Gorten vs. Shae

A bit of a battle report on Gortens most recent outing.

Shae
- Mariner
- Mangler
- Mangler
The Commodore Cannon & Crew
Dirty Meg
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile
Sea Dog Crew

Vs

Gorten
- Driller
- Gunner
- Blaster
Ogrun Bokur
Thor
- Gunner
- Rockram
Ogrun Bokur
Max Forge Guard
Ogrun Bokur


Shae ran the Manglers and the Cannons on the Mariner and Commodore cannon had a go at the Rockram, the Mariner managed to surgically remove the Rockram's Pulveriser with a cannon ball.

Gorten casts Solid Ground, and the main army advance the other side of a forest to reduce the effectiveness of those big guns Thor and co head to the nearby forest and hug the edge of the forest.

Shae continued to push the Manglers up, so I laid down rock wall to prevent a change into the Forge Guard, the Rockram took refuge from the cannons in a small wood and Thor repaired the missing arm.

A cannon shot from the Mariner directly hit an unfortunate Forge Guard (MacNaile exteneded the range of all the guns) however his comrades were nicely protected from the blast damage by Solid Ground. I ran my Driller forward to get a better position, hoping it might draw the interest of one of the Manglers, as my second rock wall prevented a charge on to the forge guard. I land a shot with a gunner on one of the Manglers and do a little damage.

Shae popped his feat and everything go a free 3" move, the Manglers moved sideways reducing the effectiveness of the Rockwall but the manglers lost interest in the forge guard and one charged the Driller, the other charged Gorten's Bokur. The Bokur proves too nimble to hit but the Driller loses it's grabber.

Thor's gunner takes a shot at Dirty Meg, who is loading the Mariners gun, and misses, the Rockram lands a shot on the Mariner with the Sledge Gun from the safety of the woods.

Gorten casts Strength of Granite on himself and loads the Driller with Focus in order to go to work on the two Manglers, one has a full damage grid, the other had taken damage from the gunner. The Driller swings around between both Manglers and Drives its Drill into the least damaged of the two, I boost to hit. Do a far bit of damage, I pay for a 2nd attack and this sees the end of the Mangler. The Driller, tries to get the 2nd Mangler but fails to get a hit. The Forge Guard charge the 2nd Mangler and, with their Reach, Swamp it. It took 8 of them landing blows but they stood over the wreckage of the 2nd Mangler at the end of their activation.

Gorten then advances, as does his Bokur and Gunner & Blaster.

Shae hangs back, as do his Sea Dogs, MacNaile gets a shot off at the Forest dwelling gunner but misses. Dirty Meg fires at and stalls the Rockram (can't run/charge). The mariner ditches it's cannon in favour of some close up work, charges and kills Thor's Bokur.

Gorten sees his opportunity, the Blaster moves up close to the Mariner and fires a shot at Dirty Meg, catching two unsuspecting Sea Dogs that are behind her, with the one focus for boosted attack and damage rolls, every one dies. The Forge Guard leave the wreckage of the Mangler and run to engage the Sea Dogs preventing them a move in the next turn. The Bokur assigned to the Forge Guard moves up to the Mariner and does a fair bit of damage with both Polearm and Shield, softening it up for Gortens Charge. Gorten does loads of damage, but the Mariner is a stubborn jack and does not go down. Gorten pops his feat with Shae just in his control range......

As both the Rockram and the Gunner would have been targeting Shae with big shooty guns at -3 def the game is called.

A good game, a very good game.

Bokur & Bucklers

So my attempt at making a Hammerfell style shield was laughable and it was suggested to me by someone from my club that Bucklers would be more fitting, in particular using the shields form GW's Chaos Marauder plastic minis. So a rummage around the club bits box and here are the results.

Bokur One & Buckler

Bokur Two & Buckler

Bokur Three & Buckler

Driller Paint Job

Its been a while since my last post so I figured I'd put up a picture of the Driller paint job work in progress, although my pictures are looking crap, I really need to get a tripod for my camera. I've just started a PhD so my modelling/painting time is going to become a scarce commodity :( and I'm probably going to focus, in the short term, on my Cryx.

Driller Front

Driller Grabber Arm

Driller Drill Arm

3rd Bokur Re-visited

I decided to change the pose of the 3rd Bokur, much happier with it now.

Ogrun Bokur Three

Family Photo

Just a few photos of the Searforge, I think it is a really imposing sight.

Family Photo

Gorten and Battle Group

Forge Guard

Thor and Company

MKII Rules Release

OK, so Privateer have decided to jump the gun and provide us with the new rules and cards in their raw format so we can start playing MKII in anger, great news......
...but hang on, what does that do to my nicely costed and formulated list...
...well fortunately it does bugger all, the points have not changed for any of my model selections, rules yes, but the list remains the same. I'm happy about his because I've just got everything out on the table in front of me and it looks a formidable force.

Some of the major rule changes for Searforge include,

Gorten Grundback: Rift is replaced with eruption, a RANGE 8 3" AOE POW 14 Inferno. More sources of fire, liking it. Strength of Granite is now a point cheaper and at reduced to +4 strength and no longer has a critical effect but becomes an up keep.

Ghordson Driller: Loses auto hit on the drill when you have hit a target with the grappler in stead simply has sustained attack with it's drill, and no longer does a critical. NO LONGER DOES A CRITICAL??!!....oh no hang on, it does not need to do a Critical with its P&S 17 sustained attacking whirling drill blades of doom....there will be bugger all left to do a critical on. I quote Derek from Bad Taste when I say "SUCK MY SPINNING STEEL SHIT HEAD".

Wroughthammer Rockram: Interesting, I thought the only change with the Rockram was an increase in range on it's gun to an almighty 8" but I have just noticed a change to the wording in the Assault listing ..."when resolving an assault ranged attack the attacking model does not suffer the target in melee penalty"...this is very cool no more -4 to hit as the Rockram charges in to save the day with Sledge Cannon blazing and Pulverizer, well, pulverizing.

Grundback Gunner: No changes here, still kicks some.

Grundback Blaster: POW of Hail shot cannon reduced to 10 which is not really an issue because Powerful Shot has been replaced with Powerful Attack. Powerful Attack (boosted attack and damage rolls) on an 8" spray template is evil, great for clearing out all those pesky high def high armour infantry that abound.

Holdenhold Forge Guard: A minor change to the wording in Ranked Attacks now means the models in the rest of the army, not just in the unit, ignore these models when drawing LOS.

Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps: Ranked Attacks changed as above, and have CRA that was mentioned as a likely change at the close of the field test.

Ogrun Bokur: now gets shield guard, selflessly taking the bullet for it's client or anyone else within 2".

Thor Steinhammer: his Blow torch is now a 6" spray, giving us more chances of getting some fire tokens on the table.

Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier: gains Tough, which I believe he had initially in MKI.

Thats the changes to the Searforge I'm interested in, well until Gudrun along with Brun and Lug, join the party.

I am suppose to be doing this project as a diversion from the Cryx stuff.....might be the Cryx becomes the diversion from my Searforge.....

Ogrun Bokur Three

I thought I might as well steam ahead and get the third bokur dry built, still rough around the edges but I'm really happy about the result. Converting the Blighted Ogrun into Bokur makes alot of sense. Using 3 actual Bokur models would mean that, even with some conversion, they are very much the same model and a little boring, but having 3 different Ogruns with the same armour and armourment but radically different poses, detailing and expressions make them a little more special. Just need to get creative and work on some shields.

Ogrun Bokur Three Bits

Ogrun Bokur Three on Scenic Base

The Firm

Ogrun Bokur Two

Fuelled by the way the first of the Ogrun Bokur trio is looking I decided to dry build the second one as well. Looking at the bits from the remaining two Blighted Ogrun I started to play about with poses (as I did not like the standard pose of the 2nd Warmonger) and realised that I could perhaps achieve a pose that looked like the Bokur was about the swing his Pole Arm, it would mean swapping the arms from the Aposel with the arms from the Warmounger around. I liked this idea because I did not really think that the standard pose for the 2nd Ogrun was going to cut it. Armed with my trusty pin vise I went to work.

Ogrun Bokur Two Bits

Here is the wip, as with Ogrun Bokur One, I still have some filing, cleaning and de-blighting work to do. Basically removing any pointed extrusions and horns etc, but you get the idea of the pose. Getting ready to bring that Polearm around an crack some pour bugger up side the head. The only thing I am debating at the moment is weither to reduce the length of the halft, it looks a little long and is certainly longer than Bokur One's Polearm.

Ogrun Bokur Two on Scenic Base

Ogrun Bokur One

So, with a recent delivery from Marple Marauders, I got hold of a Box of Everblight Warmongers and some additional Durgen models which, if my plan goes well, will be mixed together to create the 3 Orgun Bokurs of my Army List. Here are the mix of parts that might/might not be used in the first of the 3 Bokurs.

Ogrun Bokur One Bits

The main reason for all the Durden bits is his massive hammer, which looks rather stupid on the Rhulic himself, but I think will be ideal for the Bokur's Pole Axe....umm.....Pole Arm.

Ogrun Pole Arm

Still needs a little work but could not resist a premature photo. There is still a bit of de-blighting to be done, and tidying up the resultant damage.

Ogrun Bokur One on Scenic Base

Gun Bunny Three

Bunny number 3 received the same Blaster/Gunner leg combo as Bunny 2, here is the result.

Bunny Three

Although currently modelled as a Gunner, the more static of the three bunnies, may well endup as Thor's Blaster. Below are the 3 Bunnies.

The 3 Bunnies

Gun Bunny Two

I mentioned earlier in the blog I was holding off on further Gun Bunny production until I got hold of a pair of legs form the Grundback Blaster. Fortunately I was able to trade a pair of Blaster legs for a pair of Gunner legs at my gaming group. The difference between the two sets of legs is high-lighted below. The Blaster legs (top in the photo below) are longer as they are straighter than the bent Gunner legs.

I'm not interested in using the Blaster legs as a pait, but rather use a Blaster/Gunner leg combo to generate some more dynamic poses.

Blaster and Gunner Legs

The second Gunner uses the longer blaster leg to hold it higher off the ground and the bent leg, cocked in a running pose leading to a more interesting pose. I have to admit, as with the Driller, the Privateer Press Forums gave me the idea for this.

Gun Bunny Two

Forge Guard Resumes

I made a start on the Forge Guard as soon as they arrived many moons ago, before the Toy Soldier '09 Cryx painting panic. So now, after completing some of the more larger Searforge models I've got the Forge Guard out again and resumed work. I've got a Full Unit of 10 to do, each will be cleaned in detergent and based

on a scenic bases to keep the theme going. There will be quite alot af drilling involved so it might be some time before I post a picture of the finished unit.

Forge Guard Bits

After about a week the built unit can be seen below, as before everyone gets mounted on a scenic base.

Forge Guard on Scenic Bases

Wroughthammer Rockram

One of the major draws to the Searforge is to superb models, in particular the Heavy Jacks, I love them which is way they both feature in my list. The Driller belongs to Gorten but Thor will be having some fun with the Rockram.

Wroughthammer Rockram Bits

Once again everything was cleaned in detergent and the flash removed. I slightly modified the gun arm, although I'm not really sure it added that much to the pose as I could not quite get the postioning I wanted but I'm still very pleased with the way it turned out.

Wroughthammer Rockram

List Modification

Following a chat with a couple of members at the club I've made a minor modification to the list I plan to build.

The original list is as follows:-

Gorten -7

- Driller 6

- Gunner 3

- Gunner 3

- Ogrun Bokur 3

Thor 2

- Wroughthammer Rockram 8

- Blaster 3

- Ogrun Bokur 3

Lord Rock Bottom 2

Full Unit of Forge Guard 8

34 points

I like the list, it ticks my boxes for having a bit of everything, but I hate having that missing point. In MKI a few points short was not really an issue but even one seems a big waste in MKII.

So options:

a) Drop Rockbottom and give Gorten a third Gunner

b) Drop Rockbottom and give the Leader of the Forge Guard a Bokur

c) Drop Rockbottom, have a min unit of Forge Guard and add a min Unit of Highsheilds.

Either way it looks as if Rockbottom is for the chop, he is really in the list to help infantry with CMD checks (as a Cryx player I take fearless for granted), add an additional spray template, and (hopefully) look cool if my conversion idea goes to plan.

Option c, I'm not keen on, this is from a model building and painting perpective as I'll have to put together and paint 2 full units of infantry (I like working on full units all at once) which is going to be time intensive.

Option a, would be the simplest, as the Gunner is likely to be already available, however it was pointed out to me that an extra Gunner assigned to Gorten would add to the strain on his Focus.

Option b, is the one I'm leaning towards. As I love the idea of converting 3 Blighted Ogrun into Bokur.

Option b is the one I finally settled on, as Lord Rockbottom usefulness is really limited in the list and the Bokurs will still lay the smack down in MKII.

So the list now looks as follows:-

Gorten -7

- Driller 6

- Gunner 3

- Gunner 3

- Ogrun Bokur 3

Thor 2

- Rockram 8

- Gunner or Blaster 3

- Ogrun Bokur 3

Full Unit of Forge Guard 8

- Ogrun Bokur 3

35 points

As the army grows beyind this limit I think Rockbottom will still be making an appearance, as I still would like to do the conversion I have planned for him.

Thor Steinhammer

Due to being somewhat undecided as to the colour of the rest of the Driller, I've moved model production up a gear and have decided to pay some attention to Thor. I should be aiming to complete the complement of gunners from the Battle Box, but want to use some legs from the Blaster to give them some more interesting poses. So, in the mean time I'll be looking at Thor and then possibly the Rockram. Thor gets built I decided to lose the flame affair coming from his blow torch. Next up will be Thor's pet Rockram.

Thor Steinhammer Bits

Thor Steinhammer on Scenic Base

Driller Metallics

I mentioned earlier in the blog that I had blown a load of money on some new paints. Well the paints came from Foundry (http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/main.asp), I've not used them before but am very impressed. Particularly with the Burnished Copper set, excellent. The Foundry Paint System give you a pot of your base colour and a pot each of premixed shade and highlight. Its a little more expensive but worth the investment. Below is the Driller with all the metallics finished.

Driller and the Metallics

For the silvers I used Metal 35B as a base, inked with Black wash 47B, the spiral of the drill was given a futher coat of Chainmail 35A, then heavily dry brushed with Metal 35B, then a final lighter dry brush with Spearpoint 35C. The Copper parts were based in Burnished Copper 43B, shaded with Burnished Copper shade 43A, highlighted with Burnished Copper light 43C then washed with Copper Wash 47A.

Undercoating

Gorten and the Driller see some paint at last.

Gorten Undercoated

Driller Undercoated

Gun Bunnies

Next comes the Gun Bunnies, the battle box has 3 Grundback Gunners all of which I plan to field in my list. As before, I've cleaned the metal parts and the resin base in detergent. Below are the bits required for a single Gunner.

Gun Bunny Bits

Grundback Gunner

The Driller

The Driller parts all got washed and scrubbed with washing up liquid and a tooth brush, flash was cleaned and the pin vice came out.

The Driller Bits

I am shamelessly stealing a pose I found on the PP forums for the Driller (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=160006&hl=searforge), as it looks suitably Dynamic rather that the somewhat static pose that is customary with the Driller. The pose requires the left arm to be rebuilt in order to postition the Grabber correctly, below is a picture of the new joint.

The Driller's Left Arm Joint

Here is the finished Driller mounted on it's scenic base.

The Driller

Searforge Resumes

So with all the Toy Soldier excitment out of the way, I return to the construction of my Searforge list. As this is a bit of a painting project I decided to invest in some nice scenic bases. First to get a base was Gorten, being the only figure built thus far.

Gorten with Scenic Base

Here is the 35 point list I am currently thinking about :

Gorten Grundback
- Ghordson Driller
- Grundback Gunner
- Grundback Gunner
- Grundback Gunner
Ogrun Bokur
Ogrun Bokur
Thor Steinhammer
- Wroughthammer Rockram
Lord Rockbottom (although a 3rd Ogrun also appeals)
Forge Guard (10)
Total 34pts

Toy Soldier '09

Well my frantic painting paid off as I had my 750pts Cryx list ready for the Toy Soldier event. A great weekend event organised by JT of my Gaming Club. 8 Games over 2 days:

350pts vs Mercs (Shae) Pitch Battle. The Coven won the day but I missed the Caster kill.

350pts vs Circle (Baulder) Mosh pit. I took the Coven and although I took out both Wold Wordens I lost the scenario, my pDenny list would have been the better choice here.

500pts vs Khador (Scorsha). The Coven got the Caster kill.

500pts vs Khador (Butcher) Loot. My pDenny list lost out to the Butcher, 2 counter vs his 3 counters.

750pts vs Circle (Kaya) Mosh Pit. The Iron Lich performed very well. Lost Deathjack early in the game, but a counter charge by my trusty McThralls did plenty of damage to the Pure Blood and Warp Wolf. Routed the reeves with a Hellfire from Wrathe and a well placed Arc-node allowed me to unload Hellfire after Hellfire into Kaya for the Caster Kill. Came down to Time and there was no circle models with a CMD in the Mosh pit, so I took the game.

350pts vs Trollbloods (Grim) Pitch Battle. pDenny and the Cankerworm unloaded in to Grim spending 6 focus between them to bring him down.....he was dead already but kept making his tough roll......

500pts vs Trollbloods (Grissel) No Mans Land. pDenny did well and I got the caster kill but did not have enough VPs in the end as I lost Denny. Made a mistake when casting Ghost Walk on Denny to ignore free strikes...forgot that Denny did that already, if the focus had only been used to kill off the remaining Trollbloods Champions things might have been different.

750pts vs Khador (Butcher) Contested Ground. The Iron Lich performs very well, but really the Game was won when the Butcher and a Spriggan charged, but failed to take out Deathjack. It was a bold move and when if failed Deathjack jumped on Butcher's head. The remainder of the games was spend clearing up the field. One particularly pesky Manhunter refused to have the good grace to die, but eventually I managed it to take the game.

After all that I managed to come in at 4th place, happy days.

Coven 750pts Completed

Well, with the aid of the new painting table I've managed to complete my Cryx 750pts painting challenge in time for Toy Soldier '09 at the end of the week. My primary list for the Whoremachine Tournament is as follows:-

Army: Coven 750pts

Faction: Cryx

Army Points: 741/750

Victory Points: 23

Witch Coven of Garlghast

- Deathjack

- Slayer

- Deathripper

- Deathripper

- Nightwretch

- Nightwretch

- Skarlock

Pistol Wraith

Pistol Wraith

Bile Thralls (10)

Mechanithralls (10)

- Brute Thrall

Coven Battle Group

Infantry

Painting Table

Well with all the confusion, and cost, of moving house I managed to fit in a trip to IKEA to pick up a workstation that will take the role of my painting table for all the "little men" as my girlfriend refers to them as.

Gorten gets assembled

When Gorten's Battle box arrived I managed to find a little time to clean Gorten's parts and that was about all I could manage as I wanted to make some more head way on my Deathjack for the Cryx list. As chance would have it I have recently moved house and, even though I have Deathjack and 2 Nightwretches on my "painting table"....I don't actually have a physical painting table at the moment. So I decided I'd grab Gorten, my trusted pin vice, a brass rod and assembled him.

Gorten Parts

Gorten gives it both barrels

Gorten wields Forge Father

Cryx

I mentioned that I was holding work on the Searforge as I am rapidly completing my 750 pts Cryx Coven List for Toy Soldier in July. Thought I'd share in the work in progress.

Witch Coven Battle Group

McThralls

Brute Thrall

Forge Guard

I could resist making a token start on the new project so started by cleaning up the Forge Guard.

Gorten turns up

Well this morning I received my belated Gorten Grundback Mercenary Battle Box. So looks like I have plenty to work on. As this is largely a painting project I'm in no rush to get started, my painting table is currently taken up with my Cryx army that I am trying to finish off for Toy Soilder 09 at the end of July. That being said the I do plan to start building my new selection of toys. Since MKII is due out I figure it my goal will be to have a 35pt Gorten List built, converted and painted for January next year. This means a slight revision to the previous list. I'm currently missing the two Bokurs and Thor, although one of the Bokurs I plan to proxy with Gudrun as he will make an appearance in the list as soon as Hordes MKII arrives. Any comments on the list are more than welcome.

Gorten Grundback

- Ghordson Driller

- Grundback Gunner

- Grundback Gunner

- Grundback Gunner

Ogrun Bokur

Ogrun Bokur

Thor Steinhammer

- Wroughthammer Rockram

Lord Rockbottom

Forge Guard (10)

Total 34pts

Searforge arrive

After the creation of my list it does no
t take long before I place my first order of minitures. Ebay and my credit card are an evil combination and I soon have orded most of the stuff on my list. I dissappear on holiday and on my return I find that my delivery has arrived.

Thats the Wroughthammer Rockram warjack, a full unit of Forge Guard and Lord Rockbottom. Unfortunately it turns out that the Gorten Grundback Battle Box I ordered was actually out of stock so I'll have to wait a while longer.