Ryan G: Tale of 2 Guys: Firebelly

     July went zooming by, but I did manage to get a couple of things painted for the Ogre Kingdoms.  The main model was my Firebelly.

     I really like the GW Firebelly, but I have never been great at painting fire so I chose to use an alternate model for my Firebelly.  I tracked this guy down from a company called Titan Forge.  They have some great models, and if I can find a way to fit some of their other Ogres into my army I will.  I just wanted to start small to make sure the scale was correct.  This guy is a little taller, but fits in just fine.

     I have used him a few times now, and I do like the Firebelly character.  I don't think he fits into every army, but I have found him great for low point games. 

     Next, is one more sabertusk.  This now gives me three and I am happy with that.  I have yet to use 3 Tusks in a a game, but we'll see how it goes.  I dislike the fact that they can cause panic, and they may just cause me to start tripping over myself, or just plan getting in the way.





     I have two local tournaments coming up over the next two saturdays, but not sure what list I will be doing for the 2000 pts this month.  Both my Firebelly and extra cat will be in my 1600 pt tourny list, but does not look like either will be in my 2000 point one.  Either way it should be fun, and I am considering a few different things to do for next month.  I really should do my Ironblaster because they are awesome, but I really want to paint up a Giant, which are fun, but far from awesome.  Only time will tell.

Cheers,
Ryan G

Ryan G: 1500 + Mournfang pt 2

     For July I finished up my other two mournfang to round out the unit to four.

     Mournfang completely live up to the hype.  They are awesome!  I have been having a fun time running these guys around the table.  They are not unbeatable though.  Tough 4 and Armour 2+ goes a long way, but not far enough.  You still gotta be careful with them, but once they get into combat, they stand a good chance against most units. 

     My 1500 point list consisted of the following.

Firebelly - lvl 2

Bruiser - BSB

7 Ironguts

6 Ogres

Stonehorn

2 Mournfang

2 Single Sabertusks

     My game with Joe ended as a win for me, but not sure how it really happened.  I really owe it all to my 2 Sabertusks which killed a Volly gun, Engineer, and 12 Handgunner.  I spent most of the rest of the game backing away from Joe's spearmen horde because he kept getting Mindrazor off on them.  I thought eventually I would be able to stop a casting of it, but never did, and his spears finally trounced my Ironguts.  However, because I spent most of the game running, he did not get very many other points, and I squeaked out a win.

     I would like to review my first go with the Firebelly, but he miscast on his first spell and lost all of his wizard levels.  He did get to use his breath weapon in a challenge with the battle priest and kill him before the rest of the unit went, thanks to the Sigil Sword, and took away their hatred.  That saved one Irongut left and preserved the points of the unit. 

     I am liking Joe's empire, but I agree that he is too magic reliant at this time and needs to get some hammers into his army.  2000 should be an interesting battle.

Cheers,

Ryan G

    

Ryan G: 1k + Morunfang

     As you have read, Joe and I got our 1000 pt game in last week, and I thought I would just throw up some thoughts on it and update you on my Mournfang.  The games went pretty well, and my army did about as good as I expected.  Here are a few things that I took away from these games. 
     First, fear is a complete game changer at low points.  It seemed like every time I got into combat with Joe's Spear horde, he failed his fear test and I just slaughtered him. 
     Second, when artillary is on, it is very tough to get to it.  I had 2 sabertusks, and the first game they got to the hellblaster and the cannon blew itself up.  Very easy win for the first game for me.  Game 2, his artillary could not miss, and it brought the pain.  I ran every thing I could towards it, but to no avail.  Engineers are key.

     I also finished 2 of my Mourngfang for the up coming Blood in the Sun tourny.  I like how they came out, but there is somthing about the models that just doesn't sit right with me.  I don't know what it is, but as far as I can tell, it is the model and not my paint job that has me taking a 2nd look at them.  However, with the way they play, i'll take them.  I have used them in a couple of games now, and except for the one were Joe's hellblaster took them off, they have always gotyen their points worth.  I think I will stop at 4 of them though.  Multiple units of them are really good, but I can not see it being a very fun army to play.  Anyway, here are the 2 that are finished. 

Thanks,
Ryan G

   

Ryan G: Tale of Ogres and Empire 1K

     Alright, June is here and I need to get 1000 points together.  This month I have been working on some Mournfang and they are progressing nicely.  My list is as follows:

Bruiser
8 Bulls
8 Bulls
2 Mournfang
Sabertusk
Sabertusk
Gorger

     My gaming plan again is to just run forward and see what these guys can do.  The Mournfang and Sabertusk's will hopefully get to his warmachines in a timely mannor, and the 2 units of bulls will clean up his hand to hand units.

     My painting plan this month is again the Mournfang.  I needs to get 4 done by the end of the month because I am attending the Blood in the Sun 2400 point tournament, and I sent in my list including all four.  The way I see this going, is getting 2 posted up to the blog this month, then the other 2 will be finished just in time for BitS, so they will not make the blog until July.

Take care all,

Ryan G.

Ryan G: BSB is Done

     Finished up my BSB this week, so I thought I would through up some picks.

     I think he turned out rather well, and I am quite please with him.  I originally thought I was adding too much of the grey on him, but I like it.  I am terrible at free hand work, so the banners are kinda blah, but I prefer that over looking awful.  The varnish dull coat did put a white film on small parts of him, but I think I have figured out what is causing it, and will try to fix it for the next batch of guys.
     Up next are my Mournfang.  I am planning on using four of them so that should be my next painting post.  I'll hopefully get a game in with Joe next week and have a bit more to say for this topic. 

Take care all,
Ryan G

Ryan G: Tale of Joe and Ryan?

     Joe has asked me to help keep him motivated for the hobby again, and I have readily agreed.  I have plenty of Ogre stuff to keep me busy, and he will in turn keep me motivated to get it done also.  Most of my base army is already painted due to the previous Tale of Four Gamers blogs, so most of what I will be painting will not be used until I get to the 1500 point range.  Currently I am still working on my BSB so that I will have him done for the Blood in the Sun tourny in June.

          Since Games Workshop does not currently produce a Ogre BSB model, I am converting a Hunter model that I had lying around.  This is a very rough picture, and I promise it will look much better once I am done. 
     As far as my 500 point army goes for this month I decided to keep it simple.

Brusier
5 bulls
5 bulls
1 sabertusk

     I have yet to really use the Ogres in a high point game, and I am looking forward to getting more of it done so I am able to. 

Cheers,
Ryan G.

Ryan G: Adeptiprep is Done!

     With Adepticon quickly approaching, I have managed to finish everything that I will be needing yesterday.  This will be my first year at Adepitcon, so I kept my schedule pretty light so I can have a chance to walk around and take it all in.  I am playing in the 1000 point "How you use it" on friday night with my Ogres that I have been painting up and posting on the site.  I am happy with how the army has turned out, but I am glad I did not do the championships, because I don't think I would have gotten enough points painted for that. 
     Saturday, I will be doing the Stuper Bowl!  Ladies and gentlemen, meet your soon to be beloved Talabheim City Chiefs!

     I love Blood Bowl, and decided to finally paint up my Human team so that I can play something a little different than what I am used to.  The other two teams that I regularly play are Orcs and Halflings, and I like the Humans for the passing and quick scoring aspect.  I have greatly enjoyed playing in the Waaaghcast on-line league and I am super stoked for this tournament.
    That is prety much all I have to throw up at the moment, but I am really looking forward to Adepticon, and hopefully hanging out with all the people that I have been playing blood bowl with on-line, and have seen in passing at other tournies.  Good luck to everyone going, and I'll see ya there.

Cheers,
Ryan G

Ryan G: Stonehorn

    

     Better late than never right? Anyway, I am still working on the Ogres even though I did not get them done by the To4G time frame.  Congrats to Joe for being the only one of us to do so.  I have, however,  recently finished up the Stonehorn, and figured I would throw up some pictures for you.

         I have only played about 4-5 games with him at this point, but so far I like him. I get a little over zealous with him, and he has never survived an entire game for me. I keep running him off on his own and he ends up dying, but he does take out plenty with him. I just have to hold him back an extra turn and send him in with the rest of my army, and he will be great.

      He is also a great cannon magnet. He halves all multiple wounds that he takes so it will take 2 very good cannon shots to take him out. Since he has 6 wounds, it is more likely that it will take 3 shots to kill him. 

      Up next for me is a couple more Ironguts to paint for the 1000 point tournament at Adepticon, but from there I have to get back into gear for 2400 points of Blood in the Sun, and paint up 1 Ironblaster, 4 Mournfangs, a Tyrant BSB, and a possible Firebelly.  Wish me luck on getting everything done, because I am going to need it.

Cheers,

Ryan G 

CCG 2500 pt Tourny

Okay, so here is my take on yesterdays 2500 pt tourny. 

The list:
Slaughtermaster - lvl 4, Lore of Maw, Sword of swift slaying, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, and Ironcurse Icon
Bruiser - BSB, Armour of Silvered Steel, Luckstone

8 Ironguts - Standard of Discipline
8 Ogres
7 Ogres
Stonehorn
Giant
Sabertusk
Sabertusk
4 Leadbelchers
Gorger
Gorger
Scraplauncher

Game 1!

For my first game I was up against "The" Paul Vinton and his Dark Elves in a battleline scenerio.

He had a Cauldron bsb, Dreadlord on Peg, lvl 3 Shadow Mage, and lvl 2 Metal Mage.  His main unit was a horde of 30 Witchelves, but also had a RXB, Chariot, 30 Warriors, 11 Dark Riders, Hydra, and 6 Shades.

Paul and I have been playing against each other for many years now, and we generally go back and forth on wins and loses.  Paul is very experienced and well knowledged at this game and in my opinion one of the tougher players in this area, so any time I can do well against him, I consider it a hard fought victory.  This game was very weird though dice wise for me.  He pretty much deployed all of his things on his board edge and made me come to him.  His metal wizard was of no use at all this game.  His two spells were not worth casting towards me and so he never even really tried. When it came to charging, my dice were horrible.  I only got off one charge the entire game, and it was one that he stuck his shades infront of my stuff to redirect them.  That being said, he got to decide when and what charged where.  Once he got into combat though, his dice urned on him, and mine caught fire.  My hitting and wounding were about normal, but I was making armor saves left and right.  In the end, the final result was a draw.  1554 for him, and 1504 for me.  Great game, and great opponent.

 

Game 2!
For game 2 I got John W and his Lizardmen

 

He had a Shadow Slann, Heaven Priest, 2 Chiefs on Terradons, and Scar Vet on Cold One. Troops he had 20 Sauras, 25 Saurus, 16 Skinks, 16 Skinks, 5 Cav, 2 Sally's, Ancient Steg, 5 Cam Skinks, and 5 Cam Skinks.

This game was dawn attack, and we both got screwed by the random deployment.  His stuff was very spread out along the flanks, and very little in the center.  I did ok, except that my BSB ended up on my right flank with no unit to join.  Turn one his priest irresistibly cast a comet that on my turn killed more points worth of his stuff than mine.  Things were working well for me until turn two, when his ancient steg charged my Ironguts containing the Slaughtermaster and they failed their leadership 9 terror check and fled from the steg.  The Steg ended up rolling higher than me, and wiped out the entire unit without a single attack being made.  900 points gone right there.  After that, his Slann had magic dominace, and was able to use shadow effectively to reduce my stats and make sure his troops won combat.  I still managed to get quite a few victory points, but not nearly enough.  John won a major victory 1907 - 996.  Again, a great opponent and a great game.

Game 3!
For the final game I faced off against Chip E and his Warriors of Chaos!

He had a lvl 3 Nurgle Wizard, and Khorne Lord, and Khorne bsb.  Also 2 20 man Khorne Warrior blocks, 10 Khorn Knights, 15 Khorne Mauraders, and Hellcannon

Chip is a good friend of mine, and we regularly play against one another in my basement.  I knew right away I was in for a fun but tough game.  This was the meeting engagement scenerio, and his hellcannon had to start in reserves.  I started out taking the stonehorn into a unit of warriors, and did pretty good damage to them, but not enough to take away their steadfast.  Turn 2 his hellcannon dropped a direct hit on my ogres and caused that unit to fail 2 LD 8 tests (BSB was in the unit) and flee.  That turn my stonehorn also failed a LD 9 stubborn break test and ran away also.  At one point, all of my block units were running, but he could not run any of them down.  The Giant slowed down the kinghts, and even managed to kill 3 of them.  This bought me enought time to rally everything, and hit his knights in the front and both flanks.  He still held on and won combat that round, but steadfast kept both of the flanking units in combat.  The knights finally broke the next turn, and that sealed the deal for me.  I had a victory 1500ish points to 714.  Once again, Chip did not let me down and we had a great game even though I was getting a bit tired and probably was not as fun of an opponent as usual.

Overall take-away?

Overall, I learned quite a bit.  Scraplaunchers suck!  I did not kill a single thing with it, so I spent most games just using it as a chariot.  I knew that the Giant would not be the best choice, but I was hoping it would draw some fire power away from the Stonehorn, which it did.  Neither the Giant nor Stonehorn lived till the end of any game, but that was more my fault with the Stonehorn.  It was the first time I got to play with it, and kept putting it in bad situations, just to get it in combat.

I was not that impressed with the Gorgers either.  I like them, and think they are fun, but they didn't really do that much.  Best case scenerio, they can not even get into combat till turn 3.  I think I will prolly try other things in place of these and see what happens.

The Giant and scraplauncher will also be replaced for tournament games.  I have 4 mounfang and 1 ironblaster boxes, and just got to get them put together and painted.  I also picked up my 3rd Maneater yesterday, so I look forward to testing them also. 

Overall, I had a great time and managed to win best sportsman out of 16 people.  I am very proud of that because sportsmanship is something that I have been working on.  I do not think I am a bad player to play against, but I don't hide disappointment or frustration well on my face, and when things go badly it shows.  I try very hard to make sure my opponent has a good time as well, no matter what the final score.

Thanks to everyone that showed up and made it a great tourny.

Cheers,
Ryan G

 

RyanG: BSB Progress

     Well, it does not look like I am gonna make this month's goal as well, but I have made some progress.  I got all 6 of my Ironguts done, and got my BSB started.  I am using a Hunter model for my BSB basically because I already had one, and I didn't really see myself ever taking an actual Hunter.

     Not the best picture, but he is coming right along.  I am trying to keep him simple, but make sure he stands out.  I am terrible with green stuff, so my goal with the big green glob in the middle is to file it down, then put something over it.  Should work right?  Anyway, just wanted to throw up some of my progress to show that I have not completely failed this month. 

Cheers,
Ryan G

To4G: Dec Recap

      Good evening to all you Waaaghladites out there. Just wanted to throw up my December report to the blog real quick. December was an appauling month for me, as it had the holidays, and then I went on a vacation at the begining of January. I did manage to get 4 things painted though. I finished my Butcher, Gorger, and 2 Ironguts.

      First we got the Butcher which I will also be using as my Slaughtermaster in 2000 point list. I tried to do a few things to make him stand out a bit like making his Iron Gob and chains gold instead of silver. I also went over the blood on his apron with gloss varnish to give it a wet look. I'm still up in the air about the blood and how it looks, but not sure how hard it will be to correct it now that it has varnish on it. I also cut off his top knot hairdo as I hate that type of styling. Even with my 40k Orks, I cut all them off, or found different heads.

Next is the Gorger!

      I wasn't sure how I was going to paint my Gorger's at first since I am doing an African theme to the Ogres themselves. After thinking it over, I figured that they would still wind up pale even in Africa, based on their fluff, so that is what I did. I added the red into the mix to try and add some definition to them and figured they might get a bit sunburnt in the process. I haven't heard much good praise going towards the Gorger's in this edition, but I still like them. I like the ambush and the unbreakable, but turn 3 at the earliest to get them into combat is a bit rough. I plan on taking 2 at 2000 points and we'll see how they do.



Finally, we got the 2 Ironguts.

      I quite like how the light grey is contrasting with the dark skin on my Ogres. The pictures don't really do it justice, but it really makes them pop. Ironguts are probably the easiest models I have painted so far, as so much of them is just metal. Overall, I like how things are coming along quite nicely.

      I also recieved a Stonehorn/Thundertusk for christmas this year, and was just wondering if any of you had play tested them and which one you liked better. I have not tested either one, but I am leaning more towards the Stonehorn because it is a better fit for my play style. Run it straight at my opponent and hope for the best. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

      For my 2000 point army, I will be upgrading the butcher to a level 4 Slaughtermaster, adding another Gorger, and converting a Hunter model into a Bruiser BSB. I also got 6 more Ironguts left over from last month that I have to finish painting.

The above will put my 2000 point list as follows:

• Slaughtermaster - level 4. I did not give him any armor as that is against the spirit of the rules, and did not want to be a wonky power gamer. *cough*Chuck*cough*
• Bruiser BSB
• 2 units of 7 Ogres w/ full command
• Unit of 4 Leadbelchers
• Scraplauncher
• 2 individual Sabertusks
• Unit of 8 Ironguts w/ full command
• 2 individual Gorgers

This puts me a 2000 point exactly.

     Also, to Wallshammer who suggested I try out purple wash on my Ogres I wanted to let you know that I did try it, but I like the way the black wash looks better. Thank you for the suggestion, and I look forward to any others that you or anyone else has.

Cheers,

RyanG