Ogres vs Vampires

Since I started playing my new ogre army I have learnt a lot in Ogre tactics. First set of games was all about learning how to play what units and how to divide my attention to the battle field. Actually I also learnt a lot on the 8th edition WHFB ruleset. Still we are forgetting rules and I keep forgetting abilities of my precious Ogres but we have come a far way since then. Still the ogre army has many possibilities and since I am painting a lot of members for the army that is also input for choosing troop types for the roster that I am going to play. This time it was the gnoblars as a general theme for this battle. I am busy painting 90 gnoblars (and have another 10 ready to round it of to 100) and have a set of 70 that I found play worthy. Also the first horde unit I am going to field with 8th ed. With the big block of gnoblars I was going to field the scraplauncher as well to have a gnoblar themed army but I was facing vampires and went for more ogres to crush skeletons. I fielded a block of 12 ogres with a bruiser BSB and a set of 6 ironfists with my butcher. These were the hitting power and the gnoblars the anvil. Supporting this I had 2 sabretusks and a gorger for stray units/delaying tactics/warmachine hunting. To top it off 4 leadbelchers to shoot the rest to pieces. What I was facing here were 2 units of skeletons with a vampire each. some groups of war hounds, a set of dread knights and a black coach. None too big an frightening units but still tough enough to tear through in one go. The battle started with the ogres lining up for the charge and on sabretusk tearing through a set of hounds completely shredding them to pieces. The black coach started with a big gulp of magic and directly advancing on the chart. I found out one of the sabretusks was too far out and had to head back over the battlefield, the rest pretty much placed good enough. The gnoblar unit of 70 was a bit difficult to maneuver but all in all not a bad start. Second turn had more interesting stuff going. My leadbelchers shot a volley to the knights but did not do much damage. The black coach managed to gobble up almost all the magic and was fully charged at the end of turn 2! Also the coach charged the sabretusk and with max. impact hits, shredded the big cat to pieces. My ogre unit charged a group of skeletons and really cracked some bones, slaying one vampire in the proces. What a result! Turn 3 got nasty for the vampires. The coach charged into my ironfists and the other skeleton unit as well since they were frenzied by some blood tower nearby. The coach managed only 3 impact hits not doing much and the skeletons were unable to hit very much. The ironfists however almost maxed the amount of to hits and also to wounds. Very impressive dice throwing against all statistics. The black coach did not managed to hit very much with very little impact hits, it was ethereal and flying and whatnot so I couldn't hit it back. The result of the skeletons combat part for this unit was so good for my part having the BSB there as well I won this combat breaking the black coach! The dread knights were charging the group of gnoblars in the meantime not knowing the all the traps set by the trappers in this horde of gnoblars. already some horses tripped and fell taking their riders with them, the rest managed to delve into the unit but the amount of gnoblars was overwhelming. In no time all knights were done for. If 10 of the gnoblars died no one noticed in the melee of green skins. The gnoblars tore the knights apart leaving not much but bones and even these were picked up for clubs. We looked at the rest of the table and threw some dice for some of the left over units to see if the VC went somewhere but it was to no avail. The flow of events was set and the outcome was inevitable: a win for the ogres. The battle was good with some epic dice rolls deciding the game. However I got a good feeling on the block of gnoblars and it is true that 8th ed needs horde units to swing victory to your side. I saw the need for swift cavelry and therefore need to paint up those mournfang cavalry quickly!

Hobby time

The yearly event of making scenery took place just after christmas this year. We gathered to create new scenery pieces. As known from this blog we have sets of Hirst Arts Moulds that we pull out each year to create new buildings and ruins to play our games with. All hobbyists from all the corners of the Netherlands came out (actually Rick was the furthest away and the rest could come by bike, but still!). Crates full of plaster bricks and accessories were hauled in to build. MDF bases were at the ready and the day could start. Coffee was provided for and we actually used an agile process to get the architecture right. Not the first time right mind, but we got it in the end. Buildings sprouted aplenty and since we get better every year, the buildings become more complex and interesting. We produced a nice church, a nautical themed inn, another two more undetermined buildings but nonetheless very interesting. In the end fries were brought in to sustain any hunger so we could complete the building madness in the evening hours. To finish stuff off Zombicide was put to the table and the night ended with my house being taken over by zombies. What a great day it was. Now the painting of the buildings is on the way and I actually some finished parts as well, but that's for another post.

More Ogres!

After painting loads and loads of dwarfs and them being so tiny, I started with some Ogres. Just to be on the other side of the spectrum. Not only painting wise but also gaming wise they are a complete different army. Not less fun to paint however. The set of Ogres I got needed some painting to do, I can field approximately 4000 points of Ogre menace not including magical items but the amount of models involved equals by nearly 2000 points of dwarfs! Should the painting go that much faster was the first thing I asked myself and first impressions this was the case. Of course painting something new induces a new drive to paint and thus taking more time to paint, hence more output in painting! Still good, the ogre army expands rapidly and I got a couple of games already to play with them. I still have to develop a feel for how to play, but each game gave me some valuable learning points and rules I forgot about to play. Also this is an army with magic opposed to the dwarfs, also something new to consider and hell of a lot of fun. The ogres are fast, hard-hitting but can still be outmaneuvered. Magic is good, leadership is rubbish. Stuff to keep in mind :) On to the painting then, I started of with a tyrant just to get a feel for ogre models and to have something nice to paint. A set of leadbelchers followed and the Tibet style color scheme proved good and clean on the ogres (clean and ogres in one sentence?). Also in the set of Ogres I bought was the best model ever: the old scrap launcher. A big contraption pulled by a large beast. Loads of gnoblars everywhere on the model to give it the lively feel of chaos and mayhem. That was the next to paint. The wood was quickly done, however I kept touching up on the wood. It had to be more grainy, more red, more yellow, but in the end it got good enough. The wood was fairly quickly done and I got the idea that only painting some gnoblars was not that much of a work. It is when each individual needed to be picked out with its own set of colors and devices. There was also the amount of metal on the model. I wanted it to be a seemingly random mix of iron and copper with its corresponding corrosion. In the end not en easy task and took a while, but worth it. The cloth where the scrap launcher rests had to be some captured flag or something so I painted the imperial eagle on it that was also on one of the shields that is being loaded as scrap to be shot at the enemy, all in-keeping with the model. I myself am happy how it turned out, however I keep on seeing stuff that can be improved. I put it aside for now and I'm moving on to next models and ways to paint, since I got me a nice airbrush set and just started painting the skin of a...GIANT!