So after a wee bit of soul searching (searching for the apparent lack there of! I have taken a bit of a punt and return to warm fatty goodness of Ogres! Reason being that I really miss the ogres and the fun I had playing with them, being a bit less stressful to play really has its benefits when all you want to do is have fun! Looking back on it, the ogres were really a great fun army to use and its something I feel the Orcs/Lizards lack! All that said I do love Da Orcz and Da LizOrcz so they shall not be sold off like some sub par supermarket reduced deli left overs. Really since I have invested so much time in this army (more than double the painting time of the Ogres so far) I don't envisage selling them for a long time. This is pretty nice and it means I have loads of different units, some with cross over, to use in all 3 (4 if you count using them as beastmen which is very feasible too! Minotaurs = Ogres!). Not saying that I will use them all as such in tournaments but I will certainly use them like this for friendly games!
So how to amalgamate them into the Orc fold? Drawing inspiration from Johnny Hasting's Beastman Ogres showed me that I could make some pretty easy cross overs gaming wise so here's my wee attempt at doing the same with Orcs!
- Basic Ogres/Guts/Characters: Ogre Bull Models with Black Orc Helmets and weapons painted with green skin.
- Maneaters: Trolls!!! (Got a wee unit of 8 already painted!)
- Mournfang: Goblin Wolf chariots(Got 6 already painted!)
- Stonehorn/Thundertusk: Araknarock Spider with Ogre and Black Orc Riders (would be nice to have this for the Orcs too!!!)
- Sabretusks: Boar Boyz!
- Gnoblars: Goblins!
- Ironblaster: Ironblaster with Ogre rider converted as above!
Seems dead easy! The best thing about the orcs was that I really much preferred painting green skin over ogre flesh so that's a big bonus and I think I only need buy a few bits and bobs to make a 2400pt army. In principal using left overs from my Orcs and Ogres I think I can make a decent 3000pt for around £150 so thats pretty awesome! Could also use the new OrcGres as more trolls in my OnG army so big with there!
I reckon all I need to buy is one Battalion, 1 box of lead belchers, an Araknarock, a Slaughtermaster and Tyrant/BSB.
Here's my first draft, all round tournament army using the above principal:
Slaughtermaster: Armour Of Destiny; Crown Of Command; Dragonbane Gem; Level 4 Wizard; great weapon.
Bruiser: Talisman Of Preservation; Iron Curse Icon; great weapon; heavy armour; battle standard; Lookout Gnoblar.
8 Ironguts: Gutlord; Bellower; standard bearer; Look-out Gnoblar; Standard Of Discipline.
3 Ogres: Bellower; additional hand weapons.
3 Ogres: Bellower; additional hand weapons.
8 Leadbelchers: Bellower.
3 Mournfang Cavalry: Bellower; heavy armour; ironfists.
3 Mournfang Cavalry: Bellower; heavy armour; ironfists.
Stonehorn: harpoon launcher.
Ironblaster
2,399 points
Army is really simple and pretty all round in my opinion so I think it will work quite well and be fun to use! Its got a bit of everything and fights and smashes pretty well! Also I think it will look pretty cool on the table so that's a bonus! Right, Crunch time and silly deadline.......... I think Im gonna try and have this ready for the Falkirk Free For all at the end of February!!! Daft I know......buuuuut its actually not that much to paint. In physical time spent a black orc takes almost as long as an ogre took me so from that point of view I might be able to do this! (3 Months (Moving will ruin this lol) and counting lol)
To paint:
Slaughtermaster (1 Day)
BsB (2 Day)
Bulls (3 Days)
Ironguts (10 Days)
Mournfang (Done!!!)
Araknarock (4 Days)
Lead Belchers (4 Days)
Ironblaster (2 Days)
Total Required: 26 Days Painting
I think if I aim to Order and assemble everything by the end of December I should be ok? Worst case scenario I can paint 5 models and use the orcs!!!
Am I a mad man?!?!
Longer term just to expand the army to silly proportions I will be buying:
60 Savage Orcs (Dual purposing as Gor and Saurus)
2 Ancient Stegs (Scrap Launchers and Razorgor Chariots)
2 Giants (Ghorgons/Cygors)
1 Carnasaur(well just cuz!)
I think this will bring my army up to something daft like 6000pts in an OnG, Lizard and Beastman army and about 3500pts in Ogres. I think all said and done that's a pretty efficient use of models and means I hopefully will never get bored of the armies lol!
As always let me know what you think guys, any input or feed back is much appreciated!
Longer term just to expand the army to silly proportions I will be buying:
60 Savage Orcs (Dual purposing as Gor and Saurus)
2 Ancient Stegs (Scrap Launchers and Razorgor Chariots)
2 Giants (Ghorgons/Cygors)
1 Carnasaur(well just cuz!)
I think this will bring my army up to something daft like 6000pts in an OnG, Lizard and Beastman army and about 3500pts in Ogres. I think all said and done that's a pretty efficient use of models and means I hopefully will never get bored of the armies lol!
As always let me know what you think guys, any input or feed back is much appreciated!