Kniggit Goblins!

Started working again on my Kniggit Goblins again.

For lack of a better name, I came up with the name from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  I love the idea of a big Night Goblin and Squig cavalry unit, but I was disappointed in both the lack of a squig heavy cav unit and/or the Squig Hopper rules.  Thus, I came up with the idea of a unit of Giant Squig riders.  However, buying a bunch of Games Workshop's giant squigs would run me around 300 dollars.  I don't have 300 dollars to spend on this unit, so I did some Googling.  I found some squig-like models on a UK website that were 3 models for 9 pounds (approximately 15 dollars)).  This was a much better deal and I could just convert them to have Night Goblin riders.

The squig bodies are made by Scotia Grendel.  These are available HERE at this website.  Just a word of caution if you're buying them, though.  The models are good but the casts were really sloppy.  The models are resin and there were globs of extra resin all over them.  I used a drill with a dremel tool grinding bit at first and accidentally melted one models face half off.  This was a bad idea.  Whoops.

My girlfriend had a dremel-like tool that's normally used for grinding a dog's toenails down.  I used a finer dremel bit this time and it worked really well.  I managed to get all the flashing and globs off, but I'm going to have to resculpt parts like toenails, belts, and musculature on the models.  All in all, I waited a long time for these models and was disappointed in the quality.  But...they're squigs!  I am using them as a Troll unit.

Trolls Versus Squig Herds

So far, I have not been excited about the Trolls.  People on the internet talk about how great they are, but I can't see how they're that much better than the Squig Herd unit.  They don't have animosity, but the leadership 4 means they have to sit right next to the general.  At the last tournament I went to, I used them and they seem really situational.  Go up against a unit with the fire banner or flaming shots/magic?  Dead trolls.  Going up against a unit that's good in combat or strikes first?  Dead trolls.  The low initiative, low weapon skill, and low leadership means that the trolls have to win and win big in combats.  The squigs at least have a higher weapon skill and initiative.  Toughness 3 and no regen, but still nearly just as good.

It could be that I play against opponents every week who take the flaming banner and flaming magic attacks, but they just die before they do anything.  The big advantages I see for trolls are the faster movement, the ability to kill 1+ save monstrous cav units, and the ability to sit and front of my character bunker and not squabble.  I put squigs in front of my bunker at the tournament and I squabbled at least once every game with them.

Now I just need to make some kind of unit filler for them.

One painted army in just 20 minutes a day!

Well...that's the plan, anyway.  Stephen King said that part of his success in writing was disciplining yourself to do it every day.  I figure painting is not far off.  So since my army conversions are mostly done, I'm going to start to get it painted up.  Next on the table is my Savage Orc unit.  I'm aiming for tabletop ready paintjobs.  This is new territory for me.  Normally, I build, convert, and paint in a glut of activity.  I get a lot done for a week, but don't sleep or do anything else while I'm working.   Then I get tired of working and don't want to even look at my stuff for a while.  It's worked in the past, but I have a lot of unpainted models that need to be finished.

The Savage Orc Big 'Uns unit:

It's around 38 savage orcs.  I liberally used squig models to fill in.  I still have a box of savage orcs to get the unit up to 40 guys and to fill out the Squig Shrine/Araknarok Spider model that I'm planning.  The giant squig I found on Ebay and then gave him some bumps, chains, and the shaman riding on top.  The giant squig represents the Big 'Uns upgrade and fills in for 8 orcs.

A close up, but terrible picture of the unit filler:

In my mind, I have this idea of the shaman praying to Gork and/or Mork to help the squigs grow.  One of the orc gods, in true orky fashion, makes the squigs grow like those pumpkins people take to contests.  Just a grotesquely oversized squig.  These are the things that make me love the Orc and Goblin army.

Cincycon 2014 Tournament Musings...

Now that I've had a few days to recover, I figured I'd post what I learned about my army and the ones I played.

Here are a couple of photos of stuff that I'm finishing up.

The Squigvern:

The first Squig Herd:

My List, 2500 pts.

Black Orc Big Boss, Ruby Ring of Ruin

Savage Orc Great Shaman, Opal Amulet, Dispel Scroll

Night Goblin Bigboss, BSB, Standard of Discipline

Goblin Bigboss on giant wolf, spear, light armor, dragonbane gem

38 Savage Big 'uns, addtl. hand weapons, standard, musician

30 night goblins, musician, banner

10 Trolls

30 squigs/10 herders

2 pump wagons w/ outriggas

2 doom divers

2 rock lobbas

2 manglers

2 wolf chariots

3 units of 5 wolf riders

1 spear chukka


First, I was not allowed to use the Squig Gobba.  The gobba through the last few games has turned out to be a pretty decent shooting unit.  Auto hitting with strength 4 is pretty nice.  Plus, it can fight and anchors your weaker war machines pretty well.  People hesitate to attack a monster with 3D6 attacks.  The downside is that it only shoots 24''.  And when it can't shoot enemies, it shoots your own units.  However, the rules let you pivot the unit during the movement phase, and you measure line of sight in the shooting phase.  So...if you can't shoot an enemy unit, just pivot the squig gobba away from your other stuff.  You still have to shove squigs down its gullet, but it's unlikely to shoot your own stuff.

Anyway, I digress.  Cincycon was a 3 game tournament that capped at 26 players.  There were a lot of people still wanting to get in.  The venue was nice and the terrain was nice.  They had the terrain rules set so that most of it was normal and not magical (with the exception of forsts, which were mysterious).  I have hated all the magical terrain since the first of 8th edition.

I played against Nurgle Daemons, Dwarves, and Chaos Ogres.

Game 1

His list (more or less):

6 Beasts

3 units of 2 nurgling bases

Great Unclean One

2 Heralds w/ locus of regeneration

1 Beast

18 Plaguebearers

40 Plaguebearers

This game was tough.  I lost.  It was a dawn attack mission. Somehow I rolled 8 times to put stuff in the right corner.  He got first turn and ran forward.  On my turn, I did my best to put down the great unclean one.  Foot of Gork was dispelled this turn.   I did 4 wounds with war machines to the GUO.

On turn 2, he failed several charges.  I thought I had a chance at this, but the wolf riders rolled animosity and charged his great unclean one.  Suddenly it went wrong.  Once the great unclean one was tied up, I couldn't shoot him.  At this point, he charged the next turn and I was ground down with not much left.

Game 2

His list (more or less):

2 Runesmiths

Organ Gun

Cannon

Grudge Thrower

Bolt Thrower

Big unit of Hammerers

Big unit of Longbeards

10 irondrakes

3 gyrobombers

Once again, he got first turn and shot lots of my stuff.  I hit his gyrobomber with 2 pumpwagons and killed it.  I had my squigs ahead of my night goblins and the squigs squabbled.  My general was in my night goblin unit, so I couldn't move much due to the general's leadership being stuck.  Note to self:  put the bunker behind the trolls...

Another thing I learned is that the spellbreaker rune is nasty.  And he had two.  He killed the foot of gork on the first turn, which definitely hurt me.  After I slogged for a couple of turns, I managed to hand of gork the trolls at the organ gun.  But another lesson learned:  only two trolls go into combat with the organ gun.  And due to the entrenched rules, I had a hard time hitting them.  The gun hung on for a couple of turns too long.  He managed to charge the side of my trolls.  The trolls ran but got away.  I managed to kill all his war machines and he killed all of mine with the miners that came on the last few turns.  It was a draw.

Game 3

His list (more or less):

Big unit of bulls

Big unit of ironguts

2 ironblasters

3 sabertusks

Firebelly

Slaughtermaster

I could have won this one, but it was not meant to be.  The mission was Watchtower, except that you could blow up the watchtower with a character you nominated on a 5+.  I nominated my boss on the wolf.  For the life of me, I could not blow the thing up.  Also, I cast foot of gork nearly every single turn and did maybe 6 wounds.  The foot kept scattering and then wandering off.  My trolls were run down by Bulls with the Firebelly.  Then the squigs were charged and they whiffed combat.  Then they blew up.  Those two combats happened on the last turn.  Had either held, it would likely have been a draw.  But no.  The thing I took from this game and the other two is that I need more anvil and less hammer.  I am putting nets and more goblins in the night goblin unit.  I am going to run it right behind the trolls.

All in all, the tournament was run well and I had fun.


One of the best things that came from this tournament was the flea market.  I got the old Idol of Gork campaign book from years ago for ten bucks!  I'm excited.  My friend Todd said he'd get his empire army out for this one, so I'll post it when it happens.

Thought I would post some pics of my 40k Ork army.  The army is named "The Orkdeptus Mekanikus."

The background is that the Orks saw a forgeworld and thought it was the coolest thing ever.  But would any self respecting ork boss build a forgeworld?  Well...no.  An ork would find a good one, krump the people running it, and now the orks own a forgeworld.

As for building it, this army is a labor of love.  I started orks when I won a tournament and won an Ork Warboss that the store owner painted for me.  I loved the model so much and began building them.  All in all, I've been building, converting, and painting this army for 10 years.  It took a ton of bits, searching ebay, and prowling through friends' bits boxes to get it the way I wanted.  Here's some pictures of the army as it is now.

Attaaaaackkkk...Of The Killer Tomatoes!!! New Tournament List for Orcs & Goblins

In my orc and goblin army, I've always been fascinated and amused by squigs.  I think they're one of Games Workshop's best designs and completely personifies the craziness of Ork/Orc.  Really, they're like basketballs with teeth.  Who wouldn't love one as a pet?

Anyway, here's my 2500 point squig-themed army list for the tournament season this year.  I'm taking this to Cincycon.  The only question is whether the tournament organizer will let me run a forgeworld Squig Gobba.  We will see.

Squigmania 2500 Points

Lords

Savage Orc Shaman, level 4, obsidian amulet, dispel scroll- 260 pts

Goes in either the night goblin bunker or the savage orcs, depending on whether the opposing army is shooty or fighty.

Heroes

Black Orc Bigboss. Nekkid- 90 pts


Night Goblin Bigboss, BSB, standard of discipline.- 70 pts



Core

2x 5 Wolf Riders- 100 pts



40 Night Goblins, musician, standard- 140 pts



40 Savage Orc Big 'Uns, additional hand weapons, standard, musician- 460 points



Special

3x 1 Troll- 105 pts



30 Squigs/19 Herders- 297 pts

30 Squigs/19 Herders- 297 pts


2x1 Wolf Chariot- 100 pts



Rare

2 Doom Divers- 160 pts

2 Rock Lobbas- 170 pts

1 Squig Gobba- 120 pts

Da Green Tide Blog

Da Green Tide will be my blog for posting and talking about painting models and Warhammer.  I play both fantasy and 40k.  Like all proppa warbosses, my main armies are Orks and Orcs and Goblins.

I have played Orks for close to 12 years and I have played Orcs and Goblins for 6 years.  I enjoy painting green, the conversions, and the general craziness of the army book and codex.  I play fantasy far more than 40k, but still collect and paint both.

All in all, I have about 8,000 points of Orks and about the same of Orcs and Goblins.  I also plan on posting some battle reports for the Orcs and Goblins.