Squats as Orks MK II

Mkay, looking over what I actually have...

Warboss (Warlord) with Mega Armor (Exo Armor, TL Shoota/Fist), Cybork (Refractor field), Attack Squig

  Str/T 5, 3 wounds, 5 base attacks, 6 on charge, Terminator armor, and riding the wagon with loads of extras

Mek (Engineer) with Force Field, Power Fist
 
    He is really just here for the force field...  Might change the fist out for the flame thrower...

Mega Nobs (Hearth Guard) Mega Armor, power fists, 1 flamer

  Riding in a Battlewagon with Death Rolla, Red Paint, Armor plates, Grabbin Klaw and Boarding plank...  Probably WAY too much crap on the tank, but it's like a Swiss army knife :-)  So many toys....  Death Roller for the d6 Str 10 hits (2d6 if they "Death or Glory"), the plank to allow one model (Warlord) to attack a vehicle within 2" as if he charged...  Claw to have a 4+ roll to prevent an enemy vehicle moving...  Should be wrecked by the Exo suits after that...  You know, assuming any vehicles end up within 2" and survive :-)  Might be an amusing answer to a parking lot...

The Warlord (boss) makes one Nob unit a Troop section, so just one more needed...  I'm looking at a very big "bubble wrap"...  30 strong squad with one PF Nob (with one of the 3 rockets, 2 more in the squad)...  Expensive, but fearless and fairly effective...  But really just there to swarm and protect the...

Lottas (Thunderers)...  2 squads, on of 12 one of 11.  Each armed with an auto-cannon shooting d3 shots....  So, even at the mighty BS 2, there a re a LOT of potential shots hitting...

3 Killa Kans (RT Era DN's), all armed with Mega blasta...  Keep them near the Battlewagon to act as a can opener...  The squadron should get the 4++ cover save, the Str 8 AP 2 shots might even do something...  But really they're there to pull a Fencik/Plank move...  Now, for those of you who did not grow up watching the Bears in the late 70's/early 80's, this is where one of the players would make contact with say, the quarterback and just hold him in place...  Not tackling him, rather stretching him out a bit for the second lad to come in and absolutely level the target...  We used to do this back in HS when we played football (I played Safety, buddy was a Linebacker, we were REALLY good at this...)...  Figure the DN's can hold something in place for the Hearth Guard/Lord to charge in and get the kills...

War Bikers...  Nob with fist, 5 total...  Mostly just a light Cav flanker unit...  Figure they are mu Free Safety to try and run a flank or get into a backfield somewhere...  Not a lot there, mostly I suspect they'll just be a mobile reserve and something for me to try and deny a kill point...

we'll see Monday I guess...  :-)

Dwarf tank...

So, not sure if this will work for a Battle Wagon...  Looking at a WWI German tank called the A7V Sturmpanzer...

Unfortunately, the 1/35 pattern I found looks like it will be "truck" sized...  ~7" long, maybe 3" wide...  Guessing I'd need to scale it up for a Battle Wagon, but honestly not sure the "correct" dimensions...  The ancient resin kit was tiny, would probably be a truck in today's scale...  Not sure this would work...

For now I'll use an old Land Raider...  Guessing that my Squats will ride into battle on something like the above tank...  Wonder how they'll do against the Grey Knights...

More Squats

Mkay, looking over the codex (Thanks!), thinking that I will change a few things...

Bring out the "Boyz" as the Squats I have...  Call them "Shoota Boyz", so basically Assault 2 Bolter shots (18" range), bring out the max size for the 3 heavy weapons (though they are all "Assault" as well), so 3 Rockets in the squad...  Not going to hit often, but 26 x 2 for bolter shots gives me 52 shots, so "on average" I should get ~17 hits from that and one Rocket hit...  245 points, and I think it can actually kill of MEQs reliably...

I do wonder if running 20 of the shooters in a battlewagon would work well...  AV 14, open top, and with the 4+ cover save against shooting might be annoyingly difficult to deal with before I roll into range...  I'm thinking the "Death Roller" for 2 battle wagons would be a really good thing for the d6 Str 10 hits against anything I tank shock and an additional d6 if they decide to "Death or Glory"...  Just thinking that the 2 wagons rolling over most anything should put in some serious hurt...

Lootas (Thunderers for me) are amazing...  Each of them gets d3 48" range Autocannon shots?  Um, yes please...  OK, BS 2, and hey are random, but a unit of up to 15?  Yes, it would roll through the ammo, but not my problem :-)

It looks like this might be a fun way to go up against the Grey Knights, Necrons and min/maxxed other things that are set up to deal with GK...  This is just WAY different than most of the other things out there...  Something to take into the twilight of 5th ed...

Squats as Orks?

Ok, so I'm bored I guess...  And I just happen to have an ancient Squat army...  Wonder if this will be in any way effective:

Big Mek (Engineer) - Tools, Force Field, Power Fist
Warboss (Warlord) - Mega Armor, Cybork body, Attack Squig (Squat Terminator armor)
Mega Nobz (Squat Termis) - PF's, 2 Combi Rockets, 1 flamer
Truck to transport them all...

30 Slugga Boys, 3 w/ rockets and one Nob w/ PF
Lottas (10)
Lootas (5)

Killa Kan (RT era DN's) 3, w Mega Blasters
War Bikes (5 old bikes), one Nob w/ PF

Death Copters (? Dunno what to use, maybe old Imperial jetbikes) 5 w/ TL Rockets

So, loads of shooting...  Cover saves all over the place...  Probably swap the Truck for a Battle Wagon...  Plan is "subtle, like Jaegermonster" (Phil Foglio's "Girl Genius" ref :-))...  Lootas (Old Squat Thunderers) will set up behind the big mob of grunts, hopefully on a hill to just throw lead, hopefully lots of it...

Kans stay near the Wagon/Truck for the 4+ cover save and shoot/pry off anyone silly enough to assaul...  The Terminators (Exo Armor?) in the BW are in an assault vehicle, so they can drive up and open the can o whoop ass on something...  We can get Fleet for a turn, the Jet Bikes can flank, and even with BS 2, twin linked for 5 Krak missile shots to the side/rear of things might work out well...

War Bikes run a flank, throwing lots of shots, providing a cover save to themselves and things behind themselves...  These to be honest are probably the weakest link for me...  Not at all sure they fit frankly...

Probably not at all effective, but it throws LOTS of dice, and it is very different from the standard GK/anti GK I'm seeing these days...

Holy Land Raiders Batman!

WOW, $75 (ok, $74.25 + tax, so $80+ around here) retail for a Land Raider...  $90 for a Storm Raven?  Even Razorbacks/Vindicators, etc. are all up over $40/each...  I have 3 Land Raider hulls (2 are Spartan class MK I's though), so not a big deal about that really...  Kind of annoying about the Storm Raven, but having never particularly liked the look of the kit, I guess I continue on without one for the time being...  Kind of annoying, I like the rules, and new fliers coming out...  Maybe I'll pick up some...  But with the new bloody edition coming, I'll hold off purchases...

Sadly, the Orks are actually kind of interesting to me, but there is no (insert term to replace fucking here, I can't think of one at the moment :-)) way I am picking up something so insanely expensive...  I bet I could do a "shooty" Ork army...  Maybe I'll play my Squats as "Counts as Orks"...  I have bikes, trikes, troopers, even the ancient "Easter Egg" type Terminator armor equivalent they used to use...  Anyone have a used Codex out there I can look over?  :-)

Bike wise, looking at something bigger for eventual road trips...  Guess I start saving now.  Realized that I've never owned a new vehicle in my life, doubt my next bike will be it, but still something I guess to look forward to...  Eventually...  Probably getting a Harley Davidson, one of the bigger cruisers, though I do not have a particular brand loyality

Going to be selling off a few of my old firearms...  Mkay, probably most of them...  Probably keep the IBM manufactured M1 Carbine, my old sidearm (M1911A1), Garand and my '94 Winchester...  Beyond that, everything else can go...  Swedish Model 96 Mauser, Hakim, FN-49, Lugar, and assorted "other" weapons...  Know anyone looking, I'm sure I can work out a good deal :-)...

Out riding... Tournament Sat?

Looking like I might take the bike out for a longer ride Friday...  I think it is going to be a good day for it.  Just feeling the need to get away from a lot of this stuff around here for a bit...  An old friend of min calls it "wind therapy", me I'm not so much into therapy...  :-)  My ex would have called that in and of itself problematic, she was/is a Psychiatrist, good match since I've been called crazy a fair number of times, sometimes by mental health professionals...   But mostly just wanting to get out on the road...

Looking like Deathwing if I end up playing Sat...  Loads of Terminators, and a few Speeders...

Oh Dark?

:-)  Yes, 5:30 sure seems to come earlier these days...  Been getting up every day to hit the basement and get in a workout before showering and herding the kids off to school.  Elliptical machine, weights, getting closer to where I want to be in order to actually start running again, though to be honest I am still concerned about old injuries there.  Knee, shrapnel, back, etc...  For the most part they never really did heal.  In retrospect, I probably should have taken the medical out from the Army, but there was that whole "pride" thing...  I just sucked it up and convinced myself that I was "better enough".  Made it through Ranger school, so I was probably right, at least for a while...  After a while, well...  :-)  Good thing I was never really a professional level athlete, it would have been more obvious that I was never going to recover fully...  'course, that also defined a lot of what I later became, getting "no one gets left behind" reinforced and drilled into your head over and over really did not change much for me, just really amplified a lot of how I was already.  Also made me completely unsuitable for other work...  That whole silly Pack loyalty thing just doesn't translate well to people who do not have it themselves.  If it has to be explained, it is unlikely it will be understood...

:-)  Yeah, darker moods these days...  Not sure why, but just can't seem to shake it in a lasting way.  Work is stressful, money is tight, other random issues keep popping up. And it just keeps building.  Have our first "real" vacation in a decade or more coming up next month, hoping that does not turn out horribly.  We'll see.  Should be fine, but Florida in June is going to be a hot swamp...  Maggie hates it when I refer to FLA as a giant swamp, but...  Well, the last few times I went there, I was air dropped or drove through huge swaths of swamp...  Having that whole "Green Hell" experience really does color your perceptions a bit.

Gaming is just not happening much if at all these days either.  Just not really getting into the current 40K scene.  Not enough of a group for much else at the moment either, so per usual 40K is about it for miniatures gaming at the moment...  Maybe Warmachine/Hordes will come back, I don't know...  We had a REALLY solid group for a long time that just faded and dropped off...  Infinity and Confrontation are good possibilities as well but just not there yet.  And at this point knowing how many miniatures I have in the basement of doom, I can't really justify buying a lot more...  Sucks a bit, there are a LOT of things I'd like to pick up, but I have to keep that annoying "reality" in mind...  And the fact that I have shelves and a desk overflowing with random minis from dead games of course...

Not much going on in the painting/conversion thing recently...  Really just a holding pattern until I see what, if anything changes with the new edition.  I have a bunch of Scouts I'm working on...  I always use them with my Fleshtearers, but don't have much use for them in other Marine armies I play...  Wolf Scouts are different :-), and those I am further along with...  Those lads are in every Wolf army I play...  'course, it has been a long time since I played them...  Perhaps telling...

We'll have to look over the Team rules from Adepticon, looked like they allowed some silliness there, but since those rules are widely used at other tournaments...  One player taking a special character modifying the Force Org allowed all of their team to use the modified Force Org...  So, Logan Grimmar becomes a MUCH better possibility, making Wolf Guard "Troops" for the partners...  And if Dave and I end up going out to play again, I think we can coordinate the lists a LOT better...  I think his list was good, mine was the weaker (Deathwing)...  I also screwed up bringing fully painted and WYSIWYG stuff over the "mostly painted" but better stuff I could have brought...  Silly me following the published rules :-)  Ah well, lesson learned...