Mike's Waagh Grotgut Wrap Up (1570.5)

The Wrap Up.

So here it is and another OWAC in the books for all of us. I am continually at awe in what this group puts out every challenge. I know in my case this is yearly chance to make a big dent in my pile of unpainted miniatures. Why after 5 or 6 more challenges I might get my Orc and Goblin collection fully painted! I'm excited for next years challenge though unless I buy more I'll be mostly limited to chaos or orcs again.

So at the end of this challenge I managed to finish a few more models than I had originally had planned for  a total 1570.5 pts (I do enjoy the 1/2 points that pop up in these lists). My final army came in as

Black Orc General on a Wyvern

Savage Orc Shaman

Savage Orc Hero

10 Black Orcs

10 Savage Orcs

5 Savage Orc Boar Boyz

4 Squig Hoppers

2 units of 10 Night Goblin archers with 3 fanatics each

Goblin Doom Diver

Orc Bolt Thrower

Mike's Waagh Grotgut (581.5 points)

Leader Month:

May is here and the summer break looms upon us bedraggled members of the OWAC. It was a distracting but productive month as I found other things to occupy myself when I should have been painting (reassembling my poor plastic high elves after multiple moves and reorganizing all my gaming storage took more time than I thought). But thankfully some slow days allowed me to get the remaining models in my list plus a few extras completed for this month.

First off I painted 4 squig hoppers which I love the sculpts for, but if I am honest don't love the rules for in 4th edition. Regardless the little buggers are done, and at some point I'll get some more to add to the mob just for their sculpts alone.

The second unit is of course the leader for the leader month slot, and for the orcs what better choice is there than the black orc Grotgut! Of course the black orc is a solid choice by himself as he is probably second only to a chaos lord in my newly invented metric of killyness of general before equipment (KGBE for short), but why stop there when he can ride a wyvern! So this allowed me to finally get my favorite wyvern of them all out of its box and paint it. This sculpt is easily in my top 10 if not 5 favorite citadel sculpts, so much better than the TA version or the later marauder and citadel ones (thought I do kind of like the stocky 6th edition one). But in another admission of honesty I have to say that I don't have luck fielding it in 4th (which usually is not as a mount). It is just not as good as the slightly more expensive manticore or the more expensive chimera and can often lose to the cheaper griffon. In response to my luck with the monster I also painted his dismounted option, so hopefully i either case he can be the difference maker when it gets into combat.

Lastly I decided to get some war machine support for the boys and added a bolt thrower and and doom diver to the list. I love this version of the bolt thrower, though when I bought it through ebay it was because the poor picture made it look to be a cheap steal on a orc dog cart. I wish later editions had at least allowed for the option of orc crew over gobbos.

I love the doom diver, but this version is always underwhelming to me compared to the fantastic hunk of metal that is the 6th edition one. It's the rare case for me in the earlier editions that I love the rules over the sculpt, I don't hate it I just wish there was more to it.

Now it's coming into June and my list is complete and I just have to decide if I want to get a little more done or take it easy.

Mike's Waagh Grotgut (384 points)

Rank and File Month 4

April is nearly gone and with it most of the challenge has passed. For this month I followed up the theme of last month and stayed working on savage orcs. Unless I do an all goblin list there is always room for a unit of these fellows. While not hard hitting as big un's in the weapon skill and strength department, they make up for it with the increased survivability of their belief that colored paint it better than metal. Given how much longer they have survived in games compared to other units I can't argue with the results. I've had probably 30 of these guys for awhile and I think I had only painted a couple previously, so it was nice to get a few more done. Hopefully I can finish them all in the near future, but I need to get some more as some are equipped with two hand weapons but most have shields.

I love the command models of this unit in particular and it was nice to get them finished. 

I also did the orc in a headdress model, which in the future will be a orc hero (as I type this I should have done one more model so I could have him such in the list). He's been in my collection forever and I wish there were more like him as the sculpts do get repetitive.

 Lastly because I put him in the original picture because I thought I'd have to use him as a command figure, I had a savage orc shaman available as 287 bonus points as a lord. I almost always take one if I'm fielding a unit of savage orcs as the bonus to the war paint save is a fantastic bonus.

So April is done and on to May!

Mike's Waagh Grotgut (185pts)

 Rank and File Month 3

Well March has come and gone and the challenge is reaching its midpoint, and to make things interesting I a typing with a "m" key that keeps alternating between sticking and not working. I didn't want to slog through another infantry unit and wasn't ready to tackle my general yet in the challenge, so I was a bit slow motivating as the month began. Thankfully the weather towards the end of the month to allow me to prime some savage orc boar boyz and get them ready. Now let me get this out of the way, I love the look of cavalry and I almost always find myself fielding a unit even though they are often a giant points sink in a game where combat resolution is king. 

But I hate painting mounts, more specifically the horses but any mount falls close behind. But on top of that I contend that the classic plastic boars are quite possibly the worst mount that citadel has plagued mankind with. The jaws don't like to fit together, the heads don't like to sit flush with the body, and god forbid you actually want your model to firmly seat themselves on its mount. Then lastly an issue that seems particularly appear with orc and chaos units is getting the unit to rank up in a straight line with their musicians and standards competing for space with raised weapons and weird poses (poses are usually a marauder chaos issue where it sees that the gods of chaos demand that their powerful knights charge into battles raising their arms over their heads like cheerleaders). But in the end they were finished and I am pleased that they came out well. I've always liked their standard bearer with his lion cloak and I wish they had carried that look throughout the unit command at the very least.

So for March I have finished 5 Savage Orc Boar Boyz with command and shields for 185 points and are ready to move on to April

Mike's Waagh Grotgut (120pts)

Rank and File Month #2

 The last few fleeting ours of February are upon us, but thankfully I did not have to think about using that precious mulligan. Admittedly the structure this year was most helpful, having to only do 10 foot models was a blessing in the shorted month. For this month I did my favorite orc unit, the Black Orc's! I love the Black Orcs for their background and that they are a bastion of stability in the chaos that is a greenskin army. Who doesn't love a orc unit with no animosity and immune to panic in those lesser units! 

These of course are the classic monopose variety with the metal command, I've had waiting to get worked on for a long time. Now while I love their abilities in game, I have bad luck with the in this edition when I field them in larger unit. Invariably they get whittled down to uselessness by magic and shooting with their horrible 6+ armor and eliminate their rank bonus before they get a chance to charge, while the chariots and fanatics do all the killing. But the important thing is that taking a unit allows me to take the glory that is the black orc warlord (which is not this month). I'm not going to lie that I wish they had their later addition rule that allowed them to decide their weapon option when they entered combat, but I still love their look which in itself is worth taking a small unit of them. Now forwards to March!

Mike's Waagh Grotgut (300pts)

Rank and File month 1. 

Well January is upon us, and as I have in past challenges I focused on getting my largest block of troops done first. In the 1st challenge I did goblin infantry for only one unit of my army (mind you I'm not a crazy person doing blocks of 60 gobbos). So for this month I did 2 units of Night Goblin archers and 6 fanatics, which was more than I planned on but I got a good start early in the month. I apologize for the photo quality, not much good natural light lately here in New England.

My night goblins are the very tiny Kev Adams sculpts with two C12 goblins mixed in. I love the smaller goblin style, it seems more fitting when compared to the orc sculpts of the period.

Despite the tendency to lay havoc to my own units, I find it hard to not take at least one unit of fanatics in every army. The chance of magnificent chaos across my enemies lines though rare are almost irresistible. The fanatics are marauder and 4th edition sculpts which are so much easier to play with than the newer giant tippy fanatics.

So month one in the books and on to the short month of February!

Mike's Waaagh Grotgut Introduction Post (1131pts)

Is it that time again, it barely feels like the last one has ended! So for the 4th edition of the challenge had big dreams of a rogue trader Ork force, sadly that wasn't going to happen with only being able to acquire 10 Orks. So what is a man with a plethora of green paint to do! Well the simplest way was go back to the the heady days of OWAC and as they say in the badlands give the Orc's annuver go!

So I dug into my still vast piles of unfinished orcs and made I thought a pretty interesting list using the 4th edition list. As I went to type this post on the last possible day as usual, I decided to review what I did the first time through. Thus I discovered I almost duplicated the list I had the first time with some minor exceptions. So back to the lead cave I went and dug out a more different waagh! I decided it was time to finally paint my personal favorite war wyvern.

and some black orcs are always good...

And some savage orc boar boyz that have been sitting in blisters forever and their less mobile brethren (though I had to buy a command off eBay so I'm waiting for that). ..

and I might as well finally get some various night goblins done since they've only been waiting for 10 years....




So my list is as follows


Black Orc Warlord with heavy armour and shield on a Wyvern 329

10 black orc boyz with extra hand weapon and command 120

10 Savage orc boyz with shields and command 97

5 savage orc boar boyz 175

10 night goblin archers 60

10 night goblin archers 60

3 night goblin fanatics 90

3 night goblin fanatics 90

4 night goblin squig hoppers 100

and maybe if I get everything done with time to spare I'll do some bonus goblin chariots, because there is never enough chariots in a orc and gobbo army right? I mean I'm just checking if there is a number because I think I have 8-9 others already done....

And lastly the offering, which I think will be the color scheme for the black orc unit.

Here's to another OWAC!

Mike's Mighty Dwarven Throng of Karak Blargh Conclusion

Hooray the challenge has ended with much completed dwarfiness! I am quite happy with the results of this years challenge since for the first time I have painted more points wise than I had planned. I started with my choices based on a 1750pt army list and what models I had available.

Dwarf General with 2 handed weapon (runes of striking and fury), heavy armor (master rune of adamant and rune of stone) 258pts

Battle Standard with hand weapon, heavy armor and shield. Banner with rune of battle 127pts

Champion with hammer (master rune of flight and rune of might, heavy armor and shield (runes of iron and stone) 309pts

10 long beards with standard and musician 180pts

16 warriors standard and musician 208pts

10 crossbows with standard and musician, light armor and shield 180pts

8 miners with standard and musician 130pts

1 flame cannon (rune of disguise) 144pts

4 allied imperial ogres with light armor and 2 handed weapons 176pts

In addition since I was being so incredibly productive I also managed to add to my list

Dwarf Baggage Train

Runelord and Anvil of Doom

Additional Heroes and a Giantish Ogre

 

With all this I'd love to say I'm done with having unpainted dwarves, but of course since January I have purchased enough marauder dwarves to make sure I have every unit that I could easily do another challenge. I have even gotten in several games with this list and I have learned the keys to victory is to burninate with the flame cannon everything a ogre and lord can't crush. Here is the completed army less the ogres which I forgot about when I took the picture. 

 All hail the OWAC champions!

Mike's Mighty Dwarven Throng of Karak Blargh June

Well here it is the end of June and the challenge is at it's end. I didn't have to actually paint anything this month as I finished everything on my list early with no mulligans. I could have left it at that and be done with it, but like any good dwarf I had a regain my honor for failure. Last year I failed to finish the last month of the challenge due to our having to have our house renovation completed by June so all my free time was spent there. So I checked the blog from last year and dug out the models I failed to finish, which was two whole leaders for my army of chaos.

I finally had a reason to paint the Morcar I got at the weekend in Virginia to use as a sorcerer lord and finished another to be a more conventional chaos champion. So at least I can claim a self recognized completion of last years challenge. Onward to the wrap up!

Mike's Might Dwarven Throng of Karak Blargh May (698 points)

Well here it is the last day of May and I am not desperately basing some models or trying to finish up one last figure. Instead I finished what I needed for the month by the end of last week and also painted some extras, thanks social distancing!

First unit I finished was 8 dwarf miners with command, boy GW got their moneys worth with these sculpts as they were around forever. I always liked the champion shaking his fist at the enemy. I only wish I had Krudd the Mad Mattock to add with my spare miner to make a 10 man unit. 

After that I finished what I am counting as a unit of long beards, The Dwarf Lords of Legend (and two other guys to make it a 10 man unit with command). This has to be the most eclectically sculpted single box set I have ever had by Citadel. But they work well as long beards. I added a marauder dwarf with a umm.. whistling musical flail and a spare banner from yet more Bugman's rangers.

 While doing these I also had just finished stripping some very classic yet horrible red and green paint from the Anvil Doom, that I then had to start painting. I actually finished this before the units that were actually in my list. I only had one of the guards so a fellow hammer wielding dwarf has stepped in.

 Then because I finally got a baggage cart I had to paint that as well. I love the running dwarf in this unit. This will hopefully be used as extra victory points in a 4th edition game soon.

 And lastly as I was magnetizing all the dwarves so they can be kept on movement trays in my storage drawers (and help keep my son from knocking them over), I had time while the glue set to finish one of my favorites, the dwarf with no name. He will probably be a hero with light armor and pistols for now, but may join the lords of legend at some point.

So and incredibly productive month has left me with everything on my list plus a hero, anvil, and the baggage cart completed for a total of 698 points, . Now on to a stress free June!