Hobhounds for Ashak Rise Complete

Ashak Rise Minis Finally Finished*

I've finally finished the remaining Hobhounds for Ashak Rise.  I'd got six of the Ral Partha Karmanthi Demons left to bring the pack up to ten; with the two proper Hobhounds and the other two Demons already painted,  this finishes off the orc forces for the battle. 

The remaining six hobhounds

The Paint Scheme

I tried to match the painting to the earlier mini, though actually I think they look better.  Briefly,  they are painted all over with Vallejo Model Color Orange Brown, followed by a stripe of Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown along the spine.  Before this was completely dry, I used watered down VGC Charred Brown to extend the dark colour down the flanks, becoming less intense away from the spine.  Then a drybrush of VMC Sunny Skin Tone, especially on the undersides. To add shade, I gave them a good coat of  'Marine Juice/Sonic Tonic', then finished off by painting the various spikes etc in VGC Khaki, then highlight with VGC Bonewhite.  Eyes and nose are just Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Charcoal. 

The Finished Unit

So here's Hobhound handler Grashak Kra of the Severed Hand tribe, with his pack of beasts. 

I'll admit to being a little intimidated by six models all requiring similar paint jobs, but when I got round to it they were fast and fun to do.

So that's all the minis for Ashak Rise finished; Dwarves, Pack Beasts, Orcs and Hobhounds.

Of course, I still need to look at the terrain, but perhaps not quite yet?

* Yes, finished, really!

Though as I've mentioned before, I'll return to the Severed Hand and add more models, just not anything required for this scenario.

Space Hulk; MEGAforce Board Game Night

The recent MEGAforce evening saw a return to a Games Workshop classic from 1989,  Space Hulk.

What is Space Hulk?

The game pits small squads of Terminator Marines against Genestealers in the cramped confines of an abandoned  drifting spaceship. 

The Marines have storm bolters and heavy flamers while the 'Stealers just have speed and very sharp claws. 

There are lots of great rules features, such as putting Marines Overwatch (and the attendant risk of bolters jamming), the use of 'blips' to hide the number of 'Stealers out of direct line of sight, and the time limit on the Marines turns, that give the game the right feel.  Its fast and deadly, and if the Marine player doesn't move fast, it goes very badly very quickly.

I've played this before, many moons ago, using T'Other One's nicely painted minis, complete with metal Terminators (rather than the plastic ones), but it was Grim's first go. We shared control of the five Marines, and our objective was simply to disable a terminal with a flamer shot. T'Other One had hordes of stealers trying to stop us.

Ready for Action, the flamer burst marks the target room

One Marine down

Two Marines down

Victory! (for the 'Stealers)

The mission didn't go well for us, T'Other One did a great job of keeping up pressure from multiple directions. Eventually we lost the Heavy Flamer, and with it, any chance of winning. The remaining Marine fell the following turn.

I could blame our bad luck with the Command Dice (a d6 for extra Action Points) or T'Other One's good luck with the blips, but to be honest, he kept us on the back foot (boot? claw?) from the start.

Take Two 

But Space Hulk is a pretty quick game to play, especially the early missions, so we tried again.

This time we had better luck and forged ahead. There were fewer 'Stealers and we managed to burn the launch controls, albeit at the cost of one of the marines who opened the final door and selflessly stepped into the room to allow the flamer to fire. His sacrifice will be remembered.

Only one 'Stealer to hold off, Victory is ours!

Over recent years we've played quite a few old GW board games, many of which I remember with fondness from back in the eighties and nineties, and mostly from my collection. But they've generally felt clunky and a lot less fun than the newer generations of games.

But Space Hulk stands up very well. It's still a slick rule set, simple enough to grasp, but with lots of potential for tactical thinking. It's also exciting, and captures the tension of a beleaguered crew beset by swarms of enemies.

There were a couple more editions, the most recent with some amazing minis, but the first edition is still, to me, the best.

I usually give a tier ranking for our board games,  well,  if you're looking for a tense fast paced action shoot em up, then definitely S Tier.  What it does,  it does very well. 

I'd go as far as saying that I prefer it to Aliens, mostly down to the less complex rule set. It doesn't have the cooperative side that Aliens has though. 

GW released a couple of supplements, introducing Librarians with psychic powers and Genestealer hybrids with weapons, but the base game is enough for me.

Somewhere in the loft of shame I have my own copy, perhaps it's time to get it out and get it painted.

Orc Villager (0508) Orc Vivandiere*

Just a quick post to show my latest eBay purchase, this delightful orc villager sculpted by the talented Trish Carden.

Looks like meat's back on the menu

There were three orc villagers that I was interested in, but I missed out on the other two. That meant I felt I could go a little higher for this lovely lady.

She's missing her tab, and I'll definitely be giving her a new paint job (she's in the Dettol already), but I'm very pleased to add her to my Oldhammer orcs.

I'm starting to get a collection of the Orc villagers. They make great unit fillers. My Severed Hand orcs are mostly in units or multiples of ten, so the villagers are great to bump a unit up to twelve for Dragon Rampant. They'll also make good 'baggage', should that be relevant (it was a thing in third edition Warhammer).

In case you can't make out what's happening from my quick snaps, the orc is carrying a halfling under her arm. The halfling is desperately kicking his legs, while she waves a cleaver. I'll leave it to your imagination what happens next.

*The title Orc Vivandier is mine, Lost Minis Wiki just has her down as an orc villager.

The Severed Hand Progress

A short while ago I mentioned that I'd painted half the infantry for the Severed Hand tribe. Now I've finished half of the remaining minis, so three quarters of the way there.

These are a mixed bunch of command, spear armed orcs and sword or axe armed orcs and will bulk out existing units.

Another eight Severed Hand orcs

Grashak Kra or C15 (85 - 04)

This Perry Twins C15 Orc is named 'Warlord' in the catalogues, though his tab demotes him to Orc Officer.  To me he will always be Grashak Kra.

Grashak Kra is an independent hero and leads a pack of 'hobhounds'. I've still to decide exactly what I'll use for these, but I've got a few ideas. 

I gave him a colourful crest to his helmet, I may go back and add a little black lining to help it stand out.  He's wearing a tunic of the yellow and black fabric that a lot of his tribe wear.  I'll use this as a uniform when I come to paint some of the Good Force.

The Rhythm Section, ORC1 (C - 01) 

Drummer with hood is a Kev Adams mini from the command packs, he provides an important musical accompaniment for the unit, or at least a steady beat. 

He is one of three variant drummers, and there are also three gong players, such as Luglud, who I painted here.

Check out those feet nailed to the drum

A fun touch is the drum skin. If you look closely you can see a face at the front and feet at the back. He's used the flayed skin of a victim. A nice accompaniment to the quivers here.

Orc with axe and 0502/15, Kroglod Cleaver

I can't find an exact identification for the orc with the axe and helmet, but he looks like a variant of 0502/08, Hurt, in which case these are both Kev Adams sculpts.

They'll fill out the hand weapon armed unit here. I'm looking for a few more orcs with two handed weapons to eventually form their own unit. If they don't have shields, they can be part of any of the tribes. 

0502/09 Orbid and BDD" (09) Orc

Orbid is another Kev Adams orc, I don't know who sculpted the other orc.  

They are both destined to join the rest of the orc spears here.

When I started painting Orbid, I thought he was the same mini as Gubbut the Armpit. But he's a variant sculpt. I chose a paint scheme as different as possible, thinking they were the same. Now I rather wish I'd painted them as similar as possible, so that the differences in the models might stand out more.

Orbid and Gubbut

The other orc comes from the Dungeon Monsters box, back when GW produced official minis for D&D/AD&D.  While they didn't keep the old pig face design, the shield shape and hood are clearly based on the original AD&D Monster Manual illustration.

I thought the hood was like the traditional Hollywood version of a jester, so I painted it in bright colours.

4709/44 Spear 15 and ORC5 (10) Chopit

The imaginatively named Spear 15 is by Kev Adams, and Chopit is a Trish Carden Orc Villager (I've also seen him referred to online as 'burglar').

Spear 15 will join the rest of the spear orcs, while the villager will join the hand weapon orcs. Eventually Spear 15 may join in the two handed weapon unit, as he looks to be wielding a halberd. The villager is currently a filler while I paint more orcs.

A Unit of Spears

I now have ten spear armed orcs, enough for a unit (if I'm playing Dragon Rampant, I'll add a couple of villagers to bulk it up to twelve). 

Looking Ahead

Just eight more Severed Hand orcs to paint.  Plus ten hobhounds, once I've decided what to use.  Hopefully I'll get the rest of infantry finished soon-ish, in fact they are already on the painting table, primed, and ready for the metals.

Oldhammer Orc Warriors

Here's my latest batch of painting, these five orcs, the results of various swaps and the occasional eBay job lot*

They are armed with an assortment of clubs and swords, and as with the spears here, are a mix of Perry twins (Gobstob and Maulman), Kev Adams (Brogbladd Brainbelter and Grinning Graglob) and one Marauder MM 20 orc (ORC 16).

A good mix of styles

There are some lovely sculpts in this lot, But my favourites are the Kev Adams sculpts. 

 

ORC4 (OC-05) Brogbladd Brainbelter

Brogbladd is obviously the leader, with his huge sword and spiky helmet. He's got spiked discs on his armour as well, so I had to give him the spiked shield. All this made me think that he's bested a Chaos Warrior, so he's got a very 'Chaos-y' shield.  I should probably add some highlights to the shield spikes. 

0502/18 Grinning Graglob

Graglob has an elongated face reminiscent of some of the old Fantasy Tribes orcs and adds welcome variety, while still being obviously an orc.  His elven shield, with stars at the points, doesn't come out very well.  He's a bit more artistic than most orcs though, he's painted the Severed Hand as if it's impaled on the central spike.

0501/11 Gobstob, Sword Bearer

Gobstob was very easy to paint, little decision making here.apart from the shield.  He's not the best sculpt in the batch, hands and feet aren't as detailed as some of the others and I ended up guessing where to paint some of his toenails.  Still, he's great to have.

ORC 16 w. Club & Shield

0501/04 Maulman

I've always liked Maulman, he was once a part of my orc collection and it's good to have him back.  

He fits very well among the earlier Harboth's Black Mountain Boyz Regiment of Renown.  

Painting Choices 

For Brogbladd's Chaos shield I painted a weird pink face before covering a lot of it up with a Severed Hand symbol. You can see the shield before the orc 'decoration' here.

The rest also got trophy shields, though Maulman had a rather dull opponent (the shield is cast on the mini, and has such well defined wood grain that I wanted to emphasise it rather than paint over it). 

Some of the liveried jacks make a reappearance too, but there are a few just wearing scraps for loincloths.

Looking Forward 

I've got a good few Severed Hand orcs painted now, I'll take stock and let you know how the tribe is doing.

One thing is certain, I'll be painting more, as I've quite a painting queue of suitable models now.

*I'm still buying occasionally from eBay. Either specific minis where I set myself a limit, or job lots for a low price. This is how I ended up with the villagers here.  I'm doing more swapping now, as I get close to the required number of orcs and have more specific needs (still not there yet).

Oldhammer Orc Spears

I've finished another unit for my orcs, this time six spear armed orcs. 

Spear Carriers

They are a mixed bunch, two Marauder orcs (ORC 03 and ORC 22), two C15 orcs (Shield Bearer and Nazram) and two ORC 1 Polearms (PA-01 Gubbut the Armpit and PA-12 Lampost Nagblade).

Painting is my standard orc method, and once again I gave them looted shields and tunics. The black and yellow tunic, seen on an archer here, makes a reappearance, as does the Severed Hand on all the shields. They will fit in my Orc's Drift project as part of the Severed Hand tribe, but it makes a great shield design anyway.  My aim is to return to specific shield designs and equipment across my orcs, you should be able to spot some of them already.  I'll then use these when I paint various elves, dwarves etc, or borrow other painter's designs, as I have already done with a few from Bodvoc.

ORC 22 in Plate w. Spear

ORC 03 w. Spear & Shield, Barefoot

ORC1 (PA-01) Gubbut the Armpit

ORC1 (PA-12) Lampost Nagblade

C15 (85-01) Shield Bearer / Spear Man

C15 (85-12) Nazram, Javelin

These were great fun to paint, and nicely divide into three types. The early C15 orcs sculpted by the Perry twins, Kev Adams' later ORC1 chaps and the Marauder Miniatures, all with slightly different styling, which fits my image of them as a ragtag bunch of raiders, but all obviously orcs. This is my main issue with the Fantasy Regiments orcs, seen here. Great minis simply oozing nostalgia, but too regimented when compared to these.

Unit Sizing and Future Planning

If you're wondering why the orc units are various sizes, it's either all I have of any particular type, as with these spear armed orcs, or a sensible subdivision of this, as with the five archers. As I'm slowly increasing my collection, I will revisit them and bulk them out. Indeed I already have a few more to add to the spears and more archers too.

Did you catch my Drift?

Recently I teased about a target for my Oldhammer orc collection. 

I was, of course, referring to Bloodbath at Orc's Drift.

The Best Scenario Pack Ever?

I've waffled on about the second edition scenario packs at length before, Orc's Drift especially. I suspect that a lot of this is simply nostalgia kicking in, but they have become a standard I measure a set of rules by - if I could play Orc's Drift with the same sense of enjoyment I had back then, then the rules must be good.

Now I should say that I'm unlikely to ever play Orc's Drift using second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle. A while ago I looked at adapting it for Dragon Rampant in 15mm, and I could still do that in 28mm. I might also look around at other systems to see if they give the same enjoyment that I remember from my early games. Mostly it's a goal to aim for; collecting and painting some, or all of the orc clans and maybe also the Good alliance.

Collecting the Forces

When Orc's Drift was released GW did a miniatures deal. All the minis you'd need to play the scenarios for what now seems a ridiculous £90. Of course I never bought them back then, oh for a time machine! There were a few new sculpts for the campaign, but the bulk were taken from Citadel's existing ranges and I wonder if they used this as an opportunity to clear out some less popular stock?

Making Compromises

I'm going to have to make some substitutions. The miniature of Hagar Sheol was sculpted specially for the pack. He's the only scenario specific miniature on the orc's side ( the good guys get rather more). He's understandably rare, much sought after, and expensive. I can't currently find him on eBay, and I am informed that he last sold for 'silly money'. When just the ordinary minis used as the villagers at Linden Way are fetching around £20, one can only guess what this might be*.

There are also instances of characters where I already have something that I consider at least as good. 

As for the rank and file orcs, the campaign features three tribes; forty with spears, twenty with spears and ten with bows (and ten hobhounds) and thirty with spears and ten with bows.  I'm certainly not intending on finding 90 spear armed orcs, I'll continue collecting small units, some of which may well have spears, but there'll also be orcs with two handed weapons, and just ordinary sword, axe or club armed troops.

I'm also planning on collecting a few extras that don't feature in the original scenarios. I already have a war machine or two (they would certainly have made a difference at Kachas Pass) and I've a few goblins to add too. I believe the campaign background mentions a goblin army providing a feint elsewhere, so I'm fine with that.

I'm not even sticking to GW minis. There are some very nice alternatives out there, often much cheaper. At some point I may well send off to Eorbis, or whoever does the Black Tree Design minis now. Some of their orcs are exactly right to stand alongside the old GW stuff.

I will also use the scenario pack as a source for painting, though not everything is detailed, and realistically I'm not going to be able to match Gary Chalk's lovely banner designs. I'll be sticking with my idea of the orcs using wargear taken from their foes and putting their tribal icons on the shields. The command sheets give some ideas for these icons, and I've already started with the Severed Hand with the orc archers here.

So here are the orc heroes. I showed most of them previously, but here I've included my version of Guthrum Mane, Hagar Sheol and Bagrash.

C15 (85-03 Cyclops) also the official mini for Fangor Gripe

I was never that convinced by the recommended Giant War Troll for Guthrum. With his fancy armour he looks too well equipped. I did recently see one for sale on a Facebook group, but I already have this C Giant. He's missing most of his weapon, but I'm sure that I can find something suitable.

C28 (87-02, Witherwattle, or Ninefingers body with 87-07 Gumsnapper head), my version of Guthrum Mane

Hagar was harder to replace. He's the only orc to have a complete full colour illustration, which also gives us a great shield design.  I've already used this design on one of the orc archers here.

But (see above) I'm never going to own him. I did remember a great mini called Dwarfsmiter; appropriate considering his tribe attack the dwarves at Ashak Rise. Sadly he doesn't have a shield, although I will investigate how he looks with one slung on his back. I found one as an 'or best offer' and since he doesn't have the Orc's Drift association I was able to snap him up for a reasonable price.

C15 (85-08 Dwarfsmiter) my version of Hagar Sheol

C15 (85-04 Warlord, or officer according to his tab) also the official mini for Grashak Kra

C15 (85-10, Maniac) also the official mini for Magyar Ironfist

The official mini for Bagrash is an armoured orc.  A nice mini for a leader, but not my idea of a shaman.  I got this chap very cheaply on eBay, so he's my choice.

ORC4 (OC10-Zigblogg Witchstaff), my version of Bagrash

I've never been impressed with the recommended King F'yar. He does crop up occasionally, but commands a high price. I do already own, a mini I bought in a job lot at least twenty years ago and never did anything with. This is a great opportunity to get him painted. That said, if I do find my old Hinchcliffe Models wyvern, as used when I played through the campaign over twenty years ago, I'll use that, purely for the memories.

Azhag the Slaughterer, my version of King F'yar

So there they are.  The orc heroes of Orc's Drift.  Now all I've got to do is paint them.  Regardless of whether I get to play the campaign, they'll make great characters for my Oldhammer orc collection.

*I've just seen Bromedir, leader of the elves at Orc's Drift for a starting price just under £50!  Whether he'll sell at that price is s different matter of course.