Spearhead

The new White Dwarf arrived this morning, complete with the new spearhead rules.

Here's the headline points on Spearhead:

-Force org chart is unchanged in terms of what you can take, but it adds in the ability to take spearhead formations in addition to the usual slots. There are no compulsory slots.

-Spearhead formations seem to be like apocalypse formations in that they cost some points plus models, there's one provided in WD which consists of 3 tanks or walkers gives all the models the Tank Hunter special rule for an additional 60 points on top of the model cost. More formations will be on the website, and there will be super-heavy spearheads

-Game is played from short edge to short edge

-3 new missions: Breakthrough (VP for being in the opponents half), lightning war (3 objectives), vital ground (objectives but one is nominated as the vital objective so gives 3 VPs)

-Random game length as usual

-Troops, tanks, walkers and spearhead units are scoring

-3 new deployment methods: Counter attack (deploy in a wedge shape formation), cauldron (bit like pitched battle) and Escalation (bit like Dawn of War, in you deploy one spearhead or three non-spearhead units and everything else is in reserve).

Second time with the Ogres

I got game 2 in with the Ogres this week, again doubling up with another player like last week like last week. We were taking on Skaven this time, with a magic heavy list (11 power dice and 7 warp tokens). We got stomped flat.

Both these games have really helped me get a little insight into the army strengths and weaknesses. Psychology really hurt us alot in this game with a unit of 7 Bulls and a Butcher panicking off the table on turn 1 (a good demonstration of why the MSU style list would have helped), plus my Bruiser and 4 Ironguts losing a combat against a unit of giant rats, failing their break test (even with a reroll) and being run down.

I'll be back again next week with the big guys.

First time out for the Ogres

I took my newly assembled Ogres out to club night last for their first game. Now, I haven't played Fantasy since 2nd Edition so I wasn't exactly expecting to win. I'd put together a 1000 point list out of the Bruiser, Butcher, Bulls, Ironguts and Leadbelchers I'd made out of the battalion box.

I teamed up with another Ogre player who had about 1400 points worth of troops, and we squared off against Tomb Kings. I made some pretty elimentary mistakes thanks to my inexperience and lack of knowledge, but we actually ended up winning the game, surprisingly.

Having played 40K exclusively for so long, adjusting my mindset to a game where you don't have a 360 degree field of vision took me a couple of turns to get used to; along with getting used to a game which is won and lost in deployment and the movement phase but I enjoyed it alot, I'm really looking forward to 8th Edition.

Just playing this one game really helped me to develop ideas about what is good and bad in the list I'd built, and how Ogres are played, built and deployed. Probably over the next couple of months, I'll be adding a couple more units to bring me up to 1500 points. I'll probably pick up another box of Bulls and possibly a gorger or a giant (I love the giant model).

Ogre Characters WIP Part II

Following on from yesterday's Bruiser, here's my more or less done Butcher:


Again, kit bashed from the Ogre Battalion box. The apron didn't quite come out how I'd envisaged, I realised after I'd done it that it should be lower on his chest.

One part I like is his Halfling Cookbook:


What could be a better cook book than a real, live Halfling to carry round with you?

Ogre Characters WIP Part 1

Having completed my last lot of primed 40K miniatures last week, I thought it was time I got to work on the Ogre Battalion box set I got for Christmas. I'm in two minds as to whether I'm actually going to play any games of Fantasy before 8th Edition, given I don't know the 7th Edition rules that well, I think I might as well just wait and learn the new rules along with everyone else.

Anyway, my Ogre army is about 1000 points or a little over, and I've got 4 Bulls, 4 Ironguts, 4 Leadbelchers and 30 Gnoblars built. They just need a final clean-up, gap filling and basing.

For the characters, I'm converting a spare Bull into a Bruiser and a second Bull into a Butcher. The Butcher is still not completed, but here's the Bruiser:



This was mostly kit bashed from the contents of the Battalion box, plus a couple of Ork shoulders I found in my bitz box. I tried to build him so he could be reasonably interpreted as having a few different magic items depending on how I field him (Gut Maw, Greedy Fist, Greyback Pelt etc). After I'd put him together, I glanced at the cover of the army book and realised I'd subconciously built something similar to the Ogre Tyrant on the cover....

The cloak is from a Chaos Terminator Lord with fur added using green stuff to make him stand out more from the average Bull:


I'm quite pleased with the effect of the fur, and hopefully it will look convincing when it's painted up.

It's pretty simple to do:

-Lay greenstuff over the area you want to make furry. It's need to be reasonably thick to take the marks you're going to put in it, so maybe 2mm or so.
-Smooth it out, it doesn't need to be prefect just flatter. I used the round end of the standard GW sculpting tool.
-Using something pointed, work around the fur in a line pulling the green stuff downwards to look like fur. I used this tool for this part:


It's basically a pointy blade on a stick, but use whatever you've got which is similar.
-At the edges of the fur, pull the GS apart a little as you mark it to look more fur like.

I'm looking forward to painting this one. I'll share picture of the Butcher when he's done.