NEWS AND RUMOURS: Forge World Waaagh!

Forge World have unveiled several new Ork kits ahead of their next Imperial Armour book which is a fight between Elysian Imperial Guard and Orks. Below is an extract from their latest newsletter.

Our new Ork releases are:

Big Trakk — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin tank model) —This heavy Ork transport can also be used to carry Big Gunz into battle. A brutal-looking machine, the Big Trakk comes with twin-linked big shootas, a massive gas-turbine engine, and ramming tusks. To see images of the Big Trakk click here.

Enclosed Trukk — Designed by Will Hayes and Phil Stutcinskas. (a hybrid resin and plastic model using the Ork Trukk kit). —The model makes for a great alternative for your Trukk fleet as well as an excellent base for your own conversions. Its enclosed cab can also be used to represent the Armour Plates upgrade on a trukk. To see images click here.

Flakk gun — Designed by Phil Stutcinskas (full resin Big Gun with three grot crew and an Ork gunner) —this is a quad-barrelled elevating cannon platform that can give the Orks some much needed air-cover as well as rip apart light vehicle squadrons with ease. To see images click here.

Gretchin Crew — Designed by Mark Bedford (eleven resin grots) —some wonderfully characterful grots to crew your big gunz or use as riggers for your vehicles, and generally make a nuisance of themselves! To see images of the crew on vehicles click here.

Big Zzappa — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) – this marvellous looking `death ray` is adorned with all manner of strange-looking gubbinz and is as dangerous to the enemy as it is unreliable. To see images click here.

Killkannon — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) —able to blast apart even heavily armoured troops as the Orks advance, the Killkannon easily lives up to its name and adds heavy firepower to your Waaagh! To see images click here.

Big Lobba — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) —this somewhat crazed-looking gas-powered bomb launcher is used to lob explosive shells high in the air, and possibly the occasional grot with it! To see images click here.

Supa-Kannon– Designed by Mark Bedford (full resin really Big Gun with three crew, available either on its own or as a compete Battlewagon with Supa Kannon using the plastic Ork Battlewagon kit) —This giant artillery piece looks just as ramshackle and brutal as you might expect from the Orks, and can be used to smash enemy defensives, shatter bastions and fortifications so the boyz can get stuck in. To see images of the Supa-Kannon Battlewagon click here. To see images of the Supa-Kannon click here.

Many of these kits are designed so that in true Orky style you can mix and match between them and particularly in the case of the Big Gunz you can fit them to Trukks, our Half Trakk, Big Trakks, Gun Wagons, Battle Wagons and your own custom models. We also have some great new grots to crew your vehicles and weapons. Each of the new Big Gunz comes with its own crew, and you can also buy the full set of eleven models separately! A quick note on the Supa-Kannon as well, this is a huge gun intended to be mounted on a Battlewagon, Big Trakk or something equally as large! Look out for more Ork releases in the near future.

All of these models are available now for immediate release, and experimental rules for them can be downloaded under the Big Trakk rules Here.

Looks like I picked the right time to collect an Ork army!

Forge World have also updated their rules from IA1 and IA2 to bring them in line with 5th edition 40k. This is the link to the Forge World download page. There are typos of course, but it is better than nothing.

Imperial Armour VII has also just been released, and I'm currently reading it now. It concludes the Siege of Vraks campaign and ups the ante with the Inquisition meeting the Chaos Daemons head on.

Don't tell me how it ends!

GENERAL: My head is spinning

I feel like I am spinning a lot of plates at the moment, even though I've already dropped a couple. Although I have finished painting my Blood Angels for the moment, and I've finished re-writing my battle reports, I am busier than ever on the gaming front.

I have 36 eBay auctions running at the moment. Once they have been packaged up and posted I'll have some space to start putting my extensive Planetstrike terrain together.

While I was waiting for the auctions to finish I decided to start pulling my Ork army together. This included clipping the Assault on Black Reach Orks from their sprues and stripping my old Orks of paint. I need to scrape all the mould lines off and glue them together to see what actual models I have. I'm sorely tempted to assemble and base the entire 1500 point army before I even put any paint on them. If I do, it'll be the first time I've ever built an army this way and I'll be interested to see if it feels any different.

I also started painting my Mighty Empires tiles. I bought this campaign system when it was release but it has languished on the shelf for months as I have never returned to Warhammer Fantasy Battle. With the recent release of Planetary Empires I dug out the box. As the two sets are compatible I decided to paint them all in the same colour scheme so I could use them as one big map if I wanted. I'll post pictures of my progress as I go.

Space Hulk is also on the horizon. I'll want to paint the models for that, especially the Blood Angels Terminators which I'll try to squeeze into my 40k army.

Not only that but I have my Aeronautica Imperialis planes crying out to me as I walk past their box every day. It wouldn't take much effort to paint up my Imperial Navy and Ork planes to be able to play this game so I might try and finish them before I start painting my 40k Orks in earnest.

When I think about all that lot I feel overwhelmed.

This is fun, right?

OPINION: Comments?

My back is much better, thanks for asking. I've sacked off the gym for the rest of the week as a precaution ahead of my holidays in two weeks time. I don't want to suffer a five hour flight with a bad back!

Mike on Santa Cruz Warhammer recently wrote about comments on his blog. He was musing on his expectations for comments and how perhaps they aren't the best indicator of whether people like and read your posts.

Here was the comment I left:

The vast majority of time I read new blog posts through Google feed reader on my phone. I do this standing in queues, on the bus, anytime I have a spare minute. I rarely visit individual blogs and therefore rarely read the comments or indeed make one.

The way I read blogs is not conducive to making comments. I don't know if the way I read your blog posts shows up in your numbers or not but if it does I'd imagine a fair few other people do the same as me. The ironic thing is that they are unlikely to comment on this thread!

I made a mental note to go to your blog the next time I was sitting at a proper PC. I run a blog too and have found that opinion pieces get the most feedback, while conversions and good paintjobs also get feedback but most say 'good job' rather than enter into dialogue.

I run the blog for myself and therefore any comments are a bonus for me.

And that's the way I genuinely feel.

Even if no-one ever commented on my blog again I'd still be posting updates because I see my blog as a kind of journal. It records my gaming time, helps structure my painting and thoughts and it's fun in and of itself. If my ramblings appeal to anyone else then great, but it's not my purpose to go out and attract lots of new readers.

I guess that's why I've never really bothered with Google analytics - I have no real idea how many people visit my blog, nor do I really care. It's also why I never bothered with in-depth tutorials and the like. I do show you the way I do things, and if anyone asks for a bit more detail I'll happily oblige, but I'm not trying to take over the world; I don't want to compete with the other 'big' blogs out there and I don't want to make money through my blog.

I'm happy enough just beebling along. The minute I start thinking about the Unique Selling Point of my blog and how to monetize it is the time when it is starting to feel like work and therefore the time to quit.

GENERAL: The battle at the end of the world

If you read the ninth battle report of my Destroy the Gargant campaign yesterday you will have discovered that it was the last game of the campaign. You can read my round-up post here, where I talk about my thoughts on how the campaign went.

And that's it! All of my battle reports have now been ported over to my battle reports blog. The only things to be added to it from now on will be current games, as and when I play them.

As I'm a geeky nerd I may return to my battle reports and work out some stats. How many time have I won? Or lost? How many times have I been crushed by Gary? How many times have I beaten him? What is my win/loss record like with Tau, or Blood Angels, or Daemonhunters? These are all questions that no-one wants answered except me!

Still, I'll only have to calculate the stats once and then keep adding them as I play more games. Maybe I'll add the stats as a column on the battle reports blog. Hmmm...

The good news for this blog is that I will now have more time to dedicate to other things, like painting, modelling, reviewing products and maybe working on some background material, instead of editing battle reports.

Hurrah!

GENERAL: Back to the Post Office

In a continuation of my bad luck with the Post Office I returned home tonight to find that they had tried and failed to deliver a parcel during the day. This will definitely be my Siege of Vraks book which I thought ended up at the sorting office on Friday, but after I picked up the small box on Monday night found was my Cadian Blood book, which I had won in a competition.

I'm actually off work on Wednesday and I have a bad back which I wrenched at the gym this morning, so it would have been an ideal opportunity to laze about and read, but the parcel won't be back at the sorting office for another 48 hours, so I'll have to wait until Thursday night. Champion.

I've mail ordered Space Hulk, so there will be another parcel being driven around Newcastle for a couple of days at the start of next week.

At least Space Hulk looks great. I'm reading the latest White Dwarf at the moment and the models look fantastic. Lingering over the battle report made me feel proper nostalgic and even some of my long forgotten tactics came flooding back to me.

Anyway, I'm off for a long soak in the bath to loosen up my back, so I thought I'd direct you towards the ninth game of my Destroy the Gargant campaign. Again my Daemonhunters took on Gary's Orks and after suffering two defeats in a row I had to win to stay in the campaign. Find out what happened here.

SELLING: eBay bonanza

I don't have any real news for you tonight so I thought I'd let you know about the eBay auctions I have running.

There are 36 items in total, ranging across several games systems.

Catachan Imperial Guard
I stripped my Catachans a while back with the intention of repainting them but I simply have too many armies already without duplicating the Imperial Guard. Therefore I've put all of the metal models up for sale. There are lascannon teams, mortar teams, special weapons and loads more.

Blood Bowl
I'm also selling several metal Blood Bowl models. These are all long out of print and include Dark Elves, Humans, Orcs, a Deathroller and a Treeman.

Sister of Battle/Witch Hunters
I bought a job lot of Sisters in a Games Workshop sale during the switch over from 2nd to 3rd edition 40k. Unfortunately I got several duplicates, so I'm selling the spares now. There are some Seraphim, Sister superiors and a Banner Bearer.

Odds and sods
The last model is quite timely; Skaven Plague Lord Skrolk. I am also selling two out of print Black Library books. The first is the Life of Sigmar background book by Matt Ralphs and the second is a limited edition (number 123) Darkness Rising background book, covering the Storm of Chaos campaign.

I'm hoping to add a fair amount to the New Model Fund as a result of these auctions. I'm not looking forward to packaging them up and posting them, though!

MODELLING: Assault on Black Ork Reach

I spent an hour or two during the week clipping all of my Assault on Black Reach Orks from their sprues and snap fitting them together. You may also notice there are six Nobs rather than five; the extra Nob came free on the cover of White Dwarf. My next big task is to scrape off all the mould lines and glue them together.

It's the first time I've had a decent look at the models and I have to say I'm impressed. The Boyz look mean and sufficiently different from each other to convey the chaotic horde of Orks vibe, the Nobs are big and bulky and the Warboss is enormous. The Deffkoptas are simply stunning and much bigger than I expected. All in all I already have an impressive core to my new Ork army.

I have also been stripping some Old Ork models in my Dettol bath. The Killer Kanz and Deff Dread are in there at the moment along with an assortment of rokkit boyz, big shoota boyz and Nobs of every description. I have such a range of models spread across several different troop types and editions of the game I'm seriously considering constructing the whole army first and then painting them up. That way I'll have a far better idea of how to split the models between units effectively. It'll be a big job but it would mean I could paint other things in the meantime, such as my Planetary Empires tiles and my Planetstrike terrain.

Destroy the Gargant campaign
Speaking of Orks, I've just uploaded my eighth campaign game where my Daemonhunters took on Gary's greenskins. This was another Cityfight mission called Relief Force. Inquisitor Lord Severus is cornered by Warboss Snitchtongue - will his reinforcements arrive in time? Find out here.