.

[ranulf the revenant]

Well, he's a cool character

[Kierdale]

https://i.redd.it/f1bbktep4q341.png

Some other mek has already worked it out, as well as just about every other ork-relevant model. Doesn't seem to include a Deff rolla, though. If you want that measurement, I'll go downand look.

Thanks, Toaae! Pardon my laziness. Should’ve Googled it myself.

[toaae]

Got back from Vegas late last night. Finished 2-3-1, which is above what I expected, so I'm a happy guy. That tie guts me a little, but I'll go over that. A great event, despite the massive technical issues Friday. Sometime this week, I'll upload photos, write about my games and experiences, talk about my list and the units, and what's coming for Tortoof's horde this coming spring.

[Azaiel]

Hope you had a good time, looking forward to your thoughts and pics.

[toaae]

The Las Vegas Open 2020 was my second LVO, and I had a great time. As it was at SoCal, I'm a little lost on what is good for Orks in this current Space Marine meta, so instead of try-harding and possibly being let down by poor results, I decided to take a tweaked version of my Big Vehicles list again, because it is just so much fun and I had it fully painted. For real, that last part was important to me. The Dakkajet was only in the list because it was painted and didn't need anything else in the army to change for it to fit.

So, I took:

Bad Moonz Dread WAAAGH! Battalion
Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun (my warlord)
Big Mek w/ Kustom Forcefield
3x 10-gretchin
Gorkanaut
Morkanaut (KFF)
Wazbom Blastajet (KFF)
Dakka Jet
Bad Moonz Battalion
Weirdboy
Weirdboy
3x 10-gretchin
Death Skullz Spearhead
Deffkilla Wartrike
Bonebreaka (Grot Riggers)
Bonebreaka
Bonebreaka



I got a lot of compliments, had a lot of people stop to look at the army, and have seen pictures of my models appear on a few pages and blogs. That's not why I paint, but it's another reason I love going to events. It feels as good as winning games.

Speaking of games, I went in with the same expectations as I had at SoCal. Sure, I had a better idea how to play the army now, but that was also before Marine players really started to figure out the armies. So I wanted to win 2 games to be happy. Anything better than that would be a win in my book. A little analysis of my list: It's a ton of T8 wounds, often with a 5+ invulnerable, that doesn't lose a lot of damage as it takes damage. The 'nauts lose movement, Weapon Skill, and Attacks as they degrade, but they are primarily shooting platforms, so even at 1 wound, they are doing what I wanted them to. The Bonebreakas do lose Strength and Attacks, but even at the bottom profile, they move 6" and on the charge have d6+d3 S5/-2/D2 attacks that hit on 2s, with the Death Skullz re-rolls. Then my shooting is not what most people expect from Orks, IE, high strength, high AP, high damage. In turns 1 and 2, I have up to 4d6 SAG shots and 6d3+3 KMK shots, all of which is damage d6, plus 4-6 rokkits at damage 3, and those Bonebreakas with their damage 2. The result is a simple question: how are you against triple knights? Because if you came ready to knock out three plus titanic walkers, then you'll handle my list fairly easy, but if you struggle against that match up, my list is much worse for you.

So Game 1 was paired off early, and I look at the list to see what I'd go against. My stomach nearly dropped, as I saw what had to be the worst possible match up for me: 18 Harlequin Skyweavers, all with Haywire cannons. For those of you that don't know, Haywire weapons deal 1 mortal wound on a roll of 4+ to wound, and d3 mortal wounds on a roll of 6+. And the cannon version is d6 shots. So, on average, that's only 63 shots, that would also deal an average of like 42 mortal wounds. Basically, to put it in simple terms, the guy has a bunch of guns that do not care about my high toughness or invulnerable saves. Also, it's fairly durable relative to my damage; all of those bikes have a 4++, meaning my high-quality-but-low-number-of-shots-(for-orks) was bouncing off saves. Finally, I misplayed, and focused on knocking the flyers out of the air, when I should have been putting every single shot I had into thinning out those bikes. I lost, 19-39. However, it was still a fun game, as my opponent was a nice guy, and I at least got to enjoy watching my SAG average something like S9 with 10 shots for the first two turns. Pictures:

I always ask my opponents if they paint their armies, and in this case, he told me he didn't. But not because he can't paint, but the opposite: he's a commission painter, and just didn't have the time to paint his own army, so he had to get it commission painted by another painter.


RE: The wavy board. It's clear that some of these mats didn't roll out well, which is unfortunate, as the event has such a high standard for a major competitive event in terms of the aesthetics of the tables. It wasn't a real problem gameplay-wise, as all my models are large and heavy, but I imagine that if I was playing with 100+ boyz, I would have had issues with them falling over.




No longer in this image: the two bonebreakas and flyer that those Skyweavers just erased with impunity


Once my big bois go down, my list lacks any ability to pressure my opponent, as seen here with those venoms bullying my gretchin and Big Mek.

After game 1 was the now-infamous BCP crash and delay. I'm reminded of a football game from my JV season back in high school where we got dressed, went out to the field, and started our warm ups, before having to wait another 3 hours because the visiting team got the time wrong. By the time the game started, my team was flat and lacking any energy, and we lost 7-0. Game 2 of LVO2020 was like that, as after the long delay, I just wasn't feeling great about playing two more games. Luckily, I somehow ended up matched against a fellow Warchief (my club is called Warchief Gaming), so that helped pick me up and we had a nice game. I don't have as much analysis with this one, as I just wasn't able to do enough damage early to prevent him from cleaning up all my vehicles, and the game ended with me losing, 21-27. Still, a fun game against a fun opponent.

My deployment. This army has a problem with some deployments depending on terrain. So much wants to be up front, but you also have to make sure to fit everything wholly within the forcefields. I have enough KFFs to make that happen, but still, wholly within is wholly within. Bonebreakas a large models, and it can be hard to fit them into the bubble without a part of the deffroll sticking out, or losing an inch or two in deployment area.


This mission uses the "one army fully deploys, and then the other army fully deploys" method of deployment, so I used this opportunity to get some vanity shots of my army.





My opponent's deployment and army:



My army after my first turn. Often, I just can't help but have stuff in the way. A key reason why I don't think this list would be improved with another 'naut or Battlewagons or something.



(the Morkanaut would end up exploding, but that benefited me, as I rolled very low for all my units, but high his after he moved a flyer and two venoms to within 9" of it)

Game 3 was a chore, as further delays due to the first delay caused it to start after it should have ended. The judges did give the players the option to come in at 7a the next day to play the round, and as someone who wakes up at 5a everyday, I was hoping my opponent would take that option. Alas, it was not meant to be, as my opponent walked up full of energy and started immediately breaking out dice to determine deployment. I didn't ask, so I'm not blaming the guy or anything, but I was just hoping, you know?

Anyways, the game itself was against a Blood Angel and Imperial Knight soup, and wasn't as close as the final score would make it seem. I walked away with a 28-20 victory, but I was in control nearly the entire game, only having issues getting either kill more or hold more due to the terrain and deployment we had. My opponent was another great guy, and we had a fine time, despite the exhaustion and my losing my voice in the later part of the day. Also, it turns out that I had played the other two members of his group at previous tournaments, all of whom were great opponents that I'd love to keep seeing and playing against! The social part of events is a big reason I keep going to tournaments, despite never placing well.

Less pictures of this one, which isn't surprising as the more tired I get, the less I think about stuff like that. This picture features a wounded Mephiston (from perils, RIP) right before he killed the Bonebreaka. Which then exploded. Which killed Mephiston. Double RIP.


My opponent's intercessors, forced to move out to re-take an objective I shot his unit off of.

I would eventually kill this knight, but it was a big reason my score was so low, as it allowed him to prevent my from getting Hold More for the first three turns. I play my grots very conservatively, trying to avoid giving up easy kills, but since all my aggressive units and killing power are in single models, I can't really contest objectives well.

Game 4 was a doozy. This was my third game against Aeldari, and Alaitoc, no less. I know it's common knowledge that Orks don't mind negatives to hit, and that's fairly true if all your shooting is tied up in one unit you can use More Dakka! on. But for every other unit, a -1 to hit is a loss of 50% of your hits, which is pretty substantial. Anyways, this game saw a lot of back-and-forth momentum, with me struggling early to knock out his planes, having a turn end with two enemy vehicles on 1 wound (losing a chance at Kill More), and in hindsight, I gave up an almost sure win when I didn't hide my warlord in the enclosed ruins/"magic box", instead opting to finish off some Wraithguard. I would have given up a point for kill more, but I wouldn't have allowed his two jetbike characters to kill my warlord in the last turn, and the Wraithguard wouldn't have been able to churn through the 10 grots that would have blocked the Big Mek from them, preventing him from getting Kill One, Kill More, Last Strike, and Slay the Warlord. I would have won with either 29 or 30 points to his 27 or 28 points.

If you're not aware, in the ITC, ties don't occur that regularly, and when they do, they usually happen in the 19-26 point range (max score is 42). This game ended in a 31-31 tie, which is crazy high, and if it wasn't for the face we were both 1-2 at this time, it may have been suspicious. When we submitted the score (manually, because my opponent didn't have self-scoring PIN), the judge did a double take when we told him the score. Anyways, a fourth great opponent and someone I'd love to play again.

Something I tried to do this game was the "Sniper Dakkajet", where you utilize the extreme movement of the dakkajet to get next to a character and shoot them to death. Sadly, even with Long, Uncontrolled Bursts for a +1 to hit, I couldn't take down the Autarch.

Edited February 3, 2020 by toaae

[toaae]

[too many images in one post, so I had to make a break]

Ok, Game 5 was against Death Guard, with poxwalkers and Typhus guarding three Plagueburst Crawlers. This was a game where I was the aggressive party, pushing him into his deployment zone, preventing him from controlling the board. And he just wasn't prepared to deal with as many T8 targets as I presented. I won 28-18, on the back of him taking Headhunter and me just never letting him get near a character. Both 'nauts lived the whole game, and if there's one thing that you know is a sign that a game went well for me, it's when both 'nauts are still kicking. Great opponent, five-for-five so far.

Finally, my 6th game of Warhammer 40,000 in 32 hours was, amazing, against another Warchief. However, I hadn't yet played this guy, so it was a great opportunity to roll some dice against a friend. His Tyranids/GSC would completely dominate, and I lost 18-37, but I had fun, and we even had a "Clawpocolypse 2020" fight between his GSC Patriarch (converted from an Ambot; the whole army is converted with this cool concept) and my Deffkilla Wartrike. I'm happy to say we may have lost the battle, but the Orks won the Claw-fest!

So, to wrap it up, I went 2-3-1, which is technically better than my 2-win goal, so I'm a happy warboss. My army is fun to play, but as expected, it has some hard counters. I got 6 great games against 6 great opponents, which is a big reason I keep going to tournaments. I love the social dynamic, the camaraderie and the spectacle of it all. I can't wait for next years LVO, or my next major. Currently, that's scheduled to be Slaughterfest in Temecula, CA in July, but I'm hoping I can swing up to San Francisco for the Bay Area Open in May.

An analysis of Orks currently: I still don't know what works. Jeff Poole made it to the top 8 with basically the same list that's been played since the codex dropped, just swapping Lootas for Tankbustas, but I don't expect that I'd get the same mileage out of a horde of boys if I faced marines and their oodles of quality firepower. Until Psychic Awakening, I'll probably keep playing this list, with some variation. I'm thinking about dropping the Dakkajet, as it didn't do anything other than look good, for something that can help push into terrain and bully objective sitters. Maybe a couple of warbosses on foot?

Finally, a critique. First off, I've (very publicly) defended the ITC format and Frontline Gaming on these very boards, but that doesn't mean I don't think things can improve. Now, I know they know this from their own data, but currently, many secondaries are too punishing for many units and armies, which only amplifies how good Marines are (who are tough to pick secondaries against). I think a greater emphasis on "standing somewhere" objectives should be made, with the "kill something" secondaries reduced in number and made more difficult to score. It's a little nuts that a unit like Nob Bikers or Tyranid Warriors can give up a full 4 points for Gangbusters, when neither unit is OP to start with. Second, BCP's crash. I've read their explanation, and I get it. I see how that failed. Nonetheless, losing 3+ hours was demoralizing, and if it were to happen to me again, I'd heavily consider not participating in super-large events that use it until my confidence was restored. I applaud the LVO judges who busted their ass to manually pair players for rounds 2 and 3, but the players needed better communication about what was going on, and a proper delay should have been given, instead of us sitting in the hall for two plus hours waiting for any information. FLG and the judges have already acknowledged this, but I just wanted to say my bit.

Still, I had a phenomenal time. Last year was a 10/10 for me, and this year, despite some issues, I'd still give the LVO 8/10.

[OtherBarry]

Just wanted to pop in and say that I really dig your green!

[Kierdale]

A good result and a great read :tu:

 

Thanks for writing it up!

[Akrim]

Good write up Toaae, tough luck drawing the silver bullet round one. The delay sounded like a real mess for some.

 

You have an interesting concept there with the T8 overload. I tend to use a lot of the same units you do but not usually all in the same list. Ive found the Dakkajet/Wazbom combo struggles with survivabilty, esp if going second. If you can stick close to the tables edges out of the majority of enemy range they can do a bit of work.

 

Ever consider Deff Koptas? Ive been running a 6 man squadron, all twin big shootas. Great firepower for relatively cheap, pairs well with the Wazbom KFF.

 

Hordes of Boyz still works fine for me. Control the board and feed them the green.

[Azaiel]

Many thanks for the write up, was and interesting read. To bad about that delay.

[toaae]

Thanks guys! It was a good time, and I'm glad you liked the write-up. I'm going to take a break from painting Orks for a bit. Not because I'm losing interest or getting fatigued, but because I've got some Blood Angels I want to paint, as well as an AoS army. We'll see how long this break lasts.
 

Ever consider Deff Koptas? Ive been running a 6 man squadron, all twin big shootas. Great firepower for relatively cheap, pairs well with the Wazbom KFF.

...

You know what? No, I haven't considered them. But I do think they deserve another look after their points drop. I could replace the Dakkajet with a unit of 5 of them, which adds a lot of mobility and some ability to score objectives. I'll have to think about that.

Speaking of alterations to my list, my first though was either Mega-nobz or just plain ol' nobs. Something that can move through ruins (enclosed ruins, especially), but is small enough to easily hide. If I keep them as Bad Moonz, I would have the option to put them in a 'naut for drop manipulation and just as a transport. Alternatively, I could switch my small battalion to another clan and make use of better rules that way. But now deff koptas have entered the arena... hmm....

[Akrim]

Thats fair - you painted a lot of units this year. I generally shift after the big tourney of the year too. Good army to have as a gaming alternate.

 

re Deff Koptas - I started using them again after the CA points drop. A squadron of 6 kicks out 36x S5 shots which is nice, but no AP so not as great vs MEQs.

But notice that they are <Speed Freeks> so that unlocks some juicy cheap strats like Long Uncontrolled Bursts, Billowing Exhaust and Drive By Krumpin' (if Evil Suns variety).

Decent stat/cost too. I find their best value is clearing out screens and fast objective grabbing or in some situations running down light fly stuff or second floor ruins targets.

Ive been running mine Bad Moons but I might shift to Evil Suns for Drive By - its such a long range move/advance and can still shoot penalty free in between.

I think Evil Suns Meganobz might make my tournament list - I have been Tellyport Striking a unit of 8 and try to get keep them under KFF if possible.

 

Nobz are great - my current combo is 9 with a Klaw, 4 Big Choppas, 4 dual Choppas slap them in a 'Ard Case BW with 10 Grots (to soak the wounds if it gets nailed then Loot It strat with the Nobz. I even take a Weirdboy to Warpath them when they get out to beat people up. 

Ive run Mork/Gork Naut lists with Bonebreakas but I found I missed that protective green tide around the Nauts. Not saying Bonebreakas are bad - Ive hit some expensive enemy stuff with Ramming Speed and hilarious results.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

The skin colors really turned out great on them!

[toaae]

Still on my Ork hiatus. I do have Ghaz, but I'm probably just going to get him assembled and then save him for ETL.

 

But I am working on an Index Xenos article for the Iron Gauntlet down in the Liber. I just posted up the outline; give it a look, let me know what you think!

[toaae]

Between COVID, starting my Adepta Sororitas project, and moving, I've somehow gone a third of a year without posting an Ork update! Well, I've finally got something. Here he is, the big man himself:



Sorry, did you expect a finished Ghaz?

I'm making solid progress on the Grand Warlord, but as is befitting a piece of this size and majesty, he is taking me a while. I've pledged him for both the Lockdown Painting Challenge and the12 Months of Hobby challenge for June. I hope to have him done before long, but I won't be rushing him.

[Magos Takatus]

Between COVID, starting my Adepta Sororitas project, and moving, I've somehow gone a third of a year without posting an Ork update! Well, I've finally got something. Here he is, the big man himself:

Sorry, did you expect a finished Ghaz?

I'm making solid progress on the Grand Warlord, but as is befitting a piece of this size and majesty, he is taking me a while. I've pledged him for both the Lockdown Painting Challenge and the12 Months of Hobby challenge for June. I hope to have him done before long, but I won't be rushing him.

No rush at all, I haven't even bought him yet! Good work so far though.

[toaae]

Ghazghkull is a whole lotta Ork. I've been very unproductive this month, as the continuing pandemic has brought gaming to a halt. I did manage to play a small 750 point game against a friend of mine, but it wasn't enough to get my hobby juices flowing. Settling into being both a stay-at-home parent and a work-from-home project coordinator has taken up a lot of my time.

But he's getting there.

The base needs a lot of work still, the exhast/longhorns are going to be silver again with just some copper/brass parts, the gun is getting redone as I wasn't happy with the direction I was going, and there's a bunch of touch ups to do. Even then, I still have to apply the final Agrax Earthshade wash (read: bath) before doing the final weathering pass. I didn't want to try rushing him to just count as completed for the 12 Months of Hobby, so here we are. He'll be done next week, after I get back from the holiday weekend here in the States.

[toaae]

Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've been waiting for. May I present, at long last, the Grand Warlord of the Great WAAAGH!, the Beast of Armageddon, the Prophet of Gork and Mork:

GHAZGHKULL MAG URUK THRAKA!

Yes, I finally have this absolute monster of an Ork completed and in my collection. Without further drama or adieu, here he is:

There is so much going on with the model. I started with the proppa-Goff black armor. Abaddon Black with a zenithal highlight of Dawnstone and Administratum Grey applied by airbrush. I did white and red checker-boarding in places, painted the hanging glyphs from the exhaust and the teeth on the gob and shoulder pads, as well as some dags here and there. Then I used a sponge to stipple Rhinox Hide and Runefang Silver to make the chipping.

The skin is mostly hidden, but I made sure to do a base, midtone and highlight if it was possible to see it at all. The fact of course got a lot more work put into it, probably six shades of green as I built the highlights. The inflamed skin around the staples is thinned Cadian Flesh with a Reikland Fleshtone wash on top of the green. I'm not too happy with the effect on it's own, but once the head was inserted into the body, it's fine.

The sheer amount of textures on this guy were a hassle. There's the painted metal of the armor, the bare-metal of the claws/gun/motor/exhaust, the exposed wires in the cables, the skin, his teeth, the skulls/tusks/top skull, the cloth of his tabard, lens of his eye, leather of his bets and his belt. With game stores and events still shut down due to COVID, a malaise has descended on my hobbying. I struggled to get through various parts of this model.

But once I was able to move onto the finishing touches, I really came to enjoy this project. After the Agrax Earthshade wash, I did my final weathering pass, which includes using heavily water-downed orange/browns to achieve the rust effect in the recesses. I love how that turned out, and can't wait to apply it to future models.


Anyways, that's my Ghazghkull. I don't know what's next on my docket. I do still have Makari, but I'll be honest, I don't know if I'll ever actually use him. I've still got a lot of AoS stuff to paint, a decent amount of Sororitas in various states of progress, and the impending Necrons I've somehow decided to start collecting.