DLWDG vs. The Lions of Harlech

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Yes I know, I know. It has indeed been next to forever since Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop itself has seen the tabletop for a game of 40k, however last weekend Kushial and his Lions of Harlech came to my FLGS and we got in a game. We fielded 1K each and fought over two fairly central objectives, worth 1VP apiece for whomever controlled them, and here's how it all went down: 

Da Groop led by Ad'Mral Orkbar. 

Kushial's Lions of Harlech who blended in surprisingly well with the gaming mat. 

My deployment with those previously mentioned Flash Gitz in the foreground.

Kushial's camouflaged force's deployment. 

Wiv Da boys' start'n off furst, Da Battlewagon trundled forward and da Tankbustas vaporized da contempta dred in front uv dem! Huzzah!

Da shoota boys shot lots and da weedy gitz hit little

None to pleased with the surprising demise of one of his Dreadnoughts, the Lions' Assault marines and jump pack chaplain made a beeline for the Battlewagon!

Da Tankbustas fired overwach an' killt 3 or 4 beakies az dey charged in, huzzah!

Nonetheless, the Assault marines clearly hit a hydraulic line or the like and the battlewagon's lifeblood began flowing out of it in earnest, ouch!

Da Ad'Mral called a stage wun WAAAUGH! and everyone charged 'cept da battle wagon which retreated so da tankbustas could shoot da uver beakies killin' a few. Plus, fer da furst time ever (for me) itz BOMB SQUIG TIME! (which killed a marine)

Da shoota boyz let da beakies have it den charged in fer sum fun!

Dems wuz winnin' too but trouble wuz a comin'...

On da uvver side, afta da beakies shot sum boyz down, all da gitz failed der charges...sad face. 

Dem shoota boyz tho, dey beat 'em down to jus' da bonez-covered boss beakie.

Seeing the inevitable (not) green tide on approach, Kushial's marines come out from cover, bolters blazing and then charging into combet!

NOOO! Dems iz runnin da uvver way-wait, hooz dat guy?

Da Battlewagon died and da tankbustas tumble out an shoot at da dred but don' do nuthin!

The lions on the other side hit with all of their gene-crafted might but the Orks weather the charge and a brawl ensues.

Diz wun haz a big sword!

Their Chaplain screaming litanies of fury and resolutely fighting on alone inspires all of the remaining Lions of Harlech to charge into the fray! Ya know, its not a good'n propa' ork game unless multiple units from both sides are fed into a meatgrinder in the middle somewhere. 

All da uvver boyz died or ran away, but big sword or not, Da nob 'az a BIGGER CHOPPA!

Oi! No fair,deyz gotta dred!

Da last of da shoota boyz run away so dat da tankbustas shoot da uvver dred doin' 6 wounds.

Krump and Pittance and da tankbustas den charge!

(da WAUUUGH! wuz at stage too at dis point me thinks)

AD'MRAL ORKBAR charges in and whiffs! (because that's what all of my friggin' warbosses do!)

The Lions' Dread wades in yet again...

The company champion, seeing the warboss as the obviously more dangerous threat directs his attacks at the monster, inflicting 2 wounds. Distracted by this new foe, the Nob inflicts 2 wounds on the champion as well!

Oi! Wut iz you gitz doin back dere anywayz?

Deyz lookin' good! (but not much else)

The Lions' champion unloads into the Warboss dropping him to a single wound! However Orkbar retaliates in kind and kills the champion!

Da last beakie boss fightin' to da last az iz good'n propa!

At this point it was the bottom of turn three and Kushial ran up the white flag. Going forward I could camp the big choppa nob on an objective and wrack up VPs while he was stuck in combat on the other side with little hope of achieving even a tie before game's end. 

Victory to Da Groop!

As for the new Ork codex, its...stout. The 2-stage waaaaugh in particular as well as the T5 across the board (soon to be negated by 10th ed from what I hear) is really nice! After this experience, I'm surprised that I haven't seen any other Ork armies locally. That said it'll take a few more games to see whether or not this was a fluke or not. 

Gettin' back in to da saddle!

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AD'MRAL ORKBAR!!

For Christmas this year, among other things, Screech gifted me with a bag of 11 3D printed Ork Freebooters. They'll serve as a half dozen Flash Gitz with the rest being folded with my meagre collection of boyz. Those footslogging Freeboterz are not pictured in this post as I had originally planned, as no one was available in my little gaming group to play this past weekend. 

Thus no battle report featuring their battlefield debut along with my new Warboss above. Currently the freebooterz are all packed up with the rest of my army in hopes of a game next week. We shall see...

I like the powered saw blades on the choppa, it's a very orky bit of pointless redundancy. 

This guy does suffer from being cavalry for obvious reasons. Meaning in most games he'll likely get picked off by enemy shooting before he ever get's da chance to deliver a good krump'n! That said, he's also a strong candidate for a glorious first turn suicide charge into the enemy lines (while no doubt yelling 'IT'S A TRAP!').

After assembling the new Freebooter minis a week or two back, I decided that Da Groop' finally needed a proper warboss, and the lackluster (at best) Krump and Pittance (2nd pic) were to be demoted to mere Big Mek. Da 'Noo' Masta Cheef who was featured in that link, was sold off some time ago because reasons. I don't think I liked his neatly trimmed rug-squig, or something of the like.

Da booty...well, both of them I guess.

Scanning ebay, I was hoping to find a beast boss mounted on a squigosaur equivalent and lo and behold, I found just that! He wasn't much cheaper than the actual GW model, but rather despite being both considerably larger and a superbly cast resin mini (looking at you Forgeworld), he clocked in at the same price as the new Ursula Creed model!

FORTY FIVE freaking dollars-what the actual fuck GW?!?!

Just like teenagers, Orks + texting = cracked tablet screens.

No idea on how close he stands on a 1:1 scale comparison with his GW counterpart as I've never seen a beast boss fielded (locally Ork armies are rarely seen on the table top which bodes well for their future combat effectiveness...).

Oh don't act surprised, you knew that sooner or later this blog would jump the shark!

Since the opportunity to game fell thru on Saturday, I instead painted up Ad'mral Orkbar and finished him up late Sunday evening. My first task in choosing a color scheme was to decide what color to paint his ride. Literally out of nowhere the old, Warzone purple sharks flitted into my mind and so purple is what I decided to do! It is rumored that Orks can't see purple which I would imagine would make climbing up on this beastie all the more difficult...

A Mandalorian & The Mandalorian

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Two guns for hire.

Its been a little quiet here of late as I've been on a bit of a Battletech kick. Nonetheless, you all know me well enough to know that I can't go too long painting any one thing before my brush wanders off to another genre. The latest result of that are the Mandalorians (and baby Yoda) that see above. 

Yeah I know, Baby Yoda is supposed to be on his own separate base, but what-the-fuck ever. I have the second, 'eating a frog' baby Yoda on that base.

I'm rather pleased with how his cloak came out looking.

I bought Frankie The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda from Star Wars Legion for Christmas. Whilst I traded away most of my Rebels some ways back (I still have the half-painted pizza cannon), I wouldn't mind puttering around with the game a bit with Frankie at some future point, assuming of course that I can wrap my head around the rules. 

Thus, I printed off the SWL rulebook, ordered some 3D printed 'insurgents' to stand in as Rebels to oppose my Mud Troopers (in that pizza link above), and painted a Mandalorian for the each of us.  The blue Mandalorian doesn't have Boba Fett's gun so I'll use the same Din Djarin stat card for both, just kitted out differently. 

A Mandalorian. This guy was a freebee likely due to his scale being slightly off as he towers over my other Legion minis. Clocking in at 6'5" myself, I don't see this as an issue. 

My backpack's got jets! My Beloved Wolfy love, love, LOVED that video...

I'll still need to get the dice and range/movement thing, but according to Table top admiral our forces look to be about 300-ish points a piece. Enough to get a taste without spending too much in the event that I/we don't like it. 

While I have a few friends who play the game, I'm a bit wary as the local SWL demo guy tends to grind noobs into the dirt with meta lists from what I've seen. Personally I also find him irritating in general, neither of which is too enticing a prospect for a beginner. But we'll see what happens I guess...

Fun with stencils (Take 2)

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Can't see it can you?

Way, way back in 2016 I bought some stencils from Fallout Hobbies and gave 'em a try. It was kindova disaster. Clearly the stencils were intended to be used with an airbrush rather than a paint brush. Skipping forward to the present and I still don't have an air brush (nor am I looking to get one), so upon finding the same stencils tucked away in a box here recently, I thought I'd give em a go when priming and...they look alright me thinks. 

This model arrived in the mail already primed black.

I didn't think to take any pics until after the 3rd coat of primer.

This vehicle is a WWII German prototype APC (probably the first modern APC) of which only two are thought to have been built. I stumbled across this model when looking for a cheap, model for a sci-fi APC for my near future troopers, without a 40K and/or Star Wars design aesthetic. Turns out, that there's not a whole lot out there that fits that bill. This caught my eye though and being obscure as it is, I figured what the hell. For something that's likely to only ever sit on a shelf, it's fine. Here it is thus far:

I wonder how visible the camo will be once this is coated in my usually thick layer(s) of grime.

The O.D. green went on a bit heavy and left a slight ridge around where the stencils were. Am sure said ridges disappear during the drybrushing phase.  

I'd imagine that if 40k Guardsmen were to try climbing into these tight confines, they would feel like space marines trying to squeeze into a Rhino!

Looks good overall, now I just need to paint the rest of it.